Livestock and horses are integral components of agricultural systems, providing resources such as meat, milk, fiber, and labor. Horses, in particular, have unique roles in agriculture, sport, and recreation, distinguishing them from other livestock. This topic explores the management, breeding, nutrition, and health of horses and other livestock species. It encompasses studies on husbandry practices, welfare considerations, and the impact of these animals on the environment and economy. The page includes peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that investigate various aspects of livestock and equine science, offering insights into their biological, ecological, and economic significance.
Azhar M, Gadahi JA, Bhutto B, Tunio S, Vistro WA, Tunio H, Bhutto S, Ram T.Babesiosis is a protozoal disease affect livestock and pet animals such as cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, mules, dogs, and cats. It causes severe economic losses in livestock as well as in pet animals. A large number of dairy animals are imported in order to fulfill the demands of milk, milk, meat and its products. In addition, different pet animals are transported from Pakistan to various parts of the world, therefore, it is important to identify the current status and distribution of babesiosis throughout Pakistan in order to control the disease and draw attention for futu...
Kaplan RM, Denwood MJ, Nielsen MK, Thamsborg SM, Torgerson PR, Gilleard JS, Dobson RJ, Vercruysse J, Levecke B.The faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) remains the method of choice for establishing the efficacy of anthelmintic compounds in the field, including the diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance. We present a guideline for improving the standardization and performance of the FECRT that has four sections. In the first section, we address the major issues relevant to experimental design, choice of faecal egg count (FEC) method, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the FECRT results. In the second section, we make a series of general recommendations that are applicable across all animals ad...
Bampidis V, Azimonti G, Bastos ML, Christensen H, Durjava M, Dusemund B, Kouba M, López-Alonso M, López Puente S, Marcon F, Mayo B, Pechová A....Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of DBVPG 48 SF (BioCell®) as a zootechnical feed additive for horses, pigs and ruminants. The product, manufactured in three formulations (microsphere, micropellet and powder), is intended for use in complete feed at a minimum inclusion level of 3 × 10 CFU/kg complete feed for horses, 4 × 10 CFU/kg complete feed for dairy cows and minor dairy species, 4 × 10 CFU/kg complete feed for calves, cattle for fattening, minor growing and fattening ruminants...
Ferreira PFA, Xavier JF, Nunes JF, Fonseca IP, de Mattos de Oliveira Coelho S, Soares de Souza MM, da Silva Coelho I.Livestock waste is widely used in agriculture. Although they provide benefits to the soil, and consequently to plants, they have the potential to contaminate the environment, as they contain pathogenic microorganisms and determinants of antimicrobial resistance, if not properly managed. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effect of composting horse bedding and poultry litter in organic and conventional production systems on the occurrence of bacteria in the Enterobacteriales order and to identify their antimicrobial resistance profiles. Bacterial strains were isolated from Salmonella-Sh...
Qamar W, Alsayeqh AF.Third-world countries have a higher prevalence of food-related disorders than developed nations. Millions of people in underdeveloped countries are seriously at risk from the potential water supply contamination with protozoan diseases. is one of the important protozoans causing diseases in livestock and humans. Despite the standard tests for diagnosing this parasite and different treatment methods, the spread of these parasites is uncontrollable and rising every year due to other management disorders. In this review, we summarize etiopathogenesis and prevalence in Pakistan. We looked for pap...
Hussain N, Shabbir RMK, Ahmed H, Afzal MS, Ullah S, Ali A, Irum S, Naqvi SK, Yin J, Cao J.Ticks are ectoparasites that act as vectors for transmission of various pathogens to wild and domesticated animals and pose a serious threat to human health. Because of the hot and humid conditions in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan, ticks are abundant and parasitize a variety of animals. The aim of this study was to identify different tick species and distribution on different hosts especially livestock, such as sheep, goat, cattle, buffalo, and camel, and livestock associated canines and equines, such as horse, donkey, and dog, across different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan. ...
Ribeiro MG, Pereira TT, de Lima Paz PJ, de Almeida BO, Cerviño CSA, Rodrigues CA, Santos GTS, de Souza Freire LM, Portilho FVR, Filho MFÁ....Central nervous system (CNS) infections comprise life-threatening clinical conditions in domestic species, and are commonly related to severe sequelae, disability, or high fatality rates. A set of bacterial pathogens have been identified in central nervous infections in livestock and companion animals, although the most of descriptions are restricted to case reports and a lack of comprehensive studies involving CNS-related bacterial infections have been focused on a great number of domestic species. In this scenario, we retrospectively investigated selected epidemiological data, clinical findi...
An J, Tseveen K, Oyungerel B, Kong HS.Mongolian horses are one of the oldest horse breeds, and are very important livestock in Mongolia as they are used in various fields such as transportation, food (milk, meat), and horse racing. In addition, research and preservation on pure Mongolian breeds are being promoted under the implementation of the new Genetics of Livestock Resources' act in Mongolia. However, despite the implementation of this act, genetic research on Mongolian horses using microsatellites (MS) has not progressed enough. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the genetic polymorphism of five breeds (Gobi shan...
Li XM, Geng HL, Wei YJ, Yan WL, Liu J, Wei XY, Zhang M, Wang XY, Zhang XX, Liu G.Cryptosporidiosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Cryptosporidium infection with the main symptom of diarrhea. The present study performed a metaanalysis to determine the global prevalence of Cryptosporidium in Equus animals. Unassigned: Data collection was carried out using Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Chinese journal database (VIP), WanFang Data, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases, with 35 articles published before 2021 being included in this systematic analysis. This study analyzed the research data through subgroup analysis and univariate regression analysis to re...
Martínez Díaz HC, Gil-Mora J, Betancourt-Ruiz P, Silva-Ramos CR, Matiz-González JM, Villalba-Perez MA, Ospina-Pinto MC, Ramirez-Hernández A....Some hard ticks' species can act as vectors of a wide variety of pathogens of human and animal importance such as Anaplasma, Ehrlichia and Rickettsia spp. In Colombia, a total of forty-six tick species have been described, and some of them have been implicated as vectors of some infectious agents. The department of Cauca is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia. Most of its population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture as the main economic activity, favoring exposure to ticks and tick-borne pathogens. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the tick species and tick-bor...
Suminda GGD, Ghosh M, Son YO.For more than a decade, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been emerging as the mainstay of agrigenomics research. High-throughput technologies have made it feasible to facilitate research at the scale and cost required for using this data in livestock research. Scale frameworks of sequencing for agricultural and livestock improvement, management, and conservation are partly attributable to innovative informatics methodologies and advancements in sequencing practices. Genome-wide sequence-based investigations are often conducted worldwide, and several databases have been created to discover ...
Perdomo-González DI, Laseca N, Demyda-Peyrás S, Valera M, Cervantes I, Molina A.Estimating inbreeding, which is omnipresent and inevitable in livestock populations, is a primary goal for management and animal breeding especially for those interested in mitigating the negative consequences of inbreeding. Inbreeding coefficients have been historically estimated by using pedigree information; however, over the last decade, genome-base inbreeding coefficients have come to the forefront in this field. The Pura Raza Española (PRE) horse is an autochthonous Spanish horse breed which has been recognised since 1912. The total PRE population (344,718 horses) was used to estimate C...
Tiwari M, Sodhi M, Verma P, Vivek P, Kataria RS, Niranjan SK, Bharti VK, Masharing N, Gujar G, Chanda D, Mukesh M.The identification of appropriate references genes is an integral component of any gene expression-based study for getting accuracy and reliability in data interpretation. In this study, we evaluated the expression stability of 10 candidate reference genes (GAPDH, RPL4, EEF1A1, RPS9, HPRT1, UXT, RPS23, B2M, RPS15, ACTB) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of livestock species that are adapted to high altitude hypoxia conditions of Leh-Ladakh. A total of 37 PBMCs samples from six native livestock species of Leh-Ladakh region such as Ladakhi cattle, Ladakhi yak, Ladakhi donkey, Chanthangi goat...
Fraser MD, Vallin HE, Roberts BP.Grasslands dominate land cover nationally and globally, and their composition, structure and habitat value are strongly influenced by the actions of domestic and wild grazing animals that feed on them. Different pastures are characterised by varying opportunities for selective feeding by livestock; agronomically improved, sown swards generally consist of a limited range of plant species whereas longer-term leys and semi-natural grasslands are characterised by a more diverse mixture of plants. In the case of botanically diverse permanent pastures/grazing lands, the dietary preferences of differ...
Chapman GR, Wells B, Gilkerson JR, Flash ML.In recent years there has been public speculation about the breed, destination and number of horses being sold by public auction at livestock saleyards in Australia. Currently, there is little objective information available about the breed and condition of horses sold through this medium. With little publicly available objective data on these horses, the horse industry has been left vulnerable to misinformation. Accurate information regarding the composition and condition of horses attending saleyards is important to identify and address any welfare issues and to inform public debate. Methods...
Suminda GGD, Bhandari S, Won Y, Goutam U, Kanth Pulicherla K, Son YO, Ghosh M.Increasing globalization, agricultural intensification, urbanization, and climatic changes have resulted in a significant recent increase in emerging infectious zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are becoming more common, so innovative, effective, and integrative research is required to better understand their transmission, ecological implications, and dynamics at wildlife-human interfaces. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) methodologies have enormous potential for unraveling these contingencies and improving our understanding, but they are only now beginning to be realized in livestock resea...
Morley M, Loeb J.As Malcolm Morley becomes BVA president for 2022/23, Josh Loeb chats to him about his love for horses and why the veterinary profession is actually a human-centred business.
Cao X, Qiu X, Shi N, Ha Z, Zhang H, Xie Y, Wang P, Zhu X, Zhao W, Zhao G, Jin N, Lu H.Getah virus (GETV) is a mosquito-borne, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the genus of the family . Natural infections of GETV have been identified in a variety of vertebrate species, with pathogenicity mainly in swine, horses, bovines, and foxes. The increasing spectrum of infection and the characteristic causing abortions in pregnant animals pose a serious threat to public health and the livestock economy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a method that can be used for epidemiological investigation in multiple animals. In this study, a real-time reverse tr...
Ojima Y, Torii S, Maeda Y, Matsuura A.Heat stress is serious problem for livestock. While riding horses and racehorses spend the majority of their days in stalls, there are few reports on effective methods for reducing stall heat stress. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an ice horse blanket in hot and humid environments. Twenty healthy horses were measured first without the blanket (C) and then measured with the blanket (IB), or vice versa, in a cross-over trial. The blanket was designed to keep cooling the front back, the rear back, and the loin. Skin surface temperature, respiratory rate, rectal ...
Behnke T, Street P, Davies S, Ouyang JQ, Sedinger JS.Non-native ungulate grazing has negatively impacted native species across the globe, leading to massive loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Despite their pervasiveness, interactions between non-native grazers and native species are not fully understood. We often observe declines in demography or survival of these native species, but lack understanding about the mechanisms underlying these declines. Physiological stress represents one mechanism of (mal)adaptation, but data are sparse. We investigated glucocorticoid levels in a native avian herbivore exposed to different intensities of ...
Sands B, Lihou K, Lait P, Wall R.The emergence of Babesia pathogens novel to the UK is of growing concern; these include Babesia canis and Babesia caballi. However, a better understanding of changes in the prevalence of endemic Babesia species such as Babesia venatorum and Babesia divergens is also of importance. Here, the prevalence of Babesia pathogens in both Dermacentor reticulatus and Ixodes ricinus ticks was assessed. Dermacentor reticulatus were collected from six sites known to harbour populations of this species in west Wales and southern England. DNA was extracted from 879 individual ticks and subjected to PCR and s...
Suresh KP, Patil SS, Nayak A, Dhanze H, Rajamani S, Shivamallu C, Cull CA, Amachawadi RG.Brucellosis is a highly contagious bacterial disease that mainly affects ruminants, but it may affect equines, canines, and felines. The disease is of utmost significance from an economic standpoint in countries where there is no national brucellosis prevention and eradication policy in operation. A systematic review was done to estimate disease burden, incidences, prevalence, and geographical distribution critical in planning appropriate intervention strategies for the control and prevention of Brucellosis. Research articles that were published during the period 2000-2020 were considered for ...
de Vos CJ, Petie R, van Klink EGM, Swanenburg M.Increasing globalization and international trade contribute to rapid expansion of animal and human diseases. Hence, preparedness is warranted to prevent outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging diseases or detect outbreaks in an early stage. We developed a rapid risk assessment tool (RRAT) to inform risk managers on the incursion risk of multiple livestock diseases, about the main sources for incursion and the change of risk over time. RRAT was built as a relational database to link data on disease outbreaks worldwide, on introduction routes and on disease-specific parameters. The tool was parame...
Feugang JM, Ishak GM, Eggert MW, Arnold RD, Rivers OS, Willard ST, Ryan PL, Gastal EL.Despite the progress in assisted reproductive techniques, there is still a lack of rapid and minimally invasive in situ approaches for further enhancements of female fertility. Therefore, we synthesized clinically relevant liposome nanoparticles for ovarian intrafollicular injection to allow in vivo cellular imaging for future drug delivery, using the mare as an animal model. Ovarian follicles of living mares were injected in vivo with fluorescently labeled liposomes. Samples of the follicular wall (mural granulosa, theca interna, and theca externa), granulosa cells, and follicular fluid wer...
Jung T, Park H, Kwon JY, Sohn S.Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) and Avian Influenza (AI) frequently occur in South Korea, resulting in high levels of occupational stress among quarantine workers forced to partake in massive livestock killings. This study explored the usefulness of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) in improving these workers' psychological and emotional functioning. A total of 51 FMD/AI control workers participated in 16 sessions of an EAL program facilitated by therapeutic riding professionals and trained horses. Results showed significant changes in their stress level, coping style, and overall quality of life-re...
Panigrahi M, Kumar H, Saravanan KA, Rajawat D, Sonejita Nayak S, Ghildiyal K, Kaisa K, Parida S, Bhushan B, Dutt T.Livestock plays a central role in sustaining human livelihood in South Asia. There are numerous and distinct livestock species in South Asian countries. Several of them have experienced genetic development in recent years due to the application of genomic technologies and effective breeding programs. This review discusses genomic studies on cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, horse, camel, yak, mithun, and poultry. The frontiers covered in this review are genetic diversity, admixture studies, selection signature research, QTL discovery, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and genomic select...
Khairullah AR, Sudjarwo SA, Effendi MH, Ramandinianto SC, Widodo A, Riwu KHP.Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) was first discovered in horses in 1989. Since then, LA-MRSA has begun to be considered an important strain of pathogenic bacteria in horses, which can cause LA-MRSA infection and colonization in humans with public health impacts. The anterior nares are the primary site of LA-MRSA colonization in horses, although LA-MRSA colonization may also occur in the gastrointestinal tract in horses. LA-MRSA-infected horses typically exhibit clinical infection or may not exhibit clinical infection. There are two potential risks asso...
Voß K, Blaj I, Tetens JL, Thaller G, Becker D.Since domestication, a wide variety of phenotypes including coat color variation has developed in livestock. This variation is mostly based on selective breeding. During the beginning of selective breeding, potential negative consequences did not become immediately evident due to low frequencies of homozygous animals and have been occasionally neglected. However, numerous studies of coat color genetics have been carried out over more than a century and, meanwhile, pleiotropic effects for several coat color genes, including disorders of even lethal impact, were described. Similar coat color phe...
Perera NN, Weston PA, Barrow RA, Weston LA, Gurr GM.Volatile cues can play a significant role in the location and discrimination of food resources by insects. Dung beetles have been reported to discriminate among dung types produced by different species, thereby exhibiting behavioral preferences. However, the role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in dung localization and preference remains largely unexplored in dung beetles. Here we performed several studies: firstly, cage olfactometer bioassays were performed to evaluate the behavioral responses of (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) to VOCs emanating from fresh horse, sheep, and cattle dung; seco...
Ramadan MM, Dailey D.This is the first account of fatal toxicity in horses resulting from grazing on the pasture plant creeping indigo, , on the island of Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands. A survey in the town of Waialua on the north shore of Oahu island indicated that creeping indigo is common and abundant on grazing lands during the rainy season and requires intensive chemical and physical control measures. Four pastures were surveyed where ranchers reported mortality of more than 17 horses since 2020. We document these incidents to alert state animal and livestock support officials, groups monitoring invasive spec...
Kuhn C, Lucius R, Matthes HF, Meusel G, Reich B, Kalinna BH.Sarcoptic mange (or scabies) is an important skin disease which can affect a variety of species including humans, cattle, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, rabbits, and dogs. Approximately 300 million people are affected worldwide and in lifestock animals the infestation may lead to substantial economic losses caused by depression in growth and feed conversion rates. Diagnosis of Sarcoptes infestation is difficult and only a few serological tests have been developed using whole mite antigen for diagnosis of mange in animals. Here we describe the isolation and characterisation of cDNAs of several imm...
Van den Eede A, Martens A, Floré K, Denis O, Gasthuys F, Haesebrouck F, Van den Abeele A, Hermans K.Equine methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage entails a risk of both equine and zoonotic transmission and infection. In Europe, CC398, the livestock-associated (LA-)MRSA is highly prevalent in horses and veterinary personnel at equine clinics. The extent of the MRSA reservoir created by healthy horses from the general population and associated health hazard for their daily caretakers is, however, unknown. This study aimed at screening healthy horse-caretaker couples from a broad range of home farms. At five equine gatherings, 166 couples were selected for MRSA screening in...
Sun Y, Liu Z, Ren L, Wei Z, Wang P, Li N, Zhao Y.This review focuses on the diversity of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes and Ig isotypes that are expressed in domestic animals. Four livestock species-cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses-express a full range of Ig heavy chains (IgHs), including μ, δ, γ, ϵ, and α. Two poultry species (chickens and ducks) express three IgH isotypes, μ, υ, and α, but not δ. The κ and λ light chains are both utilized in the four livestock species, but only the λ chain is expressed in poultry. V(D)J recombination, somatic hypermutation (SHM), and gene conversion (GC) are three distinct mechanisms by which immunog...
Sofizadeh A, Telmadarraiy Z, Rahnama A, Gorganli-Davaji A, Hosseini-Chegeni A.A survey on tick species composition was carried out in Golestan Province Iran during year 2010-2011.The aim was to determine tick species parasitizing domestic ruminants and their seasonal population dynamics. Methods: A total of 124 sheep, 92 goats, 84 cattle, 74 camels and 12 horses in several villages were inspected for tick infestation. The collected ticks preserved in 70% alcohol and then were identified. Results: The overall 1059 ticks (453 female, 606 male) were collected. The ticks occur on sheep, goats, cattle, camels and horses as 72.1%, 77.3%, 75.8%, 69.3%, and 50% respectively. Th...
Morota G, Peñagaricano F, Petersen JL, Ciobanu DC, Tsuyuzaki K, Nikaido I.An integral part of functional genomics studies is to assess the enrichment of specific biological terms in lists of genes found to be playing an important role in biological phenomena. Contrasting the observed frequency of annotated terms with those of the background is at the core of overrepresentation analysis (ORA). Gene Ontology (GO) is a means to consistently classify and annotate gene products and has become a mainstay in ORA. Alternatively, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) offers a comprehensive life science vocabulary including additional categories that are not covered by GO. Although...
Davis E.Donkeys and mules have been critical to the development of human civilization, since being domesticated some 6000 years ago. However, they suffer from being undervalued or ignored by development agencies and animal protection nongovernmental organizations. Where they are recognized as affecting agriculture and the economy it is often because they are seen as being either invasive pests or an anachronism in the developing countries of the twenty-first century. Even in the wealthier societies of the world, donkeys suffer from ignorance about their proper management or a booming industry in heal...
Ellis-Iversen J, Pritchard GC, Wooldridge M, Nielen M.Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are the most prevalent causes of bacterial diarrhoea in most of the Western World. In Great Britain, the source remains unknown for the majority of cases, though poultry is considered the main source of infection. Molecular typing methods identify cattle as a potential source of a proportion of the non-source-attributed cases, mainly through direct contact, environmental contamination or milk, but little is known about the epidemiology of Campylobacter in cattle. A cross-sectional study was undertaken on young cattle 3-17 months of age on 56 cattle farms in Eng...
Briski O, Salamone DF.During the past 2 decades, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become a routine technique for clinical applications in humans. The widespread use among domestic species, however, has been limited to horses. In horses, ICSI is used to reproduce elite individuals and, as well as in humans, to mitigate or even circumvent reproductive barriers. Failures in superovulation and conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) have been the main reason for the use of this technology in horses. In pigs, ICSI has been successfully used to produce transgenic animals. A series of factors have resulted in...
Dobrinsky JR.The development of embryo freezing technologies revolutionized cattle breeding. Since then, advancements in cryobiology, cell biology, and domestic animal embryology have enabled the development of embryo preservation methodologies for our other domestic animal species, including sheep and goats. Recently, technologies have been developed to cryopreserve pig embryos, notorious for their extreme sensitivity to cooling; horse embryo cryopreservation is in its infancy. While cryopreservation can enhance the utilization of in vitro embryo production technologies, cryosurvival of in vitro-produced ...
Vidyashankar AN, Kaplan RM, Chan S.Resistance to anthelmintics in gastrointestinal nematodes of livestock is a serious problem and appropriate methods are required to identify and quantify resistance. However, quantification and assessment of resistance depend on an accurate measure of treatment efficacy, and current methodologies fail to properly address the issue. The fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) is the practical gold standard for measuring anthelmintic efficacy on farms, but these types of data are fraught with high variability that greatly impacts the accuracy of inference on efficacy. This paper develops a statis...
Zhang J, Kelly P, Li J, Xu C, Wang C.Theileria spp. are tick-transmitted, intracellular apicomplexan protozoan parasites infecting a wide range of animals. As there is very limited information on the prevalence of Theileria spp. in the Caribbean we used the recently described genus-specific pan-Theileria FRET-qPCR to identify infected animals in the region and a standard 18S rRNA gene PCR and sequencing to determine the species involved. We found Theileria spp. in 9% of the convenience samples of animals (n = 752) studied from five Caribbean islands. Donkeys (20.0%: 5/25) were most commonly infected, followed by sheep (17.4%, 25/...
Fraser MD, Vallin HE, Roberts BP.Grasslands dominate land cover nationally and globally, and their composition, structure and habitat value are strongly influenced by the actions of domestic and wild grazing animals that feed on them. Different pastures are characterised by varying opportunities for selective feeding by livestock; agronomically improved, sown swards generally consist of a limited range of plant species whereas longer-term leys and semi-natural grasslands are characterised by a more diverse mixture of plants. In the case of botanically diverse permanent pastures/grazing lands, the dietary preferences of differ...
Pitzer JB, Kaufman PE, Tenbroeck SH, Maruniak JE.A species-specific multiplex polymerase chain reaction targeting the cytochrome b gene of cattle, horses, humans, and dogs was developed to determine the blood meal sources of stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), collected from Florida equine facilities. Of 595 presumptive blood-fed stable flies analyzed, successful host amplification was obtained in 350, for a field host-detection efficiency of 58.8%. The majority of analyzed stable flies had fed on cattle (64.6%), followed by horses (24.3%), humans (9.5%), and dogs (1.6%). A survey of animal-enclosed pastures occurring within 3 km of stab...
Li J, Kelly P, Zhang J, Xu C, Wang C.Babesia spp. are tick-borne protozoan hemoparasites and the second most common blood-borne parasites of mammals, in particular domestic animals. We used the Clustal Multiple Alignment program and 18S rRNA gene sequences of 22 Babesia species from GenBank to develop a PCR that could detect a wide variety of Babesia spp. in a single reaction. The pan-Babesia FRET-qPCR we developed reliably detected B. gibsoni, B. canis, B. vogeli, B. microti, B. bovis, and B. divergens under controlled conditions but did not react with closely related species, mainly Hepatozoon americanum, Theileria equi, and To...
Roug A, Byrne BA, Conrad PA, Miller WA.Livestock fairs present a unique opportunity for the public to experience close contact with animals, but may also expose people to zoonotic pathogens through contact with animal feces. The goal of this study was to screen cattle, sheep, goat, chicken, rabbit and horse feces from a livestock fair in California for the potentially zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Vibrio, Cryptosporidium and Giardia spp., as well as determining the level of antimicrobial resistance in E. coli and Salmonella. Notably, E. coli O157:H7 was reported for the first time in a pig ...
Hudson AR, McGregor BL, Shults P, England M, Silbernagel C, Mayo C, Carpenter M, Sherman TJ, Cohnstaedt LW.Orbiviruses are of significant importance to the health of wildlife and domestic animals worldwide; the major orbiviruses transmitted by multiple biting midge (Culicoides) species include bluetongue virus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, and African horse sickness virus. The viruses, insect vectors, and hosts are anticipated to be impacted by global climate change, altering established Orbivirus epidemiology. Changes in global climate have the potential to alter the vector competence and extrinsic incubation period of certain biting midge species, affect local and long-distance dispersal ...
Sevá ADP, Pena HFJ, Nava A, Sousa AO, Holsback L, Soares RM.Morro do Diabo State Park (MDSP) is a significant remnant of the Atlantic Rain Forest in Brazil and is surrounded by rural properties. In that area, wild and domestic animals and humans are in close contact, which facilitates the two-way flow of infectious diseases among them. We assessed endoparasites in domestic livestock from all rural properties surrounding MDSP. There were sampled 197 cattle, 37 horses, 11 sheep, 25 swine, 21 dogs, one cat and 62 groups of chickens from 10 large private properties and 75 rural settlements. Eimeria spp. was present in almost all hosts, excepted in horses, ...
Espunyes J, Lurgi M, Büntgen U, Bartolomé J, Calleja JA, Gálvez-Cerón A, Peñuelas J, Claramunt-López B, Serrano E.Changes in land-use and climate affect the distribution and diversity of plant and animal species at different spatiotemporal scales. The extent to which species-specific phenotypic plasticity and biotic interactions mediate organismal adaptation to changing environments, however, remains poorly understood. Woody plant expansion is threatening the extent of alpine grasslands worldwide, and evaluating and predicting its effects on herbivores is of crucial importance. Here, we explore the impact of shrubification on the feeding efficiency of Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra p. pyrenaica), as well as ...
Ing NH, Forrest DW, Riggs PK, Loux S, Love CC, Brinsko SP, Varner DD, Welsh TH.In rodents, livestock and primate species, a single dose of the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone acutely lowers testosterone biosynthesis. To determine the mechanism of decreased testosterone biosynthesis, stallions were treated with 0.1mg/kg dexamethasone 12h prior to castration. Dexamethasone decreased serum concentrations of testosterone by 60% compared to saline-treated control stallions. Transcriptome analyses (microarrays, northern blots and quantitative PCR) of testes discovered that dexamethasone treatment decreased concentrations of glucocorticoid receptor alpha (NR3C1), alpha a...
The Journal of hygieneJune 1, 1984
Volume 92, Issue 3 365-375 doi: 10.1017/s0022172400064585
Gray SJ.Faecal samples from 110 horses, 115 pigs, 111 sheep and 123 cows were examined for the presence of Aeromonas hydrophila, which was also sought in the available drinking water. The overall faecal rate was 11.8%, but significantly more bovine than other samples were found to be positive. There was significant association between the isolation of A. hydrophila from all animal faeces and its presence in drinking water, but this was not found when individual animal groups were analysed separately. An enrichment technique increased the total number of isolates by 77.1%. Strains of differing origins ...
Uehlinger FD, Wilkins W, Godson DL, Drebot MA.Cache Valley virus, an orthobunyavirus, is an important cause of ovine neonatal malformations. Information on the seroprevalence of this virus in Saskatchewan livestock populations is lacking. The objectives of this study were to determine the seroprevalence of Cache Valley virus and closely related viruses in sheep, cattle, goats, horses, and mule deer in Saskatchewan by performing a plaque-reduction neutralization test using Cache Valley virus. In total, sera from 130 sheep from 50 flocks were tested. Seroprevalence in sheep was 64.6% (84/130) and 94.0% (47/50) of flocks had 1 or more seropo...
Zedda M, Lepore G, Manca P, Chisu V, Farina V.Bone microstructure of domestic herbivores is still not completely understood. Indeed, works focused on the bone histology of numerous Mammalian species frequently led to misunderstandings because of the high number of variations such as the kind of bone, section orientation, species, breed and age. Moreover, attempts to identify the species in archaeozoological studies by a mere qualitative approach have not been encouraging and in recent years quantitative methods, based on image processing and statistical analysis, have appeared. The present study was undertaken to determine whether morphom...
Kimbell-Dunn M, Bradshaw L, Slater T, Erkinjuntti-Pekkanen R, Fishwick D, Pearce N.To examine the prevalence of symptoms of asthma and allergy in different farming groups in New Zealand. Methods: A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 2,500 farmers throughout New Zealand. Results: The response rate was 77% (1,706 of 2,203 eligibles). The 12-month period prevalence of current asthma was 11.8% overall, compared with 15% in the general population. Asthma prevalence was higher for horse breeders/groomers (16.5%), pig farmers (18.2%), poultry farmers (17.4%), and those working with oats (17.4%). Asthma was also significantly elevated among those working with cleani...
Onder Z, Yildirim A, Pekmezci D, Duzlu O, Pekmezci GZ, Ciloglu A, Simsek E, Kokcu ND, Yetismis G, Ercan N, Inci A.A total of 1340 fresh fecal samples from farm and pet animals in Central Anatolia and the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey were investigated using a PCR assay targeting the SSU rRNA of Blastocystis sp. An overall Blastocystis sp. prevalence of 19.4% (183/940) was found in farm animals, including cattle, sheep, water buffaloes, and chickens. Fecal samples of dogs, cats, and horses were negative. The highest prevalence of Blastocystis sp. was found in sheep (38.2%) among the farm animals. The SSU rRNA sequence analysis revealed two animal-specific subtypes, including ST10 in cattle and sheep an...
Horak IG, Heyne H, Halajian A, Booysen S, Smit WJ.The aim of the study was to determine the species spectrum of ixodid ticks that infest horses and donkeys in South Africa and to identify those species that act as vectors of disease to domestic livestock. Ticks were collected opportunistically from 391 horses countrywide by their owners or grooms, or by veterinary students and staff at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria. Ticks were also collected from 76 donkeys in Limpopo Province, 2 in Gauteng Province and 1 in North West province. All the ticks were identified by means of a stereoscopic microscope. Horses were infest...
Parreira DR, Jansen AM, Abreu UG, Macedo GC, Silva AR, Mazur C, Andrade GB, Herrera HM.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) and Trypanossoma evansi are endemic in Brazilian Pantanal Biome, an important area for livestock production. In this sense, we evaluated the epidemiological single and co-infection effects of T. evansi and EIAV in naturally infected horses in the southern Pantanal wetland by serological tests and hematological assays. Both higher seroprevalence and heath poor condition of the sampled animals were associated with differences in horse management between farms. We found that the negative animals for both infectious agents (NN) represented the major group in F...
Li X, Buzzard P, Chen Y, Jiang X.Alleviating human-carnivore conflict is central to large carnivore conservation and is often of economic importance, where people coexist with carnivores. In this article, we report on the patterns of predation and economic losses from wild carnivores preying on livestock in three villages of northern Baima Xueshan Nature Reserve, northwest Yunnan during a 2-year period between January 2010 and December 2011. We analyzed claims from 149 households that 258 head of livestock were predated. Wolves (Canis lupus) were responsible for 79.1 % of livestock predation; Asiatic black bears (Selenarctos ...
Acosta-Jamett G, Cleaveland S, Cunningham AA, Bronsvoort BM, Craig PS.Cyst echinococcosis (CE) is one of the most important zoonosis in Chile, where studies have focussed mainly in moist southern regions. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis (CE) in livestock and humans in the semiarid Coquimbo region in north-central Chile. A review of all surgical cases of CE in humans reported in the Elqui, Limarí and Choapa provinces in Coquimbo region for the period comprising 1995-2006 was obtained. In addition, a retrospective study of CE covering condemnation records from slaughterhouses of these provinces from the same pe...
