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Animals
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Disease Diagnostics and Surveillance in Ruminants
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Disease Diagnostics and Surveillance in Ruminants

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Clinical Studies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 4899

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Valentina Busin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Interests: food security, small ruminants; livestock production; point-of-care diagnostics; disease surveillance; anthelmintic resistance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Disease diagnostics and surveillance is an area of crucial importance to ensure animal health and welfare and to guarantee the sustainable production of food from livestock populations. Disease diagnostics require a considerable background knowledge of disease etiology, epidemiology and clinical presentation to ensure that the most appropriate diagnostic tests are selected and their interpretation will truly aid the end-user in making informed and relevant decisions. Surveillance is an essential and dynamic tool, designed to provide information on the distribution and impact of animal diseases, ultimately aiding decision making and target efforts. Outstanding progresses have been made in both fields, however in this fast-changing world and with more constraints on resources than ever before, we need to improve collaboration across sectors and make the best use of our amazing and international expertise.

We are pleased to invite you, your colleagues and your collaborators to take part in this mission and therefore positively impact on ruminants health.

This Special Issue aims to collect the latest high-quality research to improve disease diagnostics and surveillance in ruminants, to report on the most recent progress in these fields and to provide insight into future directions.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Development and/or evaluation of new diagnostic tests;
  • Modern technologies to improve the performance of diagnostic tests;
  • Translation of lab-based into point-of-care testing;
  • Enhancement and best use of available surveillance data;
  • New sources of surveillance data;
  • Application of surveillance data for disease control.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Ruminants.

Dr. Valentina Busin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ruminants
  • disease diagnostics
  • point-of-care testing
  • molecular diagnostic methods
  • epidemiology
  • surveillance
  • animal health

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 2859 KiB  
Article
Molecular Characterization and Antimicrobial Susceptibilities of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Isolated from Caseous Lymphadenitis of Smallholder Sheep and Goats
by Hend M. El Damaty, Azza S. El-Demerdash, Norhan K. Abd El-Aziz, Sarah G. Yousef, Ahmed A. Hefny, Etab M. Abo Remela, Asmaa Shaker and Ibrahim Elsohaby
Animals 2023, 13(14), 2337; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13142337 - 18 Jul 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1991
Abstract
Caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) is a bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (C. pseudotuberculosis) that affects sheep and goats, leading to abscess formation in their lymph nodes. The present study aimed to isolate and identify C. pseudotuberculosis from CLA in smallholder sheep [...] Read more.
Caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) is a bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (C. pseudotuberculosis) that affects sheep and goats, leading to abscess formation in their lymph nodes. The present study aimed to isolate and identify C. pseudotuberculosis from CLA in smallholder sheep and goats, and determine the resistance patterns, virulence, and resistance genes of the isolates. Additionally, genotypic and phylogenetic analysis of the isolates was conducted using ERIC-PCR and DNA sequencing techniques. A cross-sectional study examined 220 animals (130 sheep and 90 goats) from 39 smallholder flocks for clinical signs of CLA. Fifty-four (24.54%) animals showed CLA-compatible lesions, confirmed by C. pseudotuberculosis isolation and PCR identification. Sheep had a lower infection rate of CLA (18.46%) compared with goats (33.3%). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of 54 C. pseudotuberculosis isolates to 24 antimicrobial drugs revealed that they were 100% resistant to bacitracin and florfenicol, while none of the isolates were resistant to norfloxacin. A high resistance rate was observed for penicillin and erythromycin (92.6% each). Interestingly, 16.7% of C. pseudotuberculosis isolates recovered from sheep showed vancomycin resistance. Molecular characterization of C. pseudotuberculosis isolates revealed that PLD, PIP, and FagA virulence genes were present in all examined isolates. However, the FagB, FagC, and FagD genes were detected in 24 (100%), 20 (83%), and 18 (75%) of the sheep isolates, and 26 (87%), 26 (87%), and 18 (60%) of the goat isolates, respectively. The β-lactam resistance gene was present in all isolates. Furthermore, 83% of the sheep isolates carried the aminoglycoside (aph(3″)-lb), chloramphenicol (cat1), and bacitracin (bcrA) resistance genes. Among the isolates recovered from goats, 73% were found to contain macrolides (ermX), sulfonamide (sul1), and bacitracin (bcrA) resistance genes. It is worrisome that the glycopeptide (vanA) resistance gene was detected in 8% of the sheep isolates as a first report. ERIC-PCR genotyping of 10 multi-drug-resistant C. pseudotuberculosis isolates showed a high similarity index of 83.6% between isolates from sheep and goats. Nucleotide sequence analysis of partial 16S rRNA sequences of C. pseudotuberculosis revealed 98.83% similarity with biovar Ovis of globally available reference sequences on the Genbank database. Overall, our findings might indicate that C. pseudotuberculosis infection in smallholders in Egypt might be underestimated despite the significant financial impact on animal husbandry and potential health hazards it poses. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of implementing a sustainable control strategy and increasing knowledge and awareness among smallholder breeders to mitigate the economic impact of CLA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disease Diagnostics and Surveillance in Ruminants)
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13 pages, 1932 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Cow-Side Meters to Determine Somatic Cell Count in Individual Cow Quarter and Bulk-Tank Milk Samples
by Leslie A. Jacobsen, Ashley M. Niesen, Padraig Lucey and Heidi A. Rossow
Animals 2023, 13(13), 2169; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132169 - 1 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1136
Abstract
Intramammary infections, which cause mastitis, can increase treatment and labor costs, decrease milk production, and affect milk quality. Meters that measure quarter somatic cell count (SCC) could be used to make more informed dry cow therapy decisions. The objective of this study was [...] Read more.
Intramammary infections, which cause mastitis, can increase treatment and labor costs, decrease milk production, and affect milk quality. Meters that measure quarter somatic cell count (SCC) could be used to make more informed dry cow therapy decisions. The objective of this study was to compare the RT-10 iPhone adapter (RT-10; Dairy Quality Inc., Newmarket, ON, Canada), DeLaval Cell Counter (DSCC; DeLaval, Gurnee, IL, USA), Porta Check Quick Test (PortaCheck, White City, OR, USA), California Mastitis Test (ImmuCell, Portland, ME USA), pH meter (Hanna Instruments, Smithfield, RI, USA), electrical conductivity meter (OHAUS, Parsippany, NJ, USA), and the dual laser infrared temperature thermometer (Klein Tools, Lincolnshire, IL, USA) for measuring SCC in individual Holstein mammary quarters in comparison to a reference standard, the Fourier Transform Spectrometer 600 Combi System (Combi; Bentley Instruments, Chaska, MN, USA). Meters were evaluated using 658 individual cow quarter samples and 100 bulk-tank samples to measure SCC. Individual quarter milk samples from 160 cows from four commercial dairy herds were collected just before dry off and tested within 4 h of collection. To test bulk-tank SCC, 100 bulk-tank milk samples (25 mL) were collected from UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Milk Quality Lab. Meter SCC values were regressed on observed Combi SCC. Goodness of fit was then evaluated by partitioning the mean square predicted error (MSPE). For individual quarter SCC, RT-10 had the highest coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.86), lowest MSPE, and highest proportion of MSPE due to random variation (96%). Both the RT-10 and DSCC had the highest sensitivity and specificity for identifying quarter SCC above and below 200,000 cells/mL. For bulk-tank SCC, DSCC had the highest coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.45), lowest MSPE, and highest proportion of MSPE due to random variation (80%). The RT-10 and DSCC could be used to measure individual quarter SCC to determine which cows to treat at dry off potentially reducing antibiotic use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disease Diagnostics and Surveillance in Ruminants)
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12 pages, 970 KiB  
Article
Surveillance and Risk Analysis for Bovine Babesiosis in England and Wales to Inform Disease Distribution
by Harriet McFadzean, Nicholas Johnson, L. Paul Phipps, Vanessa Swinson and Lisa A. Boden
Animals 2023, 13(13), 2118; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132118 - 26 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1411
Abstract
Babesia divergens is a zoonotic piroplasm that infects both cattle and humans in Europe. Disease transmission occurs through Ixodes ricinus tick bites, a species that is increasing in abundance and distribution across Europe in response to climate and land-use changes. Developments in agri-environment [...] Read more.
Babesia divergens is a zoonotic piroplasm that infects both cattle and humans in Europe. Disease transmission occurs through Ixodes ricinus tick bites, a species that is increasing in abundance and distribution across Europe in response to climate and land-use changes. Developments in agri-environment policy and changing consumer demands may also have unintended consequences on tick-borne disease rates. Currently, B. divergens surveillance in British cattle is limited, rendering temporal trend analysis and the detection of potential zoonotic hotspots impossible. The objective of this study was to assess syndromic surveillance as a means of determining babesiosis distribution in British cattle, and to evaluate the intrinsic disease risk factors in order to respond to disease threats posed by changing environments. Samples from 95 clinically affected cattle on 70 unique holdings were screened for Babesia spp., using established blood smear examination techniques and a B. divergens-specific PCR method, between April and December 2021. B. divergens was detected in 45/95 animals (47.4%), with PCR offering the advantage of identification at species level. Infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum was detected in 19/95 animals (20%). Co-infection was detected in five animals. The cases were recorded across multiple geographic regions and throughout the sampling period. Univariate logistic regression analysis failed to identify any statistically significant risk factors for B. divergens presence. This study demonstrates that bovine babesiosis is geographically widespread throughout England and Wales, placing a large proportion of the cattle population at risk of infection, with the potential for zoonotic transmission to humans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disease Diagnostics and Surveillance in Ruminants)
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