Irish Veterinary Journal最新文献

Background: Paying more attention to free-roaming dogs' population control seems to be necessary because of public health and environmental problems. The present study used the community readiness model to determine the readiness of Aradan County in terms of collecting stray dogs.

Methods: This study is a quantitative-qualitative research study conducted in Aradan County in Semnan Province of Iran. The semi-structured questionnaire uses the six dimensions of the Community Readiness Model as guideline, with 36 items used for the interview. The interviews lasted 45 to 100 minutes with 11 key members including the governor, prefect, mayor's assistant, city council chairman, key trustees, officials responsible for environmental health network, officials responsible for environmentalism of the city, and governors of a rural district. In quantitative part two, assessors read the interviews carefully and assigned scores based on the rating-scale form suggested by the guideline itself for scoring each dimension. A qualitative directed content analysis with deductive approach was used for analyzing the collected qualitative data.

Results: The study involved 11 key members of Aradan County, all of whom were male. Most of the participants were over 40 years old and with five years of work experience (73.6 %). The mean score of each six dimensions in Aradan County were: Community efforts (4.78), Community knowledge of efforts (4.28), Leadership (4.90), Community climate (4.38), Community knowledge about the issue (4.20) and Resources related to the issue (3.29) respectively. Community readiness in Aradan County and Aradan City was generally estimated to be in the preplanning stage, whereas vague public awareness was found in the rural areas. In the qualitative part, 870 initial open codes, 589 refund codes, 19 subcategories and 6 themes emerged, including (a) community efforts, (b) community knowledge of the efforts (c) leadership, (d) community climate, (e) community knowledge of the issue, and (f) resources related to the issue.

Conclusions: For improving the process of collecting the stray dogs, it is necessary to focus on holding educational sessions for the public to increase their partnership and justify the responsible organizations' activities to collaborate and provide the necessary financial resources.

Background: Bluetongue (BT) is a vector-borne viral disease of ruminant and camelid species which is transmitted by Culicoides spp. The causative agent of BT is bluetongue virus (BTV) that belongs to genus Orbivirus of the family Reoviridae. The clinical disease is seen mainly in sheep but mostly sub-clinical infections of BT are seen in cattle, goats and camelids. The clinical reaction of camels to infection is usually not apparent. The disease is notifiable to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), causing great economic losses due to decreased trade and high mortality and morbidity rates associated with bluetongue outbreaks. The objective of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of BTV in camels in Kassala State, Eastern Sudan and to identify the potential risk factors associated with the infection. A cross sectional study using a structured questionnaire survey was conducted during 2015-2016. A total of 210 serum samples were collected randomly from camels from 8 localities of Kassala State. The serum samples were screened for the presence of BTV specific immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA).

Results: Seropositivity to BTV IgG was detected in 165 of 210 camels' sera accounting for a prevalence of 78.6%. Potential risk factors to BTV infection were associated with sex (OR = 0.061, p-value = 0.001) and seasonal river as water source for drinking (OR = 32.257, p-value = 0.0108).

Conclusions: Sex and seasonal river as water source for drinking were considered as potential risk factors for seropositivity to BTV in camels. The high prevalence of BTV in camels in Kassala State, Eastern Sudan, necessitates further epidemiological studies of BTV infection in camels and other ruminant species to better be able to control BT disease in this region.

Background: Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the main cause of mortality among 1-to-5 month old calves in Ireland, accounting for approximately one-third of deaths. Despite widespread use of clinical respiratory signs for diagnosing BRD, lung lesions are detected, using thoracic ultrasonography (TUS) or following post-mortem, in calves showing no clinical signs. This highlights the limitation of clinical respiratory signs as a method of detecting sub-clinical BRD. Using 53 purchased artificially-reared male dairy calves, the objectives of this study were to: (i) characterise the BRD incidence detected by clinical respiratory signs and/or TUS, (ii) investigate the association between clinical respiratory signs and lung lesions detected by TUS, and (iii) assess the effect of BRD on pre-weaning growth.

Results: Clinical BRD (based on Wisconsin clinical respiratory score and/or rectal temperature > 39.6 ºC) was detected in 43 % and sonographic changes (lung lesions) were detected in 64 % of calves from purchase (23 (SD; 6.2) days of age) until weaning, 53 days post-arrival. Calves with clinical BRD were treated. Sixty-one per cent calves affected with clinical BRD had lung lesions 10.5 days (median) before detection of clinical signs. Moderate correlations (r_sp 0.70; P < 0.05) were found between cough and severe lung lesions on arrival day, and between rectal temperature > 39.6 ºC and lung lesions ≥ 2 cm² on day 7 (r_sp 0.40; P < 0.05) post-arrival. Mean average daily live weight gain (ADG) of calves from purchase to weaning was 0.75 (SD; 0.10) kg; calves with or without clinical BRD did not differ in ADG (P > 0.05), whereas ADG of those with severe lung lesions (lung lobe completely consolidated or pulmonary emphysema) was 0.12 kg/d less (P < 0.05) than calves without lung lesions.

Conclusions: Thoracic ultrasonography detected lung consolidation in calves that did not show signs of respiratory disease. The presence of severe lung lesions was associated with reduced pre-weaning growth. These findings emphasise the importance of using TUS in addition to clinical respiratory scoring of calves for an early and accurate detection of clinical and sub-clinical BRD.

Background: An accurate assessment of feline behaviour is essential in reducing the risk of handler injury and evaluating/improving feline welfare within veterinary practices. However, inexperience and/or suboptimal education in feline behaviour may cause many veterinary professionals to be ill equipped for this. In addition, busy veterinary professionals may not have time to thoroughly search the literature to remediate this deficiency. Upon searching the literature, terms such as aggression and stress predominate, but these do not completely represent the rich mental lives that cats are now understood to have. Emotions have recently emerged as an alternative approach to animal behaviour/welfare assessment. However, few resources describe how to identify them, and positive emotions are particularly neglected. In addition, no simple, broad, and concise guide to feline emotions currently exists within the research literature. Therefore, this research aimed to develop a straightforward and clear reference guide to feline emotions (ethogram) to aid veterinary professionals in interpreting feline behaviour in practice and for use in veterinary education.

Results: Five primary emotions were identified and defined for domestic species (fear, anger/rage, joy/play, contentment and interest). A feline emotions guide (feline emotions ethogram) was created. Three hundred and seventy-two images were captured of feline behaviours indicative of emotional states. Of these, ten of the best quality and most representative images were selected to illustrate the guide (two of each emotional state). The feline emotions guide and its associated images were subsequently validated by two feline behaviour experts.

Conclusions: Following slight modifications, the emotions definitions yielded during the feline ethogram design process may be transferable to other domestic species. The feline emotions ethogram/guide itself may be particularly helpful for distinguishing immediate motivations and customising patient care within short- term veterinary contexts. Hence, its use may improve feline welfare and feline handling/interactions. However, the guide will need to be reliability tested/ tested in the field and may require adaptation as the feline emotions' knowledge base grows. In addition, novices may benefit from exposure to more images of feline emotional state, particularly those involving mixed emotions. Freely available online images and videos may be sourced and used to supplement the accompanying image bank.

Background: Cyanide is one of the most rapidly acting toxins affecting cattle, with poisoning typically occurring following ingestion of cyanogenic plants. Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), is one such potentially toxic cyanogenic plant. This case report details fatalities in an Irish herd following the ingestion of laurel and aims to raise awareness of the potential risk that access to laurel hedges poses to farm animals.

Case presentation: Over a twelve-day period, the death occurred of 36 dairy-cross weanlings; the majority (22 weanlings) died over a two-day period. Two days following entry to a field bounded by a laurel hedge, the weanlings displayed signs of lethargy and profuse green diarrhoea. In the majority of animals there was a limited response to treatment with antimicrobials, vitamin B complex and fluid therapy. Recumbency and death ensued. Cyanosis was noted terminally. Two weanlings were submitted for post mortem examination. Laurel leaves were identified in the rumen contents of one weanling. Post mortem findings and additional test results on cohort animals suggested a number of pathological processes may have been involved in the animals, possibly complicating/exacerbating the effects of laurel ingestion. However, cyanide was considered a factor in a least some of the casualties and arrangements were made to test for cyanide on blood samples from a random selection of seven cohort animals. Although collected one week after exposure to the laurel hedge, toxic cyanide levels were recorded in a sample from one animal, which subsequently died.

Conclusions: The large fatality rate serves as a timely reminder to include plant poisoning as a differential diagnosis when dealing with large numbers of rapid fatalities. Failure to thoroughly examine rumen contents and collect a detailed history in this case, could easily have allowed death to be attributed to other causes and the involvement of cyanide toxicity to be missed. In cases of individual or group fatalities, history is invaluable and recent entry to new grazing areas or any potential diet change or access to garden plants should be thoroughly investigated.

Research on calf health and welfare has intensified in the past decades. This is an update on a review series on calf health from birth to weaning published ten years ago.Good colostrum management is still recognised as the single most important factor to preventing calf morbidity and mortality, however, it is now known that immunoglobulins are only one of many components of colostrum that are vital for the calf's development. Other non-nutrient factors like leucocytes, hormones and growth factors, oligosaccharides as well as microRNAs have significant effects on the development and maturation of the intestinal and systemic immune functions. They also promote the maturation and function of the intestine, thus enabling the calf to digest and absorb the nutrients provided with colostrum and milk. The improved energetic status of colostrum-fed neonates is reflected by an accelerated maturation of the somatotropic axis, which stimulates body growth and organ development. Colostrum oligosaccharides are presumed to play a major role in the development of a healthy intestinal flora.A biologically normal (intensive) milk-feeding programme is subsequently necessary for optimal body growth, organ development and resistance to infectious diseases. Ad-libitum or close to ad-libitum feeding in the first three to four weeks of life also leaves calves less hungry thus improving calf welfare. Only calves fed intensively with colostrum and milk are able to reach their full potential for performance throughout their life.Public interest in farm animal welfare is growing in past decades, which makes it necessary to have a closer look at contentious management practices in the dairy industry like early separation of the dairy calf from the dam with subsequent individual housing. Public objection to these practices cannot be mitigated through educational efforts. Contrary to common opinion there is no evidence that early cow-calf separation is beneficial for the health of calf or cow. There is evidence of behavioural and developmental harm associated with individual housing in dairy calves, social housing improves feed intake and weight gains, and health risks associated with grouping can be mitigated with appropriate management.In conclusion, there are still many management practices commonly applied, especially in the dairy industry, which are detrimental to health and welfare of calves.

Background: Although visual locomotion scoring is inexpensive and simplistic, it is also time consuming and subjective. Automated lameness detection methods have been developed to replace the visual locomotion scoring and aid in early and accurate detection. Several types of sensors are measuring traits such as activity, lying behavior or temperature. Previous studies on automatic lameness detection have been unable to achieve high accuracy in combination with practical implementation in a on farm commercial setting. The objective of our research was to develop a prediction model for lameness in dairy cattle using a combination of remote sensor technology and other animal records that will translate sensor data into easy to interpret classified locomotion information for the farmer. During an 11-month period, data from 164 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were gathered, housed at an Irish research farm. A neck-mounted accelerometer was used to gather behavioral metrics, additional automatically recorded data consisted of milk production and live weight. Locomotion scoring data were manually recorded, using a one-to-five scale (1 = non-lame, 5 = severely lame). Locomotion scores where then used to label the cows as sound (locomotion score 1) or unsound (locomotion score ≥ 2). Four supervised classification models, using a gradient boosted decision tree machine learning algorithm, were constructed to investigate whether cows could be classified as sound or unsound. Data available for model building included behavioral metrics, milk production and animal characteristics.

Results: The resulting models were constructed using various combinations of the data sources. The accuracy of the models was then compared using confusion matrices, receiver-operator characteristic curves and calibration plots. The model which achieved the highest performance according to the accuracy measures, was the model combining all the available data, resulting in an area under the curve of 85% and a sensitivity and specificity of 78%.

Conclusion: These results show that 85% of this model's predictions were correct in identifying cows as sound or unsound, showing that the use of a neck-mounted accelerometer, in combination with production and other animal data, has potential to replace visual locomotion scoring as lameness detection method in dairy cows.

Background: Brachycephalic breeds have anatomical skull changes that are responsible for ocular clinical signs, known as the brachycephalic ocular syndrome (BOS). Their popularity has increased in recent years but the excessive pressure of selection lead to extreme conformation of skull shapes, resulting in facial alterations that can put these dogs' vision at risk.

Objectives: This study aimed to analyse the ocular disorders in a sample of 93 brachycephalic dogs to better characterize the disease complex BOS.

Material and methods: Brachycephalic dogs were submitted to a complete ophthalmological examination. The studied parameters included animal's sex, age and breed, age, ophthalmological tests performed, results of complementary exams, clinical signs, ocular disorders, treatment protocols and their outcomes. Data were organized using Microsoft Office Excel 2007® and statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics 20®.

Results: The studied population included 93 brachycephalic dogs 45 males (48%) and 48 females (52%) from different breeds: French Bulldog (n = 38), Shih-Tzu (n = 22), Pug (n = 17), English Bulldog (n = 5), Pekingese (n = 4), Boxer (n = 4) and Boston Terrier (n = 3), aged between 0.2-16 years, median 4.65 years. The most frequent ocular abnormalities were corneal ulcers in 44%, corneal pigmentation in 36%, corneal fibrosis in 25% and entropion in 22% of the animals. There was a higher incidence of corneal pigmentary keratitis in Pugs (53%) and corneal fibrosis in Shih Tzus (36%). The most common surgical techniques were medial canthoplasty in 22%, conjunctival flap in 10% and electroepilation in 7% of the cases, without post-operative complications.

Conclusions: This study contributed to a better characterization of the disease complex brachycephalic ocular syndrome. The percentage of ocular disorders like entropion, corneal pigmentation, fibrosis and ulcers was high, highlighting the importance of a regular ophthalmological check-up, and early diagnosis of the primary disorders. A higher incidence of corneal pigmentation was noticed in Pugs and corneal fibrosis in Shih Tzus, which suggests that some brachycephalic breeds may be predisposed to certain ocular abnormalities. A responsible reproductive strategy should be implemented to avoid undesired transmission of the abnormal traits to the offspring.

The objective of our study was to evaluate prevalence of selected bacterial and fungal pathogens of mastitis in dairy cattle in north-eastern Poland. Our study was conducted from 2013 to 2019 in 1,665 clinically and sub-clinically infected quarter milk samples (2013, n = 368; 2014, n = 350; 2015, n = 290; 2016, n = 170; 2017, n = 173; 2018, n = 224; and 2019, n = 90). The isolation and identification of the pathogens were performed in keeping with generally accepted microbiological procedures. In 2013, mastitis was most commonly caused by Staphylococcus aureus (24%), Streptococcus spp. (22%), Streptococcus agalactiae (12%) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (11%). In 2014, the most common pathogens were Streptococcus spp. (25%), Staphylococcus aureus (18%) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (10%); in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Streptococcus spp. (from 39-49%) were the most frequent strains isolated from the quarter milk samples. Other pathogens were isolated occasionally (below 15% in all years). In conclusion, the role of environmental bacteria has been gradually increasing in the Warmia Province. The importance of infectious pathogens has been decreasing, indicating the efficacy of the applied preventive programmes and a need for the development of new programmes targeting environmental pathogens.

Background: Teat disinfection is an important step in the control of mastitis within a dairy herd. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 96 commercially available teat disinfectant products in Ireland against bacterial isolates on teat skin. Teat disinfection products were applied to the teats of seventeen Holstein-Friesian cows. A split-udder model was used where one cow received two different teat disinfection products on each day. A composite swab sample was taken of the left teats and the right teats before and after teat disinfectant application. Swab samples were plated onto 3 different selective agars to enumerate bacterial counts of streptococcal, staphylococcal and coliform isolates.

Results: Streptococcal isolates were the most prominent bacterial group recovered on teat swabs taken before the application of a teat disinfection product (55.0%), followed by staphylococcal isolates (41.3%) and coliform isolates (3.7%). Products were reclassified by active ingredients (n = 9) for analysis. These ingredient groups included; chlorhexidine, chlorine dioxide, diamine, iodine, iodine and lactic acid, lactic acid, lactic acid and chlorhexidine, lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide, and lactic acid and salicylic acid. The ingredient group, chlorine dioxide, resulted in comparable reductions to the iodine group for streptococcal isolates. The ingredient group, iodine combined with lactic acid, resulted in the greatest reduction of staphylococcal isolates. When observing products individually, a product containing 1.6% w/w lactic acid combined with hydrogen peroxide was the most effective at reducing streptococcal isolates on the teat skin, whereas a product containing lactic acid combined with 0.6% w/w chlorhexidine was the most effective against staphylococcal isolates. Minor differences were observed regarding the relationship between effectiveness and active ingredient concentration between products.

Conclusions: This study suggests that some teat disinfectant products achieve a higher reduction in bacterial levels against different specific bacterial groups on teat skin than other products. Therefore, when choosing a teat disinfectant product, the bacteria in the dairy herds' environment should be considered. Further studies are necessary to evaluate products efficacy against new IMIs and any possible effects on teat skin condition.