Animal Disease Prevention Research Articles

What is a biomarker? It’s time for a renewed definition

following definition of biomarker (or simply marker) might be provisionally used: “human or animal biological property whose in vitro measurement or identification is useful for the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and follow-up of human or animal diseases, and for their understanding”. As a final clarification, it should be kept in mind that in the field of clinical pharmacology (clinical trials) the concept of “biomarker” has a wider meaning than in clinical laboratory sciences: some biomarkers are in vitro measured or identified and others in vivo. In the field of clinical laboratory sciences, as reflected in the proposed definition, the concept of “biomarker” is always related to in vitro measurements or identifications.

The study of the behavior of domestic animals: From aristotle through darwin to today

Over the past 50 years, biomedical research has established a strong linkage between psychosocial stress and disease risk in humans, which has transformed the understanding of stress and the role it plays in human lives. This research has led to personalized medicine where a reduction in daily life stress is a main goal for many people with debilitating illnesses. This review describes the supporting evidence that social stress also plays a critical role in farm animal disease prevention, and may be a mediator by which common management practices can increase disease risk.There is evidence that social factors, including deprivation of social contact (‘social isolation’), reducing space allowance (‘crowding’) and disturbing social order (‘social instability’) trigger physiological and behavioral indicators of stress in livestock. Less research exists, however, linking management practices that trigger social stress with higher disease risk. Suggestions are offered for future research opportunities, and practical, evidence-based recommendations are made for reducing the negative effects of social isolation, instability and crowding. The current evidence that social factors contribute to disease risk in farm animals is not as convincing as the human literature, but remains a promising and important area for future research.

The nurse's role in pharmacovigilance. Why is it important?

ABSTRACT:Pharmacovigilance is the process of detecting, evaluating and preventing the adverse effects of medicines – veterinary pharmacovigilance concerns the safety of veterinary medicines used for the treatment or prevention of disease in animals. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the organisation that is responsible for veterinary pharmacovigilance in the UK and veterinary nurses have a very important role to play in the processes that it implements, undertaking many of them on a daily basis.

Development of a curriculum for training in One Health analytical epidemiology at the University of Zambia

Recently, the world has witnessed emergence of novel diseases such as avian influenza, HIV and AIDS, West Nile Virus and Ebola. The evolution of these pathogens has been facilitated mainly by a constantly evolving animal-human interface. Whilst infectious disease control was previously conceptualised as either public health or animal health related issues, the distinction between disciplinary foci have been blurred by multiple causal factors that clearly traverse traditional disciplinary divides. These multiple evolutionary pressures have included changes in land use, ecosystems, human-livestock-wildlife interactions and antibiotic use, representing novel routes for pathogen emergence. With the growing realisation that pathogens do not respect traditional epistemological divides, the ‘One Health’ initiative has emerged to advocate for closer collaboration across the health disciplines and has provided a new agenda for health education. Against this background, the One Health Analytical Epidemiology course was developed under the auspices of the Southern African Centre for Infectious Diseases Surveillance by staff from the University of Zambia with collaborators from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Royal Veterinary College in London. The course is aimed at equipping scientists with multidisciplinary skill sets to match the contemporary challenges of human, animal and zoonotic disease prevention and control. Epidemiology is an important discipline for both public and animal health. Therefore, this two-year programme has been developed to generate a cadre of epidemiologists with a broad understanding of disease control and prevention and will be able to conceptualise and design holistic programs for informing health and disease control policy decisions.

Effect of inoculation route on the production of antibodies and histological characteristics of the spleen in laying hens

Recent studies have reported the use of IgY antibody in the prevention or treatment of diseases in animals. IgY can be obtained in large amounts from the yolk of chicken eggs through a low-cost process. This study evaluated the effect of different routes of inoculation on antibody production and spleen morphological characteristics of laying hens (White Leghorn) inoculated with sheep red blood cells. The analysis of the results showed that the intramuscular route is the most efficient for total antibody production in the primary immune response, while the intravenous route is the most efficient in producing IgY antibodies in the secondary immune response. No histological changes were observed in the spleen of laying hens. This study could be useful for developing protocols of antigen inoculation in laying hens for IgY antibody production.

家畜衛生分野における実践疫学教育

Important animal diseases, such as BSE, highly pathogenic avian influenza and foot and mouth disease, occurred in Japan in recent years. These diseases severely damaged livestock industries and also increased social concerns about food safety and public health. With increasing the importance of animal health in the general public as well as the livestock industries, the role of “epidemiology” has been expected as a useful tool to understand and analyze disease situations and to support decision making for control and prevention of animal diseases. To meet these expectations, the veterinary epidemiology training course for local and national veterinary officials in working for animal health is held annually. The training course is sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and managed by the National Institute of Animal Health. The aim of this training course is to provide basic principles and skills of veterinary epidemiology applicable to animal disease control activities. During the training course, trainees firstly learn basic methods to analyze and interpret field data, to evaluate diagnostic tests, and to design observational studies and surveys using sampling methods. Then, they learn how to apply basic epidemiological methods to problems through practical exercises. These include outbreak investigations and epidemiological studies of diseases in animal populations. This training course provides good opportunities to brush up and develop appropriate knowledge and skills of epidemiology for veterinarians in the animal health field.

Relação entre gastos preventivos e com tratamento: levantamento da situação em fazendas produtoras de leite de Minas Gerais, Brasil

Objetivou-se identificar as características dos sistemas produtivos de leite das fazendas de Minas Gerais com maiores gastos em prevenção de doenças animais. Ainda, pretendeu-se verificar a existência de relação negativa entre gastos com prevenção e tratamento. Os dados utilizados são provenientes de 861 questionários aplicados para a publicação do Diagnóstico da Pecuária Leiteira do Estado de Minas Gerais em 2005. Utilizou-se a análise fatorial para criar variáveis que agregassem os gastos. As variáveis geradas foram inseridas num modelo de regressão aplicando-se a metodologia de Mínimos Quadrados em Três Estágios, que permite considerar a endogeneidade esperada entre os gastos estudados. De acordo com os resultados encontrados, os gastos com tratamento aumentam com a elevação do percentual de vacas em lactação e os gastos com prevenção aumentam com intensificação da produção. Fazendas que utilizam mão-de-obra predominantemente familiar apresentam menores gastos com tratamento e maiores gastos com prevenção. Ainda, segundo a equação de prevenção, sistemas que têm maiores gastos com capineiras, canaviais, pastagens e mão-de-obra gastam mais com prevenção. Na equação de tratamento, o fator significativo indicou que sistemas mais tecnificados aumentam a probabilidade de transmissão de doenças e consequentemente os gastos com tratamento. Propriedades que receberam de um técnico mais de seis visitas por ano têm maiores gastos com tratamento, mas menores gastos com prevenção. A relação encontrada entre os gastos foi contrária à esperada, mostrando que, quando os gastos com prevenção aumentam, aqueles com tratamento também aumentam. Assim, os produtores têm uma atitude reativa e não proativa com relação à sanidade bovina.

The 2010 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Epidemic in Japan

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) occurred recently for the first time in a decade in Japan. The index case was detected on a beef-breeding farm in Miyazaki Prefecture, Southern Japan, on April 20, 2010. After confirmation of this first case, control measures such as stamping out, movement restriction and disinfection were implemented. However, these strategies proved insufficient to prevent the spread of FMD and emergency vaccination was adopted. Up until the last outbreak on July 4, 2010, a total of 292 outbreaks had been confirmed, with about 290,000 animals having been culled. The epidemic occurred in an area with a high density of cattle and pigs, making disease control difficult. Invasion of the disease into a high-density area aided its rapid spread and led to difficulties in locating suitable burial sites. Epidemiological investigations indicated that the disease was introduced into Japan approximately one month before detection. This delay in initial detection is considered to have allowed an increased number of outbreaks in the early stage of the epidemic. Nevertheless, the epidemic was contained within a localized area in Miyazaki Prefecture and was eradicated within three months because of intensive control efforts including emergency vaccination. Although this epidemic devastated the livestock industry in Japan, many lessons can be learnt for the future prevention and control of infectious diseases in animals.

Bacteriophage based probes for pathogen detection

Rapid and specific detection of pathogenic bacteria is important for the proper treatment, containment and prevention of human, animal and plant diseases. Identifying unique biological probes to achieve a high degree of specificity and minimize false positives has therefore garnered much interest in recent years. Bacteriophages are obligate intracellular parasites that subvert bacterial cell resources for their own multiplication and production of disseminative new virions, which repeat the cycle by binding specifically to the host surface receptors and injecting genetic material into the bacterial cells. The precision of host recognition in phages is imparted by the receptor binding proteins (RBPs) that are often located in the tail-spike or tail fiber protein assemblies of the virions. Phage host recognition specificity has been traditionally exploited for bacterial typing using laborious and time consuming bacterial growth assays. At the same time this feature makes phage virions or RBPs an excellent choice for the development of probes capable of selectively capturing bacteria on solid surfaces with subsequent quick and automatic detection of the binding event. This review focuses on the description of pathogen detection approaches based on immobilized phage virions as well as pure recombinant RBPs. Specific advantages of RBP-based molecular probes are also discussed.

Participatory Epizootiology Research of Settled Pastoralists in Igangan Grazing Reserve, Southern Guinea Agro-Pastoral Zone, Oyo State, Nigeria: First Report

A Participatory Epizootiology Research of a Fulani agropastoralist settlement scheme, the Igangan Grazing Reserve, Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria between 2007 and date, is ongoing under a University of Ibadan, Nigeria Senate Research Grant Program. The objective is to identifyand rank the expressed epizootiological and livestock health problems, as well as the socio-economic needs related to livestock-keeping, of the pastoralists in the study area. After obtaining approval from the reserve authorities (the Oyo State Government), an initial field assessment,two interactive focus group discussions meetings and a second physical field visit took place between December 2007 and June 2009. Respondents included the traditional Fulani grazing reserve head, who has been a settler on the reserve for forty (40) years, his educated first son and heir apparent, as well as fifteen (15) other settler leaders/elders. There were between twenty-seven (27) and forty-seven (47) permanent settlers, depending on the season of the year, with cattle holding of 50 – 600 per household. Settlers were mainly Fulani pastoralists. Problems highlighted by settlers included inadequate space for settler families, crop farmer/pastoralist skirmishes, and non-availability of feed all year round and absence of veterinary / animal care services. Expressed needs werefor basic veterinary training in animal care (and not just drug usage), disease prevention and management practices and veterinary extension education. Four (4) major reserve diseases identified were Charbo (Foot-and- Mouth Disease), Samore (Trypanosomosis), Eheren/Unto(Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia) and Wolah (Skin eruptions).

Principles of epidemiological modelling

Epidemiological modelling can be a powerful tool to assist animal health policy development and disease prevention and control. Models can vary from simple deterministic mathematical models through to complex spatially-explicit stochastic simulations and decision support systems. The approach used will vary depending on the purpose of the study, how well the epidemiology of a disease is understood, the amount and quality of data available, and the background and experience of the modellers. Epidemiological models can be classified into various categories depending on their treatment of variability, chance and uncertainty (deterministic or stochastic), time (continuous or discrete intervals), space (non-spatial or spatial) and the structure of the population (homogenous or heterogeneous mixing). The increasing sophistication of computers, together with greater recognition of the importance of spatial elements in the spread and control of disease, mean that models which incorporate spatial components are becoming more important in epidemiological studies. Multidisciplinary approaches using a range of new technologies make it possible to build more sophisticated models of animal disease. New generation epidemiological models enable disease to be studied in the context of physical, economic, technological, health, media and political infrastructures. To be useful in policy development, models must be fit for purpose and appropriately verified and validated. This involves ensuring that the model is an adequate representation of the system under study and that its outputs are sufficiently accurate and precise for the intended purpose. Finally, models are just one tool for providing technical advice, and should not be considered in isolation from data from experimental and field studies.

Neutralization effects of egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) and Fab' fragment against lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in burned mice model

The aim of this study is to evaluate the neutralization effects of egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) and Fab’ fragment against lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and identify possible approaches to prevent and treat LPS related injuries. Mice with third-degree burns covering 30% of the total body surface and exposed to LPS were orally administered with the IgY or Fab’ fragment of egg yolk immunoglobulin at 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after burning. The mortality rates and circulating levels of LPS, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were determined. The mortality rate of mice in the IgY-treated groups and Fab’treated groups were significantly lower when compared with the control groups (without treatment). The levels of LPS, TNF-α and IL-6 in the IgY-treated group and Fab’-treated group were lower than those in the control group, and Fab’-treated group posses much lower levels of LPS, TNF-α and IL-6 than IgYtreated group. The IgY and Fab’ fragment of egg yolk immunoglobulin raised against LPS may be used to inhibit and treat tissue injury caused by LPS. IgY technology has significant future opportunities for the prevention and treatment of LPS related infectious gastrointestinal diseases in humans and animals.

Producer assessment of dairy extension programming in Kentucky

To assess the dairy production issues extension programming should be addressing, a survey was distributed to all licensed milk producers in Kentucky (n=1,074). A total of 236 surveys were returned; 7 were omitted due to incompletion, leaving 229 for subsequent analyses (21% response rate). Mean herd size was 83.0±101.8 cows with a projected increase to 102.1±114.4 cows by 2013. Mean producer age was 50.9±12.9 with a range of 22 to 82. Mean milk production (kg/cow per day) was 23.9±5.4 with a range of 6.8 to 38.6kg. Mean somatic cell counts (SCC) were 304,824±123,580 with a range of 75,000 to 750,000cells/mL. When asked about meeting attendance frequency, 25% of producers indicated they attended meetings annually, whereas 29% attended twice yearly, 13% quarterly, 3% monthly, 2% at least twice monthly, and 28% indicated they never attended meetings. Surveyed producers were asked to assess what level of importance should be placed on a predetermined list of management topics. Mean response to each topic was calculated after assigning the following numeric values to producer response categories: not important: 1, important: 3, and very important: 5. Producers indicated mastitis and milk quality was the most important management topic with a response of 4.35±1.05, followed by animal well-being (4.05±1.14), disease prevention and vaccinations (4.01±1.06), cow comfort (3.97±1.09), disease treatment (3.95±1.10), and lameness and hoof health (3.95±1.16). Producers were asked to identify their preferred information delivery method. The most effective delivery methods were printed farm magazines (81.0%), agricultural newspapers (77.4%), printed newsletters from county agricultural agents (75.7%), printed newsletters from university extension (65.0%), and local or regional meetings (55.8%). The least effective delivery methods were university website (11.9%), indirect access through allied industry consultants (11.5%), webinars (2.7%), podcasts (0.4%), and blogs (0.4%). These results provide invaluable insight for future dairy-related Cooperative Extension Service programming efforts.

Good governance of national Veterinary Services

The beginning of the 21st Century has been characterised by changed political and economic realities affecting the prevention, control and eradication of animal diseases and zoonoses and presenting new challenges to the veterinary profession. Veterinary Services (VS) need to have the capacity and capabilities to face these challenges and be able to detect, prevent, control and eradicate disease threats. Animal health and VS, being a public good, require global initiatives and collective international action to be able to implement global animal disease eradication. The application of the 'One World, One Health' strategy at the animal-human interface will strengthen veterinary capacity to meet this challenge. Good governance of VS at the national, regional and global level is at the heart of such a strategy. In this paper, the author lists the key elements comprising good veterinary governance and discusses the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standards for the quality of VS. The OIE Tool for the Evaluation of the Performance of Veterinary Services (OIE PVS Tool) is introduced and its relevance in assessing compliance with OIE standards to prevent the spread of pathogens through trade is highlighted. A firm political commitment at the national, regional and international level, with provision of the necessary funding at all levels, is an absolute necessity in establishing good governance of VS to meet the ever-increasing threats posed by animal and human pathogens.

Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics for the Prevention and Treatment of Infections with West Nile Virus

The emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America in 1999 as a cause of severe neurological disease in humans, horses and birds stimulated development of vaccines for human and veterinary use, as well as polyclonal/monoclonal antibodies and other immunomodulating compounds for use as therapeutics. Although disease incidence in North America has declined since the peak epidemics in 2002-2003, the virus has continued to be annually transmitted in the Americas and to cause periodic epidemics in Europe and the Middle East. Continued transmission of the virus with human and animal disease suggests that vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of WNV disease could be of great benefit. This article focuses on progress in development and evaluation of vaccines and immunotherapeutics for the prevention and treatment of WNV disease in humans and animals.

家庭どうぶつ医療における保険金支払いデータの活用

Anicom, the leading pet insurer in Japan started its operation 12 years ago, and currently holds almost 400,000 pet insurance policies in force. Insurance claim data could provide epidemiological information. We tried to investigate the prevalence of disease with analysis of the above data. All insurance claim data of 217,150 dogs (male 115,192 and female101,958) contracted with Anicom pet insurance from April 1 2008 to March 31 2009 were used for the research. The high incidence of insured dogs in Japan is 20.9% in Ear Diseases, 19.7% in Dermatologic Diseases, and 15.6%in Gastrointestinal Diseases. The incidence of foreign body ingestion was significantly different; 3.7% in puppies under one year of age, 2.2% in 1 year old, and under 1.4% in 3-10 years old. It is considered that the pet insurance data would provide the tendency of disease in dogs. Further, it will be required to develop effective sampling methods for more valuable data to research on the better treatments and prevention of animal diseases.

Bluetongue control strategy, including recourse to vaccine: a critical review

The bluetongue (BT) epidemic that has prevailed in Europe since 2000 is the first example of continental spread of the BT virus (BTV) in large naive populations of susceptible animals. Based on the results of intensive surveillance and research in countries of the southern Mediterranean that were affected by the infection early on in the epidemic, a new strategy for prevention and control of the disease was developed to limit direct losses and to reduce the consequences due to movement restrictions. The basic innovations that were introduced were the use of mass vaccination of all domestic ruminant species to limit the spread of BTV and the use of intensive active surveillance to limit, as far as possible, the zone where movement restrictions must be applied. The novel strategy that was adopted dramatically reduced the number of clinical outbreaks in southern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin and ensured safer animal trade. In 2006, the first BTV-8 epidemic occurred, this time in north-western Europe. During this epidemic, affected countries adopted a 'wait and see' approach. No vaccination was implemented until 2008 and, in many instances, the movement of animals was authorised within restricted areas, thereby facilitating the spread of infection. The delay in administering vaccination was due to the decision to avoid the use of modified live virus vaccines, although this type of vaccine performed satisfactorily in the previous BT epidemics in southern Europe. Bluetongue has demonstrated that the infectious agents present in southern Africa can easily spread to the Mediterranean Basin, which should be considered a single entity as far as the epidemiology of animal diseases is concerned. Therefore, any effective strategy for the prevention and control of animal disease in Europe must take into account this reality and recognise the need for regional surveillance networks that include all the countries that border the Mediterranean.

Veterinary Pharmacy, a Dismissed Necessity

Veterinary pharmaceuticals play an important role in human and animal health. Although some dosage forms are specially designed for use in animals (e.g. ear tags, collars and darts), most drug delivery systems (including nano-carriers and controlled drug delivery systems) are common between animals and human (1). A successful drug development process (for human or animal use), from initial drug discovery to market, requires skill and knowledge in different areas of science of which some disciplines (e.g. pharmaceutics) are exclusively covered in pharmacy undergraduate or postgraduate programs. Pharmaceutics is the art, science and technology of drug delivery system design, manufacture and control and include pre-formulation studies, dosage form design, pharmaceutical processing, quality control, quality assurance, biopharmaceutics and etc. Therefore, like human medicine, pharmacists are expected to design, manufacture and control veterinary drug delivery systems at both levels of pharmaceutical companies or compounding in a pharmacy. This is not what is happening in most veterinary pharmaceutical companies and almost all veterinary-based pharmacies in here, where the professions are performed by veterinary medical doctors (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, DVM) (2). The educational program in veterinary medicine (DVM) is clinical-based and is focused on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases (3), the same perspective as that designed for the physicians (MD). While, there is not such authorization for physicians to act the same in humanoriented pharmaceutical systems. On the other hand, formulation of many drugs for human use is seldom suited for animal administration (4). Design and preparation of veterinary drug delivery systems requires different considerations and is facing more challenges than that of human formulations and cannot be implemented based on human data only. Following are some special considerations (1, 5):

Veterinary education for global animal and public health, D.A. Walsh : book review

This 28th annual volume published by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), addresses the need for a global shift in the way veterinary students are taught veterinary public health (VPH). As well as taking the lead in prevention and control of animal diseases, the OIE develops health and welfare standards to promote food security and equitable international trade in animals and animal products.

Introduction to the EPPO conference on diagnostics and associated workshops

EPPO organized a Conference on Diagnostics in cooperation with the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) (GB). This Conference followed in the sequence of EPPO Conferences on new methods of diagnosis in plant protection, previously held in the Netherlands, in 1985, 1994, 2000 and 2004. This Conference was attended by more than 140 participants from 29 countries (including non-EPPO countries: USA, Uganda, Peru and New Zealand). Most participants were experts in the field of diagnosis of plant pests, but representatives of EU organizations and private companies were also present. The Conference was opened by Dr Jeff Waage, Director of the London International Development Centre of the University of London. His talk ‘Putting plant health surveillance in a broader context’, showed that while differences exist between the human, animal and plant disease prevention systems there are increasing similarities in approaches to diagnostics across the sectors thus synergies should be encouraged. The Participants were welcomed to Fera by Mr Wray (Director of Operations).