Trypanosomiasis is caused by a pathogenic protozoan of the genus Trypanosoma, being Trypanosoma vivax the most important agent for cattle. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the expansion of T. vivax infection in different mesoregions of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and describe the clinicopathological findings of trypanosomiasis in cattle. The diagnosis was based on visualization of the parasite in blood smears and DNA detection of T. vivax in the blood of live cows and tissues of necropsied animals by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thirty suspected herds were tested, of which 11 were positive for T. vivax. The most frequent clinical signs were anemia, apathy, drop in milk production, weight loss, reproductive disorders, and nervous signs. Concomitant diseases, such as malignant edema, pneumonia and increased cases of mastitis were associated with T. vivax infection. Three cows were necropsied and the most significant findings were low body condition score, pale mucous and spleen with white pulp hyperplasia. The results demonstrated the expansion of T. vivax infection in Minas Gerais, that PCR-associated blood smears are promising for diagnosis, and that other diseases often occur concomitantly to T. vivax infection in regions with trypanosomiasis in cattle.
Anemia ; Animals ; Apathy ; Brazil ; Cattle ; Diagnosis ; DNA ; Edema ; Female ; Hyperplasia ; Mastitis ; Milk ; Parasites ; Parasitic Diseases ; Pneumonia ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Ruminants ; Spleen ; Trypanosoma vivax ; Trypanosoma ; Trypanosomiasis ; Weight Loss

The Brucella mdh gene was successfully cloned and expressed in E. coli. The purified recombinant malate dehydrogenase protein (rMDH) was reactive to Brucella-positive bovine serum in the early stage, but not reactive in the middle or late stage, and was reactive to Brucella-positive mouse serum in the late stage, but not in the early or middle stage of infection. In addition, rMDH did not react with Brucella-negative bovine or mouse sera. These results suggest that rMDH has the potential for use as a specific antigen in serological diagnosis for early detection of bovine brucellosis.
Animals ; Antigens, Bacterial/*immunology ; Brucella abortus/*enzymology/immunology ; Brucellosis/diagnosis/*veterinary ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*diagnosis ; Cloning, Molecular ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Escherichia coli/genetics ; Malate Dehydrogenase/*genetics/*immunology/isolation & purification ; Mice ; Recombinant Proteins/genetics/*immunology

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV), a phlebovirus in the family Bunyaviridae, is an emerging tick-borne infectious disease that impacts humans. This disease manifests as a decreased blood cell count and multi-organ failure, with a case-fatality rate of more than 12% in China. Because vaccines or antiviral drugs for the treatment of this disease are not available, monitoring the SFTS circulation in animals and controlling the tick-mammal cycle are important for preventing SFTS. Monoclonal antibodies against the recombinant nucleoprotein of SFTSV were generated to develop a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) for the detection of antibodies against SFTSV infection in cattle. The specificity and sensitivity of cELISA was assessed by comparing the results of this assay to those of an immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The results of the cELISA using 416 field bovine serum samples and laboratory-immunized positive sera showed 98.1% consistency with those of the IFA. The cELISA used in this study did not show cross-reactivity with antisera against other viral cattle diseases. The cELISA presented in this study can be applied to detect antibodies against SFTSV in cattle.
Animals ; Antibodies ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Antiviral Agents ; Blood Cell Count ; Bunyaviridae ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases ; China ; Communicable Diseases ; Diagnosis* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay* ; Fever* ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Humans ; Immune Sera ; Nucleoproteins ; Phlebovirus ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thrombocytopenia* ; Vaccines

OBJECTIVETo present six cases of Brucella infection in children, analyze the characteristics of the disease, diagnostic and therapeutic process.

METHODThe clinical manifestations, laboratory test results and diagnostic process of 6 confirmed cases of brucellosis seen between 2011-2012 were retrospectively analyzed and domestic and foreign literature was reviewed.

RESULTAll the 6 children had a history of either exposure to, travelling to endemic area, or consuming infected lamb/beef. After the relevant examinations for these children, either positive etiologic or serologic evidence of brucellosis infection was obtained. The main clinical manifestation was fever in all cases, the peak body temperature was 37.5-38.0 °C in 3 cases, 38.1-39.0 °C in 2 cases, 39.1-41 °C in 1 case. Except for 1 case whose fever type was undulant fever, all the rest had irregular fever.Joint pain existed in 3 cases, orchitis in 1 case, cervical lymphadenopathy in 3 cases, hepatosplenomegaly in 2 cases, and impaired liver function in 4 cases. The Brucella agglutination test was positive in 5 cases. The blood culture was positive for all cases. In 4 cases the sulfamethoxazle and rifampicin were used for treatment, 1 case was treated with rifampicin and erythromycin, parents of 1 case refused to use the drug. The "brucellosis in children" was used to search literature at Wanfang database, Pubmed database for literature of recent 10 years, and a total of 13 articles including 15 cases were retrieved. All the patients had fever, 6 cases had joint swelling and pain, 10 cases had hepatosplenomegaly, 6 cases had cervical lymphadenopathy, 4 cases were complicated with central nervous system infection. Brucella agglutination test was positive in 9 cases and blood culture was positive for Brucella infection in all cases.

CONCLUSIONChildhood Brucella infections are usually presented with various clinical manifestations, and are often accompanied by symptoms of systemic infection. For fever of unknown origin, one should include tests associated with brucellosis and pay special attention to differential diagnosis against other diseases.

Animals ; Brucella ; Brucellosis ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Cattle ; Child ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Fever ; Humans ; Lymphatic Diseases ; pathology ; Meat ; Retrospective Studies ; Sheep ; Splenomegaly ; pathology

Mycobacterium (M.) bovis, a bacterium in the M. tuberculosis complex, is a causative agent of bovine tuberculosis, a contagious disease of animals. Mycobacterial culture is the gold standard for diagnosing bovine tuberculosis, but this technique is laborious and time-consuming. In the present study, performance of the SD Bioline TB Ag MPT4 Rapid test, an immunochromatographic assay, was evaluated using reference bacterial strains and M. bovis field isolates collected from animals. The SD MPT64 Rapid test produced positive results for 95.5% (63/66) of the M. bovis isolates from cattle and 97.9% (46/47) of the isolates from deer. Additionally, the test had a sensitivity of 96.5% (95% CI, 91.2-99.0), specificity of 100% (95% CI, 96.7-100.0), positive predictive value of 100% (95% CI, 96.7-100.0), and negative predictive value of 92.9% (95% CI, 82.7-98.0) for M. bovis isolates. In conclusion, the SD MPT64 Rapid test is simple to use and may be useful for quickly confirming the presence of M. bovis in animals.
Animals ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*diagnosis/microbiology ; *Deer ; Immunochromatography/methods/*veterinary ; Mycobacterium bovis/classification/*isolation & purification ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tuberculosis/diagnosis/microbiology/*veterinary

The bovine enterovirus (BEV) is a pathogen found the digestive tracts of cattle. Recently, the BEV was discovered in cattle in a province in China. A rapid and effective detection method for the BEV is essential. An assay was carried out using two specific primers designed to amplify a highly conserved sequence of the 3D gene. A recombinant plasmid containing the target gene 3D was constructed as a standard control. The limit of detection of the reaction was 7.13 x 10(1) plasmid copies/μL of initial templates, which was tenfold more sensitive than the conventional reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Moreover, the assay was highly specific because all negative controls and other viruses of clinical relevance did not develop positive results. Assay performance on field samples was evaluated on 44 (41 diarrhea and 3 aerosol) samples and compared with the conventional RT-PCR assay. Sixteen diarrhea samples were positive (16/41, 39. 02%) and 3 aerosol samples were positive (3/3, 100%). Preliminary results for clinical detection showed that the SYBR Green I real-time PCR assay was highly sensitive, specific and reproducible. The robustness and high-throughput performance of the developed assay make it a powerful tool in diagnostic applications for epidemics and in BEV research.
Animals ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases ; diagnosis ; virology ; DNA Primers ; chemistry ; genetics ; Enterovirus Infections ; diagnosis ; veterinary ; virology ; Enterovirus, Bovine ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Organic Chemicals ; chemistry ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Calf diarrhea is a commonly reported disease in young animals, and still a major cause of productivity and economic loss to cattle producers worldwide. In the report of the 2007 National Animal Health Monitoring System for U.S. dairy, half of the deaths among unweaned calves was attributed to diarrhea. Multiple pathogens are known or postulated to cause or contribute to calf diarrhea development. Other factors including both the environment and management practices influence disease severity or outcomes. The multifactorial nature of calf diarrhea makes this disease hard to control effectively in modern cow-calf operations. The purpose of this review is to provide a better understanding of a) the ecology and pathogenesis of well-known and potential bovine enteric pathogens implicated in calf diarrhea, b) describe diagnostic tests used to detect various enteric pathogens along with their pros and cons, and c) propose improved intervention strategies for treating calf diarrhea.
Animals ; Cattle ; *Cattle Diseases/diagnosis/drug therapy/microbiology/prevention & control ; Diarrhea/diagnosis/microbiology/prevention & control/*veterinary

OBJECTIVETo perform pathological observation and etiological identification of specimens collected from dairy cows, beef cattle and dogs which were suspected of rabies in Inner Mongolia in 2011, and analyze their etiological characteristics.

METHODSPathological observation was conducted on the brain specimens of three infected animals with Hematoxylin-Eosin staining, followed by confirmation using immunofluorescence and nested RT-PCR methods. Finally, phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the virus N gene sequence amplified from three specimens.

RESULTSEosinophilic and cytoplasmic inclusion bodies were seen in neuronal cells of the CNS; and rabies non-characteristic histopathological changes were also detected in the CNS. The three brain specimens were detected positive. N gene nucleotide sequence of these three isolates showed distinct sequence identity, therefore they fell into different groups in the phylogenetic analysis. N gene in the cow and dog had higher homology with that in Hebei isolate, but that in the beef cattle had higher homology with that in Mongolian lupine isolate and Russian red fox isolate.

CONCLUSIONRabies were observed in the dairy cow, beef cattle and canine in the farm in Inner Mongolia, in 2011, which led to a different etiologic characteristics of the epidemic situation.

Acetazolamide ; Animals ; Brain ; pathology ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases ; epidemiology ; pathology ; Dog Diseases ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; Dogs ; Mongolia ; epidemiology ; Nucleoproteins ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Rabies ; epidemiology ; veterinary ; Rabies virus ; genetics ; Time Factors

PCR is a highly accurate technique for confirming the presence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) in broth culture. In this study, a simple, efficient, and low-cost method of harvesting DNA from Map cultured in liquid medium was developed. The proposed protocol (Universidad Austral de Chile [UACH]) was evaluated by comparing its performance to that of two traditional techniques (a QIAamp DNA Stool Mini Kit and cethyltrimethylammonium bromide [CTAB] method). The results were statistically assessed by agreement analysis for which differences in the number of cycles to positive (CP) were compared by Student's t-test for paired samples and regression analysis. Twelve out of 104 fecal pools cultured were positive. The final PCR results for 11 samples analyzed with the QIAamp and UACH methods or ones examined with the QIAamp and CTAB methods were in agreement. Complete (100%) agreement was observed between data from the CTAB and UACH methods. CP values for the UACH and CTAB techniques were not significantly different, while the UACH method yielded significantly lower CP values compared to the QIAamp kit. The proposed extraction method combines reliability and efficiency with simplicity and lower cost.
Animals ; Bacteriological Techniques/economics/*veterinary ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/diagnosis/*microbiology ; DNA, Bacterial/chemistry/genetics ; Female ; Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis/*genetics ; Paratuberculosis/diagnosis/*microbiology ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary ; Reproducibility of Results

In this study a disperse dye immunoassay method was standardized and evaluated for detection of antibodies against Neospora caninum in cattle. Sera from 150 cattle with a recent history of abortion were collected and tested by commercial ELISA kit and a standardized in-house dye immunoassay system. The positivity rate for the sera used in this study was 34.6% for the disperse dye immunoassay (DDIA) compared to 32% obtained by ELISA kit. This study showed no significant difference between DDIA and ELISA. The results indicated that the DDIA provide an economic, simple, rapid and robust test for detection of N. caninum infection in cattle.
Animals ; Antibodies, Protozoan/*blood ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*diagnosis/parasitology ; Coccidiosis/diagnosis/parasitology/*veterinary ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine/*methods ; Female ; Immunoassay/methods ; Neospora/*immunology ; Staining and Labeling/methods ; Veterinary Medicine/*methods