Plasma lipopolysaccharide elevations in cattle associated with early-stage infection by Fasciola hepatica

Fasciolosis is an endemic zoonotic parasitic disease with significant impacts on human health and both animal health and production. Early post-infection impacts on the host remain unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the changes, if any, to levels of endotoxin in cattle plasma in response to early-stage infection with Fasciola hepatica. Thirty-six (36) commercial bred cattle were experimentally infected with approximately 400 viable metacercariae. Plasma lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) levels were examined on 24 occasions from 0 h before infection to 336 h after infection using the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate chromogenic end point assay and compared with that of six (6) uninfected control animals. Peak lipopolysaccharide levels in infected animals were reached at 52 h after infection and returned to pre-infection levels at time 144 h after infection. Infected animals had significantly elevated lipopolysaccharide levels between 24 and 120 h after infection when compared to uninfected animals. The mean change in endotoxin units (EU)/mL over time after infection was statistically significant in infected animals. Elevations of lipopolysaccharide occurred in all infected animals suggesting a possible repeatable and titratable endotoxemia conducive to therapeutic agent model development.     

Genomic prediction for meat and carcass traits in Nellore cattle using a Markov blanket algorithm

This study was carried out to evaluate the advantage of preselecting SNP markers using Markov blanket algorithm regarding the accuracy of genomic prediction for carcass and meat quality traits in Nellore cattle. This study considered 3675, 3680, 3660 and 524 records of rib eye area (REA), back fat thickness (BF), rump fat (RF), and Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), respectively, from the Nellore Brazil Breeding Program. The animals have been genotyped using low-density SNP panel (30 k), and subsequently imputed for arrays with 777 k SNPs. Four Bayesian specifications of genomic regression models, namely Bayes A, Bayes B, Bayes Cπ and Bayesian Ridge Regression methods were compared in terms of prediction accuracy using a five folds cross-validation. Prediction accuracy for REA, BF and RF was all similar using the Bayesian Alphabet models, ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. For WBSF, the predictive ability was higher using Bayes B (0.47) than other methods (0.39 to 0.42). Although the prediction accuracies using Markov blanket of SNP markers were lower than those using all SNPs, for WBSF the relative gain was lower than 13%. With a subset of informative SNPs markers, identified using Markov blanket, probably, is possible to capture a large proportion of the genetic variance for WBSF. The development of low-density and customized arrays using Markov blanket might be cost-effective to perform a genomic selection for this trait, increasing the number of evaluated animals, improving the management decisions based on genomic information and applying genomic selection on a large scale.     

突破肉牛产业发展效益瓶颈问题的探讨

随着肉牛产业从持续火热期逐渐回落,加上饲料价格的新一轮上涨,出栏育肥牛盈利空间被极度压缩,一度出现一定比例的亏损和弃养现象。这是市场规律调节的结果,是养殖业必然要经历的市场阵痛期。所以仅仅依靠高行情去获得盈利,促进肉牛产业的发展是不可能长久的。本文阐述了从提高种牛品质、提高母牛繁殖性能、抓好犊牛培育及早期断奶、粗饲料储备等几方面着手,抓技术提质增效,抓管理降低成本,理顺养牛投资理念,使肉牛产业安全走出低谷期,以突破肉牛产业发展效益瓶颈。这是市场规律调节的结果,是养殖业必然都要经过的市场阵痛期。所以仅仅依靠高行情去获得盈利,促进肉牛产业的发展是不可能长久的。文章阐述了从提高种牛品质、提高母牛繁殖性能、抓好犊牛培育及早期断奶、粗饲料储备等几方面着手,抓技术提质增效,抓管理降低成本,理顺养牛投资理念,使肉牛产业安全走出低谷期,以突破肉牛产业养殖效益瓶颈。     

超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定猪牛组织中甲基盐霉素残留量

建立超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定猪牛组织中甲基盐霉素残留量。猪、牛组织中残留的甲基盐霉素,经乙腈溶液提取,硅胶固相萃取柱净化,超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定,外标法定量。甲基盐霉素在5 ng/mL～250 ng/mL的浓度范围内呈现良好的线性关系,甲基盐霉素在猪、牛肌肉、肝脏、肾脏、脂肪中的检测限均为2.5μg/kg,定量限均为5.0μg/kg,猪牛肌肉、肝脏、肾脏、脂肪中5.0 ng/g～100 ng/g添加浓度范围内的回收率均值为71.9%～88.4%,批内批间RSD值均<15%。     

Characterization of Aerococcus viridans isolated from milk samples from cows with mastitis and manure samples

Thirty-eight Aerococcus viridans isolates were obtained from milk from 478 cows with clinical mastitis in a farm during the periods between November 2011 and February 2012, and between December 2012 and March 2013. Additional isolates were obtained from processed manure (a mixture of composted manure, straw and hydrated lime) and bedding materials. The processed manure was later used to cover the floor of the stalls in barns as bedding materials. The temperatures recorded in the composted and processed manure were not as high as those generally observed during satisfactory composting. To reveal the association of A. viridans in manure-related products with intramammary infection in cows, isolates were characterized by their DNA fragment patterns as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Isolates obtained from milk, processed manure and bedding materials had identical DNA fragment patterns. Antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined for 29 isolates from milk, processed manure and bedding materials. Of these, 26 (89.7%) were resistant to clindamycin, whereas virtually all the isolates were susceptible to 12 other antimicrobials including cefalosporins that have been used to treat bovine mastitis in Japan. In vitro, three A. viridans isolates from milk and an isolate from processed manure survived for 3 hr in Good’s buffer (pH 9) at high temperature (50°C). The results suggest that the processed manure and bedding materials in this farm were possible sources of A. viridans that caused infection in the cows with mastitis.     

Detecting endotoxin activity in bovine serum using an automated testing system

The aim of the present study was to compare the ability of the commercially available portable test system (PTS^TM) to detect endotoxin activity in bovine serum, with that of the traditional LAL-kinetic turbidimetric (KT) and chromogenic (KC) assays. Prior to testing, serum samples, which were obtained from endotoxin-challenged cattle, were diluted 1:20 in endotoxin-free water and heated to 80°C for 10 min. The performance of the PTS^TM was not significantly different from that of the traditional LAL-based assays. The results using PTS^TM correlated with those using KT (r²=0.963, P<0.001) or KC assays (r²=0.982, P<0.001). Based on these findings, the PTS^TM could be applied as a simplified system to assess endotoxin activity in bovine serum.     

Estimates of genetic variance and variance of predicted genetic merits using pedigree or genomic relationship matrices in six Brown Swiss cattle populations for different traits

The amount of variance captured in genetic estimations may depend on whether a pedigree‐based or genomic relationship matrix is used. The purpose of this study was to investigate the genetic variance as well as the variance of predicted genetic merits (PGM) using pedigree‐based or genomic relationship matrices in Brown Swiss cattle. We examined a range of traits in six populations amounting to 173 population‐trait combinations. A main aim was to determine how using different relationship matrices affect variance estimation. We calculated ratios between different types of estimates and analysed the impact of trait heritability and population size. The genetic variances estimated by REML using a genomic relationship matrix were always smaller than the variances that were similarly estimated using a pedigree‐based relationship matrix. The variances from the genomic relationship matrix became closer to estimates from a pedigree relationship matrix as heritability and population size increased. In contrast, variances of predicted genetic merits obtained using a genomic relationship matrix were mostly larger than variances of genetic merit predicted using pedigree‐based relationship matrix. The ratio of the genomic to pedigree‐based PGM variances decreased as heritability and population size rose. The increased variance among predicted genetic merits is important for animal breeding because this is one of the factors influencing genetic progress.     

狂犬病灭活疫苗CVS-11株对牛的免疫效果

野生狐和貉狂犬病流行于新疆、内蒙古和黑龙江地区,是当地牛、羊和骆驼等家畜狂犬病的主要传染源。在国内尚无野生动物口服疫苗的前提下,对家畜进行狂犬病灭活疫苗接种,具有重要的公共卫生学意义。本研究利用国产犬用狂犬病灭活疫苗(CVS-11株)对牛进行了免疫效果和安全性评价。以不同剂量疫苗肌内注射免疫成年牛350头,通过比较免疫后狂犬病病毒中和抗体水平和持续期,确定犬用狂犬病灭活疫苗(CVS-11株)在牛的最佳免疫剂量为1次性注射2剂量疫苗,免疫持续期为1年。结果表明,犬用狂犬病灭活疫苗(CVS-11株)免疫牛时,具有较高的免疫原性和安全性,适用于牛等大型动物的狂犬病注射免疫。