Human health aspects of antibiotic use in food animals: a review

Antibiotic use not only selects for resistance in pathogenic bacteria, but also in the commensal flora of exposed individuals. Veterinary surgeons regularly prescribe antibiotics for food animals to treat bacterial infections just as doctors do for human patients. In addition, however, animal feeds contain added antibiotics not for therapy but for economic reasons: to enhance the growth rate of these animals. Several of the antibiotics used as growth promoters are analogues of and fully cross resistant with important antibiotics used in human medicine. As a result of this high exposure to antibiotics, the prevalence of resistant bacteria in the faecal flora of these animals is high. These resistant bacteria can be directly and indirectly, via foods of animal origin, transferred to humans and either colonize the human intestinal tract or exchange their resistance genes with commensal bacteria of humans. As the intestinal flora functions as a reservoir of resistance genes for pathogenic bacteria and because many bacterial species of the intestinal flora are potential pathogens, the efficacy of antibiotic therapy in human medicine may be jeopardized.     

水产动物分子营养学的研究进展

随着分子生物学技术的发展,从分子水平了解水产动物营养代谢及营养素对机体合成代谢影响的内在机理,已经成为水产动物营养学研究的重要发展方向之一.文章针对近年来分子生物学技术在水产动物营养学研究中的应用,综述了水产动物分子营养学的研究内容,从营养代谢相关基因的克隆、营养素与代谢相关基因的表达,以及营养素与免疫相关基因表达的关系,概述了该方向及相关领域的研究现状和进展,并针对水产动物分子营养学研究面临的问题和对策提出了建议.     

影响动物机体蛋白质周转因素分析

Waterlow等 (1 978)将蛋白质周转 (proteinturnover)定义为在特定的代谢池内蛋白质被更新或替代的代谢过程。这一过程可能是蛋白质合成、降解的结果 ,也可能是同一蛋白质在不同空间分布的转换。蛋白质的合成与降解受诸如激素、营养水平、动物生理状态及其他多种因素的影响。1     

关于布鲁氏菌病净化工作的几点探讨

布鲁氏菌病是一种严重危害公共卫生的人畜共患病,防控本病宜从净化动物群体着手。现在的检测技术加以改进和系统化,可以建立群体区域净化模型,从而达到牲畜布鲁氏菌病净化的目的。     

Board-invited review: Using behavior to predict and identify ill health in animals

We review recent research in one of the oldest and most important applications of ethology: evaluating animal health. Traditionally, such evaluations have been based on subjective assessments of debilitative signs; animals are judged ill when they appear depressed or off feed. Such assessments are prone to error but can be dramatically improved with training using well-defined clinical criteria. The availability of new technology to automatically record behaviors allows for increased use of objective measures; automated measures of feeding behavior and intake are increasingly available in commercial agriculture, and recent work has shown these to be valuable indicators of illness. Research has also identified behaviors indicative of risk of disease or injury. For example, the time spent standing on wet, concrete surfaces can be used to predict susceptibility to hoof injuries in dairy cattle, and time spent nuzzling the udder of the sow can predict the risk of crushing in piglets. One conceptual advance has been to view decreased exploration, feeding, social, sexual, and other behaviors as a coordinated response that helps afflicted individuals recover from illness. We argue that the sickness behaviors most likely to decline are those that provide longer-term fitness benefits (such as play), as animals divert resources to those functions of critical short-term value such as maintaining body temperature. We urge future research assessing the strength of motivation to express sickness behaviors, allowing for quantitative estimates of how sick an animal feels. Finally, we call for new theoretical and empirical work on behaviors that may act to signal health status, including behaviors that have evolved as honest (i.e., reliable) signals of condition for offspring-parent, inter- and intra-sexual, and predator-prey communication.     

A review of cancer chemotherapy for pet animals

A review of the principles of cancer chemotherapy for pet animals is presented. The various pharmacological classes of antineoplastic drugs are described with specific references to those drugs that have been widely used in veterinary medicine.     

Viral diarrhea of young animals: A review

A brief presentation is given of the enteric viral infections of young animals. The general characteristics of rotaviruses, coronaviruses and parvoviruses are reported, and the different aspects of the diseases associated with these viruses are discussed. Certain suggestions are made regarding the prevention of these diseases.     

Pharmacological aspects of hypersensitivity in domestic animals: A review

Hypersensitivities may be divided into (a) antibody-dependent, immediate-type reactions and (b) cell (lymphocyte)-mediated, delayed-type reactions. The former are mediated by a complex group of biochemical agents including biogenic amines, lipids and polypeptides. The latter class are mediated by a group of chemical agents known as lymphokines. This article describes the basic immunopharmacology of allergic reactions in mammals and further relates the fundamental phenomena to important clinical manifestations in domestic species. The classification of antiallergic drugs and their applications in the control of clinical allergic conditions are also reviewed.     

A review of prevalences of paratuberculosis in farmed animals in Europe

Prevalence estimates are used by decision makers such as policy makers and risk assessors to make choices related to certain diseases and infections. Paratuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), is a chronic infection particularly resulting in economic losses among farmed ruminants. Therefore, this infection is of concern for many farming industry decision makers. As a result, multiple studies have been carried out to determine the within-herd and between-herd prevalence of MAP infections. The objective of the present study was to conduct a review and, if possible, compare animal and herd level prevalences of MAP among farmed animals in Europe. European data on prevalences of MAP in all farmed animal species were included from a review of literature. Information on target population and study design, tests used and apparent prevalences were recorded, and subsequently true prevalences were calculated when possible. A critical review of the included studies indicated that although a wide range of studies have been conducted, likely and comparable true prevalence estimates could rarely be calculated. Based on a few studies where the prevalences appeared to be plausible, it was concluded that prevalences of MAP would have to be guesstimates based on available data. The true prevalence among cattle appeared to be approximately 20% and was at least 3-5% in several countries. Between-herd prevalence guesstimates appeared to be >50%. No countries had published sufficient information to claim freedom from MAP or just a near-zero prevalence of MAP infections. No within-flock prevalence estimates were available for goats and sheep. The between-flock prevalence guesstimates were >20%, based only on estimates from Switzerland and Spain. Major critical issues were identified in the majority of the studies, primarily due to lack of knowledge of the test accuracy of the diagnostic test used, or due to studies where the study population did not reflect the target population. Because most of the reported studies did not yield prevalence estimates which were comparable to other studies, there is a continuing need for well-designed studies of the prevalence of MAP infections.