Small ruminant lentiviruses in Jordan: evaluation of sheep and goat serological response using recombinant and peptide antigens

Small ruminant lentiviruses infect sheep and goats worldwide, causing chronic progressive diseases and relevant economic losses. Disease eradication and prevention is mostly based on serological testing. The goal of this research was to investigate the presence of the small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLVs) in Jordan and to characterize the serological response in sheep and goat populations. A panel of sera were collected from flocks located in Northern Jordan and Jordan Valley. The samples were tested using three ELISA assays: a commercially available ELISA based on p25 recombinant protein and transmembrane peptide derived from British maedi–visna virus (MVV) EV1 strain, an ELISA based on P16-P25 recombinant protein derived from two Italian strains representative of MVV- and caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV)-like SRLVs, and an ELISA based on SU5 peptide from the same two Italian isolates. The results indicate that both MVV- and CAEV-like strains are present in Jordan and that the majority of the viruses circulating among sheep and goat populations belong to the MVV-like genotype.     

Small ruminant trypanosomiasis in Guyana--a preliminary report

Trypanosomes identified as Trypanosoma vivax were found infecting nine sheep (4.6%) and one goat (1.3%) on four of 11 farms surveyed on coastal Guyana. Animals sampled on another farm situated in the Rupununi savannahs gave negative results. Haematological techniques preferred for studies of this nature were the haematocrit centrifuge technique (HCT) and the thick blood smear technique.     

甜菜碱在反刍动物生产中的应用

本文就甜菜碱的生理功能及其对反刍动物生产性能、瘤胃发酵及能量代谢的影响作一综述。     

瘤胃素在反刍动物生产中的应用

瘤胃素又称莫能霉素或莫能菌素（monensin），是由链霉菌（Streptomycescinnamonesis）产生的一种聚醚类抗生素。瘤胃素能够调节瘤胃微生物区系，减少革兰氏阳性菌（Russell等，１９８８）和原虫（易建民等，１９９８）数量，抑制乳酸产生菌、氨产生菌和产气菌活性，提高乳酸利用菌活性（Dennis等，１９８１；Callaway等，１９９６；王中华等，１９９９）。饲料中添加瘤胃素可提高饲料转化率和养分吸收率。１９４５年美国正式将瘤胃素列为肉牛饲料添加剂，现已广泛用于肉牛生产中。瘤胃素在奶牛上的研究起步比较晚，试验表明，瘤胃素可提…     

亚麻籽在反刍动物中的应用

亚麻籽是反刍动物营养物质的一个重要来源,含有丰富的蛋白质、能量及必需脂肪酸。饲喂亚麻籽日粮可以提高肌肉中#-3必需脂肪酸的水平,从而改善肉质,优化人们饮食结构。文章介绍了亚麻籽的营养价值,以及通过在日粮中添加亚麻籽,对反刍动物消化吸收和肌肉性能的影响。     

Decline of maternal antibodies to small ruminant lentivirus in goat kids

We carried out this study to determine for how long small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV)‐specific antibodies can be detected by three commercial ELISA kits in goat kids after suckling infected does in field conditions. Forty‐one kids born to SRLV‐seropositive asymptomatic does were blood sampled prior to colostrum consumption, and then weekly for 6 months in total. The sera were screened with three commercial ELISA kits: whole‐virus ELISA (wELISA), recombinant transmembrane and capsid antigen ELISA (TM/CA‐ELISA), and surface antigen ELISA (SU‐ELISA). All but one kid were seronegative in all three ELISAs right after birth. At the age of 1 week all kids turned seropositive in wELISA, 39 kids (95%) in TM/CA‐ELISA, and 35 kids (85%) in SU‐ELISA. All seropositive kids turned seronegative in wELISA by the 15th week, and in SU‐ELISA by the 19th week (median of 8 weeks in both ELISA), whereas in TM/CA‐ELISA five kids (13% of 39 initially seropositive) were still seropositive at the age of 6 months (median of 11 weeks). Antibody levels at the age of 1 week proved significantly linked to the duration of maternal antibodies in all three ELISAs and could be employed to predict for how long maternal antibodies would remain detectable.     

乳腺组织的小肽营养

肽能被反刍动物乳腺组织有效利用,以满足乳腺组织合成蛋白质的需要。因此一些学者提出了动物乳腺组织对完整蛋白质本身或对肽有着特殊需要的观点。     

Aspects of ruminant production efficiency in Transkei

This paper discusses aspects of efficiency of ruminant production in Transkei. Findings show low levels of production and reproduction and high mortality rates in a situation of deteriorating natural resources due to mismanagement and overstocking.     

酵母培养物在反刍动物生产中的应用研究进展

酵母培养物通常指用固体或液体培养基经特定工艺发酵菌发酵后,产生的含代谢物和酵母菌的混合物,营养丰富,富含矿物质、B族维生素、消化酶、促生长因子和较齐全的氨基酸以及未知生长因子,是集营养与保健为一体的复合饲料添加剂。它本身无耐药性、无残留,得到了行业的广泛关注。本文综述了近年来酵母培养物在反刍动物生产中的营养及保健作用,以期为酵母培养物在反刍动物生产中的应用奠定理论基础。     

功能性寡糖及其在反刍动物生产中的应用

功能性寡糖是指不被人和动物肠道吸收,能促进有益菌的增殖,有益于肠道健康的一类寡糖。本文主要综述了果寡糖、大豆寡糖、甘露寡糖、异麦芽寡糖、半乳寡糖和木寡糖6种常用功能性寡糖的理化性质、作用机理以及在反刍动物营养中的应用。     

Dairy goat production systems

Goat production concentrated in developing countries (tropics, dry areas), contributes largely to the livelihoods of low and medium income farmers. Farming systems in these areas have evolved to cope with the formidable constraints imposed by harsh natural and economic conditions by adapting integrated crop/livestock production strategies. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, due to its almost exclusive extensive nature, goat production relies mainly on grazing on communal lands that hardly provide the minimum nutrient requirements due to overstocking and degradation. While some of these production systems are becoming semi-intensive, appropriate breeding strategies should be designed to promote conservation and improvement of their unique attributes, such as adaptability, water use efficiency and suitability under harsh climatic conditions. In Europe, dairy goat production is more common around the Mediterranean basin, where it is important from an economic, environmental and sociological perspective to the Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Europe owns only 5.1 % of the world’s dairy goat herds, but produces 15.6 % of the world’s goat milk; this is the only continent where goat milk has such an economic importance and organization. In developing countries the dairy goat sector requires a systemic approach, whereby nutrition, animal health, breeding, know-how, inputs and technologies must be assembled. This would allow the optimization of natural and local resources and would promote the transition from a risk reduction strategy towards an increased productivity strategy. Such an increase would privilege production efficiency based on clean, green and ethical practices for responsible innovation.     

Communal goat production in Southern Africa: a review

Despite the fact that about 64% of goats in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are located in rural arid (38%) and semi-arid (26%) agro-ecological zones and that more than 90% of goats in these zones are indigenous, information on indigenous breeds is inadequate. This paper reviews the social and economic importance of goats to the communal farmer and assesses the potential of using goats in rural development in Southern Africa. Farmers in Southern Africa largely use the village goat management system. There are various goat breeds in Southern Africa, of which the Mashona, Matabele, Tswana, Nguni and the Landim are the dominant ones. It is, however, not clear if these breeds are distinct. Major constraints to goat production include high disease and parasite prevalence, low levels of management, limited forage availability and poor marketing management. Potential research areas that are required to ensure that goats are vehicles for rural development include evaluation of constraints to goat production, assessing the contribution of goats to household economies and food securities throughout the year, genetic and phenotypic characterisation of the indigenous breeds to identify appropriate strains and sustainable methods of goat improvement through either selection or crossbreeding.     

酵母培养物在反刍动物生产中的作用

本文就酵母培养物的作用机制及其对反刍动物的作用效果作一阐述。     

外源酶在反刍动物生产中的应用及作用机制

外源酶能促进反刍动物对粗饲料的利用,提高反刍动物的生产性能。本文重点探讨了外源酶制剂在反刍动物中的作用机理,综述了外源酶的饲喂前作用、瘤胃内作用、瘤胃后作用,并介绍了其在生产中的应用方法。     

Economic values for production and functional traits of Small East African goat using profit functions

Economic values for production traits (milk yield, MY, g; 12-month live weight, yLW, kg; consumable meat percentage, CM, %) and functional traits (mature doe live weight, DoLW, kg; mature buck live weight, LWb, kg; kidding frequency, KF; pre-weaning survival rate, PrSR, %; post-weaning survival rate, PoSR,%; doe survival rate, DoSR, %; and residual feed intake, RFI, kg) were estimated using profit functions for the Small East African goat. The scenario evaluated was a fixed flock size, and the resultant economic values (Kes per doe per year) were 34.46 (MY), 62.35 (yLW), 40.69 (CM), 0.15 (DoLW), 2.84 (LWb), 8.69 (KF), 17.38 (PrSR), 16.60 (PoSR), 16.69 (DoSR) and ?3.00 (RFI). Similarly, the economic values decreased by ?14.7 % (MY), ?2.7 % (yLW), ?23.9 % (CM), ?6.6 % (DoLW), ?98 % (LWb), ?8.6 % (KF), ?8.2 % (PrSR), ?8.9 % (PoSR), ?8.1 % (DoSR) and 0 % (RFI) when they were risk rated. The economic values for production and functional traits, except RFI, were positive, which implies that genetic improvement of these traits would have a positive effect on the profitability in the pastoral production systems. The application of an Arrow-Pratt coefficient of absolute risk aversion (λ) at the level of 0.02 resulted in a decrease on the estimated economic values, implying that livestock keepers who were risk averse were willing to accept lower expected returns. The results indicate that there would be improvement in traits of economic importance, and, therefore, easy-to-manage genetic improvement programmes should be established.     

Serological characterization of the new genotype E of small ruminant lentivirus in roccaverano goat flocks

Maedi visna virus (MVV) and caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) are a heterogeneous group of infectious agents affecting sheep and goats. Due to their natural cross-species infection they are referred to as small-ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV). Recently a new genetic cluster, highly divergent from MVV and CAEV was identified in the north-west part of Italy. A panel of genotype E specific antigens was developed and evaluated in flocks infected with B1 and E strains. The results clearly indicate that a strain specific antigen is required to correctly identify animals infected with different genotypes.     

Risk factors for the infection of Swiss goat herds with small ruminant lentivirus: a case-control study

In the mid-1980s, Switzerland started a programme to eradicate caprine arthritis-encephalitis - an infectious disease of goats caused by the small ruminant lentivirus (srlv). Since 1996, progress towards eradication has slowed down, owing to infections occurring on farms from which the infection had previously been eliminated. To investigate specific risk factors for these new infections and to improve the eradication programme, a case-control study was conducted. Cases consisted of farms that had been officially free of srlv for at least three consecutive years but on which at least one srlv-seropositive animal had been detected during the annual serological surveys of 2001 and 2002. On all the case and control farms where sheep were housed together with goats, a subset of sheep was screened for antibodies to srlv. Potential risk factors were analysed in a logistic regression model; the results indicated that close contact with srlv-seropositive sheep was highly correlated with seroconversion in srlv-seronegative goat herds (odds ratio=26.9), supporting the hypothesis that srlv can be transmitted between sheep and goats, and suggesting that the measures taken so far will not lead to the complete eradication of srlv from Switzerland within the next few years.     

Small ruminant lentiviruses: immunopathogenesis of visna-maedi and caprine arthritis and encephalitis virus

The small ruminant lentiviruses include the prototype for the genus, visna-maedi virus (VMV) as well as caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV). Infection of sheep or goats with these viruses causes slow, progressive, inflammatory pathology in many tissues, but the most common clinical signs result from pathology in the lung, mammary gland, central nervous system and joints. This review examines replication, immunity to and pathogenesis of these viruses and highlights major differences from and similarities to some of the other lentiviruses.