Associations between use of electric cow-trainers and clinical diseases, reproductive performance and culling in Swedish dairy cattle

The aims of this follow-up study were: (a) to evaluate the role of ECT technology as a risk factor for several diseases; and (b) to determine if the effects of these diseases on cows' reproductive performance and as risk factors for culling are influenced by exposure to ECTs. Diseases considered were retained placenta, metritis, ketosis, cystic ovaries, silent heat, milk fever, clinical mastitis, and foot and leg problems. We used historical and contemporary controls (with control herds selected to match the experimental herds for size and location). Data consisted of 10264 Swedish Red and White (SRB) and 5461 Swedish Friesian (SLB) lactation records in 150 herds of which 33 used cow-trainers. Logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of parity and exposure to electric cow-trainers on the risks of diseases and the effects of diseases and exposure to electric cow-trainers on risk of culling. The least-squares procedure was used to estimate the effects of diseases on reproductive performance.

The dominant effects associated with use of electric cow-trainers were an increased risk for silent heat, clinical mastitis, ketosis and culling relative to cows in herds not using cow-trainers. Diseases had negative effects on reproductive performance and the effects were larger for cows in herds using cow-trainers. In herds using electric cow-trainers, the largest increase in the interval from first service to conception (58 days) was caused by the occurrences of silent heat, cystic ovaries and the combination of two or more diseases. Retained placenta, metritis, cystic ovaries, clinical mastitis and a combination of two or more diseases increased the risk of culling about two times relative to healthy primiparous cows with the increase being greater for cows in herds using cow-trainers. Silent heat did not increase risk of culling in control groups, but was the largest risk factor for culling in the exposed group. We concluded that exposure to electric cow-trainers increased the incidence risk of silent heat, clinical mastitis, and ketosis and changed silent heat from a neutral disease with respect to culling to a major risk factor. Finally, exposure to cow-trainers increased the general negative effect of diseases on the cows' reproductive performance and risk for culling.     

Streptococcus uberis: A Permanent Barrier to the Control of Bovine Mastitis?

The prevalence of bovine mastitis has been reduced over the past 25 years due to the implementation of a five-point control plan aimed at reducing exposure, duration and transmission of intramammary infections by bacteria. This has markedly reduced the incidence of bovine mastitis caused by bacteria which show a contagious route of transmission, but has had little effect on the incidence of mastitis due to bacteria which infect the gland from an environmental reservoir. Streptococcus uberis is one such bacterium which is responsible for a significant proportion of clinical mastitis worldwide.The inadequacies of the current methods of mastitis control have led to the search for additional measures, particularly vaccines to prevent intramammary infection by this bacterium. Such an approach requires detailed knowledge of the pathogenesis of intramammary infection. Our understanding of this area has grown in recent years but a lack of information still hampers disease control. Both live vaccines and, recently, crude sub-unit vaccines have shown promise against bovine mastitis due to S. uberis. Vaccines against mastitis must, however, be able to control infection without the participation of a marked inflammatory response. This review provides an overview of the recent advances which have been made in our understanding of host-pathogen interactions which promote infection and disease and highlights areas for strategic research aimed at controlling this bacterial infection.     

Divergence of a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during an outbreak of ovine mastitis

Bacterial infections causing mastitis in sheep can result in severe economic losses for farmers. A large survey of milk samples from ewes with mastitis in Sardinia, Italy, indicated an increasing prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. It has been shown previously that during chronic, biofilm-associated infections P. aeruginosa populations diversify. We report the phenotypic and genomic characterisation of two clonal P. aeruginosa isolates (PSE305 and PSE306) from a mastitis infection outbreak, representing distinct colony morphology variants. In addition to pigment production, PSE305 and PSE306 differed in phenotypic characteristics including biofilm formation, utilisation of various carbon and nitrogen sources, twitching motility. We found higher levels of expression of genes associated with biofilm formation (pelB) and twitching motility (flgD) in PSE305, compared to the biofilm and twitching-defective PSE306. Comparative genomics analysis revealed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and minor insertion/deletion variations between PSE305 and PSE306, including a SNP mutation in the pilP gene of PSE306. By introducing a wild-type pilP gene we were able to partially complement the defective twitching motility of PSE306. There were also three larger regions of difference between the two genomes, indicating genomic instability. Hence, we have demonstrated that P. aeruginosa population divergence can occur during an outbreak of mastitis, leading to significant variations in phenotype and genotype, and resembling the behaviour of P. aeruginosa during chronic biofilm-associated infections.     

Use of a staphylococcal vaccine to reduce prevalence of mastitis and lower somatic cell counts in a registered Saanen dairy goat herd

This investigation evaluated the efficacy of a bacterin in reducing the prevalence of staphylococcal mastitis and somatic cell counts (SCC) in a dairy goat herd. Does were vaccinated or left as controls, and the levels of mastitis and SCC monitored over 18 months. Staphylococcus caprae (42.5%), S. xylosus (15.1%), and S. simulans (10.0%) were the predominant causes of intramammary infections (IMI). The infection rate was 1.64 IMI/doe among vaccinates, which tended to be lower (P < 0.12) than controls (2.67 IMI/doe). The spontaneous cure rate of IMI after immunization was 1.28 cures/doe in vaccinates, which was higher than controls (0.6 cures/doe; P < 0.043). Average SCC of milk samples from vaccinates tended to be lower than that of controls (1274 × 10³/ml vs. 1529 × 10³/ml, respectively) (P < 0.10). Results support the continued study of mastitis vaccines for use in managing staphylococcal mastitis and SCC in dairy goats.     

蛹虫草栽培中几种细菌性病原菌分离与鉴定

利用16S r DNA序列分析的方法,结合细菌形态特征及细菌生理生化鉴定,研究了蛹虫草栽培过程中易导致病害的3种细菌。结果表明,病原菌株E1与Flavobacterium chungangense,E2与Flavobacterium chungangense,E3与Janthinobacterium lividum的进化距离较小,同源性较高,初步确定分别与其同种。这对蛹虫草常见病害的防治研究具有重要的指导意义。     

Clonal Spread of Salmonella enterica Serovar Infantis in Serbia: Acquisition of Mutations in the Topoisomerase Genes gyrA and parC Leads to Increased Resistance to Fluoroquinolones

Quinolone‐resistant Salmonella Infantis (n = 64) isolated from human stool samples, food and poultry during the years 2006–2011 were analysed for their resistance phenotypes, macrorestriction patterns and molecular mechanisms of decreased susceptibility to fluoroquinolones. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of nalidixic acid (NAL) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) were determined by the agar dilution procedure, and the susceptibility to additional antimicrobial agents was determined by the disc diffusion method. To assess the influence of enhanced efflux activity, MICs were determined in the presence and absence of the inhibitor PAβN. The results of pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing revealed that quinolone‐resistant S. Infantis in Serbia had similar or indistinguishable PFGE profiles, suggesting a clonal spread. All S. Infantis showed combined resistance to NAL and tetracycline, whereas multiple drug resistance to three or more antibiotic classes was rare (2 isolates of human origin). The MICs ranged between 512 and 1024 μg/mL for NAL and 0.125–2 μg/mL for CIP. A single‐point mutation in the gene gyrA leading to a Ser83→Tyr exchange was detected in all isolates, and a second exchange (Ser80→Arg) in the gene parC was only present in eight S. Infantis isolates exhibiting slightly higher MICs of CIP (2 μg/mL). The inhibitor PAβN decreased the MIC values of CIP by two dilution steps and of NAL by at minimum 3–6 dilution steps, indicating that enhanced efflux plays an important role in quinolone resistance in these isolates. The plasmid‐mediated genes qnr, aac(6′)‐lb‐cr and qepA were not detected by PCR assays.     

金线莲茎腐病病原菌分离及分子鉴定

采用组织块法对金线莲疑似茎腐病病原菌进行分离,用致病性试验、病原菌形态学观察、分子生物学方法对该病原菌进行鉴定。结果表明：从收集的金线莲疑似茎腐病病原菌感染植株中分离得到的菌株,在培养基中产生大量气生菌丝呈棉絮状,菌丝在培养基中产生紫色色素,有隔及分枝,大型分生孢子纺锤形,小型分生孢子卵形或长圆形。分离的菌株回接后可使金线莲植株产生病害,对扩增得到的rDNA-ITS序列进行 Blast对比分析,确定该病害为尖孢镰刀菌FusariumoxysporumSchl．引起的茎腐病。     

Root-associated fungi of healthy-looking Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies seedlings in Swedish forest nurseries

The aim of this study was to assess fungal communities in roots of healthy-looking Pinus sylvestris L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst. seedlings in nine forest nurseries in Sweden using a combination of traditional culturing and direct sequencing of internal transcribed spacer of fungal ribosomal RNA (ITS rRNA) from the roots. Culturing from 1800 surface-sterilised root segments resulted in 2387 fungal cultures representing 42 different taxa. Direct sequencing from 180 root segments resulted in 119 ITS rRNA sequences representing 25 different taxa. In total, 55 different fungal taxa were detected using both methods. Although direct sequencing was more efficient than culturing in detecting different fungal taxa, both methods provided complementary information about fungal communities in roots since each detected rather different groups of fungi. The most dominant taxa detected by culturing were Trichoderma viride Pers. (19.5%), Phoma mucivora Davey & Currah (19.1%), Phialocephala fortinii Wang & Wilcox (17.4%) and Meliniomyces variabilis Hambl. & Sigler (10.2%), while Thelephora terrestris Ehrh. (26.1%), Unidentified sp. NS126 (25.2%) and Heliotales sp. C20 (10.1%) were most commonly detected by direct sequencing. In conclusion, results showed that forest nurseries in Sweden harbour diverse communities of fungi associated with the roots of healthy-looking P. sylvestris and P. abies seedlings. Although fungal communities were often dominated by saprotrophs and endophytes, several facultative pathogens were also detected indicating that under suitable conditions they may be a potential threat to the plants.     

泰州市奶牛乳房炎调查及其病原菌的分离

奶牛乳房炎是奶牛场的常发病和难以防治的疾病,为进一步了解引起奶牛乳房炎的病原微生物,本研究通过对泰州市3个奶牛场572头泌乳牛的乳房炎发病率进行了调查并对乳房炎主要病原菌进行分离和鉴定。结果表明,奶牛临床型乳房炎的发病率为7.69%,隐性型乳房炎发病率为56.64%,乳区阳性率为33.8%,其中临床型：隐性=1：7.36。从65份确定患有乳房炎的奶样中共分离获得8种细菌、156株分离株,且引起乳房炎的主要病原菌是金黄色葡萄球菌和表皮葡萄球菌,其次是停乳链球菌、大肠杆菌、乳房链球菌和无乳链球菌,其检出率分别为42.31%、23.08%、8.97%、6.41%、5.13%和1.28%。该项调查结果初步明确了泰州市乳房炎发病情况,同时为进一步综合防治奶牛乳房炎和研制乳房炎治疗药物提供了科学依据。     

Build up of patches caused by Rhizoctonia solani

Rhizoctonia solani is a complex species that is composed of different anastomosis groups (AG). Although these different AGs show differences in their host ranges, generally R. solani is a phytopathogenic species with a wide spectrum of hosts. It has the ability to grow as a saprotroph, which further complicates its behaviour as a parasite. The losses caused by R. solani are very important and need a sustainable management strategy. The patchy appearance of the disease caused by this pathogen is well-known. The patches show within and between season dynamics. The factors which affect the spread of the disease can be grouped into three main categories: host plant, pathogen and environment. However, each of the categories in its detail may depend on or react with the other categories. There are a number of factors that may be involved in dynamics of patches. These potential mechanisms are discussed. It is essential to know about the mechanisms involved to develop an effective control strategy. Although more work is needed to investigate different mechanisms of parasitism deployed by different AGs in different hosts, it seems that many mechanisms external to the host are operating at the same time which necessitates an integrative research approach to study and control the diseases caused by R. solani.