Current Issue : April-June Volume : 2023 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
Livestock is a critical socioeconomic asset in developing countries such as Ethiopia, where the economy is significantly based on agriculture and animal husbandry. However, there is an enormous loss of livestock population, which undermines efforts to achieve food security and poverty reduction in the country. The primary reason for this challenge is the lack of a reliable and prompt diagnosis system that identifies livestock diseases in a timely manner. To address some of these issues, the integration of an expert system with deep learning image processing was proposed in this study. Due to the economic significance of cattle in Ethiopia, this study was only focused on cattle disease diagnosis. The cattle disease symptoms that were visible to the naked eye were collected by a cell phone camera. Symptoms that were identified by palpation were collected by text dialogue. The identification of the symptoms category was performed by the image analysis component using a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm. The algorithm classified the input symptoms with 95% accuracy. The final diagnosis conclusion was drawn by the reasoner component of the expert system by integrating image classification results, location, and text information obtained from the users. We developed a prototype system that incorporates the image classification algorithms and the reasoner component. The evaluation result of the developed system showed that the new diagnosis system could provide a rapid and effective diagnosis of cattle diseases....
Background: Cerebellar abiotrophy (CA) is an uncommon hereditary neurodegenerative disorder affecting the cerebellar Purkinje cells. Equine CA has been reported in several breeds, but a genetic etiology has only been confirmed in the Arabian breed, where CA is caused by an autosomal recessive mutation. Case presentation. Clinical and histological findings consistent with CA are reported in an 8.5-month-old Icelandic filly. The filly showed a perceived sudden onset of marked head tremor, incoordination, ataxia, lack of menace response and a broadbased stance. Cerebrospinal fluid, hematological and biochemical findings were all within the normal range, ruling out several differential diagnoses. Post mortem histopathological examination revealed Purkinje cell degeneration accompanied by astrogliosis. Assessment of the filly’s pedigree revealed that its parents shared a common ancestor. Conclusions: To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of CA in the Icelandic breed. The identification of a common parental ancestor makes autosomal recessive inheritance of CA in this filly possible, but this would need to be confirmed by further studies. Veterinarians and breeders working with Icelandic horses should be aware of this condition and report suspected cases in order to support genetic investigation....
Background: Distichiasis is the most frequently recorded eye disorder in the Norwegian Staffordshire bull terrier (SBT). The condition is often mild but can, in severe cases, lead to pain and blindness. The current study’s main purpose was to estimate the heritability based on pedigree information as well as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to evaluate whether it is realistic to reduce the frequency by systematic breeding. The majority of the dogs had only one examination as a young puppy. To evaluate whether this early screening gave a reliable representation of the disease burden in the population, we compared the diagnosis in puppies and adult dogs. Results: Our material consisted of data from 4177 dogs with an overall prevalence of distichiasis of 8.38% (CI 7.56–9.26). The prevalence in puppies examined around eight weeks of age was significantly lower than in dogs examined after 52 weeks (2.87%, CI 2.29–3.54 versus 18.72%, CI 16.71–20.87). The heritability was estimated in dogs examined after 52 weeks. We used both pedigree (1391 dogs) and genotype (498 dogs) information for the estimates. The pedigree-based heritability was ~ 0.22 (on the underlying scale ~ 0.48), while the genomic-based heritability (on the underlying scale) was ~ 0.47, and ~ 0.37 when excluding close relatives with equal affection status. Conclusions: Screening for distichiasis in puppies before eight weeks of age is not sufficient to give an accurate estimate of the prevalence, and an additional examination after one year is recommended. The heritability of distichiasis is medium to high, showing that it should be possible to reduce the prevalence by selective breeding....
Background: An ectopic ureter is a congenital malformation characterized by caudal displacement of one or both ureteral orifices and is the most common cause of urinary incontinence in young dogs. Complete resolution of incontinence after surgery has been reported in 25–82% of dogs. The aim of this study was to identify preoperative prognostic factors for continence after surgical treatment of dogs with an ectopic ureter. Dogs were included if surgical correction of an ectopic ureter was performed and at least 1 year follow-up was available. Results: Fifty-one dogs met the inclusion criteria. The ectopic ureters were either intramural (91%) or extramural (9%). The ectopic ureters were bilateral in 49% of cases. Overall median follow-up time after surgery was 6.5 years (range 1–13 years). Surgical correction alone resolved urinary incontinence in 47% of cases. Low grade pre-operative incontinence, male sex and pre-operative presence of ureteral or renal pyelum dilation were significantly associated with urinary continence after surgery. Conclusions: Dogs with severe preoperative incontinence were less likely to become completely continent after surgery, whereas male sex and preoperative dilation of the ureter or renal pyelum were positive prognostic indicators for continence. These results may assist in predicting outcome after surgical correction of ectopic ureters and suggest assessment of pre-operative urethral pressure profiling in future studies....
Background: Non-aureus staphylococci (NAS) are the most prevalent group of bacteria isolated in bovine mastitis milk in Finland and many other countries. They usually cause subclinical or mild clinical mastitis. The increase in milk somatic cell count (SCC) during NAS intramammary infection varies from slight to marked, reflecting the severity of infection in the quarter. Limited evidence has indicated that NAS species may have different impact on milk SCC. We used a large data set originating from a prevalence study, including isolates from quarter milk samples and the SCCs of the respective quarters, to study the effect of different NAS species on quarter milk SCC. Results: Staphylococcal species of a total of 1265 isolates, originally identified as NAS, were analysed with MALDITOF MS. The most prevalent NAS species were S. epidermidis, S. simulans, S. chromogenes and S. haemolyticus. Fortytwo isolates appeared to be S. aureus. Geometric mean milk SCC of all quarter samples was 114,000 cells/mL and median 126,000 cells/mL. Staphylococcus species had a significant effect on the SCC of the quarter. The highest SCCs were caused by S. aureus, S. agnetis/S. hyicus (these two species cannot be distinguished with MALDI-TOF MS) and S. simulans. The mean SCCs of milk samples that were culture positive for these three species did not differ significantly from each other but were significantly higher than the mean SCCs of milk samples positive for any other species. The mean SCC of milk samples positive for S. chromogenes was significantly higher than those of milk samples positive for S. epidermidis or S. warneri. Conclusion: Our results confirm that different Staphylococcus species have different impacts on milk SCC, as shown in previous studies. S. aureus caused the highest SCC, as expected, but the SCCs caused by S. agnetis/S. hyicus and S. simulans did not differ significantly from that of S. aureus. Other Staphylococcus species may also cause high SCC but are often isolated also from quarters with SCC on the level of healthy quarters....
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