Biosecurity aspects of cattle production in Western Uganda, and associations with seroprevalence of brucellosis, salmonellosis and bovine viral diarrhoea

Brucellosis and One Health: Inherited and Future Challenges

One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment, a concept that historically owes much to the study of brucellosis, including recent political and ethical considerations. Brucellosis One Health actors include Public Health and Veterinary Services, microbiologists, medical and veterinary practitioners and breeders. Brucellosis awareness, and the correct use of diagnostic, epidemiological and prophylactic tools is essential. In brucellosis, One Health implementation faces inherited and new challenges, some aggravated by global warming and the intensification of breeding to meet growing food demands. In endemic scenarios, disease awareness, stakeholder sensitization/engagement and the need to build breeder trust are unresolved issues, all made difficult by the protean characteristics of this zoonosis. Extended infrastructural weaknesses, often accentuated by geography and climate, are critically important. Capacity-building faces misconceptions derived from an uncritical adoption of control/eradication strategies applied in countries with suitable means, and requires additional reference laboratories in endemic areas. Challenges for One Health implementation include the lack of research in species other than cattle and small ruminants, the need for a safer small ruminant vaccine, the need to fill in the infrastructure gap, the need for realistic capacity-building, the creation of reference laboratories in critical areas, and the stepwise implementation of measures not directly transposed from the so-called developed countries.

Adoption of farm biosecurity practices among smallholder poultry farmers in Kenya - An application of latent class analysis with a multinomial logistic regression

Sub-Saharan Africa has a growing demand for poultry, but productivity in the sector has not increased to meet this demand. One major constraints in the sector is diseases. Many farmers currently use clinical control measures that involve treating birds with antibiotics upon detecting an infection. However, this approach has presented the misuse of antibiotics, leading to antimicrobial resistance, which could have catastrophic effects going by different projections. We evaluate the uptake of preventive approaches to disease management, otherwise known as biosecurity measures and the effect of the adopted practices on animal health outcome among poultry farmers in Nyanza region of Kenya. The study applies latent class analysis, which is a model-based clustering approach to categorize poultry farmers into low, moderate, and high biosecurity adoption classes. We find low adoption of biosecurity measures across all classes of smallholder poultry farmers in Nyanza. However, correlation analysis show that increased uptake of biosecurity measures is associated with positive poultry health outcomes. This is as demonstrated by lower mortality rates among farmers characterized by higher adoption of biosecurity measures. Lastly, we implement a multinomial logistic regression to assess determinants of class membership and our analysis shows that information access is the greatest driver of biosecurity adoption. Farmers who had access to information on biosecurity measures were 25 % more likely to belong to the class of farmers adopting more biosecurity practices - high adoption class- and 21 % less likely to be in the moderate adopters class. As such, the study recommends enhanced information dissemination to improve the uptake of biosecurity measures.

Limitations and opportunities of smallholders' practical knowledge when dealing with pig health issues in northern Uganda

Pig production has a short history in Uganda. The majority of pigs are kept by smallholder farmers in rural areas where access to veterinary services is limited, and pig keeping has been suggested as a potential pathway out of poverty for smallholders. Previous research has identified the disease of African swine fever (ASF) as a major threat, causing high mortalities in pigs. With no available cure or vaccine, the only option is to implement biosecurity measures, i.e. strategies that prevent the spread of ASF. This paper draws on data from four months of ethnographic fieldwork in rural northern Uganda. Combining methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and a survey, the aim was to improve understanding of smallholders' perceptions and responses to pig health issues such as ASF. Applying the concept of practical knowledge, this paper analyses the potential and limitations of smallholders' practice-based knowledge as a means of dealing with pig health issues. The results show that while pigs were appreciated locally for providing an income, many informants found it difficult to deal with pig diseases effectively. Consequently, informants commonly expressed a need for other kinds of knowledge in their pig production, indicating that veterinary advice can play an important role in reducing the negative impact of pig health issues. For animal health provision to have relevance in this context, however, veterinary practitioners must pay close attention to smallholders' priorities and ways of knowing in their livestock keeping. Results further show that pig health issues made some informants abandon pig production altogether. To enhance the potential of pig production as a poverty mitigation strategy in Uganda, research and policy need to focus on ways of bettering general conditions for smallholder pig keeping, including improving the quality of and access to veterinary services in rural areas.

Prevalence of infectious diseases on dairy farms classified on the basis of their biosecurity score

Introduction

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between biosecurity as scored on the Italian National Animal Welfare Reference Centre (Centro di Referenza Nazionale per il Benessere Animale – CReNBA) checklist and the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, Chlamydophila abortus and Neospora caninum on dairy farms located in Ragusa, Italy.

Material and Methods

The checklist was used to assign an animal welfare score to 31 dairy farms. Twenty-one farms with a moderate score (>33%, <66%) formed group 1, and 10 farms with a high score (>66%) were group 2. Blood samples were collected from all cows on each farm to investigate the titres of antibodies against the relevant pathogens. Two-way analysis of variance was applied to assess differences between the two experimental groups and the Mann–Whitney test was applied to evaluate prevalence differences in the tested parasites between the groups.

Results

All tested farms had a score that classified them as either good or excellent. A higher incidence of Neospora caninum was observed in group 1. The incidences of the other two parasites were no different between the two groups.

Conclusion

The CReNBA checklist represents an impartial, reproducible, functional and smart instrument based on risk analysis and assigns a farm a mathematical animal welfare score. Among the parasites tested for, only Neospora caninum had prevalence influenced by biosecurity. Our preliminary results highlighted the positive associations between good animal welfare, high levels of biosecurity, and the prevention of the infectious diseases caused by the parasites in our focus, which are common on dairy farms.

Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of Brucella Infection in Dairy Animals in Urban and Rural Areas of Bihar and Assam, India

This study assessed seropositivity of Brucella infection in dairy animals and risk factors associated with it. The cross-sectional study used multi-stage, random sampling in the states of Bihar and Assam in India. In total, 740 dairy animals belonging to 534 households of 52 villages were covered under this study. Serological testing was conducted by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA). Animal-level Brucella seropositivity was found to be 15.9% in Assam and 0.3% in Bihar. Seropositivity in urban areas (18.7%) of Assam was found to be higher than in rural areas (12.4%). Bihar was excluded from the risk factor analysis, as only one Brucella seropositive sample was detected in the state. A total of 30 variables were studied for assessing risk factors, of which 15 were selected for multivariable regression analyses following a systematic process. Finally, only three risk factors were identified as statistically significant. It was found that animals belonging to districts having smaller-sized herds were less likely (p < 0.001) to be Brucella seropositive than animals belonging to districts having larger-sized herds. Furthermore, the chance of being Brucella seropositive increased (p = 0.007) with the increase in age of dairy animals, but decreased (p = 0.072) with the adoption of artificial insemination (AI) for breeding. We speculated that the identified risk factors in Assam likely explained the reason behind lower Brucella seropositivity in Bihar, and therefore any future brucellosis control program should focus on addressing these risk factors.

With or without a Vaccine-A Review of Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Managing African Swine Fever in Resource-Constrained Smallholder Settings

The spectacular recent spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe and Asia has been strongly associated, as it is in the endemic areas in Africa, with free-ranging pig populations and low-biosecurity backyard pig farming. Managing the disease in wild boar populations and in circumstances where the disease in domestic pigs is largely driven by poverty is particularly challenging and may remain so even in the presence of effective vaccines. The only option currently available to prevent ASF is strict biosecurity. Among small-scale pig farmers biosecurity measures are often considered unaffordable or impossible to implement. However, as outbreaks of ASF are also unaffordable, the adoption of basic biosecurity measures is imperative to achieve control and prevent losses. Biosecurity measures can be adapted to fit smallholder contexts, culture and costs. A longer-term approach that could prove valuable particularly for free-ranging pig populations would be exploitation of innate resistance to the virus, which is fully effective in wild African suids and has been observed in some domestic pig populations in areas of prolonged endemicity. We explore available options for preventing ASF in terms of feasibility, practicality and affordability among domestic pig populations that are at greatest risk of exposure to ASF.

Ellagic Acid Activated PPAR Signaling Pathway to Protect Ileums Against Castor Oil-Induced Diarrhea in Mice: Application of Transcriptome Analysis in Drug Screening

Background

Acute diarrhea is still a common and serious disease. The causes of acute diarrhea are very complicated. Therefore, we need to find a medicine to control diarrhea symptoms, save time for diagnosis of pathogens, and prevent drug abuse. Ellagic acid (EA), a natural polyphenol drug, has anti-diarrhea effects. However, the action mechanisms of EA for non-specific diarrhea have not been characterized.

Materials and Methods

To study the mechanisms of EA, mice were divided into four groups. Group C were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1 ml physiological saline and orally given 0.2 ml physiological saline, and then after experiment began 0.5 h, orally administered 0.3 ml physiological saline. Group D were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1 ml physiological saline and orally given 0.2 ml castor oil, and then after experiment began 0.5 h, orally administered 0.3 ml physiological saline. Group E were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1 ml physiological saline and orally given 0.2 ml castor oil, and then after experiment began 0.5 h, orally administered 0.3 ml EA (10 mg/ml). Group V were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1ml GW9662 (1m g/ml) and orally given 0.2 ml castor oil, and then after experiment began 0.5 h, orally administered 0.3 ml EA (10 mg/ml). Transcriptome were performed on ileum tissues of mice in group D and E. Histological examination and qRT-PCR were performed on ileum tissues of mice in group C, D, E, and V.

Results

We found that a total of 273 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained, including 160 up-regulated DEGs and 113 down-regulated DEGs. The DEGs were enriched in 458 Gene Ontology (GO) terms and 15 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, respectively. The peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway was the most significantly enriched in KEGG pathways. We used the PPAR-specific antagonist GW9662 to validate the anti-diarrhea and anti-inflammatory effect of EA in group V compared with group E. Conclusively, EA protected ileums against castor oil-induced inflammation and diarrhea by activating the PPAR signaling pathway and a method was used to study the mechanism of EA.

Ugandan cattle farmers' perceived needs of disease prevention and strategies to improve biosecurity

Background

Infectious diseases are an important role obstacle to high productivity in Ugandan cattle production. General disease prevention is particularly important in low-income countries, where veterinary services and adequate treatment regimens for many infectious diseases are insufficient. Improved biosecurity could lead to improved animal health and production with lower mortality and better reproductive rates. Any sustainable biosecurity interventions must be feasible for the farmers, from a practical as well as social and cultural aspect. An understanding of the farmers’ view of biosecurity and the diseases it is intended to prevent is also needed. The aim of the study was to explore the perceived needs of Ugandan cattle farmers as regards disease prevention, tools and strategies for improved biosecurity, and to assess the feasibility of basic biosecurity practices, in order to contribute to long-term strategies for improved livestock management. We conducted two rounds of focus group (FG) discussions about infectious diseases and biosecurity with cattle farmers in the districts Kabarole, Kamwenge and Kasese in western Uganda.

Results

A thematic analysis revealed four organising themes: Disease prevention and biosecurity practices, Knowledge among farmers and other actors, Community and peer pressure and Services and infrastructure. From these four organising themes, a global theme of “Biosecurity is a common effort based on collective knowledge” could be derived. Diseases represent a loss of income and wealth for farmers. Lack of knowledge, training and education among farmers were seen as a challenge. While there were claims during the first round of FGs that many biosecurity measures would be impossible to practise, in all follow-up FGs at least someone had tried. Perceived barriers for implementing biosecurity were financial and cultural. Experiences that were shared were that practising biosecurity measures had made their cattle healthier, but it also incurred extra costs.

Conclusion

The perceived needs of farmers that emerged include knowledge, access to veterinary services, resources and community involvement for a broader implementation of basic biosecurity. There is potential for improved cattle production by educating farmers about infectious diseases and disease prevention measures. Such training should be participatory, involve communities and encourage participants to overcome practical and cultural obstacles.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-019-1961-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Progression and risk factors of pododermatitis in part-time group housed rabbit does in Switzerland

In rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.), pododermatitis is a chronic multifactorial skin disease that appears mainly on the plantar surface of the hind legs. This presumably progressive disease can cause pain leading to poor welfare, yet the progression of this disease has not been thoroughly assessed on the level of individual animals. The aim of this longitudinal study thus was to investigate the possible risk factors and the progression of pododermatitis in group housed breeding does in Switzerland on litter and plastic slats. Three commercial rabbit farms with part-time group housing on litter and plastic slats were visited every four weeks throughout one year. During every visit, the same 201 adult female breeding rabbits (67 does per farm) were evaluated for the presence and severity of pododermatitis. Additionally, the does' age, parity, body weight, reproductive state, hybrid, claw length, cleanliness and moisture of the paws and the temperature and humidity inside the barns were recorded as potential risk factors. The risk factors were analysed through general linear models and additive Bayesian network (ABN) modelling using a directed acyclic graph (DAG) for visualising associations between potential risk factors. The progression of pododermatitis was analysed with a transition matrix. Relative humidity inside the barns, body weight, number of kindlings, age, and claw length were the most important risk factors, all being positively associated with pododermatitis. In contrast to expectations, the cleanliness of the left hind paw was negatively associated with the occurrence of pododermatitis, but the effect was small. In young does, the severity of pododermatitis quickly increased and in some rabbits proceeded to ulcerated spots. It was shown that 60.00%, 14.17% and 3.33% of ulcerated lesions recovered to a state without ulceration within 4, 8 or >12 weeks, respectively.

Increasing the Local Relevance of Epidemiological Research: Situated Knowledge of Cattle Disease Among Basongora Pastoralists in Uganda

Cattle disease can have severe negative impacts on the livelihoods of the poor, but still, animal disease management and outreach often remain suboptimal in low-income settings. In a study on Basongora pastoralists in Uganda, we examined local priorities, perceptions and practices regarding cattle disease, in order to improve outreach and disease control advisory work in such contexts. We also investigated how participatory epidemiology can be better equipped for gathering situated knowledge. Empirical material obtained in focus group discussions, interviews, participatory mapping, and wealth-ranking was used to perform a thematic, bottom-up analysis. The concepts of situated knowledge and embodied objectivity and insights from participatory research and interdisciplinary dialogue were applied to better embrace local perspectives. Cowdriosis, trypanosomosis, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, East Coast fever and anthrax were high-priority diseases for participants. Lack of control over the animal health situation and money invested in treatments that did not guarantee recovery were of general importance for disease prioritization. Participants' descriptions of diseases sometimes diverged from textbook definitions. Co-infections, chronic and recurring infections and lack of access to formal knowledge were identified as important factors for differences between formal and situated knowledge. Paying attention to situated knowledge and particular context-specific issues such as proximity to a national park proved to be of special relevance for local understanding and experiences with disease. Another factor was the local importance ascribed to number of cattle, rather than production levels. These factors need to be taken into consideration when formulating disease control advice, as does the complex disease landscape. The results reveal the importance of moving research and advice beyond curing “knowledge-gaps” and creating different ways of understanding disease so that situated knowledge can be considered, and disease control improved.

Methodological aspects of serosurveillance in resource-poor settings

Animal production is important for the agricultural economy in low-income countries, but is threatened by infectious diseases. Serosurveys are conducted for different reasons such as disease detection, risk factor studies, disease monitoring and establishing disease-free status. Most reports on such serosurveys include some discussion about methodological constraints but still, by necessity, rely on serological results for case definition. This study uses a cross-sectional serosurvey for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), Rift Valley fever (RVF) and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in cattle in three districts in Western Uganda to illustrate the limitations of this approach, addressing the questions of what flaws can be expected in sampling and diagnostics and how these influence the results. The target was to collect blood samples from 60 cattle herds per district. To reflect the recent infection history of the herd, young animals (two to five years) were prioritised. The farmers were interviewed about management, cattle trade, cattle health and vaccination. Commercial ELISAs were used for serological analyses: for CBPP the IDEXX CBPP Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides antibody test kit, for RVF the ID Screen Rift Valley Fever competitive ELISA, and for FMD the PrioCHECK FMDV NS. Apparent prevalence, true prevalence and associations with herd characteristics were assessed. The sampling plans could not be entirely fulfilled, nor the number of tests run in the laboratory. There were reactors to all three diseases with an apparent prevalence of approximately 30 per cent for CBPP, 6 per cent for RVF and 7 per cent for FMD. Calculation of true prevalence based on test sensitivity and specificity resulted in a slightly higher prevalence figure for CBPP and lower figures for RVF and FMD. The study illustrates the importance of considering diagnostic test performance when interpreting results from serosurveys, and the challenge of representative sampling and laboratory work in low-income countries.