Isolation, Characterization and Antibiogram of Mycoplasma bovis in Sheep Pneumonia

Pathogenicity and molecular characterization of Mycoplasma bovis isolate from calves in Morocco

Bovine respiratory disease caused by Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) represents a major health problem for cattle worldwide that causes considerable financial losses. This study reports for the first time the molecular and pathogenic characterization of a strain of M. bovis isolated from a dead local calf with respiratory symptoms in Morocco. M. bovis was isolated from lung tissue, purified by cloning, and subtyped using MLST analysis. Experimental infection was conducted in naïve calves to evaluate pathogenicity. The isolate was identified as a new subtype ST-204 that shares similarities with the 2019-2021 Spanish strains (ST-169, ST-170, ST-171) and the 2018 Algeria isolate (ST-4). Experimental infection resulted in fever and respiratory symptoms with serous nasal discharge. At postmortem, lung lesions of congestion and hepatization were observed with lymph node enlargement and foci of necrosis. The study confirms the high pathogenicity of the isolate and the important role of M. bovis in bovine respiratory disease.

Gap analysis of Mycoplasma bovis disease, diagnosis and control: An aid to identify future development requirements

There is a worldwide problem of disease caused by Mycoplasma (M.) bovis in cattle; it has a significant detrimental economic and animal welfare impact on cattle rearing. Infection can manifest as a plethora of clinical signs including mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis, keratoconjunctivitis, otitis media and genital disorders that may result in infertility and abortion. Current diagnosis and control information are reviewed and analysed to identify gaps in knowledge of the causative organism in respect of the disease pathology, diagnosis and control methods. The main considerations are as follows: no vaccines are commercially available; antimicrobial resistance is increasing; diagnostic and antimicrobial sensitivity testing needs to be improved; and a pen-side test would facilitate more rapid diagnosis and implementation of treatment with antimicrobials. More data on host susceptibility, stress factors, immune response and infectious dose levels are required. The impact of asymptomatic carriers, M. bovis survival in the environment and the role of wildlife in transmitting the disease also needs investigation. To facilitate development of vaccines, further analysis of more M. bovis genomes, its pathogenic mechanisms, including variable surface proteins, is required, along with reproducible disease models.

Multidrug resistant pathogenic Escherichia coli status in water sources and Yamuna River in and around Mathura, India

The present study was taken to understand the status of water resources in the holy city of Mathura, India. As it is a tourist place and pilgrims come from all around the world, there are more chances of spread of pathogens through them. The pathogens which are particularly excreted through urine and feces are most commonly excreted out. E. coli is one of them which causes many severe diseases particularly in neonatal calves or neonates of human. As the city has its limitation of accommodation and river Yamuna is also shrinking, the pressure of millions of pilgrims has enormous, drastic and stipulated effect on water resources particularly river Yamuna. The samples collected showed the presence of pathogenic E. coli. Out of total 100 samples 40 were found positive for E. coli. The 60 samples of different water resources showed the presence of E. coli in 26 samples while 14 were found positive out of 40 samples of Yamuna water. The total coliforms count ranged between 1.08 log10 CFU m L(-1) to 6.34 log10 CFU m L(-1) in drinking water sources and waste water, respectively. The high percentage of positive samples and coliforms count may be because of the method and place of sample collection. When these isolates were analyzed for antibiotic sensitivity pattern against some commonly used antibiotics. They showed a variable effectiveness against them. The number of resistant isolate is significant enough to make an alert at the earliest to protect the water resources and also to secure better and brighter future of human population.

Mycoplasma agalactiae, an Etiological Agent of Contagious Agalactia in Small Ruminants: A Review

Mycoplasma agalactiae is one of the causal agents of classical contagious agalactia (CA), a serious, economically important but neglected enzootic disease of small ruminants. It occurs in many parts of the world and most notably in the Mediterranean Basin. Following the infection common complications are septicaemia, mastitis, arthritis, pleurisy, pneumonia, and keratoconjunctivitis. Primary or tentative diagnosis of the organism is based upon clinical signs. Various serological tests, namely, growth precipitation, immunofluorescence, complement fixation test, haemagglutination inhibition, agglutination, immunodiffusion, enzyme immunoassays, immunoelectrophoresis, blotting techniques, and others, are available. Molecular tools seem to be much more sensitive, specific, and faster and help to differentiate various strains. The real-time PCR, multiplex PCR, quantitative PCR, PCR-RFLP, MLST, and gene probes, complementary to segments of chromosomal DNA or 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA), have strengthened the diagnosis of M. agalactiae. Both live attenuated and adjuvant (alum precipitated or saponified) inactivated vaccines are available with greater use of inactivated ones due to lack of side effects. The present review discusses the etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and clinical signs of contagious agalactia in small ruminants along with trends and advances in its diagnosis, treatment, vaccination, prevention, and control strategies that will help in countering this disease.

Advances in diagnosis of respiratory diseases of small ruminants

Irrespective of aetiology, infectious respiratory diseases of sheep and goats contribute to 5.6 percent of the total diseases of small ruminants. These infectious respiratory disorders are divided into two groups: the diseases of upper respiratory tract, namely, nasal myiasis and enzootic nasal tumors, and diseases of lower respiratory tract, namely, peste des petits ruminants (PPR), parainfluenza, Pasteurellosis, Ovine progressive pneumonia, mycoplasmosis, caprine arthritis encephalitis virus, caseous lymphadenitis, verminous pneumonia, and many others. Depending upon aetiology, many of them are acute and fatal in nature. Early, rapid, and specific diagnosis of such diseases holds great importance to reduce the losses. The advanced enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the detection of antigen as well as antibodies directly from the samples and molecular diagnostic assays along with microsatellites comprehensively assist in diagnosis as well as treatment and epidemiological studies. The present review discusses the advancements made in the diagnosis of common infectious respiratory diseases of sheep and goats. It would update the knowledge and help in adapting and implementing appropriate, timely, and confirmatory diagnostic procedures. Moreover, it would assist in designing appropriate prevention protocols and devising suitable control strategies to overcome respiratory diseases and alleviate the economic losses.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification of DNA (LAMP): a new diagnostic tool lights the world of diagnosis of animal and human pathogens: a review

Diagnosis is an important part in case of animal husbandry as treatment of a disease depends on it. Advancement in molecular biology has generated various sophisticated tools like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), its versions along with pen-side diagnostic techniques. Every diagnostic test however has both advantages and disadvantages; PCR is not an exception to this statement. To ease the odds faced by PCR several non-PCR techniques which can amplify DNA at a constant temperature has become the need of hour, thus generating a variety of isothermal amplification techniques including Nucleic Acid Sequence-Based Amplification (NASBA) along with Self-Sustained Sequence Replication (3SR) and Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA) and Loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) test. LAMP stands out to be a good and effective diagnostic test for empowering in developing countries as it does not require sophisticated equipments and skilled personnel and proves to be cost-effective. Performance of LAMP mainly relies on crafting of six primers (including 2 loop primers) ultimately accelerating the reaction. LAMP amplifies DNA in the process pyrophosphates are formed causing turbidity that facilitates visualisation in a more effective way than PCR. The Bst and Bsm polymerase are the required enzymes for LAMP that does not possess 5'-3' exonuclease activity. Results can be visualized by adding DNA binding dye, SYBR green. LAMP is more stable than PCR and real-time PCR. Non-involvement of template DNA preparation and ability to generate 10(9) copies of DNA are added benefits that make it more effective than NASBA or 3SR and SDA. Thus, it fetches researcher's interest in developing various versions of LAMP viz., its combination with lateral flow assay or micro LAMP and more recently lyophilized and electric (e) LAMP. Availability of ready to use LAMP kits has helped diagnosis of almost all pathogens. LAMP associated technologies however needs to be developed as a part of LAMP platform rather than developing them as separate entities. This review deals with all these salient features of this newly developed tool that has enlightened the world of diagnosis.

Electrophoretic Analysis of Indian Isolates of Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma bovis by SDS-PAGE and Immunoblotting

Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma bovis both are responsible for respiratory conditions in sheep and goats. M. agalactiae is a major pathogen of sheep and goats and accounts for almost 90% of outbreaks of contagious agalactia syndrome in goats and almost 100% in sheep. On the basis of clinical signs and cultural, morphological, and biochemical characterization it is almost impossible to differentiate between both the species. Moreover, due to presence of genomic and proteomic similarity most of the time routine diagnostic tests fail to differentiate between them. Hence the present study was conducted to find out the protein profile of isolates of both the species by SDS-PAGE and to find out the cross-reacting as well as differentiating immunogenic proteins by Immunoblotting, which can be of immunoprophylactic as well as diagnostic values. The study revealed 6-7 major immunogenic cross-reactive proteins with the presence of two important non-cross-reacting species specific polypeptides particularly 25.50 and 24.54 kDa in M. agalactiae and M. bovis, respectively, that might be of diagnostic values.

Environmental attributes to respiratory diseases of small ruminants

Respiratory diseases are the major disease crisis in small ruminants. A number of pathogenic microorganisms have been implicated in the development of respiratory disease but the importance of environmental factors in the initiation and progress of disease can never be overemphasized. They irritate the respiratory tree producing stress in the microenvironment causing a decline in the immune status of the small ruminants and thereby assisting bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections to break down the tissue defense barriers. Environmental pollutants cause acute or chronic reactions as they deposit on the alveolar surface which are characterized by inflammation or fibrosis and the formation of transitory or persistent tissue manifestation. Some of the effects of exposures may be immediate, whereas others may not be evident for many decades. Although the disease development can be portrayed as three sets of two-way communications (pathogen-environment, host-environment, and host-pathogen), the interactions are highly variable. Moreover, the environmental scenario is never static; new compounds are introduced daily making a precise evaluation of the disease burden almost impossible. The present review presents a detailed overview of these interactions and the ultimate effect on the respiratory health of sheep and goat.

Isolation and antibiotic sensitivity of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections with involvement of multiple organs in lambs

Respiratory diseases particularly lamb pneumonia is a multifactorial disease involving the interaction between host, etiological agent and environment. The present study was carried out to determine the causative agent of an outbreak of pneumonia in a sheep flock and to establish its pathogenicity and public health importance. The incidence occurred in sheep unit at Madhurikund farm of University (DUVASU), Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. At the time of incidence, the population of sheep at the farm was 90. Affected animals were clinically examined and nasal swabs and blood samples were collected from live animals, while morbid materials were collected from dead animals after postmortem examination. The etiological agent was isolated and characterized with conventional microbiological and biochemical methods. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the bacteria isolated from blood, different organs and cerebrospinal fluid. The antibiotic sensitivity revealed resistant to multiple drugs viz., penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. Pathological examination revealed multiple involvements of organs with different degrees of inflammation and haemorrhages of the lower respiratory tract, lungs, liver, heart and kidney. Further, its pathogenicity was established by histopathological examination. In conclusion, presence of multi drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in weaning lambs with the involvement of multiple organs appears to be an emerging zoonotic threat to human particularly in shepherds. This seems to be the first report of isolation of multi drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae from outbreak in lambs with multiple organ involvement in India.

Immunomodulatory and therapeutic potentials of herbal, traditional/indigenous and ethnoveterinary medicines

Herbs/Botanical plants are considered as God's gift to human beings in the form of natural medicines, like the one well known "Sanjeevani booti" described in Hindu Mythology. The traditional and ethno-veterinary practices have been in use for centuries, transferring the knowledge from generation to generation and they are accessible, easy to prepare and administer, with little or no cost at all. Even though the modern developments in therapeutic field brought about a rapid decline in traditional medicine, the plant-based remedies are still having a crucial role as potential source of therapeutic aids in health systems all over the world for both humans and animals. Among the 21,000 medicinal plants listed by the World Health Organization (WHO), 2500 species are native to India, which stands first in the production of medicinal herbs. This innumerable treasure of medicinal herbs brings India the distinction of 'the botanical garden of the world'. Nowadays immune-based therapies are gaining more importance than monovalent approaches which are having limited benefits. Apart from the actions like treating diseases, control of ecto- and endo-parasites, fertility enhancement, bone setting and poor mothering management, an array of herbal medicines have been reported which are having immunomodulatory effects like modulation of cytokine secretion, histamine release, immunoglobulin secretion, class switching, cellular co-receptor expression, lymphocyte expression, phagocytosis and so on. The present article describes in brief few of these important ones viz., ashwagandha, amla, tulsi, arjuna, aloe vera, garlic, turmeric, ginger, shatavari, neem, guduchi, kiwifruit, tut, kamala, palashlata, kokilaksha etc. being used for human and animal health benefits.

Immunomodulators in day to day life: a review

There are ongoing trends of immunomodulation to combat a vast range of human and animal diseases including the incurable diseases like viral diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions. Animate as well as non-animate factors, surrounding us are interacting with our immune system. A balanced diet should contain all essential components from energy to vitamin and trace minerals. Each of these constituent has a very special effect on the immune system starting from their development to active role in immunity therefore, the outcome of their deficiency often ends in disease. Edible items which we consume like various vegetables, spices, herbs, fruits etc., are also equally responsible in manipulation of our system either in positive or negative way. Water has biggest share in our body and acts as the main medium to support the activities of the different system of body without exception of immune system. Proper environmental temperature is essential to maintain body's functions and experiments carried out regarding the effect of temperature suggest that extremes of the temperature are often cause immunosuppression directly by acting on the cells of immunity or indirectly through inducing stress and thereby increasing production of catecholamine which are potent anti-immune molecules. Various pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic bacteria cause immune suppression and immune potentiation, respectively. Proper exercise hold a prime position in the healthy life as it supports immunity and keeps disease away. The present review deals with all these immunomodulators having both positive and negative impact on the health status of an individual.

Novel and emerging therapies safeguarding health of humans and their companion animals: a review

Modern medicine has helped to a great extent to eradicate and cure several diseases of mankind and animals. But the existence of incurable diseases like cancer, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, side effects of allopathic medicine, increasing trend of antibiotic resistance and chemicals and biopesticides causing dietary risk have made the situation more critical than ever before. Thus, it has become a matter of concern for the scientists and researchers to develop novel therapies. Bacteriophage therapy to treat pathogenic bacterial infections, virophage therapy for conservation of global system and avian egg yolk antibody therapy for designing prophylactic strategies against Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases are interesting approaches. Others include the use of cytokines as adjunctive immunomodulators, gene therapy focusing on diseases caused by single gene defects, RNAi technology to suppress specific gene of interest and apoptins for cancer treatment. Stem cell therapy against several diseases and ailments has also been discussed. The use of nanoparticles for better drug delivery, even though costly, has been given equal importance. Nevertheless, immunomodulation, be it through physiological, chemical or microbial products, or through essential micronutrients, probiotics, herbs or cow therapy prove to be cost-effective, causing minimum adverse reactions when compared to allopathy. Development in the field of molecular biology has created an enormous impact on vaccine development. The present review deals with all these novel and emerging therapies essential to safeguard the health of humans and companion animals.