Clinical mastitis in ewes; bacteriology, epidemiology and clinical features

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Clinical mastitis is an important disease in sheep. The objective of this work was to identify causal bacteria and study certain epidemiological and clinical features of clinical mastitis in ewes kept for meat and wool production.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study included 509 ewes with clinical mastitis from 353 flocks located in 14 of the 19 counties in Norway. Clinical examination and collection of udder secretions were carried out by veterinarians. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed on 92 <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>isolates from 64 ewes.</p> <p>Results and conclusion</p> <p><it>S. aureus </it>was recovered from 65.3% of 547 clinically affected mammary glands, coagulase-negative staphylococci from 2.9%, enterobacteria, mainly <it>Escherichia coli</it>, from 7.3%, <it>Streptococcus </it>spp. from 4.6%, <it>Mannheimia haemolytica </it>from 1.8% and various other bacteria from 4.9%, while no bacteria were cultured from 13.2% of the samples. Forty percent of the ewes with unilateral clinical <it>S. aureus </it>mastitis also had a subclinical <it>S. aureus </it>infection in the other mammary gland. Twenty-four of 28 (86%) pairs of <it>S. aureus </it>isolates obtained from clinically and subclinically affected mammary glands of the same ewe were indistinguishable by PFGE. The number of identical pairs was significantly greater than expected, based on the distribution of different <it>S. aureus </it>types within the flocks. One-third of the cases occurred during the first week after lambing, while a second peak was observed in the third week of lactation. Gangrene was present in 8.8% of the clinically affected glands; <it>S. aureus </it>was recovered from 72.9%, <it>Clostridium perfringens </it>from 6.3% and <it>E. coli </it>from 6.3% of the secretions from such glands. This study shows that <it>S. aureus </it>predominates as a cause of clinical ovine mastitis in Norway, also in very severe cases. Results also indicate that <it>S. aureus </it>is frequently spread between udder halves of infected ewes.</p

Characterizations of Δ-Volterra lattice: a symmetric orthogonal polynomials interpretation

In this paper we introduce the Δ-Volterra lattice which is interpreted in terms of symmetric orthogonal polynomials. It is shown that the measure of orthogonality associated with these systems of orthogonal polynomials evolves in t like (1+x2)1−tμ(x)(1+x2)1−tμ(x) where μ is a given positive Borel measure. Moreover, the Δ-Volterra lattice is related to the Δ-Toda lattice from Miura or Bäcklund transformations. The main ingredients are orthogonal polynomials which satisfy an Appell condition with respect to the forward difference operator Δ and the characterization of the point spectrum of a Jacobian operator that satisfies a Δ-Volterra equation (Lax type theorem). We also provide an explicit example of solutions of Δ-Volterra and Δ-Toda lattices, and connect this example with the results presented in the paper

Genetic parameters for somatic cell score according to udder infection status in Valle del Belice dairy sheep and impact of imperfect diagnosis of infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Somatic cell score (SCS) has been promoted as a selection criterion to improve mastitis resistance. However, SCS from healthy and infected animals may be considered as separate traits. Moreover, imperfect sensitivity and specificity could influence animals' classification and impact on estimated variance components. This study was aimed at: (1) estimating the heritability of bacteria negative SCS, bacteria positive SCS, and infection status, (2) estimating phenotypic and genetic correlations between bacteria negative and bacteria positive SCS, and the genetic correlation between bacteria negative SCS and infection status, and (3) evaluating the impact of imperfect diagnosis of infection on variance component estimates.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data on SCS and udder infection status for 1,120 ewes were collected from four Valle del Belice flocks. The pedigree file included 1,603 animals. The SCS dataset was split according to whether animals were infected or not at the time of sampling. A repeatability test-day animal model was used to estimate genetic parameters for SCS traits and the heritability of infection status. The genetic correlation between bacteria negative SCS and infection status was estimated using an MCMC threshold model, implemented by Gibbs Sampling.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The heritability was 0.10 for bacteria negative SCS, 0.03 for bacteria positive SCS, and 0.09 for infection status, on the liability scale. The genetic correlation between bacteria negative and bacteria positive SCS was 0.62, suggesting that they may be genetically different traits. The genetic correlation between bacteria negative SCS and infection status was 0.51. We demonstrate that imperfect diagnosis of infection leads to underestimation of differences between bacteria negative and bacteria positive SCS, and we derive formulae to predict impacts on estimated genetic parameters.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggest that bacteria negative and bacteria positive SCS are genetically different traits. A positive genetic correlation between bacteria negative SCS and liability to infection was found, suggesting that the approach of selecting animals for decreased SCS should help to reduce mastitis prevalence. However, the results show that imperfect diagnosis of infection has an impact on estimated genetic parameters, which may reduce the efficiency of selection strategies aiming at distinguishing between bacteria negative and bacteria positive SCS.</p

Transcriptomic analysis of milk somatic cells in mastitis resistant and susceptible sheep upon challenge with Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The existence of a genetic basis for host responses to bacterial intramammary infections has been widely documented, but the underlying mechanisms and the genes are still largely unknown. Previously, two divergent lines of sheep selected for high/low milk somatic cell scores have been shown to be respectively susceptible and resistant to intramammary infections by <it>Staphylococcus spp</it>. Transcriptional profiling with an 15K ovine-specific microarray of the milk somatic cells of susceptible and resistant sheep infected successively by <it>S. epidermidis </it>and <it>S. aureus </it>was performed in order to enhance our understanding of the molecular and cellular events associated with mastitis resistance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The bacteriological titre was lower in the resistant than in the susceptible animals in the 48 hours following inoculation, although milk somatic cell concentration was similar. Gene expression was analysed in milk somatic cells, mainly represented by neutrophils, collected 12 hours post-challenge. A high number of differentially expressed genes between the two challenges indicated that more T cells are recruited upon inoculation by <it>S. aureus </it>than <it>S. epidermidis</it>. A total of 52 genes were significantly differentially expressed between the resistant and susceptible animals. Further Gene Ontology analysis indicated that differentially expressed genes were associated with immune and inflammatory responses, leukocyte adhesion, cell migration, and signal transduction. Close biological relationships could be established between most genes using gene network analysis. Furthermore, gene expression suggests that the cell turn-over, as a consequence of apoptosis/granulopoiesis, may be enhanced in the resistant line when compared to the susceptible line.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Gene profiling in resistant and susceptible lines has provided good candidates for mapping the biological pathways and genes underlying genetically determined resistance and susceptibility towards <it>Staphylococcus </it>infections, and opens new fields for further investigation.</p

Umbral celular de discriminación de la infección mamaria ovina

En las ovejas lecheras, los umbrales que proporcionan la más adecuada discriminación entre glándulas, y entre ovejas sanas e infectadas, son similares a los del ganado vacuno y están comprendidos entre 200 y 400 x 103 células/ml, siempre según el método Fossomatic. Para estos valores el porcentaje de muestras correctamente clasificadas oscila entre el 75 y el 88%, los valores de sensibilidad y especificidad se sitúan entre el 71 y el 95% y las predictibilidades positivas y negativas oscilan entre el 65 y el 95%. El conocimiento de los principales factores de variación del umbral celular, como la raza, el rebaño, el estado de lactación y la prevalencia de infección, permitirán una correcta optimización en la interpretación de los umbrales de cara al diseño de las más correctas estrategias de control del recuento celular a nivel poblacional. La eficacia del test de California (CMT) como método de campo alternativo al recuento celular individual es también analizada

Umbral celular de discriminación de la infección mamaria ovina

En las ovejas lecheras, los umbrales que proporcionan la más adecuada discriminación entre glándulas, y entre ovejas sanas e infectadas, son similares a los del ganado vacuno y están comprendidos entre 200 y 400 x 103 células/ml, siempre según el método Fossomatic. Para estos valores el porcentaje de muestras correctamente clasificadas oscila entre el 75 y el 88%, los valores de sensibilidad y especificidad se sitúan entre el 71 y el 95% y las predictibilidades positivas y negativas oscilan entre el 65 y el 95%. El conocimiento de los principales factores de variación del umbral celular, como la raza, el rebaño, el estado de lactación y la prevalencia de infección, permitirán una correcta optimización en la interpretación de los umbrales de cara al diseño de las más correctas estrategias de control del recuento celular a nivel poblacional. La eficacia del test de California (CMT) como método de campo alternativo al recuento celular individual es también analizada