Suspected cardiac glycoside intoxication in sheep and goats in Namibia due to Ornithogalum nanodes (Leighton)

The main clinical and necropsy features of field and experimental cases of suspected cardiac glycoside intoxication following ingestion and dosing of the plant Ornithogalum nanodes, are described. The distribution of intoxication in the area as well as a description of the plant are given. Plant samples tested for cardiac glycosides by fluorescence polarization immuno-assay (FPIA) gave a strong positive reaction. This is a new finding, as other toxic Ornithogalum species in southern Africa are devoid of cardiac glycoside activity and poisoning with them result only in a severe , often fatal diarrhoea, without obvious cardiac involvement. It is also the first record of toxicity of this particular plant.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.mn201

Effects of immunisation against Theileria parva on beef cattle productivity and economics of control options

Over 500 cattle of all age groups on 2 farms in Zimbabwe were immunised against theileriosis using the "infection and treatment" method and disease prevalence and their productivity assessed during a period of 18 months. The immunising stock, Theileria parva (Boleni) was isolated in Zimbabwe. None of the immunised cattle suffered from theileriosis upon natural exposure whereas 22 unimmunised cattle died of theileriosis and a further 48 required treatment for theileriosis. In the first year, some immunised cattle were maintained with minimal threshold dipping (once or twice during the rainy season). During periods of very high tick challenge of 100 to 1,000 Rhipicephalus appendiculatus per animal from January to March, a transient decrease in liveweight gain was observed particularly in cows. However, by the end of the period of observation, the weights had recovered so that intensively dipped and immunised and threshold or strategically dipped groups of cattle showed no significant differences. From the results it w as estimated that each engorging female R. appendiculatus caused a temporary depression in weight gain of 8 grams. In young stock the weight loss was excerbated by the presence of screw worm (Chrysomya bezziana) infestation. It was then possible to define an economically attrative integrated tick and theileriosis control strategy based on these findings, whereby immunised cattle were dipped 6 times between mid-December and mid-March. In this regimen, no weight loss occurred and no cases of screw worm were observed. For each of 3 herd sizes of 250.000 and 1,000 cattle, comparisons were made of the costs of 4 different control options: 1. Intensive dipping (40 times/year). 2. Intensive pour-on acaricide treatments (18 times/year). 3. Theileria immunisation with strategic dipping (6 times/year). 4. Theileria immunisation with pour-on treatment (4 times/year). It is concluded from these studies that, on farms where theileriosis is a serious problem, immunisation coupled with a strategic dipping programme is economically very attractive. In the year in which immunisation is carried out, costs will be higher than for intensive dipping, but from the second year on, the costs are decreased to approximately 50 percent of those for intensive dipping

Building capacity for improved veterinary epidemiosurveillance in southern Africa

A workshop to produce recommendations on training requirements for improved epidemiosurveillance of livestock diseases in southern Africa was organised at the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases in the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Pretoria. It was attended by 23 persons representing 10 different southern African countries. The majority of the participants were actively involved in veterinary epidemiosurveillance and many of them were members of the SADC Epidemiology and Informatics Subcommittee. Discussions focused on (i) epidemiosurveillance networks and their 2 main components, i.e. (ii) diagnosis and (iii) information flow. The debates were guided by 3 questions; (i) what are the requirements for an effective network, (ii) what cannot be achieved with existing capacity and (iii) how can the current capacity be improved. Workshop participants developed lists of realistic capacity building needs, which were divided into structural needs and training requirements. Structural needs mainly concerned communication means and quality assurance. With regard to training, the need for appropriate continuing education of all actors at the various disease management levels (non-professional, para-professional, professional) was expressed. Special emphasis was put on capacity building at the lowest level, i.e. the livestock owner and the para-professionals at the community level. At the international level, it was felt that special emphasis should be put on building capacity to improve the understanding of international agreements on trade in animals and animal products and to improve the capacity of negotiating such agreements