Discriminant analysis for the prediction and classification of tick-borne infections in some dairy cattle herds at Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt

This study was undertaken to use the variable loadings in linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to determine the most important predictors for the discrimination of tick-borne diseases (TBDs), particularly babesiosis and anaplasmosis and predict the group membership from the predictors. In total, 163 cattle, from different localities at Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt, were investigated in 2012 and 2013 for the presence of TBDs. All cattle were clinically examined and a clinical index score was determined for each cow. Blood samples were also collected from each animal for adopting microscopy and diagnostic laboratory methods. Out of the examined cattle, 83 animals were acutely-ill (Babesia bovis and Anaplasma marginale were identified in 11 and 10 animals, respectively), while 80 cows were apparently healthy but having previous attacks of blood parasites (23 animals harbored anaplasma marginale (asymptomatic carriers)). The remained 119 animals were negative to TBDs. Fourteen animals were not survived and 149 cases were survived. As the result of the first LDA to discriminate babesiosis, anaplasmosis and negative to TBDs, 89.0% of animals were correctly classified; 78.8% (26/33) for anaplasma, 100% (11/11) for babesia infections, 90.8% (108/119) for negative to TBDs, respectively. The important predictors for the discrimination were oculonasal discharge, bloody feces, hemoglobinuria, bloody feces and respiratory rate. On the other hand, the second LDA discrimination showed high classification accuracy of 87.1% for the discrimination of survivors and non-survivors; 89.9% (134/149) for survivors and 57.1% (8/14) for non-survivors, while the important predictors included oculonasal discharge, recumbent posture and nervous sign

Antibacterial Activity of Some Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs against Bacteria Causing Urinary Tract Infection

Abstract This study aims to evaluate the effect of NSAIDs on the activity of some antibiotics against urinary tract pathogens. Urine samples were collected and cultured on cysteine lactose electrolyte deficient (CLED) media and MICs for some antibiotics and NSAIDs were determined using Agar dilution method. The combined effects of some NSAIDs and some β-lactam antibiotics were tested on standard strains by checkerboard dilution technique. Out of 100 samples (63 female patients and 37 male patients suffering from UTIs), 122 bacterial strains were isolated. E. coli and Coagulase negative Staphylococci (CoNS) were the most common (39.3% and 26.2%, respectively), followed by S. aureus (9.8%), Klebsiella spp, Enterococcus faecalis (7.4% each), P. aeruginosa (3.2%), Streptococci, Proteus spp. (2.5% each) and Bacillus spp. (1.6%). Most strains showed high resistance against the tested antibiotics. Diclofenac sodium and indomethacin showed the lowest MIC 90 against the tested strains. All the tested NSAIDs significantly lowered the MICs of antibiotics against the tested bacteria and FICIs for these combinations ranged from 0.004 to 0.5. In conclusion, NSAIDs significantly increased the therapeutic activity of the tested antibiotics showing good synergistic effect