Comparison of California Mastitis Test and somatic cell counts for detection of subclinical mastitis in crossbred cattle

Mastitis is a major constraint that severely affects milk production in dairy animals. The California Mastitis Test (CMT) is a reliable and rapid field test for the diagnosis of subclinical mastitis (SCM) which gives an indirect estimate of somatic cell count (SCC). Based on the results of CMT screening and SCC of the milk of 105 crossbred animals located in different farms in Wayanad and Calicut districts of Kerala state, the present study attempts to find the estimates of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV), false discovery rate (FDR) and false omission rate (FOR) of CMT relative to SCC as the reference standard. The correlation and agreement between CMT and SCC were also analysed. The estimated Spearman and Kendall Tau b correlation coefficients were 0.88 and 0.76, respectively, which indicated a strong positive relationship between CMT and SCC. The sensitivity and specificity values of CMT were 1.000±0.000 and 0.510±0.071, respectively. These values indicate that the probability for an animal with mastitis to be identified using CMT is 100 per cent and the probability of correctly identifying an animal without mastitis animal is 51 per cent. The high sensitivity value of CMT in this study indicated that CMT could be used to find out the true prevalence of SCM in crossbred animals. Analysis of the data also revealed that CMT had a PPV of 0.700±0.051 and an NPV of 1.000±0.000. The calculated accuracy of CMT was 0.771±0.041. The estimated FDR and FOR were 0.300±0.051 and 0.000±0.000, respectively. Kappa statistic was used to determine the level of agreement between CMT and SCC and the kappa coefficient value was 0.53±0.07 which indicated moderate agreement

Adrenocortical Oncocytic Carcinoma and Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Incidentally Detected in an Asymptomatic Patient by F-18 FDG PET/CT

F-18 FDG is the most widely used tracer in molecular imaging and it isapplied for many purposes mainly in malignant diseases. Incidental findingare common in FDG-PET/CT imaging and includes benign and malignantlesions. Among the rare tumors , adrenal oncocytomas are uncommonfindings and incidental findings of thyroid malignancies are not rare.Oncocytoma is a rare adrenocortical tumor and majority of bulky adrenaltumors are benign with uncertain incident of malignancy. In this study,we are reporting a 37-year-old man with two incidental malignanciesdetected by FDG-PET-CT. He has no symptoms has no blood and hormonalabnormalities.The scan demonstrated intense heterogeneous FDG uptake within thebulky oval shaped lesion in the left adrenal gland. Accordingly, openadrenalectomy was performed and diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinomaoncocytic type was established. Furthermore, a focal FDG uptake wasidentified in the right thyroid lobe and histopathology findings wereconsistent with well-differentiated papillary thyroid cancer. FDG playsa great role in identifying primary rare lesions and also detection ofincidental findings at unexpected sites

Comparative Expression Profiling and Sequence Characterization of ATP1A1 Gene Associated with Heat Tolerance in Tropically Adapted Cattle

Climate change is an imminent threat to livestock production. One adaptation strategy is selection for heat tolerance. While it is established that the ATP1A1 gene and its product play an important role in the response to many stressors, there has been no attempt to characterize the sequence or to perform expression profiling of the gene in production animals. We undertook a field experiment to compare the expression profiles of ATP1A1 in heat-tolerant Vechur and Kasaragod cattle (Bos taurus indicus) with the profile of a heat-susceptible crossbreed (B. t. taurus × B. t. indicus). The cattle were exposed to heat stress while on pasture in the hot summer season. The environmental stress was quantified using the temperature humidity index (THI), while the heat tolerance of each breed was assessed using a heat tolerance coefficient (HTC). The ATP1A1 mRNA of Vechur cattle was amplified from cDNA and sequenced. The HTC varied significantly between the breeds and with time-of-day (p < 0.01). The breed–time-of-day interaction was also significant (p < 0.01). The relative expression of ATP1A1 differed between heat-tolerant and heat-susceptible breeds (p = 0.02). The expression of ATP1A1 at 08:00, 10:00 and 12:00, and the breed–time-of-day interaction, were not significant. The nucleotide sequence of Vechur ATP1A1 showed 99% homology with the B. t. taurus sequence. The protein sequence showed 98% homology with B. t. taurus cattle and with B. grunniens (yak) and 97.7% homology with Ovis aries (sheep). A molecular clock analysis revealed evidence of divergent adaptive evolution of the ATP1A1 gene favoring climate resilience in Vechur cattle. These findings further our knowledge of the relationship between the ATP1A1 gene and heat tolerance in phenotypically incongruent animals. We propose that ATP1A1 could be used in marker assisted selection (MAS) for heat tolerance