Comparative study of foot and mouth disease in apparently healthy Awassi sheep using different diagnostic tests in Jordan

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an extremely contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed domesticated as well as wild animals and has a great potential for causing severe economic losses. Four hundred blood samples were collected randomly from different sheep flocks from august to September 2010 from northern region of Jordan. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of FMD in apparently healthy Awassi sheep and com- pared the hematological changes of those infected animals with their normal uninfected counterparts. The prevalence of FMD was 3%, 4.25% and 51% by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), nested PCR and competitive ELISA, respectively. There was significant increase in packed cell volume and eosinophils percentage in FMD positive group by ELISA. There were no significant differences in the other hematological parameters examined. In general FMD is endemic and widely spread among apparently healthy Awassi sheep that affects the economical progress in Jordan and other countries. This needs an international intervention to stop and control this disease

Laboratory findings of tracheal wash and bronchoalveolar lavage in normal adult dairy cattle

Tracheal Wash (TW) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) are not well documented in adult cattle and published studies were undertaken on diseased animals aiming at isolating the causative agent of respiratory diseases. This study was undertaken to establish the normal cytological and microbiological findings of TW and BAL in normal adult cattle and compare between the laboratory analysis findings of both techniques. Eighteen healthy adult cattle were divided into two groups. BAL was completed the first group (n = 10) and TW was completed the second group (n = 8). Normal cytological findings of TW in healthy adult cattle were found to be primarily neutrophils (42.7 ± 35.7)% intermixed with lower numbers of columnar epithelial cells (26.2 ± 34.8)%, alveolar macrophages (14.7 ± 15.4)%, squamous epithelial cells (10 ± 28.6)%, lymphocytes (6.8 ± 16.1)% and rarely seen eosinophils (0.1 ± 0.0)% with a total cell count of 457 ± 310.1 cells/µl. Cytological findings of BAL were found to be mainly alveolar macrophages (94.3 ± 3.9)%, intermixed with lower number of neutrophils (4.3 ± 3.9)% and lymphocytes (1.3 ± 1.2)% and rarely seen eosinophils (0 ± 0.1)% with a total cell count of 238 ± 169 cells/µl. There are remarkable differences in TW and BAL cytological findings and the degree of contamination was higher in TW samples than that seen in BAL lavage