Book Reviews

Book reviews by Joseph J. Miller, William J. Syring, Richard F. Swisher, Ronald P. Rejent, James H. Graham, Jr., Daniel C. O\u27Grady, Theodore Stensland, James H. Neu, and Lawrence J. Petroshius

Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Ronald Rejent, James G. McGoldrick, James H. Neu, William J. Syring, Anthony M. Bernard, Joseph T. Pawlowski, and Robert K. Rodibaugh

[Prevalence of claw disorders in swiss cattle farms].

INTRODUCTION The project «Healthy claws - the foundation for the future» aims to establish a Swiss national claw health monitoring based on digital recordings by claw trimmers during claw trimming. To assess claw health on the participating farms, between-herd prevalence, within-herd prevalence and cow prevalence of all claw disorders based on the «ICAR Claw Health Atlas» were calculated during this study. Claw trimmers underwent an intensive training and examination in order to ensure data quality. To guarantee the representativity of the prevalences, only farm claw trimmings were considered, where ≥ 80 % of the cows in a herd were trimmed. The calculations were based on 7108 cows and 403 heifers from 238 farms, during the period from February 2020 to February 2021. At least one claw disorder was present in 99,2 % of the farms, with 49,6 % of the heifers and 77,7 % of the cows having at least one claw disorder. The high prevalence is seen as a result of all ICAR claw disorders being considered, whereas not all of them are painful and consequently not all of them cause lameness. The absence of lameness assessment limits the evaluation of existing herd problems. High between-herd and cow prevalences were observed for the following claw disorders: heel horn erosion (92,9 %/64,7 %), digital dermatitis (55,9 %/20,7 %), white line disease (81,5 %/17,7 %) and sole hemorrhage (66,4 %/11,6 %). Asymmetric claws, corkscrew claws, scissor claws, horn fissure, interdigital phlegmon, swelling of the coronet and/or bulb and toe necrosis had low prevalences. The proportion of cows treated with a hoof block (0,5 %) was comparatively small in regard of the cows suffering from ulcers (5,6 %) and white line abscesses (2,5 %). The median within-herd prevalence of digital dermatitis was 5,6 %, with a maximal within-herd prevalence of 87,5 %. Despite the contagious nature of digital dermatitis, no increase of between-herd and cow prevalence has been observed in the past ten years throughout Switzerland. Based on this data, the Swiss claw health situation can be monitored, compared over time and improved in the future

Intrinsic MYH7 expression regulation contributes to tissue level allelic imbalance in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

HCM, the most common inherited cardiac disease, is mainly caused by mutations in sarcomeric genes. More than a third of the patients are heterozygous for mutations in the MYH7 gene encoding for the β-myosin heavy chain. In HCM-patients, expression of the mutant and the wildtype allele can be unequal, thus leading to fractions of mutant and wildtype mRNA and protein which deviate from 1:1. This so-called allelic imbalance was detected in whole tissue samples but also in individual cells. There is evidence that the severity of HCM not only depends on the functional effect of the mutation itself, but also on the fraction of mutant protein in the myocardial tissue. Allelic imbalance has been shown to occur in a broad range of genes. Therefore, we aimed to examine whether the MYH7-alleles are intrinsically expressed imbalanced or whether the allelic imbalance is solely associated with the disease. We compared the expression of MYH7-alleles in non-HCM donors and in HCM-patients with different MYH7-missense mutations. In the HCM-patients, we identified imbalanced as well as equal expression of both alleles. Also at the protein level, allelic imbalance was determined. Most interestingly, we also discovered allelic imbalance and balance in non-HCM donors. Our findings therefore strongly indicate that apart from mutation-specific mechanisms, also non-HCM associated allelic-mRNA expression regulation may account for the allelic imbalance of the MYH7 gene in HCM-patients. Since the relative amount of mutant mRNA and protein or the extent of allelic imbalance has been associated with the severity of HCM, individual analysis of the MYH7-allelic expression may provide valuable information for the prognosis of each patient

[Risk factors for infectious foot disorders on two Swiss cattle mountain pastures].

In the present study, risk groups for infectious foot disorders were identified on two large Swiss cattle mountain pastures by analyzing animal and treatment data of a total of 3256 animals of the bovine species. Both mountain pastures were part of the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) consultancy project «Healthy animals, attractive herdsmen positions and less medication on large cattle mountain pastures». The project was launched in 2020 following the increased incidence of lameness on these mountain pastures. Bacteriological and histological analyses were to provide information as to whether the most common foot disorder was interdigital phlegmon (IP) or whether digital dermatitis also occurred. Further, the temporal distribution of cases over the mountain pasture season and the influence of mountain pasture and year were investigated and interpreted for the project years 2020 to 2022, and treatment incidences were compared between years. Multiple treatment cycles in the same individual were classified into persistent infections and new infections. Nineteen of 394 first-treated cattle were clinically examined, 12 of them were additionally sampled for bacteriological and histological analyses. All cases examined showed, both clinically and following laboratory analyses, typical characteristics for IP. In contrast, there was no specific evidence for the presence of digital dermatitis. No persistent infections occurred during treatment with benzylpenicillin. Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified > 365-730-day-old cattle (odds ratio OR 8,29), as well as inseminated (OR 5,30) and non-inseminated (OR 7,85) heifers as risk groups for the disease studied (p < 0,05). Association with the oestrus activity of non-inseminated heifers and a generally higher locomotor activity in heifers compared to cows - with a correspondingly increased risk of injury - is conceivable. Meat breeds had a reduced risk compared to dairy breeds (OR 0,29). Breed differences in behavior and/or the effectiveness of the local immune response might have an impact. Knowing about these risk groups can be put to use in the future when selecting animals to be taken to the mountain pastures and/or when planning pasture management in order to reduce the prevalence of infectious foot disorders and thereby the use of antibiotics

Targeted enrichment strategies for next-generation plant biology

• Premise of the study: The dramatic advances offered by modern DNA sequencers continue to redefine the limits of what can be accomplished in comparative plant biology. Even with recent achievements, however, plant genomes present obstacles that can make it difficult to execute large-scale population and phylogenetic studies on next-generation sequencing platforms. Factors like large genome size, extensive variation in the proportion of organellar DNA in total DNA, polyploidy, and gene number/redundancy contribute to these challenges, and they demand flexible targeted enrichment strategies to achieve the desired goals. • Methods: In this article, we summarize the many available targeted enrichment strategies that can be used to target partial-to-complete organellar genomes, as well as known and anonymous nuclear targets. These methods fall under four categories: PCR-based enrichment, hybridization-based enrichment, restriction enzyme-based enrichment, and enrichment of expressed gene sequences. • Key results: Examples of plant-specific applications exist for nearly all methods described. While some methods are well established (e.g., transcriptome sequencing), other promising methods are in their infancy (hybridization enrichment). A direct comparison of methods shows that PCR-based enrichment may be a reasonable strategy for accessing small genomic targets (e.g., ≤50 kbp), but that hybridization and transcriptome sequencing scale more efficiently if larger targets are desired. • Conclusions: While the benefits of targeted sequencing are greatest in plants with large genomes, nearly all comparative projects can benefit from the improved throughput offered by targeted multiplex DNA sequencing, particularly as the amount of data produced from a single instrument approaches a trillion bases per run.Keywords: hybridization, genome reduction, multiplex PCR, transcriptome sequencing, genotyping-by-sequencing, microfluidic PCR, target enrichmentKeywords: hybridization, genome reduction, multiplex PCR, transcriptome sequencing, genotyping-by-sequencing, microfluidic PCR, target enrichmen