Bovine mastitis is an important disease causing serious economic loss in dairy production and food poison in public health. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are the major causative agents of bovine mastitis. These bacteria were found in milk and environmental condition such as feces, water, soil and so on. Bovine mastitis causative micro-organisms can survive in 1-2 weeks in feces and bed complexes. Low level of percentage of water content (PWC) of feces and bed complexes can reduce the spreading of bovine mastitis incidence from environmental contamination. In this study, we developed the fecal dehydrating system and determined the elimination rates of bovine mastitis causative agent from feces and bed complexes. To develop the fecal dehydrating system, the screw pressurized dehydrating system was used and the maximum rate of dehydrating was reached to 52% PWC using 90% PWC (wet base) of fecal and bed complexes. The elimination rates of the dehydrating system for E. coli and S. aureus were reached at 41.19±7.84% to 62.55±8.71% in various percentages of PWC of feces and bed complexes (80, 85 and 90%). These results suggested that the application of fecal dehydrating system would reduce can exposure of dairy cattle to bovine mastitis causing agents contaminated feces and bed complexes, and can be used for environmental bovine mastitis control avoiding misuse or abuse of chemical disinfectants and antibiotics in dairy farm.

This research aimed to investigate the time-course effect of epichlorohydrin (ECH) on epididymal histopathology in Sprague-Dawley rats. Twenty-four male rats were randomly assigned to four groups with 6 rats in each group and were administered a single oral dose of ECH (70 mg/kg) or its vehicle. Six animals each were sacrificed on days 0 (control), 1, 2, and 7 after treatment. During the study period, clinical signs, body weights, reproductive organ weights, testicular spermatid count, epididymal sperm count, motility and morphology, and histopathology were examined. No treatment-related effects on body weights and reproductive organ weights were noted at any time point. On the contrary, sperm motility decreased slightly on days 1 and 2 after treatment and then decreased significantly on day 7 after treatment. The first signs of histological changes were the appearance of cell debris in the ducts and vacuolization of the epithelial cells observed in the proximal caput epididymis on day 1 after treatment. The incidences and grades of the histological changes including cell debris in the ducts, epithelial vacuolization, oligospermia, and epithelial disruption increased on day 2 and then decreased slightly on day 7 after treatment. These results show that a single oral dose of 70 mg/kg ECH to male rats results in cell debris in the ducts and vacuolization of the epithelial cells in the proximal caput epididymis, followed by reversible oligospermia, epithelial disruption, and decreased sperm motility.

A dead stray cat was necropsied for zoonotic feline disease monitoring. Grossly, there were no specific lesions. Major microscopic lesions included lymphocytic meningoencephalitis, malacia, and tissue cysts in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex. The size and shape of tissue cysts were identical to those of Apicomplexa including Toxoplasma (T.) gondii. Bradyzoites in the tissue cyst were strongly positive for T. gondii by immunohistochemistry. Electron microscopy revealed that bradyzoites within the tissue cyst were similar to the morphological features of T. gondii. Fresh tissue samples were examined by a polymerase chain reaction assay and resulted in a specific band of T. gondii only in the brain. Based on the results, this case was diagnosed as toxoplasmosis. This is the first case of toxoplasmic meningoencephalitis in a cat in Korea.

Aujeszky's disease (AD) is a respiratory, infectious viral illness associated with high mortality, especially in neonatal piglets and has frequently been considered an economically important disease in many endemic countries. Although AD is still occurring in a geographically defined region in Korea, little attention has been paid to the economics of AD. In this study, partial budget technique was used to develop a simulation model to measure financial losses following the disease epidemic in a swine operation utilizing stochastic or deterministic parameters from the literatures and the index case herd of AD occurred in 2005, where available and applicable. For the infected case herd with a 12500-pig, the total economic loss for this operation was estimated to be about 199 million Korean won (95% confidence interval [CI] 148,645,000-250,741,000). Given net loss due to death of a pig at sow level was 119,000 won, total loss for the case herd with 1200 sows accounted for 143 million won (95% CI 92,599,000-193,729,000). The net loss of the death of one pig at growing and fattening level resulted in loss of 46,000 won (95% CI 40,000-53,000) and 126,000 won (95% CI 122,000-131,000), respectively. Taking into account for the number of pigs raised in the case herd, total loss amounted to 8 million won (95% CI 7,167,000-9,347,000) and 12 million won (95% CI 11,959,000-12,891,000), for growers and fatteners, respectively, assuming 63% of saved feed intake when a pig dies halfway through the respective period. Under the model's assumptions, suckling pig mortality was the major factors of loss in estimating the economic consequences (approximately 71.8% of the total loss). The high economic losses of a herd infected with AD suggest that the effective and region-specific control measures should be implemented in disease endemic foci.

The pathogenicity and acute toxicity of Lactobacillus (L.) pentosus PL11 from eel (Anguilla japonica) were investigated using male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. The pathogenicity of L. pentosus PL11 was examined after treating the rats with 10∨11 CFU/mL, 10∨9 CFU/mL or 10∨7 CFU/mL doses of L. pentosus PL11 culture or 0.85% NaCl (Control) intragastrically. For acute toxicity studies, rats were treated with dried culture broth of L. pentosus PL11 at doses of 5,000 mg/mL, 2,500 mg/mL, 1,250 mg/mL or 625 mg/mL or Lactobacilli MRS broth (Control), and clinical signs or mortalities were monitored for two weeks. The results of the present investigation revealed no mortalities or obvious clinical signs in rats administered with the live bacterial cultures or dried culture broth at any investigated dose level. Also, no significant differences were observed in net body weight gain, gross pathological findings, feed and water consumption and body temperature among the different treatment groups and between the treated and control rats. It can be concluded from the above findings that L. pentosus PL11 is a safe probiotic strain with potential as feed additive to increase the feed efficiency or health of fish.

Rhabdoid tumor is an aggressive neoplasm of animals and human. It is similar with rhabdomyosarcoma histopathologically. But cellular origin of this neoplasm showed no striated muscle origin by immunohistological and ultrastructural studies. Castrated male Shit-tzu dog, 6 years old, had a mass in the left gluteal region near to the tail. The mass was examined histopathologically and immunohistologically. Histopathologically, the tumor was consisted of large polygonal cell with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm. The nuclei in some cells were marked eccentrically located. Immunohistochemically, many neoplastic cells were positive for vimentin. These findings were similar to histopathological and immunohistological features of human rhabdoid tumor and few rhabdoid tumors in animals.

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) or lung sickness, is an insidious pneumonic disease of cattle caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony variant (MmmSC) and it is one of the major diseases affecting cattle in Africa. With the imminent eradication of rinderpest from Africa (Somali ecosystem) CBPP has become the disease of prime concern in terms of epizootics that affect cattle on the continent. The control and/or eradication of the disease have suffered from unsustained control actions due to lack of operational funds to support such actions and deterioration in the quality of veterinary services in many countries affected by the disease. Stamping out procedures which were adopted by Botswana to control the disease (1995-1997) cannot be carried out by many countries currently affected by CBPP due to the high financial cost, the widespread nature of disease, animal welfare considerations and the potential loss of a valuable genetic resource base. The current scenario of CBPP disease epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa requires that proactive measures are taken to safeguard countries in southern Africa which are currently free from CBPP from being contaminated by the disease thus affecting the beef industry and people's livelihoods; and to progressively control the disease in endemic zones of Western and Central Africa. This presentation discusses the epidemiology of CBPP in Africa, diagnosis of the disease, regional strategies that could be deployed to prevent and control the spread of the disease on the continent and research thrusts on CBPP.

Drugs, hormones and pesticides are chemical compounds used for alleviation of various diseases in animals. There are many classes of drugs which have been used and in the case of natural steroid hormones these have been used to increase mass gain by stimulating protein anabolism. Pesticides have been used for many years in the control of ectoparasites which transmit important human and livestock diseases. The purpose of the present article is to review procedures for management of veterinary products to facilitate national and international trade. These compounds and/or their metabolites have the potential to cause undesirable health effects to either target animals or consumers. Most African countries do not have competent authorities to conduct risk analysis for veterinary drug and pesticide residues in edible tissues. Because of the possible undesirable health effects from residues of veterinary compounds, the FAO/WHO established expert groups to establish acceptable daily intake and maximum residue levels (MRLs) for each drug or pesticide. In the case of natural steroids like oestradiol, progesterone and testosterone implants, no withdrawal period is required since there is no risk to the consumer. Bulls can have levels of testosterone ranging from 535-10 950 pg/g, heifers 92-250 and treated steers 100 pg/g, respectively. Data to enable approval of drugs and pesticides is to a large extent similar and include toxicity studies, reproductive studies, stability studies, safety, efficacy, tissue residue depletion studies and environmental impact. Good practice in the use of acaricides as indicated on the label is inevitable so that residue levels of these compounds remain below the specified MRL. Enactment and enforcement of legislations by various countries for the control of registration, sale, distribution and usage of ethical products should be enforced including use of prescriptions by veterinarians. Good practice in the use of veterinary drugs is the recommended or authorized usage of drugs. It should be enforced to ensure safe animal products for human consumption and to facilitate regional or international trade. In conclusion, for efficient production of animal protein from food producing animals all veterinary products should be approved prior to use, residue monitoring programs should be implemented; veterinarians and producers must use these compounds prudently using recommended good practices.