Objective: Environmental pollution and the resultant genotoxicity, has become a major livestock, public and environmental health concern with direct impact on the ecosystem. Here, application of micronucleus test and frequency score as a potential biomarker of genotoxic effect and bio-monitoring have been discussed aiming at exploring environmental polution.Materials and methods: A total of 100 domestic goats slaughtered at the Bodija Municipal Abattoir were used in this study. Blood sample was analyzed for the quantification of the hematological parameters. The bone marrow smear was viewed microscopically for the detection of micronucleus and other nuclear abnormalities. The frequency of micronucleus was quantified to group the sampled goats into MN-positive and MN-negative groups for further analysis.Results: MN was positive in 21% of the sampled goats with varying frequency ranging from (6-15% count per 2000 cells examined). Bi-nucleation, multi-nucleation and high mitotic index were also observed and quantified. The packed cell volume, mean corpuscular volume and neutrophil count were significantly lower (P<0.05) in the MN-positive groups while anemia was reported in 33.3% of the MN-positive goats.Conclusion: The finding indicates the prevalence and frequency of micronucleus as a biomarker of genotoxicity and an indicator of exposure to environmental genotoxic subtances. Hence, this highlights the relevance of these goats as important sentinel animal model. These findings, therefore, serve as a preliminary data for further studies on the latent genotoxic environmental contaminants and their potential deleterious impact. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2017; 4(3.000): 281-287]

Objective—To evaluate whether an equine-derived canine H3N8 influenza A virus was capable of infecting and transmitting disease to ponies. Animals—20 influenza virus-seronegative 12- to 24-month-old ponies. Procedures—5 ponies were inoculated via aerosol exposure with 10(7) TCID50 of A/Canine/Wyoming/86033/07 virus (Ca/WY)/pony. A second group of 5 ponies (positive control group) was inoculated via aerosol exposure with a contemporary A/Eq/Colorado/10/07 virus (Eq/CO), and 4 sham-inoculated ponies served as a negative control group. To evaluate the potential for virus transmission, ponies (3/inoculation group) were introduced 2 days after aerosol exposure and housed with Ca/WY- and Eq/CO-inoculated ponies to serve as sentinel animals. Clinical signs, nasal virus shedding, and serologic responses to inoculation were monitored in all ponies for up to 21 days after viral inoculation. Growth and infection characteristics of viruses were examined by use of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells and primary equine and canine respiratory epithelial cells. Results—Ponies inoculated with Ca/WY had mild changes in clinical appearance, compared with results for Eq/CO-inoculated ponies. Additionally, Ca/WY inoculation induced significantly lower numbers for copies of the matrix gene in nasal secretions and lower systemic antibody responses in ponies than did Eq/CO inoculation. The Ca/WY isolate was not transmitted to sentinel ponies. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Inoculation of ponies with the canine H3N8 isolate resulted in mild clinical disease, minimal nasal virus shedding, and weak systemic antibody responses, compared with responses after inoculation with the equine H3N8 influenza isolate. These results suggested that Ca/WY has not maintained infectivity for ponies.