This study was conducted to determine the spatiotemporal distribution of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) serotypes and evaluate the awareness of livestock keepers about FMD in Tanzania. An observational prospective study involving serological analysis, FMDV antigen detection and questionnaire survey was carried out in the lake zone of Tanzania. Seroprevalence of antibodies to the nonstructural protein 3ABC of FMDV and serotype- specific antigen detection were investigated by using SVANOVIR® FMDV 3ABC-Ab ELISA and indirect-sandwich ELISA (sELISA), respectively, whilst a structured questionnaire was used to evaluate the awareness of livestock keepers about FMD. During the period of 2010-2011, both serum and tissue (foot-and-mouth epithelia) samples were collected from cattle suspected of FMD in 13 districts of the four regions of the lake zone. A total of 107 (80.5%) out of 133 tested serum samples were seropositive to nonstructural protein 3ABC, with at least one sample being positive from all 10 districts screened. Fifteen (53.6%) out of 28 tissue epithelial samples collected from FMD cases in eight districts during the course of this study were positive to serotype O FMDV antigen. Of these eight districts, serotype O FMDV antigens were detected from seven districts and no other serotypes were recovered from animal samples screened. Questionnaire surveys in six districts indicated that livestock keepers in the lake zone were aware of the clinical manifestations (26/29 = 90.0%) and economic impact (23/29 = 79.0%) of FMD in the region. The questionnaire data showed that FMD outbreaks often occurred after rainy seasons (22/29 = 75.9%), with the highest peaks predominantly occurring just after the long rains in May and June, and at the end of the short rains in November and December of each year. The spatial distribution of the FMD cases suggested that serotype O virus exposure was the only widespread cause of the 2010-2011 outbreaks in the lake zone.

'One health' is particularly suited to serve mobile pastoralists. Dinka pastoralists in Sudan inspired Calvin Schwabe to coin the term 'one medicine', indicating that there is no difference in paradigm between human and veterinary medicine. Our contemporary definition of 'one health' is any added value in terms of improved health of humans and animals or financial savings or environmental services resulting from a closer cooperation of human and animal health sectors. Here we present a summary of 'one health' studies with mobile pastoralists in Africa which were done in research partnership, demonstrating such an added value. Initial joint human and animal health studies revealed higher livestock vaccination coverage than in the pastoralist community, leading to joint animal and human vaccination intervention studies which demonstrated a better access to primary health care services for pastoralists in Chad. Further simultaneous animal and human serological studies showed that camel breeding was associated with human Q-fever seropositivity. In Borana communities in Ethiopia, human cases of Mycobacterium bovis infection could be related to strains isolated from cattle. A challenge remained with regard to how to assess vaccination coverage in mobile populations. With the advent of mobile phones, health and demographic surveillance could be established for mobile pastoralists and their animals. This presents vast possibilities for surveillance and control of human and animal diseases. Pastoralists prefer a 'one health' approach and therefore contribute toward the validation of this concept by showing real added value of the cooperation between human and animal health services.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute viral disease of small ruminants characterised by the sudden onset of depression, fever, oculonasal discharges, sores in the mouth, foul-smelling diarrhoea and death. For many years, in Africa, the disease was mainly confined to West and Central Africa but it has now spread southwards to previously PPR-free countries including Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. The disease was first reported in Tanzania in 2008 when it was confined to the Northern Zone districts bordering Kenya. Presence of the disease has also been confirmed in southern Tanzania especially Mtwara region. Recently, a suspected outbreak of PPR in Dakawa area, Mvomero district, Morogoro region was reported. Clinical samples (lungs, intestines, lymph nodes, whole blood and sera) from suspected goats (n = 8) and sheep (n = 1) were submitted to Sokoine University of Agriculture for analysis. Molecular diagnosis by amplification of the nucleoprotein gene and the fusion gene of PPR virus (PPRV) using PPRV specific primers was done. Five goats and the sheep were positive for PPRV after performing RT-PCR. To our knowledge, this is the first report confirming the presence of PPR in the Mvomero district of the Morogoro region, Tanzania. Hence, more efforts should be put in place to prevent the spread of PPR in Tanzania.

The practice of One Health approaches in human and animal health programmes is influenced by type and scope of bridges for and barriers to partnerships. It was thus essential to evaluate the nature and scope of collaborative arrangements among human, animal and wildlife health experts in dealing with health challenges which demand intersectoral partnership. The nature of collaborative arrangement was assessed, and the respective bridges and barriers over a period of 12 months (July 2011 - June 2012) were identified. The specific objectives were to: (1) determine the proportions of health experts who had collaborated with other experts of disciplines different from theirs, (2) rank the general bridges for and barriers to collaboration according to the views of the health experts, and (3) find the actual bridges for and barriers to collaboration among the health experts interviewed. It was found that 27.0% of animal health officers interviewed had collaborated with medical officers while 12.4% of medical officers interviewed had collaborated with animal health experts. Only 6.7% of the wildlife officers had collaborated with animal health experts. The main bridges for collaboration were instruction by upper level leaders, zoonotic diseases of serious impact and availability of funding. The main barriers to collaboration were lack of knowledge about animal or human health issues, lack of networks for collaboration and lack of plans to collaborate. This situation calls for the need to curb barriers in order to enhance intersectoral collaboration for more effective management of risks attributable to infectious diseases of humans and animals.

Phylogeography data are of paramount importance in studying the molecular epidemiology dynamics of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). In this study, epithelial samples and oesophageal-pharyngeal fluids were collected from 361 convalescent animals (cattle and buffaloes) in the field throughout Tanzania between 2009 and 2013. The single plex real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) assay for rapid and accurate diagnosis of FMDV employing the Callahan 3DF-2, 3DF-R primers and Callahan 3DP-1 probe were used. Preparation of the samples was performed according to the OIE manual, with a Kenya O serotype obtained from the attenuated vaccine serving as a positive control and samples collected from healthy animals serving as true negatives. The results indicated that 53.49% of samples (n = 176) were positive for FMDV genome by qRT-PCR, with Ct values ranging from 14 to 32. In addition, molecular typing of the FMDV genome positive samples using serotype specific primers revealed the existence of several serotypes: serotype South Africa Territory 1 (SAT1) (34.25%, n = 60), serotype A (68.92%, n = 98), serotype O (59.20%, n = 98) and SAT2 (54.54%, n = 96). The virus protein 1 sequences analysis for 35 samples was performed and the collective results indicated: 54.28% serotype O, 25.71% serotype A, 14.28% serotype SAT1 and 2.85% serotype SAT2. Therefore in this study, both the phylogenetic trees and spatial distribution of serotypes elucidated the phylodynamics of multiple FMDV field strains in Tanzania and neighbouring countries.

decision makers and empowering stakeholders at local, regional, and international levels towards a coordinated fight against NZDs. ADVANZ is establishing an African platform to share experiences in the prevention and control of NZDs. The platform will compile and package existing knowledge or data on NZDs and generate evidence-based algorithms for improving surveillance and control with the ultimate aim of eliminating and eradicating these diseases. The platform will serve as a forum for African and international stakeholders, as well as existing One Health and NZD networks and harness and consolidate their efforts in the control and prevention of NZDs. The platform had its first meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 2013.

Although benfotiamine has various beneficial anti-diabetic effects, the detailed mechanisms underlying the impact of this compound on the insulin signaling pathway are still unclear. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of benfotiamine on the hepatic insulin signaling pathway in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, which are a type 2 diabetes mellitus model. OLETF rats treated with benfotiamine showed decreased body weight gain and reduced adipose tissue weight. In addition, blood glucose levels were lower in OLETF rats treated with benfotiamine. Following treatment with benfotiamine, the levels of Akt phosphorylation (S473/T308) in the OLETF groups increased significantly compared to the OLETF control group so that they were almost identical to the levels observed in the control group. Moreover, benfotiamine restored the phosphorylation levels of both glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3¥�/¥�(S21, S9) and glycogen synthase (GS; S641) in OLETF rats to nearly the same levels observed in the control group. Overall, these results suggest that benfotiamine can potentially attenuate type 2 diabetes mellitus in OLETF rats by restoring insulin sensitivity through upregulation of Akt phosphorylation and activation of two downstream signaling molecules, GSK-3¥�/¥� and GS, thereby reducing blood glucose levels through glycogen synthesis.

This study was conducted to compare the patterns of mastitic pathogens and the antimicrobial susceptibility of Staphylococcus (S.) aureus from conventional milking (CM) and robotic milking (RM) dairy herds. To accomplish this, the minimum inhibitory concentrations of 14 antimicrobial agents were tested against S. aureus by the microdilution method. Regardless of the milking system, S. aureus, coagulase negative staphylococcus, and Streptococcus uberis were isolated. Additionally, significant differences in the antimicrobial susceptibility of S. aureus isolates between RM and CM farms were only observed in response to tetracycline.

Bordetella (B.) bronchiseptica is a causative agent of swine atrophic rhinitis that promotes colonization of the mucous membrane of the swine nasal cavity by Pasteurella (P.) multocida. Mixed infection with B. bronchiseptica and P. multocida leads to growth inhibition of pigs, resulting in significant economic loss. There are many commercial vaccines for atrophic rhinitis, including B. bronchiseptica as a killed vaccine antigen (Ag). However, the immunogenicity of killed B. bronchiseptica Ag has not yet been elucidated; therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the immunogenicity of killed B. bronchiseptica Ag and the type of immune response it induces. In vitro assays using mouse spleen cells and flow cytometry revealed that B. bronchiseptica Ag induced high proliferation capability of lymphocytes, especially B lymphocytes, and the proliferating cells showed a significant response to interleukin (IL)-2. B. bronchiseptica Ag also enhanced the production of IL-12, a representative cytokine for cell-mediated immunity. In vivo experiments using mice showed that the injection of B. bronchiseptica Ag markedly induced Ag-specific antibody. Taken together, these results indicate that B. bronchiseptica Ag has high immunogenicity by itself.

In this study, the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma (T.) gondii and Bartonella (B.) henselae infection among stray cats in Daejeon City, Korea was surveyed. A total of seven samples were positive (7/118, 5.93%) for T. gondii including three samples from female cats (3/58, 5.2%) and four samples from male cats (4/60, 6.7%). There was no significant difference between the genders. A total 22 samples (22/118, 18.6%) were positive for B. henselae; nine were from females and 13 were from males. There was no significant difference between genders. Nineteen samples had a titer of 1 : 50, two samples had a titer of 1 : 100, and one sample had a titer of 1 : 200. The present study is the first to use serological tests to analyze B. henselae prevalence among stray cats in Korea.