Goats' health, productivity, and behavior are drastically altered during heat stress. Heat dissipation methods become inadequate when environmental temperatures exceed an animal's internal body temperature. Recently there has been increasingly interested in strategies to reduce thermal stress on livestock. Sprinklers may help reduce accumulated heat and improve goat heat dissipation. Ten indigenous adult dry does were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, the non-cooling group as a control and the treatment group with two sprinkler and fans cooling systems. Feed and water consumption, breathing rate, rectal, external, and ambient temperatures, and relative humidity were recorded daily. For two weeks of the investigation, body weight was recorded once a week. The results showed that the control group consumed more water, and the ratio of water drunk/ dry matter intake tended to be higher than the treatment counterparts. Neither group showed significant differences in dry matter intake. Respiratory rates were greater in the control group compared to the treatment counterpart. Despite the marked difference between climatic conditions of both groups' rooms, no significant difference in rectal body temperatures was found. The temperatures of the eyes and legs were not significantly different in either group. In contrast, the calculated correlation between the rectal temperature with the highest value was found for the negative relation with rump and neck temperature. In conclusion, spraying goats and continual air movement under dry weather alleviate heat stress and improves goat welfare.

The Herpesviridae family is subdivided into three subfamilies, namely α-herpersvirinae, β-herpesvirinae and γ-herpesvirinae. All members of the family are characterized by a common structure consisting of a large linear double-stranded DNA genetic core packaged into a proteic icosahedral capsid and further enclosed in a phospholipidic bilayer envelope of cellular origin. Herpesviruses are characterized, on one side, by a high stability of the genome during virus replication, however, on the other side by a high capability to change rapidly in response to natural evolutionary selecting pressure. Therefore, there is a continuous emergence and establishment of new viruses. In this contest γ-herpesviruses, whose contribution to disease outbreaks in wildlife population has often been underestimated, pose a serious problem due to their ability to cross species barriers, infect new hosts and give rise to newly emerged viruses or virus variants in reservoirs. The problem is exacerbated by the absence of vaccines and effective treatments, such as for Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF) in cattle or MCF-like diseases, caused by the Malignant Catarrhal Fever Viruses (MCFVs). MCFV can infect both livestock and wild animals sporadically, however when it does, it can cause clinical disease with important welfare implications, dramatic pathological changes and often has death as outcome. Due to the inability to isolate the majority of the γ-herpesviruses in vitro, their detection and characterization necessarily involve molecular methodologies aimed at diagnosing, identifying and resolving their phylogenetic origins and the evolutionary relationship with the host species. This information is ultimately necessary to improve the control of the disease spread, and to better identify the source of outbreaks, which can be seriously detrimental to zoological collections, especially for endangered species. This review provides an overview of the currently available methodologies applied for identification and characterization of MCFVs, critically describes benefits and disadvantages of these, recognises the gaps to be addressed and identifies future diagnostic opportunities.

Biofilm production is a complex process that occurs as a series of molecular and physiological events; bacteria employ biofilms as a physical barrier to shield themselves from antimicrobial agents. In this study, biofilm-forming bacteria were isolated from the lung, heart, spleen, and liver of diseased cattle after slaughter.  Out of 210 examined samples, 82 samples were positive for biofilm forming ability either by Cong red binding assay or by tube method. The 82 isolates were identified as 27 E. coli strains belonging to O146:H21, O26:H11, O55:H7, O111:H2, O127:H6, O124:H2, O153:H1, and O111:H4, 23 isolates were identified as S. aureus, 15 as K. pneumoniae belonging to K1(HVKP), K2 (HVKP), K1 (CKP), and K2 (CKP) and 3 strains as K. oxytoca. Besides, 14 strains were identified as P. aeruginosa belonging to O6 (G), O11 (E), and O2 (B). Results showed that E. coli and P. aeruginosa isolates were positive for all tested biofilm-related genes whereas mkrA and spaA genes were the most commonly detected genes among K. pneumoniae and S. aureus isolates, respectively. Isolates showed a high level of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to most tested antimicrobial agents. Macroscopical examination of the affected organs showed that the lung lost its spongy texture; the spleen was darkened and enlarged in addition to congestion of the liver and heart.  Microscopical findings showed that the liver and heart were congested with leucocytic cells infiltrations while the lung showed peribronchial hypercellularity, excessive interstitial and alveolar cellular infiltration with severe congestion and degeneration of alveolar epithelial cells, destruction of alveoli with lymphocytic cells infiltration and collapsed alveoli with fibrous tissue proliferation while spleen exhibited marked congestion with aggregation of bacterial colonies either focal or diffuse, necrosis was also detected.

Salmonellosis caused by virulent multidrug-resistant strains is a great concern of the poultry industry; thus, the prevalence, resistance genes profile, and development of customized vaccines were evaluated in poultry species. Thus, 100 cloacal swabs from pigeons, household chickens, and commercial broilers were collected from Sharkia governorate, Egypt; 31% were positive for Salmonella serovars confirmed by the invA gene. All isolates were examined for antimicrobial susceptibility for detecting antibiotic resistance genes on plasmid by PCR, which demonstrated qepA, mcr1, tetA(A), and floR genes (100%) for each, while sulI and aadA1 genes were 93.8% and 87.5%, respectively. A phylogenetic tree was constructed to illustrate the evolutionary relationships between different strains in Egypt. Additionally, a bivalent killed Salmonella vaccine comprising two isolated serovars of Salmonella enterica (S. typhimurium and S. enteritidis) was developed and evaluated for its efficacy in specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens. Vaccinated chickens developed a high humeral response measured by ELISA. Moreover, the protection rate of the developed vaccine in the challenge test was 85%, with less fecal shedding. The findings suggest that customized vaccines prepared from local circulating strains can be used as an alternative effective control tool against salmonellosis.

Canine vector-borne diseases (CVBDs) are widespread arthropod-transmitted diseases that pose a significant threat to animal and human health. Despite their growing significance, little is known about the vector-born pathogen in Egypt. There is a substantial diagnostic challenge, especially when a dog is co-infected with more than one pathogen. Microscopic blood smear examination (n=49) followed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR, n=6) using species-specific primers of Babesia and Mycoplasma was used to establish the prevalence of each infecting pathogen. Most of the examined dogs recorded macrocytic hypochromic anemia with marked thrombocytopenia. The dog ticks; Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Haemaphysalis elliptica were morphologically identified. Blood smear analysis showed that Babesia spp. was the most prevalent pathogen detected with an overall prevalence of 44.9% (22/49), 18.44% (9/49) for Mycoplasma spp, and co-infection was found in 8.2% (4/49) dogs. Quantitative PCR identified B. canis vogeli, B. gibsoni, and Mycoplasma haemocanis. Babesiosis infection in this study was significantly reliant on sex, season, and age. This is the first microscopical and molecular identification of M. haemocanis in dogs in Egypt. This study provides a foundation for future avenues of research investigating prevalent vector-borne pathogens in endemic areas and offers crucial knowledge for future diagnostic efforts.

Fisheries and aquaculture are the main players in world food security and nutrition as they constitute major sources of animal protein. We aimed to evaluate the effect of water quality on microbiota and its reflection on the health status of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). One hundred Nile tilapia and 60 water samples were collected from the Ismailia canal, Bahr Mowais, river-irrigated aquacultures, and Agriculture drainage irrigated aquacultures. The real-time PCR results indicated that the water as well as the gills and intestine of fish from the Ismailia canal had the lowest load of opportunistic bacteria while Agriculture drainage irrigated aquaculture had the highest load. The prevalence of Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus was higher in tilapia from aquacultures. The gills of fish from aquaculture groups showed hyperplasia and telangiectasia while their spleen showed activated melanomacrophage centers with diffuse leucocytic infiltration and their intestines showed increased villus width and length. The blood of the aquaculture groups showed a decline in hematological parameters, phagocytic activity, IgM values, and leucocytic counts while their neutrophil content was elevated. We concluded that the bad water quality affected the health and immune status of tilapia directly and indirectly by rising the pathogenic load.

Recent years have seen an upsurge in the demand for alternative treatment agents due to the advent of antibiotic-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). Small peptides belonging to the class known as antimicrobial peptides (AMP) are an essential component of the innate immune systems of many different types of organisms. The goal of this study to detect histological changes in rat animal models infected with H. pylori and treated with the antimicrobial peptide Attacin A (AttA) and its effectiveness as anti-H. pylori. The purpose of this research was to determine the efficacy of the AttA against H. pylori by observing any histological alterations that occurred in an H. pylori-infected rat model after treatment with AttA. Three groups of rats (normal control and H. pylori-infected and H. pylori-infected and treated with AttA). Stomachs were examined histologically to evaluate the AttA therapeutic activity. In conclusion, the results of the current study showed the effect of the AttA on reducing the severity of the infection of H. pylori and reducing the tissue damage in the lining of the stomach of rats.

Reproductive indices including age of first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI), days open (DO), and number of services per conception (S/C) have vital role in assessing the breeding efficiency. Moreover, productive traits including milk yield and lactation period are significantly affected by reproductive indices. Therefore, the study was design to illustrate the variations in reproductive and productive traits of Egyptian buffaloes using multivariate analysis. Records of 887 Egyptian buffalo were gathered from a study farm in Egypt's Ismailia Province. Using version 26 of the statistical package for social science software, all data were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) (SPSS V. 26.0). Our findings indicated that Egyptian buffaloes who calved in the winter produced more milk (2250.09 kg) than those that calved at other times of the year, but that the summer calvers produced the least milk (2117.58 kg). The buffaloes with CI >15-month (2290.76 kg), DO between 201-300 days (2300.57 kg), and three or more services (2411.73 kg) had the highest MY. Animals with DP < 167 days had the largest milk output (2260.9 kg), whereas those with DP <167 days had the lowest AFC (28.54 month), CI (13.57 month), and DO (150.49 days). Furthermore, highly milk producer buffaloes more than 3000 Kg had prolonged CI and DO.  In conclusion, reproductive traits adversely affect the milk production that was distinguished via the retardation of breeding efficiency traits in highly milk producers’ Egyptian buffaloes. Therefore, attention should be paid to overcome the economic losses to improve this industry.

Campylobacter coli is the more common zoonotic pathogen and poultry are the foremost blamed source of contamination. Therefore, this study tested 50 chicken pooled samples from apparently healthy and diseased broilers suffered from diarrhea and mortality from various broiler farms in the governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh which revealed 11 Campylobacter coli isolates with a percentage of 22%. The antimicrobial resistance profile showed high resistance to ampicillin and streptomycin with a percentage of 100% followed by 90.9% for kanamycin and oxytetracycline then cefotaxime with a percentage of 72.7% while, susceptibility was observed for amikacin, tobramycin and ciprofloxacin with the percentage of 100%, 72.7%, and 54.5%, respectively. Genotypically testing the virulence and antibiotic resistance genes; Virulence genes showed the highest percentage was 100% for ciaB, flaA, and cdtC followed by virB11 (n=10/11) 90.9% while, dnaJ and pldA were the lowest detection (9.1%) and (18.2%), respectively. Furthermore, the antibiotic resistance genes; tetO and cmeB were harbored in all isolates. In conclusion, C. coli isolates present in the investigated poultry has a multi-drug resistance appearance in combination with a high prevalence of virulence genes which may cause public health problems.

The purpose of the study was to verify the existence and pathogenicity of Aeromonas hydrophila (A. hydrophila) in fish by validating the bactericidal effects of microwave and Gamma radiation on infected fish fillets. A total of 100 frozen Basa fish fillet samples were collected randomly from different markets in Zagazig, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, and subjected to microbiological examination. The results revealed a 14% prevalence rate of A. hydrophila in fish fillets, which were tested for the presence of seven virulence genes: aerA, act, ast, alt, hyl, ahhR, and ahh1. All isolates exhibited traits related to virulence. The most predominated gene was ast (64.2%), followed by aerA, act, hyl, and ahhR (57.14% for each). Then, an experimental protocol for several treatments showed that Gamma radiation at a dose of 1 kGy decreased the count of A. hydrophila in fish fillets by 4.4 log10 CFU/g whereas doses of 2 and 3 kGy eradicated the pathogen. The same positive effect was recorded towards the microwave after cooking for 1, 2, and 3 minutes. Therefore, using microwave cooking and Gamma-irradiation alone and in combination with other decontamination methods may be more efficient in lowering the pathogen counts in fish meat.