Small-ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV), which include the caprine arthritis-encephalitis and the maedi-visna virus, cause persistent inflammatory infections in goats and sheep. SRLV are mainly transmitted from mother to offspring through milk. Transmission after prolonged contact between adult animals has also been observed. The observation that certain SRLV subtypes are found in both goats and she...

BACKGROUND A clear association of amino acid variation in the prion protein gene (PRNP) with susceptibility and resistance to classical scrapie exists in sheep, but not in goats. In this study we examined DNA sequence variation in the PRNP of 149 animals from two scrapie-infected herds of Saanen dairy goats, and identified 6 non-synonymous variants in the coding region. RESULTS In the larger ...

A serological survey to detect Schmallenberg virus (SBV)-specific antibodies by ELISA was organized in the Belgian sheep population to study the seroprevalence at the end of the epidemic. One thousand eighty-two sheep samples which were collected from 83 herds all over Belgium between November 2011 and April 2012 were tested. The overall within-herd seroprevalence and the intraclass correlation...

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) severely affect small ruminant production worldwide. Increasing problems of anthelmintic resistance have given strong impetus to the search for alternative strategies to control GIN. Selection of animals with an enhanced resistance to GIN has been shown to be successful in sheep. In goats, the corresponding information is comparatively poor. Therefore, the prese...

A survey was conducted on the occurrence of anthelmintic resistance of nematodes in communally grazed goats in a semi-arid area in South Africa. In herds belonging to 10 small-holder goat farmers, the efficacies of fenbendazole, levamisole and rafoxanide were tested by faecal egg count reduction (FECR) tests. Efficacies of 80% were considered a threshold for anthelmintic resistance. The FECR te...

Among the main intimidation to the sheep and goat population, PPR outbreaks are causing huge losses especially in endemic areas. During recent times, six outbreaks of PPR were confirmed at semi-organized goat farms/herds in various regions of Punjab province and Islamabad capital territory (ICT), Pakistan. The disease started after introduction of new animals at these farms with no history of p...

Lumpy skin disease (LSD, knopvelsiekte) is a pox disease of cattle characterised by fever, nodules 4 on the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs, emaciation, enlarged lymph nodes, oedema 5 of the skin, and sometimes death. The disease is of economic importance because it causes 6 reduced production, particularly in dairy herds. It also causes damage to the hide. LSD is caused by 7 strains...

The use of Judas goats (JGs; Capra hircus) to locate remnant animals is a powerful tool for enhancing feral goat eradication efforts, being especially important to island conservation programs. JGs are goats that are captured, fitted with radio telemetry collars and released. As goats are gregarious, JGs search out and associate with other goats. They can then be tracked down and any associated...

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis) is the etiological agent of Johne's disease in ruminants. Johne's disease is an important enteric infection causing large economic losses associated with infected herds. In an attempt to fight this infection, we created two novel live-attenuated vaccine candidates with mutations in sigH and lipN (pgsH and pgsN, respectively). Ear...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the occurrence of important diseases of ruminants in Afghanistan because of the conflict affecting the country over the last 40 years. To address this discrepancy, ruminant herds in Afghanistan were screened for OIE-listed mycoplasma diseases, contagious bovine (CBPP) and caprine pleuropneumonias (CCPP). RESULTS Of the 825 samples from 24 provinces tested for ...