bovine neosporosis caused by the apicomplexan protozoan parasite n. caninum, was initially recognized in 1989 and is now reported as a leading infectious cause of reproductive failure in dairy cattle in world wide. the aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of n. caninum infection in industrial dairy cattle of hamedan province (west of iran) by elisa method. blood samples were co...

to measure an unbiased farm-specific efficiency of individual dairy farmers, a shadow-price profit frontier adjusted for market distortion was applied to a sample of 860 iranian small intensive dairy farms surveyed in 2005-2006. this measure was then compared with that of unadjusted measure that assumes undistorted market. a multiple general linear model (glm) technique was applied to the data ...

BACKGROUND Source identification in areas with outbreaks of airborne pathogens is often time-consuming and expensive. We developed a model to identify the most likely location of sources of airborne pathogens. METHODS As a case study, we retrospectively analyzed three Q fever outbreaks in the Netherlands in 2009, each with suspected exposure from a single large dairy goat farm. Model input co...

BACKGROUND Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa. The vast majority of the national herd is of indigenous zebu cattle maintained in rural areas under extensive husbandry systems. However, in response to the increasing demand for milk products and the Ethiopian government's efforts to improve productivity in the livestock sector, recent years have seen increased intensive husbandr...

The objective of this work was to determine on-farm risk factors for psychrotrophic bacterial counts in bulk tank milk from dairy farms in Argentina. Raw milk samples from bulk tanks of 27 dairy farms were examined for total psychrotrophic counts (TPC), proteolytic psychrotrophic counts (PPC) and lipolytic psychrotrophic counts (LPC) (dependent or outcome variables). A survey recording infrastr...

The goal of our study was to use spatial scan statics to determine whether the night roosts of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) act as point sources for the dissemination of Escherichia coli O157:H7 among dairy farms. From 2007 to 2009, we collected bovine faecal samples (n = 9000) and starling gastrointestinal contents (n = 430) from 150 dairy farms in northeastern Ohio, USA. Isolates of ...

The recent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform of the financial support mechanism for farms was introduced in 2005. According to this reform, the level of support that each farm receives is paid regardless of the current level of production. The decoupling of direct payments is expected to change production decisions, as farmers will change their mainly subsidy revenue maximization objectiv...

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis and the associated factors in cows from selected smallholder dairy farms in Zimbabwe. Physical examinations were conducted on all lactating cows for evidence of signs of clinical mastitis. Composite milk samples were collected from all lactating cows for bacterial culture and somatic cell cou...

robotic milking systems (rMS) offer an innovative approach to improve productivity on dairy farms. rMS will influence the future growth of farms, the nature of husbandry employed and the quality of life on family farms. For farms using hired labour and located near industrial centres, RMS may contribute to the reduction of wage costs. As this technology is very expensive, and little is known re...

Urinary urea N (UUN) is the principal nitrogen (N) source controlling emissions of ammonia (NH) and nitrous oxide (NO) from dairy manure. The objectives of this study were (i) to study the integrative nature of dietary crude protein (CP) management, secretion of milk urea N (MUN), excretion of UUN, and N emissions from dairy production systems; (ii) to evaluate how associative changes in dietar...