The distribution of pathogenic anaerobes in the environment and the relationship with diseases in animals are discussed. A distinction between the spore-bearing anaerobes (clostridia) and the Gram-negative non-spore-forming anaerobes is necessary. The main habitat of clostridia is the soil but they are also found in dust, sewage, rivers, lakes, sea water, milk, vegetables, fresh meat, fish, ins...

A study is described which is unique in that resistance to each of the major diseases which affect production in Merino sheep was measured in the same flock under the same environmental conditions. Results indicated that within the one flock, genetic variation exists for resistance to internal parasites, foot-rot, fleece rot and dermatophilosis. Heritability estimates were similar to those publ...

Dichelobacter nodosus is the causal agent of ovine footrot, a contagious disease welfare and economic concern worldwide. Damaged feet may be subclinical carriers D. covertly spread infection. Accordingly, we evaluated risk misshapen damaged on presence load in four commercial UK sheep flocks. Foot-level observations swabs (n = 972) were collected from ewes 85) over 12 months. On average, sample...

Footrot is a costly endemic disease of sheep. This study investigates the potential to decrease its prevalence through selective breeding for decreased lesion score. Pedigreed mule and Scottish Blackface (SBF) ewes were scored for lesions on each hoof on a 0 to 4 scale for up to 2 (SBF ewes) or 4 (mules) times over 2 ye...