Conventional measurements of Biological Value made from nitrogen absorption in the entire digestive tract are generally inappropriate when estimating the protein requirements of ruminants. Similarly, measurements in rats, of the Biological Value of rumen microbes cannot be applied with confidence to ruminants. A direct measurement of the Biological Value of absorbed amino acids is required, and...

Most Australian soils are derived from parent material which is low in phosphorus. Soils of low phosphorus status support early maturing, grass dominant pastures with a short summer growth period and hence lengthy period of senescence. Phosphorus in these grasses may be as low as 0.02 g P/100 g OM during senescence (Robinson and Sageman 1967) and may only reach 0.15 g.P/lOO g OM during active g...

Sheep and goat pox, peste des petits ruminants and Rift Valley fever are important diseases of small ruminant livestock. Sheep and goat pox, along with peste des petits ruminants, are endemic throughout most of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Whereas Rift Valley fever is endemic in Africa, outbreaks in the Middle East have been reported over the past decade, including the Arabian Peninsula. S...

We conducted serological surveys for Coxiella burnetii in archived sera from patients that visited a rural clinic in western Kenya from 2007 to 2008 and in cattle, sheep, and goats from the same area in 2009. We also conducted serological and polymerase chain reaction-based surveillance for the pathogen in 2009-2010, in human patients with acute lower respiratory illness, in ruminants following...

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are fatal neurodegenerative diseases that include variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, scrapie in small ruminants, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. Scrapie is not considered a public health risk, but BSE has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Small ruminants are susceptible to BSE, and in 2005 BSE was identifi...