The purpose of this essay is to develop a historic perspective of the beef cattle population and the legion of people directing its genetic change so that future leadership can increase the rate of breeding technology assimilation. Use of cattle for beef to feed millions is relatively recent. The beef industry of the United States has a rich, romantic heritage that combined Spanish exploitation...

Trypanosomatid parasites are notorious for the human diseases they cause throughout Africa and South America. However, non-pathogenic trypanosomatids are also found worldwide, infecting a wide range of hosts. One example is Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) theileri, a ubiquitous protozoan commensal of bovids, which is distributed globally. Exploiting knowledge of pathogenic trypanosomatids, we have d...

Knowledge about genetic diversity and population structure is useful for designing effective strategies to improve the production, management and conservation of farm animal genetic resources. Here, we present a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic diversity, population structure and admixture based on 244 animals sampled from 10 cattle populations in Asia and Africa and genotyped for ...

Tropical theileriosis or Mediterranean Coast Fever - caused by Theileria annulata - is a disease of cattle widely distributed across southern Europe, north Africa and central Asia. Its distribution broadly corresponds with that of its main ixodid tick vectors Hyalomma excavatum and H. detritum (Fig. 1). 'Exotic' cattle (Bos taurus) are particularly susceptible with mortalities up to 40-80% in s...

Research within Indigenous communities has been criticised for lacking community engagement, for being exploitative, and for poorly explaining the processes of research. To address these concerns, and to ensure 'best practice', Jamieson, et al. (2012) recently published a summary of principles outlined by the NHMRC (2003) in "one short, accessible document". Here we expand on Jamieson et al.'s ...

Tick-borne pathogens can cause serious problems in grazing cattle. However, little information is available on tick-mediated diseases in cattle grazing on mountains. Thus, this study aimed to understand the potential problems related to tick-borne diseases in grazing cattle through the investigation of prevalent tick-transmitted infections, and their associated hematological changes, in terms o...

AIM To analyze the promoter sequence of toll-like receptor (TLR) genes in Vechur cattle, an indigenous breed of Kerala with the sequence of Bos taurus and access the differences that could be attributed to innate immune responses against bovine mastitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Blood samples were collected from Jugular vein of Vechur cattle, maintained at Vechur cattle conservation center of Ke...

The population sizes of three Korean indigenous cattle populations have been drastically reduced over the past decades. In this study, we examined the extent to which reduction in populations influenced genetic diversity, population structure and demographic history using complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences. The complete mtDNA control region was sequenced in 56 individua...

Cutaneous myiasis infestations are normally found in South and Central America but increasing travel has resulted in their spread to non-indigenous countries with increasing frequency. We report two cases of cutaneous infestation by Dermatobia hominis in Taif, Saudi Arabia. There was no history of travel outside Saudi Arabia. The source of infection appears to be domestic cattle indicating that...

In total, 166 individuals from five indigenous Ethiopian cattle populations - Ambo (n = 27), Borana (n = 35), Arsi (n = 30), Horro (n = 36), and Danakil (n = 38) - were genotyped for 8773 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers to assess genetic diversity, population structure, and relationships. As a representative of taurine breeds, Hanwoo cattle (n = 40) were also included in the study ...