A survey was carried out on dairy cattle farms in Pastaza province to analyse the degree of compliance with epidemiological surveillance activities (based on the main technical aspects in Ecuador's Guide to Good Dairy Farming Practices) and to assess the reduction of the risk of introducing disease into dairy cattle. Visits were made to 70 dairy and dual-purpose beef/dairy farms, where the surv...

Animal manure is an important source of N for crop production. Part of the manure N is bound in organic compounds and must be mineralised in the soil before it can be utilised by plants. The composition of animal manure is influenced by the diet fed to the animal. We have studied the effects of pig and dairy cattle feed composition on the turnover and potential utilisation of manure N. Dairy co...

The intestinal microbiota of beef cattle are important for animal health, food safety, and methane emissions. This full-length sequencing survey of 11,171 16S rRNA genes reveals animal-to-animal variation in communities that cannot be attributed to breed, gender, diet, age, or weather. Beef communities differ from those of dairy. Core bovine taxa are identified.

Dr William W. Thatcher is a native of Baltimore-Perry Hall, Maryland. He developed a love for livestock when he spent part of his summers as a boy on his grandfather’s dairy farm. Dr Thatcher received his BS degree in Animal Husbandry from the University of Maryland in 1963, the MS degree from the University of Maryland under the direction of C. A. Kiddy in 1965, and the PhD degree in 1968 from...

Demographic composition and dynamics of animal and human populations are important determinants for the transmission dynamics of infectious disease and for the effect of infectious disease or environmental disasters on productivity. In many circumstances, demographic data are not available or of poor quality. Since 1999 Switzerland has been recording cattle movements, births, deaths and slaught...

The public's concern for animal welfare is evolving and it is important to consider factors that are related to concern for animals and their use by humans. An online survey of 825 U.S. residents was conducted. Relationships between approval of animal uses and stated concern for animal welfare were examined. More than 90% of respondents reported that using animals for egg production, service or...

s: Dennison A, Plampin E, Ellis R, Van Metre D, et al (2001). Correlation of Clostridium perfringens a toxin activity and disease severity in isolates from cows with hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (abstract). Proceedings, 82nd Annual Meeting, Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, 108. Dennison A, Van Metre D, Callan R, Mason G, et al (2002). Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome of adult cattle; ...

Longevity of productive life in dairy cattle is a characteristic difficult to evaluate. This measurement is complicated, in part, because the phenotype is expressed late in the life of the animal, but also because the methods of evaluation are complex. The molecular bases of longevity are still far from being fully understood, although some genes begin to be associated with this characteristic....

Q fever in dairy cattle herds occurs mainly after inhalation of contaminated aerosols generated from excreta by shedder animals. Propagation of Coxiella burnetii, the cause of the disease between ruminant herds could result from transmission between neighbouring herds and/or the introduction of infected shedder animals in healthy herds. The objective of this study were (i) to describe the spati...

Evidence-based medicine encourages the use of quantitative diagnostic test results to estimate the probability of a particular diagnosis. Likelihood ratios (LRs) are among the best tools for maximizing the diagnostic information gained from diagnostic assays that provide results on a continuous scale. They provide the odds that an animal with a particular test result actually has the disease in...