Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are pathogens of significant public health concern. Several studies have confirmed that cattle are the main reservoir of STEC in Argentina and other countries. Although Shiga toxins represent the primary virulence factors of STEC, the adherence and colonization of the gut are also important in the pathogenesis of the bacteria. The aim of this study ...

Riparian areas link streams with their terrestrial catchments and decrease water pollution by trapping sediments from upland sources before they reach streams or lakes. Livestock grazing in riparian areas is a controversial practice. If not properly managed, cattle can cause degradation to both the riparian zone and adjacent water body. Vegetative, soil microtopographical, microchannel and hydr...

Male calves and culled cows of dairy cattle are used for beef production. However, unlike beef breeds, the genetics of growth performance traits in dairy breeds have not been extensively studied. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on Holsteins ( = 5,519), Jerseys ( = 1,231), and Red Dairy Cattle ( = 4,410) to identify QTL for growth traits. First, a GWAS was performed wit...

In 1995, Stanley Trimble and Alexandra Mendel published a review article focusing in the role cattle play in influencing geomorphic processes, the cow as a geomorphic agent – a critical review. Trimble and Mendel looked at the voluminous, largely unconnected, body of literature on the various means by which cattle affect landscapes. One of the major goals of Trimble and Mendel’s work was to put...

the reproductive performance of a dairy herd has a significant effect on the profitability of that herd. common measures of reproductive performance are days to first service, days to conception, calving interval, services per conception, conception rate, estrus detection rate, and pregnancy rate. most cow operations would benefit economically by reducing the number of operational days, decreas...

Rotational grazing is commonly assumed to improve livestock distribution compared to continuous grazing, but little evidence supports this contention. Research was conducted on the effects of rotational grazing (RG) compared to continuous grazing (CC) on the preference of cattle for plant communities. Diffeant livestock densitiea in the RG treatments were created by varying the size of paddocka...

BACKGROUND Human brucellosis has been found to be prevalent in the urban areas of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. A cross-sectional study was designed to generate precise information on the prevalence of brucellosis in cattle and risk factors for the disease in its urban and peri-urban dairy farming systems. RESULTS The adjusted herd prevalence of brucellosis was 6.5% (11/177, 95% CI: 3....

Zinc was established as essential for green plants in 1926 and for mammals in 1934. However, >20 y would pass before the first descriptions of zinc deficiencies in farm animals appeared. In 1955, it was reported that zinc supplementation would cure parakeratosis in swine. In 1958, it was reported that zinc deficiency induced poor growth, leg abnormalities, poor feathering, and parakeratosis in ...

Dairy cattle reared in western Kenya are exposed to medium to high levels of trypanosomosis risk. The social background, farm characteristics and dairy cattle productivity of 90 and 30 randomly selected farmers from medium- and high-risk trypanosomosis areas, respectively, were compared. All the 120 farmers were visited between July and August 2002. Data analysis was performed using descriptive...

to clarify fermentative alterations in the large intestine (hindgut) during grazing, fecal alcohol and volatile fatty acids (vfas) concentrations were evaluated in 30 dairy heifers. the heifers were kept in pasture growing mixed grass herbage from spring (mid may) until october, and their rectal feces were collected periodically. concentrations of ethanol, methanol and isopropanol were increase...