SUMMARY In this study, Coxiella burnetii seroprevalence was assessed for dairy and non-dairy sheep farm residents in The Netherlands for 2009-2010. Risk factors for seropositivity were identified for non-dairy sheep farm residents. Participants completed farm-based and individual questionnaires. In addition, participants were tested for IgG and IgM C. burnetii antibodies using immunofluorescent...

In Europe, especially in Mediterranean areas, the sheep has been traditionally exploited as a dual purpose species, with income from both meat and milk. Modernization of husbandry methods and the establishment of breeding schemes focused on milk production have led to the development of "dairy breeds." This study investigated selective sweeps specifically related to dairy production in sheep by...

The worldwide production of sheep milk was 9,246,922 tonnes in 2009, whereas dairy cows produced 583,401,740 tonnes (FAOSTAT, at http://faostat.fao.org; accessed July 2011). The dairy sheep production is based on the utilization of local breeds of small or moderate effective and well adapted to local conditions in the different Mediterranean countries. This peculiarity contrasts with the "Holst...

Dairy sheep may take advantages from all aspects of research conducted in the field of animal science and biology. There are, however, laboratories that specifically work in that field and have a direct objective of improvement of dairy sheep breeding. In the field of nutrition, an important body of work has been done in a collaborative EEC project involving France (INRA ; Barillet and Bocquier...

BACKGROUND The study's objective was to evaluate the ability of fecal culture (FCUL) and fecal PCR (FPCR) to identify dairy goat and dairy sheep shedding Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis. A cross-sectional study of the small ruminant populations was performed in Ontario, Canada between October 2010 and August 2011. Twenty-nine dairy goat herds and 21 dairy sheep flocks were visited, an...

In a 2-year longitudinal study of adult animals on 15 dairy farms and four sheep farms in Lancashire, UK. C. jejuni was isolated from all farms, although not on every occasion. Faecal samples were collected and cultured using standard techniques for isolation of Campylobacter. Assignment to species was via PCR assays. Peak prevalence of C. jejuni in both cattle and sheep was observed during the...

background: q fever is a zoonosis disease caused by an obligate intracellular organism coxiella burnetii. raw milk or dairy products that are produced by unpasteurized milk may contain virulent coxiella burnetii. the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence rate of c. burnetii in bulk milk samples from dairy sheep herds in fars, ghom, kerman, khuzestan and yazd provinces, iran. m...

Improvement of milk production traits in dairy sheep is required to increase the competitiveness of the industry and to maintain the production of high quality cheese in regions of Mediterranean countries with less favourable conditions. Additional improvement over classical selection could be reached if genes with significant effects on the relevant traits were specifically targeted by selecti...

Background and Objective: As the most important human food source, milk and dairy products may lead to infectious diseases due to non-compliance with health standards. Brucellosis is one of the critical zoonotic diseases that affect the human population. Humans are usually infected by Brucella spp. via contaminated milk and dairy products and direct contact with infected animals. Methods: This...

The serological prevalence of Q fever in Mexico is unknown. A serological survey for Coxiella burnetii was undertaken on a randomly selected population of dairy cattle, beef cattle, goats and sheep flocks. Serological examination of animal sera for antibodies against Coxiella burnetii was carried out by the ELISA technique. The 28% of the dairy cattle and 10% of beef cattle examinated were anti...