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Diagnosis of Brucella Abortus infection in diary cattle
tests.
Summary A study to determine the sensitivity and specificity of standard tube agglutination test (STAT), and competitive ELISA (C-ELISA) in the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis was conducted on 95 diary cattle with the history and clinical symptom of abortion, retained fetal membrane, repeat breeding, arthritis/hygroma, pyrexia and 85 bulls from organized farms. Out of 180 serum samples 8 samples were positive by STAT and 16 were positive by C-ELISA. Among the two tests employed, C-ELISA detected maximum
number of positive cases. The relative sensitivity and specificity in comparison with competitive ELISA was found to be 50 per cent and 100 per cent for STAT.
References Alton, C.G. and Jones L. (1963) Animal Health Branch, F.A.O Rome, Monograph No:7:47. Nielson, K and Gall, O. (1994) The Genetic Engineer and Biotechnologist, 14(1) : 25. OIE, (2000) Office Internationally des Epizooties. Manual of standards for Diagnostic tests and vaccines. 4 th Edition OIE Press, France, 328. Renukaradhya, G.S., Isloor, S. and Rajashkar, M. (2002) Vet. Microbial., 90:183.
Indian Vet. J., June 2012, 89 (6) : 70 - 72
Body Condition Score and Fertility of Saanen Goats Under Intensive Conditions A. Ata1, M.Saatci and M.S.Gulay Department of Theriogenology and Artificial Insemination, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Mehmet Akif Ersoy 15100, Burdur/Turkey
Under intensive conditions, various noninfectious factors are associated with increased occurrence of abortions in dairy goats have been described. Advanced age (Engeland et al., 1997, 1998, difficulty in conceiving, low social status and pregnancy with two or more fetuses (Engeland et al., 1997; Schlumbohm and Harmeyer, 2008), previous abortion and low energy intake (Martin et al., 2004) are some of the factors directly associated with the occurrence of abortion in goats. Toxemia is also a major factor causing non-infectious abortion and is seen in does that are overweight, getting little exercise. The effect of body condition scores (BCS), and body weight (BW) at mating on the reproductive performance of does were investigated under intensive conditions. 1
Materials and Methods The data for this study were obtained from 132 brucellosis-free Saanen goats (61 primiparous and 71 multiparous) from a rural community in south-west Turkey. All the goats were housed under same management conditions in a freestall barn allowing 2 m2 space for an individual goat. The goats were fed with a commercial diet (corn, barley, rye, soybean, and mineral-vitamin mixture) that provided 88% dry matter, 9% ash, 18% crude protein, 14% crude fiber, and 2700 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy. Drinking water was given ad lib. All does were exposed to 5 Saanen bucks (20 to 30 does per buck) during 4 weeks in October. Kiddings took place during the first 3 weeks of March.
Corresponding author : Email :
[email protected].
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Body weight (BW), body conditions scores (BCS; 5-point scale; Santucci and Maestrini, 1985) and presence of horns were recorded at mating. Does were grouped according to their BCS (thin=BCS3.5) and BW [thin=BW50kg (primiparous) 60 kg (multiparous)]. Primiparous and multiparous does were analyzed separately. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by proc FREQ and LOGISTIC procedure of SAS.
Results and Discussion The pregnancy rates (number of pregnant does / number of does inseminated) for primiparous and multiparous does were 90.16 and 91.55%, respectively. Body condition score or BW at mating did not affect the pregnancy rates. The lack of a detrimental effect of low or high BCS on conception rate suggests that the majority of does responded to the buck stimulus regardless of their body energy reserves.
No effects of BCS or BW were detected on abortion rates (number of observed aborting goats/number of goats pregnant) of primiparous does. Similarly, BW at mating did not affect the abortion rates in multiparous does. However, the abortion rates for multiparous does were affected significantly by BCS. Thin (BCS3.5) does had higher abortion rates than normal does. Interestingly, kidding rates did not affect reproductive losses negatively in primiparous (P
