Longitudinal study of the effects of teat condition on the risk of new intramammary infections in dairy cows

Machine milking–induced alterations of teat tissue may impair local defense mechanisms and increase the risk of new intramammary infections. The objective of the current study was to assess the influence of short-term and long-term alterations of teat tissue and infectious status of the udder quarter on the risk of naturally occurring new intramammary infections, inflammatory responses, and mastitis. Short-term and long-term changes in teat condition of right udder quarters of 135 cows of a commercial dairy farm in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, were recorded monthly for 10 mo using simple classification schemes. Quarter milk samples were collected from all examined quarters at each farm visit. Bacteriological culture results and somatic cell counts of quarter milk samples were used to determine new inflammatory responses (increase from ≤100,000 cells/mL to >100,000 cells/mL between 2 samples), new infections (detection of a pathogen from a quarter that was free of the same pathogen at the preceding sampling), and new mastitis (combination of new inflammatory response and new infection). Separate Poisson mixed models for new inflammatory responses, new infections, and new mastitis caused by specific pathogens or groups of pathogens (contagious, environmental, major, minor, or any) were used to estimate risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Data preparation and parameter estimation were performed using the open source statistical analysis software R. We observed no effect of any variable describing teat condition on the risk of new intramammary infections, inflammatory responses, or mastitis. Intramammary infections of the same udder quarter in the preceding month did not affect risk either

Caecal dilatation and dislocation in 20 dairy cows. A retrospective study.

A total of 20 cows with caecal dilatation and dislocation were included in this retrospective study. The aim of the study was to describe the findings of the initial clinical examination, the haematological, biochemical and venous blood gas analysis as well as the therapeutic management and the surgical findings of these cases. A positive simultaneous percussion and auscultation in the right flank as well as rectal palpation of the distended caecum were the most common findings in 90% of the animals. Increased haematocrit, hyperlactateaemia and hyperglycaemia were the most often occurring laboratory findings. Conservative treatment using neostigmine s.c. (0.025mg/kg) was successful in three out of four cases. Surgical therapy including laparotomy in the right flank and typhlotomy was performed in 17 cases. Caecal dilatation (n=9), retroflexion (n=4) and torsion (n=4) were revealed intraoperatively. During surgery in three cows, the caecum had filled once again with fluid content and typhlotomyhad to be repeated. Typhlectomy was not necessary in any of these cows. A relaparotomy due to recurrence of the caecal disorder was not required in any of the cases during hospitalisation. The postsurgical treatment included antibiotics, neostigmine in all cows and fluid therapy in the majority of the animals. Laxative treatment using 250 g sodium sulphate twice daily per os was applied in 10 cases. All cows were discharged from the clinic and returned to the farm

Duodenal volvulus of the sigmoid flexure in five cows. A retrospective study

Medical data of five Holstein Friesian cows with duodenal volvulus of the sigmoid flexure admitted to the Clinic for Cattle, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany during a two-year period were reviewed in this study. The aim of this study was to present the clinical, laboratory and surgical findings as well as the postoperative healing progress and therapy of these five cases. All cows showed a loss of appetite and were dehydrated, with a marked drop in milk yield. The rumen motility was severely reduced and an untypical tympanic resonance or ping and a splashing sound were present at the right flank at auscultation. All the cows had only a small amount of faeces. All animals had hypochloraemic metabolic alkalosis and most of them hyperlactatemia. Two of the cows were hypokalaemic. Hyperbilirubinaemia was revealed in all cows. Four of the cows had an increased haematocrit level. A standing right flank laparotomy was performed in all cows. A common surgical finding was the severely dilated, dorsally dislocated and twisted sigmoid flexure of the duodenum, and the empty descending duodenum. The abomasum of all cows was dilated, but not displaced. An enlarged gall bladder was found in four animals. The duodenal sigmoid loop was manually untwisted, followed by promoting gas and ingesta flow aborally in the descending duodenum. Omentopexy was performed in each cow. No cow had had any history of omentopexy or other abdominal surgery. All cows received intravenous fluid therapy after the surgery. A total of 10-20 L 0.9 % NaCl solution containing an additional KCL (30 mmol/L) was administered intravenously via drip infusion daily for the first two days after surgery. Amoxicillin (10 mg/kg; s.c.) was administered once daily (SID) in two cases. Three of the cows were additionally drenched with 30 L water and 100-150 g KCL via an orogastric tube once per day for two days postoperatively. Four cows received neostigmine s.c. after surgery and for the following one to two days (every 8 or 12 hours; 0.02 mg/kg or 0.025 mg/kg, respectively). All cows were administered meloxicam (0.5 mg/kg; s.c.) before and on the first postoperative day. Sodium sulphate (250 g per os; SID) was administered to four cows for one to two days. Feed intake, rumen motility and defaecation were normalised gradually after surgery. All cows had a positive post-surgical outcome and were discharged from the clinic after 7 to 15 days. Keywords: ileus; dairy cattle; duodenum; intestinal obstructio

Monitoring of biomarkers in heart failure.

The role of biomarkers is increasingly recognized in heart failure (HF) management, for diagnosis, prognostication, and screening of high-risk patients. Beyond natriuretic peptides and troponins, the utility of novel, emerging biomarkers is less established. This document reflects the key points of a Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) consensus meeting on biomarker monitoring in HF

Cell differentiation assisting in evaluating mastitis treatment prognosis

Bovine mastitis is commonly treated with antibiotics, which does notalways succeed and therefore, sometimes is unnecessary. Bacteriologicalcure is the goal of antibiotic therapy and depends on the causingmicroorganism, the applied therapy, and on animal-related factors.Determining the animal-related part of the probability of bacteriologicalcure before applying antibiotics might help to reduce unnecessaryusage. By now, this is only possible by considering individual cowdata including animal-related factors such as age, mastitis history andsomatic cell count. Former studies revealed that chronic mastitis lowersthe probability of cure and leads to specific characteristics foundin the differential cell count. The aim of this study was to develop aflow cytometric cell differentiation tool to determine animal-relatedfactors correlating with a score-based probability of bacteriologicalcure. Therefore, the proportions of different cell types and their vitalityin 874 Dairy Herd Improvement milk samples of 239 cows weredetermined by flow cytometry. The results were tested for a correlationbetween data of flow cytometry and the calculated animal-relatedprobability of bacteriological cure of each individual cow by binomiallogistic regression analysis. A statistically significant association to thecalculated and animal-related probability of bacteriological cure couldbe shown for highly granulated cells, non-vital cells and macrophages.With this model, 84.4 % of all animals could be allocated to theirestimated animal-related probability of bacteriological cure correctly.These findings suggest that flow cytometric cell differentiation mightbecome an innovative tool to estimate animal-related prognosis forbacteriological cure

How inhibitory and excitatory inputs gate output of the inferior olive

The inferior olive provides the climbing fibers to Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex, where they elicit all-or-none complex spikes and control major forms of plasticity. Given their important role in both short-term and long-term coordination of cerebellum-dependent behaviors, it is paramount to understand the factors that determine the output of olivary neurons. Here, we use mouse models to investigate how the inhibitory and excitatory inputs to the olivary neurons interact with each other, generating spiking patterns of olivary neurons that align with their intrinsic oscillations. Using dual color optogenetic stimulation and whole-cell recordings, we demonstrate how intervals between the inhibitory input from the cerebellar nuclei and excitatory input from the mesodiencephalic junction affect phase and gain of the olivary output at both the sub- and suprathreshold level. When the excitatory input is activated shortly (~50 ms) after the inhibitory input, the phase of the intrinsic oscillations becomes remarkably unstable and the excitatory input can hardly generate any olivary spike. Instead, when the excitatory input is activated one cycle (~150 ms) after the inhibitory input, the excitatory input can optimally drive olivary spiking, riding on top of the first cycle of the subthreshold oscillations that have been powerfully reset by the preceding inhibitory input. Simulations of a large-scale network model of the inferior olive highlight to what extent the synaptic interactions penetrate in the neuropil, generating quasi-oscillatory spiking patterns in large parts of the olivary subnuclei, the size of which also depends on the relative timing of the inhibitory and excitatory inputs.</p

How inhibitory and excitatory inputs gate output of the inferior olive

The inferior olive provides the climbing fibers to Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex, where they elicit all-or-none complex spikes and control major forms of plasticity. Given their important role in both short-term and long-term coordination of cerebellum-dependent behaviors, it is paramount to understand the factors that determine the output of olivary neurons. Here, we use mouse models to investigate how the inhibitory and excitatory inputs to the olivary neurons interact with each other, generating spiking patterns of olivary neurons that align with their intrinsic oscillations. Using dual color optogenetic stimulation and whole-cell recordings, we demonstrate how intervals between the inhibitory input from the cerebellar nuclei and excitatory input from the mesodiencephalic junction affect phase and gain of the olivary output at both the sub- and suprathreshold level. When the excitatory input is activated shortly (~50 ms) after the inhibitory input, the phase of the intrinsic oscillations becomes remarkably unstable and the excitatory input can hardly generate any olivary spike. Instead, when the excitatory input is activated one cycle (~150 ms) after the inhibitory input, the excitatory input can optimally drive olivary spiking, riding on top of the first cycle of the subthreshold oscillations that have been powerfully reset by the preceding inhibitory input. Simulations of a large-scale network model of the inferior olive highlight to what extent the synaptic interactions penetrate in the neuropil, generating quasi-oscillatory spiking patterns in large parts of the olivary subnuclei, the size of which also depends on the relative timing of the inhibitory and excitatory inputs.</p

Control of bovine mastitis: old and recent therapeutic approaches

Mastitis is defined as the inflammatory response resulting of the infection of the udder tissue and it is reported in numerous species, namely in domestic dairy animals. This pathology is the most frequent disease of dairy cattle and can be potentially fatal. Mastitis is an economically important pathology associated with reduced milk production, changes in milk composition and quality, being considered one of the most costly to dairy industry. Therefore, the majority of research in the field has focused on control of bovine mastitis and many efforts are being made for the development of new and effective anti-mastitis drugs. Antibiotic treatment is an established component of mastitis control programs; however, the continuous search for new therapeutic alternatives, effective in the control and treatment of bovine mastitis, is urgent. This review will provide an overview of some conventional and emerging approaches in the management of bovine mastitis infections.F. Gomes acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the Grant SFRH/BPD/84488/2012 and for financial support to the CEB research center

Allele-biased expression of the bovine APOB gene associated with the cholesterol deficiency defect suggests cis-regulatory enhancer effects of the LTR retrotransposon insertion

The insertion of an endogenous retroviral long terminal repeat (LTR) sequence into the bovine apolipoprotein B (APOB) gene is causal to the inherited genetic defect cholesterol deficiency (CD) observed in neonatal and young calves. Affected calves suffer from developmental abnormalities, symptoms of incurable diarrhoea and often die within weeks to a few months after birth. Neither the detailed effects of the LTR insertion on APOB expression profile nor the specific mode of inheritance nor detailed phenotypic consequences of the mutation are undisputed. In our study, we analysed German Holstein dairy heifers at the peak of hepatic metabolic load and exposed to an additional pathogen challenge for clinical, metabolic and hepatic transcriptome differences between wild type (CDF) and heterozygote carriers of the mutation (CDC). Our data revealed that a divergent allele-biased expression pattern of the APOB gene in heterozygous CDC animals leads to a tenfold higher expression of exons upstream and a decreased expression of exons downstream of the LTR insertion compared to expression levels of CDF animals. This expression pattern could be a result of enhancer activity induced by the LTR insertion, in addition to a previously reported artificial polyadenylation signal. Thus, our data support a regulatory potential of mobile element insertions. With regard to the phenotype generated by the LTR insertion, heterozygote CDC carriers display significantly differential hepatic expression of genes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis and lipid metabolism. Phenotypically, CDC carriers show a significantly affected lipomobilization compared to wild type animals. These results reject a completely recessive mode of inheritance for the CD defect, which should be considered for selection decisions in the affected population. Exemplarily, our results illustrate the regulatory impact of mobile element insertions not only on specific host target gene expression but also on global transcriptome profiles with subsequent biological, functional and phenotypic consequences in a natural in-vivo model of a non-model mammalian organism