Rabies control in South Asia requires a One Health approach.

Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease present in more than 150 countries around the world. Globally, almost 60,000 people die each year from rabies, of which more than 58% are in Asia and around 45% in South Asia with especially high incidence in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Vaccination coverage of both people and stray dogs is low in the region and in general people are not given enough protection and information about pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. Engagement of multiple sectors and One Health collaboration including community education, awareness programmes and vaccination campaigns are critical to control and elimination of rabies.

The potential for an outbreak of glanders in Nepal.

Confirmation of glanders has not been possible in suspected cases submitted by field veterinarians, mainly due to the lack of diagnostic tools in Nepal. In view, however, of the re-emergence of glanders in India and the unrestricted migration of equines from there in to Nepal, an outbreak of Glanders in the short term is a distinct possibility. Such an event would affect the rural, marginalized community, and brick kiln industries. Therefore, due attention on the national epidemiological study and strengthened animal quarantine system with holding yards and laboratory backups are highly requested. Besides, the government's timely action on disease prevalence, monitoring, and disease reporting is utmost important besides widespread public awareness to prevent the entry and control the disease.

A review of pig pathology in Tanzania.

The approximately 1.58 million pigs in Tanzania represent 3.7% of the national population of quadruped meat-producing animals. Pigs are kept mainly by small producers who own 99.5% of the national stock in units that average 3.04 animals (range 2-48). Government policy has had little practical application. African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and Cysticercosis are important diseases. The first two are notifiable diseases under Tanzania legislation; the last has widespread distribution and relevance as a major zoonosis. Ascariasis (Ascaris suum), hydatidosis (Echinococcus granulosus), leptospirosis (Leptospira interrogans) and thermophilic Campylobacter are other zoonoses associated with pigs. Gastrointestinal helminths and external parasites, especially Sarcoptes scabiei, are common. Risk factors associated with cysticercosis for humans working with pigs or eating their meat include the free-range or semi-confined management systems, the use of rivers or ponds as a source of water, lack of household sanitation, informal home slaughter, pork not being inspected at slaughter slabs and undercooked and barbecued meat. Pigs are a minor component of Tanzania's livestock sector but there is potential for increasing their contribution to human welfare. Prospects are enhanced by the shorter life cycle, greater number of young produced per year and the possibility of producing high-quality animal protein at a lower cost than meat produced by cattle and small ruminants.

The past and present of and potential for the domestic (water) buffalo in Africa.

Egypt is the only country in Africa where domestic buffalo have a long-term presence and constitute an important part of the array of domestic animal resources. Attempts to introduce buffalo to other African countries have been made since at least the 1920s. Nine such attempted introductions are documented in this paper, although for most cases, there is very limited information. Buffalo have disappeared without trace in some countries and were slaughtered in at least two because of lack of adaptation or susceptibility to disease. In addition to Egypt, only Tanzania and Mozambique are known to have buffalo in 2012. There are suitable ecological niches for buffalo in many African countries. Failure to provide sufficient financial resources by governments, initially small numbers of animals and probable lack of interest by the private sector are among the reasons for the failure of buffalo to become a contributor to African livestock production. Policy makers and development agencies should very carefully consider the overall benefits against the overall costs of attempted introductions of buffalo (and of other exotic livestock species) in to African countries.

Domestic livestock resources of Turkey: water buffalo.

Water buffalo are an ancient component of Turkey's domestic livestock resources. Commonly referred to as the Anatolian buffalo the animal is part of the Mediterranean group which includes Syrian, Egyptian and Southeast European animals. Once quite numerous, there have been drastic reductions in their numbers since the 1970s due to intensification of dairy activities, agricultural mechanization and changing consumer preferences. The main areas of distribution are in northwest Turkey in the Marmara and Black Sea Regions. Buffalo are kept in small herds by livestock and mixed crop-livestock farmers. Milk is the main product, meat is largely a by-product of the dairy function and provision of the once-important draught power is now a minor output. Buffalo milk is used to prepare a variety of speciality products but output of both milk and meat is very low in comparison to cattle. Conditions of welfare and health status are not optimal. Internal parasites are a constraint on productivity. Some buffalo are being used for conservation grazing in the Black Sea area to maintain optimal conditions for bird life in a nature reserve. Long neglected by government there are recent activities to establish conservation herds, set up in vitro banks and undertake molecular characterization. More effort is needed by government to promote buffalo production and to engage the general public in conservation of their national heritage.

Populations and production of fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep in the Horn of Africa.

The six countries comprising the Horn of Africa are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia. Together, they cover an area of just under 5 million square kilometres and support a human population of 17.7 million at an average density of 38.15 people per square kilometre (although in the purely pastoral areas population density is probably of the order of 15-16 people per square kilometre). The Horn is a major repository of domestic animal biodiversity and genetic resources and is home to 15 million one-humped camels, 110 million cattle, 94 million goats and 102 million sheep. A list of 72 sheep "breeds" of which 23 can be considered fat-tailed or fat-rumped has been compiled for the area, although many of these are merely subtypes of a larger grouping and several are not native to the Horn. This paper provides information, where such is available, on the distribution, numbers and production parameters of the fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep that occupy the Horn.