A comprehensive review on past, present and future aspects of canine theileriosis.

Canine theileriosis is a notorious tick borne piroplasmid infection of wild and domestic canines. The causative agent has not yet been accurately classified. PCR studies revealed that causative agent resembles to Theileria genus and thus provisionally named as Theileria annae. The other Theileria species reported in canines is Theileria annulata, Theileria equi and unnamed Theileria specie. This emergent canine infection is considered to be endemic in most of the European countries. However in Asia this disease has not been reported till date. The vectors responsible for transmission of this disease have not been determined. It has been suggested that DNA of Theileria annae has been detected in hard tick Ixodes hexagonus in Northwestern Spain and several other tick species. Clinically canine theileriosis is characterized by severe weakness, fever, hemoglobinuria and anemia. Recently atovaquone or buparvaquone plus azithromycin therapy showed better clinical efficacy. This comprehensive review is intended to summarize the current knowledge on prevalence and epidemiology of canine theileriosis in different countries of the world and associated tick vectors.

Equine Granulocytic Anaplasmosis 28 years later.

Equine granulocytic anaplasmosis (EGA) is an important tick borne disease of equines that is caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. phagocytophilum). The etiological agent has veterinary as well as public health importance because of its zoonotic nature. A. phagocytophilum causes an acute illness in equines with loss of appetite, lethargy, hemorrhages and lameness. Clinically, EGA is diagnosed upon examination of morulae within neutrophils especially granulocytes in the blood. The best diagnostic tool for the detection of EGA is Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Previous studies suggested that EGA is a self-limiting disease and tetracycline therapy is considered as a best treatment regimen. There is no comprehensive summary on the occurrence and distribution of the infection at global level. Therefore, we intended to provide a comprehensive summary on the prevalence and epidemiology of EGA in different areas of the world. It includes mapping the global distribution of EGA in different areas of the world to identify the endemic regions which may be a source of potential disease outbreak. For this purpose, the published data from 1990 to 2018 on EGA was reviewed and collected by electronic literature search of five databases including Google, Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed and Web of Science.

Conversion of adverse data corpus to shrewd output using sampling metrics.

An imbalanced dataset is commonly found in at least one class, which are typically exceeded by the other ones. A machine learning algorithm (classifier) trained with an imbalanced dataset predicts the majority class (frequently occurring) more than the other minority classes (rarely occurring). Training with an imbalanced dataset poses challenges for classifiers; however, applying suitable techniques for reducing class imbalance issues can enhance classifiers' performance. In this study, we consider an imbalanced dataset from an educational context. Initially, we examine all shortcomings regarding the classification of an imbalanced dataset. Then, we apply data-level algorithms for class balancing and compare the performance of classifiers. The performance of the classifiers is measured using the underlying information in their confusion matrices, such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F measure. The results show that classification with an imbalanced dataset may produce high accuracy but low precision and recall for the minority class. The analysis confirms that undersampling and oversampling are effective for balancing datasets, but the latter dominates.

First molecular evidence of equine granulocytic anaplasmosis in Pakistan.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. phagocytophilum) is an obligate intracellular bacterium that causes equine granulocytic anaplasmosis (EGA) disease in equines. This pathogen has zoonotic potential, which makes it very important to be detected and controlled as early as possible. This study was aimed to assess the molecular prevalence, associated risk factors of EGA along with its effects on various hematological parameters. This study revealed an overall 10.67% prevalence in equine. Horses showed highest prevalence followed by mules and donkeys presenting 11.86, 10.53 and 9.43% prevalence, respectively. The samples were confirmed for anaplasmosis through sequencing. The BLAST queries confirmed very high homology of our isolates with Chinese and Japanese isolates of A. phagocytophilum (Accession no's; KX505303, KY242456 and LC002836). The phylogenetic analysis found the study isolates clustered with each other and this cluster closely resembled Chinese isolate of A. bovis (FJ169957), A. phagocytophilum (HQ872464) and A. phagocytophilum (NR_044762) human isolate from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. The key risk factors identified for occurrence of EGA in equine species on the basis of univariable analysis were sex of animal, housing type, tick infestation, previous tick history and tick control status, type of acaricides used, rearing system and farm hygiene, respectively. The hematological parameters like Hemoglobin (Hb), Total Leukocyte Count (TLC), Total Erythrocytes Count (TEC), and granulocytes were decreased in diseased animals. The mules showed no typical hematological variations which make sense for its nature as carrier of infection to the susceptible species. This is the first molecular evidence of EGA in Pakistan. The disease needs to be handled seriously as it has zoonotic potential. The animals should be properly attended in disease conditions as leukopenia, neutropenia and lymphopenia can aggravate the condition by making the animal prone to secondary infections.

"Risk factors of birth asphyxia".

BACKGROUND: Birth asphyxia is an insult to the fetus or newborn due to failure to breath or breathing poorly, leads to decrease oxygen perfusion to various organs. According to WHO, 4 million neonatal deaths occurred each year due to birth asphyxia. Our goal was to evaluate antepartum, intrapartum, and fetal risk factors of birth asphyxia. METHODS: It was a Retrospective Case control study, conducted at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of pediatric ward (I, II, III) and in Gynecology wards (I, II, III) of Civil Hospital Karachi, Dow University of Health Sciences. Study was conducted from January 2011-November 2012. Neonates diagnosed with birth asphyxia were considered as "cases" while neonates born either with normal vaginal delivery or by cesarean section having no abnormality were considered as "control". Demographics of both the mother and neonate were noted and Questions regarding possible risk factors were asked from mother. Ethical issues were confirmed from Institutional review board of Civil Hospital Karachi, Dow University of Health Sciences. All data was entered and analyzed through SPSS 19. RESULT: Out of total 240 neonates, 123 were "cases" and 117 were "control". Mean maternal age in "case" group was 24.22 ± 3.38 while maternal age of control group was 24.30 ± 4.04. Significant antepartum risk factors were maternal age of 20-25 (OR 0.30 CI 95% 0.07-1.21), booking status (OR 0.20 CI 95% 0.11-0.37), pre-eclampsia (OR 0.94 CI 95% 0.90-0.98) and primigravidity (OR 2.64 CI 95% 1.56-4.46). Significant Intrapartum risk factors were breech presentation (OR 2.96 CI 95% 1.25-7.02), home delivery (OR 16.16 CI 95% 3.74-69.75) and maternal fever (OR 10.01 CI95% 3.78-26.52). Significant Fetal risk factors were resuscitation of child (OR 23 CI 95% 31.27-1720.74), pre-term babies(OR 0.34 CI 95% 0.19-0.58), fetal distress (OR 0.01 CI 95% 0.00-0.11) and baby weight (OR 0.13 CI 95% 0.05-0.32). CONCLUSION: Measures should be taken to prevent neonatal mortality with great emphasis on skilled attendance at birth and appropriate care of preterm and low birth weight neonates.