Owner reported diseases of working equids in central Ethiopia.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Working horses, donkeys and mules suffer from numerous diseases and clinical problems. However, there is little information on what owners perceive as important health concerns in their working animals. OBJECTIVES: To identify and prioritise with owners the diseases and other health concerns in working equids in central Ethiopia using participatory methodologies. STUDY DESIGN: Participatory situation analysis (PSA). METHODS: The study was conducted with carthorse- and donkey-owners in 16 sites in central Ethiopia. Multiple participatory methodologies were utilised, including ranking, matrices and focus group discussions. Owners' perceptions on frequency, importance, morbidity and mortality of volunteered diseases and the clinical signs that owners attributed to each disease were obtained; information regarding the impact of these diseases and health concerns was also sought. RESULTS: A total of 40 separate disease and health problems were volunteered by carthorse- and donkey-owners. Horse-owners volunteered a musculoskeletal syndrome (with the local name 'bird', clinical signs suggest possible disease pathologies including equine exertional rhabdomyolysis), colic and epizootic lymphangitis most frequently, whereas donkey-owners volunteered sarcoids, nasal discharge and wounds to occur most frequently. One problem (coughing) was volunteered frequently by both horse- and donkey-owners. Owners demonstrated knowledge of differing manifestations and severity of these problems, which resulted in differing impacts on the working ability of the animal. CONCLUSIONS: Although many of the diseases and clinical signs had been previously reported, this study also identified some previously unreported priorities such as rabies in donkeys, an unidentified musculoskeletal syndrome in horses and respiratory signs in both horses and donkeys. The information gathered during this participatory study with owners may be used to inform future veterinary and educational programme interventions, as well as identify future research priorities.

Development and Evaluation of a Molecular Diagnostic Method for Rapid Detection of Histoplasma capsulatum var. farciminosum, the Causative Agent of Epizootic Lymphangitis, in Equine Clinical Samples.

Histoplasma capsulatum var. farciminosum, the causative agent of epizootic lymphangitis (EZL), is endemic in parts of Africa. Diagnosis based on clinical signs and microscopy lacks specificity and is a barrier to further understanding this neglected disease. Here, a nested PCR method targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA operon was validated for application to equine clinical samples. Twenty-nine horses with signs of EZL from different climatic regions of Ethiopia were clinically examined. Blood samples and aspirates of pus from cutaneous nodules were taken, along with blood from a further 20 horses with no cutaneous EZL lesions. Among the 29 horses with suspected cases of EZL, H. capsulatum var. farciminosum was confirmed by extraction of DNA from pus and blood samples from 25 and 17 horses, respectively. Positive PCR results were also obtained with heat-inactivated pus (24 horses) and blood (23 horses) spotted onto Whatman FTA cards. Two positive results were obtained among blood samples from 20 horses that did not exhibit clinical signs of EZL. These are the first reports of the direct detection of H. capsulatum var. farciminosum in equine blood and at high frequency among horses exhibiting cutaneous lesions. The nested PCR outperformed conventional microscopic diagnosis, as characteristic yeast cells could be observed only in 14 pus samples. The presence of H. capsulatum var. farciminosum DNA was confirmed by sequencing the cloned PCR products, and while alignment of the ITS amplicons showed very little sequence variation, there was preliminary single nucleotide polymorphism-based evidence for the existence of two subgroups of H. capsulatum var. farciminosum This molecular diagnostic method now permits investigation of the epidemiology of EZL.

Clinical Research Abstracts of the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2015.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Colic is a common reason for owners to seek veterinary treatment for their working equids in Morocco. There is no information available regarding cultural, religious or educational barriers to obtaining treatment or about the typical workload of these animals which may predispose them to colic. OBJECTIVES: To characterise the typical workload and feeding regimens of working equids in Morocco; to characterise the ability of owners to recognise the clinical signs and causes of colic; and to identify specific barriers to the veterinary treatment of colic. STUDY DESIGN: Questionnaire-based survey. METHODS: A standardised, structured questionnaire was administered, with the assistance of an Arabic speaking interpreter, to the owners of working equids presenting their animals to 2 centres run by SPANA (The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad). Participation was voluntary and informed consent was obtained prior to the interview. RESULTS: All of the 102 participants that completed questionnaire were male. Ninety-eight owners used their animals for pulling carts, with 12% of animals working 7 days per week. 14% of animals were offered water by their owner once per day and 2% every other day. 25% of animals were loose and allowed free to feed unsupervised when not working. 29% of owners were not able to name any cause of colic and 25% did not recognise any clinical signs; only 12% associated colic with gastrointestinal pain. 83% of owners would not seek veterinary treatment due to financial constraints if free treatment at SPANA centres were not available. CONCLUSIONS: Colic remains a common problem amongst working equids in Morocco. Improved knowledge of management factors associated with colic and how to recognise abdominal pain may reduce the incidence of colic and improve prognosis. The findings presented can be used to inform and develop owner education programmes. Ethical animal research: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham. Informed consent for participation in the study was obtained from all owners and was delivered in the native language. No details identifying the owner were recorded. SOURCE OF FUNDING: None. Competing interests: None declared.

Host density drives macroparasite abundance across populations of a critically endangered megaherbivore.

What determines the abundance of parasites is a central question within epidemiology. Epidemiological models predict that density-dependent transmission has a principal influence on parasite abundance. However, this mechanism is seldom tested in macroparasites, perhaps because multiple, comparable populations of the same host-parasite relationship are rare. We test the influence of a range of factors on parasite abundance across 18 populations of black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) in South Africa. Here we show that host density strongly predicts parasite abundance at the population level for both directly and indirectly transmitted parasites. All other models were not supported. The surprising influence of a single key factor, host density, within a complex ecological system demonstrates the validity of simple epidemiological models. Establishing this previously assumed relationship between host density and parasite abundance has major implications for disease control and parasite ecology. For instance, it is central to the idea of population density thresholds for parasitism, below which a parasite would become extinct. Density-dependent transmission is also essential for calculations of the basic reproductive number, and the hypothesis that parasites may regulate host population size.

A community-based participatory study investigating the epidemiology and effects of rabies to livestock owners in rural Ethiopia.

A participatory study was carried out in the Oromia region of Ethiopia to ascertain the principal epidemiological features of rabies and its impact on livestock owners. Due to the variation in topography (and therefore livestock and human populations within the study area) villages from both high (>1500 m) and lowland areas were included. Local development agents who had no knowledge of the study's purpose recruited a total of one hundred and ninety six participants from eleven lowland and ten highland villages. A facilitator trained in animal health and participatory techniques conducted the interviews with groups of up to eleven participants. Methods used included ranking, scoring, proportion piling, seasonality calendars and open discussions to investigate a set of questions pre determined from a pilot study. The relative importance of rabies to other zoonoses, temporal distributions of the disease, the species affected, current methods of control within affected species and consequences of their loss were all explored. Data was compared between high and lowland areas and previously published studies. The study found that rabies was considered the zoonosis of greatest risk to public health in both areas. It reportedly occurred with higher frequency in highland areas and subsequently affected more livestock in these parts. Two distinct temporal patterns within the areas were described and participants provided reasons of biological plausibility for the occurrence. Livestock were found to contribute as a higher proportion of all species affected than previously shown in published material. This is likely to be due to the low level of reporting of affected animals to the available veterinary services, from where comparative data originated. The death of infected livestock species was found to have numerous social and economic implications and the ramifications of this are made greater by the perception that the highest incidence of clinical disease being in areas of greatest livestock density. The underestimation of the burden of disease by central bodies is likely to influence the economic rationale behind effective rabies control in the future.

A cluster-randomised controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of different knowledge-transfer interventions for rural working equid users in Ethiopia.

There have been few studies evaluating the efficacy of knowledge-transfer methods for livestock owners in developing countries, and to the authors' knowledge no published work is available that evaluates the effect of knowledge-transfer interventions on the education of working equid users. A cluster-randomised controlled trial (c-RCT) was used to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of three knowledge-transfer interventions on knowledge-change about equid health amongst rural Ethiopian working equid users. Groups were exposed to either; an audio programme, a village meeting or a diagrammatic handout, all of which addressed identical learning objectives, and were compared to a control group which received no intervention. Thirty-two villages were randomly selected and interventions randomly assigned. All participants in a village received the same intervention. Knowledge levels were assessed by questionnaire administration. Data analysis included comparison of baseline data between intervention groups followed by multilevel linear regression models (allowing for clustering of individuals within village) to evaluate the change in knowledge between the different knowledge-transfer interventions. A total of 516 randomly selected participants completed the pre-intervention questionnaire, 504 of whom undertook the post-dissemination questionnaire, a follow up response rate of 98%. All interventions significantly improved the overall 'change in knowledge' score on the questionnaire compared to the control, with the diagrammatic handout (coefficient (coef) 9.5, S.E.=0.6) and the village meeting (coef 9.7, S.E.=0.6) having a significantly greater impact than the audio programme (coef 4.8, S.E.=0.6). Covariates that were different at baseline, and which were also significant in the final model, were age and pre-intervention score. Although they had a minimal effect on the intervention coefficients there was a significant interaction between age and intervention. This study should aid the design of education materials for adult learning for working equid users and other groups in developing countries.

Impact of psychological dynamics of stress on the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor.

In an attempt to dissociate the relative impact of psychological vs. physiological concomitants of stress on the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR), the influence of stressor controllability and predictability was investigated in rats. In addition, the effect of a purely psychological stressor, contextually conditioned fear, was examined. The response of the PBR in rats confronted with a naturalistic threat, a cat, was also tested. Various peripheral and CNS tissues were analyzed. Specific binding of [3H]Ro 5-4864 was significantly reduced in the kidneys of subjects receiving either controllable or uncontrollable shock. Similar changes were seen in the kidneys of subjects receiving either predictable or unpredictable shock. Mean [3H]Ro 5-4864 binding in lung was reduced following both predictable and unpredictable shock, but only the reduction in the predictable shock group reached significance. Controllability appeared to protect against the stress-induced reduction in [3H]Ro 5-4864 binding in lung. Contextually conditioned fear only affected PBR in the olfactory bulb, and exposure to a cat was without effect. These data suggest that the PBR responds only to potent stressors, and psychological influences on the PBR are tissue specific.

Sexual dimorphism of stress-induced changes in renal peripheral benzodiazepine receptors in rat.

Adult male and female rats were exposed to either inescapable shock or no treatment. In vitro [3H]Ro 5-4864 (4'-chlorodiazepam) binding (1 nM) to peripheral benzodiazepine receptors (PRB) in both CNS and peripheral tissues indicated no gender differences in olfactory bulb, heart, lung or adrenal gland but a significant effect was observed in renal tissue. Female rats showed an attenuated stress-induced reduction (23%) in PBR in comparison to males (55%). This difference was shown to be an alteration of Bmax and not kD by Scatchard analysis. These data are the first demonstration of a sexual dimorphism in environmentally-induced alterations in PBR.

Pentobarbital blocks the stress-induced decrease in [3H]Ro 5-4864 binding in rat kidney.

Exposure to environmental stress causes changes in the binding of [3H]Ro 5-4864 to peripheral benzodiazepine receptors (PBRs). The influence of the central nervous system (CNS) in these stress-induced modifications is unclear. The present study examined whether pretreatment with a dose-response regimen of sodium pentobarbital would impact the stress-induced reduction in renal PBR. Administration of either a sedative/ataxic (20 mg/kg) or hypnotic (60 mg/kg) dose of pentobarbital prior to stress blocks the stress-induced decrease of [3H]Ro 5-4864 binding to renal PBR in rat. These findings suggest that higher-order, supraspinal mechanisms play a critical role in marshalling the renal PBR changes in response to stress.