"We never boil our milk, it will cause sore udders and mastitis in our cows"- consumption practices, knowledge and milk safety awareness in Senegal.

Background: Milk is a nutrient-rich food that makes an important contribution to diets in several Low and Middle Income Countries such as Senegal. Milk can also harbour several pathogenic microorganisms. As in other low and middle income countries, the dairy industry in Senegal is growing, with an expansion of farms to meet rapidly growing demand in the cities.

Brucellosis in dairy herds: A public health concern in the milk supply chains of West and Central Africa.

Ten herd-level cross-sectional studies were conducted in peri-urban dairy production areas of seven West and Central African countries (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo). The objectives were to estimate herd level Brucella spp. seroprevalence and identify risk factors for seropositivity.

Seroprevalence of African swine fever in Senegal, 2006.

In Senegal, during 2002-2007, 11 outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) were reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health. Despite this, little was known of the epidemiology of ASF in the country. To determine the prevalence of ASF in Senegal in 2006, we tested serum specimens collected from a sample of pigs in the 3 main pig-farming regions for antibodies to ASF virus using an ELISA.

Comparative assessment of fluorescence polarization and tuberculin skin testing for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis in Chadian cattle.

Effective surveillance of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in developing countries where reliable data on disease prevalence is scarce or absent is a precondition for considering potential control options. We conducted a slaughterhouse survey to assess for the first time the burden of BTB in Southern Chad. Altogether, 954 slaughter animals were consecutively sampled and tested using the single intra-dermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) test, a recently developed fluorescence polarization assay (FPA) and routine abattoir meat inspection after slaughter.

Antibiotic susceptibility and molecular diversity of Bacillus anthracis strains in Chad: detection of a new phylogenetic subgroup.

We genotyped 15 Bacillus anthracis isolates from Chad, Africa, using multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis and three additional direct-repeat markers. We identified two unique genotypes that represent a novel genetic lineage in the A cluster. Chadian isolates were susceptible to 11 antibiotics and free of 94 antibiotic resistance genes.