Establishment of the complete life cycle of Calicophoron daubneyi under experimental conditions.

The complex life cycle of the rumen fluke Calicophoron daubneyi is similar to that of the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica. Interestingly, C. daubneyi and F.

Risk factors for omphalitis in neonatal dairy calves.

Knowledge about potential risk factors for animal health is crucial to achieve animal welfare. The aim of this study was to provide practical guidance for farmers to improve the health status of their youngstock by identifying and eliminating risk factors for omphalitis in neonatal calves. A cross-sectional study including 3,445 dairy calves from 567 farms located in three structurally different regions of Germany was performed from December 2016 to July 2019.

Comparison of plasma substance P concentrations in the blood of healthy male and female German Simmental calves.

Background: The recognition of pain is a major problem in cattle, as they are stoic animals which strongly mask their pain. Among objective parameters to assess pain in cattle is substance P (SP), a neurotransmitter which is involved in the pain pathways. Research about SP concentration in calves focus on painful procedures, such as castration and dehorning.

In-herd prevalence of Fasciola hepatica and Calicophoron / Paramphistomum spp. infections in German dairy cows with comparison of two coproscopical methods and establishment of real-time pyrosequencing for rumen fluke species differentiation.

Infections with liver and rumen flukes are among the most frequent parasitic diseases in cattle worldwide. In Europe, the predominant liver fluke species is Fasciola hepatica, and the recently rapidly spreading rumen flukes are mostly Calicophoron daubneyi and occasionally Paramphistomum leydeni. In this study, 1638 faecal samples from individual dairy cows from 24 northern and 18 southern German farms as well as one central German farm, all preselected for potential F.

Random forest classification as a tool in epidemiological modelling: Identification of farm-specific characteristics relevant for the occurrence of Fasciola hepatica on German dairy farms.

Fasciola hepatica is an internal parasite of both human and veterinary relevance. In order to control fasciolosis, a multitude of attempts to predict the risk of infection such as risk maps or forecasting models have been developed. These attempts mainly focused on the influence of geo-climatic and meteorological features.

Associations of production characteristics with the on-farm presence of Fasciola hepatica in dairy cows vary across production levels and indicate differences between breeds.

Fasciola hepatica is one of the economically most important endoparasites in cattle production. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the relevance of production level on the associations of on-farm presence of F. hepatica with farm-level milk yield, milk fat, and milk protein in Holstein cows, a specialised dairy breed, and in Simmental cows, a dual purpose breed.

Evaluation of Substance P concentrations in the blood plasma of jugular and tail vein of healthy German Simmental cows.

Background: Cattle strongly mask their pain, making the recognition and assessment of pain difficult. Different subjective and objective parameters to assess pain have been described. Substance P (SP), which is a neurotransmitter, is used to objectively evaluate nociception in cattle.

Relationship of body condition and milk parameters during lactation in Simmental cows in Bavaria, Germany.

In dairy cows the body condition forms a reflection of the energy reserves of the organism. Health, welfare and productivity of dairy cows are strongly associated with changes in body condition. As lactation puts substantial demands on the metabolism of dairy cows, farm management aims at avoiding either a deficient body condition or a substantial loss of body condition within a short period of time.

Understanding the uptake of diagnostics for sustainable gastrointestinal nematode control by European dairy cattle farmers: a multi-country cross-sectional study.

To mitigate emerging anthelmintic resistance (AR) in cattle, sustainable gastrointestinal nematode control strategies should be adopted. A multi-centre study was set up to understand the factors affecting European dairy cattle farmers' adoption of diagnostics and to gauge for differences between regions. The data were collected through a multi-lingual survey by participating countries of the European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) action COMbatting Anthelmintic Resistance in ruminants (COMBAR).

Non-linear change in body condition score over lifetime is associated with breed in dairy cows in Germany.

Optimal body condition is crucial for the well-being and optimal productivity of dairy cows. However, body condition depends on numerous, often interacting factors, with complex relationships between them. Moreover, most of the studies describe the body condition in Holstein cattle, while condition of some breeds, e.

Benchmarking calf health: Assessment tools for dairy herd health consultancy based on reference values from 730 German dairies with respect to seasonal, farm type, and herd size effects.

Good calf health is crucial for a successfully operating farm business and animal welfare on dairy farms. To evaluate calf health on farms and to identify potential problem areas, benchmarking tools can be used by farmers, herd managers, veterinarians, and other advisory persons in the field. However, for calves, benchmarking tools are not yet widely established in practice.

A machine learning approach using partitioning around medoids clustering and random forest classification to model groups of farms in regard to production parameters and bulk tank milk antibody status of two major internal parasites in dairy cows.

Fasciola hepatica and Ostertagia ostertagi are internal parasites of cattle compromising physiology, productivity, and well-being. Parasites are complex in their effect on hosts, sometimes making it difficult to identify clear directions of associations between infection and production parameters. Therefore, unsupervised approaches not assuming a structure reduce the risk of introducing bias to the analysis.

Effectiveness of Anthelmintic Treatments in Small Ruminants in Germany.

Widespread anthelmintic resistance is a concern for small ruminant health and production worldwide. The current situation regarding anthelmintic efficacy is, however, not very well studied in Germany. Thus, a nationwide field study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of 253 treatments performed in 223 small ruminant flocks by faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) using pooled samples and a modified McMaster method.

Rumen and Liver Fluke Infections in Sheep and Goats in Northern and Southern Germany.

Paramphistomidosis has recently been identified as an emerging parasitosis in Europe. This study estimated the prevalence of rumen flukes, and , in small ruminants in Germany and identified occurring rumen fluke species and potential predictors for fluke infections. Pooled fecal samples from 223 sheep farms and 143 goat farms in northern and southern Germany were examined by the sedimentation technique, and molecular species identification was performed on rumen-fluke-positive samples.

A machine learning approach for modelling the occurrence of Galba truncatula as the major intermediate host for Fasciola hepatica in Switzerland.

Fasciolosis caused by the trematode Fasciola hepatica is an important parasitosis in both livestock and humans across the globe. Chronic infections in cattle are associated with considerable economic losses. As a prerequisite for an effective control and prevention of fasciolosis in cattle fine-scale predictive models on farm-level are needed.

Setaria tundra in a roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in the Donau-Ries district of Bavaria, Germany.

Setaria tundra is known as a common parasite of sylvatic ungulates in Northern latitudes. Although mostly considered of low pathogenicity, severe disease outbreaks and remarkable economic losses have been observed in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus). Host density and climatic factors are major drivers of the expansion of Setaria spp.

Macrophages in dermal disease progression of phospholipase D4-deficient Fleckvieh calves.

A new gene defect in Fleckvieh calves leads to a syndrome with partial phenotype overlap with bovine hereditary zinc deficiency. A mutation in a gene encoding phospholipase D4 (), an endosomal exonuclease, causes the disorder. In mice, PLD4 activity indirectly regulates the Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) pathway via degradation of microbial DNA.

[Meta-analysis to estimate the economic losses caused by reduced milk yield and reproductive performance associated with bovine paratuberculosis in Switzerland].

Especially in regions with intensive cattle farming, paratuberculosis in ruminants can cause considerable economic losses for example through loss of sick animals, reduced milk yield and decreased reproduction performance. Although quantifying the actual economic losses is complex, this study attempts to quantify the losses caused by paratuberculosis in infected dairy farms in Switzerland by means of meta-analyses. For this purpose, in an elaborate selection process, data from 12 studies on milk yield and from three studies on the calving to conception interval were finally selected for further calculations.