Development of a novel Haemabiome tool for the high-throughput analysis of haemopathogen species co-infections in African livestock.

One of the principal limitations on livestock productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is the constraining effect of infectious diseases, including tick-borne blood pathogens. Currently, diagnostic markers for these pathogens are species or genus specific, making it challenging to implement high-throughput screening methods. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a novel high-throughput diagnostic tool capable of detecting a range of important haemopathogens in livestock.

Continent-wide genomic analysis of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer).

The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a wild bovid with a historical distribution across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Genomic analysis can provide insights into the evolutionary history of the species, and the key selective pressures shaping populations, including assessment of population level differentiation, population fragmentation, and population genetic structure. In this study we generated the highest quality de novo genome assembly (2.

Linking diet switching to reproductive performance across populations of two critically endangered mammalian herbivores.

Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals maximise energy intake by consuming the most valuable foods available. When resources are limited, they may include lower-quality fallback foods in their diets. As seasonal herbivore diet switching is understudied, we evaluate its extent and effects across three Kenyan reserves each for Critically Endangered eastern black rhino (Diceros bicornis michaeli) and Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi), and its associations with habitat quality, microbiome variation, and reproductive performance.

Insights into the diagnosis, vaccines, and control of Taenia solium, a zoonotic, neglected parasite.

Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis (TSTC) is a foodborne, zoonotic neglected tropical disease affecting predominately low- and middle-income countries. Humans are definitive hosts for T. solium, whereas pigs act as intermediate hosts.

Profiling the immune epigenome across global cattle breeds.

Background: Understanding the variation between well and poorly adapted cattle breeds to local environments and pathogens is essential for breeding cattle with improved climate and disease-resistant phenotypes. Although considerable progress has been made towards identifying genetic differences between breeds, variation at the epigenetic and chromatin levels remains poorly characterized. Here, we generate, sequence and analyse over 150 libraries at base-pair resolution to explore the dynamics of DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility of the bovine immune system across three distinct cattle lineages.

Longitudinal transcriptome analysis of cattle infected with Theileria parva.

The apicomplexan cattle parasite Theileria parva is a major barrier to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa, killing over one million cattle on the continent each year. Although exotic breeds not native to Africa are highly susceptible to the disease, previous studies have illustrated that such breeds often show innate tolerance to infection by the parasite. The mechanisms underlying this tolerance remain largely unclear.

Optical mapping compendium of structural variants across global cattle breeds.

Structural variants (SV) have been linked to important bovine disease phenotypes, but due to the difficulty of their accurate detection with standard sequencing approaches, their role in shaping important traits across cattle breeds is largely unexplored. Optical mapping is an alternative approach for mapping SVs that has been shown to have higher sensitivity than DNA sequencing approaches. The aim of this project was to use optical mapping to develop a high-quality database of structural variation across cattle breeds from different geographical regions, to enable further study of SVs in cattle.

A cattle graph genome incorporating global breed diversity.

Despite only 8% of cattle being found in Europe, European breeds dominate current genetic resources. This adversely impacts cattle research in other important global cattle breeds, especially those from Africa for which genomic resources are particularly limited, despite their disproportionate importance to the continent's economies. To mitigate this issue, we have generated assemblies of African breeds, which have been integrated with genomic data for 294 diverse cattle into a graph genome that incorporates global cattle diversity.

Inherited Tolerance in Cattle to the Apicomplexan Protozoan is Associated with Decreased Proliferation of Parasite-Infected Lymphocytes.

is the causative agent of East Coast fever and Corridor disease, which are fatal, economically important diseases of cattle in eastern, central and southern Africa. Improved methods of control of the diseases are urgently required. The parasite transforms host lymphocytes, resulting in a rapid, clonal expansion of infected cells.

Clinical Evaluation of Corridor Disease in (Boran) Cattle Naturally Infected With Buffalo-Derived .

Corridor disease (CD) is a fatal condition of cattle caused by buffalo-derived . Unlike the related condition, East Coast fever, which results from infection with cattle-derived , CD has not been extensively studied. We describe in detail the clinical and laboratory findings in cattle naturally infected with buffalo-derived .

Antigenic Diversity in Populations From Sympatric Cattle and African Buffalo Analyzed Using Long Read Sequencing.

East Coast fever (ECF) in cattle is caused by the Apicomplexan protozoan parasite , transmitted by the three-host tick . The African buffalo () is the natural host for but does not suffer disease, whereas ECF is often fatal in cattle. The genetic relationship between populations circulating in cattle and buffalo is poorly understood, and has not been studied in sympatric buffalo and cattle.

Determinants of vitamin D status in Kenyan calves.

Vitamin D plays a critical role in calcium homeostasis and in the maintenance and development of skeletal health. Vitamin D status has increasingly been linked to non-skeletal health outcomes such as all-cause mortality, infectious diseases and reproductive outcomes in both humans and veterinary species. We have previously demonstrated a relationship between vitamin D status, assessed by the measurement of serum concentrations of the major vitamin D metabolite 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and a wide range of non-skeletal health outcomes in companion and wild animals.

Inverted CD4/CD8 T cell ratio in Boran (Bos indicus) cattle.

The CD4/CD8 ratio is used as a marker of the immune regulation of T cell balance. When the ratio in peripheral blood is less than 1, this is considered an indication of immune suppression in an individual. Previous work on bovine Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) has consistently reported a ratio ≥1 as seen in other mammalian hosts, i.

Spatial Distribution of Trypanosomes in Cattle From Western Kenya.

African Animal Trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a tsetse-transmitted protozoan disease endemic in "the tsetse belt" of Africa. Past studies investigating the epidemiology of the disease rarely focused on spatial distribution when reporting the prevalence. The challenge of understanding the spatial epidemiology of the disease is further confounded by low-sensitive parasitological techniques used in field investigations.

Whole genome analysis of water buffalo and global cattle breeds highlights convergent signatures of domestication.

More people globally depend on the water buffalo than any other domesticated species, and as the most closely related domesticated species to cattle they can provide important insights into the shared evolutionary basis of domestication. Here, we sequence the genomes of 79 water buffalo across seven breeds and compare patterns of between breed selective sweeps with those seen for 294 cattle genomes representing 13 global breeds. The genomic regions under selection between cattle breeds significantly overlap regions linked to stature in human genetic studies, with a disproportionate number of these loci also shown to be under selection between water buffalo breeds.

IDEAL, the Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock project open access database and biobank.

The Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock (IDEAL) project was a longitudinal cohort study of calf health which was conducted in Western Kenya between 2007-2010. A total of 548 East African shorthorn zebu calves were recruited at birth and followed at least every 5 weeks during the first year of life. Comprehensive clinical and epidemiological data, blood and tissue samples were collected at every visit.

Theileria parva: a parasite of African buffalo, which has adapted to infect and undergo transmission in cattle.

The tick-borne protozoan parasite Theileria parva causes an acute, often fatal disease in cattle throughout a large part of eastern and southern Africa. Infection of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is also widespread in this region but does not cause clinical disease in this species. This difference most likely reflects the evolutionary history of the parasites in these species, in that cattle were only introduced into Africa within the last 8000 years.

Similar levels of diversity in the gene encoding the p67 sporozoite surface protein of Theileria parva are observed in blood samples from buffalo and cattle naturally infected from buffalo.

Theileria parva is a tick-transmitted, apicomplexan protozoan found in buffalo (Syncerus caffer) and cattle in eastern, central and southern Africa. The parasite causes a fatal, lymphoproliferative disease in susceptible cattle. Previous studies have shown that the parasites in buffalo comprise a more heterogeneous population than those in cattle, which has led to the concept that the population of parasites circulating in cattle represents a restricted subpopulation of those in buffalo.

Corrigendum to "Exposure of vaccinated and naive cattle to natural challenge from buffalo-derived Theileria parva" [Int. J. Parasitol. Parasites Wildl. 4(2) (2015) 244-251].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.