1.
Carrier Status Of Foot And Mouth Disease In Ruminants Through Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain
by Muhammad Usman | Prof. Dr. Mansur-ud-Din Ahmed | Dr. Aftab | Dr. Hassan Mushtaq.
Material type: ; Format:
print
; Literary form:
drama
Publisher: 2013Dissertation note: Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is highly infectious disease of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats. It is caused by genus Aphthovirus of Picornaviradae family. FMDV is RNA virus having seven serotypes A, O, C, Asia 1, SAT1, SAT2 and SAT3.
Serotypes A, O, C and Asia1 are endemic in Pakistan and causes high economic losses to livestock industry .So priority is to apply quick and efficient methods for detection of FMDV infection and to limit the spread of outbreaks of the disease. Although CFT, VNT and ELISA are already being used for the diagnosis of FMDV in Pakistan but these diagnostic techniques are time consuming and their specificity and sensitivity is low. RT-PCR for the identification of FMDV is very much sensitive and specific, can be done within three hours after receiving of samples to the laboratory.
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) in adult sheep and goats is frequently mild or unapparent, but can cause high mortality in young animals. The outbreaks of FMD in 1999 in Morocco, in 2001 in the United Kingdom & in 2007 in Cyprus has highlighted the importance of sheep in the epidemiology of the disease, although there have been numerous examples in the past where small ruminants have been responsible for the introduction of FMD into previously disease-free countries. The difficulty in making a clinical diagnosis should encourage the development of more rapid screening tests to assist in future control programs.
In Pakistan, no study has been conducted to depict the role of small ruminants in the epidemiology and transmission of FMD virus to the large ruminants. Keeping in view this neglected area of research, present study is planned to apply the sensitive and economical RT-PCR technique for the rapid detection of carrier status of FMD virus in ruminants; and to highlight the importance and need of vaccination to small ruminants against FMD virus in order to control outbreaks of the disease and transmission to the large ruminants population.
Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 1577,T] (1).
2.
Descrptive Epidemiology Of Canine Parvovirus Disease In Dogs At Pet Enter Uvas In Lahore And Interventional Trial
by Hafiz Muhammad Umer Sulehria | Prof. Dr. Mansur-ud-Din Ahmed | Dr. Muhammad Hassan Mushtaq.
Material type: ; Format:
print
; Literary form:
drama
Publisher: 2013Dissertation note: Pakistan has been bestowed with a huge population of livestock encompassing buffalo, cattle, sheep, goat, camel and other domestic animals such as cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. Out of these, dogs occupy a special attention due to many peculiarities they possess like sniffing, hunting, retrieving and many more. These specialties of dogs are utilized by military, rangers, police, anti-narcotic forces, other agencies, etc. There are three million dogs in Pakistan. A dog encounters many infectious and non-infectious diseases during the course of its life cycle. Some of the viral infectious diseases, and considered more important for a dog are, rabies, canine parvovirus infection, canine distemper, and infectious canine hepatitis. As a pathogen, canine parvovirus emerged in 1970s but later it evolved into two new antigenic strains, type 2a and type 2b which are distributed all over the world. Mostly, protection against CPV is gained from maternally derived antibodies in puppies but simultaneously they may interfere with CPV vaccination. Severe gastrointestinal signs are associated with CPV and this infection is transmitted through contact with infected feces via oro-fecal route or exposure with fomites and also via placental transmission. The virus is very stable in the environment and is susceptible to some cleaning agents like bleach.
The current study was conducted to study the descriptive epidemiology of canine parvovirus disease in dogs at Pet Center, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Lahore and to compare two types of hyper immune sera i.e. Canglob (Ghazi Brothers) and UVAS hyper immune serum for parvovirus through interventional trial, for treating the clinically diseased pups. The study included puppies aged between six weeks and six months. Puppies aged between six weeks and six months, found clinically suspected to be affected with canine parvovirus and showing the signs and symptoms like vomiting, bloody mucoid diarrhea, emaciation and anorexia and found positive for hemagglutination test were included in the study. Hemagglutination test was used as a diagnostic and a screening test to confirm canine parvovirus in the clinically suspected puppies.
The disease was more observed in the puppies aged between 7 to 12 weeks. There were 28 females and 32 males observed in the study. The disease was more frequently observed in Labradors. The disease was observed to be more common in the dogs that weighed 4-6 kgs. Canine parvovirus HA titers were more observed in the dogs that had been ill due to CPV for the past 5-6 days. Only 16 puppies out of 60 were vaccinated. Also, it was observed that canine parvovirus geometric mean titer was higher in the non-vaccinated puppies. The disease was more observed in the pups vaccinated with a polyvalent vaccine and less observed in the pups that were inoculated with a monovalent vaccine. Most of the dogs were aged between 31-60 days when they got vaccinated. Sixty percent (60%) of the dog owners knew that if vaccination is done then the dog may be protected against the disease. The disease was more observed in the pups that were owned by more educated and economically stabled persons.
The result of the statistical analysis using Pearson Chi-Square Test suggests that the difference between Group A and Group B regarding the outcome of the interventional trial is not statistically significant. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted that the UVAS produced hyper immune serum against canine parvovirus is equally good as compared with Canglob for the treatment of CPV diseased puppies.
Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 1831,T] (1).
3.
Status Of Awareness Among Zoo Workers About Zoonotic Diseases
by Tahir Khan (2012-VA-806) | Prof. Dr. Mansur Ud Din Ahmed | Shelly Saima Yaqub | Dr. Shakera Sadiq Gill | Prof. Dr. Aftab Ahmad Anjum.
Material type: ; Literary form:
not fiction
Publisher: 2014Dissertation note: A zoo is a place where wild animals are kept for exhibition purposes to the public.It includes: aquaria, sanctuaries, bird gardens and safari/wildlife parks. These are centers for wild animal’sconservation and for public recreation and education (Cuaron2005). Epidemiologists, wildlife biologists, veterinarians and conservationists used these for research purpose.According to an estimate Pakistan is maintainingapproximately 27 zoos, deer parks, etc.(Walker 2014).
Zoonotic diseases are those which are naturally transmitted from animals to human beings and vice versa. The word Zoonosis is derived from the Greek word zoon (animal) and nosos (disease). The diseases which are transferred from human beings to animals are known as Zooanthroponotic (Greek “Zoon” = animal, “anthrópos” = man, “nosos” = disease) diseases e.g. tuberculosis, measles, giardiasis and amoebiasis. On the other hand the diseases which are transmitted from animals to human beings are known as anthropozoonotic diseases e.g. anthrax, AIDS, psittacosis and rabies (Epstein and Price 2009).
Zoonosis can be classified according to their circulation in the ecosystem. These are either classified as synanthropic zoonosis, with an urban (domestic) cycle in which the source of infection are domestic and synanthropic animals (e.g. cat scratch disease, urban rabies and zoonotic ringworm) or exoanthropic zoonosis, with a sylvatic (feral and wild) cycle in natural foci outside human habitats (e.g. wildlife rabies, arbovirus, lyme disease and tularemia). Some zoonotic diseases can circulate in both urban and natural cycles (e.g. chagas disease and yellow fever).
A review study identified that 1415 species of infectious organism are pathogenic to human beings. This includes 217 viruses and prions, 538 bacteria and rickettsia, 307 fungi, 66 protozoa and 287 helminthes. Out of these, 868 (61%) are zoonotic in nature (Taylor et al. 2001). More than 60% of the emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic in nature and 70% of their reservoirs are wild animals (Cutler et al. 2010).
The reservoirs of several zoonotic diseases are wild animals whose causative agents are viral, rickettsial, chlamydial, bacterial, parasitic and mycotic(Bengis et al. 2004). Zoonotic diseases like tuberculosis, plague and rabies have badly affected the mankind since ancient times and the reservoirs of all of these are wild animals (Stone et al. 2009). Some zoonotic diseases in human beings are self-limiting whose signs range from few days to a long term illness e.g. gastroenteritis caused byGiardia, Cryptosporidium, and Salmonella species.Some zoonotic diseases may cause abortions (Toxoplasmosis) and fatal encephalitis (Japanese encephalitis). Whereas some zoonotic diseases may causes high mortality e.g. Marburg hemorrhagic fever(MacNeil and Rollin 2012). Zoonotic diseases cause death not only in their natural hosts but also in endangered wild animal species near to extinctione.g. Ebola virus cause high mortality in monkeys (Nunn et al. 2008). It is clear from various studies in different zoos that both anthropozoonotic and zooanthroponotic transmission can occur (Adejinmi and Ayinmode 2008).
Zoonotic agents have potential to be used for bioterrorism. The bioterrorism attack is aimed to cause fear, destabilization, stress, illness and death in people, animals and plants. (Lin 2014). Air, water and food may be the warfare biological vehicles for its spread. During World War 1, anthrax was used as a biological warfare in animal populations. Glanders and typhoid were also used for bioterrorism attack in 1910 and 1970, respectively. Several cases of bioterrorism also occurred in the United States due to anthrax in September and October 2001 (Spencer 2007).
A Zoo worker should haveknowledge of the transmission of the disease to avoid its transmission. The common ways of the transmission are direct mode (ingestion, animal bites, inhalation, needle prick injuries and skin contact) and indirect mode (vector borne, fomite, long distanceand airborne transmission). In zoo management, the role of veterinarians is extremely useful. Their job exposes them to several health-related threats during routine operations. e.g. animal bites, needle prick injuries, back injuries, exposure to anesthetic gases and even mortality in certain cases (Hill et al. 1998; Kabuusu et al. 2010).
The personal protective equipment’s are not used during restraining, treatment, necropsy and cleaning the animal enclosures. It may increases the chances of zoonotic diseases to zoo workers and veterinarians. The disposal of wild animal carcasses, organs, unused food, feces and urine by unscientific methodsenhances the process of pathogens transmission(McLaughlin 2002). Laboratory personnel can also be infected with zoonotic diseases due to lack of good laboratory practices in wildlife disease diagnostic laboratories(Rietschel 1998).
Therefore, prevention and control of zoonosis must be an important part of zoo occupational health and safety measures. Preventive measures can be either general or specifically designed for a particular disease. It is possible to prevent many of the zoonotic diseases by following basic hygiene and sanitation procedures.The present study was conducted to determine knowledge, attitude, practice and experience levels about zoonosis among zoo workers of district Lahore(Lahore Zoo, Jallo Wildlife Park and Lahore Safari Zoo).
Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 2229-T] (1).
4.
An Epidemiological Investigation For The Selection Of Suitable Vaccine Virus Candidate Of Newcastle Disease
by Waqas Shabeer (2013-VA-920) | Dr. MUhammad Hassan Mushtaq | Dr. Muhammad Ali Abdullah Shah | Prof. Dr. Mansur ud Din Ahmed | Dr. Ali Ahmed Shaikh.
Material type: Publisher: 2015Dissertation note: The current study was designed to investigate the risk factors associated with Newcastle disease and characterization and confirmation of Newcastle disease on microbiological and molecular basis. Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the most important viral diseases. It is an acute infectious viral disease of domestic poultry and other species of birds regardless of variation in sex and age. Etiological agents of ND are virulent strains of avian paramyxovirus-1 genus Avulavirus, family Paramyxoviridae and order mononegavirales. The data collection was done on predesigned questionnaire. Newcastle disease virus isolation was done by using the embryonated eggs. Amnion allantoic fluid was harvested and checked for hemaglutinating activity by spot hemaglutinition test and results were recorded. For confirmation of NDV hemaglutinition assay and hemaglutinition inhibition test were used. Further confirmation was done by RT PCR using predesigned primers. Results showed that vaccine used at the most of farms were live attenuated. Most of the farms have no written biosecurity plan. A total of 264 samples were examined 17 samples were the best suspected positive for ND, 10 samples were confirmed on the basis of postmortem lesion, HI and PCR.
Conclusion:-
The study concludes the farm type, dead bird disposal, biosecurity, farm history and vehicles for feed transportation are the risk factors for the outbreak of Newcastle disease. Whereas water quality, farm mangers, litter disposal, vaccine schedule and vaccine type given at farm show no significant association with the spread of disease. The study characterized field isolates on microbiological and molecular basis, submitted to the principle investigator for use in development of multiepitop vaccine. Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 2462-T] (1).
