Mastitis, a global endemic disease in dairy cattle, not only adversely impact milk production/quality leading to increased economic loss to farmers, it poses a consumer health issue as the milk may be unfit for human consumption due to pathogen contamination. Use of Somatic Cell Count (SCC) as an indicator of mastitis may be insufficient for effective diagnosis of disease. MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are increasingly recognised as promising alternative indicators of mastitis. In this study, we identified circulating miRNAs differentially expressed in milk of mastitic cows after ‘natural levels of exposures’ and in response to different causative agents ‘on farm’. Using a miRNA microarray based approach we found at least 26 miRNAs as generic indicators of clinical mastitis; 7 of which may also be early mastitis indicators. We further identified 27 miRNAs unique to S Uberispositive (SU) mastitis, including miR-320a/b which has been linked to modulation of trained immune activity. Three differentially expressed miRNAs were unique to mastitis positive for Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CNS), and a further 5 miRNAs were unique to SU and CNS mastitis group comparison. Our study design differs from the existing literature which reports the effects of either exogenous dosing with a singular agent or of dosed exposures in the context of single cell types (which individually contribute in only very minor ways to SCC) in an empirical ex vivo setting. Collectively, the differentially expressed miRNAs we have identified are high confidence biomarkers for detection of mastitis (even when asymptomatic), assessment of clinical status and identification of causative agent.

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2009 to April 2010 in Dale Wabera district, western Ethiopia. The objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis and to assess the apparent densities of vectors of the trypanosomosis. A parasitological study using convectional Buffy coat technique was employed for the determination of prevalence of trypanosomosis while baited traps were used for the vector survey. A total of 479 tsetse flies were collected and the density of Glossina species was 11.98 fly/trap/ day. Three species of tsetse fly including Glossina morsistans submorsistans, G. pallidipes and G. tachnoides were recorded from the area. The result of parasitological study revealed that the overall prevalence of trypanosomosis was found to be 12.28%, 95% CI.The prevalence for trypanosome species was 1.53%, 3.32% and 7.42% for Trypanosoma brucei, T. vivax and T. congolense, respectively. Highest trypanosome prevalence (16.42%) was seen in animals with poor condition than that of those with medium (10.27%) and good (9.91%) body condition for the concerned parasite, but no significant difference was observed among the body conditions of cattle considered and infection with trypanosomes (P>0.05). Higher infection rate without significant difference was occurred in male (13.02%) than female (10.77%) cattle. Infection rate was higher in adult (13.25%) than young cattle (8.11%), although the difference is not significant. The mean PCV values of parasitologically negative (26.80%) animals were higher than that of positive ones (20.00%). With 12.28% the highest prevalence in the present study revealed that trypanosomosis is causes significant loss of economy due to reduced production, cost of treatment and death of the animals is supposed to be significant. Therefore, trypanosomosis and its vector control and prevention strategies should be implemented in the area.

Depression as one of the most prevalent and life-threatening forms of mental illness affects more than 1/5 of the world’s population.

The increasing availability and capabilities of mobile phones make them a feasible means of data collection. Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) systems have been used widely for public health monitoring and surveillance activities, collecting survey data, clinical studies but documentation of their use in complicated research studies requiring multiple systems is limited. This paper shares our experiences of designing and implementing a complex multi-component system for a technical livestock community to help other researchers planning to use PDA for collecting technical data related to livestock studies. We designed and implemented different versions of mobile phone data collection systems to collect information related to bovine insemination through Cattle Development Centers (CDC) operated by BAIF.

There was improvement in collecting field data by updating data logger’s versions year by year. Following two to three days of training and piloting, data were collected from 170 field technicians over 5 years period from June 2010 to December 2015. Data logger was the one of easy solution for getting the technical, social and economic information of rural small farmer. Up to year 2015 project had collected the information enrolling of about 0.25 million families, out of that 95,000 families information about poverty index was collected and 0.67 million bovine insemination data, 0.46 insemination follow up records and information about 0.13 million female progeny born through the Project had collected. The PDAs were well accepted by technicians. The use of PDAs eliminated the usual time-consuming and error-prone process of data entry and validation. PDAs are a promising tool for field research in India.

The overall objective of this study is to determine the effect of hydrocolloid additives in reformed fish products and to compare the performances by testing chemical and physical properties of the restructured samples. There are nine treatments in this study including control samples. The eight types of meat binders include cornstarch, commercial meat-binder, carrageen an, methylcellulose, Activa® RM, plasma powder FG+, plasma powder FG and sodium alginate. The results showed that Activa® RM and FG+ and FG could provide satisfactory binding properties in fish balls. There was no significant difference among all cooked samples moisture (p<0.05). Raw treatments had slightly higher moisture than cooked treatments. Samples treated with Activa® RM had the highest WHC for cooked samples, while methylcellulose had the lowest WHC and cooking yield. All other binder treatments samples had higher cooking yield than that of the control. Samples treated with sodium alginate had the lowest pH values for both cooked and raw samples. There were no significant differences detected for water activity for both raw and cooked samples. Samples treated with Activa® RM, FG+ and FG treated samples had the best puncture, texture, hardness, springiness. In summary, Activa® RM, FG+ and FG treatments performed well for all parameters, and sodium alginate, methylcellulose, and meat binder treatment did not show advantages when compared with the control.