AGRIBUSINESS: Factors that affect bull fertility.

AGRIBUSINESS: Factors that affect bull fertility.When it comes to bulls, fertility is of upmost importance as their job is to secure the future of your herd. 1)Body Condition Your bull should have a Body Condition Score (BCS) of 3 or more before being turned out to the cows. As bulls can lose hundreds of pounds of weight during the breeding season it is a bad idea to have them in bad condition at the start of breeding season. This will likely compromise herd fertility and reduce the reproduction rate. Dramatic weight loss leads to lower sperm quality and production. However you need to watch out for overweight bulls too because they can become lazy. READ: Fertility of cows and bulls. 2) Weather Heat stress can have a detrimental effect on sperm motility in Bulls. It also affects fertility in cows. Excessive cold can affect bull fertility too, especially in cases of frostbite. Scrotal frostbite can affect fertility. Usually the way to spot this is inflammation and swelling days after freezing. This inflammation generates heat which affects development of the bull’s sperm and could temporarily - or permanently - sterilize the bull. 3) Disease and infection. Disease and parasite control in bulls is very important. Even if the disease doesn’t directly relate to fertility, it could affect his body condition. If the bull fails to maintain a good body score it could lead to reduced vigor. Infections like foot rot can display itself with a fever. Fever is harmful to a bull’s performance, as the sperm that were forming whilst he was suffering from it will be abnormal, and afterwards, he will have an infertile period of about 60 days. Disease prevention should be treated the same in a bull as with females. New animals should be screened by a vet for possible infectious agents, and only buy bulls from a reputable source with a healthy herd plan. Here are three rules you should follow to avoid disease in cattle. Don’t expose cows to bulls from other herds or vice versa. No leasing or borrowing bulls No grazing in common lands with other herds, good solid fences to keep neighbors out. Bovine Trichomoniasis - This is a venereal disease which leads to repeat breeders, low pregnancy rates and abortions beginning in early pregnancy and continuing right up to the time of calving. There is no treatment for Trichomoniasis, although most cows will self-clear of the disease within 120 days. Bulls spread the disease between cows and any bull found carrying it must be culled. Because of this you should test your bulls annually. 4) Injury Lameness. If a bull is lame he won’t be able to stand up to his task. If he is partly lame his performance will be impaired.

AGRIBUSINESS: LIVER FLUKE IN CATTLE.

AGRIBUSINESS: LIVER FLUKE IN CATTLE. A liver fluke is a parasitic worm that commonly live off of cattle, sheep and other livestock.Cattle can pick them up while out at pasture, and if not treated can drastically affect their performance, and cause liver damage. The disease they cause is called fascioliasis. Cattle typically develop chronic disease and classically show loss of weight, condition and become anaemic. Liver fluke-related disease can become acute and even fatal.However, if the offending liver flukes mature into adult egg-laying parasites, it can lead to severe liver damage depending on the number. Cattle infected with liver fluke are considered to be more susceptible to other infections,that is why it is so important to deal with liver fluke early. HOW TO DEAL WITH LIVER FLUKE 1: IDENTIFY RISK If you are aware of high risk areas for liver fluke, then deal with them as soon as possible. Fence off wet areas, attend to leaky troughs and pipes, drainage or housing early.If you have lost any sheep, investigate this, as this can be an early indication of fluke risk for your cattle. 2: TREAT APPROPRIATELY Cattle cannot pick up liver fluke when they are housed, however if they are not, it has the potential to put their growth rates well below market weight. Correct treatment means using the right product, at the right time, using the correct dose rate and administering it the right way. Never underdose your cattle for liver fluke, and do not assume that one size fits all when you’re measuring doses. Base your measurement off your heaviest animal for a group of cattle. Do not overdose your cattle either as this can encourace resistance to liver fluke treatments. If you have a large variation in weights, group them to ensure an accurate dose rate. If the treatment comes in the form of an injection, ensure it goes under the skin and not into the muscle. 3: AVOID RESISTANCE Over-reliance or overdosing on a flukicide can lead to drug resistance growing in liver fluke.It is important that you have an effective plan for cattle that reduces the risk of resistance spreading. Treatment: Among the products that kill liver flukes are Ivomec® Plus (Merial); Valbazen® (Pfizer) and Noromectin® PLUS (Norbrook),triclobendazole, nitroxynil 34% and 3 Levanor plus.

AGRIBUSINESS: Why a new calf needs a clean shed.

AGRIBUSINESS: Why a new calf needs a tidy shed.The most efficient cattle operations never consider tidy housing a waste of time. Washing, tidying and maintaining a hygienic cattle shed has financial, health and time benefits down the line. Here are the reasons it is particularly important for calves to have a tidy shed.1)Calves have a poor immune system If your shed is covered in harmful bacteria then your calves are at risk from the moment they hit the ground. Minimize this risk by power washing your byre before the calving season starts and by power washing calving pens once a cow and calf leaves. Calves are particularly vulnerable at birth because they haven't got a well developed immune system yet.There is no vaccine to combat calf-prone viruses like cryptosporidium so keeping the calving box hygienic and disinfected is key to avoid it and other diseases from building up. 2) Better ventilation means less chance of pneumonia. This has more to do with planning (and altering) your shed design, but better ventilation is important at calving time too. In well-ventilated sheds, animals are shown by research to perform better, as they are less likely to develop respiratory infections or pneumonia. Badly ventilated sheds retain too much moisture in the air which then promotes harmful bacteria growth. 3)Calves spend 80% of their time lying down Because of this, and their poor immune system, it is vital that you refresh their straw bedding often before it gets too dirty. This has the added benefit of keeping them warm. Certain minerals are harmful to calves Most farmers aren’t calving all year around, so calving pens will be empty for a time. This does not mean you can store things there when they are. Calving boxes should be left clean and dry during the summer, and shouldn’t be used to store minerals that could be potentially harmful to calves

AGRIBUSINESS:Clean home with bio-enzymes from vegetables, fruits and kitchen waste.

AGRIBUSINESS:Clean home with bio-enzymes from vegetables, fruits and kitchen waste.You can now use bio-enzymes derived from the skin of vegetables and fruits to keep things clean at home, purify water and simultaneously help protecting environment.Bengaluru-based organization ‘Soil and Soul’ has been teaching and encouraging people to prepare bio-enzymes at their homes. Preeti Rao from ‘Soil and Soul’ told PTI that she started composting kitchen waste, growing veggies and then discovered citrus peels can’t be composted, so figured out a way of creating bio-enzymes from them. “We talk about cleaning floor, purifying water and eliminating germs but killing all kinds of microbes is not a good idea. We break the food cycle if we kill all microbes,” she said. “I use bio-enzymes to clean chimneys, the kitchen slab, the toilets ? they don’t kill germs, they eat them up and also protect the food cycle. These are basic we learnt in school,” she said. She said one litre of water mixed with 300 grams of unused vegetables and 100 grams jaggery could give housekeepers their first bio-enzyme in 90 days. And the second time, it could be prepared within one month by using the existing enzymes.

How to preserve sugarcane juice for a year.

                How to preserve sugarcane juice for a year.

Indian summers are synonymous with tall glasses of cold sugarcane juice, a seasonal delicacy that disappears from the market all too soon. But sugarcane lovers take heart! 

A recent innovation could mean you can stock up your refrigerator with bottled sugarcane juice for up to a year. Rajgopal Irappa Patil has adapted technology that can help preserve sugarcane juice for 12 months without using any chemical preservatives. He says: “This technology leads to shelf-stable, ready-to-serve bottled sugarcane juice that is healthy and hygienic, especially when compared to what is offered by roadside vendors.” 

 The technology of Punjab Agricultural University involves a storage tank, a pasteurization system, and a homogeneous system (to add flavors). Natural flavoring agents, salts, and anti-oxidants (from natural ingredients such as mint, ginger, and lime) are added to the juice before it is bottled.

AGRIBUSINESS: New technology to keep fruits, vegetables fresh for 1,000 days.

AGRIBUSINESS: New technology to keep fruits, vegetables fresh for 1,000 days.While efforts are being made to reduce wastage of perishables via cold chain management, an Indian company has introduced 'Black Box' technology, which ensures the preservation of any agricultural commodity for 1,000 days. 

Sahil Peerzada and Sachin Adhikari of Viztar Agritech have tied up with Spain-based Nice Fruits to offer new technology in cold storage plants in the Indian subcontinent. Black Box is a unique technology developed by scientists in Spain. It can be easily set up in any factory or plant. Regular cold storage utilises nitrogen. 

However, in the Black Box system, there will be neither nitrogen nor any preservative. The stored commodities will have their natural content and nutrition value intact for 1,000 days.Fruits, vegetables, or meat, anything can be kept fresh for 1,000 days using Black Box.

AGRIBUSINESS: Cassava high in iron and zinc could improve diets and health in west Africa.

AGRIBUSINESS: Cassava high in iron and zinc could improve diets and health in west Africa. A new study shows that field-grown cassava plants over expressing a combination of plant genes can accumulate significantly higher concentrations of iron and zinc. 

 The "hidden hunger" caused by micro nutrient deficiency is a global threat to human health, with particularly severe impacts in Africa. 

In Nigeria, 75 percent of preschool children and 67 percent of pregnant women are anemic, and 20 percent of children below five years suffer from zinc deficiency. Iron deficiency anemia affects the immune system, stunts growth and impairs cognitive development in children, while deficiency in zinc causes increased risk of death from diarrhea, stunting and reduced cognitive development. 

Developing new varieties of a staple food crop with elevated levels of these two minerals could significantly improve diets and health. The elevated mineral levels of the 'bio fortified' cassava storage roots are retained after processing into common foodstuffs and are nutritionally available at levels that could have a significant impact on the health of cassava-consuming populations in West Africa.

AGRIBUSINESS: Pesticides blamed for rise in colon cancer deaths.

AGRIBUSINESS: Pesticides blamed for rise in colon cancer deaths.The use of pesticides has been linked to a sharp rise in colon cancer deaths in a developing country for the first time. Colon cancer is the third most common type of cancer worldwide, accounting for about 10 per cent of all cases. It is more common in developed nations, but a few countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay are now approaching the levels of incidence seen in the developed world. Now a team of researchers from Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom have mapped the use of pesticides across Brazil between 2000 and 2012. They then compared this to the number of deaths from colon cancer during the same period. They observed an overall increase of colon cancer, which was correlated with the amount of pesticides sold and used in the country. Analyzing data published by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the researchers found that in 2000, just over 162 million tons of pesticides were sold in Brazil. By 2012, sales had jumped to roughly 476 million tons. Over the same period, data gathered by the Brazilian ministry of health indicates that the number of deaths caused by colon cancer had gone up from 946,686 to more than a million, despite progress in cancer detection and treatment. The researchers behind the study said that pesticides applied to Brazilian crops are contaminating food and water consumed by both people livestock.

Veterinary Medicine: How to feed a cat: Consensus statement to the veterinary community.

Veterinary Medicine: How to feed a cat: Consensus statement to the veterinary community.The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) released the AAFP Consensus Statement, "Feline Feeding Programs: Addressing Behavioral Needs to Improve Feline Health and Wellbeing" and accompanying client brochure to the veterinary community. The Consensus Statement, published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, explores the medical, social, and emotional problems that can result from the manner in which most cats are currently fed. This statement focuses on "how to feed" because an often-overlooked aspect of feline health is how cats are fed. This Consensus Statement identifies normal feeding behaviors in cats. It provides strategies to allow these normal feline feeding behaviors, such as hunting and foraging, and eating frequent small meals in a solitary fashion, to occur in the home environment -- even in a multi-pet home. Allowing cats to exhibit these normal feeding behaviors regularly, can help alleviate or prevent stress-related issues such as cystitis, and/or obesity-related problems such as inactivity and overeating. Reducing stress with appropriate feeding programs can also help anxious cats, who in an attempt to avoid other pets in the household, may not access the food frequently enough and lose weight. Currently, most pet cats are fed in one location ad libitum, or receive one or two large and usually quite palatable meals daily. In addition, many indoor cats have little environmental stimulation, and eating can become an activity in and of itself as this current type of feeding process does not address the behavioral needs of cats.Appropriate feeding programs need to be customized for each household, and should incorporate the needs of all cats for play, predation, and a location to eat and drink where they feel safe. The Consensus Statement also highlights the importance of feeding programs, which should be designed to consider whether they are indoor-only or have outdoor access, live in multi-pet households, or are aged or debilitated.These feeding programs in many cases include offering frequent small meals using appropriate puzzle feeders, forage feeding (putting food in different locations), multiple food and water stations, and in some instances, automatic feeders.

How to protect a pig farm from African Swine Fever.(ASF).

 How to protect a pig farm from African Swine Fever.(ASF).


ASF is all about contact ASF is spread by contact. Far less by the pig breathing the virus in as in Classical Swine Fever, so it should be easier to prevent and control.

 Think ‘contact’ in everything you plan to do and subsequently carry out on the premises. The contact is not just pig to pig, but what we humans do by allowing the ASF virus in through contact on the clothing equipment, vehicles, food deliveries, breeding stock and every other visit by an ‘outsider’ to or into your vulnerable farm premises.

 1) Keep everybody off your farm You will need discipline and tact to do this effectively. Quite brutally, you do not know where they have been! So do not risk it. The only permissible person as routine is the pig veterinarian and of all people he should take the necessary precautions.

Even so, do not allow his vehicle on to the farm. Have a parking spot outside the perimeter and if necessary, help carry his equipment in for him.

 There will be skilled artisans of course, electricity, roofing, plumbing, etc. who will need access. Keep their vehicles off the farm too and make it clear beforehand (for the sake of good relations) that they will have to use farm overalls and footwear and need their equipment mist-sprayed.

 2)An unbreakable farm perimeter defense. For the delivery of replacement stock (semen is safer than live pigs) and the collection of finished pigs, have designated areas on or just outside the farm perimeter.

On no account allow ‘helpful’ drivers (offering to assist with the loading) on to the premises. The same with bulk or bagged food and supplies.

 As soon as you can, set up food reception bulk bins using your own inlet hoses, not theirs; a covered site for bags and other bulky deliveries. All 3 on the farm boundary, for later inward transmission by your own staff, never theirs.

Agribusiness:How to get small piglets to eat more feed.

Agribusiness:How to get small piglets to eat more feed.What influences feed intake of small piglets? Researchers from the Netherlands looked at the effects on feed intake and feeding behaviour of many aspects of feed in more detail. The scientists, attached to Wageningen University and Research, published about the research in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. They describe a trial that tested the feeding behaviour of suckling piglets when different diets were supplied to them. The hypothesis of the study was that presentation of the feed in a more diverse form, by varying multiple sensory properties of the feed, stimulates pre-weaning feed intake. Stimulating solid feed intake in suckling piglets is important to facilitate the weaning transition, exemplified by the positive correlation between pre- and post-weaning feed intake. 2 different diets tested by piglets Piglets received ad libitum feed from 2 days of age in 2 feeders per pen (choice feeding set-up).Feed A was an experimental diet from the university’s Animal Nutrition Group. Extruder settings intendedly varied during production, resulting in differences in pellet texture, length and hardness to create diversity within feed A. Feed B is a commercial diet, called Baby Big XL, from Coppens Diervoeding in the Netherlands. Feed B was a 14-mm diameter pellet, with a length of 10-20 mm and a hardness of 6.8 kg.Feeding behaviour was studied by weighing feed remains and by live observations. Observations were also used to discriminate ‘eaters’ from ‘non-eaters’. In addition, eaters were grouped into different eater classes (i.e. good, moderate and bad). Provision of feed A and B increased pre-weaning feed intake by 50% compared to provision of feed A only (with and without additional flavours). Piglets receiving feed A and B had no overall preference in terms of feed intake for either feed A or B, indicating pre-weaning feed intake increased by an enhanced intake of both feeds. These results supported the researchers’ hypothesis that the more diverse the feeds provided in terms of sensory properties (e.g. ingredient composition, texture), the greater the intake will be. The reason for this is expected to be sensory-specific satiety and/or piglets’ intrinsic motivation to explore.

AGRIBUSINESS: Print-Arome for flavor imprinting.

AGRIBUSINESS: Print-Arome for flavour imprinting. Print-Arome is flavor formulated with essential oils.Dosed in the sows and post-weaning diets generate an “imprinting” effect in the piglets. This effect familiarizes the piglets with its scent and facilitates the introduction to solid food. As a result, it increases feed intake, weight gain and reduces health problems associated with early weaning. It improves feed intake by 95% while it reduces stress by 92%. Print-Arome.

AGRIBUSINESS: Expanding the reach of flavour imprinting in piglets.

AGRIBUSINESS: Expanding the reach of flavour imprinting in piglets. An aroma, based on essential oils, is capable of generating an imprinting effect in piglets that can boost their introduction to solid feed after weaning and improves their performance. Combining this with spray dried porcine plasma could bring even further benefits post-weaning. Early weaned piglets are subject to a great deal of stress and have to adapt abruptly to a new diet, which delivers a great physiological challenge. As a result, during the first week after weaning, piglets typically have a low feed intake and a growth decrease that has an impact on the animal’s gut morphology, increasing the risk of post-weaning diarrhoea and consequently affecting the animals subsequent performance. Supplementing sow and post-weaning diets with Print-Arome, a flavour formulated with essential oils, has an imprinting effect in piglets. This effect familiarises the piglets with its scent and facilitates the introduction to solid feed. The transfer of dietary information from mother to offspring with the essential oils flavour has been proven to successfully improve feed intake and weight gain of piglets at weaning. Likewise, spray dried porcine plasma (SDPP) is also a common feed ingredient used for similar objectives; included in weaning diets to improve feed intake, post-weaning performance and reduce diarrhoea incidence.

Agribusiness: A good start is vital for healthy piglets.

Agribusiness: A good start is vital for healthy piglets.Raising healthy piglets from start through weaning is a challenge not to be underestimated, impacting performance and health at later stages. Sudden change in dietary regimens and management at weaning puts a heavy burden on the animal’s immature digestive system. This leads to a disturbed immune system and microbiota, and increased susceptibility to diseases. Stress already starts at birth, a crucial period filled with risks: piglets must be born strong and healthy and remain that way. Once born, piglets encounter several hurdles: piglets suffer from all kinds of pathogenic challenges with an immature immune system. There is a significant and immediate demand on the gut to digest and absorb nutrients efficiently to maintain a high growth rate. Intestinal epithelial cell integrity is of prime importance considering that this epithelium is responsible for absorption of water, electrolytes, and nutrients. Not to forget the beneficial microbiome that must establish itself as soon as possible to guarantee a fully functioning intestinal tract. Once the piglet could manage these hurdles, another event, considered as a major stressor, takes place: weaning. Although technological improvements in housing, nutrition, and management are available to minimise the stress, piglets are weaned at unphysiologically early ages. The sudden change in dietary regimens at weaning places a heavy burden on the immature digestive system of the piglet. The gastro-intestinal tract is affected by a change in microbiome, mechanical damage, and inflammation as reaction to the stresses (social, nutritional, handling) of weaning. The effects are aggravated by the immature immune system which has not developed a full response to cope with pathogens, resulting in disease . It is clear impairment of the normal gut and immune function, leading to diarrhoea and even death, which needs to be avoided.

AGRIBUSINESS: 4 piglet parameters for lifetime performance.

             AGRIBUSINESS: 4 piglet parameters for lifetime performance.

 Genetic selection is leading to larger litters of piglets born with lowered levels of physiological maturity. As this trend amplifies an evolutionary strategy in swine favouring survival of the fittest, it presents negative performance and animal welfare implications.

 Sow Peripartal Syndrome is a complex web of interactions affecting sows and piglets during the peripartal period. At least four parameters are present at birth that can ultimately determine piglets’ lifetime performance.

The following is an update on research underway to managing the syndrome. Alive at birth While genetic selection has increased the total number of pigs per litter, the number of pigs born alive has not increased at the same pace.

AGRIBUSINESS: Heat stress in pigs and its effect on the gut.

AGRIBUSINESS:    Heat stress in pigs and its effect on the gut. 


 Heat Stress is a physiological response to high environmental temperatures, where the animal is out of its thermo-neutral zone and can no longer effectively regulate its body temperature. Consequently, animal health, well-being and performance are negatively affected.

 

AGRIBUSINESS: Hens that lay human proteins in eggs offer future therapy hope..

AGRIBUSINESS: Hens that lay human proteins in eggs offer future therapy hope.Chickens that are genetically modified to produce human proteins in their eggs can offer a cost-effective method of producing certain types of drugs, research suggests. The study -- which has initially focused on producing high quality proteins for use in scientific research -- found the drugs work at least as well as the same proteins produced using existing methods. High quantities of the proteins can be recovered from each egg using a simple purification system and there are no adverse effects on the chickens themselves, which lay eggs as normal. Researchers say the findings provide sound evidence for using chickens as a cheap method of producing high quality drugs for use in research studies and, potentially one day, in patients. Eggs are already used for growing viruses that are used as vaccines, such as the flu jab. This new approach is different because the therapeutic proteins are encoded in the chicken's DNA and produced as part of the egg white.

RESEARCH: New skin test detects prion infection before symptoms appear.

RESEARCH: New skin test detects prion infection before symptoms appear. Prions can infect both humans and animals, causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, mad cow disease in cattle, and chronic wasting disease in elk and deer. The infectious, misfolded protein particles often go undetected as they destroy brain tissue, causing memory loss, mobility issues, and ultimately death. Preclinical detection of prions has proven difficult, but new research suggests skin samples hold early signs of prion disease that precede neurologic symptoms. Currently, a definitive diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is dependent on the examination of diseased brain tissue obtained at biopsy or autopsy. It has been impossible to detect at the early preclinical stage," said Wenquan Zou, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In a ground-breaking study published in Nature Communications, Zou and an international team of researchers successfully used two methods to detect prions in skin samples collected from inoculated rodents. The study provides the first proof-of-concept evidence that readily accessible skin samples could be used to detect prion disease early -- before clinical symptoms appear. In the new study, Zou and colleagues successfully detected prions in rodent skin samples as early as two weeks post-infection. They also detected prions in the skin of uninoculated rodents that were housed alongside inoculated cage mates, demonstrating that prion transmission can occur between cohabiting rodents.

RESEARCH: Eyes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease( CJD) patients show evidence of prions.

RESEARCH: Eyes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients show evidence of prions. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, degenerative, fatal brain disorder. It affects about one person in every one million per year worldwide; in the United States there are about 350 cases per year. CJD belongs to a family of human and animal diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. A prion—derived from “protein” and “infectious”—causes CJD in people and TSEs in animals. Spongiform refers to the characteristic appearance of infected brains, which become filled with holes until they resemble sponges when examined under a microscope. CJD is the most common of the known human TSEs. CJD usually appears in later life and runs a rapid course. The typical onset of symptoms occurs at about age 60, and about 70 percent of individuals die within one year. In the early stages of the disease, people may have failing memory, behavioral changes, lack of coordination, and visual disturbances. As the illness progresses, mental deterioration becomes pronounced and involuntary movements, blindness, weakness of extremities, and coma may occur. There are three major categories of CJD. 1)In sporadic (sCJD), the disease appears even though the person has no known risk factors for the disease. This is by far the most common type of CJD and accounts for at least 85 percent of cases. 2)In hereditary CJD, the person may have a family history of the disease and test positive for a genetic mutation associated with CJD. About 10 to 15 percent of cases of CJD in the United States are hereditary. 3) in acquired CJD, the disease is transmitted by exposure to brain or nervous system tissue, usually through certain medical procedures. There is no evidence that CJD is contagious through casual contact with someone who has CJD. Since CJD was first described in 1920, fewer than one percent of cases have been acquired CJD. A type of CJD called variant CJD (or vCJD) can be acquired by eating meat from cattle affected by a disease similar to CJD called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or, commonly, “mad cow” disease. A new study, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and UC San Francisco, report finding tell-tale evidence of the condition's infectious agent in the eyes of deceased sCJD patients, making the eye a potential source for both early CJD detection and prevention of disease transmission. In the November 20 issue of the journal mBio, co-corresponding author Christina J. Sigurdson, DVM, PhD, professor of pathology at UC San Diego and UC Davis, and colleagues discovered high levels of prions in the eyes of 11 deceased patients, all with confirmed sCJD. Almost half of sCJD patients develop visual disturbances, and its a known fact that the disease can be unknowingly transmitted through corneal graft transplantation.

DISEASE TRANSMISSION AND BIOSECURITY PROTOCOLS.

BIOSECURITY.  Following simple but specific protocols everyday to positively influence animal health, food safety and public health.

 What are the basic protocols in biosecurity? READ

 Biosecurity basically entails, prevention of pathogens from entering premises to ensure there is no disease incidence, and curtail spread of diseases in cases of outbreaks.

  Pathogens are disease causing microorganisms that usually have devastating effect on animals, resulting in decreased production and death in severe cases.  Pathogens can be bacteria, viruses, fungi and prion.

.  The animal kingdom is riddled with several pathogens that wreck havoc on these animals irrespective of specie.  These pathogens are also of importance to man, especially when these cause zoonotic diseases.

 Zoonotic diseases are spread from animals to man, and sometimes there is a reverse zoonoses where man actually spreads the disease to their animals.

  Route of transmission.  The basic routes are:  Direct contact.  Aerosol.  Oral.  Formites.  Vector borne  Zoonoses.  Reproduction.  Environmental contamination.

  Mode of transmission.  Direct contact ;disease spread by contact with open wounds, mucous membrane of an infected animal or its secretions/tissue fluids.

Disease can also spread through contact with reproductive fluid(blood, urine and saliva) during breeding, or from mother to offspring.

  Aerosol; droplets containing the pathogenic agent travel in air and are inhaled as respiratory droplets by animals

 Oral; ingestion of the pathogenic agent from contaminated feed ,chewing/licking contaminated objects in environment and water.

 Formites; spread of the pathogen through contact with inanimate objects contaminated by infected animals.

Man can act as formites by transferring these pathogens in through soiled boots, gloves or tools.