Acute, chronic and reactivation of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infections are approximately found in 30-60% of population world-wide. T. gondii is a pathogen relevant to psychiatric disorders. We have recently found that reactivation of chronic T. gondii induced depressive-like behaviors in mice. In the present study, we aimed to illustrate the behavioral alterations in mice during acute, chronic and after reactivation of chronic T. gondii. Behavioral battery included sucrose preference and forced swim, and fear conditioning tests, and measurement of locomotor activity following T. gondii infection in mice. First, we prepared an ethogram and confirmed that specific pathogen free-BALB/c mice exhibited sickness-like behaviors during acute infection. In addition, reduced sucrose preference and increased immobility in forced swim test (putative indicators to anhedonic and despair-like behaviors, respectively) were exhibited in acute phase. While in chronic stage such symptoms were not exhibited at all. In turn, relapse of depressive- and some of sickness-like symptoms noticed after reactivation of chronic T. gondii infection. Interestingly, increased freezing time in fear conditioning was displayed during acute and reactivated T. gondii but not during chronic infection. Further, despite the well-known contribution of neurotransmitters; serotonin and dopamine in major depressive disorder, low levels of these neurotransmitters were observed in the brain not only in acute but also during chronic infection. Without interpolation of these symptoms to human psychiatric disorders, collectively, our results demonstrated the crucial changes induced by acute and reactivated T. gondii in modifying the behavior of mice.

This experiment was carried out to identify the impact of inclusion different levels of commercial xylam enzyme (zero, 0.5kg, 0.75kg, and 1 kg) in the feed on performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler chicks.300 unsexed one- day old (Ross 308) broiler chicks were used in the experiment. The chicks were randomly distributed to four dietary treatments and with each carrying 75 experimental birds. The treatments were subdivided into three replicates; each was given 25 experimental birds. All chicks were fed experimental diets to for five weeks which formulated according to (NRC) to meet the nutrient requirements. The results indicated that addition of xylam enzyme to diet improved significantly (p<0.05) the feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio values of broiler chicks throughout the experimental period. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between all treatment groups in percentages of commercial carcass cuts (breast, drumstick ,thigh and wing) and chemical composition of breast meat (moisture, fat, and ash), results also showed that no significant differences observed between all treatment groups in some physical properties of broiler breast meat (PH and WHC). It is concluded that adding (1 kg) of commercial xylam enzyme in broiler chicks diets resulted in economic benefits.

E. coli infections are responsible for great economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide, bringing serious threat to the turkey industry. The present investigation aimed to prepare a potent vaccine from E. coli serogroups O1 and O78 to aid in control of colibacillosis in turkey. One hundred commercial 14 days-old turkey poults were used and divided into three groups; first group was vaccinated twice with 3 weeks interval by prepared inactivated E.coli vaccine adjuvanted with aluminum hydroxide gel, second group was vaccinated twice with 3 weeks interval by prepared inactivated E.coli vaccine adjuvanted with montanide ISA70, third group was left as unvaccinated control one. The immune response was measured by MAT (Microagglutination test), ELISA and challenge test. It was found that the protection rate for inactivated vaccine with aluminum hydroxide gel and E.coli inactivated vaccine with montanide ISA70 were 80% and 85% respectively although it was 30% among the unvaccinated group.

Tuberculosis is the most important zoonotic bacterial disease that is hazardous to both man and animals. A huge economic loss which could be direct or indirect is associated with the disease, so rapid diagnostic tests for tuberculosis are needed to facilitate early detection and prevention of disease transmission. The aim of this work is the detection of bovine tuberculosis by application of different serological tests. Tuberculin skin test applied on 1900 cattle, only 50 (2.6%) showed positive results, and then slaughtered. Forty five (90%) of slaughtered animals showed visible lesions on post mortem examination, while the other five (10%) showed non visible lesions. The bacteriological examination of the 50 samples reveled Mycobacterium bovis form 40 processed samples (80%). Results of Anigen Rapid Bovine TB Ab test and ELISA test had detected 42% and 48% of tuberculin positive cattle respectively. It was concluded that the Anigen Rapid Bovine TB Ab kit test is rapid, safe, simple and easy to perform and provide yes or no results within 15 to 20 minutes but it is not efficient for detection of bovine tuberculosis in cattle and could be useful as a complementary for tuberculin test.

This work presents cultural characterization of Peste Des Petites Ruminants (PPR) virus in VERO-culture. The VERO cells are currently considered as an acceptable cell substrate to produce a wide range of viruses. This study evaluates the best time for inoculation of PPR virus on VERO cell cultures; the study proved that the optimum time was 24 hours after subculture of VERO cell line using MOI 2: 1. It was also found that the best time of harvstation of virus fluid of PPR was 9th day post inoculation to reach the best titre 6 log10 TCID50 /ml.

Transportation is often considered as one of the main causes of stress raising considerable interest, both in animal welfare and economic fields. Stressful transportation of camel may cause severe welfare consequences and economic losses. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the stress resulting from transportation of Dromedary Camel (Camelus dromedarius) by measuring some behavioural and physiological responses. Camels were imported from Dongola quarantine in Sudan to Arqueen (at the borders between Egypt and Sudan) by walking for about 450 km. After that, camels are transported from Arqueen to Abu Simble quarantine in Aswan. According to method of transportation, camels were randomly assigned into three groups; group 1 (camels were transported by trucks for about 150 km, taking about 2-3 h), group 2 (camels were transported by walking for about 90 km, lasting for about 24 h), and group 3 (non-transported camels). In Abu Simble quarantine, 30 healthy males (5-7 years and 300-400 kg b.wt.) were selected for each group (three replicates for each). Some behaviours were selected from the ethogram and are used in the analysis which include comfort (recumbency and standing), ingestive (feeding and rumination), eliminative (defecation and urination) and body care (rubbing, scratching and nipping). All behaviours were recorded in the morning and afternoon by direct personal observation for 60 min with an interval of 5 min and calculated as a frequency per total observation time. Furthermore, blood samples were collected just after arrival of camels (T0) and at 18 h after arrival (T18) for hematological examination (PCV%, total RBCs and WBCs) and measurement of some blood parameters including total protein, albumin, globulin, glucose and cortisol. The results revealed that the frequency of standing, feeding, defecation, urination, scratching and total body care behaviours, were significantly decreased in group 1(81.24, 33.51, 6.48, 9.12, 3.87 and 12.80) and group 2 (10.80, 31.67, 1.40, 2.19, 1.25 and 10.96) including transported camels in comparison to control group (97.26, 47.62, 12.16, 16.44, 12.88 and 21.06) respectively. The frequency of recumbancy was increased in transported groups as compared to control one. The results of haematological examination indicated that there is a significant increase in PCV% and neutrophil count and a significant decrease in lymphocyte count in groups 1 and 2 as compared to control one. Camels transported by trucks had a significant high level of cortisol at T0 (17.21 µg/dl) and T18 (6.14 µg/dl) in comparison to other groups. In conclusion, transportation of camels either by trucks or walk imposes a marked stress upon them as indicated by behavioural and physiological measures

Toxoplasmosis and brucellosis are the most common zoonotic food borne diseases worldwide. The abortion caused by these agents is one of the major causes of socio-economic losses in human and livestock. We thus conducted a cross-sectional study during October 2012 to April 2014 to determine the seroprevalence and the co-existence of Toxoplasma gondii and Brucella abortus in dairy cattle and the co-herded camels, sheep and goats in the Khartoum State using different serological techniques. The study revealed over all seroprevalence of 94.9% at herd level and 63.2% at individual level. T. gondii and B. abortus seroprevalence were 46.2% and 22.7% respectively. Seroprevalence of these zoonosis showed highly statistically significant (p<0.01) differences among different localities and different animals species. Antibody to T. gondii was found to be more prevalent in Sheep, goats and camels respectively while antibody against B. abortus was more prevalent in cattle and camels. Mixed antibodies against the two zoonotic agents were detected in almost all seropositive herds (99.1%). Only one seropositive herd (0.9%) revealed a single Brucella abortus infection. Mix-infection was observed in 16.2% out of all seropositive animals. The univariate analysis of different localities and different animal species showed significant (p<0.01) association with mix-infection seropositivity. Increasing odds ratios without significant (p>0.05) associations were observed in the multivariate analysis of districts and animals species (odds=2.588, CI 95%) for cattle and (odds=2.200, CI 95%) for camels compared to goats as reference. Generally, the present results were the first comprehensive data explaining the serological co-existence of T. gondii and B. abortus as zoonotic organisms in Sudanese food animals. We came to conclude that, the exposure to these organisms as well as their co-infection may play a significant role in the economic losses in dairy farm industry in the country. Moreover, the great public health importance of T. gondii, B. abortus and their co-existence could not be neglected. Further studies to elucidate their socio-economic consequences in man and his livestock are recommended.

The present obtained experimental results proved that addition of lipoic acid (LA) with its sodium salt in ratio of 0.1ml mole (mM) in the growth media has improved their physiological activities of different cell lines including MDBK, VERO and BHK21. Such cells remained normal for relative longer time comparing with the cell culture provided with media without lipoic acid (LA). The improvement of used cell lines was ascribed to the addition of lipoic acid (LA) dihydrolipoic acid, (DHLA) as protein free media supplement. As Lipoic acid (LA) and its dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) are involved in several aspects of cell energy and amino acid metabolism, as well as in defense against oxidative stress and apoptosis; both components initiated the production of glutathione which antagonizes the oxidative effect of free radicals on cells that harmfully affects cell metabolism .This study is in need to involve more investigation covering other uses of (LA) especially in its nano form.

In the present study, a therapeutic trial was conducted to assess comparative efficacy of Terlipressin acetate in dogs suffering from hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE). 70 dogs manifesting HGE, presented at teaching veterinary clinic, were selected randomly for the trial. All of them were observed to suffer from moderate dehydration on clinical examination. Terlipressin acetate, dextrose saline infusion 5% were used in combination with antibiotics and symptomatic treatment in the first group and in the second group, the dextrose saline infusion 5%, antibiotics and symptomatic treatment were used, both groups consisting of 35 cases each. The outcome of both treatment groups was evaluated on hematobiochemical parameters, before and after administration of the therapies and compared statistically within and between the two groups. Hematobiochemical parameters of clinically healthy animals were considered as control for comparison. On hematobiochemical examination, no significant alterations were observed in first group and second group. Clinical recovery was faster in the first group than the second group of animals. Laboratory data, efficacies of the Terlipressin acetate were of low importance for recovery in small animals suffering from hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE).

This study was conducted in six dairy farms in Beni-Suef Governorate representing the most prevalent systems of housing and management in Egypt to assess the welfare and health of dairy cows kept in these systems. These systems including 1) tie stall barn with daily access to an outside shaded area associated with hand milking twice daily; 2) loose housing in partially sheltered yards on earthy floor represented by 4 farms with different management practices include feeding and milking, and 3) free stall barn with daily access to partially sheltered yards during the day time associated with three times daily milking in a parlour system. Each farm was visited three times over a period of one year. All cows were observed for lying and standing up behaviour and examined for lameness, mastitis, skin alterations at the knee and hock joints and rest of the body, teat injuries, cleanliness of the hind legs and udder, and body condition score. Results revealed that no restriction for lying and standing up behaviour was observed in all systems indicating that cow comfort was maintained. The prevalence of lameness was higher in loose housing system on earthy floor (0.9, 15.4 and 8.7 %). The prevalence of skin alterations at the knee joint was higher in cows kept in tie and free stall barns (4.7 and 7.5 % respectively) and at hock joints (11.9 %) in tie stall barn on concrete floor. Tie stall system had a higher prevalence of teat injuries (14.3 %) than other systems. High degree of dirtiness of hind legs (90.5, 89 and 99.2 %) and udder (91.4, 91.6 and 100 %) was found in loose housing system associated with increased dampness of the floor and lack of daily cow cleaning regimen.