The objective was to study how surveillance for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) could be made more resource-effective in a bTB free country. A stochastic scenario tree model was developed to: (1) evaluate the sensitivity (CSe) of four surveillance system components (SSC) (i.e., meat inspection of slaughtered domestic cattle, farmed deer and pigs, and tuberculin testing of adult export cattle) given that bTB would enter one of these components, (2) estimate the probability of freedom (PFree) from bTB over time, and (3) evaluate how future alternative programmes based on visual meat inspection would affect the confidence in freedom from bTB at the very low animal-level design prevalence 0.0002% and a low probabilities of introduction (1%). All, except the export cattle component reached a PFree above 96% within five years. The PFree was slightly reduced if surveillance was changed to visual inspection, e.g., PFree was reduced from 96.5% to 94.3% in the cattle component, and from 98.5% to 97.7% in the pig component after 24 years. In conclusion, visual meat inspection of pigs and cattle will only reduce the confidence in freedom from bTB slightly. However, with negligible probability of introduction (0.1%) the PFree could be maintained well above 99% in the cattle, pigs and deer components, which highlights the importance of rigid testing and quarantine procedures in trade of livestock. Full article

AquaticHealth.net is an open-source aquatic biosecurity intelligence application. By combining automated data collection and human analysis, AquaticHealth.net provides fast and accurate disease outbreak detection and forecasts, accompanied with nuanced explanations. The system has been online and open to the public since 1 January 2010, it has over 200 registered expert users around the world, and it typically publishes about seven daily reports and two weekly disease alerts. We document the major trends in aquatic animal health that the system has detected over these two years, and conclude with some forecasts for the future. Full article

There are currently little or no data on the role of endemic disease control in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock. In the present study, we have used an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-compliant model to calculate GHG emissions from naturally grazing lambs under four different anthelmintic drug treatment regimes over a 5-year study period. Treatments were either “monthly” (NST), “strategic” (SPT), “targeted” (TST) or based on “clinical signs” (MT). Commercial sheep farming practices were simulated, with lambs reaching a pre-selected target market weight (38 kg) removed from the analysis as they would no longer contribute to the GHG budget of the flock. Results showed there was a significant treatment effect over all years, with lambs in the MT group consistently taking longer to reach market weight, and an extra 10% emission of CO₂e per kg of weight gain over the other treatments. There were no significant differences between the other three treatment strategies (NST, SPT and TST) in terms of production efficiency or cumulated GHG emissions over the experimental period. This study has shown that endemic disease control can contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions from animal agriculture and help reduce the carbon footprint of livestock farming. Full article

Proliferative enteropathy, commonly known as “ileitis” continues to be a significant production-limiting disease in pig herds throughout the world. The disease can be controlled with a combination of vaccination and antibiotic medication. However, pressure from consumers to reduce antibiotic use in livestock industries highlights the need to better understand the epidemiology of ileitis, the mechanisms of immunity, and to identify management factors that can reduce the load of Lawsonia intracellularis in both pigs and the environment. New diagnostic assays and economic modelling of ileitis will help producers target optimal treatment times and minimize the production losses associated with ileitis. This review aims to outline the current advances in disease diagnosis, epidemiology, control strategies and the economic impact of both clinical and sub-clinical disease. Full article

Infections with parasitic helminths (nematodes and trematodes) represent a significant economic and welfare burden to the global ruminant livestock industry. The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic resistance means that current control programmes are costly and unsustainable in the long term. Recent changes in the epidemiology, seasonality and geographic distribution of helminth infections have been attributed to climate change. However, other changes in environment (e.g., land use) and in livestock farming, such as intensification and altered management practices, will also have an impact on helminth infections. Sustainable control of helminth infections in a changing world requires detailed knowledge of these interactions. In particular, there is a need to devise new, sustainable strategies for the effective control of ruminant helminthoses in the face of global change. In this paper, we consider the impact of helminth infections in grazing ruminants, taking a European perspective, and identify scientific and applied priorities to mitigate these impacts. These include the development and deployment of efficient, high-throughput diagnostic tests to support targeted intervention, modelling of geographic and seasonal trends in infection, more thorough economic data and analysis of the impact of helminth infections and greater translation and involvement of end-users in devising and disseminating best practices. Complex changes in helminth epidemiology will require innovative solutions. By developing and using new technologies and models, the use of anthelmintics can be optimised to limit the development and spread of drug resistance and to reduce the overall economic impact of helminth infections. This will be essential to the continued productivity and profitability of livestock farming in Europe and its contribution to regional and global food security. Full article

Ticks are well-known parasites that affect livestock productivity. This paper reviews the current knowledge regarding the spread of ticks with their impact in animal health and the limitations to achieve effective control measures. The forecasted trends in climate play an obvious role in promoting the spread of ticks in several regions. It appears that climate warming is pivotal in the spread and colonization of new territories by Rhipicephalus microplus in several regions of Africa. The reported increase in altitude of this tick species in the mountainous regions of Central and South America appears to be driven by such general trends in climate change. This factor, however, is not the only single contributor to the spread of ticks. The poor management of farms, uncontrolled movements of domestic animals, abundance of wild animals, and absence of an adequate framework to capture the ecological plasticity of certain ticks may explain the complexity of the control measures. In this paper, we review several details regarding the relationships of ticks with the environment, wild fauna and competition with other species of ticks. Our intention is to highlight these relationships with the aim to produce a coherent framework to explore tick ecology and its relationship with animal production systems. Full article