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Oriental theileriosis in dairy cows causes a significant milk production loss.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Oriental theileriosis is a tick-borne, protozoan disease of cattle caused by members of the Theileria orientalis-complex. Recent outbreaks of this disease in eastern Australia have caused major concerns to the dairy and beef farming communities, but there are no published studies of the economic impact of this disease. On a farm in Victoria, Australia, we assessed whether oriental theileriosis has an impact on milk production and reproductive performance in dairy cows. METHODS: Blood samples collected from all 662 cows on the farm were tested using an established molecular test. For individual cows, milk production and reproductive performance data were collected. A clinical assessment of individual cows was performed. Based on clinical findings and molecular test results, the following groups of cows were classified: group 1, with cardinal clinical signs of oriental theileriosis and molecular test-positive for T. orientalis; group 2, with mild or suspected signs of theileriosis and test-positive; group 3, with no clinical signs and test-positive; and group 4, with no clinical signs and test-negative. Milk production and reproductive performance data for groups 1, 2 and 3 were each compared with those for group 4 using linear and logistic regression analyses, respectively. RESULTS: At 100 days of lactation, group 1 cows produced significantly less milk (288 l; P = 0.001), milk fat (16.8 kg; P < 0.001) and milk protein (12.6 kg; P < 0.001) compared with group 4. At this lactation point, group 2 also produced significantly less milk fat (13.6 kg; P = 0.002) and milk protein (8.6 kg; P = 0.005) than group 4. At 305 days of lactation, group 1 cows produced significantly less milk (624 l; P = 0.004), milk fat (42.9 kg; P < 0.001) and milk protein (26.0 kg; P < 0.001) compared with group 4 cows. Group 2 cows also produced significantly less milk fat (21.2 kg; P = 0.033) at this lactation point. No statistically significant difference in reproductive performance was found upon pairwise comparisons of groups 1-3 with group 4 cows. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings demonstrate that clinical oriental theileriosis can cause significant milk production losses in dairy cattle.

SUBMITTER: Perera PK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3937217 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Oriental theileriosis in dairy cows causes a significant milk production loss.

Perera Piyumali K PK Gasser Robin B RB Firestone Simon M SM Anderson Garry A GA Malmo Jakob J Davis Gerry G Beggs David S DS Jabbar Abdul A

Parasites & vectors 20140219

<h4>Background</h4>Oriental theileriosis is a tick-borne, protozoan disease of cattle caused by members of the Theileria orientalis-complex. Recent outbreaks of this disease in eastern Australia have caused major concerns to the dairy and beef farming communities, but there are no published studies of the economic impact of this disease. On a farm in Victoria, Australia, we assessed whether oriental theileriosis has an impact on milk production and reproductive performance in dairy cows.<h4>Meth ...[more]

PMID: 24552213

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Project description:We previously used the RNA sequencing technique to detect the hepatic transcriptome of Chinese Holstein cows among the dry period, early lactation, and peak of lactation, and implied that the nucleobindin 2 (NUCB2) gene might be associated with milk production traits due to its expression being significantly increased in early lactation or peak of lactation as compared to dry period (q value < 0.05). Hence, in this study, we detected the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of NUCB2 and analyzed their genetic associations with milk yield, fat yield, fat percentage, protein yield, and protein percentage. We re-sequenced the entire coding and 2000 bp of 5' and 3' flanking regions of NUCB2 by pooled sequencing, and identified ten SNPs, including one in 5' flanking region, two in 3' untranslated region (UTR), and seven in 3' flanking region. The single-SNP association analysis results showed that the ten SNPs were significantly associated with milk yield, fat yield, fat percentage, protein yield, or protein percentage in the first or second lactation (p values <= 1 × 10-4 and 0.05). In addition, we estimated the linkage disequilibrium (LD) of the ten SNPs by Haploview 4.2, and found that the SNPs were highly linked in one haplotype block (D' = 0.98-1.00), and the block was also significantly associated with at least one milk traits in the two lactations (p values: 0.0002-0.047). Further, we predicted the changes of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) that are caused by the SNPs in the 5' flanking region of NUCB2, and considered that g.35735477C>T might affect the expression of NUCB2 by changing the TFBSs for ETS transcription factor 3 (ELF3), caudal type homeobox 2 (CDX2), mammalian C-type LTR TATA box (VTATA), nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT), and v-ets erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog (ERG) (matrix similarity threshold, MST > 0.85). However, the further study should be performed to verify the regulatory mechanisms of NUCB2 and its polymorphisms on milk traits. Our findings first revealed the genetic effects of NUCB2 on the milk traits in dairy cows, and suggested that the significant SNPs could be used in genomic selection to improve the accuracy of selection for dairy cattle breeding.

Dataset Information

Oriental theileriosis in dairy cows causes a significant milk production loss.

Publications

Oriental theileriosis in dairy cows causes a significant milk production loss.

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