http://www.agservices.net.nz/ en-gb agservices admin - M.R.Alexander@massey.ac.nz M.R.Alexander@massey.ac.nz Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:11:27 +1200 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:11:27 +1200 http://backend.userland.com/rss e107 (http://e107.org) 60 http://www.agservices.net.nz/e107_images/ http://www.agservices.net.nz/ 88 31 Search Massey University's Agricultural Services query http://www.agservices.net.nz/search.php http://www.agservices.net.nz/news.php?item.24.1 Thursday 24 September was not a usual spring day and a bit of a shock to us all with the easterly blast and low temperatures in the Manawatu Region, a frosty welcome for spring lambs. See this photos taken by Phil Brooks, Manager of Tuapaka farm on the following morning! click on link to see photo Agservices Admi<enquiry@nospam.com> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:50:29 +1200 http://www.agservices.net.nz/news.php?item.24.1 http://www.agservices.net.nz/news.php?item.23.1 NEOSPOROSIS IN SHEEP N. caninum is a protozoan parasite that has been implicated as an important cause of abortion in dairy cattle. Previously, Neospora caninum was not considered an important cause of foetal loss in sheep in New Zealand (or anywhere). However, recently it has been found to be present in sheep, especially young hoggets that have been aborting. This has become especially apparent given as sheep are now generally vaccinated against the major abortion agents such as Toxoplasma and Campylobacter. Studies already conducted by Massey University have investigated flocks with unexplained abortions and found more aborted ewes were seropositive to N. caninum than non-aborted ewes and N. caninum DNA was detected in some of the aborted ewes and foetuses tested. Overall these results are starting to suggest that Neospora may be playing some role in these abortions. The key question for Sharifah’s PhD project is to endeavour to provide an answer as to whether Neospora is playing a role in abortions in sheep in New Zealand. Current knowledge about the epidemiology of N. caninum is sheep is limited. Studies regarding this matter have not been conducted in New Zealand under natural farming condition, thus the need for further investigation is warranted. There are a few questions that we would like to answer. The first one is how a large number of ewes could get infected over a short period of time. Do rams transmit N. caninum in their semen? Horizontal transmission via semen has been thought to be a possible route. If so, could it lead to an infection in the mated ewes? The first study that we have conducted revealed that N. caninum DNA could be found in the semen of rams experimentally infected with various doses of live N. caninum tachyzoites. However, when these experimentally infected rams were mated with ewes, no seroconversion was detected in the ewes. We are now hoping that the development of Real Time PCR would be able to help us to better understand the dynamics of this disease in these animals. Other work is proceeding to further define the dynamics of infection in a flock of sheep.Sharifah (better known as Sha) is a veterinary graduate from Malaysia. Prior to commencing her PhD studies Sharifah was working as a tutor in the Veterinary Faculty of UPM back in Malaysia. She is currently in her second year of PhD studies under the supervision of Prof Bill Pomroy within the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences at Massey University. Agservices Admi<enquiry@nospam.com> Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:29:43 +1200 http://www.agservices.net.nz/news.php?item.23.1