Publications

Helminth infections of cattle place significant burdens on livestock production and farm economic efficiency. Heavy infections are relatively easy to detect and treat with anthelmintics. However, subclinical infections have major but often hidden impacts on animals, necessitating more refined diagnostics to detect them and ideally inform farmers about the likely impact of anthelmintic treatment on animal and herd performance. Here, we review ...

Simple Summary Gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections are a significant health and welfare threat to calves in pasture-based rearing systems. Sustainable control requires an efficient and cost-effective diagnostic tool. The serum pepsinogen assay is a long-established tool to monitor the infection level. However, the relatively high cost and lack of standardisation hinder the broad implementation of this method. Here, the more cost-efficient ...

Chronic progressive lymphedema (CPL) is a condition with a significant impact on the health and welfare of the current draft horse population. Clinical signs are severe and primarily involve the progressive swelling of the distal portions of the legs, which is accompanied by scaling, marked dermal fibrosis, and the development of skinfolds and nodules, which are often complicated by secondary infections. Current treatment and management options ...

The aim of this prospective, randomized, single-blinded, and placebo-controlled clinical trial was to investigate the efficacy of a moxidectin pour-on solution for the treatment of Chorioptes bovis infestation in Belgian draft horses, and in addition, to evaluate the effect of this treatment on the clinical signs and lesions associated with chronic progressive lymphedema (CPL). Nineteen privately owned Belgian draft horses were randomly assigned ...

The development of effective recombinant vaccines against parasitic nematodes has been challenging and so far mostly unsuccessful. This has also been the case for Ostertagia ostertagi, an economically important abomasal nematode in cattle, applying recombinant versions of the protective native activation-associated secreted proteins (ASP). To gain insight in key elements required to trigger a protective immune response, the protein structure and ...

Gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections are present on all pasture-based cattle farms. The most important species in temperate climate areas are Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora. Infections with these species are an important cause of economic loss on farms throughout the world. The losses are mainly caused by clinical disease or reduced growth rates in young animals and milk yield losses in adult cows. The negative effect of GI ...

Increasing anthelmintic resistance (AR) in livestock has stimulated growing efforts to monitor anthelmintic effectiveness (AE) on livestock farms. On-farm assessment of AE relies on measuring the reduction in faecal egg count (FEC) following treatment; and if conducted rigorously, qualifies as a formal FEC reduction test (FECRT) for AR. Substantial research effort has been devoted to designing robust protocols for the FECRT and its statistical ...

Belgian Blue cattle are known for their high degree of muscling and good carcass qualities. This high degree of muscling is mainly caused by a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN). Although the MSTN mutation is considered as fixed in the Belgian Blue breed, segregation is occurring in a sub-population bred for dual purpose. In the latter population, we observed an association between the mutation in MSTN and susceptibility to psoroptic mange, a ...