Potential immune modulating properties and antioxidant activity of supplementing commercially available lactoferrin and/or Lactobacillus sp. in healthy Ossimi lambs.

The use of lactoferrin (LF) and/or lactobacillus sp. (LB) to improve animal health and pro- duction has increased recently. However, information regarding the immune-modulatory role of LB supplementations either alone or in combination with LF in sheep remains unclear. There- fore, the present study was designed to evaluate the immune modulating properties and the anti- oxidant activity of supplementing commercially available LF and/or LB in healthy lambs. For this reason, twenty-four apparently healthy Ossimi lambs were used. After three weeks of acclimati- zation, the lambs were randomly allocated to four equal-sized groups and assigned to receive one of the following supplements: LB at a dose of ~ 1 g active ingredient/head (group 1), LF at a dose rate of 0.5 gm /head (group 2), a combination of both treatments using the same dosing regimens (group 3), and (group 4) received only 10 mL of isotonic saline and was considered as a control group. All supplements were given orally twice daily for 30 consecutive days. Blood sam- ples were collected from each lamb before starting the experiment (T0) and two weeks (T15), and four weeks (T30) after giving supplements for hematological examinations, serum biochemical analyses, and RT-PCR assays. Our findings demonstrated that lambs receiving LB showed statis- tically significant (P⟨0.05) higher values of total leucocytes, lymphocytes and lysozyme activi- ty than those receiving LF. In contrast, lambs that received LF had significantly (P⟨ 0.05) higher values of serum catalase, nitric oxide and GSH with a significantly lower MDA level compared with those supplemented with LB. A combination of LF and LB supplementation elicited maxi- mal up-regulation of Tollip, TLR4, IL-5, and IL-6 gene expression compared with other groups. The results suggest that bovine LF and or LB could be used as useful nutritional supple- ments to support the immune system in healthy lambs.

Rift Valley fever virus infections in Egyptian cattle and their prevention.

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) causes consistently severe outbreaks with high public health impacts and economic losses in livestock in many African countries and has also been introduced to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Egypt with its four large outbreaks in the last 40 years represents the northernmost endemic area of RVFV. The purpose of this study was to provide an insight into the current anti-RVFV antibody status in immunized as well as non-immunized dairy cattle from the Nile Delta of Egypt. During 2013-2015, a total of 4,167 dairy cattle from four governorates including Dakahlia, Damietta, Gharbia and Port Said were investigated. All cattle were born after 2007 and therewith after the last reported Egyptian RVFV outbreak in 2003. The samples derived from vaccinated animals from 26 different dairy farms as well as non-immunized cattle from 27 different smallholding flocks. All samples were examined following a three-part analysis including a commercially available competition ELISA, an in-house immunofluorescence assay and a virus neutralization test. Additionally, a subset of samples was analysed for acute infections using IgM ELISA and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR. The results indicated that the RVFV is still circulating in Egypt as about 10% of the non-immunized animals exhibited RVFV-specific antibodies. Surprisingly, the antibody prevalence in immunized animals was not significantly higher than that in non-vaccinated animals which points out the need for further evaluation of the vaccination programme. Due to the substantial role of livestock in the amplification and transmission of RVFV, further recurrent monitoring of the antibody prevalence in susceptible species is highly warranted.