The antibody titers against Coxiella burnetii (Q fever) among cattle raised in Gwangju area were analyzed from February to October in 2015. The prevalence of antibodies in collected bulk-tank milk from 7 dairy cattle farms was 57.1% and the seroprevalence of 210 dairy cows randomly selected from those farms was 7.1%. By age, the seroprevalence was 3.3% in less than 4 years of age, 9.0% between 4 and 7 years of age, and 28.6% in more than 8 years of age. On the other hand, the seroprevalence of the Hanwoo cattle was 0.4%. The result suggested that the antibodies against Coxiella burnetii increase as the age of the dairy cows increases and therefore, it is necessary to keep monitoring the prevalence of Q fever in Gwangju area.

For the monitoring of six viral disease (CIV: canine influenzavirus, CPIV: canine parainfluenzavirus, CHV: canine herpesvirus, CPV2: canine parvovirus type 2, CCoV: canine coronavirus, CNV: canine norovirus) inspections, a total of 300 samples were collected nasal or feces from the companion dogs of animal hospital (n=98) and the abandoned dogs of animal shelters (n=202) in Gwangju, Korea. Using PCR and RT-PCR, CPV2, CPIV and CHV were detected in 55 (18.3%), 11 (3.7%), 1 (0.3%), respectively. CPV2 was highly detected in May, October and November. and CPIV was highly detected in November. But those agents were not detected the virus in March and July. Based on the results of the investigation continuous monitoring for companion and abandoned dogs will be required.

Mycobacterium bovis, a member of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTC), is the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis. Detection of M. bovis and M. tuberculosis using conventional culture-and biochemical-based assays is time-consuming. Therefore, a simple and sensitive molecular assay for rapid detection would be of great help in specific situations such as faster diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) infection in the abattoirs. We developed a novel multiplex real-time PCR assay which was applied directly to biological samples with evidence of bTB and it was allowed to differentiate between M. bovis and M. tuberculosis. The primers and TaqMan probes were designed to target the IS1081 gene, the multi-copy insertion element in the MTC and the 12.7-kb fragment which presents in M. tuberculosis, not in the M. bovis genome. The assay was optimized and validated by testing 10 species of mycobacteria including M. bovis and M. tuberculosis, and 10 other bacterial species such as Escherichia coli, and cattle lymph nodes (n=113). The tests identified 96.4% (27/28) as M. bovis from the MTC-positive bTB samples using conventional PCR for specific insertion elements IS1081. And MTC-negative bTB samples (n=85) were tested using conventional PCR and the real-time PCR. When comparative analyses were conducted on all bovine samples, using conventional PCR as the gold standard, the relative accuracy of real-time PCR was 99.1%, the relative specificity was 100%, and the agreement quotient (kappa) was 0.976. The detection limits of the real-time PCR assays for M. bovis and M. tuberculosis genomic DNA were 10 fg and 0.1 pg per PCR reaction, respectively. Consequently, this multiplex real-time PCR assay is a useful diagnotic tool for the identification of MTC and differentiation of M. bovis and M. tuberculosis, as well as the epidemiologic surveillance of animals slaughtered in abattoir.

Consumer's preference and microbial inspections on fresh raw beef were carried out to understand the actual market status in Gwanju, Korea. Over 15 questions on questionnaire by 1,111 randomly selected respondents between April and May in 2011, results showed 65.5% positive on eating fresh raw beef, 63.8% negative on good hygiene condition of fresh raw beef, and 72.5% positive on the secure of the hygiene-safety for priority program, respectively. For microbial inspections, a total of 302 samples were collected from fresh raw beef purchased from slaughterhouse (n=122), transport (n=69) and consumer (n=81) stage, from lettuce (n=30) at consumer stage. The aerobic plate count (APC), E. coli count and food borne bacteria such as Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus(S.) aureus and E. coli O157:H7 were tested in the samples. As results, the level of count on APC of fresh raw beef ranged 6×10 1 ∼1.8×10 5 CFU/g from slaughterhouse, 2×10 2 ∼8.3×10 5 CFU/g from transport stage and 1×10 2 ∼4×10 5 CFU/g from consumer stage. The level of count on E. coli of fresh raw beef ranged 1∼9×10 1 CFU/g from slaughterhouse, 1∼7×10 CFU/g from transport stage and 1∼5.5×10 CFU/g from consumer stage. In total, 26 S. aureus were isolated, 10 (14.5%) from fresh raw beef at transport stage, 12 (14.8%) from fresh raw beef and 4 (13.3%) from lettuce at consumer stage. Enterotoxin of S. aureus was not detected among 26 isolates. All S. aureus isolates were typed using a DiversiLab TM rep-PCR system for genetic similarity test, showing over 95% of genetic relationship amon isolates.

The purpose of this study was to determine the zoonotic diseases of stray dog and cat in Gwangju, Korea. We chose randomly 300 samples which is 265, dogs and 35, cats in the public animal shelter from March to August of 2013. The animals' blood biochemistry values measured, and the out of normal values were 49.7% GOT, 36.3% GPT, and 78.0% GGT. The tested items were Dirofilaria immitis, Toxoplasma gondii, Brucella canis, Rabies virus. The positive results were 10% Dirofilaria immitis, 6.3% Toxoplasma gondii (antibody detected), 10% Rabies (antibody detected) but 0.0% in B. canis. The stray animals' antibodyㆍantigen positivity take effect high from Mar.-May. Therefore, we propose that those diseases should be monitering and vaccinating in Korea.