Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLVs), i.e., CAEV and MVV, cause insidious infections with life-long persistence and a slowly progressive disease, impairing both animal welfare and productivity in affected herds. The complex diagnosis of SRLVs currently combines serological methods including whole-virus and peptide-based ELISAs and Immunoblot. To improve the current diagnostic protocol, we analyzed 290 sera of animals originating from different European countries in parallel with three commercial screening ELISAs, Immunoblot as a confirmatory assay and five SU5 peptide ELISAs for genotype differentiation. A newly developed nested real-time PCR was carried out for the detection and genotype differentiation of the virus. Using a heat-map display of the combined results, the drawbacks of the current techniques were graphically visualized and quantified. The immunoblot and the SU5-ELISAs exhibited either unsatisfactory sensitivity or insufficient reliability in the differentiation of the causative viral genotype, respectively. The new truth standard was the concordance of the results of two out of three screening ELISAs and the PCR results for serologically false negative samples along with genotype differentiation. Whole-virus antigen-based ELISA showed the highest sensitivity (92.2%) and specificity (98.9%) among the screening tests, whereas PCR exhibited a sensitivity of 75%.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary vibroactivated clinoptilolite supplementation on the intramammary microbiological findings in dairy cows, causative agents of potential intramammary infection, and their sensitivity to antibiotics. Cows (n = 78) were randomly divided into two groups: CPL-treated group that received clinoptilolite (CPL) in-feed (n = 38), i.e., 50 g natural powdered zeolite CPL, twice daily from the seventh month of pregnancy to 75 days after calving, and the control group (CON) of untreated cows (n = 40). Milk samples were taken from each cow on days 7, 25, 45, and 75 postpartum. The following causative pathogens were isolated in 86 udder quarters: Staphylococcus aureus in 5.81% of positive samples, Staphylococcus spp. 9.32%, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) 22.09%, Streptococcus uberis 13.95%, Streptococcus agalactiae 1.16%, Streptococcus sp. 3.49%, Escherichia coli 8.13%, Enterococcus spp. 6.98%, Corynebacterium spp. 11.63%, Pasteurella sp. 10.47%, Serratia spp. 2.33%, and Arcanobacterium pyogenes, Citrobacter sp., Prototheca sp., and yeasts each in 1.16% of samples. Additionally, 3.87% of environmental microflora samples (n = 47) and 89.06% of udder samples (n = 1083) were bacteriologically negative. The most effective antibiotics were cefoperazone and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, while cloxacillin and tetracycline were the least effective antibiotics in both groups. In the clinoptilolite supplemented (CPL) group (n = 38) of 14 cows, nine causative agents of mastitis were isolated in 27 quarters, while in the control (CON) group (n = 40) of 24 cows, 13 causative agents of mastitis were isolated in 59 quarters. Cows from the CON group had a 1.96 times higher risk of intramammary infection than cows from the CPL group during the observation period (odds ratio = 1.96, p = 0.0031; 95% CI = 1.2570–3.0770).

U ovom su radu prikazani rezultati mikrobioloških pretraga sekreta vimena krava s različitim oblicima upala mliječnih žlijezda. Pretraženi su uzorci tijekom pet godina dostavljani u Laboratorij za dijagnostiku Veterinarskog zavoda Križevci, podrijetlom iz 7 županija sjeverozapadne Hrvatske. Uzorci su pretraženi konvencionalnim mikrobiološkim metodama u aerobnim uvjetima. Ukupno je obrađeno 1264 uzorka, a pozitivan rezultat ustvrđen je u 983 slučaja ili 77,76 % uzoraka. Pri tome je izdvojeno 967 sojeva bakterija; u 9 slučajeva izdvojene su kvasnice, a u 7 slučajeva alge. Osjetljivost prema antimikrobnim lijekovima određivana je disk-difuzijskom metodom. Od pozitivnih mikrobioloških nalaza 14,24 % izolata pripada vrsti Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a između njih je 60 % rezistentno na OX. Sojevi S. aureus pokazali su najvišu osjetljivost prema AMC (91,4 %) te prema CEQ (90,7 %). Koagulaza–negativni stafilokoki (CNS) čine 19,23 % pozitivnih slučajeva, s najboljom osjetljivosti prema CEQ (84,6 %). Streptococcus agalactiae ustanovljen je u 3,36 % pozitivnih uzoraka, a pokazao je dobru osjetljivost prema CPZ i CEQ (87,9 %). Ostali streptokoki (po Lancefieldovoj grupe C, D i ostale) čine 39,47 % pozitivnih nalaza i pokazali su najbolju osjetljivost prema AMC (95,4 %) i CEQ (92,8 %). Od Gram-negativnih bakterija među pozitivnim uzorcima najčešće je zastupljena: Escherichia coli (9,46 %), a zatim rodovi Pseudomonas, Enterobacter i Klebsiella (3,46 %, 2,64 % i 0,1 % kako slijedi). Kvasnice (Candida spp.) i alge (Prototheca spp.) su izdvojeneumanjeod1%slučajeva.Rezultati pokazuju da je postotak stafilokoknih i streptokoknih mastitisa podjednak onima u dosadašnjim istraživanjima, no uočen je trend povećanja broja rezistentnih sojeva vrste S. aureus. Pouzdan mikrobiološki nalaz s antibiogramom je uz kliničku pretragu temelj kontrole mastitisa u našim uvjetima, jer različite vrste mikrorganizma zahtijevaju različite pristupe u liječenju, kao što su izbor antibiotika, cijepljenje, zasušivanje četvrti ili kao zadnji izbor izlučenje životinje.

Different contagious diseases had huge impact on the society during the history. Their appearance destroyed and devastated whole teritories, caused number of victims which drastically surpassed the ones in wars, and after the appearance of such disease the whole path of the history changed. The most important contagious diseases are known and written in the earliest known records, from the beginning of the world they were humans` companion, their impact on the development, suffer and death is huge during hundreds of years. Smallpox belong to the most deadly and the scariest viral diseases faced by humanity. Pandemic of Spanish flu from 1918 is the biggest global demographic earthquake that the world has ever experienced. One of the most important transmisive (vector) mosquito-borne diseases, caused by protozoa, is malaria. Lice transmit the causer of typhus fever, trench fever and recurrent fever. Plague in natural habitats transmits rat flea and it is one of the most dangerous bacterial diseases. Typhus fever was a constant companion of the distress, accidents and suffering of the people during wars. Many faiths of people were connected with tuberculosis, it was always an unavoidable part of living community. Leprosy is one of the oldest and scariest diseases. It was a synonym for stigmatization and discrimination because of big deformations on the body. Styphilis is constant and unwanted companion of humanity for more than 400 years. Since its first occurance, styphilis was stigmatisized, disgraceful disease. Contemporary past of cholera began in 1817. Cholera causes difficult clinical diseases followed by humans pain and panic, and disrupts social and economic structure and develompent of the society wherever it occurs. It is visible that throughout the whole history, contagious diseases had huge impact on development and prosperity of the humanity. Throughtout the history, humans had many important wars and battles, but perhaps the biggest ones were fought, and many of them are still fighting, against the contagious diseases.

Zadnjih se desetljeća kobilje mlijeko istražuje kao funkcionalna i ljekovita hrana. Sastav kobiljeg, humanog i kravljeg mlijeka znatno se razlikuje, a varira i o genetskim, fiziološkim i prehrambenim čimbenicima, kao i o uvjetima okoliša. Uspoređujući ga s humanim i kravljim mlijekom, kobilje mlijeko ima nižu energetsku vrijednost i niže vrijednosti masti. Sadržaj proteina sirutke i kazeina u kobiljem mlijeku sličan je onom u humanom za prehranu ljudi i čini ga pogodnijim od kravljega. Kobilje i humano mlijeko formiraju precipitat koji je lakše probavljiv od koaguluma kravljeg mlijeka. Vanjska membrana masnih globula, kao i raspodjela di- i tri- glicerida iz kobiljeg i humanog mlijeka su slične. Postotak nezasićenih masnih kiselina u kobiljem i humanom mlijeku veći je nego u kravljem mlijeku, a najveći dio otpada na polinezasićene masne kiseline sa srednjim i većim brojem ugljikovih atoma. Kobilje mlijeko zauzima sve više prostora u nutricionizmu zbog svojih specifičnih kemijskih i nutritivnih karakteristika.