Edinburgh Research Archive logo

Edinburgh Research Archive

University of Edinburgh homecrest
View Item 
  •   ERA Home
  • Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
  • Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies thesis and dissertation collection
  • View Item
  •   ERA Home
  • Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
  • Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies thesis and dissertation collection
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Relationships between disease, work & nutrition in draught cattle & buffalo

View/Open
ClemenceRG_1997redux.pdf (55.11Mb)
Date
1997
Author
Clemence, Richard Guy
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
 
 
It is well known that disease adversely affects the production of milk and meat in domestic livestock and therefore it would be surprising if certain diseases did not also affect the work output of draught animals. There is however no direct evidence of this, although there is strong evidence from research with humans and laboratory animals that exercise depresses immune responses. This effect may be exacerbated by undernutrition. Draught animals are required to work hard for short periods during the year, these periods often coincide with seasonal food shortages and sometimes with outbreaks of disease. The combination of work, disease and malnutrition may have serious adverse effects on the ability of draught animals to complete cultivation tasks. In countries with short rainy seasons this can have a potentially disastrous effect on subsequent crop yields.
 
The interactions of disease, work and undernutrition in draught animals were examined in three separate studies. The first study carried out in Indonesia investigated the effects of Trypanosoma evansi on the work output of twelve swamp buffalo in two groups. The second undertaken in the UK, used four groups of six sheep as a model to examine the effects of exercise and plane of nutrition on cellular and humoral immune responses in the absence of a pathogen. The final study in The Gambia, looked at the effects of work and undernutrition on the trypanotolerance of 32 N'Dama cattle in four groups challenged with T. congolense. In the first experiment work output was monitored for 11 weeks in infected and uninfected animals using a cross-over design. In the second laboratory based experiment the immune responses of sheep challenged with two foreign antigens Brucella abortus and ovalbumin, were measured for 11 weeks after challenge in a factorial design involving two planes of nutrition and two levels of exercise. In the third study the same factorial design was used to examine the effects of work and undernutrition on the trypanotolerance of N'Dama cattle challenged with T. congolense. The results of all three studies were analysed using either parametric and non-parametric statistical tests as appropriate.
 
In the first experiment carried out in Indonesia, after a protracted period of work (5 weeks pre-infection and 4 weeks post-infection), the parasitaemias of some infected buffalo increased dramatically and at the same time work output declined. However because of the experimental design and because a similar effect was not seen in the first period of the experiment, it was not possible to prove that trypanosomosis had caused this fall in output. In the second study with sheep, immune responses varied markedly between individuals but there were no significant differences between groups, with one exception, the speed of the primary antibody response to ovalbumin was significantly faster in sheep on the high plane of nutrition than in those on the low plane. In the final study in The Gambia work caused significant increases in animal parasitaemias and reductions in blood packed cell volumes. Some of the working cattle became so severely anaemic (PVC's < 15%) that they were unable to complete the normal daily work programme and had to be retired early, the first after only seven weeks work.
 
In conclusion it appears that in some circumstances work can affect the course of a disease and conversely disease can reduce work output. It is however very difficult to quantify these effects because of large differences in response between individual animals and differences in pathogenicity between different diseases and different strains of the same disease.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30537
Collections
  • Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies thesis and dissertation collection

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page

 

 

All of ERACommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisorsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisors
LoginRegister

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page