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Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral zoonotic disease distributed across several continents and recognized as an ongoing health threat. In humans, the infection can progress to a severe disease with high fatality, raising public health concerns due to the limited prophylactic and therapeutic options available. Animal species, clinically unaffected by the virus, serve as viral reservoirs and amplifier hosts, and can be a valuable tool for surveillance. Little is known about the occurrence and prevalence of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) in Cameroon. Knowledge on CCHFV exposure and the factors associated with its presence in sentinel species are a valuable resource to better understand transmission dynamics and assess local risks for zoonotic disease emergence. We conducted a CCHFV serological survey and risk factor analysis for animal level seropositivity in pastoral and dairy cattle in the North West Region (NWR) and the Vina Division (VD) of the Adamawa Region in Cameroon. Seroprevalence estimates were adjusted for sampling design-effects and test performance. In addition, explanatory multivariable logistic regression mixed-effects models were fit to estimate the effect of animal characteristics, husbandry practices, risk contacts and ecological features on the serological status of pastoral cattle. The overall seroprevalence was 56.0% (95% CI 53.5-58.6) and 6.7% (95% CI 2.6-16.1) among pastoral and dairy cattle, respectively. Animals going on transhumance had twice the odds of being seropositive (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1-3.8), indicating that animal movements could be implicated in disease expansion. From an ecological perspective, absolute humidity (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9) and shrub density (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.4-3.2) were associated with seropositivity, which suggests an underlying viral dynamic connecting vertebrate host and ticks in a complex transmission network. This study demonstrated high seroprevalence levels of CCHFV antibodies in cattle in Cameroon indicating a potential risk to human populations. However, current understanding of the underlying dynamics of CCHFV locally and the real risk for human populations is incomplete. Further studies designed using a One Health approach are required to improve local knowledge of the disease, host interactions and environmental risk factors. This information is crucial to better project the risks for human populations located in CCHFV-suitable ecological niches.

Background Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is capable of causing explosive outbreaks among domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals. Genomic characterisation of FMDV is a crucial component of disease control enabling accurate tracing of disease outbreaks to be undertaken. Nanopore sequencing is an affordable and accessible form of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology. However, most published methods for FMDV only sequence genomic fragments or focus upon specific lineages. In this study, a universal FMDV sequencing protocol was developed alongside a bespoke analytical pipeline to sequence any FMDV genome in the absence of prior knowledge regarding the identity of the serotype or lineage. Methods Universal multiplex RT-PCRs were used to amplify overlapping tiles encompassing the entire FMDV genome. The PCR products were pooled and subjected to nanopore sequencing using the portable MinION sequencing device. A bioinformatics pipeline was used to assemble genomes based upon blastn and reference assembly. Results Iterative changes in primer design and pooling resulted in two panels of primers; one set amplifying twenty short fragments (S_scheme), and another set amplifying six longer fragments (L_scheme). Both approaches were shown to be capable of generating FMDV genomes, however the L_scheme was simpler, more reliable and more cost-effective at generating complete genomes. The final L_scheme protocol was assessed using 30 FMDV isolates representing all the currently circulating lineages of FMDV. As part of the development, we successfully trialled the use of this technology in Uganda, a country endemic for FMD. Conclusions The amplification, sequencing and bioinformatics strategy developed here has been assessed using a diverse array of FMDV lineages. Using two multiplex PCR reactions, this approach can successfully generate complete genomes of FMDV in a lineage agnostic fashion. Therefore, the primer sets and approaches described here represent a useful tool for expanding the capacity of laboratories to characterise FMDV at the genomic level.

Audiovisual educational material has been used effectively as a knowledge translation strategy in patient education. Given the need to impact maternal mortality rates, 12 video clips related to maternal and neonatal health information were designed based on the results of a previous systematic review (SR). The content was formulated based on clinical practice guideline recommendations and validated following a formal consensus methodology. This study evaluated the effectiveness of knowledge transfer from the 12 video clips in terms of attention, emotional response, and recall by using neuroscience tools. In a randomized cross-over trial, 155 subjects (pregnant women, non-pregnant women, and men) received random sequences of 13 video clips, including a control video clip. Participants' attention levels were evaluated through eye tracking, their emotional reactions were monitored by electrodermal activity and pupillary diameter, and their recall was tested via a questionnaire. An analysis was performed to evaluate differences in the groups and between the video clips and the control clip using variance analysis models that considered period, sequence, and carry-over effects. Results revealed that fixation length was greater in women than in men, while the greatest emotional effects occurred in men. All three groups had good recall results, without any significant differences between them. Although the sequencing did influence attentional processes, no carry-over effect was demonstrated. However, a differential effect was noted among video clips in all three outcomes, that is, when adjusted for group, level of education, and having had children. The control clip generated less attention, emotional reaction, and recall than the experimental video clips. The video clips about maternal and neonatal health were shown to be effective in the transference and comprehension of information. Therefore, cognitive neuroscience techniques are useful in evaluating knowledge translation strategies through audiovisual formats.

IntroductionBovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) causes reproductive inefficiencies and negatively impacts the economy of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It is characterized by a combination of syndromes that result in poor production performance and calf morbidity and mortality. BVDV control is possible by introduction of biosecurity measures, test-and-cull, and vaccination programs as accomplished in high-income countries. Knowledge of BVDV epidemiology is limited in many LMICs, which hinders implementation of effective control programs. We carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the burden of BVDV, identify risk factors related to its occurrence, and health and economic impacts on production systems.Materials and MethodsRelevant BVD articles were collated from library databases; 690 abstracts and full texts were found in an initial search followed by filtering of 59 manuscripts. We accounted for quality and risk of bias in the meta-analysis. Prevalence, exposure, and current infection at regional, production, and farming system levels were estimated using logistic random-effects meta-regression models. Finally, we calculated the proportion of studies that addressed risk factors and health and economic impacts across different production systems to inform future preventative strategies in LMICs.ResultsSeroprevalence was high and varied between regions. Mean weighted prevalence was 39.5% (95% CI 25–56.1), 45.2% (95% CI 35.9–54.8), 49.9% (95% CI 25.5–74.3), and 21.6% (95% CI 0.5–56) for sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Middle East, and Asia, respectively. Seroprevalence varied across farming systems, with smallholder farming showing the highest values. Herdsize was the most frequently reported risk factor, and the percentage of articles that reported herdsize as a risk factor were 20.6%, 33.3%, and 38.4% for dairy, beef and mixed systems respectively. Abortion (13.7% of articles) was the main reported health impact in dairy systems. Some articles reported milk drop (4.6% of articles), but no article investigated the economic cost of BVDV in farming systems.ConclusionAnimal-level seroprevalence varied across all regions. Most of the studies focused on BVDV seroprevalence. There were some articles that investigated risk factors and health impacts, and there were even less that investigated economic impacts. Future studies should focus on identifying risk factors and quantifying health and economic impacts across systems. Understanding these aspects is crucial to develop management strategies to apply across diverse production systems in LMICs.

Animal movements are a major driver for the spread of Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs). These movements link populations that would otherwise be isolated and hence create opportunities for susceptible and infected individuals to meet. We used social network analysis to describe the seasonal network structure of cattle movements in Uganda and unravel critical network features that identify districts or sub-regions for targeted risk-based surveillance and intervention. We constructed weighted, directed networks based on 2019 between-district cattle movements using official livestock mobility data; the purpose of the movement (‘slaughter’ vs. ‘live trade’) was used to subset the network and capture the risks more reliably. Our results show that cattle trade can result in local and long-distance disease spread in Uganda. Seasonal variability appears to impact the structure of the network, with high heterogeneity of node and edge activity identified throughout the seasons. These observations mean that the structure of the live trade network can be exploited to target influential district hubs within the cattle corridor and peripheral areas in the south and west, which would result in rapid network fragmentation, reducing the contact structure-related trade risks. Similar exploitable features were observed for the slaughter network, where cattle traffic serves mainly slaughter hubs close to urban centres along the cattle corridor. Critically, analyses that target the complex livestock supply value chain offer a unique framework for understanding and quantifying risks for TADs such as Foot-and-Mouth disease in a land-locked country like Uganda. These findings can be used to inform the development of risk-based surveillance strategies and decision making on resource allocation. For instance, vaccine deployment, biosecurity enforcement and capacity building for stakeholders at the local community and across animal health services with the potential to limit the socio-economic impact of outbreaks, or indeed reduce their frequency.

Q fever is a neglected zoonotic disease of global concern. In Kenya, it ranks among the top priority zoonoses, yet data on its prevalence and associated risk factors in smallholder dairy farms are limited. To estimate the seroprevalence and molecular prevalence of Coxiella burnetii and identify risk factors for exposure in dairy cattle on smallholder farms in Kenya. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 448 smallholder dairy farms across Nandi County and nearby dairy-producing areas. Serum (n = 1829), vaginal swabs (n = 1783) and preputial swabs (n = 52) were collected. Animal and herd-level data on Q fever risk factors were recorded. An indirect IgG ELISA was used for antibody detection, whereas real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (quantitative PCR [qPCR]) was performed on the swab samples. The animal-level seroprevalence of C. burnetii was 8.7% (95% CI: 7.4-10.0), whereas herd-level seroprevalence was 29.0% (95% CI: 24.8-33.2). Molecular prevalence detected by qPCR was 1.5% (95% CI: 0.9-2.0). Cows with a history of abortion had increased odds of seropositivity (OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.14-2.61). Cattle on farms where dogs were kept-whether fed placentas or not-had lower odds of seropositivity compared to farms without dogs. This study confirms circulation of Q fever in smallholder dairy herds in Kenya. Investigating environmental persistence, farm management, interactions between susceptible hosts and sociocultural aspects of dog ownership in smallholder settings is essential to unravel the local transmission dynamics of Q fever. These findings highlight the need for coxiellosis control strategies, including improved biosecurity, surveillance and evaluation of vaccination approaches that have been successfully applied in other endemic settings.

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) are of major concern in dairy farming, particularly in smallholder systems, because of their impact on the health of the calves and later on their productivity. These infections often occur as co-infections, which can complicate their prevention and treatment. The aim of this study was to conduct fecal egg counts (FEC), genetically identify GIN species, assess species diversity, and identify associated risk factors for GIN infections in dairy calves. Fecal samples were collected from 532 dairy calves across 289 small holder dairy farms. Species identification was achieved through deep amplicon sequencing of the Internal Transcribed Spacer-2 rDNA locus (ITS-2) of first-stage larvae (L1). The mean eggs per gram (EPG) was 62.0 ± 93.0. Most of the calves 64.2% had low-intensity infections (<50 EPG), 28.6% had medium-intensity infections (50–200 EPG), and 7.2% had high-intensity infections (>200 EPG). Next Generation Sequencing analysis identified nine GIN species, with Cooperia punctata (27.8%), Haemonchus placei (26.3%), and Haemonchus contortus (23.6%) being the most prevalent. Co-infections were common, accounting for 69.5% of all infections, with two (40.1%), three (26.9%), and four-species combinations (19.8%) predominating. Male calves showed a significant association with both increased FEC and smaller heart girth, while FEC decreased with age. H. placei and C. punctata were associated with increased FEC, whereas Ostertagia ostertagi (14.5%) and Trichostrongylus colubriformis (8.0%) were associated with decreased heart girth. Calves managed under pasture systems had higher odds of co-infection. This study reveals that GIN infections are highly prevalent in dairy calves, with co-infections being common, and that GIN burden is significantly influenced by calf age, sex, and management system. The Nemabiome tool offers a promising approach to assessing GIN burden and guiding the selection of anthelmintic protocols as part of sustainable farming strategies in tropical regions.

Despite sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounting for ~20% of the global cattle population, prevalence estimates and related risk factors of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) are still poorly described. The increased sensitivity of the IFN-γ assay and its practical benefits suggest the test could be useful to investigate bTB epidemiology in SSA. This study used a population-based sample to estimate bTB prevalence, identify risk factors and estimate the effective reproductive rate in Cameroonian cattle populations. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the North West Region (NWR) and the Vina Division (VIN) of Cameroon in 2013. A regional stratified sampling frame of pastoral cattle herds produced a sample of 1,448 cattle from 100 herds. In addition, a smaller cross-sectional study sampled 60 dairy cattle from 46 small-holder co-operative dairy farmers in the NWR. Collected blood samples were stimulated with bovine and avian purified protein derivatives, with extracted plasma screened using the IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Prionics Bovigam ® ). Design-adjusted population prevalences were estimated, and multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression models using Bayesian inference techniques identified the risk factors for IFN-γ positivity. Using the IFN-γ assay, the prevalence of bTB in the dairy cattle was 21.7% (95% CI: 11.2–32.2). The design-adjusted prevalence of bTB in cattle kept by pastoralists was 11.4% (95% CI: 7.6–17.0) in the NWR and 8.0% (95% CI: 4.7–13.0) in the VIN. A within-herd prevalence estimate for pastoralist cattle also supported that the NWR had higher prevalence herds than the VIN. Additionally, the estimates of the effective reproductive rate R t were 1.12 for the NWR and 1.06 for the VIN, suggesting different transmission rates within regional cattle populations in Cameroon. For pastoral cattle, an increased risk of IFN-γ assay positivity was associated with being male (OR = 1.89; 95% CI:1.15–3.09), increasing herd size (OR = 1.02; 95% CI:1.01–1.03), exposure to the bovine leucosis virus (OR = 2.45; 95% CI: 1.19–4.84) and paratuberculosis (OR = 9.01; 95% CI: 4.17–20.08). Decreased odds were associated with contacts at grazing, buffalo (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.03–0.97) and increased contact with other herds [1–5 herds: OR = 0.16 (95% CI: 0.04–0.55); 6+ herds: OR = 0.18 (95% CI: 0.05–0.64)]. Few studies have used the IFN-γ assay to describe bTB epidemiology in SSA. This study highlights the endemic situation of bTB in Cameroon and potential public health risks from dairy herds. Further work is needed to understand the IFN-γ assay performance, particularly in the presence of co-infections, and how this information can be used to develop control strategies in the SSA contexts.

The interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) assay and single comparative cervical skin test (SCITT) are used to estimate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) prevalence globally. Prevalence estimates of bTB, caused by Mycobacterium bovis , are poorly quantified in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cattle populations. Furthermore, antemortem diagnostic performance can vary at different stages of bTB pathogenesis and in different cattle populations. In this study, we aim to explore the level of agreement and disagreement between the IFN-γ assay and SCITT test, along with the drivers for disagreement, in a naturally infected African cattle population. In, 2013, a pastoral cattle population was sampled using a stratified clustered cross-sectional study in Cameroon. A total of 100 pastoral cattle herds in the North West Region (NWR) and the Vina Division (VIN) were sampled totalling 1,448 cattle. Individual animal data and herd-level data were collected, and animals were screened using both the IFN-γ assay and SCITT. Serological ELISAs were used to detect exposure to immunosuppressing co-infections. Agreement analyses were used to compare the performance between the two bTB diagnostic tests, and multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression models (MLR) were developed to investigate the two forms of IFN-γ assay and SCITT binary disagreement. Best agreement using the Cohen's κ statistic, between the SCITT (>2 mm) and the IFN-γ assay implied a ‘fair-moderate' agreement for the NWR [κ = 0.42 (95%CI: 0.31–0.53)] and ‘poor-moderate' for the VIN [κ = 0.33 (95% CI: 0.18–0.47)]. The main test disagreement was the animals testing positive on the IFN-γ assay and negative by the SCITT. From MLR modeling, adults (adults OR: 7.57; older adults OR = 7.21), females (OR = 0.50), bovine leucosis (OR = 2.30), and paratuberculosis positivity (OR = 6.54) were associated with IFN-γ-positive/SCITT-negative disagreement. Subsets to investigate diagnostic test disagreement for being SCITT-positive and IFN-γ-negative also identified that adults (adults OR = 15.74; older adults OR = 9.18) were associated with IFN-γ-negative/SCITT-positive disagreement. We demonstrate that individual or combined use of the IFN-γ assay and SCITT can lead to a large variation in bTB prevalence estimates. Considering that animal level factors were associated with disagreement between the IFN-γ assay and SCITT in this study, future work should further investigate their impact on diagnostic test performance to develop the approaches to improve SSA prevalence estimates.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) places a heavy economic burden on farmers and animal health authorities due to its clinical effects, the high cost associated with its prevention and control, and trade restrictions on livestock and livestock products in countries without FMD-free recognition like Uganda. Building on our previous work using cattle movement networks for risk mapping, we demonstrate that Bayesian disease mapping can serve as a complementary epidemiological approach to identify and communicate spatial variation in outbreak risk. A Bayesian Poisson mixed-effects spatial regression model was built with the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) to analyze FMD outbreak data from 2014 to 2019. This analysis examined the spatial variation in risk and assessed potential drivers of its distribution, providing insights to support targeted and cost-effective disease surveillance and control strategies. Cattle density, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), deprivation score, and human density were associated with the risk of outbreaks but did not explain most of its spatial distribution, suggesting that additional epidemiological factors may contribute and should be examined in future models. Mean vaccination coverage was associated with an increased risk of outbreaks, consistent with the predominantly reactive vaccination program implemented during the study period. Adjusted district-specific risk estimates and exceedance probabilities (EPs) highlighted districts across the cattle corridor, a wide zone that extends from the southwestern to the northeastern part of the country, as areas of greater risk. Lower-risk areas mapped to large parts of the northern and western regions, a finding that may reflect limited disease detection, given the past evidence of viral exposure in these areas. A better understanding of district-specific factors contributing to the outbreaks, together with a timely and sensitive surveillance system, is crucial for supporting evidence-based FMD control plans. Such strategies should account for the characteristics of local communities, the typical operation of livestock production systems, and their unique challenges to improve their effectiveness.