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Mastitis (intramammary inflammation) caused by infectious pathogens is still considered a devastating condition of dairy animals affecting animal welfare as well as economically incurring huge losses to the dairy industry by means of decreased production performance and increased culling rates. Bovine mastitis is the inflammation of the mammary glands/udder of bovines, caused by bacterial pathogens, in most cases. Routine diagnosis is based on clinical and subclinical forms of the disease. This underlines the significance of early and rapid identification/detection of etiological agents at the farm level, for which several diagnostic techniques have been developed. Therapeutic regimens such as antibiotics, immunotherapy, bacteriocins, bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides, probiotics, stem cell therapy, native secretory factors, nutritional, dry cow and lactation therapy, genetic selection, herbs, and nanoparticle technology-based therapy have been evaluated for their efficacy in the treatment of mastitis. Even though several strategies have been developed over the years for the purpose of managing both clinical and subclinical forms of mastitis, all of them lacked the efficacy to eliminate the associated etiological agent when used as a monotherapy. Further, research has to be directed towards the development of new therapeutic agents/techniques that can both replace conventional techniques and also solve the problem of emerging antibiotic resistance. The objective of the present review is to describe the etiological agents, pathogenesis, and diagnosis in brief along with an extensive discussion on the advances in the treatment and management of mastitis, which would help safeguard the health of dairy animals.

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of great animal welfare and economic implications worldwide known since ancient times. The emergence of brucellosis in new areas as well as transmission of brucellosis from wild and domestic animals is of great significance in terms of new epidemiological dimensions. Brucellosis poses a major public health threat by the consumption of non-pasteurized milk and milk products produced by unhygienic dairy farms in endemic areas. Regular and meticulous surveillance is essentially required to determine the true picture of brucellosis especially in areas with continuous high prevalence. Additionally, international migration of humans, animals and trade of animal products has created a challenge for disease spread and diagnosis in non-endemic areas. Isolation and identification remain the gold standard test, which requires expertise. The advancement in diagnostic strategies coupled with screening of newly introduced animals is warranted to control the disease. Of note, the diagnostic value of miRNAs for appropriate detection of B. abortus infection has been shown. The most widely used vaccine strains to protect against Brucella infection and related abortions in cattle are strain 19 and RB51. Moreover, it is very important to note that no vaccine, which is highly protective, safe and effective is available either for bovines or human beings. Research results encourage the use of bacteriophage lysates in treatment of bovine brucellosis. One Health approach can aid in control of this disease, both in animals and man.

Keywords: COVID-19, 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus, Therapeutics, Ivermectin

A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), causing an emerging coronavirus disease (COVID-19), first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which has taken a catastrophic turn with high toll rates in China and subsequently spreading across the globe. The rapid spread of this virus to more than 210 countries while affecting more than 25 million people and causing more than 843,000 human deaths, it has resulted in a pandemic situation in the world. The SARS-CoV-2 virus belongs to the genus Betacoronavirus , like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, all of which originated in bats. It is highly contagious, causing symptoms like fever, dyspnea, asthenia and pneumonia, thrombocytopenia, and the severely infected patients succumb to the disease. Coronaviruses (CoVs) among all known RNA viruses have the largest genomes ranging from 26 to 32 kb in length. Extensive research has been conducted to understand the molecular basis of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and evolution, develop effective therapeutics, antiviral drugs, and vaccines, and to design rapid and confirmatory viral diagnostics as well as adopt appropriate prevention and control strategies. To date, August 30, 2020, no effective, proven therapeutic antibodies or specific drugs, and vaccines have turned up. In this review article, we describe the underlying molecular organization and phylogenetic analysis of the coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV-2, and recent advances in diagnosis and vaccine development in brief and focusing mainly on developing potential therapeutic options that can be explored to manage this pandemic virus infection, which would help in valid countering of COVID-19.

Yellow mosaic disease (YMD) in bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia ) is a devastating disease that seriously affects its yield. Although there is currently no effective method to control the disease, breeding of resistant varieties is the most effective and economic option. Moreover, quantitative trait locus (QTL) associated with resistance to YMD has not yet been reported. With the objective of mapping YMD resistance in bitter gourd, the susceptible parent “Punjab-14” and the resistant parent “PAUBG-6” were crossed to obtain F 4 mapping population comprising 101 individuals. In the present study, the genotyping by sequencing (GBS) approach was used to develop the genetic linkage map. The map contained 3,144 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, consisted of 15 linkage groups, and it spanned 2415.2 cM with an average marker distance of 0.7 cM. By adopting the artificial and field inoculation techniques, F 4:5 individuals were phenotyped for disease resistance in Nethouse (2019), Rainy (2019), and Spring season (2020). The QTL analysis using the genetic map and phenotyping data identified three QTLs qYMD.pau_3.1 , qYMD.pau_4.1 , and qYMD.pau_5.1 on chromosome 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Among these, qYMD.pau_3.1 , qYMD.pau_4.1 QTLs were identified during the rainy season, explaining the 13.5 and 21.6% phenotypic variance respectively, whereas, during the spring season, qYMD.pau_4.1 and qYMD.pau_5.1 QTLs were observed with 17.5 and 22.1% phenotypic variance respectively. Only one QTL qYMD.pau_5.1 was identified for disease resistance under nethouse conditions with 15.6% phenotypic variance. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the identification of QTLs associated with YMD resistance in bitter gourd using SNP markers. The information generated in this study is very useful in the future for fine-mapping and marker-assisted selection for disease resistance.

Bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia L.) is an important vegetable crop having numerous medicinal properties. Earliness and yield related traits are main aims of bitter gourd breeding program. High resolution quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping can help in understanding the molecular basis of phenotypic variation of these traits and thus facilitate marker-assisted breeding. The aim of present study was to identify genetic loci controlling earliness, fruit, and seed related traits. To achieve this, genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach was used to genotype 101 individuals of F 4 population derived from a cross between an elite cultivar Punjab-14 and PAUBG-6. This population was phenotyped under net-house conditions for three years 2018, 2019, and 2021. The linkage map consisting of 15 linkage groups comprising 3,144 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers was used to detect the QTLs for nine traits. A total of 50 QTLs for these traits were detected which were distributed on 11 chromosomes. The QTLs explained 5.09–29.82% of the phenotypic variance. The highest logarithm of the odds (LOD) score for a single QTL was 8.68 and the lowest was 2.50. For the earliness related traits, a total of 22 QTLs were detected. For the fruit related traits, a total of 16 QTLs and for seed related traits, a total of 12 QTLs were detected. Out of 50 QTLs, 20 QTLs were considered as frequent QTLs (FQ-QTLs). The information generated in this study is very useful in the future for fine-mapping and marker-assisted selection for these traits in bitter gourd improvement program.

The technology-driven world of the 21st century is currently confronted with a major threat to humankind, represented by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of now, COVID-19 has affected more than 6 million confirmed cases and took 0.39 million human lives. SARS-CoV-2 spreads much faster than its two ancestors, SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV), but has low fatality rates. Our analyses speculate that the efficient replication and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 might be due to the high-density basic amino acid residues, preferably positioned in close proximity at both the furin-like cleavage sites (S1/S2 and S2’) within the spike protein. Given the high genomic similarities of SARS-CoV-2 to bat SARS-like CoVs, it is likely that bats serve as a reservoir host for its progenitor. Women and children are less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, while the elderly and people with comorbidities are more prone to serious clinical outcomes, which may be associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and cytokine storm. The cohesive approach amongst researchers across the globe has delivered high-end viral diagnostics. However, home-based point-of-care diagnostics are still under development, which may prove transformative in current COVID-19 pandemic containment. Similarly, vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19 are currently in the pipeline for clinical trials. In this review, we discuss the noteworthy advancements, focusing on the etiological viral agent, comparative genomic analysis, population susceptibility, disease epidemiology and diagnosis, animal reservoirs, laboratory animal models, disease transmission, therapeutics, vaccine challenges, and disease mitigation measures.

A 2-year-old female Assam Hill goat was presented with a clinical history of anorexia, fever, mild anemia, rough body coat, dehydration, tachycardia, dyspnea and swelling of palpable lymph nodes. Hematology revealed low hemoglobin, packed cell volume, red blood cell and thrombocyte count. Biochemical analysis showed increased serum concentration of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatinine and urea in comparison to the normal reference range. Microscopic examination showed intra-erythrocytic forms of Theileria species. Molecular and phylogenetic analysis of partial 18S rRNA gene sequence confirmed Theileria luwenshuni infection. The goat was treated with buparvaquone and oxytetracycline and recovered uneventfully. A three-month follow-up showed no recurrence. This study reveals the presence of T. luwenshuni in Assam, India and it should be considered in differential diagnosis and as one of the important pathogens of clinically sick goats. The present case report provides a rational approach to diagnosis and treatment for a goat infected with pathogenic T. luwenshuni in Assam, India. To our knowledge, the present communication describes about the first successful therapeutic management of pathogenic Tluwenshuni infection in a goat supported with molecular evidence from Assam, a north-eastern state of India.

The Severe Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has gained research attention worldwide, given the current pandemic. Nevertheless, a previous zoonotic and highly pathogenic coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), is still causing concern, especially in Saudi Arabia and neighbour countries. The MERS-CoV has been reported from respiratory samples in more than 27 countries, and around 2500 cases have been reported with an approximate fatality rate of 35%. After its emergence in 2012 intermittent, sporadic cases, nosocomial infections and many community clusters of MERS continued to occur in many countries. Human-to-human transmission resulted in the large outbreaks in Saudi Arabia. The inherent genetic variability among various clads of the MERS-CoV might have probably paved the events of cross-species transmission along with changes in the inter-species and intra-species tropism. The current review is drafted using an extensive review of literature on various databases, selecting of publications irrespective of favouring or opposing, assessing the merit of study, the abstraction of data and analysing data. The genome of MERS-CoV contains around thirty thousand nucleotides having seven predicted open reading frames. Spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N) proteins are the four main structural proteins. The surface located spike protein (S) of betacoronaviruses has been established to be one of the significant factors in their zoonotic transmission through virus-receptor recognition mediation and subsequent initiation of viral infection. Three regions in Saudi Arabia (KSA), Eastern Province, Riyadh and Makkah were affected severely. The epidemic progression had been the highest in 2014 in Makkah and Riyadh and Eastern Province in 2013. With a lurking epidemic scare, there is a crucial need for effective therapeutic and immunological remedies constructed on sound molecular investigations.