Journal article
Faecal shedding of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica determined by qPCR for yst virulence gene is associated with reduced live weight but not diarrhoea in prime lambs
Caroline Jacobson, Rongchang Yang, Andrew Williams, Graham E Gardner, Ian Carmichael, Angus JD Campbell, Una Ryan
PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2018
Abstract
Associations between faecal shedding of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica (based on the yst virulence gene) with growth, carcass weight and diarrhoea were investigated using an observational longitudinal study of 1200 crossbred prime (meat) lambs on eight Australian farms. Live weight, breech faecal soiling score (scale 1–5) and faecal consistency score (FCS; scale 1–5) were recorded, and faecal samples collected from each lamb on three sampling occasions; weaning (≈12 weeks of age), post-weaning (≈19 weeks) and pre-slaughter (≈29 weeks). Hot standard carcass weight was measured at slaughter. Faecal samples were screened for presence and concentration of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica using q..
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Awarded by Meat and Livestock Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was funded by Meat and Livestock Australia (B.AHE.0027) and Australian Wool Innovation Limited. We thank Johann Schroder for helpful feedback on the manuscript. We thank the participating farmers for their support and for providing access to their sheep and facilities, and Justin Hoad for providing faecal samples from NSW. Samples from the WA farms were collected and DNA extracted by Joshua Sweeny. We thank Josephine Ng-Hublin for DNA extraction of faecal samples collected from the eastern states.