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Mastitis is one of the major prevailing and costly diseases in dairy cattle and buffaloes. This study describes the current prevalence of mastitis in lactating cattle, and buffaloes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during 2019-2020, to identify bacterial pathogens of mastitis, and to determine the antimicrobial resistance. A total of 1013 milk samples belonging to 726 cattle and 287 buffaloes were examined to detect clinical mastitis (CM) and subclinical mastitis (SCM). Mastitic milk samples (n=541) were further used to investigate the prevalence of bacteria associated with mastitis and their antimicrobial susceptibilities by standard disc diffusion assay. The results showed that the prevalence of CM and SCM was 21.2% and 62.3% in cattle, while 17.8% and 68.9% in buffaloes, respectively. Additionally, it was noted that CM was higher in cattle, while SCM was higher in buffaloes. Amongst the bacterial isolates from mastitic milk the prevalence of Staphylococci spp. (24.6%) was at highest, which was followed by Escherichia coli (23.7%), then Streptococci spp. (8%) Salmonella spp. (5.9%), Klebsiella spp. (5.7%), Candida spp. (4.1%), and Proteus spp. (1.5%). The isolated bacteria were mostly resistant to ampicillin (96.5%), sulphamethoxazole (96.5%), streptomycin (95.1%), oxytetracycline (85%), and amoxicillin (78.1%). However, the isolates were highly susceptible to enrofloxacin (86.2%), gentamicin (83.5%), and florfenicol (82.6%). This study might be helpful to the clinicians and researchers associated with the dairy industry for designing prophylactic as well as therapeutic strategies for the control of bovine mastitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Livestock production needs to be improved to ensure global food security and meet the growing demand for food. A sheep's gestation length (the period from conception to birth) is usually about 150 days. We have discovered a novel sheep breed in Chitral, Pakistan, whose individuals may gestate for a relatively shorter period, i.e., 100 days, and yet can give birth to normal lambs. To explore the underlying genetic causes for this unique character we used DNA markers. This approach helped us identify some contrasting genetic variations among short-gestating (Kari-S) and long-gestating (Kari-L) Kari ewes. Two of the total 31 targeted DNA sites demonstrated an association with gestation length in Kari sheep. Following an in-depth analysis and further confirmation in other sheep breeds, these DNA sites may be linked to genes controlling gestating length in sheep. The findings from this study may open ways for faster sheep reproduction with reduced cost. Kari sheep inhabiting the Chitral district of Pakistan show variation in gestation length. In this study, we have analyzed the genetic differences between the three subtypes of Kari sheep (based on variation in gestation length) using microsatellite markers. Kari sheep samples were collected from their breeding tract and were characterized for gestation length and genetic diversity using microsatellite markers. A total of 78 Kari ewes were grouped into three categories based on gestation length (GL), i.e., Kari-S (with a shorter GL), Kari-M (with a medium GL), and Kari-L (with a longer GL). DNA from these samples was used to amplify 31 ovine-specific microsatellite loci through PCR. Of the total 78 Kari specimens, 24 were grouped in Kari-S (GL = 100.7 ± 1.8), 26 were from the Kari-M subtype (GL = 123.1 ± 1.0), and 28 were Kari-L (GL = 143.8 ± 1.5). Microsatellite analysis revealed an association of genotypes at two marker sites (MAF214 and ILSTS5) with variation in GL. A total of 158 alleles were detected across the 22 polymorphic loci with an average of 7.18 alleles per locus. Unique alleles were found in all three subtypes. The highest number of unique alleles was observed in Kari-L (15), followed by Kari-S (10) and Kari-M (8). The results indicated that Kari-S is a genetically distinct subtype (with higher genetic differentiation and distance) from Kari-M and Kari-L. The genetic uniqueness of Kari-S is important for further exploration of the genetic basis for shorter gestation length, and exploitation of their unique values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mastitis is one of the major prevailing and costly diseases in dairy cattle and buffaloes. This study describes the current prevalence of mastitis in lactating cattle, and buffaloes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during 2019-2020, to identify bacterial pathogens of mastitis, and to determine the antimicrobial resistance. A total of 1013 milk samples belonging to 726 cattle and 287 buffaloes were examined to detect clinical mastitis (CM) and subclinical mastitis (SCM). Mastitic milk samples (n=541) were further used to investigate the prevalence of bacteria associated with mastitis and their antimicrobial susceptibilities by standard disc diffusion assay. The results showed that the prevalence of CM and SCM was 21.2% and 62.3% in cattle, while 17.8% and 68.9% in buffaloes, respectively. Additionally, it was noted that CM was higher in cattle, while SCM was higher in buffaloes. Amongst the bacterial isolates from mastitic milk the prevalence of Staphylococci spp. (24.6%) was at highest, which was followed by Escherichia coli (23.7%), then Streptococci spp. (8%) Salmonella spp. (5.9%), Klebsiella spp. (5.7%), Candida spp. (4.1%), and Proteus spp. (1.5%). The isolated bacteria were mostly resistant to ampicillin (96.5%), sulphamethoxazole (96.5%), streptomycin (95.1%), oxytetracycline (85%), and amoxicillin (78.1%). However, the isolates were highly susceptible to enrofloxacin (86.2%), gentamicin (83.5%), and florfenicol (82.6%). This study might be helpful to the clinicians and researchers associated with the dairy industry for designing prophylactic as well as therapeutic strategies for the control of bovine mastitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the association between epilepsy disease (ED) and consanguinity in the tribal society of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. Material and methods: Approximately, 150 clinically diagnosed epileptic patients of consanguineous families with ages ranging from 3 to 70 years were included during the period of (2018-19). Children in this study were aged 7-10 years and male to female ratio among the patients was 1:1.5. The target familial cases were included on the basis of sex. age. parental consanguinity, seizure type, cause of epilepsy, and family history. The parents were interviewed to collect the required information after informed consent. Non-consanguineous families, patients with acquired causes, and those who were not willing to participate were excluded from the study. Results: In the current study, the consanguinity in parents of the epileptic patients was compared with the general population and we found significant results (P< 0.01). Generally, 56 (37.33%) of the patient's parents were first cousins with (OR=3.245 and 95%-CI =2.26-4.645 and P<0.0001), 24(16.00%) were second-degree cousins with (OR=3.269 and 95%-CI=2.032- 5.258 and P<0.0001) and 70 (46.66%) were unrelated. Conclusion: The overall results in this study clearly indicate the potential role of heritage lineage/consanguinity in epilepsy within consanguineous families. The present retrospective study supports genetic counselling prior to marriages. More significant genotype-phenotype correlation is also needed to minimize the risk of epilepsy disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prion infections of the central nervous system (CNS) are characterized by initial reactive gliosis followed by overt neuronal death. Gliosis is likely to be caused initially by the deposition of misfolded, proteinase K-resistant, isoforms (termed PrPSc) of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPc) in the brain. Proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines released by PrPSc-activated glia and stressed neurons may also contribute directly or indirectly to the disease development by enhancing gliosis and inducing neurotoxicity. Recent studies have illustrated that early neuroinflammation activates nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) in the calcineurin signaling cascade, resulting in nuclear translocation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) to promote apoptosis. Hence, useful therapeutic approaches to slow down the course of prion disease development should control early inflammatory responses to suppress NFAT signaling. Here we used a hamster model of prion diseases to test, for the first time, the neuroprotective and NFAT-suppressive effect of a second-generation semisynthetic tetracycline derivative, minocycline, versus a calcineurin inhibitor, FK506, with known NFAT suppressive activity. Our results indicate that prolonged treatment with minocycline, starting from the presymptomatic stage of prion disease was more effective than FK506 given either during the presymptomatic or symptomatic stage of prion disease. Specifically, minocycline treatment reduced the expression of the astrocyte activation marker glial fibrillary acidic protein and of the microglial activation marker ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1, subsequently reducing the level of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin 1β and tumor necrosis factor-α. We further found that minocycline and FK506 treatment inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 phosphorylation and NF-κB nuclear translocation in a caspase-dependent manner, and enhanced phosphorylated cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein and phosphorylated Bcl2-associated death promoter levels to reduce cognitive impairment and apoptosis. Taken together, our results indicate that minocycline is a better choice for prolonged use in prion diseases and encourage its further clinical development as a possible treatment for this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injection drug users (IDUs) are considered as a high risk group to develop hepatitis C due to needle sharing. In this study we have examined 200 injection drug users from various regions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for the prevalence of active HCV infection and HCV genotypes by Immunochromatographic assays, RT-PCR and Typespecific PCR. Our results indicated that 24% of the IDUs were actively infected with HCV while anti HCV was detected among 31.5% cases. Prevalent HCV genotypes were HCV 2a, 3a, 4 and 1a. Majority of the IDUs were married and had attained primary or middle school education. 95% of the IDUs had a previous history of needle sharing. Our study indicates that the rate of active HCV infection among the IDUs is higher with comparatively more prevalence of the rarely found HCV types in KPK. The predominant mode of HCV transmission turned out to be needle sharing among the IDUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article [1] because of significant concerns regarding a number of figures presented in this work, which question the integrity of the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]