Progress 02/01/14 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience was both cattle producers and veterinarians. A manuscript is infinal editingfor submission. Data has been presented at an international conference and is scheduled for another presentation in April of 2019 Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project was part of a summer professional student research effort and thatstudent has continued on from his professional training to become a PhD candidate following completion of hisDVM degree. This project was whatdeveloped his interest in discovery. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Data has been presented at the West Indies Veterinary Conference and Animal Disease Research Workers conference as well as two state veterinary meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. We have identified a quantification method that consistently identifies cattle that are more attractive to horn flies. We consider those that are less attractive to have some innate resistance. Goal 2. We are currently evaluating microbiome samples obtained from the two populations of cattlefor comparison.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two graduate students have been able to develop laboratory skills in microbiome analysis so that we are now capable of performing this analysis on site. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?A publication is nearing completion for submission.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under Goal One, we have developed a means of consistently identifying cattle that are more attractive to flies and those that are not. Under Goal Two we have microbiome samples from the two groups of cattle and that data is in the final analysis stage.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three graduate students are working to analyze microbiome data from the two groups of cattle that were identified during this study. These data analyses are nearing completion. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will finish the manuscipt during this next reporting period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1) We were unable to make progress on Goal One becauseour cattle numbers declined during this reporting period. 2) Microbial ecology of the cattle epithelium (comparing cattle highly attractive to flies to cattle that have low attraction) is being analyzed by our laboratory and data are being entered in preparation for manuscript submission. 3) Populations of flies that are attracted to cattle were previouslycharacterized as either high attractionor low attraction by enumerating flies on cattle by use of digital methods.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:A manuscript and oral presentation were presented to Illinois State Veterinarians at their annual meetingin October of 2015. Mr. Blair's presentationat the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease annual meeting in Chicago in December of 2014 was awarded first prize and was selected for presentation at the AAVP meeting in Boston, MA in July of 2015.We will finalize analysis of the microbiome data collected over the next few months in preparation for a manuscript submission. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project allowed the opportunity for three individuals to gain valuable research training. Dr. Chelsey Ramirez, a resident in the ABVP Food Animal Practice category, was a major contributor in project planning, collection and analysis of data, and editing of the abstract that was submitted to CRWAD. Mr. Benjamin Blair is a year 4 veterinarystudentand was involved in collection of data and photography of all of the heifers. In addition, he developed the abstract and has analyzed the data that is currently available. He continues to work on developing assays of the microbiome samples. His presentation at CRWAD won first place and he was invited to present at AAVP this past summer. Ms. Kiana Davis is a high school seniorand she participated in the summer Reseach Apprentice Program II, which was sponsored by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois. Kiana developed a research poster, podium presentation and manuscript based on the data that she assisted in collecting during her seven week training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presented at state veterinary meeting in October of 2015 and will be presented to members of the Louisiana veterinary medical association in January of 2016. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We now have funding to assess the microbiome samples and are in process of analyzing the previously procured samples.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The investigation into what attracts flies to certain individuals and that which acts as a repellant continues with our quest to identify different microbiomes of those cattle. We have been active in seeking additional funding to characterize the microbiome of the rumen, skin and upper respiratory tract. We have been successful in identifying funds in the last three weeks in order to pursue this quest.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Ramirez, C.R., Blair, B. and French, D.D. 2015. Investigation into horn fly susceptibility in Holstein heifers. Proc. ISVMA ann. mtg., Springfield, IL.
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Progress 02/01/14 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Livestock producers, entomologists, veterinary scientists and large animal veterinarians. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project allowedthe opportunity forthree individuals to gain valuable research training.Dr. Chelsey Ramirez,a Resident in the ABVP Food Animal Practice category was a major contributor in project planning, collection and analysis of data and editing of the abstract that has been submitted to CRWAD. Mr. Benjamin Blair is a professional student in year 3 of the veterinary curriculum. Ben was involved in collection of data and photography of all of the heifers. In addition he developed the abstract and has analyzed the data that is currently available.He continues to work on developing assays of the microbiome samples. Ms. Kiana Davis is a high school senior at this point and she participated in the summer Reseach Apprentice Program II, which was sponsored by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois. Kiana developed a research poster, podium presentation and manuscript based on the data that she assisted in collecting during her 7 week training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? A manuscript, oral presentation and poster were presented to faculty and staff of the Colleges of ACES in August. Mr. Blair will be presenting a portion of the data at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease annual meeting in Chicago in December and we will finalize analysis of data collected over the next few months in preparation for a manuscript submission. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We are working to establish funding for microbiome analysis at this time. Colleagues within our section are also interested in microbiome analysis and we plan to collaborate with them with regard to plate size and analysis of data collected.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1) Thirty heifers were randomly selected from the herd at two separate time intervals, six weeks apart. Heifers were housed on the same pasture and fed the same throughout. All heifers were photographed in a standardized fashion, and fly counts per side were made from digital images. From the group of 30, 10 animals were selected based on fly counts. The five most highly burdened (HB) animals were compared to the five with lowest burdens (LB). During the first trial period the average fly count of the HB was 5.68 times greater (151.6+/-41.4 vs. 26.7+/-2.4, p=0.0001) when compared to LB heifers. For the second trial period the HB heifers had 6.01 times (236.9+/-40.6 vs. 39.4+/-6.2, p<0.0001) more flies than LB heifers. Interestingly, the composition of individuals in the HB and LB groups was similar at the two time points. This data not only demonstrates a significant variation in fly burdens between individuals, but also suggests that the fly burden in specific individuals is relatively constant over time. These findings indicate that natural resistance can and does occur. 2) To explore the basis of an individual determinant for fly burden susceptibility, microbiome samples from each heifer in the HB and LB groups were collected from 3 sites (Rumen, Skin, Pharynx). These microbiomes will be measured using PCR to amplify and enrich the V3-V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Samples will be sequenced using the current generation MiSeq (Illumina) sequencing technology. Total microbial richness will be assessed through rarefaction analyses and diversity determined by Shannon’s diversity indices.Determining the differences between these groups will provide some answers as to how the microbial ecology affects fly burdens. We will continue to explore how epithelial immunity may affect fly attractiveness. 3) The majority of our fly population was horn flies but the characterization of the total population of nuisance flies was not fully assessed during this trial period.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Davis, K., Blair, B., Ramirez C. and French, D.D. The impact of nuisance flies on growing dairy heifers. i-Aces. 1(1):1-5.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Blair, B., Ramirez, C., Aldridge, B., Lowe, J. and French, D. Investigation into horn fly burden susceptibility in Holstein heifers.
Conference Research Workers in Animal Disease abstract.
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