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The comparative susceptibility of five breeds of sheep to foot‐rot
Author(s) -
EMERY D. L.,
STEWART D. J.,
CLARK B. L.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1984.tb15524.x
Subject(s) - foot rot , biology , pasture , hoof , veterinary medicine , foot (prosody) , immune system , zoology , agronomy , ecology , immunology , botany , medicine , linguistics , philosophy
SUMMARY: Five breeds of sheep, Romney Marsh, Dorset Horn, Border Leicester, Peppin Merinos and Saxon Merinos were examined for their susceptibility to foot‐rot by exposure to natural transmission of infection on irrigated pasture or by the application of pure cultures of Bacteroides nodosus to each foot in a pen experiment. On pasture, the sheep encountered a moderate challenge and the British breeds were more resistant than Merinos to the development of severe foot‐rot. Resistance was manifested by a rapid resolution of relatively benign lesions in the interdigital skin, rather than a reduction in the number of feet affected. However, under more severe challenges with foot‐rot in pens, all breeds were equally susceptible. There was little difference between resistant and susceptible sheep in the kinetics and magnitude of their antibacterial immune responses indicating that resistance did not depend on pre‐existing antibody or a more rapid induction of antibody production. In each experiment, humoral immune responses against B. nodosus were not greatly elevated until under‐running lesions of the hoof developed.