Bijan Esmaeilnejad, Jamal Gharekhani, Awat Samiei, Hadi Rezaei,
Volume 7, Issue 3 (11-2020)
Abstract
Q fever is caused by Coxiella burnetii and is transmitted by more than 40 tick species. This study aimed to identify the tick species in goats of Meshkin-Shahr, Ardabil Province, Iran, and their role in the transmission of C. burnetii. A number of 365 goats were inspected for the infestation of hard ticks in a randomized sampling design, during a 1-year period from April 2013 to April 2014. A total number of 280 tick specimens were collected and identified and were then examined by molecular methods for the presence of C. burnetii infection. 40.8% of the infected animals had at least one species of tick. The goats which were studied were found to be infested by the following tick species: Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum (33.9%), Rhipicephalus sanguineus (22.1%), Rhipicephalus turanicus (17.1%), Hyalomma excavatum (11.1%), Rhipicephalus bursa (5%), Hyalomma detritum (3.9%), Hyalomma dromedarii (3.6%), Hyalomma asiaticum asiaticum (1.8%), and Hyalomma marginatum (1%). There were no significant differences between the infestation rate in different seasons, genders and ages of the animals which were studied (p=0.05). The molecular assay of 280 tick specimens revealed the presence of C. burnetii infection in 5 out of 40 pool samples (6-8 tick individuals of the same species in each pool), including H. anatolicum anatolicum (3 pools), H. excavatum (1 pool) and R. sanguineus (1 pool). The present study, therefore, reports the rate of C. burnetii infection transmitted by hard ticks in North-West of Iran for the first time. According to the zoonotic aspect of Q fever, further studies on the carriers as well as other hosts of the infection were found to be necessary.
Mr Javad Ghorbanzadeh, Dr Saeed Zeinoaldini, Dr Mahdi Zhandi, Mr Sayyed Mohammad Hadi Hussaini,
Volume 13, Issue 1 (4-2026)
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effect of adding cysteine to an Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL)-based extender on some quality parameters of goat sperm after freezing. This study was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments, including: egg yolk-based extender without cysteine (EY), LDL-based extender containing zero (LDL-C0), five (LDL-C5), and 10 (LDL-C10) mM cysteine, and six replicates. Semen samples after dilution with the aforementioned extenders, were frozen. After thawing, total and progressive motility, sperm plasma membrane integrity, functionality, and sperm morphology were evaluated. Total motility was higher in LDL-C5 compared to EY and LDL-C10 (P <0.05). Progressive motility in all treatments using LDL-based extender was significantly higher than EY. Other motility parameters were higher in LDL-C5 compared to EY (P <0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between the LDL-C0, LDL-C5, and LDL-C10, except for the VSL, which was significantly lower in LDL-C0 compared to LDL-C5 (P <0.05). Sperm plasma membrane integrity, functionality, and sperm morphology were higher in all treatments using LDL-based extender compared to EY (P <0.05), with the highest values observed in LDL-C5. Overall, the results showed that adding five mM cysteine to the LDL-based extender can improve some quality parameters of goat sperm.
