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The effect of cystic echinococcosis (hydatid disease) on carcase weight in cattle in eastern Australia

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posted on 2024-10-15, 01:31 authored by Victoria J Brookes, Tamsin S Barnes, David J Jenkins, Matthew R Van der Saag, Robert Dempster, Cara WilsonCara Wilson
Cystic echinococcosis is caused by the zoonotic tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus. There has been ongoing controversy over whether it causes weight loss in cattle. Recently implemented recording of comorbidities at processors has provided opportunity to investigate this effect. Using prevalence-based observational data from 1,648,049 adult cattle processed in seven states and territories in Australia (2019–2022), we explored associations between carcase weight, hydatid cysts, comorbidities, sex, age, and region. Linear mixed-effect regression models estimated the effect of cystic echinococcosis on carcase weight, guided by directed acyclic graphs to reduce bias. The highest, previously unreported, prevalence was in the southeast Queensland region. The estimated effect of cystic echinococcosis cysts on carcase weight ranged from a gain of 0.32 kg/carcase (standard error [se] 0.58 kg; two-tooth 2022) to a loss of −5.45 kg/carcase (se 0.63 kg; six-tooth 2019) with most point estimates (11/16) between 0 and −2.5 kg across all cattle grouped by year and dentition. This effect size would be practically undetectable in live cattle which is an important finding; cattle producers are unlikely to observe increased productivity through weight gain from cystic echinococcosis prevention in cattle, and awareness to strengthen prevention in domestic dogs around cattle properties to reduce human risk remains a public health focus.

Funding

Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income

History

Volume

14

Issue

1

Start Page

1

End Page

15

Number of Pages

15

eISSN

2045-2322

ISSN

2045-2322

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Publisher License

CC BY

Additional Rights

CC BY 4.0

Language

en

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • Yes

Acceptance Date

2024-03-22

Author Research Institute

  • Institute for Future Farming Systems

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Medium

Electronic

Journal

Scientific Reports

Article Number

7297