Bovine fascioliasis is an important zoonotic parasitic disease that causes significant economic losses to the livestock industry. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of bovine fascioliasis in Kelantan. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 308 stool and blood samples of farmed cattle were collected from December 2017 to June 2018. The stool samples were examined microscopically for the presence of Fasciola spp. eggs following a formalin-ether sedimentation process. The blood samples were subjected to a commercial ELISA kit (Bio-X-Diagnostic, Rochefort, Belgium) for the detection of anti-Fasciola IgG antibody. The association between coprological findings and risk factors was determined using Pearson’s chi-square (χ2). The coproprevalence and seroprevalence of bovine fascioliasis was 14.6% and 37.3%, respectively. There were significant (P < 0.05) associations between the risk of infections and the sex, type of feedings, anthelmintic treatment and farm hygiene. Female cattle (OR: 3.104; 95% CI: 1.265, 7.615), feeding by grazing (OR: 4.458; 95% CI: 1.823, 10.90), untreated cattle (OR: 3.833; 95% CI: 1.620, 9.071), non-schedule anthelminthic treatment (OR: 3.927; 95% CI: 1.685, 9.152) and farm that have never been cleaned (OR: 2.829; 95% CI: 1.428, 5.608) showed higher odds of Fasciola spp. infection. These findings suggested bovine fascioliasis is a serious veterinary disease in Kelantan. Thus, appropriate control, prevention and monitoring strategies of this parasitic infection are urgently needed to reduce the burden of the disease.

Background: A new direct microplate-based colorimetric drug susceptibility test that omits the initial isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from sputum specimens was evaluated. Methods: A total of 51 M. tuberculosis acid fast bacilli (AFB) smear-positive sputum specimens were inoculated directly into drug-free and serial dilutions of drug-containing Middlebrook 7H9 broth media. With this direct resazurin micro plate assay (REMA) method, resazurin dye was used as a growth indicator in microplate wells. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RIF) were compared with those of the 'gold standard' absolute concentration method (ACM). The turnaround time (TAT) of the direct REMA and the ACM were also determined. Results: At the selected cut-off points (INH: 0.0625 mu g/mL; RIF: 0.125 mu g/mL), good drug susceptibility test results were obtained for INH and RIF with an average sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 90%, 100% and 97%, respectively, with a TAT of 15 days. The REMA method also correctly classified the resistant isolates with positive predictive values of 95% and negative predictive values of 98% for the two drugs. Conclusions: The direct REMA was reliable in routine diagnostic laboratories for the drug susceptibility testing of M. tuberculosis and the rapid detection of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.

A longitudinal study was conducted in five randomly selected farms in Kelantan, Malaysia to determine the seasonal occurrence of cattle fascioliasis and its association with climatic factors. A total of 480 faecal samples were collected by a random purposive sampling method from July 2018 to June 2019. The faecal samples were examined for the presence of Fasciola eggs using a formalin ether sedimentation technique. Meteorological data including temperature, humidity, rainfall, and pan evaporation were obtained from a local meteorological station. The overall prevalence of cattle fascioliasis in Kelantan was 45.8%. The prevalence was observed to be slightly higher during the wet season from August to December (50–58%) than during the dry season from January to June (30–45%). Meanwhile, the mean eggs per gram (EPG) were highest in June (191.1 ± 0.48) and lowest in October (77.62 ± 95.5). However, there were no significant differences in the mean of EPG between the monthly prevalence, tested using one-way ANOVA (p = 0.1828). A statistically significant association (p = 0.014) was observed between the disease and cattle breeds, with Charolais and Brahman showing lower odds of having the disease. There were significant moderate-to-strong positive correlations between cattle fascioliasis and rainfall (r = 0.666; p = 0.018) and humidity (r = 0.808; p = 0.001), as well as strong negative correlations with evaporation (r = −0.829; p = 0.001). The results indicated that the higher prevalence of cattle fascioliasis in Kelantan was correlated with the climatic factors, which include higher rainfall and humidity and lower evaporation.