Tuberculosis (TB) is more than 3 million years old thriving in multiple species. Ancestral Mycobacterium tuberculosis gave rise to multiple strains including Mycobacterium bovis now distributed worldwide with zoonotic transmission happening in both directions between animals and humans. M. bovis in milk caused problems with a significant number of deaths in children under 5 years of age due largely to extrapulmonary TB. This risk was effectively mitigated with widespread milk pasteurization during the twentieth century, and fewer young children were lost to TB. Koch developed tuberculin in 1890 and recognizing the possibility of using tuberculin to detect infected animals the first tests were quickly developed. Bovine TB (bTB) control/eradication programmes followed in the late nineteenth century/early twentieth century. Many scientists collaborated and contributed to the development of tuberculin tests, to refining and optimizing the production and standardization of tuberculin and to determining test sensitivity and specificity using various methodologies and injection sites. The WHO, OIE, and EU have set legal standards for tuberculin production, potency assay performance, and intradermal tests for bovines. Now, those using tuberculin tests for bTB control/eradication programmes rarely, see TB as a disease. Notwithstanding the launch of the first-ever roadmap to combat zoonotic TB, many wonder if bTB is actually a problem? Is there a better way of dealing with bTB? Might alternative skin test sites make the test “better” and easier to perform? Are all tuberculins used for testing equally good? Why have alternative “better” tests not been developed? This review was prompted by these types of questions. This article attempts to succinctly summarize the data in the literature from the late nineteenth century to date to show why TB, and zoonotic TB specifically, was and still is important as a “One Health” concern, and that the necessity to reduce the burden of zoonotic TB, to save lives and secure livelihoods is far too important to await the possible future development of novel diagnostic assays for livestock before renewing efforts to eliminate it. Consequently, it is highly probable that the tuberculin skin test will remain the screening test of choice for farmed livestock for the considerable future.

SUMMARY: Q fever (Coxiella burnetii) is a zoonotic disease of increasing public health importance. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of, and risk factors associated with, exposure to C. burnetii in cattle in the Republic of Ireland. Bulk-tank milk samples from 290 dairy herds and 1659 sera from 332 dairy and beef herds, randomly sampled, were tested by indirect ELISA to detect antibodies to C. burnetii. In total, 37·9% of bulk-milk sample herds and 1·8% of sera (from 6·9% of herds) were antibody positive. Of risk factors tested using logistic regression analysis, only large herd size (bulk-milk analysis) and dairy breed (serum analysis) significantly increased the odds of being positive for antibodies to C. burnetii. Herds with positive milk or serum samples were randomly distributed throughout the Republic of Ireland and no clustering was observed. The use of an ELISA to test bulk-milk samples collected by randomized stratified sampling is a cost-effective method by which national herd prevalence can be estimated by active surveillance.

In Ireland, an estimated 15% of Irish soils exceed the EU threshold limit for soil Cd of 1mg/kg. The aim was to determine the concentrations of Cd and other heavy metals (As, Hg and Pb) in kidneys collected from cattle at slaughter. Systematic sampling of eligible animals (animals that were born and reared until slaughter in the same Irish county) at the time of slaughter was conducted, until a threshold number of animals from all 26 counties and 6 age categories was reached. A predictive surface of soil Cd was generated, by kriging the Cd values of 1310 previously reported soil samples. A linear regression weighted model was developed to model kidney Cd concentration, using the risk factors of age, sex, breed, province and estimated soil Cd concentration. Kidney Cd (n=393) concentrations varied between 0.040 and 8.630 mg/kg wet weight; while concentrations of As, Hg and Pb were low. The estimated weighted proportion of animals with a high (≥1 mg/kg) kidney Cd concentration was 11.25% (95% CI: 8.63-14.53%). Key predictors for high kidney Cd concentration were soil Cd, animal age and province. At a soil Cd concentration of 1.5 mg/kg, it was predicted that an age threshold to avoid exceeding a kidney Cd concentration of 1 mg/kg in most animals would be ~3 y in Connacht, >4 y in Ulster, and >5 y in Leinster and Munster. In naturally occurring areas of high Cd levels in soils in Ireland, the Cd level in bovine kidneys can exceed the current EU ML of 1mg/kg in older animals. Kidneys of most cattle under three years of age will conform with EU requirements.

There is considerable international research regarding the link between human demographics and pet ownership. In several international studies, pet ownership was associated with household demographics including: the presence of children in the household, urban/rural location, level of education and age/family structure. What is lacking across all these studies, however, is an understanding of how these pets are spatially distributed throughout the regions under study. This paper describes the spatial distribution of pet dog and pet cat owning households on the island of Ireland.

The emergency and casualty slaughter of cattle for human consumption (in cases where animals are likely to have suffered from acute or chronic pain, respectively) in Ireland requires that the animal is accompanied to the slaughterhouse by an official veterinary certificate (VC) completed on-farm by the owner\u27s private veterinary practitioner (PVP). No published data is currently available in Ireland based on information provided in these VCs. In this paper, we present a review of bovine cases consigned under veterinary certification to emergency and casualty slaughter in Ireland during 2006 to 2008. All VCs during the years 2006 (where available), 2007 and 2008 were collected from four large Irish slaughterhouses. The data were computerized, and analysed using descriptive and spatial methods. In total, 1,255 VCs were enrolled into the study (1,255 study animals, 1,072 study herds), 798 (63.6%) and 457 (36.4%) animals were consigned to emergency and casualty slaughter, respectively. VCs were completed throughout the year, with consigned animals travelling a mean distance of 27.2 km from farm to slaughter. The time elapsed between veterinary certification and slaughter was greater than three days for 18.2% of all study animals. In 965 (76.9%) animals, the certified suspected disability related to the locomotory system, most commonly as a result of fractures. Among animals for which data were available, 11.9% were totally condemned at post-mortem. The transport of animals with fractured limbs and/or other painful conditions is a significant animal welfare concern