Background: Emerging animal and zoonotic diseases and increasing international trade have resulted in an increased demand for veterinary surveillance systems. However, human and financial resources available to support government veterinary services are becoming more and more limited in many countries world-wide. Intuitively, issues that present higher risks merit higher priority for surveillance resources as investments will yield higher benefit-cost ratios. The rapid rate of acceptance of this core concept of risk-based surveillance has outpaced the development of its theoretical and practical bases.

A longitudinal study was conducted to examine the relationship between lameness and delayed ovarian cyclicity during the first 60 d postpartum and days to first luteal activity during the first 300 d postpartum in Holstein cows. Two hundred thirty-eight cows from a 600-cow dairy that calved during a 12-mo period were used. Cows were classified into 1 of 6 categories of lameness during the first 35 d postpartum using a locomotion scoring system. Cows were blood-sampled weekly for detection of plasma progesterone concentrations during the first 300 d postpartum. Cows with delayed resumption of ovarian cyclicity were defined as those with progesterone concentrations consistently <1 ng/mL during the first 60 d postpartum. The null hypothesis that risk of delayed cyclicity is the same in cows classified as nonlame, moderately lame, or lame (after adjusting for potential modifying or confounding effects of loss of body condition and other variables related with delayed cyclicity) was tested using logistic regression. Analysis of results of the study reported here support the hypothesis that lameness is associated with delayed ovarian activity in Holstein cows during the early postpartum period. Cows classified as lame had 3.5 times greater odds of delayed cyclicity, compared with cows classified as nonlame. Attributable proportion analysis indicated that delayed ovarian cyclicity in lame cows would be reduced by 71%, if lameness had been prevented.

Objectives of this study were to determine prevalence of infection in feral cats in Northern Florida with a select group of infectious organisms and to determine risk factors for infection. Blood samples or sera from 553 cats were tested with a panel of antibody, antigen or PCR assays. Male cats were at higher risk for FIV, Mycoplasma haemofelis, and M. haemominutum. Infection with either FeLV or FIV was associated with increased risk for coinfection with the other retrovirus, M. haemofelis, or M. haemominutum. Bartonella henselae had the highest prevalence and was the only organism that did not have any associated risk for coinfection with other organisms. Feral cats in this study had similar or lower prevalence rates of infections than those published for pet cats in the United States. Thus, feral cats assessed in this study appear to be of no greater risk to human beings or other cats than pet cats.

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