Commentary
Consider the end of a cow’s nose. Picture what it encounters throughout the day. A variety of environmental conditions exist when cows inhale dirt, pond water, silage, grasses, baled hay, another cows’ behind, cow manure, wildlife feces and so on.
Effective identification and treatment of bovine respiratory disease is an ongoing health and economic issue for the dairy and beef cattle industries . . . BUT to date, no studies had investigated the fungal community and how it may also relate to bovine respiratory disease. Using Holstein steers, researchers from Purdue University sought to identify if the nasal mycobiome differs between BRD-affected and visually healthy animals.
Key takeaways:
- BRD animals had more fungi and bacterial co-occurrence than healthy animals.
- Fungal community structure was affected by season
- At a taxonomy level, Trichosporon sp. and Issatchenkia orientalis were the most abundant species regardless of disease diagnosis and differential abundance at a sub-species level in these two species could be a potential indicator of BRD
Source: Frontiers in Veterinary Science, June 27, 2023. Link.