Location: Animal Disease Research Unit
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Increased detection specificity of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae on nasal swabs. M. ovipneumoniae is a bacterium that plays a role in chronic non-progressive pneumonia in domestic sheep populations. While this disease tends to be mild in domestic sheep, it causes high mortality rates in populations of bighorn sheep. As a result, grazing lands on which the domestic sheep feed have had access restricted to limit transmission between the two sheep species. Our team has designed a quantitative PCR method which limited off-target detection of other closely related Mycoplasma species from nasal swabs. This improvement allows for more accurate prevalence data on M. ovipneumoniae to be gathered and increases future testing accuracy.
2. Associated candidate genetic regions and monocyte immune cell numbers from complete blood counts. Monocytes are a circulating blood cell that can populate tissues with dendritic cells and macrophages, two cell types which are important in innate immunity. Veterinarians use monocyte numbers to determine when an animal is undergoing a period of prolonged stress or if there is a present infection. Association of complete monocyte numbers from sheep blood identified two significant genetic regions and ten suggested significant genetic regions. Assessment of these regions determined the presence of immune associated genes which could affect monocyte differentiation and proliferation. Establishing genes or mutations which alter monocyte numbers may help define sheep which are more susceptible to certain diseases like Coxiella burnetii and small ruminant lentivirus.
3. Summarized a new methodology to identify vaccine candidates. Reverse vaccinology is a method that uses artificial intelligence or matrices to predict what proteins of a pathogen could interact with the immune system of a prospective host. Prior to 2021, few researchers had completed full proteome assessment of bacterial agents. A manuscript published by the project research team led to this commentary which explains how reverse vaccinology can be used broadly to predict vaccine candidates which are suggested to interact with the immune system in multiple capacities. Overall, this work promotes vaccine development for more complex organisms, like bacteria or protozoa.
Review Publications
Lieske, C.L., Herndon, D.R., Highland, M.A., Beckmen, K.F. 2022. Laboratory concordance study for the molecular detection of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 58(2):257-268. https://doi.org/10.7589/JWD-D-21-00118.
Mousel, M.R., White, S.N., Herndon, M.K., Herndon, D.R., Taylor, J.B., Becker, G.M., Murdoch, B.M. 2021. Genes involved in immune, gene translation and chromatin organization pathways associated with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae presence in nasal secretions of domestic sheep. PLoS ONE. 16(7). Article e0247209. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247209.
Noll, L.W., Highland, M.A., Hamill, V.A., Tsui, W., Porter, E.P., Lu, N., Sebhatu, T., Brown, S., Herndon, D.R., Grossman, P.C., Bai, J. 2022. Development of a real-time PCR assay for detection and differentiation of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae and a novel respiratory-associated Mycoplasma species in domestic sheep and goats. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14477.
Davenport, K.M., Massa, A.T., Bhattarai, S., McKay, S.D., Mousel, M.R., Herndon, M.K., White, S.N., Cockett, N.E., Smith, T.P., Murdoch, B.M. 2021. Characterizing genetic regulatory elements in ovine tissues. Frontiers in Genetics. 12. Article 628849. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.628849.
Massa, A.T., Mousel, M.R., Durfee, C.J., Herndon, M.K., Hemmerling, K.M., Taylor, J.B., Neibergs, H.L., White, S.N. 2021. A DNA regulatory element haplotype at zinc finger genes is associated with host resilience to small ruminant lentivirus in two sheep populations. Animals. 11(7). Article 1907. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071907.
Oliveira, R.D., Mousel, M.R., Gonzalez, M.V., Durfee, C.J., Davenport, K.M., Murdoch, B.M., Taylor, J.B., Neibergs, H.L., White, S.N. 2022. A high-density genome-wide association with absolute blood monocyte count in domestic sheep identifies novel loci. PLoS ONE. 17(5). Article e0266748. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266748.
Guzman, R.M., Howard, Z.P., Liu, Z., Oliveira, R.D., Massa, A.T., Omsland, A., White, S.N., Goodman, A.G. 2021. Natural genetic variation in Drosophila melanogaster reveals genes associated with Coxiella burnetii infection. Genetics. 217(3). Article iyab005. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyab005.
Vargas Jurado, N., Notter, D.R., Taylor, J.B., Brown, D.J., Mousel, M.R., Lewis, R.M. 2022. Model definition for genetic evaluation of purebred and crossbred lambs including heterosis. Journal of Animal Science. 100:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac188.
