Bart Pardon

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Internal Medicine Reproduction and Population Medicine

Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) is a sporadic and fatal disease of predominantly lactating dairy cattle, characterized by segmental hemorrhage and luminal clot formation in the small intestine. Although, Clostridium perfringens and Aspergillus fumigatus have been associated with HBS, the pathogenesis and cause are currently unknown. In this study,...

Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) is a sporadic and fatal disease of predominantly lactating dairy cattle, characterized by segmental hemorrhage and luminal clot formation in the small intestine. Although, Clostridium perfringens and Aspergillus fumigatus have been associated with HBS, the pathogenesis and cause are currently unknown. In this study...

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a significant challenge in all farming systems that raise calves. Farm to farm variation in BRD prevelance can be attributed to variation in host immunity, pathogens and housing environment. Unlike host immunity and BRD pathogens, housing environment has not been well investigated. The objective of this systemati...

Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening disease for which critically important antimicrobials (CIA) frequently are used. Diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for sepsis and critically ill calves are largely lacking. Objectives: Identify factors associated with mortality in critically ill calves and describe bacteria obtained from blood culture...

Necro-hemorrhagic enteritis in calves, caused by Clostridium perfringens type A, is a fatal disease, mostly affecting calves in intensive rearing systems. The lack of development of active immunity against α toxin, an essential virulence factor in the pathogenesis, has been proposed as a main trigger. In this experimental study, the effect of a set...

Quick thoracic ultrasonography (qTUS) is increasingly used as an on-farm method to diagnose clinical and subclinical pneumonia in dairy calves. The primary objective of this prospective cohort study was to describe dynamics of lung consolidation in a purchase-dependent production system for male dairy calves in relation to antimicrobial therapy and...

Background: To what extent veterinarians active in the dairy or beef sector follow the antimicrobial therapy guidelines made available in different European countries for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) outbreaks, and whether differences in therapeutic or preventive preferences for BRD management exist, is currently unknown. Therefore, the object...

Background: Mycoplasma bovis-associated disease can cause tremendous production losses, welfare issues and high antimicrobial use. Therefore, screening cattle for M. bovis antibodies before entering the herd is a popular and possibly cost-efficient way to reduce disease introduction. However, interpretation of results can be challenging due to var...

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be a leading cause of economic loss, hampered animal welfare, and intensive antimicrobial use in cattle operations worldwide. Reduction of antimicrobial use is hindered because it is still unclear which clinical signs are best monitored to reliably detect pneumonia. Also, these clinical signs may vary a...

The veal and dairy beef sectors are essential to the dairy industry to valorize excess male calves and represent a billion-dollar industry. Despite that mortality rates are similar to the dairy industry, to maintain healthy calves the veal and dairy beef industry heavily rely on antimicrobial use, resulting in high levels of antimicrobial resistanc...

Background Oral health in alpacas is often neglected until severe dental disease becomes evident under the form of a pronounced mandibular swelling with or without fistulation. Mandibular thickness measurements might serve as an easy tool to screen for early increases in thickness thereby identifying alpacas which could benefit from an oral examina...

Background Respiratory infections are the main indication for antimicrobial use in calves. Optimal treatment duration currently is unknown, but shorter duration would likely decrease selection for antimicrobial resistance. Hypothesis/Objectives Determine differences in cure rate and healing time between animals treated with florfenicol and oxytetr...

Background Scientific knowledge regarding alpaca dentistry is relatively limited despite its clinical implications. The present gap in available supportive data leads to limited treatment options for dental pathology in alpacas in comparison to other species. The main goal of this study was to gain novel insights into the general and pulp morpholog...

Background Between 2007 and 2011 several thousands of calves died from bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP), a bleeding syndrome triggered by vaccine induced alloantibodies from the dams. Following withdrawal of the involved bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDv) vaccine, the incidence of this condition rapidly decreased, with no reported cases in the l...

Psoroptic mange is a common disease of livestock, caused by Psoroptes ovis . Compared to Holstein–Friesian (HF) cattle, the Belgian Blue (BB) cattle breed is highly susceptible to the infestation. However, the mechanism for this difference is still unclear. To determine the factors responsible for this breed susceptibility, the immune response to P...

Background Despite dental disease being a common health concern in alpacas, important dental pathology including apical infection, remains poorly understood. Treatment options are limited compared to veterinary dentistry techniques in other species. The primary goal of this study was to increase understanding of the external and internal anatomy of...

Mycoplasma bovis causes many health and welfare problems in cattle. Due to the absence of clear insights regarding transmission dynamics and the lack of a registered vaccine in Europe, control of an outbreak depends mainly on antimicrobial therapy. Unfortunately, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is usually not performed, because it is tim...

Rapid identification of Mycoplasma bovis infections in cattle is a key factor to guide antimicrobial therapy and biosecurity measures. Recently, nanopore sequencing became an affordable diagnostic tool for both clinically relevant viruses and bacteria, but the diagnostic accuracy for M. bovis identification is undocumented. Therefore, in this study...

Respiratory tract infections continue to be a leading cause of economic loss, hampered animal welfare and intensive antimicrobial use in cattle operations, worldwide. To better target antimicrobial therapy, control and prevention towards the involved pathogens, there is a growing interest in microbiological tests on respiratory samples. However, th...

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in dairy calves is a multifactorial condition, involving environmental, host, and pathogen factors. Thoracic ultrasound scoring (TUS) has recently been validated as an accurate method of detecting BRD-related lung pathology in dairy calves. Previous studies investigating the use of TUS in preweaned dairy calves have...

Abortion and perinatal mortality, leading causes of economic loss in cattle industry, are the consequence of both non-infectious and a wide range of infectious causes. However, the relative contribution of pathogens to bovine abortion and perinatal mortality is poorly documented, since available studies involved only a limited number of pathogens....

Mycoplasma bovis is an important primary pathogen in cattle industry and results in many health and welfare problems. Current control mainly depends on antimicrobial therapy because clear insights in transmission dynamics and a registered vaccination strategy is lacking in Europe. Routine Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) is usually not pe...

Sepsis is a frequent life-threatening condition in young calves, requiring rapid broad spectrum and bactericidal therapy to maximize survival chances. Few studies have identified and characterized bacteria involved in sepsis in calves. This report demonstrates the involvement of a multidrug resistant Raoultella ornithinolytica, an emerging pathogen...

Agricultural operations are important sources of organic dust containing particulate matter (PM) and endotoxins, which have possible negative health consequences for both humans and animals. Dust concentrations and composition in calf barns, as well as the potential health effects for these animals, are scarcely documented. The objective of this st...

Mycoplasma bovis causes many health and welfare problems in cattle. Due to the absence of clear insights regarding transmission dynamics and the lack of a registered vaccine in Europe, control of an outbreak depends mainly on antimicrobial therapy. Unfortunately, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is usually not performed, because it is tim...

Neonatal piglets lack immunoglobulins at birth. Sufficient colostrum intake (CI) and immunoglobulin absorption are essential for an appropriate passive transfer of immunity via the colostrum. Most methods to measure immunoglobulins in serum of piglets are labour-intensive, expensive or imprecise and not designed for on-farm use. The present diagnos...

Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen causing mostly pneumonia in calves and mastitis in dairy cattle. In the absence of an effective vaccine, antimicrobial therapy remains the main control measure. Antimicrobial use in veal calves is substantially higher than in conventional herds, but whether veal calves also harbor more resistant M. bovis st...

In herds with Mycoplasma bovis circulation, colostrum is often considered infectious. However, in contrast to milk, the presence of M. bovis in colostrum was not previously evidenced. In this survey, the presence of M. bovis DNA was determined with real-time PCR in 368 colostrum samples from 17 herds, recently infected with M. bovis. Only 1.9% of t...

Male dairy calves are exposed to an accumulation of transport, social and environmental stressors while transferred to fattening units. As a consequence, calves show high cortisol concentrations upon arrival at the veal facility. Whether cortisol levels as measured on arrival can be associated with animal health, welfare and production results is u...

Background Implementation of Third-Generation Sequencing approaches for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) all-in-one diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine, requires the rapid and accurate generation of consensus genomes. Over the last years, Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) released various new devices (e.g. the Flongle R9.4.1 flow cell) and b...

M. bovis is one of the leading causes of respiratory disease and antimicrobial use in cattle. The pathogen is widespread in different cattle industries worldwide, but highest prevalence is found in the veal industry. Knowledge on M. bovis strain distribution over the dairy, beef and veal industries is crucial for the design of effective control and...

Background: A microbiological diagnosis is essential to better target antimicrobial treatment, control and prevention of respiratory tract infections in cattle. Under field conditions, non-endoscopic broncho-alveolar lavage (nBAL) samples are increasingly collected. To what extent the highly variable turnaround time and storage temperatures betwee...

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex is a worldwide health problem in cattle and is a major reason for antimicrobial use in young cattle. Several challenges may explain why it is difficult to make progress in the management of this disease. This article defines the limitation of BRD complex nomenclature, which may not easily distinguish upper v...

When it is desired to identify infectious agents involved in an outbreak of bovine respiratory disease, a variety of possible sampling methods may be used. For field use, the deep nasopharyngeal swab, transtracheal wash, and nonendoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage are most feasible. At present, bacterial culture and polymerase chain reaction testing a...

Implementation of Third-Generation Sequencing for WGS all-in-one diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine requires rapid and accurate generation of consensus genomes. Nevertheless, obtaining high quality genomes from non-standard organisms is still not guaranteed. This is the case for Mycoplasma bovis, an important respiratory pathogen in cattl...

Barn climate is believed to play a major role in the bovine respiratory disease complex. However, the exact air quality parameters associated with (sub)clinical pneumonia or airway inflammation in calves are currently unknown. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to assess associations of air quality parameters with clinical signs, lung...

Gallibacterium anatis is an opportunistic pathogen, previously associated with deaths in poultry, domestic birds, and occasionally humans. We obtained G. anatis isolates from bronchoalveolar lavage samples of 10 calves with bronchopneumonia unresponsive to antimicrobial therapy. Collected isolates were multidrug-resistant to extensively drug-resist...

In veal and dairy beef production systems, Holstein bull calves experience many stressors and excessive pathogen exposure, necessitating the use of antimicrobials for welfare and production reasons. The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to explore the effects of esterified fatty acids used as feed supplement on health, production and immune...

Farm biosecurity includes all measures preventing pathogens from entering (external) and spreading within a herd (internal) and is important in facilitating the shift from cure to prevention in veterinary medicine. To assess biosecurity on farm level quantitatively an objective measurement process is required. This study describes the development a...

Mycoplasma bovis is a leading cause of pneumonia in modern calf rearing. Fast identification is essential to ensure appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a protocol to identify M. bovis from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALf) with MALDI-TOF MS and to determine diagnostic accuracy in comparison wit...

Respiratory tract infections are the leading cause of antimicrobial use in calves. Combining clinical examination and lung ultrasonography allows on-farm classification of calves as healthy or suffering from an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), subclinical or clinical pneumonia. This might help to improve targeted antimicrobial therapy, res...

MALDI-TOF MS is a fast and accurate tool to identify Mycoplasma species in liquid media. However, when trying to identify presumptive Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) colonies from solid medium (the “direct transfer method”) a surprisingly high occurrence of M. arginini and M. alkalescens identification was observed. It was hypothesized that agar medium...

Background: Dental disorders, of which tooth root abscesses are best documented, are highly prevalent in alpacas. Identification of risk factors can be valuable for prevention of dental disorders in this species. Hypothesis/objectives: To identify risk factors associated with wear abnormalities, malpositioning, diastemata, periodontal disease (P...

Background: A microbiological diagnosis is essential to better target antimicrobial treatment, control and prevention of respiratory tract infections in cattle. Under field conditions, non-endoscopic broncho-alveolar lavage (nBAL) samples are increasingly collected. To what extent the highly variable turnaround time and storage temperatures between...

Background: Spinal cord dysfunction/compression and ataxia are common in horses. Presumptive diagnosis is most commonly based on neurological examination and cervical radiography, but the interest into the diagnostic value of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with recording of magnetic motor evoked potentials has increased. The problem for t...

Background: Dental disease is a troublesome health concern in alpacas. Specifically, the occurrence of tooth root abscesses has been described in veterinary literature. Nevertheless, no objective prevalence data are available for dental disorders in alpacas. Hypothesis/objectives: To determine the prevalence of dental disorders in alpaca herds i...

Respiratory tract infections (bovine respiratory disease) are a major concern in calf rearing. The objective of this study was to identify pathogen-specific risk factors associated with epidemic respiratory disease in calves. A cross-sectional study was conducted, involving 128 outbreaks (29 dairy, 58 dairy-mixed, and 41 beef) in Belgium (2016-2018...

Fissures on the occlusal surface of equine cheek teeth are commonly encountered during oral examination. Generally, their presence is considered abnormal but their aetiopathogenesis and clinical impact on pulp disease is still undetermined. The aims of this research were to study the extent of occlusal cheek teeth fissures using high-resolution X-r...

Respiratory tract infections are a major health problem and indication for antimicrobial use in cattle and in humans. Currently, most antimicrobial treatments are initiated without microbiological results, holding the risk of inappropriate first intention treatment. The main reason for this empirical treatment is the long turnaround time between sa...

The veal calf sector fears that a too-rapid and large decrease in antimicrobial use (AMU) as demanded by European authorities would increase mortality, causing economic and welfare issues. To determine whether this concern is justified, the relationship between AMU (total and different classes) and mortality in dairy-type white veal calves, managed...

Background A microbiological diagnosis is essential to better target antimicrobial treatment, control and prevention of respiratory infections in cattle. Under field conditions, non-endoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (nBAL) samples are increasingly collected. To what extent the highly variable turnaround time and storage temperatures between samplin...

Background: A microbiological diagnosis is essential to better target antimicrobial treatment, control and prevention of respiratory tract infections in cattle. Under field conditions, non-endoscopic broncho-alveolar lavage (nBAL) samples are increasingly collected. To what extent the highly variable turnaround time and storage temperatures between...

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and recording of magnetic motor evoked potentials (MMEP) can detect neurological dysfunction in horses but cutoff values based on confirmed spinal cord dysfunction are lacking. Objectives: To determine latency time cutoff for neurological dysfunction. Animals: Five control horses and 17 horse...

The shift from cure toward prevention in veterinary medicine involves the implementation of biosecurity. In cattle farming, the application of biosecurity measures has been described to a limited degree, yet no data on biosecurity on veal farms is available. A high degree of commingling of veal calves from multiple farms causes frequent disease out...

In practice, veterinary surgeons frequently rely on lung auscultation as a confirmation test for pneumonia. To what extent diagnostic accuracy of lung auscultation varies between different practitioners is currently unknown. In this diagnostic test study, 49 Dutch veterinarians each auscultated between 8 and 10 calves, and communicated whether they...

Wintercyathostominose is een van de belangrijkste parasitaire aandoeningen bij het grazende paard. Deze studie werd opgezet om de meest significante parameters te identificeren die geassocieerd zijn met klinische wintercyathostominose. Het betreft een retrospectief onderzoek van307 paarden die tussen 2008 en 2018 aangeboden werden op de Faculteit D...

Fast and accurate identification of Mycoplasma bovis in cattle samples is of great importance for rational treatment and control of pneumonia, arthritis and mastitis. However, which growth conditions will allow the fastest identification of M. bovis with MALDI-TOF MS remains unclear. Therefore, growth conditions and incubation time were investigate...

Abstract Background Respiratory infections are the main indication for antimicrobial use in calves. As in humans and horses, studying inflammation of the deep airways by lung cytology raises the possibility of preventing respiratory disease and targeting its treatment in the future. Whether lung cytology findings coincide with clinical signs and lu...

Background Whether underweight calves respond differently to transport stress, enhancing their disease risk, is currently unknown. Objective To determine the effects of low body weight and transport stress on immune variables. Animals Twenty‐one 2‐ to 4‐week‐old male Holstein calves, housed on a commercial farm. Methods Randomized clinical trial...

A clinical case in Belgium demonstrated that feeding a feed concentrate containing considerable levels of deoxynivalenol (DON, 1.13 mg/kg feed) induced severe liver failure in 2- to 3-month-old beef calves. Symptoms disappeared by replacing the highly contaminated corn and by stimulating ruminal development via roughage administration. A multi-myco...

Nine pygmy goats underwent surgical treatment for obstructive urolithiasis in a period of six months. In two cases, (second) revision surgery was necessary resulting in a total of twelve procedures under general anesthesia. Different anesthetic protocols were applied: analgesia was provided by an opioid (12/12) combined with either benzodiazepine (...

The intensive use of antimicrobials in the veal industry is heavily criticized, but drivers for antimicrobial usage (AMU) are still poorly understood. The industry fears that a drastic reduction in AMU would increase mortality, creating an unacceptable welfare issue. The objectives of the present study were to identify risk factors for AMU and to e...

Background: When surgical treatment of cervical vertebral malformation is considered, precise localization of compression sites is essential, but remains challenging. Magnetic motor evoked potentials (mMEP) from paravertebral muscles are useful in localizing spinal cord lesions, but no information about cervical muscle mMEP in horses is available...

Pasteurella multocida is notorious for its role as an opportunistic pathogen in infectious bronchopneumonia, the economically most important disease facing cattle industry and leading indication for antimicrobial therapy. To rationalize antimicrobial use, avoiding imprudent use of highly and critically important antimicrobials for human medicine, a...