Marina Zekic

Scientific Veterinary Institute "Novi Sad" · Laboratory for Immunology and Serology

Weather conditions greatly affect tick population densities and activity, on which depends the occurrence of tick-borne diseases (TBDs). During the spring months from 2017 to 2019, 1,357 specimens of Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected at 9 localities in the vicinity of Novi Sad (Serbia). The number of collected ticks varied considerably among the...

Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. spirochaetes. It is transmitted by several hard ticks of the genus Ixodes, mainly Ixodes ricinus in Europe. Higher environment temperature caused by climate changes is linked to a higher activity of ticks during most of the year, thus the importance of tick-borne diseases is i...

Background: Dirofilaria immitis is vector borne parasite of carnivores, with zoonotic potential, endemic in many parts of the world, including Europe. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infection in dogs from shelters, especially compared to their lifestyle. Dogs living in shelters in Serbia may be at high...

Dirofilariasis is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused mainly by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens that affect dogs and humans all over the world. Serbia is considered an endemic country to both forms of dirofilariasis, although most of the population is concentrated in the north of the country. The aims of this study were to show the pr...

A nine-year-old male dog of Doberman breed was taken to the laboratory for animal reproduction of the Scientific Veterinary Institute „Novi Sad“ for semen quality control. The sample of the ejaculate was taken without difficulty; however, the sample contained a significant amount of fresh blood (total ejaculate volume was 5 ml). The assessment of s...

Small Ruminant Lentivirus causes a chronic lifelong, multisystemic diseases in sheep and goats with or without clinical manifestation. Maedi-visna virus (MVV) and Caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) are often considered together as small ruminants lentivirus (SRLV) due to their phylogenetic correlation and the interspecies transmission betw...

Increased prevalence of tick-borne disease in humans and animals is an important public health issue. Dogs can be clinically ill, reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens, or sentinel populations for research. Certainly, small-scale research has been conducted in dogs and this review will focus on the recent studies of emergent and re-emergent tick-borne...

Leishmaniosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Leishmania spp. Serbia was an endemic region for this disease until the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays, canine leishmaniosis appears to be a re-emerging vector-borne disease in Serbia. Its spread is enabled by the presence of Phlebotomus spp. sandflies in this region. The objective of this st...

Leishmaniosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Leishmania spp. Serbia was an endemic region for this disease until the second half of the 20 th century. Nowadays, canine leishmaniosis appears to be a re-emerging vector-borne disease in Serbia. Its spread is enabled by the presence of Phlebotomus spp. sandflies in this region. The objective of this s...

Leishmaniosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Leishmania spp. Serbia was an endemic region for this disease until the second half of the 20 th century. Nowadays, canine leishmaniosis appears to be a re-emerging vector-borne disease in Serbia. Its spread is enabled by the presence of Phlebotomus spp. sandflies in this region. The objective of this s...

Nowadays, people became attached to their pets and some would even say too attached. The emotional level of connection with an animal, living in the same household, is so much higher than a century ago. Pets became actual members of the families, sharing the same space, bed, sofa or even plate! There is evidence that pets really do increase the qua...

Ovine brucellosis can cause epididymitis and reduce fertility in rams and therefore is an important disease in sheep and rams from economic point of view. Sometimes it causes abortions and increased perinatal mortality in sheep as well, but it primarily affects male animals. Brucella ovis was first identified in northern region of Serbia, in 2008-2...

The usage of microbiological screening tests is widespread in control of presence of antimicrobial drug residues in meat samples. Screening tests must be capable to detect antimicrobial drug residue of interest and detection limits must comply with MRL (Maximum Residue Limit). The aim of this study was to examine the performance of a microbiologica...

Introduction: Hormonal and metabolic changes, as well as energy imbalance, can affect health, production and reproductive performance of dairy cows. In the present study, we evaluated phagocytosis and respiratory burst neutrophil activity during the transition period and early lactation and compared it with biochemical and hematological parameters...

Monitoring antibiotics residues in honey and honey products helps to assess the potential risk of these products to human health. These data provide an insight in the extent of antibiotic treatment that has been used during the beekeeping and enable the evaluation of potential environment pollution with antibiotic residues. This article offers an o...

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with diode array detection (DAD) were optimized and validated for separation and determination of tetramethrin in an antiparasitic human shampoo. In order to optimize separation conditions, two different columns, different column oven temperatures, as well as mobile phase composition and ratio, w...

In order to evaluate the efficacy of inactivated oil-emulsion Newcastle disease vaccine (commercially available on market in Serbia) we carried out the potency test in chickens, using hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test for detection of antibodies. Th e values of HI titers in the serum before and three weeks aft er vaccination revealed immunoconv...

A clinical form of sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was caused in order to monitor the concentration of enzymes (alanine aminotransferase - ALT, aspartate aminotransferase - AST, lactate dehydrogenase - LDH, amylase and creatine kinase - CK) in the rat blood. Experiments were performed on male Wistar rats, weighing on average 215...

Canine dirofilariasis is a parasitic disease. The causative agent is Dirofilaria immitis or Dirofilaria repens. It may appear as skin or as a heart disease. The heart form of the disease is often named "heartworm" disease, because the adult parasites live in the heart. In the last five years, several cases of dirofilariasis have been reported (Dimi...