Toscana virus is a sandfly-borne human pathogen belonging to Phlebovirus genus into Phenuiviridae family. It is emerging in north Africa posing a complex threat to public health. TOSV is heavily affecting sandfly-exposed people in northern Algeria. A larger distribution has recently been stated in Algeria by using dog sera. Dog exposure to TOSV was repeatedly identified in north Algeria, with 4.56% lately detected to possess respective neutralizing antibodies. However, evidence for TOSV has only been observed in dogs among various species of domestic animals. Therefore, we attempted to assess sera from 221 livestock comprising cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits and horses, to identify the presence of TOSV neutralizing antibodies. The study was conducted during 2017, in 11 areas from the governorates of Blida, Medea, Algiers, Tipaza, Ain Defla, Tissemsilt in the north center, and Setif, Mila, Tizi Ouzou, Jijel in the northeast of Algeria. Positive results were obtained in 14.6% (12/82) cattle, 17.18% (11/64) sheep, 15% (3/20) horses and 3.33% (1/30) goats, whereas rabbits remained negative. Positive samples originated mainly from the north centre, with new areas being first-ever detected. The seroprevalence was noticed to be very strongly related to sample origin (p < 0.01). Females (OR=4.09) were observed to be more likely infected. Our findings represent a further proof of TOSV circulation in Algeria. Moreover, they revealed a potential role of livestock (p = 0.00731) in its natural cycle. This fact emphasize how important is to elucidate the exact contribution of livestock to the epidemiology of sandfly-borne phleboviruses, and their impact on public health.

Blastocystis is a common intestinal protozoan parasite of humans and a variety of animal species. To date, the prevalence of Blastocystis and major subtypes distribution in the domestic animals inhabiting in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Area (QTPA) of China is yet poorly studied. In this study, we investigated the distribution and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in seven animal species in QTPA in China. Four hundred and five fresh fecal samples were collected from domestic animals in Qinghai, Yunnan, and Tibet of China and analyzed using nested PCR and SSU rRNA gene sequencing. It was found that the overall prevalence of Blastocystis infection was 40.2% (163/405) in the animals studied. The most predominant subtype of Blastocystis was ST10 (57.7%) followed by ST14 (28.8%) and ST2 (13.5%). These results reveal the epidemiological features of Blastocytis infection in animals in the high altitude plateau area. The finding of presence of ST2 in a number of animal species suggests a zoonotic nature of Blastocystis and might be of importance of public health.

This study investigated whether individual behavioural characteristics of piglets and stress induced by experience with humans can influence learning performance. After weaning, piglets received a chronic experience with humans to modulate their emotional state: rough (ROU), gentle (GEN), or minimal (MIN) experience. Simultaneously, they were trained on a discrimination task. Afterward, their behaviour during challenge tests was assessed. The first learning step of the task involved associating a positive sound cue with a response (approach a trough) and success of piglets depended mostly on motivation to seek for reward. Although the experience with humans did not have direct effect, the degree of fear of handler, measured based on their reactivity to a human approach test, was related to motivation to seek rewards and learning speed of this first step in stressed ROU piglets, but not in MIN and GEN piglets. In contrast, the second learning step was more cognitively challenging, since it involved discrimination learning, including negative cues during which piglets had to learn to avoid the trough. Locomotion activity, measured during an open-field test, was associated with performance of the discrimination learning. To conclude, fearfulness towards humans and locomotion activity are linked with learning performance in relation to task complexity, highlighting the necessity to take into account these factors in animal research and management.