Biological, seasonal and environmental factors associated with Pulex irritans infestation of dairy goats in Greece
Introduction
Flea infestation of goats has been recorded in various regions mainly in tropical zones (Obasaju and Otesile, 1980, Opasina, 1983, Ugochukwu and Apeh, 1985, Yeruham et al., 1997, McCrindle et al., 1999). Flea infestation of goats in temperate climates is considered to be uncommon (Matthews, 1999), however infestation of goats with the human flea Pullex irritans has been recorded in France, in Italy, and in Greece (Christodoulopoulos, 2003). The clinical features of the P. irritans infestation in dairy herds in Greece were described in a previous study (Christodoulopoulos and Theodoropoulos, 2003). The zoonotic aspect of this infestation is of particular significance, since these fleas have been reported by the farmers to attack humans, especially at milking and feeding time, and in some cases to infest their homes.
The objectives of the present study were: (i) to study the fauna of fleas infesting dairy goats in Greece (i.e. whether other flea species besides P. irritans infest goats), (ii) to study the spectrum of hosts each flea species infests (i.e. whether other animals as well as humans associated with goats are infested by P. irritans or other flea species), (iii) to identify risk factors in the environment and goat management practices that favour flea infestation of goats, and (iv) to describe the seasonal variation of infestation in goats.
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Study herds
In Greece there are approximately five million dairy goats (Zygogiannis and Katsaounis, 1992). Herds are managed almost exclusively according to the traditional, extensive production system. The majority of goats are of the local Greek breed of Capra prisca, although a few mixed Alpine cross and Saanen cross animals are also found. Furthermore, in Thessaly a dairy breed named “Skopelos” has been recently introduced from the homonymous island of Northern Sporades, a group of Aegean islands east
Results
Table 2 presents the distribution of flea species found on goats and their associated farm or pet animals in the 64 herds examined. All fleas collected from goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle were identified as being P. irritans. All fleas collected from cats were identified as being Ctenocephalides felis. Dogs were infested either with P. irritans, C. canis, or C. felis, or with both C. canis and C. felis.
The clinical signs observed in adult goats were restlessness, rubbing, chewing, cut hairs,
Discussion
When the goal of analysing data is to predict the dependent variable (Y), then multicollinearity (MC) is not a problem as long as the model accounts for a high proportion in the variation in Y. If the goal is to understand how each of the independent x's impacts Y, MC becomes potentially problematic. It should be noted that although ridge regression (RR) allows for biased estimators of the regression coefficients, in contrast to least squares analysis, these coefficients are not subjected to
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