The purpose of our research was to study the formation, functioning and structure of the nosological profile of infectious and invasive pathology of animals (birds) under conditions of the NorthWestern Region of the Russian Federation, to identify the main nosological units that form the epizootic and epidemic risk in the region and based on this to justify and determine the priority of measures for optimisation the anti-epizootic support of poultry farming in the region. In modern veterinary and biological sciences, there had been formed a concept about systemic understanding of ecologization in epizootology and epidemiology. A holistic scientific concept about the infectious parasitic system and self-regulation of the epizootic process of infectious and invasive parasitic systems had been formed (V. D. Belyakov et al., 1987). The notions "infection" and "infectious disease" are full-fledged components of parasitism (I. A. Bakulov, 1997; V. V. Sochnev, 1997; V. P. Urban, 1997; V. V. Makarov, 2022). In global epizootology the global epizootological category had been formulated – epizootological parameters of animals population, including population health, population reproduction, its economic utility and epidemic danger (V. V. Makarov, V. V. Sochnev, O. V. Kozyrenko, 2022; V. V. Sochnev, Yu. V. Pashkina, 2019). Animals health level largely depends on comfortness of the environment for their organisms, on epizootic safety of the territories, on the sustainability of ecological niche of parasitic systems pathogens and their epizootological geography. In the paper the animals infectious pathology nosological profile is studied under conditions of the North-Western Region of the Russian Federation, under conditions of a metropolis and its suburbs. The ecological niche of disease pathogens, its dependence on density axis and on host populations diversity were measured in quantities. It was discovered that the territorial boundaries for epizootic manifestation of the animals (birds) infectious pathology nosological units in the region tend to be formed under multifactorial influence, one of the main factors being the formation of the ecological niche of pathogens. In the North-Western Region the animals (birds) infectious pathology was formed from bacterioses in 11.49 %, from virosis in 12.4 %, from mycoses in 2.46 % and from invasive units in 73.6 %. The parasitic diseases of the ecosystem and their monoand polyhost epizootic manifestation were studied; the involvement of productive and unproductive animals populations co-members in the parasitic systems functioning was analysed; animals (birds) infectious pathologies dominating in the region were identified and the visualization of dominance semiotics of the specific nosological units was achieved by constructing Pareto diagrams.

The aim of the work was to study the features of the rabies epizootic process manifestation in the territory of the Rostov region. To achieve the intended aim the comprehensive epizootological research and the retrospective epizootological analysis were carried out based on the veterinary reports of the Rostov Region State Budgetary Institution «Rostov Regional Station for Animal Diseases Combating, with Anti-Epizootic Squad» and the Rostov Region Veterinary Medicine Directorate. In the result of research it was found that for the period from 2018 to 2021, 35 rabies epizootic foci were registered within the territory of 24 municipalities of the Rostov region. During this period of time the disease was detected in 8 species of domestic and wild animals. The main reservoir and source of rabies infection causative agent in this territorial entity of the Russian Federation are dogs (31.4 %), foxes (22.8 %), cats (14.3 %), cattle (14.3 %) and jackals (8.5 %); single cases of the disease (8.7 % in total) were detected among wolves, martens and horses. When analysing the annual dynamics of the rabies incidence in animals, the clear-cut seasonality of the disease is discovered. The disease is mainly recorded in the autumn-spring period, whereby the seasonal dynamics has the two-peak character with two highest points in April and November. Such seasonal fluctuations are explained by the breeding biology of wild carnivores, such as foxes and jackals, with wolves and martens involved in the epizootic process. The unstable and tense rabies epizootic situation in the Rostov region indicates the need to regulate the number of wild carnivores on its territory and to carry out planned activities on their immunization.

The article presents the analysis results of sheep’s and goats’ examinations, care and feeding conditions at various farms of the Krasnodar Region unfavourable in terms of the upper respiratory tract infectious diseases. The sick animals clinical study data, the pathoanatomical changes found at autopsy on dead small ruminants, the laboratory research results have been noted. The clinical signs in sick goats and sheep were manifested by fever, cough, flux of mucous exudate from the nose. At autopsy on dead animals the lobular fibrinous bronchopneumonia with coagulative necrosis, the fibrinous pleurisy were found; the exudate in the alveolar tissue of the lungs and edema were detected, and when cut, a marble appearance of the lungs. The causative agent Mannheimia haemolytica was isolated from the pathological material taken from corpses of dead goats and sheep. Upon the analysis of examinations it was proved that in case of viral infections the efficiency of the respiratory system defence mechanisms weaken, causing colonisation by microbes of Mannheimia haemolytica species. The Mannheimia haemolytica microorganism in ruminants is nasopharynx and upper respiratory system commensal. Under normal conditions the Mannheimia haemolytica microorganism might not always cause the infectious disease in small cattle. The occurrence of this disease at the farms depends on the presence of various predisposing factors related to the deterioration of feeding and care conditions. All this confirms that mannheimiosis is a factorial disease.

Review of domestic and foreign scientific literature on brucella ecology, brucellosis epizootology and pathogenesis is presented. It has been found that the main route of transmitting the infection causative agents is vertical. At the same time the newborns receive such a small dose of brucella that for a long time it is impossible to confirm them being infected by the conventional diagnostic methods. The deterioration of the epizootic situation is explained precisely by the following – young cattle bred from sick cows are integrated in the broodstock. In this case many of them remain hidden carriers of the pathogen and do not respond to diagnostic tests (a state of tolerance). Young cattle infected with brucella are detected only after they become an active source of infection causing epizootic danger during 2–4 years, i.e. before calving or abortion, still remaining the undetected source of the pathogen. At the same time the conventional diagnostic methods are practically ineffective. In this case the diagnostic method based on the immunological tolerance phenomenon implying the use of the vaccine from the strain B. abortus 19 is applied, this is a serological test to detect the negatively responsive to brucellosis heifers that are 15–20 days after vaccination and to bar them from herd reproduction. In addition, when diagnosing brucellosis, it is necessary to take into account the latent course of the disease in adult animals. It is possible to reveal hidden carriers of brucella by provoking latent infection through immunisation with vaccines from the R-strains B. abortus 1096 or RV-51, which ensures the pathogen devastation.

Based on the serological monitoring results the humoral immunity level in birds was assessed after the use of three variants of inactivated vaccines against avian influenza, which causative agent is capable of genetic rearrangements and generation of extremely dangerous highly virulent forms. The refore there arise the need for accurate quantitative assessments of antibody titres, their benchmarking against threshold values and statistical analysis of the received results. The serological examinations allow obtaining the selections of antibody titres values, determining the arithmetic or geometric mean values, as well as statistical indicators such as standard deviations, coefficients of variation or standard error of the mean. to the parametric ones, since they are based on the given normal distribution of the elements of a selection. However, this condition is not always met, which leads to the incorrect conclusions, especially when conducting a comparative analysis. Alongside, it should be noted that banchmarking made in a group consisting of more than two selections cannot be made on independent pairs. In this case the special multi-comparative methods are required. The aim of this work was to conduct a comparative analysis of three antibody titres selections. The nonparametric multiple comparison Miller's method was applied, which is designed to detect the essentiality of mean trends differences in selections, regardless of the type of changing variables distribution. According to the method’s algorithm, the entire array of experimental data was integrated into a common rank-ordered (ranked) row, where each variable was assigned a serial number (rank). Respective with the original selections, the variables’ mean ranks were calculated. The mean ranks subtraction results and the necessary statistical operators were determined, which were benchmarked against the table values (the table is attached). Thus, the statistical significance of the discovered results of subtraction was drawn. The method did not require any special mathematical background of the researchers.

The success of therapeutic measures depends on the availability of the modern methods of diagnostics to practitioners, understanding by them the advantages and existing limitations of each method. Biological markers (BMs) are widely used in scientific and practical medicine as a method for diagnosing the presence or absence of disease, the response to treatment, the reaction of organism to an intervention or therapeutic manipulation, for the disease progress prognosis. BMs provide a unique opportunity for early minimally invasive diagnostics in oncology, nephrology, endocrinology and other specialities. In spite of certain progress much less biological markers are used in veterinary medicine compared to human medicine. Some BMs are not relevant for veterinary medicine others are not studied enough. It may take a very long time from the moment of discovering a molecule potentially significant as a BM to its implementation into practice, or this may never happen at all. This work is aimed at reviewing the available data on the BMs most widely used in veterinary medicine. In the review the data referring to the principles of finding new BMs, the stages of validation, as well as the factors hindering wide implementation of BMs into clinical laboratory diagnostics was systemised. The information about the BMs currently used in the various fields of clinical practice and the BMs panels, was presented. 46 foreign and domestic veterinary and biomedical publications for the last 10 years were analysed.

Parasitic diseases in cattle are widespread in the territory of the Russian Federation. At the farms of Udmurtia various kinds of ruminants parasitic fauna are represented and therefore the vast use of antiparasitic drugs entails a range of problems: their toxic side effects on animals’ organism, restrictions for livestock products consumption (milk, meat). Based on the aforementioned, the aim of the work was to determine the therapeutic efficacy of anthelmintic drugs against bovine fascioliasis under the Udmurt Republic conditions. The coprological examinations were made in the conventional sedimentation technique; in total 50 head of cows aged 3–5 years were examined. To determine the extensive and intensive efficacy of the drugs based on the analogy principle five groups per 10 animals were formed, four - experimental ones and the fifth served as a control one. Four drugs were used in the experiment: «Rolenol», «Santel 10 %», «Albendozole 10 %» (suspension for oral administration) and «Santomectin». When evaluating the efficacy of anthelmintic drugs against trematode infestations in cattle it was found that all of the used drugs showed high efficacy on the 40th day after dehelmintization, but due to the fact that the causative agent Fasciola hepatica belongs to biohelminthic diseases with chronic course the period of therapeutic efficacy was evaluated for up to 60 days. The maximum extensive efficacy – 90 % and intensive efficacy from 63.54 % to 83.33 % respectively were found in the groups of animals dehelmintized with: «Albendozole 10 %» in the form of suspension for oral administration and the injectable «Santomectin»; these antiparasitic drugs have a similar mechanism of action on helminths. The use of the latter is more cost-effective for agricultural enterprises, which must be taken into consideration when planning the combat measures against trematode infestations in cattle.

One of the main factors hindering the growth of milk productivity and deteriorating the sanitary quality of farm produced milk is mastitis. Mastitis can occur during lactation, drying off and interlactation periods but more often during the lactation period, when the mammary gland is under enormous exertion. The aim of the research was to study the features of mastitis manifestation in dairy cows under the Amur region conditions. Samplings were carried out in September-October. Milk was analysed using the Masttest rapid diagnosticum. Studies showed that mastitis was not diagnosed in 39.1 % of cows, in 20.3 % of cows it was dubious (lesion of the posterior udder lobes). In 40.6 % of cows the mastitis was diagnosed in the form of lesion of the posterior udder lobes, whereas the anterior udder lobes showed dubious result. The mastitis positive diagnosis in cows in at least one lobe of the udder may indirectly indicate the presence of subclinical mastitis in the remaining udder lobes or the transformation of the subclinical form of mastitis into clinical one under the influence of unfavourable external factors and in the absence of therapy.

Local treatment occupies an important place in dermatology, since the applied drugs render the therapeutic effect locally on the lesioned skin. This method is often used as complementation to the systemic treatment, thereby shortening a recovery period and giving a veterinary physician an opportunity to reduce the dose and frequency of the main systemic drug. The article presents the results of efficacy evaluation of the drug «VetLan», which is composed on the basis of colloidal silver, nano zinc oxide and lanthanum oxide and intended for treatment of allergic etiology dermatitis in cats. The proposed drug helps to reduce the time and to increase the efficacy of cats treatment when included into a complex therapy. It was found that «VetLan» is efficient in 77.7 % of cases, namely 7 out of 9 cats were cured after application of the drug, whereas the efficacy after application of the drug «Eplan» was 55.5 %. The duration of treatment was 14.2 ± 1.38 days for flea allergic dermatitis, 9.3 ± 2.05 days for atopic skin syndrome. The respective figures for animals in the control group were 18.2 ± 0.68 and 10.6 ± 1.69 days. Compared to the control group, the regeneration of lesioned epithelium in case of flea allergic dermatitis was 1.4–1.6 times faster, in case of atopic skin syndrome 1.3–1.5 times faster. In the course of this study no side effects as of irritation or allergy were found in cats after using the developed drug.

The paper presents veterinary and sanitary assessment of the meat from rabbits and pigs, who had taken a new anthelmintic drug «Degelm-16» in their diet. The meat from 6 rabbits and 6 gilts who were divided into experimental and control groups was studied, three samples per each group. The drug «Degelm-16» was given alimentary with foodstuff to the animals of the experimental group 5 days before the slaughter at a dose of 50 mg/kg. Rabbits and gilts of the control group did not receive the drug. It was discovered that meat samples taken in the control and experimental groups of rabbits and gilts contained a drying crust, elastic muscle fibers. The characteristic smell of test samples corresponded to the specimens species. Meat samples from both animal species were of pale pink colour. Boiling of the meat from rabbits and gilts resulted in cloudy-white broth with pleasant specific smell. The benzidine reaction revealed a peroxidase positive result in the meat extract. The amount of amino-ammonia nitrogen in both rabbit groups ranged from 0.54 to 0.60 mg, in gilt groups – from 0.76 to 0.79. The volume of volatile fatty acids in rabbit meat samples ranged from 1.82 to 1.89 mg KOH. In gilt meat – from 2.19 to 2.43 mg KOH of volatile fatty acids. The reaction for the protein primary decomposition products using copper sulphate in both groups resulted in getting the broth without clots and flakes confirming appropriateness of the meat. The touch smears bacterioscopy showed presence of single microorganisms in the surface layers and complete absence of the bacteria in the deep layers. The data of microbiological analysis did not reveal deviations from the reference values.

In the Shahdag National Park (Azerbaijan) the natural grouping of wisents (European bisons) is being formed. The program should eventually result in obtaining the independent stable grouping of wisents, capable of existing and reproduction without human interference. In the course of work with the grouping such a disease as wisent thelaziosis was detected. The presence of the disease can negatively affect the efficiency of the wisents reintroduction program. The aim of the work was to identify the problem, describe the clinical cases of wisent thelaziosis and determine possible measures to minimize risks for animals health. The article presents the data collected throughout a three years period of wisent group formation. The diagnosis – thelaziosis – was confirmed by finding the mature thelazia specimens of Thelazia rhodesi species. Such clinical manifestations as photophobia, eyelid edema, pathological lacrimation, serous conjunctivitis, purulent-catarrhal keratoconjunctivitis, clouding and ulceration of the cornea up to perforating ulcers, iridocyclitis were observed in wisents. The clinical form of thelaziosis had been detected in a wisent herd at all seasons of the year, at maximum in the period from the end of May to the end of July, up to 18.8 % of animals in the herd. At the rest of the time, the percentage of animals with disease manifestation varied from 3.7 to 11 %; two years in a row the cases of disease manifestation in adult wisents were observed in February. One case of thelaziosis was registered in a 1.5-month-old calf, the disease evolved in a hyperacute form. For treatment against thelaziosis in wisents the single intramuscular injections of ivermectin at a dose of 200 μg/kg (Ivermec, 2 ml/100 kg) were used. Medical treatment was given frontally to the herd after each detected clinical case. In addition wisents with strongly expressed clinical signs received a single injection of tulathromycin at a dose of 2.5 mg/1 kg (Draxin, 2.5 ml/100 kg). Medications were injected by means of a remote gun Dan-Inject. In Azerbaijan thelaziosis is spread among productive animals, as evidenced by veterinary reports. However, systematic studies of thelaziosis were carried out only in the 70–80s. As follows from the studies the thelaziosis infection rate in Azerbaijan has clearly expressed zonal distribution: high infection rate in the plain and submontane zones and rare cases of disease occurrence in the mountain belt. It was concluded that when forming wisents population, it is necessary to take into account the factor of zonality and plan the populations’ release in the mountainous areas of the national park, as the safest from veterinary side. Also due to domestic animals being the main source of infection for wisents in Azerbaijan, it is necessary to conduct research on disease expansion and intensity of infection in domestic livestock in the areas bordering with the Shahdag National Park. Currently while wisents are kept at the quarantine and transfer place, given the proximity of the enzootic focus, it is recommended to conduct the systematic frontal preventive treatment with ivermectin.

Until 1891 the entire territory of the Ostrogozhsk County was covered by a single veterinary district. Based on the Zemstvo Assembly Resolution, starting from that year the county was divided into two veterinary districts – Rossoshansk and Ostrogozhsk. The Rossoshansk district included 15 volosts (small rural districts): Lizinovsk, Olkhovatsk, Rossoshansk, Rovensk, Aidarsk, Podgorensk, Belogorsk, Shaposhnikovsk, Evstratovsk, Vsesvyatsk, Maryevsk, Karayashnikovsk, Semeysk, Novo- and Staro-Kalitvyansk. The Ostrogozhsk district included the town and 12 volosts: Goncharovsk, DalnePolubyansk, Evdakovsk, Karpenkovsk, Kolybelsk, Lisyansk, Lushnikovsk, Markovsk, Novo-Sotensk, Ribensdorfsk, Sagunovsk and Trostyansk. The third Rovensk veterinary district was opened in 1897 to include seven volosts: Aidarsk, Lizinovsk, Rovensk, Shaposhnikovsk, Vsesvyatsk, Maryevsk and Olkhovatsk. In December 1897 the Olkhovatsk veterinary paramedical station was eliminated due to the paramedic's resignation. In February 1901, a veterinary outpatient clinic was opened in the town of Ostrogozhsk. From March 10, 1903, the veterinary staff of the first district increased by one paramedic, who was appointed by the Province Zemstvo to an independent station in the Marky village. The fourth Sagunovsk veterinary district was opened in 1906 to include six volosts: Sagunovsk, Markovsk, Belogorsk, Karayashnikovsk, Goncharovsk and Kolybelsk. In October 1907, the Olkhovatsk volost, which was recorded as part of the Rovensk district was assigned to the Rossoshansk. On August 1, 1909, the fifth Podgorensk district was opened in the county. There were two inpatient clinics in the county – in Saguny and Rovenky. In November 1910 the sixth district was opened in Staraya Kalitva village. In 1913 the seventh Olkhovatsk veterinary district was opened and new distribution of volosts and villages took place within the county territory. As of the beginning of 1914 seven veterinary physicians and twelve paramedics worked in the county. The First World War which began in July 1914, stopped the progressive evolution of zemstvo system veterinary medicine in the county as most of the physicians and paramedics were mobilised into the army.