Introduction. Bats (Chiroptera) are the least studied group of mammals in many regions of Russia. At the same time, the chiropterans are known to be one of the largest orders of Mammalia, which can act as hosts and carriers of various pathogenic fungi, bacteria and viruses. However, the parasitic fauna of this group of animals is poorly investigated. The study of bat-parasitizing worms has great practical importance, since bats, due to their ancient origin, are a very detached order. Endoparasites, including the chiropteran helminths, have not been previously studied in the Rostov region. According to the available data, the up-to-date research on the bat parasites in Russia has been carried out only in the Saratov region and in the Republic of Mordovia. The aim of this series of articles is to study the helminth species composition parasitizing in chiropterans in the Rostov region. In the first report we present the data on nematodes.

Materials and Methods. The materials for the research were the articles from the open access literature databases: PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), Cyberleninka (cyberleninka.ru), GoogleScholar (https://scholar.google.com ), etc. The main method used was the analysis of the collected data.

Results. The authors were the first to reveal that 27 nematode species from 14 genera, 8 families, 4 orders and 2 classes can be found in 15 bat species living in the Rostov region. The numerous Chromadorea class is represented by 21 species, 12 of which are found in Russia.

Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the literature sources analysis showed that the largest number of nematode species parasitize in two chiropteran species living in the Rostov region: in the Daubenton's bat (15 species) and in the common noctule (14 species). Only one species has been recorded in the northern bat. Most nematode species parasitize specifically in bats and have a direct life cycle. (e.g., species of the genus Molinostrongylus). For some species, such as Pterygodermatites bovieri and Litomosa spp., the intermediate hosts are arthropods and the definitive hosts are various bat species. For three nematode species: Ascarops strongylina, Physocephalus sexalatus and Spirocerca lupi, bats are the paratenic hosts.

Introduction. Due to the growth of poultry stocking density in the allotted area in conditions of the industrial poultry farming, the issue of ensuring the epizootic welfare through vaccine-prophylaxis proves to be relevant. Another important aspect of poultry farming is reducing production costs, which could be achieved, among other things, through implementation of the cost-efficient methods of vaccination. A manual mode of spray vaccination method, which is currently used at the poultry farms, has a disadvantage because the dose of vaccine received by different birds may be unequal. However, under modern conditions, in order to increase the labour productivity and efficiency, the efforts are made to get the poultry vaccination process automated. The vaccination frame spray machines used in the industrial poultry farming have not been studied or evaluated before in a comparative aspect. Thus, the purpose of this research is to compare two methods of spray vaccination in chickens at the operating poultry farm with regard to the biological efficiency and economic profitability.

Materials and Methods. The objects of the study were the young Brown Nick crossbreed chickens (n=46 heads). Vaccination was carried out in the young poultry at the age of 42-days. During the research, the dried live Newcastle disease and avian infectious bronchitis vaccines were used. To control the quality of vaccination, the amount of antibodies was estimated in the blood serum of poultry aged 56, 70 and 95 days old by ELISA method with TICAN equipment. Two groups of poultry were studied. In group 1 the “DESVAK” hand sprayer was used (“DESVAK” KIT– 2 model, produced by Ceva Santé Animale), in group 2 the automated frame spray machine was used (“SIMBIO ITERIS” model, produced by SIMBIO).

Results. As a result of studies, in group 2 the higher intensity of immunity was obtained, showing on average the following figures: 56 days – antibody titre was 29 % higher (p≤0.05); 70 days – antibody titre was 18 % higher (p≤0.005); 95 days – antibody titre was 15 % higher (p≤0.05) compared to group 1. Economic efficiency was calculated based on the indicators of labour costs and labour intensity of the vaccination process: when using a frame spray machine, the costs turned out to be 2.3 times lower (1,131.4 person-rubbles) than with the DESVAK sprayer (2,590.4 person-rubbles). Additionally, the labour intensity of the vaccination process per head decreased by 5 times. In group 1 it was 0.0015 person-hour/head, in group 2 – 0.0003 person-hour/head.

Discussion and Conclusion. Based on the results of the study, it was found that the spray vaccination method by means of the frame spray machine (the automated mode) is more efficient according to both biological and economic indicators compared to the manual mode. Taking into account all of the above, the frame spray machines could be recommended to the veterinary specialists for carrying out vaccine prophylaxis at the poultry farms by the spray method.

Introduction. The issue of coronavirus infection prevalence in cats is still acute. Particular danger of infecting the animals lies in possible mutations of the virus, the asymptomatic course of the disease, high prevalence of the virus carriage in cats and development of the viral peritonitis in some of the specimens often causing the death of animals. The aim of this work is to study the relation between the keeping conditions and the coronavirus infection prevalence in cat populations in different countries, as well as the possibility of the viral peritonitis development in this species of animal.

Materials and Methods. The analysis of the Russian and foreign sources published before March 2023 was carried out. Based on the research made by the scientists from the Netherlands, Korea, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Malaysia and Turkey, the relation between the cat keeping conditions and the coronavirus infection prevalence in their populations was studied and the brief characteristics of the disease was given.

Results. Based on the analysis of the several epizootological study results, it was concluded that the rate of companion cats infection with the coronavirus reached 80 %, and one of the highest rates was recorded in Germany: 76.5 % (Confidence Interval (CI) 95 %: 69.8 %; 82.2 %) and 84 % (CI 95 %: 73.3 %; 94.9 %), respectively. Coronavirus infection prevalence in cats kept in groups, as well as in stray cats was significantly higher than in animals kept in isolation.

Discussion and Conclusions. Studying the FCoV prevalence in various cat populations revealed its direct dependence from the keeping conditions. The need to control and limit the number of animals that are kept together, as well as to comply with all the keeping and quarantine standards, is shown, and could become the way for the cat owners to suppress the infectious disease agents transmission.

Introduction. Canine behaviour, socialization and interaction of dogs with humans are the key factors to be assessed among the risks inducing the increase of incidents related with development of anxiety in dogs. First of all, the lack of knowledge about the reasons of problem behaviour in animals and the high individual variability of behavioural patterns explain the relevance of this work. Moreover, the different methods used by the practitioners and absence of traceability of the owneranimal interaction record lead to the incorrect accumulation of diverse information about the identification and correction of companion dogs’ problem behaviour. The authors of this article aimed to develop a device for registering anxious and aggressive behaviour in dogs by analysing the intervalograms and spectrograms of vocalizations.

Materials and Methods. The recordings of canine vocalizations (250 recordings) were obtained as a result of authors' observations carried out in Rostov-on-Don in the period from spring to autumn 2021. The growth of signal intensity was detected by a noise sensor or microphone. The amplitude and duration of the signal were determined by a microcontroller. The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) was used for writing a programme and flashing the microcontroller. The timers calculating the number of milliseconds from the beginning to the end of an event were implemented in the programme, also, the counters measuring the number of the events within a certain period of time were used.

Results. A flowchart of the device for registering and classifying canine vocalizations, which are considered to be the behavioural anxiety markers, has been developed and described. The algorithm for assessing the type of animal activity during vocalization has been suggested. The device prototype has been developed, which enables determination and sending to a Telegram chat bot the data on dog’s anxiety and activity, as well as on the ambient temperature, based on the calculation and analysis of the vocalizations intervalograms.

Discussion and Conclusion. The significance of the present development lies in creation of the hardware and software complex prototype that provides the unbiased analysis of the information about changes in canine behaviour in the real time. The implementation of this complex makes it possible to assess the canine behaviour and provides the opportunity to obtain the new data on probability of behavioural disorders in animals caused by a high level of anxiety. The complex can serve as a prototype for creating the systems for tracking and identifying other animal species’ behaviour (including in the urban settings).

Introduction. Noninflammatory alopecia is a disorder of canine appearance, which brings aesthetic discomfort to dog owners. Among foreign studies there are only few publications on implementing the drugs of the humane medicine for treatment of this disorder. The publications in the national literature present the descriptions of the individual clinical cases. The reviews of research containing the analysis and summary of the canine noninflammatory alopecia treatment methods are unavailable in the scientific literature. Therefore, this work aims at providing a comparative analysis of the canine noninflammatory alopecia treatment methods (based on the literature sources analysis).

Materials and Methods. Searching by subject area was conducted in the eLIBRARY.RU, PubMed, Crossref and Google Scholar databases for materials published from 2000 to 2023 by the following keywords: dog AND alopecia, dog*AND alopecia X, dog*AND “name of the drug”. The selected materials were structured, 111 publications were analysed, 69 of which were included in the present review.

Results. The studies on the use of humane medicine methods and drugs for treatment of alopecia X in dogs were analysed. The information was systemized into thematic blocks depending on the physiological causes of alopecia X and the drugs used. The main methods and approaches to be investigated were the use of melatonin, mitotane, trilostane, minoxidil, hormonal drugs, microneedling and microtrauma techniques.

Discussion and Conclusion. Currently, the unified protocol for treatment of alopecia X in dogs is not developed in the veterinary medicine. Upon analysis of the treatment methods described in the literature, microneedling, oral administration of melatonin and trilostane, along with the use of subcutaneous implants of deslorelin acetate have been identified as the optimal ones, combining high efficiency with minor side effects. The use of mitotane, minoxidil and osaterone acetate causes the serious side effects, that prevents them from being the future-oriented methods.