Animal Molecular Breeding, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 72-81 http://animalscipublisher.com/index.php/amb 72 Feature Review Open Access Advances in Disease Control and Immunity in Goats: A Comprehensive Review Xuezhong Zhang1 , Xinghao Li 2 1 Tropical Animal Medicine Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China 2 Animal Science Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: xuezhong.zhang@hitar.org Animal Molecular Breeding, 2025, Vol.15, No.2 doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0008 Received: 05 Feb., 2025 Accepted: 10 Mar., 2025 Published: 29 Mar., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Zhang and Li, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Zhang X.Z., and Li X.H., 2025, Advances in disease control and immunity in goats: a comprehensive review, Animal Molecular Breeding, 15(2): 72-81 (doi: 10.5376/amb.2025.15.0008) Abstract Goats are important herbivorous economic animals all over the world, and the perpetual threat of infectious diseases is severely restricting their industrial value and sustainable development. Over the past few years, numerous viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases have created a perpetual threat to goat breeding, causing disease prevention and control and immune research to become a major direction. This study composes systematically on pathogenicity and epidemic pattern of the predominant goat infectious diseases, and gives a brief summarization on achievements of epidemic monitoring, early detection, biosafety regulation and antibiotic replacement researches. The study conducted a thorough exploration of the goat immune system, decoded the mysteries of its structure and function, continued to explore the strategy of vaccine development, and studied immune markers and regulatory mechanisms, highlighting the urgency and urgency of new vaccine delivery technology and group immunity optimization. In the meanwhile, the feasible utilization of the cutting-edge techniques such as multi-omics, CRISPR, and RNA interference in resistance breeding against disease and immune modulation was also presented. Technical bottlenecks and multi-pathogen overall prevention and control challenges faced by the current study were addressed, new ideas on building a regional prevention and control system and strengthening precision immunity were proposed, and theoretical guidance and practical reference for goat disease comprehensive prevention and control were provided. Keywords Goat diseases; Immune mechanisms; Vaccine development; Multi-pathogen control; Emerging technologies 1 Introduction Goats (Capra hircus) play an important role in global agriculture, especially in the developing world, where they play a central role in ensuring food security, rural livelihood improvement and cultural preservation. The adaptability of goats to various climatic regimes and environments with limited resources makes them a central component within both subsistence and commercial livestock systems. The global population of goats is still on the rise, according to the food and agriculture organization (FAO), which is dominated mainly by increasing demand for goat milk, meat and fibre. The leading producers of goats are Asia and Africa, which account for more than 80% of the whole world goat population. Additionally, growing demand for goat products in the export and urban markets further spurred the expansion of the industry (Hanafy et al., 2023; Hurisa et al., 2024). Despite their resilience, goats are impacted by a range of contagious diseases that significantly constrain their productivity as well as herd health. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), caprine articular encephalitis (CAE), and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are the major viral diseases that still cause extensive economic losses worldwide (Berry et al., 2018). Other bacterial diseases, such as caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) and brucellosis, are also common, negatively affecting goat reproduction efficiency and milk quality (Hasan and Nishikawa, 2022). Gastrointestinal parasites such as Haemonchus contortus are one of the major threats in the tropics and subtropics as they cause weight loss, anemia, and death in goats. Co-infections and the development of novel pathogens also complicate control of disease, arguing for coordinated, species-specific health approaches (Bannantine et al., 2022). To improve goat productivity, ensure food safety and reduce antibiotic dependence, effective disease control and immune-based intervention strategies are essential. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the
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