Long-term Trends in Terrestrial and Marine Invertebrate Exploitation on the Eastern African Coast: Insights from Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar

The nature and trajectory of coastal and maritime adaptations, and the complex ways foraging economies have been structured to include both marine and terrestrial resources, are becoming key topics of interest in African archaeological research. There is, therefore, an increasing need to understand the longer-term context for more recent shifts in coastal economies, and for greater attention to be paid to the role of a broader spectrum of resources. This is particularly the case for terrestrial and marine molluscs, which have been somewhat overlooked in discussions centered on past economies in the region. The relative importance of these comparatively small-bodied faunal resources requires evaluation, particularly given their ubiquity within the archaeological record, and their potentially important contribution to dietary and economic practices. Kuumbi Cave, located in the southeast of Zanzibar (Unguja) Island, provides the ideal opportunity to investigate long-term trends in invertebrate use on the eastern African coast and islands. Here we discuss not only the trajectory of coastal resource exploitation and coastal economic adaptations in the region from the late Pleistocene, but also the significance of Kuumbi Cave as one of the few sites in eastern Africa that represents significant levels of exploitation of large terrestrial gastropods

Crib Biting and Equine Gastric Ulceration Syndrome: do horses that display oral stereotypies have altered gastric anatomy and physiology?

Equine Gastric Ulceration Syndrome (EGUS) and Crib biting are two separate conditions suffered by horses. Previous research has hypothesised causal relationships between these two conditions, whereby the behavior is driven by a requirement to stimulate saliva production to buffer gastric juice. However to date there is limited empirical evidence to support this notion. To identify if the anatomy and physiology of the equid stomach differed in crib biting (CB) horses and non-crib biting controls (N-CB) a two part experiment was conducted using cadaver stomachs. Twenty four stomachs (n=12) CB and (n=12) N-CB were collected from an abattoir. Duplicate 1.5 cm squared sections were taken from the fundic and pyloric mucosa for histology and H&E staining to identify gastrin (G) producing cells. Slides were scored using an adapted four point scale. A further 18 stomachs, (n=9) CB and (n=9) N-CB were collected to test the pH of the mucosa and digesta from the fundic and pyloric regions. G cell concentrations were analysed by Mann Whitney U-46 test. Stomach content pH was analysed by one-way ANOVA and L.S.D post hoc. Relationships between digesta and mucosal pH were evaluated by correlation. In both parts of the study there was no difference between the G-cell concentration (P>0.05) and pH (P>0.05) between CB and N-CB horses. There was a positive correlation between digesta and the mucosal surface of pyloric region in CB horses (R2 0.66, P<0.001), but not in N-CB horses. These findings suggest, from cadavers, that CB and N-CB stomachs are not anatomically nor physiologically different. It is plausible that there is no direct inherent link between CB and EGUS rather that both conditions are linked to environmental and physiological stress

The influence of hay steaming on clinical signs and airway immune response in severe asthmatic horses

ackground Avoidance of antigenic stimuli was found to significantly reverse airway obstruction of horses with severe equine asthma (sEA). To date, no published study investigated the influence of steaming hay on lower airway condition of sEA-affected horses. The objectives were to determine the clinical, cytological and cytokine respiratory responses of both sEA and control (CTL) horses experimentally exposed to steamed or dry hay. Results A cohort of 6 sEA horses and 6 CTL horses was involved in this field study. On day 0, both groups were fed with steamed hay for 5 consecutive days, followed by a wash-out period of 26 days prior to be fed with dry hay for 5 consecutive days. Investigations performed 2 days prior to and 5 days after each challenge included clinical score, tracheal mucus accumulation, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytology and cytokine mRNA expression. Feeding steamed hay significantly decreased its mould content (P < 0.001). Mucus score significantly increased when feeding dry hay (P = 0.01). No significant influence of challenge type was found on clinical score. Percentages of neutrophils (P < 0.001) as well as mRNA expression of IL-1β (P = 0.024), IL-6R (P = 0.021), IL-18 (P = 0.009) and IL-23 (P = 0.036) in BALF of sEA affected horses were significantly increased after both (steamed and dry hay) challenges. Relative mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6R and IL-23 in BALF were also significantly correlated to neutrophil percentages and both clinical and tracheal mucus score. Conclusions Steaming significantly decreased mould content but inconsistently influenced the respiratory response of sEA affected horses when fed hay. Based on BALF cytology and cytokine profiles, its relevance might be controversial as a non-medicinal therapy for sEA-affected horses

Understanding veterinary leadership in practice

From early in employment, veterinary surgeons adopt a position of leadership, taking responsibility for case management, client communication and the coordination of the team of veterinary nurses and receptionists who facilitate their role. With time, many progress to become partners or directors within practice. A key ambition of the Vet Futures Report is ‘exceptional leadership,’ yet to date there has been little formal leadership training within the UK veterinary curriculums and a notable absence of veterinary-specific leadership literature.1 This vacuum in identifying the qualities of exceptional leadership raises the question of how the industry continues to progress, embracing the challenges of corporate ownership, growing numbers of veterinary surgeons and a turbulent macroenvironment during, and post, Brexit negotiations.2 Historically, leadership research has tended to follow a managerialist path,3 4 focusing analysis on alpha white men within US leadership.5–7 As such, ethnocentric leadership models pervade the literature. Critically, these models ignore contextual variation, the influence of leadership on the individuals within an industry and complexity.6 Therefore, in recent decades, literature has redirected to take a critical approach. In beginning to understand the value of leadership studies to the veterinary industry, the interconnection of leaders, followers, context and purpose in each unique leadership situation needs to be fully appreciated.8 Furthermore, to ensure exceptional leadership, we must first recognise its inseparability from the wellbeing of veterinary surgeons. Given the Vet Futures’ ambition of ‘exceptional leadership’ coupled with the paucity of literature on leadership in the veterinary industry, this study explores the experiences of leadership among senior veterinary surgeons (SVS), while acknowledging the complexity of multifactorial influence and uniqueness of practice. The value lies in reflecting on industry relevance.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) in conservation agriculture: a compelling case for increased adoption

The rapidly growing population will soon require a near doubling of food production. This increase must be achieved in a manner that maintains environmental integrity, preserves public health and resolves food access and distribution equalities. The use of forage legumes in arable rotations can make significant and multidimensional contributions to this sustainable intensification and this paper reviews the potential contribution of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), with particular reference to sustainable cereal production in conservation agriculture systems. The use of red clover as a tool in soil fertility-building and the multiple benefits to the cropping system in which it is used is described. The benefits discussed include atmospheric nitrogen fixation, soil conservation, structural soil improvements and a suite of agroecosystem services including increased soil microbial activity, the phytoremediation of polluted soils and the provision of food for pollinators. Reported allelopathic weed suppression by red clover cover crops and the role of modern plant breeding in creating new varieties that further enhance system sustainability is also discussed. Finally, as economic considerations will always impact on adoption rates, the profitability of red clover rotations in terms of silage value and yield benefits is taken into account

Soil mineral nitrogen availability predicted by herbage yield and disease resistance in red clover (Trifolium pratense) cropping

Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient in crop production. Legumes such as red clover can provide N through biofixation, but securing nitrogen in soil for subsequent crop production must also be considered. Variety selection and management in red clover cropping can influence soil mineral nitrogen (SMN) availability. A field trial to investigate this was conducted with six varieties, under one and two cut management, over 2 years. Dry matter (DM) and N yield, Sclerotinia resistance and SMN availability were assessed. Low DM and N yields (1.6–2.4 t DM ha−1 and 54–83 kg N ha−1) in the first year of cultivation allowed ~ 40 kg N ha−1 to become available, but high DM and N yields (10.2–14.6 t DM ha−1 and 405–544 kg N ha−1) allowed ~ 20 kg N ha−1 to become available. Wetter weather in 2015 caused significantly more SMN losses than 2016 (20 kg N ha−1 in 2015 and 5 kg N ha−1 in 2016). The varieties Amos, Maro and Milvus lost significantly more SMN in the winter period, which may have been caused by more severe infection of Sclerotinia (these varieties were 50–80% more severely infected other varieties). Varietal effect was non-significant for winter losses in 2016, where no significant varietal differences in Sclerotinia infection were observed. 1 cut made ~ 41 kg N ha−1 available in the growing season of 2015, whilst 2 cut made significantly less (37 kg N ha−1). Cutting was non-significant in 2016 but 1 cut was less susceptible to losses in the winter period. Cutting in 2015 did not significantly affect herbage DM and N yields in the first or second cut of 2016

Land Value Capture and Tax Increment Financing: Overview and Considerations for Sustainable Urban Investment

The paper reviews the notion of Land Value Capture (LVC), its advantages and disadvantages and relevance to for urban growth management. LVC encompasses a wide range of mechanisms, applied in very diverse contexts to monetize ‘windfall’ gains, accruing to landowners because of growth, infrastructure or placemaking projects. Despite widespread conviction that a proportion of these ‘unearned increments’ should somehow be harvested for the wider public good, contention, legal and pragmatic challenges remain. As policy makers confront population pressures, transport needs and inequality, LVC can help bridge infrastructure funding gaps, accelerate housing provision and temper polarisation. Betterment taxes, Tax Increment Finance (TIF) or participatory instruments like land readjustment can target ‘planning gains’ capitalized into land and property values near stations, historic monuments or upgraded precincts. As well as flagging instrument diversity and variable contexts, the literature suggests LVC mechanisms work best in a joined-up policy context. Ironically, spatial LVC schemes like TIF are most likely to fail when the regeneration need is most acute. In America, inadequate governance, scrutiny or auditing undermined schemes to fund transport or improve the public realm. In Europe LVC exists in a variety of modalities but three European examples, suggests it remains underutilized. London megaprojects, UK regional housing schemes and French sprawl, illustrate that policy makers have yet to adequately capture unearned increment

(No) time to cook: promoting mealkits to the time-poor consumer

This case study considers how the promotional messages adopted by meal-kit providers draw the time-poor consumer into a consumption relationship based on time-saving promises which imply tacit new “rules” for food planning, shopping, and cooking that may have detrimental consequences for the food consumer. These promotional messages are considered from a critical perspective which considers their influence on food choice, where ease of access to food, education, cooking skills, and time constraints are important factors and which highlights existing concerns that “the consumption of convenience meals discourages cooking from scratch, facilitating a society of individuals lacking in food preparation skills”

Animal welfare impacts of badger culling operations

We are writing to express our extreme concern following recent media coverage1, 2 relating to the methodology being used by contractors to kill badgers under licence, as part of the government’s policy to control bovine TB in cattle. The coverage relates to the shooting of badgers that have been captured in live traps. Covert video footage (https://bit.ly/2Eud1iR ) from Cumbria shows a trapped badger being shot with a firearm at close range, following which it appears to take close to a minute to stop moving. The contractor clearly observes the animal during this time but makes no attempt to expedite the death of the badger and prevent further suffering, as required by the current Natural England best practice guide which states: ‘Immediately after shooting, the animal should be checked to ensure it is dead, and if there is any doubt, a second shot must be taken as soon as possible.’3 The conversation between the contractor and his companion also suggests they were considering moving the badger to another site before finally bagging the carcase, again breaching the best practice guide. While the footage only relates to the experience of a single badger, and while the degree to which the badger was conscious in the period immediately following the shot is unclear, we can by no means be certain that the badger did not suffer. It also raises serious questions about the training, competence and behaviour of contractors, in relation to both badger welfare, and biosecurity. This adds to existing concerns relating to the humaneness of ‘controlled shooting’ (targeting free-roaming badgers with rifles), which continues to be a permitted method under culling licences, in spite of the reservations expressed by both the government-commissioned Independent Expert Panel in its 2014 report,4 and the BVA, which concluded in 2015 that it ‘can no longer support the continued use of controlled shooting as part of the badger control policy’.5 (However, it has since continued to support the issuing of licences which permit the method). The BVA has consistently indicated its support for what it calls the ‘tried and tested’ method of trapping and shooting, but has thus far failed to provide comprehensive and robust evidence for the humaneness of this method. Figure1 Download figure Open in new tab Download powerpoint Natural England reported that its monitors observed 74 (just over 0.6 per cent) of controlled shooting events for accuracy and humaneness During 2017, almost 20,000 badgers were killed under licence across 19 cull zones, around 60 per cent of which were killed by controlled shooting, the remainder being trapped and shot.6 Natural England reported that its monitors observed 74 (just over 0.6 per cent) of controlled shooting events for accuracy and humaneness. No information has been provided on the extent to which trapping and shooting activities were monitored. This raises serious concerns about the extent of suffering that might be experienced by very large numbers of animals, for which contractors are not being held to account. If contractors reach their maximum culling targets set by Natural England for 2018, as many as 41,000 additional badgers could be killed.7 The extent to which these animals will suffer is once again being left in the hands of contractors, with woefully inadequate oversight, and in the face of anecdotal evidence of breaches of best practice guidance. This situation is clearly unacceptable from an animal welfare perspective and it is our view that by endorsing the policy, the BVA is contradicting the principles contained within its own animal welfare strategy.8 We therefore urge the BVA to withdraw its support for any further licensed badger culling, and the RCVS to make it clear that any veterinarian who provides support for culling activities that result in unnecessary and avoidable animal suffering could face disciplinary proceedings. The veterinary profession has no business supporting this licensed mass killing with all its inherent negative welfare and biosecurity implications, and for which the disease control benefits are, at best, extremely uncertain. We believe the continued support for the culls by veterinary bodies in the face of poor evidence for its efficacy damages the credibility of the profession, and that same support in the face of potential animal suffering on a large scale undermines its reputation. We stand ready to discuss these issues in more detail