Dairy Farm Business Summary: Western and Central Plateau Region 1997

E.B. 98-09Dairy farm managers throughout New York State have been participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysis program since the early 1950's. Managers of each participating farm business receive a comprehensive summary and analysis of their farm business. The information in this report represents averages of the data submitted from dairy farms in the Western and Central Plateau Region for 1997

Analysing livestock network data for infectious diseases control:an argument for routine data collection in emerging economies

Livestock movements are an important mechanism of infectious disease transmission. Where these are well recorded, network analysis tools have been used to successfully identify system properties, highlight vulnerabilities to transmission, and inform targeted surveillance and control. Here we highlight the main uses of network properties in understanding livestock disease epidemiology and discuss statistical approaches to infer network characteristics from biased or fragmented datasets. We use a ‘hurdle model’ approach that predicts (i) the probability of movement and (ii) the number of livestock moved to generate synthetic ‘complete’ networks of movements between administrative wards, exploiting routinely collected government movement permit data from northern Tanzania. We demonstrate that this model captures a significant amount of the observed variation. Combining the cattle movement network with a spatial between-ward contact layer, we create a multiplex, over which we simulated the spread of ‘fast’ (R0 = 3) and ‘slow’ (R0 = 1.5) pathogens, and assess the effects of random versus targeted disease control interventions (vaccination and movement ban). The targeted interventions substantially outperform those randomly implemented for both fast and slow pathogens. Our findings provide motivation to encourage routine collection and centralization of movement data to construct representative networks. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control’. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue ‘Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes’

When is a family a family? Evidence from survey data and implications for family policy

This article examines the correspondence between common assumptions about the American family and actual patterns. The assessment is based on national data on individuals, households, and families. Findings indicate that the coresident nuclear model should be considered a model rather than the model of family. Past as well as current marital ties need to be considered in defining “family,” and divorce rather than death should be the expected cause of losing the main breadwinner in the family, except among elderly women. Parent-child ties to either young or adult children often span separate households. Coresidents can include individuals other than nuclear family members, and change rather than stability is the modal pattern in living arrangements. Rather than shaping concepts of the family from a single mold, policy makers and researchers are better advised to recognize the diversity and fluidity in family and household structures.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44653/1/10834_2006_Article_BF02353666.pd

A proteomic insight into the midgut proteome of Ornithodoros moubata females reveals novel information on blood digestion in argasid ticks

[Background]: The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main African vector of the human relapsing fever agent Borrelia duttoni and the African swine fever virus. Together with saliva, the tick midgut forms part of the host-tick-pathogen interface, and numerous midgut proteins play key functions in the blood digestion-related process and the infection and transmission of pathogens. This work explores the composition of the midgut proteome of unfed and fed O. moubata females with the aim to complete the biological information already obtained from the midgut transcriptome and provide a more robust and comprehensive perspective of this biological system.[Methods]: Midgut tissues taken from females before feeding and 48 h after feeding were subjected to LC/MS-MS analysis. After functional characterization and classification of the proteins identified, the differences in the proteome between unfed and fed females were analysed and discussed. Additionally, a detailed analysis of particular groups of proteins that are involved in the processes of nutrient digestion and responses to the oxidative stress was carried out.[Results]: 1491 non-redundant tick proteins were identified: 1132 of them in the midgut of unfed ticks, 1138 in the midgut of fed ticks, and up to 779 shared by both physiological conditions. Overall, the comparative analysis of the midgut proteomes of O. moubata females before and after feeding did not reveal great differences in the number or class of proteins expressed, enzymatic composition or functional classification.[Conclusions]: The hemoglobinolytic system in ixodids and argasids is very similar in spite of the fact that they display very different feeding and reproductive strategies. Although the main source of nutrients in ticks are proteins, lipids and carbohydrates also constitute significant nutritional sources and play an important part in the process of blood digestion. The genes and proteins involved in intracellular transport mechanisms, defensive responses, detoxifying responses and stress responses seem to be closely regulated, highlighting the complexity and importance of these processes in tick biology, which in turn assigns them a great interest as targets for therapeutic and immunological interventions.We acknowledge the support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).This research was funded by project AGL2013–42745-P granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Peer reviewe

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Eastern Plateau Region 1994

E.B. 95-17Dairy farmers throughout New York State have been participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysis program since the early 1950's. Managers of each participating farm business receive a comprehensive summary and analysis of the farm business. The information in this report represents an average of the data submitted from dairy farms in the Eastern plateau Region for 1994

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Eastern Plateau Region 1993

E.B. 94-15Dairy farmers throughout New York State have been participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysis program since the early 1950's. Managers of each participating farm business receive a comprehensive summary and analysis of the farm business. The information in this report represents an average of the data submitted from dairy farms in the Eastern Plateau Region for 1993

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Eastern Plateau Region 1989

A.E. Ext. 90-11The primary objective of the dairy farm business summary, DFBS, is to help farm managers improve the business and financial management of their business through appropriate use of historical farm data and the application of modern farm business analysis techniques. In short, DFBS identifies the business and financial information farmers need and demonstrates how it should be used in identifying and evaluating financial strengths and weaknesses of the farm business

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Eastern Plateau Region 1992

A.E. Ext. 93-07Dairy farmers throughout New York State have been participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysis program since the early 1950's. Managers of each participating farm business receive a comprehensive summary and analysis of the farm business. The information in this report represents an average of the data submitted from dairy farms in the Eastern Plateau Region for 1992

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Intensive Grazing Farms New York 1996

E.B. 97-14Dairy farm managers throughout New York State have been participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension's farm business summary and analysIs program since the early 1950's. Managers of each participating farm business receive a comprehensive summary and analysis of the farm business. The farms induded in the study are a subset of New York State farms participating in the Dairy Farm Business Summary (DFBS) Seventy-six farms indicated that they grazed dairy cows at least three months and moved to a fresh paddock at least every three days. Operators of these 76 farms were asked to complete a grazing practices survey. Forty-three of the farms did complete it The investigators chose to eliminate from the study those farms which owned no real estate and farms where less than 30 percent of the forage consumed by the cows during the grazing season was from grazrng. Of the 59 remaining farms, surveys were obtained from 41. The investigators had special interest in practices used on farms with above average profitability. Therefore the study centered on 30 farms which were not first year grazers and on which at least 40 percent of forage consumed during the grazing season was grazed. These 30 farms were divided on the basis of net farm income (without apprecIation) per cow above and below $390 which was the average for all farms partiCipating in DFBS. Twenty-one farms with net farm income per cow above$390 are in tIle "More Profitable" group and nine farms with net farm income per cow below $390 comprise the "Less Profitable" group. The primary objective of the dairy farm business summary, DFBS, is to help farm managers improve the business and financial management of their business through appropriate use of historical farm data and the application of modern farm business analysis techniques. This information can also be used to establish goals that will enable the business to better meet its objectives, In short, DFBS provides business and financial information needed in identifying and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of the farm business