Safety evaluation of lasalocid use in farm-reared pheasants

Ring-necked pheasants are raised on farms under conditions similar to commercial production of poultry. They are routinely infected with coccidia that cause outbreaks of disease and sometimes death. Amprolium is the only approved drug for use against coccidiosis in this species and resistance has been reported. Lasalocid (Avatec®) is approved for use in chickens, turkeys and partridges for the prevention of coccidiosis caused by Eimeria species specific for these birds. It is used extra-label on pheasant farms and has been shown to be effective against coccidia that cause disease on pheasant farms. In order to add pheasants to the Avatec® label, information regarding its efficacy and safety is required by the U.S Food and Drug Administration. The current work focused on evaluating lasalocid use in pheasants at 1, 2 and 3 times the labeled high dose for treatment of coccidia in other avian species

Systematic review of the magnitude of change in the prevalence of Salmonella and the quantity of Salmonella after administration of pathogen reduction treatments on Pork Carcasses: Interim summary

Our objective was to review and describe the change in prevalence and/or quantity of Salmonella associated with pathogen reduction treatments (washes, sprays, etc.) on pork carcasses or carcass parts with skin in comparative experimental designs. This is an interim summary

Preparatory Work for the Future Development of Scientific Opinions on Animal Health

This final report summarizes the results of two reviews and a scoping study related to Canine leishmaniosis (CanL). Three objectives were addressed in this project. Objective 1 was to summarize relative sensitivity and specificity estimates of assays used to detect infection in dogs with Leishmania infantum in studies of naïve dogs in areas where Leishmania infantum infection is endemic. Objective 2 was to summarize data available to estimate the prevalence of parasitological cure (failure to detect organism) after a 12-month follow-up period in animals treated with meglumine antimoniate, miltefosine, and allopurinol or combinations of these drugs for canine leishmaniosis. Objective 3 was to assess diagnostic test characteristics of PCR assays and serological assays (ELISA or IFAT) from studies that use experimental models of Canine leishmaniosis. The same comprehensive search was used for all objectives. The searches yielded 7,405 records. After duplicates were removed, 3,865 records remained. Of these, 243 were broadly identified as diagnostic test evaluation studies and at the 2nd level of screening 18 were considered longitudinal studies. The 18 references were then assessed based on the full text and 7 were considered relevant to the review. The assays assessed by these studies were PCR on skin, buffy coat, bone marrow, blood and conjunctiva, and IFAT and ELISA. For objective 2, 40 potentially relevant records were identified as treatment comparison studies. After full-text screening, 13 studies were included in the review. The treatments varied greatly, and few comparative efficacy estimates were provided. No treatment was associated with 100% cure after 180 days follow-up. For objective 3, 513 citations were identified and the full texts of 169 articles were obtained. Sixty-two articles described at least one of the assays requested (PCR, ELISA or IFAT) and 18 articles described the use of a PCR and either ELISA and/or IFAT

Systematic Review of the Effect of Perch Height on Keel Bone Fractures, Deformation and Injuries, Bone Strength, Foot Lesions and Perching Behavior

This report provides a summary of four systematic reviews on the impact of perch height on laying hen keel bone fractures, deformation and injuries, bone strength, foot lesions and perching behavior. After conducting a scoping review and identifying outcomes of interest, the review protocols were developed. An extensive literature search was conducted in information sources such as CABI, PUBMED and relevant conference proceedings. 1518 abstracts were assessed for relevance and 9 studies reported perch use and 1 reported keel injuries. No studies reported summary effect sizes; therefore it was not possible to conduct a meta-analysis. In lieu of a formal meta-analysis, a descriptive analysis was conducted, which plotted reported perch height against metrics of perch use. This descriptive analysis was not able to account for lack of independence, differences in sample size and other importance sources of heterogeneity such as cage height. The descriptive analysis suggested a positive association with metrics that measured perch use and height, i.e., increased usage was associated with increased height

Pain Management in the Neonatal Piglet During Routine Management Procedures. Part 1: A Systematic Review of Randomized and Non-Randomized Intervention Studies

Routine procedures carried out on piglets (i.e. castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, and ear notching) are considered painful. Unfortunately the efficacy of current pain mitigation modalities is poorly understood. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize the existing primary scientific literature regarding the effectiveness of pain management interventions used for routine procedures on piglets. The review question was, \u27In piglets under twenty-eight days old, undergoing castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, and/or methods of identification that involve cutting of the ear tissue, what is the effect of pain mitigation compared with no pain mitigation on behavioral and non-behavioral outcomes that indicate procedural pain and post-procedural pain?\u27 A review protocol was designed a priori. Data sources used were Agricola (EBSCO), CAB Abstracts (Thomson Reuters), PubMed, Web of Science (Thomson Reuters), BIOSIS Previews (Thomson Reuters), and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text. No restrictions on year of publication or language were placed on the search. Eligible studies assessed an intervention designed to mitigate the pain of the procedures of interest and included a comparison group that did not receive an intervention. Eligible non-English studies were translated using a translation service. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for relevance using pre-defined questions. Data were extracted from relevant articles onto pre-defined forms. From the 2203 retrieved citations forty publications, containing 52 studies met the eligibility criteria. In 40 studies, piglets underwent castration only. In seven studies, piglets underwent tail docking only. In one study, piglets underwent teeth clipping only, and in one study piglets underwent ear notching only. Three studies used multiple procedures. Thirty-two trial arms assessed general anesthesia protocols, 30 trial arms assessed local anesthetic protocols, and 28 trial arms assessed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) protocols. Forty-one trial arms were controls where piglets received either placebo or no treatment. Forty-five outcomes were extracted from the studies, however only the results from studies that assessed cortisol (six studies), β-endorphins (one study), vocalisations (nine studies), and pain-related behaviors (nine studies) are reported. Other outcomes were reported in only one or two studies. Confident decision making will likely be difficult based on this body of work because lack of comprehensive reporting precludes calculation of the magnitude of pain mitigation for most outcomes

Safety Evaluation of Lasalocid Use in Chinese Ring-Necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus)

Coccidiosis remains a significant threat to the welfare of game farm–reared pheasants in the United States. Although lasalocid has been demonstrated to be effective against pheasant specific coccidia, information regarding its safety in this species is lacking. The purpose of this study was to gather data on the safety of lasalocid when fed to Chinese ring-necked pheasants at one, two, and three times the recommended high dose of lasalocid used for prevention of coccidiosis in other poultry at three times the normal treatment period. Pheasant chicks (approximately 1 day-old; n  =  160) were randomly blocked by sex into four treatment groups and given their respective diets continuously for 6 wk. No significant differences were observed in overall feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion rates, clinical pathology measurements, or tissue gross and histopathologic evaluations between controls and treatment groups associated with lasalocid administration. Based on the results of this study it appears that lasalocid fed at the recommended rate of 125 ppm is safe in Chinese ring-necked pheasants

Review: Assessment of completeness of reporting in intervention studies using livestock: an example from pain mitigation interventions in neonatal piglets

Accurate and complete reporting of study methods, results and interpretation are essential components for any scientific process, allowing end-users to evaluate the internal and external validity of a study. When animals are used in research, excellence in reporting is expected as a matter of continued ethical acceptability of animal use in the sciences. Our primary objective was to assess completeness of reporting for a series of studies relevant to mitigation of pain in neonatal piglets undergoing routine management procedures. Our second objective was to illustrate how authors can report the items in the Reporting guidElines For randomized controLled trials for livEstoCk and food safety (REFLECT) statement using examples from the animal welfare science literature. A total of 52 studies from 40 articles were evaluated using a modified REFLECT statement. No single study reported all REFLECT checklist items. Seven studies reported specific objectives with testable hypotheses. Six studies identified primary or secondary outcomes. Randomization and blinding were considered to be partially reported in 21 and 18 studies, respectively. No studies reported the rationale for sample sizes. Several studies failed to report key design features such as units for measurement, means, standard deviations, standard errors for continuous outcomes or comparative characteristics for categorical outcomes expressed as either rates or proportions. In the discipline of animal welfare science, authors, reviewers and editors are encouraged to use available reporting guidelines to ensure that scientific methods and results are adequately described and free of misrepresentations and inaccuracies. Complete and accurate reporting increases the ability to apply the results of studies to the decision-making process and prevent wastage of financial and animal resources

Pain management in the neonatal piglet during routine management procedures. Part 2:Grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations

Piglets reared in swine production in the USA undergo painful procedures that include castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, and identification with ear notching or tagging. These procedures are usually performed without pain mitigation. The objective of this project was to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in 1- to 28-day-old piglets undergoing these procedures. The National Pork Board funded project to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in piglets. Recommendation development followed a defined multi-step process that included an evidence summary and estimates of the efficacies of interventions. The results of a systematic review of the interventions were reported in a companion paper. This manuscript describes the recommendation development process and the final recommendations. Recommendations were developed for three interventions (CO2/O2 general anesthesia, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and lidocaine) for use during castration. The ability to make strong recommendations was limited by low-quality evidence and strong certainty about variation in stakeholder values and preferences. The panel strongly recommended against the use of a CO2/O2 general anesthesia mixture, weakly recommended for the use of NSAIDs and weakly recommended against the use of lidocaine for pain mitigation during castration of 1- to 28-day-old piglets

Updated systematic review:Associations between proximity to animal feeding operations and health of individuals in nearby communities

Abstract Objective The objective of this review was to update a systematic review of associations between living near an animal feeding operation (AFO) and human health. Methods The MEDLINE® and MEDLINE® In-Process, Centre for Agricultural Biosciences Abstracts, and Science Citation Index databases were searched. Reference lists of included articles were hand-searched. Eligible studies reported exposure to an AFO and an individual-level human health outcome. Two reviewers performed study selection and data extraction. Results The search returned 3702 citations. Sixteen articles consisting of 10 study populations were included in the analysis. The health outcomes were lower and upper respiratory tracts, MRSA, other infectious disease, neurological, psychological, dermatological, otologic, ocular, gastrointestinal, stress and mood, and other non-infectious health outcomes. Most studies were observational and used prevalence measures of outcome. An association between Q fever risk and proximity to goat production was reported. Other associations were unclear. Risk of bias was serious or critical for most exposure-outcome associations. Multiplicity (i.e., a large number of potentially correlated outcomes and exposures assessed on the same study subjects) was common in the evidence base. Conclusions Few studies reported an association between surrogate clinical outcomes and AFO proximity for respiratory tract-related outcomes. There were no consistent dose-response relationships between surrogate clinical outcome and AFO proximity. A new finding was that Q fever in goats is likely associated with an increased Q fever risk in community members. The review results for the non-respiratory health outcomes were inconclusive because only a small number of studies were available or the between-study results were inconsistent. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD4201401052

Authors' response to comments from Nachman KE et al.

Abstract Authors’ response to comments letter to the editor from Nachman KE et al