Immunisation against gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) reduces agonistic behaviours in male rangeland goats

Rangeland goat bucks were used to evaluate the efficacy of a commercially available anti-gonadotrophin-releasing hormone vaccine, Improvac (Zoetis Australia, West Ryde, NSW, Australia). The hypothesis tested was that immunisation would suppress testosterone secretion by the testis and agonistic behaviour between male goats. We also compared intervals of 2 and 4 weeks between primary and booster immunisations and monitored responses over a 2-month period. The 45 goats were split into three groups (n = 15): one group receiving the vaccination booster on Day 14, one group receiving the vaccination booster on Day 28, and the Control group receiving sterile saline injections. Body mass, body condition score and scrotal circumference were measured fortnightly, and blood was collected at 2-week intervals and analysed for testosterone concentration. Behavioural interaction tests of 2-min duration were also conducted fortnightly. There was a significant decrease in paired testicular circumference (P < 0.05) and testosterone concentration (P < 0.01) in both vaccination groups by the end of the experiment at Day 60, compared with the Control group. Agonistic interactions measured at Day 60 were significantly reduced in both vaccination groups (P < 0.05) compared with the Control group. These results support the efficacy of Improvac in reducing agonistic behaviours in rangeland goat bucks and suggest that the use of the vaccine may assist in reducing social stress and possible injury in groups of confined male goats

Remote identification of sheep with flystrike using behavioural observations

Flystrike is a major problem affecting sheep in Australia. Identification of &amp;lsquo;flystruck&amp;rsquo; individuals is crucial for treatment; but requires labour-intensive physical examination. As the industry moves toward more low-input systems; there is a need for remote methods to identify flystruck individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour of sheep with breech flystrike within a paddock setting. Video footage of sixteen Merino sheep; eight later confirmed with flystrike and eight without; was collected as they moved freely within the paddock with conspecifics. Quantitative behavioural measurements and a qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) were conducted and compared to their breech conditions (i.e., faecal/urine staining; flystrike severity). Both qualitative and quantitative assessments indicated behavioural differences between flystruck and non-flystruck animals. Flystruck sheep had a behavioural profile characterised by restless behaviour; abnormal postures and reduced grazing time (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; &amp;lt; 0.05). Furthermore; flystruck sheep were scored to have a more &amp;lsquo;exhausted/irritated&amp;rsquo; demeanour using QBA (&lt;i&gt;p&lt;/i&gt; &amp;lt; 0.05). The behavioural responses also corresponded to the flystrike severity scores and condition of the breech area. We conclude that remotely assessed behaviour of flystruck sheep diverges markedly from non-flystruck sheep; and thus could be a low-input method for identifying and treating affected animals

Animal welfare indicators for sheep during sea transport: The effect of voyage day and time of day

Ensuring the well-being of animals during transport is becoming an increasingly important societal concern. The Australian livestock export industry recognises the need for comprehensive monitoring and reporting on animal welfare during sea transport. It is predicted that pen-side assessments of sheep can be used to monitor environmental conditions, resource access, and animal health and behavioural outcomes throughout a sea voyage. Pen-side assessments by observation are non-invasive and practical to apply in an industry setting. This study monitored sheep using a pilot list of welfare indicators during two sea voyages from Australia to the Middle East, in contrasting seasons. Sheep behaviour, environment and resources were recorded three times daily via pen-side observations of six pens of Merino wethers (castrated males), repeated over three decks for each voyage. Behavioural outcomes were examined for the effect of sampling frequency on group assessments. The number of behavioural measures were reduced via Principal Component (PC) analysis. The primary three PC factors were tested against the time of sampling and pen location after accounting for the effect of environmental- and resource-based predictor variables. PC 1 (24.0 % of the total variance) described activity levels, with sheep on Voyage B being more active in the morning and resting or recumbent in the middle of the afternoon and evening. PC 2 (14.7 %) reflected heat responses with the majority of the variation in these data accounted for by changes in Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) and manure pad moisture. The heat responses described by PC 2 also varied by voyage day (p < 0.001) and time point (p < 0.001). PC 3 scores (9.5 %) reflected flight distances and feeding behaviour and strongly correlated to WBGT and pellet consumption per head per day. Feeding behaviour generally became more competitive, and flight distances reduced as both voyages progressed. Results indicate that a comprehensive welfare monitoring protocol requires repeated daily sampling throughout a voyage. The findings of this study are pertinent for developing a sampling strategy to assess sheep welfare during sea transport

The contribution of qualitative behavioural assessment to appraisal of livestock welfare

Animal welfare is increasingly important for the Australian livestock industries, to maintain social licence to practice as well as ensuring market share overseas. Improvement of animal welfare in the livestock industries requires several important key steps. Paramount among these, objective measures are needed for welfare assessment that will enable comparison and contrast of welfare implications of husbandry procedures or housing options. Such measures need to be versatile (can be applied under a wide range of on- and off-farm situations), relevant (reveal aspects of the animal’s affective or physiological state that is relevant to their welfare), reliable (can be repeated with confidence in the results), relatively economic to apply, and they need to have broad acceptance by all stakeholders. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) is an integrated measure that characterises behaviour as a dynamic, expressive body language. QBA is a versatile tool requiring little specialist equipment suiting application to in situ assessments that enables comparative, hypothesis-driven evaluation of various industry-relevant practices. QBA is being increasingly used as part of animal welfare assessments in Europe, and although most other welfare assessment methods record ‘problems’ (e.g. lameness, injury scores, and so on), QBA can capture positive aspects of animal welfare (e.g. positively engaged with their environment, playfulness). In this viewpoint, we review the outcomes of recent QBA studies and discuss the potential application of QBA, in combination with other methods, as a welfare assessment tool for the Australian livestock industries

Review of livestock welfare indicators relevant for the Australian live export industry

Animal welfare is an important issue for the live export industry (LEI), in terms of economic returns, community attitudes and international socio-political relations. Mortality has traditionally been the main welfare measure recorded within the LEI; however, high mortality incidents are usually acted upon after adverse events occur, reducing the scope for proactive welfare enhancement. We reviewed 71 potential animal welfare measures, identifying those measures that would be appropriate for use throughout the LEI for feeder and slaughter livestock species, and categorised these as animal-, environment- and resource-based. We divided the live export supply chain into three sectors: (1) Australian facilities, (2) vessel and (3) destination country facilities. After reviewing the relevant regulations for each sector of the industry, we identified 38 (sector 1), 35 (sector 2) and 26 (sector 3) measures already being collected under current practice. These could be used to form a ‘welfare information dashboard’: a LEI-specific online interface for collecting data that could contribute towards standardised industry reporting. We identified another 20, 25 and 28 measures that are relevant to each LEI sector (sectors 1, 2, 3, respectively), and that could be developed and integrated into a benchmarking system in the future

An academic–practice partnership during COVID-19 pandemic: Transitioning from a clinical to virtual fellowship

Aims: Discuss the needed modifications that occurred to the academic–practice oncology partnership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: To meet the workforce needs of nurses who care for adults with cancer, an academic–practice partnership was created in 2016. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, North Carolina Cancer Hospital and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center collaborated to provide structured clinical and didactic practice experiences for undergraduate nursing students interested in oncology nursing. With COVID-19, nursing students were not permitted to be in the clinical setting. Design: Discursive paper. Method: An innovative and collaborative partnership created reflective and interactive activities. The majority of the learning activities were created at the revised Bloom's taxonomy level of application or higher, with some encompassing multiple levels. Students engaged in a variety of meaningful experiences requiring multiple learning processes that promoted professional development in the interpersonal and critical thinking domains. Conclusions: Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the delivery of oncology nurse fellowship was successful because of innovative virtual strategies. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Our academic–practice partnership allowed the nursing students to develop their interpersonal and critical thinking skills without entering the clinical site. This is an approach encouraged by the authors for other schools of nursing. This manuscript is submitted as a Special Issue Discursive Article, and thus, the authors declare that an EQUATOR Checklist has not been used

Soft, collinear and non-relativistic modes in radiative decays of very heavy quarkonium

We analyze the end-point region of the photon spectrum in semi-inclusive radiative decays of very heavy quarkonium (m alpha_s^2 >> Lambda_QCD). We discuss the interplay of the scales arising in the Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, m, m(1-z)^{1/2} and m(1-z) for z close to 1, with the scales of heavy quarkonium systems in the weak coupling regime, m, m alpha_s and m alpha_s^2. For 1-z \sim alpha_s^2 only collinear and (ultra)soft modes are seen to be relevant, but the recently discovered soft-collinear modes show up for 1-z << alpha_s^2. The S- and P-wave octet shape functions are calculated. When they are included in the analysis of the photon spectrum of the Upsilon (1S) system, the agreement with data in the end-point region becomes excellent. The NRQCD matrix elements and are also obtained.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages, 6 figures. Minor improvements and references added. Journal versio

Quenched Lattice QCD with Domain Wall Fermions and the Chiral Limit

Quenched QCD simulations on three volumes, $8^3 \times$, $12^3 \times$ and $16^3 \times 32$ and three couplings, $\beta=5.7$, 5.85 and 6.0 using domain wall fermions provide a consistent picture of quenched QCD. We demonstrate that the small induced effects of chiral symmetry breaking inherent in this formulation can be described by a residual mass (\mres) whose size decreases as the separation between the domain walls ($L_s$) is increased. However, at stronger couplings much larger values of $L_s$ are required to achieve a given physical value of \mres. For $\beta=6.0$ and $L_s=16$, we find \mres/m_s=0.033(3), while for $\beta=5.7$, and $L_s=48$, \mres/m_s=0.074(5), where $m_s$ is the strange quark mass. These values are significantly smaller than those obtained from a more naive determination in our earlier studies. Important effects of topological near zero modes which should afflict an accurate quenched calculation are easily visible in both the chiral condensate and the pion propagator. These effects can be controlled by working at an appropriately large volume. A non-linear behavior of $m_\pi^2$ in the limit of small quark mass suggests the presence of additional infrared subtlety in the quenched approximation. Good scaling is seen both in masses and in $f_\pi$ over our entire range, with inverse lattice spacing varying between 1 and 2 GeV.Comment: 91 pages, 34 figure

Recent developments in planet migration theory

Planetary migration is the process by which a forming planet undergoes a drift of its semi-major axis caused by the tidal interaction with its parent protoplanetary disc. One of the key quantities to assess the migration of embedded planets is the tidal torque between the disc and planet, which has two components: the Lindblad torque and the corotation torque. We review the latest results on both torque components for planets on circular orbits, with a special emphasis on the various processes that give rise to additional, large components of the corotation torque, and those contributing to the saturation of this torque. These additional components of the corotation torque could help address the shortcomings that have recently been exposed by models of planet population syntheses. We also review recent results concerning the migration of giant planets that carve gaps in the disc (type II migration) and the migration of sub-giant planets that open partial gaps in massive discs (type III migration).Comment: 52 pages, 18 figures. Review article to be published in "Tidal effects in Astronomy and Astrophysics", Lecture Notes in Physic