Family aggregation of mental disorders in the nationwide Danish three generation study

Objective: The study of familial aggregation of major mental disorders in a national population. Method: Within a Danish register-based cohort study, aggregation of mental disorders was analysed in all case-probands with first psychiatric contact before the age of 19years in the time period between 1 April 1969 and 29 June 2004 followed up until the age of 35years, their first-degree relatives, and a matched group of control-probands including their first-degree relatives. Results: Hazard rate ratios were significantly elevated for cases as compared to controls for all diagnoses among probands, parents, and siblings. Among children of the probands, these ratios were significantly elevated for neurotic (anxiety) disorders, mental retardation, developmental disorders, behavioural and emotional disorders of childhood and adolescence, and miscellaneous disorders. Family aggregation of any diagnosis was significantly higher in probands with substance use disorder, schizophrenia, affective disorders, neurotic (anxiety) disorders, and miscellaneous disorders. There was specificity of familial transmission for affective and neurotic (anxiety) disorders. Conclusion: This large nationwide study found some differential patterns of familial aggregation of major mental disorder

Predicting physiological imbalance in Holstein dairy cows by three different sets of milk biomarkers

Blood biomarkers may be used to detect physiological imbalance and potential disease. However, blood sampling is difficult and expensive, and not applicable in commercial settings. Instead, individual milk samples are readily available at low cost, can be sampled easily and analysed instantly. The present observational study sampled blood and milk from 234 Holstein dairy cows from experimental herds in six European countries. The objective was to compare the use of three different sets of milk biomarkers for identification of cows in physiological imbalance and thus at risk of developing metabolic or infectious diseases. Random forests was used to predict body energy balance (EBAL), index for physiological imbalance (PI-index) and three clusters differentiating the metabolic status of cows created on basis of concentrations of plasma glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and serum IGF-1. These three metabolic clusters were interpreted as cows in balance, physiological imbalance and “intermediate cows” with physiological status in between. The three sets of milk biomarkers used for prediction were: milk Fourier transform mid-IR (FT-MIR) spectra, 19 immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans and 8 milk metabolites and enzymes (MME). Blood biomarkers were sampled twice; around 14 days after calving (days in milk (DIM)) and around 35 DIM. MME and FT-MIR were sampled twice weekly 1−50 DIM whereas IgG N-glycan were measured only four times. Performances of EBAL and PI-index predictions were measured by coefficient of determination (R2cv) and root mean squared error (RMSEcv) from leave-one-cow-out cross-validation (cv). For metabolic clusters, performance was measured by sensitivity, specificity and global accuracy from this cross-validation. Best prediction of PI-index was obtained by MME (R2cv = 0.40 (95 % CI: 0.29−0.50) at 14 DIM and 0.35 (0.23−0.44) at 35 DIM) while FT-MIR showed a better performance than MME for prediction of EBAL (R2cv = 0.28 (0.24−0.33) vs 0.21 (0.18−0.25)). Global accuracies of predicting metabolic clusters from MME and FT-MIR were at the same level ranging from 0.54 (95 % CI: 0.39−0.68) to 0.65 (0.55−0.75) for MME and 0.51 (0.37−0.65) to 0.68 (0.53−0.81) for FT-MIR. R2cv and accuracies were lower for IgG N-glycans. In conclusion, neither EBAL nor PI-index were sufficiently well predicted to be used as a management tool for identification of risk cows. MME and FT-MIR may be used to predict the physiological status of the cows, while the use of IgG N-glycans for prediction still needs development. Nevertheless, accuracies need to be improved and a larger training data set is warranted

Associations between Circulating IGF-1 Concentrations, Disease Status and the Leukocyte Transcriptome in Early Lactation Dairy Cows

Publication history: Accepted - 19 November 2021; Published - 25 November 2021.Peripartum dairy cows commonly experience negative energy balance (EB) and immunosuppression together with high incidences of infectious and metabolic disease. This study investigated mechanisms linking EB status with immune defense in early lactation. Data were collected from multiparous Holstein cows from six herds and leukocyte transcriptomes were analyzed using RNA sequencing. Global gene expression was related to circulating IGF-1 (as a biomarker for EB) by subdividing animals into three groups, defined as IGF-1 LOW (100 ng/mL, n = 43) at 14 ± 4 days in milk (DIM). Differentially expressed genes between groups were identified using CLC Genomics Workbench V21, followed by cluster and KEGG pathway analysis, focusing on the comparison between LOW and HIGH IGF-1 cows. LOW cows were older and had significantly lower dry matter intakes and EB values, whereas HIGH cows produced more milk. During the first 35 DIM, 63% of LOW cows had more than one health problem vs. 26% HIGH cows, including more with clinical mastitis and uterine infections. Gene expression analysis indicated that leukocytes in LOW cows switched energy metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis (PGM, LDH, and PDK4). Many antimicrobial peptides were up-regulated in LOW cows (e.g., PTX3, DMBT1, S100A8, and S100A9) together with genes associated with inflammation, platelet activation and the complement cascade. HIGH cows had greater expression of genes regulating T and B cell function and the cytoskeleton. Overall, results suggested an ongoing cycle of poor EB and higher infection rates in LOW IGF-1 cows which was reflected in altered leukocyte functionality and reduced milk production.This project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (Brussels, Belgium) for research, technological development, and demonstration under grant agreement no. 61368

Expert-based development of a generic HACCP-based risk management system to prevent critical negative energy balance in dairy herds

The objective of this study was to develop a generic risk management system based on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles for the prevention of critical negative energy balance (NEB) in dairy herds using an expert panel approach. In addition, we discuss the advantages and limitations of the system in terms of implementation in the individual dairy herd. For the expert panel, we invited 30 researchers and advisors with expertise in the field of dairy cow feeding and/or health management from eight European regions. They were invited to a Delphi-based set-up that included three inter-correlated questionnaires in which they were asked to suggest risk factors for critical NEB and to score these based on 'effect' and 'probability'. Finally, the experts were asked to suggest critical control points (CCPs) specified by alarm values, monitoring frequency and corrective actions related to the most relevant risk factors in an operational farm setting. A total of 12 experts (40 %) completed all three questionnaires. Of these 12 experts, seven were researchers and five were advisors and in total they represented seven out of the eight European regions addressed in the questionnaire study. When asking for suggestions on risk factors and CCPs, these were formulated as 'open questions', and the experts' suggestions were numerous and overlapping. The suggestions were merged via a process of linguistic editing in order to eliminate doublets. The editing process revealed that the experts provided a total of 34 CCPs for the 11 risk factors they scored as most important. The consensus among experts was relatively high when scoring the most important risk factors, while there were more diverse suggestions of CCPs with specification of alarm values and corrective actions. We therefore concluded that the expert panel approach only partly succeeded in developing a generic HACCP for critical NEB in dairy cows. We recommend that the output of this paper is used to inform key areas for implementation on the individual dairy farm by local farm teams including farmers and their advisors, who together can conduct herd-specific risk factor profiling, organise the ongoing monitoring of herd-specific CCPs, as well as implement corrective actions when CCP alarm values are exceeded

Characteristics of Piglets Born by Two Highly Prolific Sow Hybrids

High piglet mortality constitutes a welfare challenge in Danish organic pig production with almost one in three piglets dying before weaning. Piglet characteristics such as birth weight, rectal temperature and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affect piglet survival. Due to differences in breeding goals, these characteristics may be expected to differ between sow hybrids. Thus, the aims of the present study were (1) to investigate piglet characteristics in two highly prolific sow hybrids and (2) to study to which extent the aforementioned characteristics affect piglet mortality. Forty-nine sows (22 DanBred and 27 Topigs Norsvin) were followed in their first two parities. Sows were housed outdoors and gave birth in huts. On day 1postpartum(pp) piglets were individually marked, weighed, their rectal temperature was recorded and they were scored for IUGR. Weight and rectal temperature were recorded again 3 dayspp. Principal component analyses were conducted to explore relationships among variables. Early piglet death grouped with IUGR, lower rectal temperature and weight on day 1pp. Late mortality grouped with increasing litter size and DanBred hybrid. Whilst, Topigs Norsvin hybrid grouped with increasing rectal temperature day 3pp, longer crown to rump length, higher weight and more teats on the sow. Results of the statistical analyses showed that Topigs Norsvin piglets were heavier 1 and 3 dayspp(p< 0.001) compared to DanBred piglets. Furthermore, Topigs Norsvin piglets had a higher rectal temperature than DanBred on day 1pp(p= 0.023). The risk of IUGR depended on an interaction between sow hybrid and parity (p= 0.023). DanBred sows gave birth to more piglets (18.2 +/- 0.6) than Topigs Norsvin sows (15.7 +/- 0.5,p= 0.003), however, DanBred sows had fewer teats than Topigs Norsvin sows. Weight on day 1ppaffected both the odds of stillbirth (p< 0.001) and live born death (p< 0.001). Lower rectal temperature day 1pp(p< 0.001) increased the odds of live born death. In conclusion, the investigated hybrids differed in several piglet characteristics related to piglet mortality. Use of sows giving birth to heavier and fewer piglets in the litter may thus be a useful tool to reduce piglet mortality in pig production with outdoor farrowing

Stress responses in pigs postweaning : Effect of heavier hybrid and weaning intact litters

Early and abrupt weaning of pigs is a stressful event. In addition, the use of hyperprolific sows with increasing numbers of live born piglets has decreased the average pig's birth weight, colostrum intake and weaning weight. The aim of this study was to investigate whether behavioural (tail posture, agonistic and abnormal behaviour), clinical (ear and tail lesions) and physiological (saliva cortisol) indicators of stress postweaning can be minimised by 1) using a pig hybrid that is heavier at birth and weaning, and 2) trough specific-stress-free housing where intact litters of pigs stay in the pen of birth after removing the sow at weaning. The study was a 2 × 2 factorial design, with pigs from Topigs Norsvin TN70 (TN) sows as a heavier alternative to the lighter pigs from DanBred LY sows (DB), and the specific-stress-free (SSF) weaning strategy as an alternative to the conventional weaning strategy (CON) where pigs are regrouped and moved to weaner pens. Fiftyseven litters, on average 26 days of age, were included. Behaviour recordings on the day (d) of weaning (d0), showed that the rate of fights and attacks were 23 and 42 times higher in CON compared to SSF, respectively. Furthermore, on d+1 pig in CON had a 9 (in DB) to 13 (in TN) times higher odds of having clinical ear lesions compared to SSF. Only on d+2, saliva cortisol was lower in TN-SSF than TN-CON, but not lower that DB-SSF. A higher rate of high tail posture was seen in CON d+1, which may reflect higher arousal due to mixing and moving. The rate of belly nosing was 5 times higher in the lighter hybrid (DB compared to TN), but increased from d+7 to d+14 in both hybrids. On d+7 the rate of ear directed behaviour tended to be higher in DB than TN, but the rate increased from d+7 to d+14 in TN to a similar rate as in DB. The rate of tail directed behaviour increased from d+7 to d+14 and tended to be higher in CON than SSF. In conclusion, specific-stress-free weaning reduced agonistic behaviour and ear lesions and tended to reduce tail directed behaviour postweaning. Using the heaver hybrid TN reduced belly nosing postweaning. However, since belly nosing and tail directed behaviour increased over time for both hybrids and weaning strategies additional measures are needed to reduce stress associated with early and abrupt weaning