Pilot study into milk haptoglobin as an indicator of udder health in heifers after calving

Mastitis, inflammation of the mammary gland, is often caused by intramammary infection with bacterial organisms. It impacts on dairy cattle welfare, production, udder health and longevity in the herd. Current detection methods for mammary inflammation and infection all have limitations, particularly for on-farm diagnosis of non-clinical mastitis after calving. Acute phase proteins have been suggested as alternative early indicators of the disease and can potentially be used as cow-side test with results in real time. In this study, milk haptoglobin concentrations were investigated over the first week postpartum to explore haptoglobin's potential as indicator of udder health in dairy heifers. Haptoglobin concentration was highest on day 3 of lactation, and was positively correlated with somatic cell count, a commonly used marker of inflammation (rs=0.68). Haptoglobin level was also associated with bacteriological culture results, a key indicator of infection status, whereby median haptoglobin concentration on days 3 and 5 was higher in quarters that were infected at calving than quarters that were non infected at calving. Sensitivity and specificity of haptoglobin concentration as indicator of infection were low, both for lenient and strict culture-based definitions of intramammary infection (57 or 60% and 61 or 63%, respectively). Although haptoglobin was a poor biomarker for intramammary infection with coagulase negative staphylococci in heifers during the first week after calving, it may have value as an indicator of major pathogen infections, particularly in large scale dairy herds where pre-partum heifers are managed off-site

Evaluation of a culture-based pathogen identification kit for bacterial causes of bovine mastitis

Accurate identification of mastitis-causing bacteria supports effective management and can be used to implement selective use of antimicrobials for treatment. The objectives of this study were to compare the results from a culture-based mastitis pathogen detection test kit (‘VetoRapid’, Vétoquinol) with standard laboratory culture and to evaluate the potential suitability of the test kit to inform a selective treatment programme. Overall 231 quarter milk samples from five UK dairy farms were collected. The sensitivity and specificity of the test kit for the identification of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci, Streptococcus uberis and Enterococcus spp. ranged from 17 per cent to 84 per cent and 92 per cent to 98 per cent, respectively. In total, 23 of 68 clinical samples were assigned as meeting the requirement for antimicrobial treatment (Gram-positive organism cultured) according to standard culture results, with the test kit results having sensitivity and specificity of 91 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively. Several occurrences of misidentification are reported, including S. aureus being misidentified as coagulase-negative staphylococci and vice versa. The test kit provides rapid preliminary identification of five common causes of bovine mastitis under UK field conditions and is likely to be suitable for informing selective treatment of clinical mastitis caused by Gram-positive organisms

Assessing techniques for disinfecting sites for inserting intravenous catheters into the jugular veins of horses

The sites of insertion of catheters into the jugular veins of six horses were investigated to determine common isolates and to assess the effectiveness of two disinfection protocols with the hair coat left long, clipped or shaved. Skin commensals (Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Micrococcus species) and environmental contaminants (Bacillus, Enterobacteriaceae, Aspergillus and Mucor species) were the microorganisms most frequently isolated. Chlorhexidine gluconate and povidone-iodine-based skin disinfection protocols resulted in significant reductions in the number of bacterial isolates from clipped sites. With chlorhexidine, there were no significant differences between the reductions observed at sites with the hair coat left long, clipped or shave

Assessment of subclinical venous catheter-related diseases in horses and associated risk factors

A total of 102 horses that had a catheter introduced intravenously to facilitate treatment had the catheterised jugular vein and contralateral vein examined by ultrasound every 48 hours. Subclinical complications were defined by thrombus formation or thickening of the venous wall, and the data were analysed to establish risk factors for the development of these complications. The horses with a rectal temperature above 38.5 degrees C when the catheter was introduced were four times more likely to develop complications, than the horses with a lower temperature. The administration of a NSAID while the catheter was in place reduced the risk of complications developin

Use of Infrared Thermography in Pre-Partum Dairy Heifers to Predict Elevated SCC and Intramammary Infection at Calving

No abstract available

Use of Infrared Thermography in Pre-Partum Dairy Heifers to Predict Elevated SCC and Intramammary Infection at Calving

No abstract available

A machine learning predictive model for post-ureteroscopy urosepsis needing intensive care unit admission : A case-control yau endourology study from nine european centres

Introduction: With the rise in the use of ureteroscopy and laser stone lithotripsy (URSL), a proportionate increase in the risk of post-procedural urosepsis has also been observed. The aims of our paper were to analyse the predictors for severe urosepsis using a machine learning model (ML) in patients that needed intensive care unit (ICU) admission and to make comparisons with a matched cohort. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted across nine high-volume endourology European centres for all patients who underwent URSL and subsequently needed ICU admission for urosepsis (Group A). This was matched by patients with URSL without urosepsis (Group B). Statistical analysis was performed with 'R statistical software' using the 'randomforests' package. The data were segregated at random into a 70% training set and a 30% test set using the 'sample' command. A random forests ML model was then built with n = 300 trees, with the test set used for internal validation. Diagnostic accuracy statistics were generated using the 'caret' package. Results: A total of 114 patients were included (57 in each group) with a mean age of 60 ± 16 years and a male:female ratio of 1:1.19. The ML model correctly predicted risk of sepsis in 14/17 (82%) cases (Group A) and predicted those without urosepsis for 12/15 (80%) controls (Group B), whilst overall it also discriminated between the two groups predicting both those with and without sepsis. Our model accuracy was 81.3% (95%, CI: 63.7-92.8%), sensitivity = 0.80, specificity = 0.82 and area under the curve = 0.89. Predictive values most commonly accounting for nodal points in the trees were a large proximal stone location, long stent time, large stone size and long operative time. Conclusion: Urosepsis after endourological procedures remains one of the main reasons for ICU admission. Risk factors for urosepsis are reasonably accurately predicted by our innovative ML model. Focusing on these risk factors can allow one to create predictive strategies to minimise post-operative morbidity