Vloerkoeling bij lacterende zeugen

Praktijkcentrum Sterksel heeft in de periode van 2006-2008 onderzoek verricht naar vloerkoeling bij lacterende zeugen, het zogenaamde cool-sow systeem. Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd in 2 kraamafdelingen gedurende 10 ronden met in totaal 229 zeugen en 672 gespeende biggen. Alle kraamhokken waren voorzien van het cool-sow systee

The Pseudomonas flora and tobramycin pharmacokinetics in patients with cystic fibrosis

The microorganism most frequently isolated from CF sputum is P. aeruginosa. Once acquired, this organism is seldom eradicated, although it may disappear temporarily from the sputum during treatment. From single sputum samples, isolates of P. aeruginosa with differing morphological characteristics and antibiograms can be cultured. These observations together with reported difficulties in typing CF isolates resulted in confusion about the number of types which might colonize an affected individual. Some reports have suggested that CF patients may be colonized by a single type, while others reported colonization by two or more different types. These contradictory results might be explained by the limitations of the typing techniques per se as well as by the peculiar properties of P. aeruginosa which affect the methods. In particular the mucoid character and the poly- and nontypability in serotyping appear to account for most of the inconsistent observations. In chapter 1 several typing techniques were evaluated for their potential as epidemiological tools for isolates of P. aeruginosa from CF patients. Apart from the confusion about the number of types which might colonize an individual patient, it is conceivable, that the type or types present in the lungs during the course of time will be replaced by another type or types. In chapter 2 a study is described in which the composition of the pseudomonas flora was monitored over a period varying from 2 to 60 months in fifteen patients with CF aged between 7 and 18 years. Four conventional typing techniques were used, namely serotyping, active and passive pyocin typing, and phage typing.The aim of the study was to establish whether the composition of the flora of P. aeruginosa in the lungs of individual patients is subject to changes or whether it remains constant over time. The number of different serotypes per patient ranged from one to three, and pyocin and phage typing showed no marked differences between strains of the same serotype. In general, patients whose sputum yielded more than one type harbored these in several samples. An exacerbation of the chronic respiratory infection did not affect the composition of the flora. long term observations showed that a given type or types tended to recur supporting the conclusion that the composition of the pseudomonas flora in CF remains fairly constant over tim

Multigenotype Q Fever Outbreak, the Netherlands

Contains fulltext : 79708.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Genotyping Reveals the Presence of a Predominant Genotype of Coxiella burnetii in Consumer Milk Products

Real-time PCR shows the widespread presence of Coxiella burnetii DNA in a broad range of commercially available milk and milk products. MLVA genotyping shows that this is the result of the presence of a predominant C. burnetii genotype in the dairy cattle population

The longitudinal association between potential stressful life events and the risk of psychosocial problems in 3-year-old children

BackgroundExperiencing certain potentially stressful life events can impact psychosocial well-being among school-aged children and adolescents. This study aims to evaluate the association between life events occurring before age 2 and risk of psychosocial problems at 3 years of age.MethodsAll parents invited for the regular well-child visit when their child was 2 years of age by the preventive Youth Health Care in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond area, the Netherlands, were invited to participate in this study. In total 2,305 parents completed the baseline questionnaire at child age 2-years; 1,540 parents completed the questionnaire at child age 3-years. The baseline questionnaire included a life events assessment (12 items), and tension caused by the event (range 0–3). At child age 3-years the questionnaire included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess risk of psychosocial problems. Logistic regression models were applied.ResultsIn the current study 48.5% of families experienced ≥1 life event before child age 2 years. Divorce and problems in the relationship between the parents received the highest perceived severity score [respectively 2.1 (SD = 0.8) and 2.0 (SD = 0.7)]. Children experiencing ≥1 event before the age of 2 years were at higher risk of psychosocial problems at 3 years of age, compared to children that had experienced no life event (1–2 events OR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.09; 2.06, and >2 events OR = 2.55, 95%CI 1.64; 4.00, respectively). When life events caused high perceived levels of tension, there was also an association with an increased risk of psychosocial problems at age 3-years (OR = 2.03, 95%CI 1.43; 2.88).ConclusionsApproximately half of children in our study experienced a potential stressful life event before the age of 2 years. Results suggest an association between experiencing a life event and risk of psychosocial problems at child age 3-years. These findings emphasize the need for child health care professionals to pay attention to life events taking place in the life of young children in order to provide appropriate support

Interlaboratory Evaluation of Different Extraction and Real-Time PCR Methods for Detection of Coxiella burnetii DNA in Serum

In the Netherlands, there is an ongoing and unparalleled outbreak of Q fever. Rapid and reliable methods to identify patients infected with Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, are urgently needed. We evaluated the performance of different DNA extraction methods and real-time PCR assays that are in use in seven diagnostic or reference laboratories in the Netherlands. A low degree of variation in the sensitivities of most of the developed real-time PCR assays was observed. However, PCR assays amplifying short DNA fragments yielded better results than those producing large DNA fragments. With regard to DNA extraction, the automated MagNA Pure Compact system and the manual QIAamp DNA mini kit consistently yielded better results than either the MagNA Pure LC system and NucliSens EasyMag (both automated) or the High Pure viral nucleic acid kit (manual). The present study shows that multiple combinations of DNA extraction kits and real-time PCR assays offer equivalent solutions to detect C. burnetii DNA in serum samples from patients suspected to have Q fever