Exploring the role of voluntary disease schemes on UK farmer bio-security behaviours: Findings from the Norfolk-Suffolk Bovine Viral Diarrhoea control scheme

The article describes the influence of a disease control scheme (the Norfolk-Suffolk Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Disease (BVD) Eradication scheme) on farmers' bio-security attitudes and behaviours. In 2010, a survey of 100 cattle farmers (53 scheme members vs. 47 out of scheme farmers) was undertaken among cattle farmers residing in Norfolk and Suffolk counties in the UK. A cross-sectional independent measures design was employed. The main analytical tool was content analysis. The following variables at the farmer-level were explored: the specific BVD control measures adopted, livestock disease priorities, motivation for scheme membership, wider knowledge acquisition, biosecurity behaviours employed and training course attendance. The findings suggest that participation in the BVD scheme improved farmers' perception of the scheme benefits and participation in training courses. However, no association was found between the taking part in the BVD scheme and livestock disease priorities or motivation for scheme participation, or knowledge about BVD bio-security measures employed. Equally importantly, scheme membership did appear to influence the importance accorded specific bio-security measures. Yet such ranking did not appear to reflect the actual behaviours undertaken. As such, disease control efforts alone while necessary, are insufficient. Rather, to enhance farmer bio-security behaviours significant effort must be made to address underlying attitudes to the specific disease threat involved

Global Transcriptomic Profiling of Bovine Endometrial Immune Response In Vitro. II. Effect of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus on the Endometrial Response to Lipopolysaccharide

Infection with noncytopathic bovine viral diarrhea virus (ncpBVDV) is associated with uterine disease and infertility. This study investigated the influence of ncpBVDV on immune functions of the bovine endometrium by testing the response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Primary cultures of mixed epithelial and stromal cells were divided into four treatment groups (control [CONT], BVDV, CONT+LPS, and BVDV+LPS) and infected with ncpBVDV for 4 days followed by treatment with LPS for 6 h. Whole-transcriptomic gene expression was measured followed by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. Differential expression of 184 genes was found between CONT and BVDV treatments, showing interplay between induction and inhibition of responses. Up-regulation of TLR3, complement, and chemotactic and TRIM factors by ncpBVDV all suggested an ongoing immune response to viral infection. Down-regulation of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, CXCR4, and serine proteinase inhibitors suggested mechanisms by which ncpBVDV may simultaneously counter the host response. Comparison between BVDV+LPS and CONT+LPS treatments showed 218 differentially expressed genes. Canonical pathway analysis identified the key importance of interferon signaling. Top down-regulated genes were RSAD2, ISG15, BST2, MX2, OAS1, USP18, IFIT3, IFI27, SAMD9, IFIT1, and DDX58, whereas TRIM56, C3, and OLFML1 were most up-regulated. Many of these genes are also regulated by IFNT during maternal recognition of pregnancy. Many innate immune genes that typically respond to LPS were inhibited by ncpBVDV, including those involved in pathogen recognition, inflammation, interferon response, chemokines, tissue remodeling, cell migration, and cell death/survival. Infection with ncpBVDV can thus compromise immune function and pregnancy recognition, thereby potentially predisposing infected cows to postpartum bacterial endometritis and reduced fertility

Genetic Characterization of the Tick-Borne Orbiviruses

The International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) recognizes four species of tick-borne orbiviruses (TBOs): Chenuda virus, Chobar Gorge virus, Wad Medani virus and Great Island virus (genus Orbivirus, family Reoviridae). Nucleotide (nt) and amino acid (aa) sequence comparisons provide a basis for orbivirus detection and classification, however full genome sequence data were only available for the Great Island virus species. We report representative genome-sequences for the three other TBO species (virus isolates: Chenuda virus (CNUV); Chobar Gorge virus (CGV) and Wad Medani virus (WMV)). Phylogenetic comparisons show that TBOs cluster separately from insect-borne orbiviruses (IBOs). CNUV, CGV, WMV and GIV share low level aa/nt identities with other orbiviruses, in 'conserved' Pol, T2 and T13 proteins/genes, identifying them as four distinct virus-species. The TBO genome segment encoding cell attachment, outer capsid protein 1 (OC1), is approximately half the size of the equivalent segment from insect-borne orbiviruses, helping to explain why tick-borne orbiviruses have a ~1 kb smaller genome

Enhanced neutralising antibody response to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) induced by DNA vaccination in calves

DNA vaccination is effective in inducing potent immunity in mice; however it appears to be less so in large animals. Increasing the dose of DNA plasmid to activate innate immunity has been shown to improve DNA vaccine adaptive immunity. Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) is a critical cytoplasmic double-stranded RNA pattern receptor required for innate immune activation in response to viral infection. RIG-I recognise viral RNA and trigger antiviral response, resulting in type I interferon (IFN) and inflammatory cytokine production. In an attempt to enhance the antibody response induced by BVDV DNA in cattle, we expressed BVDV truncated E2 (E2t) and NS3 codon optimised antigens from antibiotic free-plasmid vectors expressing a RIG-I agonist and designated either NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co). To evaluate vaccine efficacy, groups of five BVDV-free calves were intramuscularly injected three times with NTC E2t(co) and NTC NS3(co) vaccine plasmids individually or in combination. Animals vaccinated with our (previously published) conventional DNA vaccines pSecTag/E2 and pTriExNS3 and plasmids expressing RIG-I agonist only presented both the positive and mock-vaccine groups. Our results showed that vaccines coexpressing E2t with a RIG-I agonist induced significantly higher E2 antigen specific antibody response (p < 0.05). Additionally, E2t augmented the immune response to NS3 when the two vaccines were delivered in combination. Despite the lack of complete protection, on challenge day 4/5 calves vaccinated with NTC E2t(co) alone or NTC E2t(co) plus NTC NS3(co) had neutralising antibody titres exceeding 1/240 compared to 1/5 in the mock vaccine control group. Based on our results we conclude that co-expression of a RIG-I agonist with viral antigen could enhance DNA vaccine potency in cattle

Serological survey of wild cervids in England and Wales for bovine viral diarrhoea virus

Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is a production disease commonly found in British cattle herds. Species other than cattle have been shown to be infected with the virus, thereby providing a potential source of infection for livestock. This study surveyed serum samples taken from 596 culled wild deer from England and Wales, between 2009 and 2010, for the presence of BVD antibodies

Mars oxygen production system design

The design and construction phase is summarized of the Mars oxygen demonstration project. The basic hardware required to produce oxygen from simulated Mars atmosphere was assembled and tested. Some design problems still remain with the sample collection and storage system. In addition, design and development of computer compatible data acquisition and control instrumentation is ongoing

Prime beef cuts : culinary images for thinking 'men'

The paper contributes to scholarship theorising the sociality of the brand in terms of subject positions it makes possible through drawing upon the generative context of circulating discourses, in this case of masculinity, cuisine and celebrity. Specifically, it discusses masculinity as a socially constructed gender practice (Bristor and Fischer, 1993), examining materialisations of such practice in the form of visualisations of social relations as resources for 'thinking gender' or 'doing gender'. The transformative potential of the visualisations is illuminated by exploring the narrative content choreographed within a series of photographic images positioning the market appeal of a celebrity chef through the medium of a contemporary lifestyle cookery book. We consider how images of men 'doing masculinity'are not only channelled into reproducing existing gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in the service of commercial ends, but also into disrupting such enduring stereotyping through subtle reframing. We acknowledge that masculinity is already inscribed within conventionalised representations of culinary culture. In this case we consider how traces of masculinity are exploited and reinscribed through contemporary images that generate resources for rethinking masculine roles and identities, especially when viewed through the lens of stereotypically feminised pursuits such as shopping, food preparation, cooking, and the communal intimacy of food sharing. We identify unsettling tensions within the compositions, arguing that they relate to discursive spaces between the gendered positions written into the images and the popular imagination they feed off. Set against landscapes of culinary culture, we argue that the images invoke a brand of naively roughish "laddishness" or "blokishness", rendering it in domesticated form not only as benign and containable, but fashionable, pliable and, importantly, desirable. We conclude that although the images draw on stereotypical premeditated notions of a feral, boisterous and untamed heterosexual masculinity, they also set in motion gender-blending narratives

BVDV alters uterine prostaglandin production during pregnancy recognition in cows

Embryonic mortality in cows is at least in part caused by failure of pregnancy recognition (PR). Evidence has shown that bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection can disrupt pregnancy. Prostaglandins (PG) play important roles in many reproductive processes, such as implantation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of BVDV infection on uterine PG production and PR using an in vitro PR model. Bovine uterine endometrial cells isolated from ten BVDV-free cows were cultured and treated with 0 or 100ng/mL interferon-τ (IFNT) in the absence or presence of non-cytopathic BVDV (ncpBVDV). PGF2α and PGE2 concentrations in the spent medium were measured using radioimmunoassays, and in the treated cells expression of the genes associated with PG production and signalling was quantified using qPCR. The results showed that the IFNT challenge significantly stimulated PTGS1 and PTGER3 mRNA expression and PGE2 production; however, these stimulatory effects were neutralised in the presence of ncpBVDV infection. ncpBVDV infection significantly increased PTGS1 and mPGES1 mRNA expression and decreased AKR1B1 expression, leading to increased PGE2 and decreased PGF2α concentrations and an increased PGE2:PGF2α ratio. The other tested genes, including PGR, ESR1, OXTR, PTGS2, PTGER2 and PTGFR, were not significantly altered by IFNT, ncpBVDV or their combination. Our study suggests that BVDV infection may impair PR by (1) inhibiting the effect of IFNT on uterine PG production and (2) inducing an endocrine switch of PG production from PGF2α to PGE2 to decrease uterine immunity, thereby predisposing the animals to uterine disease

Magnetoroton scattering by phonons in the fractional quantum Hall regime

Motivated by recent phonon spectroscopy experiments in the fractional quantum Hall regime we consider processes in which thermally excited magnetoroton excitations are scattered by low energy phonons. We show that such scattering processes can never give rise to dissociation of magnetorotons into unbound charged quasiparticles as had been proposed previously. In addition we show that scattering of magnetorotons to longer wavelengths by phonon absorption is possible because of the shape of the magnetoroton dispersion curve and it is shown that there is a characteristic cross-over temperature above which the rate of energy transfer to the electron gas changes from an exponential (activated) to a power law dependence on the effective phonon temperature.Comment: LaTex document, 3 eps figures. submitted to Phys Rev

Comparison of bulk milk antibody and youngstock serology screens for determining herd status for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus

BACKGROUND: This paper examines the use of Bulk Milk antibody (BM Ab), Youngstock (YS) serology (Check Tests) and Bulk Milk PCR (BM PCR) for determining the presence or absence of animals persistently infected (PI) with Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) within a herd. Data is presented from 26 herds where average herd sizes were 343 and 98 animals for dairy and beef units respectively. Seventeen herds had sufficient data to analyse using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and probability curves enabling calculation of the sensitivity and specificity of BM Ab and YS Check tests for determining the presence of PI animals within herds in this dataset. RESULTS: Using BM Ab to screen a herd for the presence of PI animals, achieved a herd level sensitivity and specificity of 80.00 % (44.39–97.48 %) and 85.71 % (42.13–99.64 %) respectively (95 % confidence intervals quoted). Sensitivity and specificity of YS Check Tests at a cut off of 3/10 Ab positive YS were 81.82 % (48.22–97.72 %) and 66.67 % (22.28–95.67 %) respectively (95 % confidence interval). These results were achieved by comparing the screening tests to whole herd PI searches that took place 1–19 months after the initial screen with a mean interval of 8 months. Removal of this delay by taking BM samples on the day of a whole herd test and simulating a YS Check Test from the herd test data produced improvements in the reliability of the Check Tests. BM Ab sensitivity and specificity remained unchanged. However, the Check Test sensitivity and specificity improved to 90.9 % (58.72–99.77 %) and 100 % (54.07–100 %) respectively (95 % confidence interval) at a cut of off 2.5/10 Ab positive animals. Our limited BM PCR results identified 5/23 dairy farms with a positive BM PCR result; two contained milking PIs, two had non-milking PIs and another had no PIs identified. CONCLUSIONS: Delaying a PI search following an initial herd screen decreased the diagnostic accuracy and relevance of our results. With careful interpretation, longitudinal surveillance using a combination of the techniques discussed can successfully determine farm status and therefore allow changes in BVDV status to be detected early, thus enabling prompt action in the event of a BVDV incursion