Risk‐based strategies for surveillance of bovine Tuberculosis infection in cattle for low risk areas in England and Scotland

Disease surveillance can be made more effective by either improving disease detection, providing cost savings, or doing both. Currently, cattle herds in low-risk areas for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in England (LRAs) are tested once every four years. In Scotland, the default herd testing frequency is also four years, but a risk-based system exempts some herds from testing altogether. To extend this approach to other areas, a bespoke understanding of at-risk herds and how risk-based surveillance can affect bTB detection is required. Here, we use a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to inform a Bayesian probabilistic model of freedom from infection and explore risk-based surveillance strategies in LRAs and Scotland. Our analyses show that in both areas the primary herd-level risk factors for bTB infection are the size of the herd and purchasing cattle from high-risk areas of Great Britain and/or Ireland. A risk-based approach can improve the current surveillance system by both increasing detection (9% and 7% fewer latent infections), and reducing testing burden (6 % and 26% fewer animal tests) in LRAs and Scotland, respectively. Testing at-risk herds more frequently can also improve the level of detection by identifying more infected cases and reducing the hidden burden of the disease, and reduce surveillance effort by exempting low-risk herds from testing

Use of insecticide quantification kits to investigate the quality of spraying and decay rate of bendiocarb on different wall surfaces in Kagera region, Tanzania

Background Bendiocarb was introduced for the first time for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) in Tanzania in 2012 as part of the interim national insecticide resistance management plan. This move followed reports of increasingly alarming levels of pyrethroid resistance across the country. This study used the insecticide quantification kit (IQK) to investigate the intra-operational IRS coverage and quality of spraying, and decay rate of bendiocarb on different wall surfaces in Kagera region. Methods To assess intra-operational IRS coverage and quality of spraying, 104 houses were randomly selected out of 161,414 sprayed houses. A total of 509 samples (218 in Muleba and 291 in Karagwe) were obtained by scraping the insecticide samples from wall surfaces. To investigate decay rate, 66 houses (36 in Muleba and 30 in Karagwe) were selected and samples were collected monthly for a period of five months. Laboratory testing of insecticide concentration was done using IQKTM [Innovative Vector Control Consortium]. Results Of the 509 samples, 89.5% met the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended concentration (between 100–400 mg/m2) for IRS target dosage. The proportion of samples meeting WHO standards varied between Karagwe (84.3%) and Muleba (96.3%) (p < 0.001). Assessment of quality of spraying at house level revealed that Muleba (84.8%) had a significantly higher proportion of households that met the expected target dosage (100–400 mg/m2) compared to Karagwe (68.9%) (p < 0.001). The quality of spraying varied across different wall substrates in both districts. Evaluation of bendiocarb decay showed that the proportion of houses with recommended concentration declined from 96.9%, 93.5% and 76.2% at months one, two, and three post IRS, respectively (p-trend = 0.03). The rate of decay increased in the fourth and fifth month post spraying with only 55.9% and 26.3% houses meeting the WHO recommendations, respectively. Conclusion IQK is an important tool for assessing IRS coverage and quality of spraying. The study found adequate coverage of IRS; however, residual life of bendiocarb was observed to be three months. Results suggest that in order to maintain the recommended concentrations with bendiocarb, a second spray cycle should be carried out after three months

Adult Height, Nutrition and Population Health:A Review

In this review, the potential causes and consequences of adult height, a measure of cumulative net nutrition, in modern populations are summarized. The mechanisms linking adult height and health are examined, with a focus on the role of potential confounders. Evidence across studies indicates that short adult height (reflecting growth retardation) in low- and middle-income countries is driven by environmental conditions, especially net nutrition during early years. Some of the associations of height with health and social outcomes potentially reflect the association between these environmental factors and such outcomes. These conditions are manifested in the substantial differences in adult height that exist between and within countries and over time. This review suggests that adult height is a useful marker of variation in cumulative net nutrition, biological deprivation, and standard of living between and within populations and should be routinely measured. Linkages between adult height and health, within and across generations, suggest that adult height may be a potential tool for monitoring health conditions and that programs focused on offspring outcomes may consider maternal height as a potentially important influence

Safety and immunogenicity of Rift Valley fever MP-12 and arMP-12ΔNSm21/384 vaccine candidates in goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) from Tanzania

Vaccination of domestic ruminants is considered to be an effective strategy for protecting these animals against Rift Valley fever (RVF), but available vaccines have limitations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the safety and immunogenicity of RVF virus (RVFV) mutagenesis passage 12 (MP-12) and arMP-12ΔNSm21/384 vaccine candidates in goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) in Tanzania. Goats were vaccinated intramuscularly with RVFV MP-12 or arMP-12ΔNSm21/384, and then on Day 87 post-vaccination (PV) all animals were revaccinated using the RVFV MP-12 vaccine candidate. Serum samples were collected from the animals before and after vaccination at various intervals to test for RVFV using a Vero cell culture assay and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and for RVFV-neutralising antibody using a plaque reduction neutralisation assay. Serum samples collected before vaccination on Days -14 and 0, and on Days 3, 4 and 5 PV were negative for RVFV and neutralising antibody. All animals remained healthy, and viremia was not detected in any of the animals. Rift Valley fever virus antibody was first detected on Day 5 PV at a 1:10 dilution in five of five animals vaccinated with the MP-12 vaccine and in five of eight animals vaccinated with arMP-12ΔNSm21/384. Titres then increased and were sustained at 1:40 to 1:640 through to Day 87 PV. All animals that were revaccinated on Day 87 PV with MP-12 developed antibody titres ranging from 1:160 to as high as 1:10 240 on Days 14 and 21 PV. Although the antibody titres for goats vaccinated with RVF MP-12 were slightly higher than titres elicited by the arMP-12ΔNSm21/384 vaccine, these findings demonstrated that both vaccines are promising candidates for the prevention of RVF among Tansanian goats

Modeling the effectiveness of targeting Rift Valley fever virus vaccination using imperfect network information

Livestock movements contribute to the spread of several infectious diseases. Data on livestock movements can therefore be harnessed to guide policy on targeted interventions for controlling infectious livestock diseases, including Rift Valley fever (RVF)—a vaccine-preventable arboviral fever. Detailed livestock movement data are known to be useful for targeting control efforts including vaccination. These data are available in many countries, however, such data are generally lacking in others, including many in East Africa, where multiple RVF outbreaks have been reported in recent years. Available movement data are imperfect, and the impact of this uncertainty in the utility of movement data on informing targeting of vaccination is not fully understood. Here, we used a network simulation model to describe the spread of RVF within and between 398 wards in northern Tanzania connected by cattle movements, on which we evaluated the impact of targeting vaccination using imperfect movement data. We show that pre-emptive vaccination guided by only market movement permit data could prevent large outbreaks. Targeted control (either by the risk of RVF introduction or onward transmission) at any level of imperfect movement information is preferred over random vaccination, and any improvement in information reliability is advantageous to their effectiveness. Our modeling approach demonstrates how targeted interventions can be effectively used to inform animal and public health policies for disease control planning. This is particularly valuable in settings where detailed data on livestock movements are either unavailable or imperfect due to resource limitations in data collection, as well as challenges associated with poor compliance

Use of social media platforms by migrant and ethnic minority populations during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: Migrants and ethnic minority groups have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and have lower levels of vaccine uptake in some contexts. We aimed to determine the extent and nature of social media use in migrant and ethnic minority communities for COVID-19 information, and implications for preventative health measures including vaccination intent and uptake. DESIGN: A systematic review of published and grey literature following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched databases including Embase, Web of Science, PubMed NIH, CINAHL, facilitated through the WHO Global Research on COVID-19 database from 31 December 2019 to 9 June 2021. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR STUDY SELECTION: Research reporting the use of social media by migrants and/or ethnic minority groups in relation to COVID-19. DATA EXTRACTION: We extracted data on key outcomes, study design, country, population under study and sample size. RESULTS: 1849 unique records were screened, and 21 data sources were included, including populations in the UK, USA, China, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey. We found evidence of consistent use of a range of social media platforms for COVID-19 information in some migrant and ethnic minority populations (including WeChat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube), which may stem from difficulty in accessing COVID-19 information in their native languages or from trusted sources. Some evidence suggested circulating misinformation and social media use may be associated with lower participation in preventative health measures, including vaccine intent and uptake, findings which are likely relevant to multiple population groups. CONCLUSIONS: Social media platforms are an important source of information about COVID-19 for some migrant and ethnic minority populations. Urgent actions and further research are now needed to better understand effective approaches to tackling circulating misinformation, and to seize on opportunities to better use social media platforms to support public health communication and improve vaccine uptake. REGISTRATION: This study has been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021259190)

The relationship between white matter microstructure and general cognitive ability in patients with schizophrenia and healthy participants in the ENIGMA Consortium

Objective: Schizophrenia has recently been associated with widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities, but the functional effects of these abnormalities remain unclear. Widespread heterogeneity of results from studies published to date preclude any definitive characterization of the relationship between white matter and cognitive performance in schizophrenia. Given the relevance of deficits in cognitive function to predicting social and functional outcomes in schizophrenia, the authors carried out a meta-analysis of available data through the ENIGMA Consortium, using a common analysis pipeline, to elucidate the relationship between white matter microstructure and a measure of general cognitive performance, IQ, in patients with schizophrenia and healthy participants. Methods: The meta-analysis included 760 patients with schizophrenia and 957 healthy participants from 11 participating ENIGMA Consortium sites. For each site, principal component analysis was used to calculate both a global fractional anisotropy component (gFA) and a fractional anisotropy component for six long association tracts (LA-gFA) previously associated with cognition. Results: Meta-analyses of regression results indicated that gFA accounted for a significant amount of variation in cognition in the full sample (effect size [Hedges’ g]=0.27, CI=0.17–0.36), with similar effects sizes observed for both the patient (effect size=0.20, CI=0.05–0.35) and healthy participant groups (effect size=0.32, CI=0.18–0.45). Comparable patterns of association were also observed between LA-gFA and cognition for the full sample (effect size=0.28, CI=0.18–0.37), the patient group (effect size=0.23, CI=0.09–0.38), and the healthy participant group (effect size=0.31, CI=0.18–0.44). Conclusions: This study provides robust evidence that cognitive ability is associated with global structural connectivity, with higher fractional anisotropy associated with higher IQ. This association was independent of diagnosis; while schizophrenia patients tended to have lower fractional anisotropy and lower IQ than healthy participants, the comparable size of effect in each group suggested a more general, rather than disease-specific, pattern of association

A Few Bad Apples:A Model of Disease Influenced Agent Behaviour in a Heterogeneous Contact Environment

For diseases that infect humans or livestock, transmission dynamics are at least partially dependent on human activity and therefore human behaviour. However, the impact of human behaviour on disease transmission is relatively understudied, especially in the context of heterogeneous contact structures such as described by a social network. Here, we use a strategic game, coupled with a simple disease model, to investigate how strategic agent choices impact the spread of disease over a contact network. Using beliefs that are based on disease status and that build up over time, agents choose actions that stochastically determine disease spread on the network. An agent’s disease status is therefore a function of both his own and his neighbours actions. The effect of disease on agents is modelled by a heterogeneous payoff structure. We find that the combination of network shape and distribution of payoffs has a non-trivial impact on disease prevalence, even if the mean payoff remains the same. An important scenario occurs when a small percentage (called noncooperators) have little incentive to avoid disease. For diseases that are easily acquired when taking a risk, then even when good behavior can lead to disease eradication, a small increase in the percentage of noncooperators (less than 5%) can yield a large (up to 25%) increase in prevalence