Particulate distribution and relationship to endotoxin in poultry production operations

This thesis dissertation assessed workers who work in poultry barns and their occupational environment in relation to the type of bird housing in which they were exposed (cage-housed birds (CH) or floor-housed birds (FH)) and examined the environmental variables including dust and endotoxin and potential relationships to respiratory symptoms of workers. A cross sectional study was undertaken to assess the environmental exposure levels and respiratory health effects of workers who worked in CH and FH poultry operations. The respiratory results suggested an asthma-like syndrome in these workers. Workers who worked in CH facilities reported greater current and chronic respiratory symptoms and significantly greater current and chronic phlegm as compared to workers from FH facilities. Workers from CH poultry facilities were exposed to greater endotoxin load than workers from FH facilities, but workers from FH operations were exposed to greater levels of total dust. It was found that endotoxin load (EU/mg) was a significant predictor of chronic phlegm for all poultry workers.The effects on dust and endotoxin measurements when utilizing a Marple impactor with greased or ungreased impaction surfaces when sampling in an agricultural environment were unknown, and the potential for effects was tested. There were no significant differences in the aerosol mass median aerodynamic diameters between the greased and ungreased Marple impactors. Endotoxin analysis results appeared to be influenced by impaction grease particularly when very low amounts of endotoxin were present. Size fractioning the dust and endotoxin using Marple impactors in CH and FH poultry operations showed that endotoxin load (EU/mg) was significantly higher in the respirable fraction of area samples in CH poultry operations as compared to FH operations. There were no differences in endotoxin load in the non-respirable size fractions for area samples between CH and FH operations. FH poultry operations had significantly greater dust mass and dust concentration in both respirable and non-respirable fractions for FH operations. There was significantly greater endotoxin load (EU/mg) in the 3.5-6.0 micron size fraction for the CH poultry operations as compared to the FH operations

A Technique to Evaluate Rangeland Health

According to pasture law in Kyrgistan, pasture management is executed by local communities. The aim of Community Pasture Management Plans is to decrease risks of reducing pasture quality and to raise pasture resource use sustainability. One of the important parts of a pasture management plan is pasture health assessment. The objective of our work was to develop a rapid and simple technique to assess pasture health for community members and other land managers who live or work on pastures. This tool is the result of a collaborative effort of scientists from different countries. This technique utilizes 6 indicators, which are easy to measure, of plant community and important natural processes and functions. They are described in Field Worksheet for Grasslands which was produced in the period of our activity. A pasture condition assessment provides a snapshot in time of management impacts on a particular site. Pasture condition monitoring can alert livestock producers to manage issues and problems and introduce management changes. The outputs of this assessment evaluate the attributes of rangeland health at the ecological site or its equivalent level. This protocol provides managers with a starting point to better describe and ultimately manage rangeland

Prevalence and Determinants of Sinus Problems in Farm and Non-Farm Populations of Rural Saskatchewan, Canada

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Canadian Institutes of Health Research - MOP-187209-POP-CCAA-11829Peer ReviewedAlthough sinus problems have long been recognized as the most common respiratory symptoms associated with agricultural work, there is a scarcity of recent studies and/or reliable estimates as to the true prevalence or risk factors of sinus problems related to farming. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of sinus problems in farming and non-farming rural populations and further investigate the association of individual (for example life-style, occupational), contextual (e.g., environmental), and important covariates (e.g., age, sex) with sinus problems. A large-scale cross-sectional study was conducted in farm and non-farm residents of rural Saskatchewan, Canada. A logistic regression model based on a generalized estimating equations approach were fitted to investigate the risk factors of sinus problems. Sinus problems were reported by 2755 (34.0%) of the 8101 subjects. Farm residents were more likely to spend their first year of life on farm compared with non-farm residents, and indicated a significantly lower risk of sinus problems. Meanwhile, occupational exposure to solvent and mold were associated with an increased risk of sinus problems. Some health conditions such as allergy and stomach acidity/reflux, family history, and female sex were also related to a higher risk of sinus problems. Farm residents had a significantly lower risk of sinus problems than non-farm residents, likely due to the exposure to farm specific environments in their early life

Authors' response to comments from Nachman KE et al.

Abstract Authors’ response to comments letter to the editor from Nachman KE et al

Updated systematic review:Associations between proximity to animal feeding operations and health of individuals in nearby communities

Abstract Objective The objective of this review was to update a systematic review of associations between living near an animal feeding operation (AFO) and human health. Methods The MEDLINE® and MEDLINE® In-Process, Centre for Agricultural Biosciences Abstracts, and Science Citation Index databases were searched. Reference lists of included articles were hand-searched. Eligible studies reported exposure to an AFO and an individual-level human health outcome. Two reviewers performed study selection and data extraction. Results The search returned 3702 citations. Sixteen articles consisting of 10 study populations were included in the analysis. The health outcomes were lower and upper respiratory tracts, MRSA, other infectious disease, neurological, psychological, dermatological, otologic, ocular, gastrointestinal, stress and mood, and other non-infectious health outcomes. Most studies were observational and used prevalence measures of outcome. An association between Q fever risk and proximity to goat production was reported. Other associations were unclear. Risk of bias was serious or critical for most exposure-outcome associations. Multiplicity (i.e., a large number of potentially correlated outcomes and exposures assessed on the same study subjects) was common in the evidence base. Conclusions Few studies reported an association between surrogate clinical outcomes and AFO proximity for respiratory tract-related outcomes. There were no consistent dose-response relationships between surrogate clinical outcome and AFO proximity. A new finding was that Q fever in goats is likely associated with an increased Q fever risk in community members. The review results for the non-respiratory health outcomes were inconclusive because only a small number of studies were available or the between-study results were inconsistent. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD4201401052

Distribution of Public and Private Benefits on Federally Managed Community Pastures in Canada

The Rangelands archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform March 202