Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease guidelines in Europe: a look into the future.

Clinical practice guidelines are ubiquitous and are developed to provide recommendations for the management of many diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The development of these guidelines is burdensome, demanding a significant investment of time and money. In Europe, the majority of countries develop their own national guidelines, despite the potential for overlap or duplication of effort. A concerted effort and consolidation of resources between countries may alleviate the resource-intensity of maintaining individual national guidelines. Despite significant resource investment into the development and maintenance of clinical practice guidelines, their implementation is suboptimal. Effective strategies of guideline dissemination must be given more consideration, to ensure adequate implementation and improved patient care management in the future.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Additional Link above to access the full-text via the publisher's site

Serosurveillance for Livestock Pathogens in Free-Ranging Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

Routine disease surveillance has been conducted for decades in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in California for pathogens shared between wildlife and domestic ruminants that may have implications for the animal production industry and wildlife health. Deer sampled from 1990 to 2007 (n = 2,619) were tested for exposure to six pathogens: bluetongue virus (BTV), epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), Leptospira spp., Anaplasma spp. and Brucella spp. We evaluated the relationship between exposure to these pathogens and demographic risk factors to identify broad patterns in seroprevalence across a large temporal and spatial scale. The overall seroprevalence for the entire study period was 13.4% for BTV, 16.8% for EHDV, 17.1% for BVDV, 6.5% for Leptospira spp., 0.2% for Brucella spp., and 17% for Anaplasma spp. Antibodies against BTV and EHDV were most prevalent in the deer populations of southern California. Antibodies against Leptospira spp. and Anaplasma spp. were most prevalent in coastal and central northern California whereas antibodies against BVDV were most prevalent in central-eastern and northeastern California. The overall seroprevalence for Anaplasma spp. was slightly lower than detected in previous studies. North and central eastern California contains large tracts of federal land grazed by livestock; therefore, possible contact between deer and livestock could explain the high BVDV seroprevalence found in these areas. Findings from this study will help to establish baseline values for future comparisons of pathogen exposure in deer, inform on long-term trends in deer population health and provide relevant information on the distribution of diseases that are shared between wildlife and livestock

Infectious laryngotracheitis: a review

Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) herpesvirus continues to cause outbreaks of respiratory disease in chickens world-wide. Sporadic cases of ILT occur in all classes of birds, including hobby/show/game chickens, broilers, heavy breeders, and commercial laying hens. These epornitics of ILT tend to occur where there are large populations of naïve, unvaccinated birds, i.e., in concentrated areas of broiler production. ILT virus can be transmitted through (a) chickens with acute upper respiratory tract disease, (b) latently infected "carrier" fowls, and (c) fomites and contaminated persons. Chicken flocks which are endemic infected with ILT virus occur only in some regions of countries or even in particular multiple-age production farms. In these cases modified live vaccines are actually used, even though these biological products, as well as wild ILTV strains, can establish latent infections. In the case of heavy breeders and laying hens, which are typically vaccinated against ILT, sporadic cases are often related to errors in vaccine application and to biosecurity failures