Modeling the Effects of Duration and Size of the Control Zones on the Consequences of a Hypothetical African Swine Fever Epidemic in Denmark

African swine fever (ASF) is a notifiable infectious disease. The disease is endemic in certain regions in Eastern Europe constituting a risk of ASF spread toward Western Europe. Therefore, as part of contingency planning, it is important to continuously explore strategies that can effectively control an epidemic of ASF. A previously published and well documented simulation model for ASF virus spread between herds was used to examine the epidemiologic and economic impacts of the duration and size of the control zones around affected herds. In the current study, scenarios were run, where the duration of the protection and surveillance zones were reduced from 50 and 45 days to 35 and 25 days or to 35 and 25 days, respectively. These scenarios were run with or without enlargement of the surveillance zone around detected herds from 10 to 15 km. The scenarios were also run with only clinical or clinical and serological surveillance of herds within the zones. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on influential input parameters in the model. The model predicts that reducing the duration of the protection and surveillance zones has no impact on the epidemiological consequences of the epidemics, while it may result in a substantial reduction in the total economic losses. In addition, the model predicts that increasing the size of the surveillance zone from 10 to 15 km may reduce both the epidemic duration and the total economic losses, in case of large epidemics. The ranking of the control strategies by the total costs of the epidemics was not influenced by changes of input parameters in the sensitivity analyses

Psychosocial patient perspectives following major lower-limb amputation due to vascular aetiology: a protocol for a systematic meta-aggregation study

INTRODUCTION: Persistent psychosocial problems in people with lower-limb amputation due to vascular aetiology indicate a great need for long-lasting holistic rehabilitation. An in-depth understanding of the psychosocial problems is essential for the guidance of health professionals in meeting and normalising patients' experiences and emotions. Furthermore, identifying the psychological problems may help develop effective rehabilitation and counselling programmes. This meta-aggregation study aims to explore the psychosocial perspectives of individuals who have undergone a major lower-limb amputation due to vascular aetiology during the post-discharge rehabilitation phase.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic meta-aggregation study will be performed to identify full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles reporting on patients' psychosocial perspectives on major lower-limb amputation due to vascular aetiology from post-discharge to several years afterward. The databases Embase, CINAHL Ultimate, APA PsycInfo, PubMed and Scopus will be searched with no limitations regarding the publication year. Studies that satisfy the eligibility criteria will be critically appraised using an acknowledged checklist and synthesised using the Joanna Briggs Institute three-phase approach for the synthesis of meta-aggregation studies. The GRADE-CERQual (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation- Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) tool will be used to determine the level of confidence in the qualitative evidence, and the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) reporting guidelines will be followed throughout the review process.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required for the study, as the review is built on pre-existing available data in the literature. Findings from the review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-review journal.PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022377114.</p

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<p>African swine fever (ASF) is a notifiable infectious disease. The disease is endemic in certain regions in Eastern Europe constituting a risk of ASF spread toward Western Europe. Therefore, as part of contingency planning, it is important to continuously explore strategies that can effectively control an epidemic of ASF. A previously published and well documented simulation model for ASF virus spread between herds was used to examine the epidemiologic and economic impacts of the duration and size of the control zones around affected herds. In the current study, scenarios were run, where the duration of the protection and surveillance zones were reduced from 50 and 45 days to 35 and 25 days or to 35 and 25 days, respectively. These scenarios were run with or without enlargement of the surveillance zone around detected herds from 10 to 15 km. The scenarios were also run with only clinical or clinical and serological surveillance of herds within the zones. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on influential input parameters in the model. The model predicts that reducing the duration of the protection and surveillance zones has no impact on the epidemiological consequences of the epidemics, while it may result in a substantial reduction in the total economic losses. In addition, the model predicts that increasing the size of the surveillance zone from 10 to 15 km may reduce both the epidemic duration and the total economic losses, in case of large epidemics. The ranking of the control strategies by the total costs of the epidemics was not influenced by changes of input parameters in the sensitivity analyses.</p

Treatment with Cefotaxime Affects Expression of Conjugation Associated Proteins and Conjugation Transfer Frequency of an IncI1 Plasmid in Escherichia coli

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the major mechanism responsible for spread of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic treatment has been suggested to promote HGT, either by directly affecting the conjugation process itself or by selecting for conjugations subsequent to DNA transfer. However, recent research suggests that the effect of antibiotic treatment on plasmid conjugation frequencies, and hence the spread of resistance plasmids, may have been overestimated. We addressed the question by quantifying transfer proteins and conjugation frequencies of a blaCTX−M−1 encoding IncI1 resistance plasmid in Escherichia coli MG1655 in the presence and absence of therapeutically relevant concentrations of cefotaxime (CTX). Analysis of the proteome by iTRAQ labeling and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry revealed that Tra proteins were significantly up-regulated in the presence of CTX. The up-regulation of the transfer machinery was confirmed at the transcriptional level for five selected genes. The CTX treatment did not cause induction of the SOS-response as revealed by absence of significantly regulated SOS associated proteins in the proteome and no significant up-regulation of recA and sfiA genes. The frequency of plasmid conjugation, measured in an antibiotic free environment, increased significantly when the donor was pre-grown in broth containing CTX compared to growth without this drug, regardless of whether blaCTX-M-1 was located on the plasmid or in trans on the chromosome. The results shows that antibiotic treatment can affect expression of a plasmid conjugation machinery and subsequent DNA transfer