Associations between EP-like lesions and pleuritis and post trimming carcass weights of finishing pigs in England

Herd health slaughter checks regularly identify enzootic pneumonia-like (EP-like) lesions and pleuritis. The aim of this paper is to determine the associations between these lesions and post-trimming carcass weight. Data were collected on the presence/absence and severity of EP-like lesions and presence/absence of pleuritis from pigs at the abattoir. Linear mixed models identified a significant association between an increase in EP-like lesion severity and a decrease in post-trimming carcass weight (P = 0.006) at the individual level. Each categorical increase in EP-like lesion severity (5 points step) was associated with a 0.37 kg reduction in post-trimming carcass weight. The presence of EP-like lesions in individual pigs, irrespective of severity (P = 0.034) and the presence of pleuritis (P = 0.038) were significantly associated with a reduction in post-trimming carcass weight of 1.26 kg and 1.25 kg respectively. The results confirm that the presence of these lesions at slaughter are associated with a significant decrease in production performance which can result in substantial economic implications for producers

Inter-rater reliability and prospective validation of a clinical prediction rule for SARS-CoV-2 infection

Objectives Accurate estimation of the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection based on bedside data alone has importance to Emergency Department (ED) operations and throughput. The 13 item CORC (COVID [or coronavirus] Rule-out Criteria) rule had good overall diagnostic accuracy in retrospective derivation and validation. The objective of this study was to prospectively test the inter-rater-reliability and diagnostic accuracy of the CORC score and rule (score ≤0 negative, >0 positive), and compare the CORC rule performance with physician gestalt. Methods This non-interventional study was conducted at an urban academic ED from February-March 2021. Two practitioners were approached by research coordinators and asked to independently complete a form capturing the CORC criteria for their shared patient, and their gestalt binary prediction of the SARS-CoV-2 test result and confidence (0-100%). The criterion standard for SARS-CoV-2 was from rt-PCR performed on a nasopharyngeal swab. The primary analysis was from weighted Cohen’s K and likelihood ratios (LR). Results For 928 patients, agreement between observers was good for the total CORC score, K = 0.613 (0.579-0.646) and for the CORC rule K = 0.644 (0.591-0.697). The agreement for clinician gestalt binary determination of SARs-CoV-2 status was K = 0.534, (95% CI 0.437-0.632) with median confidence of 76% (1st-3rd quartile: 66-88.5). For 425 patients who had the criterion standard, a negative CORC rule (both observers scored CORC 4, the prevalence of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test was 58% (28-85%) and LR(+) = 13.1 (4.5-37.2). Clinician gestalt demonstrated a sensitivity of 51%, specificity of 86% with a LR(-) = 0.57 (0.39-0.74). Conclusion In this prospective study, the CORC score and rule demonstrated good inter-rater reliability and reproducible diagnostic accuracy for estimating the pretest probability of SARs-CoV-2 infection

Starch and oil in the donor cow diet and starch in substrate differently affect the in vitro ruminal biohydrogenation of linoleic and linolenic acids

Trans isomers of fatty acids exhibit different health properties. Among them, trans-10,cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid has negative effects on milk fat production and can affect human health. A shift from the trans-11 to the trans-10 pathway of biohydrogenation (BH) can occur in the rumen of dairy cows receiving high-concentrate diets, especially when the diet is supplemented with highly unsaturated fat sources. The differences of BH patterns between linoleic acid (LeA) and linolenic acid (LnA) in such ruminal conditions remain unknown; thus, the aim of this work was to investigate in vitro the effects of starch and sunflower oil in the diet of the donor cows and starch level in the incubates on the BH patterns and efficiencies of LeA and LnA. The design was a 4 × 4 Latin square design with 4 cows, 4 periods, and 4 diets with combinations of 21 or 34% starch and 0 or 5% sunflower oil. The rumen content of each cow during each period was incubated with 4 substrates, combining 2 starch levels and either LeA or LnA addition. Capillary electrophoresis single-strand conformation polymorphism of incubates showed that dietary starch decreased the diversity of the bacterial community and the high-starch plus oil diet modified its structure. High-starch diets poorly affected isomerization and first reduction of LeA and LnA, but decreased the efficiencies of trans-11,cis-15-C18:2 and trans C18:1 reduction. Dietary sunflower oil increased the efficiency of LeA isomerization but decreased the efficiency of trans C18:1 reduction. An interaction between dietary starch and dietary oil resulted in the highest trans-10 isomers production in incubates when the donor cow received the high-starch plus oil diet. The partition between trans-10 and trans-11 isomers was also affected by an interaction between starch level and the fatty acid added to the incubates, showing that the trans-10 shift only occurred with LeA, whereas LnA was mainly hydrogenated via the more usual trans-11 pathway, whatever the starch level in the substrate, although the bacterial communities were not different between LeA and LnA incubates. In LeA incubates, trans-10 isomer production was significantly related to the structure of the bacterial community

Animal influence on water, sanitation and hygiene measures for zoonosis control at the household level: A systematic literature review

Neglected zoonotic diseases (NZDs) have a significant impact on the livelihoods of the world’s poorest populations, which often lack access to basic services. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes are included among the key strategies for achieving the World Health Organization’s 2020 Roadmap for Implementation for control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). There exists a lack of knowledge regarding the effect of animals on the effectiveness of WASH measures. This review looked to identify how animal presence in the household influences the effectiveness of water, hygiene and sanitation measures for zoonotic disease control in low and middle income countries; to identify gaps of knowledge regarding this topic based on the amount and type of studies looking at this particular interaction