Framing bovine tuberculosis: a ‘political ecology of health’ approach to circulation of knowledge(s) about animal disease control

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) remains a significant animal health problem with a global distribution. In addition to the ecological complexities, socio‐economic and socio‐cultural factors also affect efforts to control and eliminate the disease. Interrogating bTB from the author's positionality of being both a veterinary epidemiologist and a human geographer, this interdisciplinary engagement in the political ecology of health investigates the experiences and opinions of the actors involved in disease control. The findings of this research in one part of the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland – demonstrate gaps between expert scientific discourse and circulating on‐the‐ground perceptions and lay knowledges of the disease. bTB is therefore known and framed in multiple, often antithetical, ways by those who meet and experience the disease on farms. The paper concludes that farmers, vets and state policy‐makers must accept the heterogeneity of the disease; make it visible again; and create new imaginaries for a future where bTB is no longer an everyday ubiquity

Performativity and a microbe: exploring Mycobacterium bovis and the political ecologies of bovine tuberculosis

Mycobacterium bovis, the bacterium responsible for causing bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle, displays what I call ‘microbial performativity’. Like many other lively disease-causing microorganisms, it has an agency which is difficult to contain, and there is a need for fresh thinking on the challenges of dealing with this slippery and indeterminate microbe. As a practising veterinary scientist who side-stepped mid-career into a parallel training in the social sciences to view bTB from an alternative perspective, I create an interdisciplinary coming-together where veterinary science converges with a political ecology of (animal) health influenced by science and technology studies (STS) and social science and humanities scholarship on performativity. This suitably hybridized nexus creates a place to consider the ecologies of a pathogen which could be considered as life out of control. I consider what this means for efforts to eradicate this disease through combining understandings from the published scientific literature with qualitative interview-based fieldwork with farmers, veterinarians and others involved in the statutory bTB eradication programme in a high incidence region of the UK. This study demonstrates the value of life scientists turning to the social sciences to re-view their familiar professional habitus—challenging assumptions, and offering alternative perspectives on complex problems

Farmers and bovine tuberculosis: contextualising statutory disease control within everyday farming lives

Farmers are important stakeholders to be enrolled in national efforts to control and eliminate endemic livestock diseases by state veterinary authorities. Their co-operation (or otherwise) has significant influence on the success of statutory disease control efforts, and when accomplishment does not meet aspiration, farmers may be blamed by the state for perceived failures. Approaching disease control within a political ecology framework and using a qualitative social science investigation of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Northern Ireland as a case study, this empirical paper explores the rationales and sensibilities of cattle farmers and the agricultural political economy and regulatory framework within which they operate in this region of the United Kingdom. This is important for understanding the farming context within which bTB is located, and this context is a feature of the disease landscape which has been under-developed in the bTB literature to date. Examining the premise that farmers are part of the problem of bTB, and a link in the chain of explanation as to why the disease has not yet been eliminated from the region, the paper will trace what everyday life is like for farmers living with multiple uncertainties and indeterminacies in their farming presents and futures. bTB as a disease is but one important influence on their farming lives – there are competing others which attract their attention and employ their resources, often pushing bTB down the list of priorities, despite its substantial cost to the economy. It will also demonstrate that farmers are embedded within wider structures, particularly global markets and European Union regulatory regimes, which profoundly condition and shape their actions, often elucidating resistance and a perceived loss of autonomy. A political ecology approach to investigating the complex multidimensional problems of First World agriculture, such as the effective control of endemic livestock disease in intensive production systems, is recommended if holistic interpretations and workable solutions are to be found and implemented

Farmer and veterinarian attitudes towards the risk of zoonotic Mycobacterium bovis infection in Northern Ireland

Based on a qualitative social science research methodology using semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the attitudes of farmers and veterinarians in Northern Ireland around the risk of acquiring tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis from infected cattle and drinking raw milk. This region has traditionally had one of the highest rates of bovine tuberculosis in the United Kingdom and among the highest in Europe. The research finds that the risk is often downplayed and considered so rare that it is no longer a significant public health risk due to the pasteurisation of milk and intensive surveillance on farms through systematic testing and removal of positive animals, as evidenced by the low recorded human incidence. Although the incidence of tuberculosis in humans caused by M bovis is only around 1% of all annual human tuberculosis cases, this paper argues that M bovis may be underestimated as a human pathogen and makes the case for a renewed perspective. Discourses surrounding the disease may need to be re-orientated to remind relevant stakeholders that human infection with M bovis is a hazard that needs to be treated with more caution on the front line of control

Folding of a single domain protein entering the endoplasmic reticulum precedes disulfide formation

The relationship between protein synthesis, folding and disulfide formation within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is poorly understood. Previous studies have suggested pre-existing disulfide links are absolutely required to allow protein folding and, conversely, that protein folding occurs prior to disulfide formation. To address the question of what happens first within the ER; that is, protein folding or disulfide formation, we studied folding events at the early stages of polypeptide chain translocation into the mammalian ER using stalled translation intermediates. Our results demonstrate that polypeptide folding can occur without complete domain translocation. Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) interacts with these early intermediates, but disulfide formation does not occur unless the entire sequence of the protein domain is translocated. This is the first evidence that folding of the polypeptide chain precedes disulfide formation within a cellular context and highlights key differences between protein folding in the ER and refolding of purified proteins

A qualitative investigation of the attitudes and practices of farmers and veterinarians in Wales regarding anthelmintic resistance in cattle

Despite the importance of stakeholder practices in the potential development of anthelmintic resistance (AR) in livestock, there is a lack of qualitative research examining the attitudes and behaviours of anthelmintic end users and their professional advisors. Given the increasing importance of developing anthelmintic resistance patterns in cattle, and the need to avoid AR in cattle developing to the same extent as it has in sheep, the objective of this qualitative study was therefore to assess the factors affecting anthelmintic product choice and usage, and awareness and attitudes towards AR in cattle in north Wales. Twelve semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with nine cattle farmers and three veterinarians. Farmer knowledge and engagement with the issue of AR in cattle in this study was low. A lack of perceived threat was apparent, with only a demonstrable problem at farm level the likely incentive to change future worming protocols and practice. Cost had a very prominent influence on anthelmintic product choice, but importance was also given to product recommendations from social farming networks and other non-veterinary advisory sources. A more proactive approach should be taken to raise farmers’ and veterinarians’ awareness of increasing levels of AR in cattle and improve anthelmintic governance

Post-translational membrane insertion of an endogenous YidC substrate

AbstractMembrane protein insertion is controlled by proteinaceous factors embedded in the lipid bilayer. Bacterial inner membrane proteins utilise the Sec translocon as the major facilitator of insertion; however some proteins are Sec independent and instead require only YidC. A common feature of YidC substrates is the exposure of a signal anchor sequence when translation is close to completion; this allows minimal time for targeting and favours a post-translational insertion mechanism. Despite this there is little evidence of YidC's post-translational activity. Here we develop an experimental system that uncouples translation and insertion of the endogenous YidC substrate F0c (subunit c of the F0F1 ATP synthase). In this process we (i) develop a novel one step purification method for YidC, including an on column membrane reconstitution, (ii) isolate a soluble form of F0c and (iii) show that incubation of F0c with YidC proteoliposomes results in a high level of membrane integration. Conformational analyses of inserted F0c through Blue Native PAGE and fluorescence quenching reveal a native, oligomerised structure. These data show that YidC can act as a post-translational insertase, a finding which could explain the absence of a ribosome binding domain on YidC. This correlates with the post-translational activity of other YidC family members lacking the ribosome binding domain

A pilot qualitative investigation of stakeholders’ experiences and opinions of equine insect bite hypersensitivity in England

Equine insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH), commonly known as sweet itch or summer eczema, is a frustrating recurrent skin disease in the equine industry involving an immune reaction to the bites of Culicoides spp. midges. To investigate the impact of IBH in the field, an exploratory pilot study was conducted with equine stakeholders in one region of central England. Nine semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with horse owners and an equine veterinarian. The aim was to gain an understanding of experiences with IBH, and to gauge opinions on the value of the various management strategies horse owners use to control IBH. Awareness of IBH was generally high, particularly in those individuals who had previous experience with the condition. Those with previous experience of IBH commented on the significant effect on daily routines, and the associated cost implications. Most participants supported an integrated approach to hypersensitivity management, and this most commonly involved a combination of physical barriers and chemical repellents, but sometimes included feed supplementation. Overall, attitudes towards IBH suggested that the condition is a notable welfare and economic concern for stakeholders, but veterinary involvement tended to only be in more severe cases. Further research is required in the future to improve understanding, management and potential treatment of this condition

Hiding in the Shadows II: Collisional Dust as Exoplanet Markers

Observations of the youngest planets ($\sim$1-10 Myr for a transitional disk) will increase the accuracy of our planet formation models. Unfortunately, observations of such planets are challenging and time-consuming to undertake even in ideal circumstances. Therefore, we propose the determination of a set of markers that can pre-select promising exoplanet-hosting candidate disks. To this end, N-body simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of an embedded Jupiter mass planet on the dynamics of the surrounding planetesimal disk and the resulting creation of second generation collisional dust. We use a new collision model that allows fragmentation and erosion of planetesimals, and dust-sized fragments are simulated in a post process step including non-gravitational forces due to stellar radiation and a gaseous protoplanetary disk. Synthetic images from our numerical simulations show a bright double ring at 850 $\mu$m for a low eccentricity planet, whereas a high eccentricity planet would produce a characteristic inner ring with asymmetries in the disk. In the presence of first generation primordial dust these markers would be difficult to detect far from the orbit of the embedded planet, but would be detectable inside a gap of planetary origin in a transitional disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

"They've got to be testing and doing something about it": farmer and veterinarian views on drivers for Johne’s disease control in dairy herds in England

There needs to be an understanding of the reasons why key stakeholders engage in disease control efforts if disease is to be successfully and sustainably controlled. It is increasingly recognised within veterinary epidemiology and policy making in animal health that these ‘people factors’ are important influences on the success or otherwise of animal disease control programmes. Research methodologies adopted from the social sciences offer ways to understand this important dimension, through investigating the attitudes and opinions of the key actors involved. The study reported in this paper, based on qualitative interview research, investigates the views of dairy farmers and cattle veterinarians on the drivers and incentives for controlling Johne’s disease in English dairy herds. Twenty semi-structured interviews involving 17 dairy farmers and seven veterinarians were conducted in two dairy-intensive regions of England. The findings demonstrate the varied influences of veterinary advice and encouragement; appreciation of the economic cost of the disease at herd level; a voluntary national control plan; and fear of a future consumer food scare as the main reasons to engage in Johne’s disease control on dairy farms. The study demonstrates how a combination of a voluntary industry-led control scheme, compulsory participation through retailer and processor contractual requirements, and threats of reputational harm and market loss have strongly influenced farmer and veterinary behaviour in relation to Johne’s control without statutory involvement. The findings illustrate the importance of considering the political economy and societal impact of animal disease