Swine embryo culture and transfer for export to England

A major threat to swine enterprises is the possible introduction of disease when new breeding animals are purchased and introduced. So, methods of introducing new genetic material while minimizing the potential for introducing disease are needed. Transfer of embryos from a donor sow in another herd or country would minimize disease risks. Already used to introduce new breeding stock into Specific Pathogen Free herds and other closed herds, embryos now are placed in the recipient gilt’s or sow1s uterus within a few hours after their recovery from the donor. That method prevents export and limits application of swine embryo transfer in this country, so we evaluated the feasibility of using an in vitro culture system to store embryos between donor sows and recipient females.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 8, 197

First Report of Phytophthora pluvialis Causing Needle Loss and Shoot Dieback on Douglas-fir in Oregon and New Zealand

Douglas-fir (DF, Pseudotsuga menziesii) is the most important forest tree in Oregon and is the second most valuable conifer in New Zealand. Phytophthora pluvialis was described (Reeser et al. 2013) from mixed evergreen forests in southwest Oregon. It was subsequently identified as the cause of red needle cast of radiata pine in New Zealand (Dick et al. 2014). There it was also isolated from chlorotic DF needles that dislodged readily from trees growing close to diseased radiata pine. In spring 2014, raintraps baited with rhododendron leaves were paired with nine 2-year-old DF seedlings at three or four locations in each of three 20- to 30-year-old DF plantations in western Oregon (11 raintraps and 99 seedlings total); control raintraps and seedlings were at two sites with no overstory (two raintraps and 18 seedlings total). Baits were collected at 2-week intervals and plated in corn meal agar (CMA) amended with natamycin, ampicillin, and rifamycin SV (CARP, Reeser et al. 2013). Symptomatic tissues from the seedlings were surface disinfested and plated in CARP. P. pluvialis was identified by sequencing the mitochondrial cox spacer region. Zoospores or sporangia produced from Oregon DF isolate 3661-NDL-041514 (GenBank KM491217) were used to inoculate four 2-year-old DF seedlings. Sporangia were induced by flooding cultures grown in pea broth with filtered stream water; zoospore release was stimulated by chilling. About 20 ml of inoculum was applied to DF seedlings using an airbrush sprayer. Two control seedlings were sprayed with filtered stream water. Inoculum contained 200 to 300 sporangia/ml or 5 × 10⁴ zoospores/ml. Inoculated trees were enclosed in polyethylene bags for 48 h with supplemental mist and incubated in a growth chamber at 16 to 18°C with 12-h photoperiod. Symptomatic tissues were collected starting at 14 days, surface disinfested, and plated in CARP. Isolates were collected and identified as above. P. pluvialis was isolated from baits in nine of the 11 raintraps and from 54% of seedlings across all three plantations. All isolations from control sites were negative. Overstory trees exhibited thin crowns from needle loss. Symptoms on seedlings included partial needle loss of 1- and 2-year-old needles and irregular mottled needle chlorosis. P. pluvialis was isolated from needles on 54% of the seedlings associated with positive raintraps. Isolation success from individual symptomatic needles from locations where raintraps were positive was ∼13%. Twig symptoms were not visible on overstory trees, but trees were not felled for close examination. Twig symptoms on seedlings included tip dieback and stem lesions extending from bud scars. Twig symptoms developed on 37% of seedlings from locations with positive raintraps; P. pluvialis was isolated from 47% of these twig lesions. Needle and twig symptoms similar to those on naturally infected seedlings developed on artificially inoculated seedlings and P. pluvialis was isolated from seedlings inoculated with both sporangia and zoospores, but not from control seedlings. This is the first report of a foliar Phytophthora species on DF. There is as yet little information on epidemiology or impact in the forest in Oregon. In New Zealand, DF defoliation was most evident in plantations growing close to radiata pine plantations on sites prone to red needle cast.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published news item is copyrighted by American Phytopathological Society and can be found at: http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/loi/pdi

Does the risk of childhood diabetes mellitus require revision of the guideline values for nitrate in drinking water?

In recent years, several studies have addressed a possible relationship between nitrate exposure and childhood type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The present ecologic study describes a possible relation between the incidence of type 1 diabetes and nitrate levels in drinking water in The Netherlands, and evaluates whether the World Health Organization and the European Commission standard for nitrate in drinking water (50 mg/L) is adequate to prevent risk of this disease. During 1993-1995 in The Netherlands, 1,104 cases of type 1 diabetes were diagnosed in children 0-14 years of age. We were able to use 1,064 of these cases in a total of 2,829,020 children in this analysis. We classified mean nitrate levels in drinking water in 3,932 postal code areas in The Netherlands in 1991-1995 into two exposure categories. One category was based on equal numbers of children exposed to different nitrate levels (0.25-2.08, 2.10-6.42, and 6.44-41.19 mg/L nitrate); the other was based on cut-off values of 10 and 25 mg/L nitrate. We determined standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for type 1 diabetes in subgroups of the 2,829,020 children with respect to both nitrate exposure categories, sex, and age and as compared in univariate analysis using the chi-square test for trend. We compared the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) by multivariate analysis in a Poisson regression model. We found an effect of increasing age of the children on incidence of type 1 diabetes, but we did not find an effect of sex or of nitrate concentration in drinking water using the two exposure categories. For nitrate levels > 25 mg/L, an increased SIR and an increased IRR of 1.46 were observed; however, this increase was not statistically significant, probably because of the small number of cases (15 of 1,064). We concluded that there is no convincing evidence that nitrate in drinking water at current exposure levels is a risk factor for childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus in The Netherlands, although a threshold value > 25 mg/L for the occurrence of this disease can not be excluded

First Report of Phytophthora occultans Causing Root and Collar Rot on Ceanothus, Boxwood, Rhododendron, and Other Hosts in Horticultural Nurseries in Oregon, USA

Dead and dying Ceanothus sanguineus, C. velutinus, and C. integerrimus plants grown in a native plant nursery in Oregon for landscape restoration were reported in 2011. Plants were wilted with stem lesions above necrotic roots. Using selective media (Hansen et al. 2012), twelve similar Phytophthora isolates were obtained. DNA sequences of the cox 1, β tubulin, and the rDNA ITS regions were generated (Hansen et al. 2012). All isolates had identical ITS sequences (GenBank KP742989), and were identical to Phytophthora occultans (Man in’t Veld et al. 2014) (JX978155) and 99% similar to P. himalsilva (HM752784) in a BLAST analysis. They were also identical to P. occultans in cox 1 and β tubulin (KR028484 and KR028483). Isolates were homothallic, with smooth 30-µm-diameter oogonia, and slightly aplerotic oospores. Antheridia were mostly paragynous. Colonies were stellate on carrot agar, growing 6 to 7 mm/d at optimum temperature (25°C). Sporangia were ovoid to irregular and papillate. Morphology and growth were consistent with P. occultans. Collections of unidentified Phytophthora spp. from the OSU Plant Clinic and from other Oregon nurseries (J. Parke et al. 2014) revealed additional isolates with similar morphology and identical DNA sequences. P. occultans was identified from boxwood (Buxus spp.), rhododendron, Gaultheria shallon, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, and Mahonia nervosa in addition to Ceanothus spp. Two inoculation trials were conducted: (i) Healthy 1-year-old plants of C. sanguineus and C. velutinus were stem wound inoculated with two isolates of P. occultans from Ceanothus, or with sterile agar. There were 3 to 5 replications for each host and the control. The test was repeated with addition of two isolates from boxwood. (ii) Boxwood (B. sempervirens) and rhododendron (R. catawbiense Alba) were stem wound inoculated with two isolates each of P. occultans from Ceanothus and boxwood. There were four replications of each host for each isolate. All plants were incubated at 20 to 22°C. In test 1, all isolates induced stem lesions and wilting on all inoculated plants of both Ceanothus species. Wilting began in 14 days and lesions, measured at 19 days, averaged about 150 mm. There were no symptoms on control plants. In test 2, lesions developed on rhododendron stems, often girdling the stem within 12 days. Most boxwood showed no foliar symptoms or only mild yellowing, although stem lesions averaging 3.5 cm in 7 weeks were present on all plants. P. occultans was reisolated from all hosts in both tests. P. occultans was recently described from Buxus nursery stock in The Netherlands (Man in’t Veld et al. 2014), and isolates with identical DNA sequences were reported from Germany and Romania (Nechwatal et al. 2014). This is the first report from North America. It appears that a single clone of P. occultans recently has been spread widely in the nursery trade. P. occultans is similar to P. himalsilva (Vettraino et al. 2011) and to other members of the poorly defined P. citrophthora clade. Phylogenetic analysis may revise species definitions. Nursery plants grown for wildland restoration are at high risk to carry exotic Phytophthora species into vulnerable landscapes. Forest restoration specialists must demand healthy stock from nurseries

First Report of the EU1 Clonal Lineage of Phytophthora ramorum on Tanoak in an Oregon Forest

Initially reported in California as the causal agent of sudden oak death (SOD), efforts to limit spread of Phytophthora ramorum in Oregon natural forests have concentrated on quarantine regulations and eradication of the pathogen from infested areas. P. ramorum has four clonal lineages: NA1; NA2; EU1; and EU2 (Grünwald et al. 2012; Van Poucke et al. 2012). Forest infestations in Oregon have been limited to the NA1 clonal lineage, whereas EU1, NA1, and NA2 clonal lineages have all been found in U.S. nurseries (Kamvar et al. 2015; Prospero et al. 2007). In February 2015, in response to an aerial survey, P. ramorum was isolated from a dying Notholithocarpus densiflorus tree in the South Fork Pistol River drainage of Curry Co., Oregon. The isolated strain was identified as P. ramorum based on presence of chlamydospores, characteristic hyphae, and sporangial morphology. Microsatellite genotyping at 14 loci (Vercauteren et al. 2011) and comparison with reference cultures revealed that these isolates belonged to the EU1 clonal lineage. Subsequently, five more isolates were obtained from the original tree stump and the EU1 lineage was confirmed. Microsatellite alleles of the forest EU1 isolates were nearly identical to EU1 isolates collected in 2012 from a nearby nursery during routine P. ramorum nursery monitoring, except for one allele at locus PrMS145a. Interestingly, several isolates differed at locus ILVOPrMS131a within both the 2015 forest and the 2012 nursery findings with identical allele frequencies in each population for this locus. These data provide inconclusive support for the introduction of EU1 into Curry Co. from the 2012 populations found in nurseries, given that no direct match was found probably owing to the paucity of EU1 samples from nurseries. These results provide further evidence that multiple distinct P. ramorum introduction events into the Curry Co. forest are a critical component of the epidemic (Kamvar et al. 2015). The impact of the EU1 clonal lineage of P. ramorum on Oregon natural forests is uncertain, but it may result in potential sexual reproduction given that EU1 is of A1 mating type while the prior population consisted of NA1 A2 mating type individuals. While sexual populations of P. ramorum have not been observed in nature or were aberrant in the laboratory, the presence of both A1 and A2 mating types makes the potential for sexual recombination more likely. The EU1 forest infestation is undergoing eradication treatments. Additional monitoring is necessary to determine if the EU1 clonal lineage occurs elsewhere in Curry Co. forests

Collective Power to Create Political Change: Increasing the Political Efficacy and Engagement of Social Workers

Because social workers are called to challenge social injustices and create systemic change to support the well-being of individuals and communities, it is essential that social workers develop political efficacy: belief that the political system can work and they can influence the system. This study explored the impact of an intensive political social work curriculum on political efficacy and planned political engagement among social work students and practitioners. The findings suggest this model of delivering a political social work curriculum effectively increases internal, external, and overall political efficacy, and that increasing political efficacy has promise for increasing future political engagement

Sport and transgender people: a systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies

Background Whether transgender people should be able to compete in sport in accordance with their gender identity is a widely contested question within the literature and among sport organisations, fellow competitors and spectators. Owing to concerns surrounding transgender people (especially transgender female individuals) having an athletic advantage, several sport organisations place restrictions on transgender competitors (e.g. must have undergone gender-confirming surgery). In addition, some transgender people who engage in sport, both competitively and for leisure, report discrimination and victimisation. Objective To the authors’ knowledge, there has been no systematic review of the literature pertaining to sport participation or competitive sport policies in transgender people. Therefore, this review aimed to address this gap in the literature. Method Eight research articles and 31 sport policies were reviewed. Results In relation to sport-related physical activity, this review found the lack of inclusive and comfortable environments to be the primary barrier to participation for transgender people. This review also found transgender people had a mostly negative experience in competitive sports because of the restrictions the sport’s policy placed on them. The majority of transgender competitive sport policies that were reviewed were not evidence based. Conclusion Currently, there is no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals (or male individuals) have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition (e.g. cross-sex hormones, gender-confirming surgery) and, therefore, competitive sport policies that place restrictions on transgender people need to be considered and potentially revised

Static Magnetic Field Therapy: A Critical Review of Treatment Parameters

Static magnetic field (SMF) therapy, applied via a permanent magnet attached to the skin, is used by people worldwide for self-care. Despite a lack of established SMF dosage and treatment regimens, multiple studies are conducted to evaluate SMF therapy effectiveness. Our objectives in conducting this review are to:(i) summarize SMF research conducted in humans; (ii) critically evaluate reporting quality of SMF dosages and treatment parameters and (iii) propose a set of criteria for reporting SMF treatment parameters in future clinical trials. We searched 27 electronic databases and reference lists. Only English language human studies were included. Excluded were studies of electromagnetic fields, transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnets placed on acupuncture points, animal studies, abstracts, posters and editorials. Data were extracted on clinical indication, study design and 10 essential SMF parameters. Three reviewers assessed quality of reporting and calculated a quality assessment score for each of the 10 treatment parameters. Fifty-six studies were reviewed, 42 conducted in patient populations and 14 in healthy volunteers. The SMF treatment parameters most often and most completely described were site of application, magnet support device and frequency and duration of application. Least often and least completely described were characteristics of the SMF: magnet dimensions, measured field strength and estimated distance of the magnet from the target tissue. Thirty-four (61%) of studies failed to provide enough detail about SMF dosage to permit protocol replication by other investigators. Our findings highlight the need to optimize SMF dosing parameters for individual clinical conditions before proceeding to a full-scale clinical trial

Efficacy of a 3 month training program on the jump-landing technique in jump-landing sports. Design of a cluster randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the relatively high rate of injuries to the lower extremity due to jump-landing movement patterns and the accompanied high costs, there is need for determining potential preventive programs. A program on the intervention of jump-landing technique is possibly an important preventative measure since it appeared to reduce the incidence of lower extremity injuries. In real life situations, amateur sports lack the infrastructure and funds to have a sports physician or therapist permanently supervising such a program. Therefore the current prevention program is designed so that it could be implemented by coaches alone.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The objective of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effect of a coach supervised intervention program targeting jump-landing technique on the incidence of lower extremity injuries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Of the 110 Flemish teams of the elite division, 24 teams are included and equally randomized to two study groups. An equal selection of female and male teams with allocation to intervention and control group is obtained. The program is a modification of other prevention programs previously proven to be effective. All exercises in the current program are adjusted so that a more progressive development in the exercise is presented. Both the control and intervention group continue with their normal training routine, while the intervention group carries out the program on jump-landing technique. The full intervention program has a duration of three months and is performed 2 times a week during warm-up (5-10 min). Injuries are registered during the entire season.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The results of this study can give valuable information on the effect of a coach supervised intervention program on jump-landing technique and injury occurrence. Results will become available in 2011.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Trial registration number: NTR2560</p