Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism is an “old school” reliable technique for swift microbial community screening in anaerobic digestion

The microbial community in anaerobic digestion has been analysed through microbial fingerprinting techniques, such as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), for decades. In the last decade, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has replaced these techniques, but the time-consuming and complex nature of high-throughput techniques is a potential bottleneck for full-scale anaerobic digestion application, when monitoring community dynamics. Here, the bacterial and archaeal TRFLP profiles were compared with 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles (Illumina platform) of 25 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. The α-diversity analysis revealed a higher richness based on Illumina data, compared with the TRFLP data. This coincided with a clear difference in community organisation, Pareto distribution, and co-occurrence network statistics, i.e., betweenness centrality and normalised degree. The β-diversity analysis showed a similar clustering profile for the Illumina, bacterial TRFLP and archaeal TRFLP data, based on different distance measures and independent of phylogenetic identification, with pH and temperature as the two key operational parameters determining microbial community composition. The combined knowledge of temporal dynamics and projected clustering in the β-diversity profile, based on the TRFLP data, distinctly showed that TRFLP is a reliable technique for swift microbial community dynamics screening in full-scale anaerobic digestion plants

Mapping the teaching of aquatic animal veterinary medicine in the European Union and European Free Trade Area

Aquatic animal production is the fastest growing food sector globally. Aquaculture and fisheries are very dynamic sectors in the EU and the number of ornamental aquarium pets is increasing. Veterinarians have a fundamental role to play by ensuring health and welfare of aquatic species, productivity and profitability of fish farming, public health and ecosystem conservation. This study investigates how the undergraduate curriculum prepares future veterinarians for such roles by analysing data from the 77 European veterinary education establishments based in EU and the European Free Trade Area. Over 95 per cent of these establishments incorporate teaching in aquatic animal veterinary medicine in their curriculum, while the great majority do so within the core curriculum. Almost half of the establishments provide teaching in aquatic animal veterinary medicine as separate subjects. Many establishments (>40 per cent) provide such training as elective option in their undergraduate curricula or as postgraduate opportunities to enhance Day One Competences. The veterinary education establishments integrating adequately aquatic animal veterinary medicine in their curriculum are evenly distributed in all regions of Europe. Veterinarians are trained and empowered by legislation to assess health of aquatic animals, to diagnose, to prescribe medicines, to notify for diseases and to ensure safe food for the consumers. Veterinary education establishments should encourage training of veterinarians to follow a career in aquatic animal veterinary medicine

Hip dysplasia research at Ghent University: towards a new approach to assess hip quality?

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Mapping the teaching of honeybee veterinary medicine in the European Union and European Free Trade Area

Background Honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a very important species for human beings, animals, environmental biodiversity, crop production and economic sustainability in Europe and worldwide. This study investigates whether future veterinarians are trained to deal with the particular needs of the only traditional food-producing insect in Europe. Methods This study analyses data collected from 77 European veterinary education establishments in EU and the European Free Trade Area. Results The results show that 75 per cent of those establishments (58 out of 77) teach honeybee veterinary medicine. There is a clear geographical differentiation. In north-western countries only about half of the establishments include honeybee health, production and product inspection in their undergraduate curricula, while in eastern, central and southern countries, which are also important beekeeping countries, the great majority of the establishments incorporate honeybee veterinary medicine in their undergraduate curriculum. Eighty-six per cent of all the establishments teaching honeybee veterinary medicine (50 of the 58) incorporate it in their core curriculum either as separate subject or as part of other subjects. Twenty-five per cent of all the establishments (19 out of 77) organise postgraduate training courses in this field. Conclusions Veterinarians have an important role in ensuring the health, sustainability and productivity of managed honeybee colonies as they do for other animal species. It seems however that teaching of honeybee veterinary medicine receives less attention in undergraduate veterinary curricula in EU compared with other fields of veterinary medicine. Seeing the increasing importance of honey bees for crop protection, environmental protection and economic sustainability, it would be beneficial to further strengthen the education of honeybee veterinary medicine in the future. Establishments should encourage and prepare veterinarians for practising science-based veterinary medicine in honey bees by incorporating such teaching in undergraduate curricula and by providing postgraduate opportunities to qualified veterinarians wishing to enhance their basic skills in this field

Congenital anomalies of the vertebrae in dogs

In this review article, a overview is given of the congenital pathologies of vertebrae in the dog. These pathologies are common in dogs and can be divided in two major groups: neural tube defects or spinal dysraphism, such as spina bifida with or without meningocoele and dermal sinus tract, and congenital anomalies of the vertebral column. The latter group can be subdivided in malformations originating in the embryonic period of development, such as butterfly vertebra, mediolateral wedged vertebra and transitional vertebra, or in the foetal period, such as block vertebra and dorsoventral wedged vertebra. Congenital vertebral anomalies can be incidental findings on radiographs or CT, but sometimes they can be the underlying cause of a clinical, mostly neurological problem. Due to pressure on the spinal cord, symptoms, such as pelvic limb ataxia, paresis, loss of spinal reflexes, incontinence and atrophy of the pelvic limbs may occur

On the Multimomentum Bundles and the Legendre Maps in Field Theories

We study the geometrical background of the Hamiltonian formalism of first-order Classical Field Theories. In particular, different proposals of multimomentum bundles existing in the usual literature (including their canonical structures) are analyzed and compared. The corresponding Legendre maps are introduced. As a consequence, the definition of regular and almost-regular Lagrangian systems is reviewed and extended from different but equivalent ways.Comment: LaTeX file, 19 pages. Replaced with the published version. Minor mistakes are correcte

(In)Consistencies in responses to sodium bicarbonate supplementation: a randomised, repeated measures, counterbalanced and double-blind study

Objectives: Intervention studies do not account for high within-individual variation potentially compromising the magnitude of an effect. Repeat administration of a treatment allows quantification of individual responses and determination of the consistency of responses. We determined the consistency of metabolic and exercise responses following repeated administration of sodium bicarbonate (SB). Design and Methods: 15 physically active males (age 25 ± 4 y; body mass 76.0 ± 7.3 kg; height 1.77 ± 0.05 m) completed six cycling capacity tests at 110% of maximum power output (CCT 110% ) following ingestion of either 0.3 g.kg -1 BM of SB (4 trials) or placebo (PL, 2 trials). Blood pH, bicarbonate, base excess and lactate were determined at baseline, pre-exercise, post-exercise and 5-min post-exercise. Total work done (TWD) was recorded as the exercise outcome. Results: SB supplementation increased blood pH, bicarbonate and base excess prior to every trial (all p ≤0.001); absolute changes in pH, bicarbonate and base excess from baseline to pre-exercise were similar in all SB trials (all p > 0.05). Blood lactate was elevated following exercise in all trials (p ≤ 0.001), and was higher in some, but not all, SB trials compared to PL. TWD was not significantly improved with SB vs. PL in any trial (SB1: +3.6%; SB2 +0.3%; SB3: +2.1%; SB4: +6.7%; all p > 0.05), although magnitude-based inferences suggested a 93% likely improvement in SB4. Individual analysis showed ten participants improved in at least one SB trial above the normal variation of the test although five improved in none. Conclusions: The mechanism for improved exercise with SB was consistently in place prior to exercise, although this only resulted in a likely improvement in one trial. SB does not consistently improve high intensity cycling capacity, with results suggesting that caution should be taken when interpreting the results from single trials as to the efficacy of SB supplementation. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0247462