Serie Tiergesundheit: Tiersignale bewusst erkennen

Je besser Tierhalter in der Tierbeobachtung sind, umso früher erkennen sie Veränderungen und können damit auch früher gegensteuern

Homöopathie - Rechtliches für Landwirte

Homöopathie kommt auf vielen Biobetrieben zum Einsatz. Häufig wird die Anwendung homöopathischer Arzneimittel vom Landwirt selbst vorgenommen. Dabei sind einige rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen zu beachten

Hochträchtige Schafe gut füttern

Stoffwechselstörungen bei Schafen treten typischerweise in der Trächtigkeit und bei der Geburt auf. Die Trächtigkeitstoxikose ist eine schwere Erkrankung, die zu massiven Verlusten führen kann

Natürliche Heilkräfte der Ringelblume

Aus der Ringelblume können wirksame Hausmittel hergestellt werden, die bei Tier und Menschen Einsatz finden

Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindensplanung auf österreichischen Bio-Milchviehbetrieben

Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenspläne stellen ein vielversprechendes Instrument zur kontinuierlichen Verbesserung von Tiergesundheit und Wohlergehen auf tierhaltenden Betrieben dar. Dieses Konzept wurde im Rahmen des europäischen ERANet-Projektes CORE Organic ANIPLAN auf 39 österreichischen Bio-Milchviehbetrieben angewendet. Ziel der Studie war es (1) die Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation auf den Betrieben zu erfassen, (2) Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenspläne auf den Betrieben einzuführen und (3) eine Evaluierung der Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation bzw. eine Effektivitätskontrolle der umgesetzten Maßnahmen nach dem Planungsprozess durchzuführen. Die Erfassung der Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation am Betrieb erfolgte gemäß einer leicht angepassten Version des Welfare Quality® Erhebungsprotokolls für Milchkühe. Der Prozess der Herdengesundheitsplanung folgte den sieben Prinzipien, die im Rahmen des Projektes CORE Organic ANIPLAN definiert wurden. Erste Ergebnisse ausgewählter Parameter zeigen über alle Projektbetriebe hinweg unabhängig vom Interventionsbereich und Umsetzungsgrad der Interventionsmaßnahmen keine signifikante Veränderung zwischen den Projektjahren 2008 und 2009. Auf Betrieben, die aktiv Interventionsmaßnahmen umsetzten, konnte eine signifikante Reduktion der Hautschäden und –veränderungen beobachtet werden. Die Lahmheitsprävalenz sowie die durchschnittliche Zellzahl blieben hingegen auch auf den Interventionsbetrieben unverändert

Vorkommen von Progranulin-Autoantikörpern bei Morbus Crohn und Colitis ulcerosa

Progranulin ist ein Precursor-Glykoprotein, das vornehmlich von epithelialem Gewebe sowie myeloischen und lymphatischen Zellreihen exprimiert wird. Progranulin bindet mit hoher Affinität an die TNF-Rezeptoren 1 und 2 (TNFR1 und 2) und Death receptor 3 (DR3), einem weiteren Apoptose induzierenden Rezeptor der TNF-Rezeptor-Superfamilie. Progranulin inhibiert TNFR1 und DR3 direkt und wirkt damit als endogener Antagonist der TNF-Rezeptor-Liganden TNF-α und TNF-like ligand 1A (TL1A) (Tang et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2014). Neutralisierende Autoantikörper gegen Progranulin konnten kürzlich bei allen primären Vaskulitiden, dem systemischen Lupus erythematodes, rheumatoider Arthritis und Psoriasis mit Gelenkbeteiligung nachgewiesen werden (Thurner, Preuss, et al. 2013; Thurner, Zaks, et al. 2013). Das Auftreten von Progranulin-Antikörpern bei Patienten mit Enteropathie-assoziierten Arthropathien veranlasste uns, Vorkommen und pathogenetische Bedeutung von Progranulin-Antikörpern bei den chronisch entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen Morbus Crohn und Colitis ulcerosa als eigenen Krankheitsentitäten unabhängig von muskuloskeletalen Manifestationen zu untersuchen. Das Screening der Patientenseren durch einen Enzym-gekoppelten Immunoassay ergab für Progranulin-Antikörper eine Häufigkeit von 16,3 % (23/141) bei Morbus Crohn und 21,1 % (15/71) bei Colitis ulcerosa. Damit kommen Progranulin-Antikörper bei Colitis ulcerosa häufiger vor als ANCA (p = 0,266). Die Analyse der Immunglobulinklassen ergab eine Dominanz von IgG, aber auch erstmals und im Unterschied zu anderen Autoimmunerkrankungen das Vorkommen von IgA. Dies spricht für eine Beteiligung von B-Zellen des MALT an der Entstehung der Progranulin-Antikörper bei Patienten mit chronisch entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen. Die neutralisierende Wirkung der Progranulin-Antikörper wurde durch verminderte Progranulin-Plasmaspiegel bei seropositiven Patienten belegt. In einem Proliferationsassay mit TNF-α sensitiven HT-29-Zellen konnte sowohl der TNF-α antagonisierende Effekt von Progranulin bestätigt wie auch die neutralisierende und damit proinflammatorische Wirkung der Progranulin-Antikörper nachgewiesen werden. Es zeigten sich keine signifikanten Assoziationen zwischen klinischen Merkmalen beider Erkrankungen und dem Progranulin-Antikörperstatus. Progranulin-Antikörper sind somit eher nicht als Biomarker für spezifische klinische Fragestellungen einer Erkrankung geeignet. Sie sind vielmehr Indiz eines Autoimmungeschehens.Progranulin is a secreted precursor glycoprotein and expressed particularly in epithelial tissues as well as in cells of myeloid and lymphatic origin. Progranulin binds with high affinity to TNF receptors 1 and 2 (TNFR1 and 2) and death receptor 3 (DR3), directly inhibits TNFR1 and DR3 and acts as a physiologic antagonist of TNF-α and TL1A (Tang et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2014). Recently, autoantibodies against progranulin were identified in all kinds of primary vasculitides, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis (Thurner, Preuss, et al. 2013; Thurner, Zaks, et al. 2013). Inflammatory bowel diseases are often associated with rheumatic diseases, mainly axial arthropathy and peripheral arthritis. Some patients’ axial arthropathy or peripheral arthritis was associated with inflammatory bowel disease, what led us to investigate whether antibodies against progranulin also occur in Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis without any articular extraintestinal manifestation. Sera of patients were screened by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and progranulin-antibodies were detected in 23 of 141 (16,3 %) patients with Crohn’s disease and in 15 of 71 (21,1 %) patients with ulcerative colitis. Progranulin antibodies occurred more frequently than ANCAs (p = 0,266), the only established antibody associated with ulcerative colitis. Analysis of immunoglobulin classes of progranulin-antibodies revealed predominant IgG, but also for the first time IgA, which had not been observed in any other autoimmune disease and indicates B lymphocytes of the MALT as the origin of progranulin antibodies in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Progranulin plasma levels were significantly decreased in seropositive patients compared to seronegative patients confirming the neutralizing effect of progranulin antibodies. A proliferation assay with TNF-α sensitive HT-29 cells demonstrated the proinflammatory effect of progranulin antibodies caused by reduced progranulin levels in administered sera of seropositive patients. Neither in Crohn’s disease nor in ulcerative colitis significant associations between the progranulin antibody serostatus and clinical characteristics were observed. Therefore, progranulin antibodies are not useful as a specific diagnostic or disease activity marker, but are an important piece of evidence for an ongoing autoimmune process

Serie Tiergesundheit: Behandeln und warten

Werden Bio-Tiere mit chemisch-synthetischen allopathischen Tierarzneimitteln behandelt, ist die gesetzliche Wartezeit zu verdoppeln. Ist eine solche nicht vorgesehen, dürfen Produkte des behandelten Tieres nach 48 Stunden vermarktet werden

Farmer opinion on the process of health and welfare planning in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Switzerland

This report serves as a deliverable from the ANIPLAN project, with the original title ‘Evaluation report on state of the art regarding animal health and welfare planning in the participating countries’ (Deliverable 5.1). We chose to focus on the farmers’ perspective in each country, and ask the farmers who had participated in our project how they perceived the process of animal health and welfare planning. We did that using a questionnaire which each participant used in an interview with the farmer, asking some specific questions with the aim to evaluate how the farmers had experienced the ANIPLAN approach. We found that this focus was important as a supplement to other outcomes from the project, such as reduction of medicines (Ivemeyer et al., 2011) and improvement of animal based parameters (Gratzer et al., 2011). Furthermore potential scenarios for implementation of this concept into practice can be developed from the farmers responses

The dialogue with farmers

This report covers the project outcome Deliverable 4.2 ‘Analysis completed after a joint effort to identify possibilities in each country as how to facilitate the best possible dialogue regarding animal health and welfare’ as part of the European CORE Organic project ‘Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning.’ The work was intended to understand the processes and was analysed from the perspective of the key animal health and welfare (AHW) planning principles developed as part of the project. The analysis was completed on transcripts of interviews of facilitators and advisors who had participated in the ANIPLAN project, some of them as partners in the project group. If animal health and welfare planning is to gain widespread use among organic farmers, communication between farmers and between farmers and advisors and other actors in the organic farming environment is crucial. Whilst other forms of communication regarding the role and benefits of AHW assessment systems, such as benchmarking, may be the motivational catalyst needed to encourage engagement in the process, a creative dialogue with the individual farmer is necessary when identifying goals and planning means to reach the desired goals. In order to understand how this dialogue works in practice, and what issues arise, a series of interviews were conducted in all of the ANIPLAN participating countries, involving persons directly involved and those with other experiences. The analysis of the interviews was based on a theoretical framework concerning learning, knowledge and empowerment and a functional framework based on the animal health and welfare principles developed as an output from the ANIPLAN project

Planning for better animal health and welfare, Report from the 1st ANIPLAN project workshop, Hellevad, October 2007

’Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning’, ANIPLAN, is a CORE-Organic project which was initiated in June 2007. The main aim of the project is to investigate active and well planned animal health and welfare promotion and disease prevention as a means of minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds. This aim will be met through the development of animal health and welfare planning principles for organic dairy farms under diverse conditions based on an evaluation of current experiences. This also includes application of animal health and welfare assessment across Europe. In order to bring this into practice the project also aims at developing guidelines for communication about animal health and welfare promotion in different settings, for example, as part of existing animal health advisory services or farmer groups such as the Danish Stable School system and the Dutch network programme. The project is divided into the following five work packages, four of which comprise research activities with the other focused on coordination and knowledge transfer, through meetings, workshops and publications. These proceedings represent our first results in terms of presented papers and discussions at our first project workshop in Hellevad Vandmølle as well as a review of Animal Health Planning in UK. The content of the workshop proceedings reflect the aim and starting points of all work packages, both in terms of analyses prior to the workshop, and developments during the workshop emanating from group work. Besides a general introduction to the project and the ideas of the project, Christoph Winckler provides an overview of the use of animal based parameters based on the results of the WelfareQuality project. Christopher Atkinson and Madeleine Neale presented concepts, principles and the practicalities of Animal Health Planning and Animal Health Plans based on UK experiences. Pip Nicholas from The University of Wales, Aberystwyth produced a report reviewing the current use of animal health and welfare planning. The entire document is included in these workshop proceedings. This was supplemented through presentations from all countries regarding animal health and welfare planning processes and research. These are summarised together with the concepts developed through dialogue at the workshop in the paper by Nicholas, Vaarst and Roderick. Finally, the Danish Stable School principles were presented by Mette Vaarst followed by discussion on different approaches of communication in farmer groups and at the individual level between farmers and advisors. One important outcome from this workshop is a set of preliminary principles for a good health planning process. We concluded through group discussions followed by a plenary session that a health planning process should aim at continuous development and improvement, and should incorporate health promotion and disease handling, based on a strategy where the current situation is evaluated and form basis for action, which is then reviewed in a new evaluation. It is important that any health plan is farm specific and based on farmer ownership, although an external person(s) should be involved, as well as external knowledge. The organic principles should form the framework for any action (meaning that a systems approach is needed), and the plan should be written. The good and positive aspects on each farm – things that other farmers potentially can learn from. The work and studies in dairy farms within the project will be based on these principles and comprise evaluation and review using animal based parameters as well as finding ways of communication with farmers about animal health and welfare