Retrospective analysis of the prevalence of Brucella antibodies in sheep in the Karas Region of Namibia

In this retrospective study, complete Brucella serology data from the annual national brucellosis testing program and disease investigation for the years 2008-2010 was collated and analyzed to estimate the prevalence of brucellosis in sheep in the Karas Region of Namibia. A total of 22994 serological results from 762 flocks screened using the Rose Bengal Test (RBT) and confirmed using the Complement Fixation Test (CFT) were analyzed. An overall prevalence of 0.14% was recorded over the three years. Yearly prevalence was 0.19% (2008), 0.05% (2009) and 0.18% (2010). At district level, brucellosis prevalence was estimated to be between 0% and 0.49%. On positive farms (n=32), prevalence was between 2.25% and 30%. True prevalence was zero at district level and in all the three study years. We concluded that the prevalence of Brucella antibodies in sheep was low taking into account that some farmers may have vaccinated against the disease. The low prevalence confirms the effectiveness of existing brucellosis control measures implemented by the official veterinary services.http://link.springer.com/journal/112502016-08-31hb201

Expanding protection motivation theory: investigating an application to animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies

Background Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) was developed by Rogers in 1975, to describe how individuals are motivated to react in a self-protective way towards a perceived health threat. Rogers expected the use of PMT to diversify over time, which has proved true over four decades. The purpose of this paper is to explore how PMT can be used and expanded to inform and improve public safety strategies in natural hazards. As global climate change impacts on the Australian environment, natural hazards seem to be increasing in scale and frequency, and Emergency Services’ public education campaigns have necessarily escalated to keep pace with perceived public threat. Of concern, is that the awareness-preparedness gap in residents’ survival plans is narrowing disproportionately slowly compared to the magnitude of resources applied to rectify this trend. Practical applications of adaptable social theory could be used to help resolve this dilemma. Discussion PMT has been used to describe human behaviour in individuals, families, and the parent-child unit. It has been applied to floods in Europe and wildfire and earthquake in the United States. This paper seeks to determine if an application of PMT can be useful for achieving other-directed human protection across a novel demographic spectrum in natural hazards, specifically, animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies. These groups could benefit from such an approach: owners to build and fortify their response- and self-efficacy, and to help translate knowledge into safer behaviour, and responders to gain a better understanding of a diverse demographic with animal ownership as its common denominator, and with whom they will be likely to engage in contemporary natural hazard management. Mutual collaboration between these groups could lead to a synergy of reciprocated response efficacy, and safer, less traumatic outcomes. Summary Emergency services’ community education programs have made significant progress over the last decade, but public safety remains suboptimal while the magnitude of the awareness-preparedness gap persists. This paper examines an expanded, other-directed application of PMT to expand and enhance safer mitigation and response behaviour strategies for communities threatened by bushfire, which may ultimately help save human life