“Catch 22”: biosecurity awareness, interpretation and practice amongst poultry catchers

Campylobacter contamination of chicken on sale in the UK remains at high levels and has a substantial public health impact. This has prompted the application of many interventions in the supply chain, including enhanced biosecurity measures on-farm. Catching and thinning are acknowledged as threats to the maintenance of good biosecurity, yet the people employed to undertake this critical work (i.e. ‘catchers’) are a rarely studied group. This study uses a mixed methods approach to investigate catchers’ (n = 53) understanding of the biosecurity threats posed by the catching and thinning, and the barriers to good biosecurity practice. It interrogated the role of training in both the awareness and practice of good biosecurity. Awareness of lapses in biosecurity was assessed using a Watch-&-Click hazard awareness survey (n = 53). Qualitative interviews (n = 49 catchers, 5 farm managers) explored the understanding, experience and practice of catching and biosecurity. All of the catchers who took part in the Watch-&-Click study identified at least one of the biosecurity threats with 40% detecting all of the hazards. Those who had undergone training were significantly more likely to identify specific biosecurity threats and have a higher awareness score overall (48% compared to 9%, p = 0.03). Crucially, the individual and group interviews revealed the tensions between the high levels of biosecurity awareness evident from the survey and the reality of the routine practice of catching and thinning. Time pressures and a lack of equipment rather than a lack of knowledge appear a more fundamental cause of catcher-related biosecurity lapses. Our results reveal that catchers find themselves in a ‘catch-22′ situation in which mutually conflicting circumstances prevent simultaneous completion of their job and compliance with biosecurity standards

Updating the approaches to define susceptibility and resistance to anti-tuberculosis agents: implications for diagnosis and treatment

11 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaInappropriately high breakpoints have resulted in systematic false-susceptible AST results to anti-TB drugs. MIC, PK/PD and clinical outcome data should be combined when setting breakpoints to minimise the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.I. Comas was supported by PID2019-104477RB-I00 from the Spanish Science Ministry and by ERC (CoG 101001038)Peer reviewe

How the soil moves upward in the olive orchards of NW Syria: sustainability analysis of a local innovation

This paper analyses a local innovation in response to intense soil degradation in olive orchards of north-west Syria. Farmers developed a practice consisting of quarrying red clayey soil in valley bottoms and applying this soil to hillslope olive orchards with heavily degraded calcareous soils. A biophysical, economic and social analysis of the practice of soil application identified the opportunities and risks of this innovative soil management technique. On the basis of a pairwise comparison of nine adjacent treated and nontreated orchard plots, soil applications were found to increase soil depth by 36%, soil water availability by 28% and total available soil nutrients: potassium (+45%), nitrogen (+12%) and phosphorus (+6%). Olive yield increased by about 40%. A cost–benefit analysis found this practice to be economically viable within a large geographical area, and farmers scored the practice higher than alternative methods. A socio-economic analysis revealed its widespread adoption among different farmer types. The positive results of soil applications at the farm level explain its fast adoption. However, potential risks – including the further depletion of soil resources and the transfer of soil-borne diseases – limit the long-term sustainability of this locally developed practice.status: publishe

Transfer of soil contaminants to home-produced eggs and preventive measures to reduce contamination

&lt;p&gt;Uptake studies have shown that chickens foraging on soils contaminated with environmental pollutants accumulate these compounds into their eggs. Home-produced eggs thereby show higher contamination levels than commercially produced eggs. It was the aim of this study to identify the major source of two environmental pollutants in home-produced eggs, i.e. dioxins and lead, to formulate preventive measures to reduce the contamination levels of such eggs, and to assess the feasibility of the formulated measures in terms of the perception and behavior of private egg producers towards such measures. The major source of dioxins and lead in eggs, i.e. the soil, was identified by transfer calculations of the pollutants from the feed and soil towards eggs. Preventive measures to reduce soil intake or geophagy and hence egg contamination levels, were formulated and their feasibility evaluated through interviews with private chicken owners. The results show that a paved surface inside the henhouse, an indoor feeding place and providing a sufficient surface area per chicken were considered the most appropriate in terms of feasibility and willingness to apply the measures by the private chicken owners. To enhance the effect of the measures, a combination of measures supported and promoted at policy level is considered as a good strategy to reduce contamination levels in home-produced eggs.&lt;/p&gt;</p

Population variation in neuroendocrine activity is associated with behavioral inhibition and hemispheric brain structure in young rhesus monkeys

Population variation in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity and reactivity was assessed in a healthy sample of 48 juvenile rhesus monkeys. Cluster analysis of the HPA profiles revealed four distinct neuroendocrine phenotypes based on six indices of HPA functioning. Behavioral reactivity was also evaluated in response to novel stimuli, and revealed marked differences between animals in the highest- and lowest-cortisol clusters. Specifically, animals in the high-cortisol cluster showed larger stress-induced cortisol responses and blunted feedback sensitivity to dexamethasone. They were also emotionally reactive, displayed more aggressive behaviors, and were less likely to approach novel objects. In contrast, monkeys in the low-cortisol cluster were more likely to approach and explore novel objects. Representative animals with high or low cortisol profiles were scanned with Magnetic Resonance Imaging to evaluate structural differences in global and regional gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes. Monkeys with higher cortisol reactivity evinced less hemispheric brain asymmetry, due to decreased GM in the right hemisphere. Stress reactivity was inversely related to global GM and positively related to total cerebrospinal fluid volume. This inverse relationship was also observed in several stress-sensitive regions, including prefrontal and frontal cortices. Our study demonstrates that population variation in pituitary-adrenal activity is related to behavioral disposition and cerebral structure in this nonhuman primate species