Acute sterfte bij het rund: autopsieprotocol en retrsospectieve studie

Sudden death is defined as the unexpected death of an apparently healthy animal within 24 hours after onset of the symptoms. In literature, many causes of sudden death have been reported. In the field, it is very difficult to confirm the exact cause of sudden death only by necropsy. Nevertheless, an exact diagnosis is requested in case of insurance expertise or herd health problems. In the present article, a practical protocol for approaching sudden death in cattle is proposed. The protocol is based on information available in the literature and on a retrospective necropsy series of sudden death cases in cattle in Flanders (n=124). The most common causes were enterotoxemia (23.7%), acute pneumonia (9.3%) and Taxus baccata intoxication (6.8%)

Assessing Expanding Space Use versus Infill for Economic Activities

In order to limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood since the location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different environments. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for 5 case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high density urban area to a suburban neighbourhood or even a semi-rural zone, in different (types of) regions: inland-coastline transect, transects in the metropolitan areas of the major cities Antwerp and Ghent (exluding the city centres), in the medium sized city of Hasselt (and its suburbs) and th smaller city of Aalst (and the zone along an important access road), and transects incorporating small towns such as Deinze and Veurne . The observations in the field were made from what is visible from the street, thus representing what is normally perceived as economic activity. The statistics are based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns and social security contributions, and on commercial retail data. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments. The analysis then compared similar settlement environments in different regions, and identified typical characteristics for 8 location environments (with some further subcategories). These were presented to experts in workshops and (group) interviews. This revealed that, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, suggestions are made for targeted new data collection methods, such as remote sensing, crowd sourcing, and web data extraction

Dose-Dependent Effect of Platinum-Based Chemotherapy on the Risk of Metachronous Contralateral Testicular Cancer

PURPOSE: Patients with testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) are at increased risk of developing a contralateral TGCT (CTGCT). Although some studies suggest that prior treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy affects CTGCT risk, a relationship between CTGCT risk and platinum dose has not previously been assessed. We analyzed the association between the number of platinum-based chemotherapy cycles and CTGCT risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The risk of developing a metachronous CTGCT was evaluated in a nationwide cohort of 4,755 patients diagnosed with primary TGCT in the Netherlands between 1989 and 2007. Standardized incidence ratios were computed to compare CTGCT incidence with expected TGCT on the basis of TGCT incidence in the general population. The cumulative incidence of CTGCT was estimated in the presence of death as competing risk. The effect of treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy on CTGCT risk was assessed using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS: CTGCT was diagnosed in 136 patients (standardized incidence ratio, 14.6; 95% CI, 12.2 to 17.2). The cumulative incidence increased up to 20 years after primary diagnosis, reaching 3.4% (95% CI, 2.8% to 4.0%) after 20 years of follow up. The risk of developing a CTGCT decreased with age (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; 95% CI, 0.90 to 0.96), was lower after nonseminomatous germ cell tumor (HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.96) and decreased with every additional cycle of chemotherapy (HRper cycle, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.64 to 0.85). CONCLUSION: Approximately one in every 30 survivors of TGCT will develop a CTGCT, with CTGCT incidence increasing up to 20 years after a primary TGCT. Treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy shows a dose-dependent inverse association with CTGCT risk

Lightning related fatalities in livestock: veterinary expertise and the added value of lightning location data

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Increased viral read counts and metagenomic full genome characterization of porcine astrovirus 4 andPosavirus1 in sows in a swine farm with unexplained neonatal piglet diarrhea

Neonatal diarrhea in piglets may cause major losses in affected pig herds. The present study used random high-throughput RNA sequencing (metagenomic next generation sequencing, mNGS) to investigate the virome of sows from a farm with persistent neonatal piglet diarrhea in comparison to two control farms without diarrhea problems. A variety of known swine gastrointestinal viruses was detected in the control farms as well as in the problem farm (Mamastrovirus,Enterovirus,Picobirnavirus,Posavirus1,Kobuvirus,Proprismacovirus). A substantial increase in normalized viral read counts was observed in the affected farm compared to the control farms. The increase was attributable to a single viral species in each of the sampled sows (porcine astrovirus 4 andPosavirus1). The complete genomes of a porcine astrovirus 4 and two co-infectingPosavirus1 werede novoassembled and characterized. The 6734 nt single-stranded RNA genome of porcine astrovirus 4 (PoAstV-4) strainBelgium/2019contains three overlapping open reading frames (nonstructural protein 1ab, nonstructural protein 1a, capsid protein). Posavirus 1 strainsBelgium/01/2019andBelgium/02/2019have a 9814 nt single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome encoding a single open reading frame (polyprotein precursor) containing the five expected Picornavirales-conserved protein domains. The study highlights the potential of mNGS workflows to study unexplained neonatal diarrhea in piglets and contributes to the scarce availability of both PoAstV-4 andPosavirus-1 whole genome sequences from Western Europe

Assessing Discrepancies between Official Economic Statistics and Land Use through a Field Inventory System

Abstract: To limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for five case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high-density urban area to a suburban neighborhood or even a semi-rural zone. The statistics on these areas, based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns, social security contributions, and on commercial retail data, were checked with field observations. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments, resulting in the identification of typical characteristics for eight location environment types. While in, for example, core shopping centers a strong convergence can be noticed between existing statistics and the field inventory (71% of companies and 93% of parcels are detected on the field), in residential areas (21% of companies and 17% of parcels are detected on the field) the convergence is very limited. In other words, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, a field inventory system can enrich the picture and present another reality to complement both existing statistics and other land-use data methods such as remote sensing and web data extraction.status: publishe

Assessing Expanding Space Use versus Infill for Economic Activities

In order to limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood since the location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different environments. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for 5 case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high density urban area to a suburban neighbourhood or even a semi-rural zone, in different (types of) regions: inland-coastline transect, transects in the metropolitan areas of the major cities Antwerp and Ghent (exluding the city centres), in the medium sized city of Hasselt (and its suburbs) and th smaller city of Aalst (and the zone along an important access road), and transects incorporating small towns such as Deinze and Veurne . The observations in the field were made from what is visible from the street, thus representing what is normally perceived as economic activity. The statistics are based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns and social security contributions, and on commercial retail data. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments. The analysis then compared similar settlement environments in different regions, and identified typical characteristics for 8 location environments (with some further subcategories). These were presented to experts in workshops and (group) interviews. This revealed that, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, suggestions are made for targeted new data collection methods, such as remote sensing, crowd sourcing, and web data extraction.status: publishe

Assessing Discrepancies between Official Economic Statistics and Land Use through a Field Inventory System

To limit additional (net) land take for economic activities, the reality of space use needs to be properly understood. This was assessed by comparing the spatial patterns obtained from a field inventory with those from existing data for five case areas in Flanders (Belgium). Each case area is a transect from a high-density urban area to a suburban neighborhood or even a semi-rural zone. The statistics on these areas, based on official data, mostly derived from tax returns, social security contributions, and on commercial retail data, were checked with field observations. The location of economic activities and the patterns of space use vary in different settlement environments, resulting in the identification of typical characteristics for eight location environment types. While in, for example, core shopping centers a strong convergence can be noticed between existing statistics and the field inventory (71% of companies and 93% of parcels are detected on the field), in residential areas (21% of companies and 17% of parcels are detected on the field) the convergence is very limited. In other words, in some environments, (the combination of) data and statistics give a good understanding of the space use while, in other environments, gaps with realities in the field are obvious. Therefore, a field inventory system can enrich the picture and present another reality to complement both existing statistics and other land-use data methods such as remote sensing and web data extraction

The use of photos to investigate ecological change

Global change is causing ecosystems to change at unprecedented rates and the urgency to quantify ecological change is high. We therefore need all possible sources of ecological data to address key knowledge gaps. Ground-based photos are a form of remote sensing and an unconventional data source with a high potential to improve our understanding of ecological change. They can provide invaluable information on ecological conditions in the past and present at relevant spatiotemporal scales that is very difficult to obtain with other approaches. Here we review the use of ground-based photos in a set of relevant ecological research topics, such as biodiversity and community ecology, phenology, global change ecology and landscape ecology. We highlight three main photo-based methods in ecological research (repeat photography, time-lapse photography and public archives), alongside which we discuss three case studies to demonstrate novel applications of these methods, to answer fundamental ecological questions. Synthesis. Photos can significantly support ecological research to improve our understanding of biotic responses in a rapidly changing world. Photos cover relatively large temporal and spatial scales, and can provide large amounts of information with limited time investment. To exploit their full potential, we need to invest not only in technological advances to compile, process and analyse images but also in proper data management