Organic egg production in Finland - animal health, welfare and food safety issues

A total of 20 out of 23 commercial organic layer farms took part in the research. Data were collected through observation and by interviewing the producer, using a semi-structured interview guide. Laying hen welfare was estimated using environment-based and animal-based methods. Fresh faecal samples were collected from the floor for analysis of campylobacter and salmonella bacteria and for internal parasite identification

Organic egg production in Finland: management of animal welfare and food safety

A total of 20 out of 23 commercial organic layer farms (in excess of 80 % of all commercial Finnish organic farms year 2003) took part in the ongoing research, which identifies risk factors and potential solutions for laying hen welfare and food safety. Data was collected during two farm visits by interviewing the producer, using a semi-structured interview guide, making environment and animal-based observations and collecting samples

Efficacy of rabies vaccines in dogs and cats and protection in a mouse model against European bat lyssavirus type 2

Background: Rabies is preventable by pre- and/or post-exposure prophylaxis consisting of series of rabies vaccinations and in some cases the use of immunoglobulins. The success of vaccination can be estimated either by measuring virus neutralising antibodies or by challenge experiment. Vaccines based on rabies virus offer cross-protection against other lyssaviruses closely related to rabies virus. The aim was to assess the success of rabies vaccination measured by the antibody response in dogs (n = 10,071) and cats (n = 722), as well as to investigate the factors influencing the response to vaccination when animals failed to reach a rabies antibody titre of ≥ 0.5 IU/ml. Another aim was to assess the level of protection afforded by a commercial veterinary rabies vaccine against intracerebral challenge in mice with European bat lyssavirus type 2 (EBLV-2) and classical rabies virus (RABV), and to compare this with the protection offered by a vaccine for humans. Results: A significantly higher proportion of dogs (10.7%, 95% confidence interval CI 10.1–11.3) than cats (3.5%; 95% CI 2.3–5.0) had a vaccination antibody titre of 60 cm or larger resulted in a higher risk of failing to reach an antibody level of at least 0.5 IU/ml. When challenged with EBLV-2 and RABV, 80 and 100% of mice vaccinated with the veterinary rabies vaccine survived, respectively. When mice were vaccinated with the human rabies vaccine and challenged with EBLV-2, 75–80% survived, depending on the booster. All vaccinated mice developed sufficient to high titres of virus-neutralising antibodies (VNA) against RABV 21–22 days post-vaccination, ranging from 0.5 to 128 IU/ml. However, there was significant difference between antibody titres after vaccinating once in comparison to vaccinating twice (P < 0.05). Conclusions: There was a significant difference between dogs and cats in their ability to reach a post vaccination antibody titre of ≥ 0.5 IU/ml. Mice vaccinated with RABV-based rabies vaccines were partly cross-protected against EBLV-2, but there was no clear correlation between VNA titres and cross-protection against EBLV-2. Measurement of the RABV VNA titre can only be seen as a partial tool to estimate the cross-protection against other lyssaviruses. Booster vaccination is recommended for dogs and cats if exposed to infected bats

Kasvoja seuraavan näköjärjestelmän toteutus robottipäähän

Tiivistelmä. Työssä kehitettiin robottiin kytketty koneoppimisjärjestelmä, joka käsittelee reaaliajassa kameralta tulevaa videosyötettä. Järjestelmää käytettiin havaitsemaan, jäljittämään ja tunnistamaan ihmisten kasvoja, sekä hallitsemaan kameraa (pään ja silmien suuntaus) tarpeenmukaisella tavalla. Kasvojentunnistukseen hyödynnettiin OpenCV:n Haar-ominaisuuksiin pohjautuvaa kaskadiluokittelijaa. Tunnistettua henkilöä seurattiin suhteessa robotin sijaintiin koordinaatistossa, joka helpottaa tunnistuksien käyttöä ja käsittelyä. Henkilön tunnistamiseen koulutettiin Tensorflow-kirjastoa käyttäen autoenkooderityyppinen neuroverkko, jolla enkoodataan kasvoista helposti muistettava ja matemaattisesti vertailtavissa oleva vektori. Tuotettu kokonaisuus onnistui kohtuullisella tarkkuudella ihmisen silmänliikkeitä imitoiden tunnistamaan ja seuraamaan kasvoja. Kyseessä oli usean kandidaattivaiheen opiskelijan laajempi yhteistyöprojekti, jossa eri ryhmät toteuttavat robotille eri toiminnallisuuksia. Ryhmien tuottamat ominaisuudet yhdistettiin käyttäen ROS (Robot Operating System) -nimistä järjestelmää.Abstract. In this work we developed a machine learning system for a robot used to process real time video feed of a camera. The system is used to detect, track and recognize faces and control a camera accordingly (head and eye movement). We used OpenCV cascade classifier which uses Haar-features for facial recognition. Recognitions are mapped to a coordinate system relative to the robot which helps the usage and processing of the detections. An autoencoder based solution was trained using Tensorflow-library for facial recognition by encoding an easily mathematically comparable vector from the faces. The produced system was able to imitate human eye movement with reasonable accuracy and track faces. The project was a part of larger collaboration between other bachelor’s degree students on this project course. Each group developed a specific functionality for the robot. All of the functionalities developed by each group were combined using Robot Operating System

Health and behavioral survey of over 8000 Finnish cats

Peer reviewe

Linking disease epidemiology and livestock productivity: the case of bovine respiratory disease in France

Concerns are growing over the impact of livestock farming on environment and public health. The livestock industry is faced with the double constraint of limiting its use of natural resources and antimicrobials while ensuring its economic sustainability. In this context, reliable methods are needed to evaluate the effect of the prevention of endemic animal diseases on the productivity of livestock production systems. In this study, an epidemiological and productivity model was used to link changes in Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) incidence with the productivity of the beef and dairy cattle sectors in France. Cattle production parameters significantly affected by BRD were selected through literature review. Previous field study results and national cattle performance estimates were used to infer growth performances, mortality rates and carcass quality in the cattle affected and not affected by BRD. A steady-state deterministic herd production model was used to predict the productivity of the dairy and beef sector and their defined compartments (breeding-fattening, feedlot young bulls, and feedlot veal) in case of BRD incidence reduction by 20%, 50% or 100%. Results suggested that BRD should be controlled at a priority in beef breeding farms as eradication of BRD in beef calves would increase the whole beef sector’s productivity by 4.7–5.5% while eradication in other production stages would result in lower productivity gain in their respective sectors. However, the analysis performed at compartment level showed that, in both the beef and dairy sector, young bull and veal feedlot enterprises derive more economic benefits from BRD eradication for their own compartment (increase in productivity of 8.7–12.8% for beef young bulls) than the breeding farms (increase in productivity of 5.1–6% for beef calves), which may limit the investments in BRD control

Neuromagnetic speech discrimination responses are associated with reading-related skills in dyslexic and typical readers

Poor neural speech discrimination has been connected to dyslexia, and may represent phonological processing deficits that are hypothesized to be the main cause for reading impairments. Thus far, neural speech discrimination impairments have rarely been investigated in adult dyslexics, and even less by examining sources of neuromagnetic responses. We compared neuromagnetic speech discrimination in dyslexic and typical readers with mismatch fields (MMF) and determined the associations between MMFs and reading-related skills. We expected weak and atypically lateralized MMFs in dyslexic readers, and positive associations between readingrelated skills and MMF strength. MMFs were recorded to a repeating pseudoword /ta-ta/ with occasional changes in vowel identity, duration, or syllable frequency from 43 adults, 21 with confirmed dyslexia. Phonetic (vowel and duration) changes elicited left-lateralized MMFs in the auditory cortices. Contrary to our hypothesis, MMF source strengths or lateralization did not differ between groups. However, better verbal working memory was associated with stronger left-hemispheric MMFs to duration changes across groups, and better reading was associated with stronger right-hemispheric late MMFs across speech-sound changes in dyslexic readers. This suggests a link between neural speech processing and reading-related skills, in line with previous work. Furthermore, our findings suggest a right-hemispheric compensatory mechanism for language processing in dyslexia. The results obtained promote the use of MMFs in investigating reading-related brain processes.Peer reviewe

Eläinten hyvinvoinnin vaikutus naudanlihantuotannon kannattavuuteen

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