Soil suppressiveness and functional diversity of the soil microflora in organic farming systems

Arable fields of 10 organic farms from different locations within the Netherlands were sampled in four subsequent years. The soil samples were analysed for disease suppressiveness against Rhizoctonia solani, Streptomyces scabies and Verticillium dahliae. Furthermore, a variety of microbial characteristics and chemical and physical soil properties were assessed. All these characteristics and different environmental factors were correlated by multivariate analyses. Significant differences in soil suppressiveness were found for all three diseases. Suppressiveness against Rhizoctonia was more or less consistent between the sampled fields in 2004 and 2005. This suppressiveness correlated with higher numbers of Lysobacter and Pseudomonas antagonists, as well as fungal diversity in DGGE patterns. Furthermore, results of 2006 showed that one year of grass-clover clearly stimulated Rhizoctonia suppression. Also Streptomyces soil suppressiveness was consistent between 2004 and 2005, but it concerned other soils than the ones which were suppressive against Rhizoctonia. Streptomyces suppression correlated with higher numbers of antagonists in general, Streptomyces and the fungal/bacterial biomass ratio, but with a lower organic matter content and respiration. Soil suppressiveness against Verticillium was not consistent between the years and therefore probably not related to soil factors

Unraveling the Pelvic Floor:Obstetric injury, Symptoms and Imaging Techniques

Research into risk factors for the development of pelvic floor (residual) injury and urogynecological complaints after a vaginal delivery with and without obstetric anal sphincter injury. Comparison between conventional perineal pelvic floor ultrasound and virtual reality imaging of the pelvic floor

Screening of micro-organisms for Venturia inaequalis control by means of DGGE

Venturia inaequalis causes apple scab. The control of the disease in organic apple production depends on the use of copper which will be restricted in future for environmental reasons. In the search for environmental friendly microbial biocontrol agents and stimulation of antagonistic populations in situ the molecular technique of DGGE fingerprinting can is applied. This fingerprinting technique allows to bypass culturing techniques and even can identify not yet culturable organisms. Comparison of microbial fingerprints and pathogen development in the leaf samples during winter and spring has been performed to identify populations with antagonistic potential. Such potential antagonistic organisms can be further identified by their specific DNA sequence. Preliminary results identify possible antagonists. The identification based on the sequence can help to focus on specific isolation or stimulation of a possible antagonist or a consortium of antagonists

IS-03 Practical Aspects of Antibiotic Stewardship in Animal Production

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is emerging and is a threat for human and animal health. This increasing resistance results into treatment failures and increased mortality in humans and animals. If there is no action to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU), it is forecasted that the number of people dying due to AMR will increase considerably in the near future. AMU in animals poses a potential risk for public health as it contributes to the selection and spread of AMR which can disseminate to humans. Therefore, at global level WHO, FAO and OIE combined efforts in a such called One Health approach to minimize the public health impact of AMR associated with AMU in farm animals. The Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance (GAP) has been adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2015. This plan contains five strategic objectives. WHO urged all member states to develop a National Action Plan in line with the five objectives of the GAP, and with a One Health approach. Indonesia has submitted the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2017-2019 in the Library of National Action Plans of WHO.Although it is not clear to what level AMU in animal production contributes to the AMR problem humans, there is a worldwide urge to reduce AMU in animal production to a minimum to protect human health. The basis of this so-called ‘antimicrobial stewardship’ is focusing on (preventive) measures which enable animals to remain healthy and thus take away the need for antimicrobial treatment. Another pillar of stewardship is limiting and strictly regulating the use of so-called ‘’critically important antimicrobials for human medicine’’, like fluoroquinolones. It can be difficult to change AMU practices which have become habits for farmers and veterinarians; therefore specific triggers are required. In the Netherlands the total therapeutic AMU (in mass sold) in farm animals doubled between 1990 and 2007; parallel to the EU-ban of antimicrobial growth promotors which were completely phased out by 2006. From 2005 onwards, several events triggered a series of measures and initiatives to reduce AMU in livestock with almost 70%. This reduction was followed by reduced AMR levels in livestock. Some key success factors were: clear reduction targets defined by the government, having full transparency on antimicrobial prescription and usage, the existence of a surveillance system for AMR, and a close collaboration of all stakeholders and a shared goal. Although specific contexts differ between countries and production systems, tailored approaches taking into account specific contexts and stakeholders can be effective in responsible use of antimicrobials

Antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use animal monitoring policies in Europe: Where are we?

The World Health Organization has recognized antimicrobial resistance as one of the top three threats to human health. Any use of antibiotics in animals will ultimately affect humans and vice versa. Appropriate monitoring of antimicrobial use and resistance has been repeatedly emphasized along with the need for global policies. Under the auspices of the European Union research project, EFFORT, we mapped antimicrobial use and resistance monitoring programs in ten European countries. We then compared international and European guidelines and policies. In resistance monitoring, we did not find important differences between countries. Current resistance monitoring systems are focused on food animal species (using fecal samples). They ignore companion animals. The scenario is different for monitoring antibiotics use. Recently, countries have tried to harmonize methodologies, but reporting of antimicrobial use remains voluntary. We therefore identified a need for stronger policies

Behavioral Analysis of Pathological Speaker Embeddings of Patients During Oncological Treatment of Oral Cancer

In this paper, we analyze the behavior of speaker embeddings of patients during oral cancer treatment. First, we found that pre- and post-treatment speaker embeddings differ significantly, notifying a substantial change in voice characteristics. However, a partial recovery to pre-operative voice traits is observed after 12 months post-operation. Secondly, the same-speaker similarity at distinct treatment stages is similar to healthy speakers, indicating that the embeddings can capture characterizing features of even severely impaired speech. Finally, a speaker verification analysis signifies a stable false positive rate and variable false negative rate when combining speech samples of different treatment stages. This indicates robustness of the embeddings towards other speakers, while still capturing the changing voice characteristics during treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of speaker embeddings during oral cancer treatment of patients.Comment: proceedings of INTERSPEECH 202

Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp carotovorum can cause potato blackleg in temperate climates

It is well established that the pectinolytic bacteria Pectobacterium atrosepticum (Pca) and Dickeya spp. are causal organisms of blackleg in potato. In temperate climates, the role of Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc) in potato blackleg, however, is unclear. In different western and central European countries plants are frequently found with blackleg from which only Pcc can be isolated, but not Pca or Dickeya spp. Nevertheless, tubers vacuum-infiltrated with Pcc strains have so far never yielded blackleg-diseased plants in field experiments in temperate climates. In this study, it is shown that potato tubers, vacuum-infiltrated with a subgroup of Pcc strains isolated in Europe, and planted in two different soil types, can result in up to 50% blackleg diseased plants