scholarly journals Characterization of Fed Cattle Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1749
Author(s):  
Sage Mijares ◽  
Michelle Calvo-Lorenzo ◽  
Nick Betts ◽  
Lacey Alexander ◽  
Lily N. Edwards-Callaway

The COVID-19 pandemic had significant consequences on cattle slaughter capacity in the United States. Although industry stakeholders implemented strategies to minimize cattle welfare impacts of increased weights, days on feed (DOF), and increasing temperatures, there were concerns that mobility challenges would be observed at slaughter facilities. The objectives of this study were to characterize mobility in fed cattle during this recovery period and to identify factors impacting mobility. A total of 158 groups of cattle (15,388 animals) from one slaughter facility were included in the study. A 4-point mobility scoring system was used to assess cattle mobility. Cattle at the facility with normal mobility scores were reduced from the historical average of 96.19% to 74.55%. No increase in highly elevated mobility scores was observed. Mobility was impacted by weight, temperature humidity index (THI), distance hauled, sex, and DOF, with results differing by mobility category. Weather was a key contributor to mobility challenges; the relative risk of observing an elevated mobility score was 45.76% greater when the THI changed from No Stress to Mild Stress. Despite the challenges that the industry faced during this period, efforts to minimize negative effects on cattle welfare by enhanced focus on low-stress handling were effective.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaia Del Campo ◽  
Marisalva Fávero

Abstract. During the last decades, several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of sexual abuse prevention programs implemented in different countries. In this article, we present a review of 70 studies (1981–2017) evaluating prevention programs, conducted mostly in the United States and Canada, although with a considerable presence also in other countries, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The results of these studies, in general, are very promising and encourage us to continue this type of intervention, almost unanimously confirming its effectiveness. Prevention programs encourage children and adolescents to report the abuse experienced and they may help to reduce the trauma of sexual abuse if there are victims among the participants. We also found that some evaluations have not considered the possible negative effects of this type of programs in the event that they are applied inappropriately. Finally, we present some methodological considerations as critical analysis to this type of evaluations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Portnoff ◽  
Clayton McClintock ◽  
Elsa Lau ◽  
Simon Choi ◽  
Lisa Miller

Author(s):  
Aaron J Tande ◽  
Benjamin D Pollock ◽  
Nilay D Shah ◽  
Gianrico Farrugia ◽  
Abinash Virk ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Several vaccines are now clinically available under emergency use authorization in the United States and have demonstrated efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19. The impact of vaccines on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is largely unknown. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive, asymptomatic adult patients (n = 39,156) within a large United States healthcare system who underwent 48,333 pre-procedural SARS-CoV-2 molecular screening tests between December 17, 2020 and February 8, 2021. The primary exposure of interest was vaccination with at least one dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The primary outcome was relative risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular test among those asymptomatic persons who had received at least one dose of vaccine, as compared to persons who had not received vaccine during the same time period. Relative risk was adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, patient residence relative to the hospital (local vs. non-local), healthcare system regions, and repeated screenings among patients using mixed effects log-binomial regression. Results Positive molecular tests in asymptomatic individuals were reported in 42 (1.4%) of 3,006 tests performed on vaccinated patients and 1,436 (3.2%) of 45,327 tests performed on unvaccinated patients (RR=0.44 95% CI: 0.33-0.60; p<.0001). Compared to unvaccinated patients, the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was lower among those >10 days after 1 st dose (RR=0.21; 95% CI: 0.12-0.37; p<.0001) and >0 days after 2 nd dose (RR=0.20; 95% CI: 0.09-0.44; p<.0001) in the adjusted analysis. Conclusions COVID-19 vaccination with an mRNA-based vaccine showed a significant association with a reduced risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection as measured during pre-procedural molecular screening. The results of this study demonstrate the impact of the vaccines on reduction in asymptomatic infections supplementing the randomized trial results on symptomatic patients.


Mycologia ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 1524-1534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan A. McCormick ◽  
Larry F. Grand ◽  
Justin B. Post ◽  
Marc A. Cubeta

Plant Disease ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 97 (7) ◽  
pp. 873-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Danies ◽  
I. M. Small ◽  
K. Myers ◽  
R. Childers ◽  
W. E. Fry

Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight disease, has been reported in the United States and Canada since the mid-nineteenth century. Due to the lack of or very limited sexual reproduction, the populations of P. infestans in the United States are primarily reproducing asexually and, thus, show a simple genetic structure. The emergence of new clonal lineages of P. infestans (US-22, US-23, and US-24) responsible for the late blight epidemics in the northeastern region of the United States in the summers of 2009 and 2010 stimulated an investigation into phenotypic traits associated with these genotypes. Mating type, differences in sensitivity to mefenoxam, differences in pathogenicity on potato and tomato, and differences in rate of germination were studied for clonal lineages US-8, US-22, US-23, and US-24. Both A1 and A2 mating types were detected. Lineages US-22, US-23, and US-24 were generally sensitive to mefenoxam while US-8 was resistant. US-8 and US-24 were primarily pathogenic on potato while US-22 and US-23 were pathogenic on both potato and tomato. Indirect germination was favored at lower temperatures (5 and 10°C) whereas direct germination, though uncommon, was favored at higher temperatures (20 and 25°C). Sporangia of US-24 released zoospores more rapidly than did sporangia of US-22 and US-23. The association of characteristic phenotypic traits with genotype enables the prediction of phenotypic traits from rapid genotypic analyses for improved disease management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. Loncoman ◽  
Carol A. Hartley ◽  
Mauricio J. C. Coppo ◽  
Glenn F. Browning ◽  
Gabriela Beltrán ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILTV; Gallid alphaherpesvirus 1) causes mild to severe respiratory disease in poultry worldwide. Recombination in this virus under natural (field) conditions was first described in 2012 and more recently has been studied under laboratory conditions. Previous studies have revealed that natural recombination is widespread in ILTV and have also demonstrated that recombination between two attenuated ILTV vaccine strains generated highly virulent viruses that produced widespread disease within poultry flocks in Australia. In the United States, natural ILTV recombination has also been detected, but not as frequently as in Australia. To better understand recombination in ILTV strains originating from the United States, we developed a TaqMan single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assay to detect recombination between two virulent U.S. field strains of ILTV (63140 and 1874c5) under experimental in vivo conditions. We also tested the capacity of the Innovax-ILT vaccine (a recombinant vaccine using herpesvirus of turkeys as a vector) and the Trachivax vaccine (a conventionally attenuated chicken embryo origin vaccine) to reduce recombination. The Trachivax vaccine prevented ILTV replication, and therefore recombination, in the trachea after challenge. The Innovax-ILT vaccine allowed the challenge viruses to replicate and to recombine, but at a significantly lower rate than in an unvaccinated group of birds. Our results demonstrate that the TaqMan SNP genotyping assay is a useful tool to study recombination between these ILTV strains and also show that vaccination can limit the number and diversity of recombinant progeny viruses. IMPORTANCE Recombination allows alphaherpesviruses to evolve over time and become more virulent. Historically, characterization of viral vaccines in poultry have mainly focused on limiting clinical disease, rather than limiting virus replication, but such approaches can allow field viruses to persist and evolve in vaccinated populations. In this study, we vaccinated chickens with Gallid alphaherpesvirus 1 vaccines that are commercially available in the United States and then performed coinoculations with two field strains of virus to measure the ability of the vaccines to prevent field strains from replicating and recombining. We found that vaccination reduced viral replication, recombination, and diversity compared to those in unvaccinated chickens, although the extent to which this occurred differed between vaccines. We suggest that characterization of vaccines could include studies to examine the ability of vaccines to reduce viral recombination in order to limit the rise of new virulent field strains due to recombination, especially for those vaccines that are known not to prevent viral replication following challenge.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document