Risk Factors for Salmonella and Hygiene Indicators in the 10 Largest Belgian Pig Slaughterhouses

2008 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 1320-1329 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. DELHALLE ◽  
L. DE SADELEER ◽  
K. BOLLAERTS ◽  
F. FARNIR ◽  
C. SAEGERMAN ◽  
...  

A survey was conducted to collect data on Salmonella prevalence, Escherichia coli counts (ECCs), and aerobic bacteria colony counts (ACCs) on pig carcasses after chilling at the 10 largest Belgian pig slaughterhouses during 2000 through 2004. Potential risk factors of contamination associated with production parameters, technical descriptions of the installations, and cleaning and disinfection methods were assessed during investigations in the slaughterhouses. These variables were used first in a univariate analysis and then were extended to a multivariate analysis with a logistic mixed regression model for Salmonella and a linear mixed model for ECCs and ACCs with slaughterhouses as the random effect. The results indicated high variability concerning Salmonella contamination among the 10 slaughterhouses, with prevalence ranging from 2.6 to 34.3% according to the area of origin. The median ECC and median ACC ranged from −0.43 to 1.11 log CFU/cm2 and from 2.37 to 3.65 log CFU/cm2, respectively. The results of the logistic and linear regressions revealed that some working practices such as scalding with steam, second flaming after polishing, and complete cleaning and disinfection of the splitting machine several times a day were beneficial for reducing Salmonella prevalence, ECCs, and ACCs. Changing the carcass hooks just before chilling, using water as the cleaning method, and a higher frequency of disinfection of the lairage seemed to be protective against E. coli in the multivariate mixed linear model. The monitoring of critical points, slaughterhouse equipment, good slaughtering practices, and effective washing and disinfection are the keys to obtaining good microbiological results.

Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Klein-Richers ◽  
Katrin Hartmann ◽  
Regina Hofmann-Lehmann ◽  
Stefan Unterer ◽  
Michèle Bergmann ◽  
...  

The aim of this prospective study was to determine prevalence and potential risk factors of feline coronavirus (FCoV) shedding. Four consecutive fecal samples of 179 cats from 37 German breeding catteries were analyzed for FCoV ribonucleic acid (RNA) by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Prevalence of shedding was calculated using different numbers of fecal samples per cat (1–4) and different sampling intervals (5–28 days). Information on potential risk factors for FCoV shedding was obtained by a questionnaire. Risk factor analysis was performed using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Most cats (137/179, 76.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 69.8–82.2) shed FCoV at least at once. None of the tested 37 catteries was free of FCoV. Prevalence calculated including all four (76.5%, 95% CI 69.8–82.2) or the last three (73.7%, 95% CI 66.8–79.7) samples per cat was significantly higher than the prevalence calculated with only the last sample (61.5%, 95% CI 54.2–68.3; p = 0.0029 and 0.0175, respectively). Young age was significantly associated with FCoV shedding while the other factors were not. For identification of FCoV shedders in multi-cat households, at least three fecal samples per cat should be analyzed. Young age is the most important risk factor for FCoV shedding.


Rheumatology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinde Li ◽  
Wenyan Sun ◽  
Jie Lu ◽  
Yuwei He ◽  
Ying Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To investigate the incidence and potential risk factors for development of fenofibrate-associated nephrotoxicity in gout patients. Methods A total of 983 gout patients on fenofibrate treatment who visited the dedicated Gout Clinic at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University between September 2016 and June 2020 were retrospectively enrolled from the electronic records system. Fenofibrate-associated nephrotoxicity was defined as an increase in serum creatinine (SCr) ≥0.3 mg/dl within 6 months of fenofibrate initiation. The change trend of SCr and uric acid levels during the treatment period were assessed by a generalised additive mixed model (GAMM). Multivariate analysis was performed for risk factors affecting elevated SCr. Results A total of 100 (10.2%) patients experienced an increase in SCr ≥0.3 mg/dl within 6 months after fenofibrate initiation. The median change of SCr in the whole cohort was 0.11 mg/dl [interquartile range (IQR) 0.03–0.20], whereas it was 0.36 (0.33–0.45) in the fenofibrate-associated nephrotoxicity group. In a multivariable regression model, chronic kidney disease (CKD) [odds ratio (OR) 2.39 (95% CI 1.48, 3.86)] and tophus [OR 2.29 (95% CI 1.39, 3.78)] were identified to be risk predictors, independent of measured covariates, of fenofibrate-associated nephrotoxicity. During the treatment period, although SCr temporarily increased, serum urate and triglyceride concentrations decreased using the interaction analysis of GAMM. Of those with fenofibrate withdrawal records, the SCr increase in 65% of patients was reversed after an average of 49 days off the drug. Conclusions This observational study implied that fenofibrate-associated nephrotoxicity occurs frequently in gout patients, especially in patients with tophi or CKD. The potential renal risks of fenofibrate usage in gout needs additional research.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Tal Yarkoni

Abstract Most theories and hypotheses in psychology are verbal in nature, yet their evaluation overwhelmingly relies on inferential statistical procedures. The validity of the move from qualitative to quantitative analysis depends on the verbal and statistical expressions of a hypothesis being closely aligned—that is, that the two must refer to roughly the same set of hypothetical observations. Here I argue that many applications of statistical inference in psychology fail to meet this basic condition. Focusing on the most widely used class of model in psychology—the linear mixed model—I explore the consequences of failing to statistically operationalize verbal hypotheses in a way that respects researchers' actual generalization intentions. I demonstrate that whereas the "random effect" formalism is used pervasively in psychology to model inter-subject variability, few researchers accord the same treatment to other variables they clearly intend to generalize over (e.g., stimuli, tasks, or research sites). The under-specification of random effects imposes far stronger constraints on the generalizability of results than most researchers appreciate. Ignoring these constraints can dramatically inflate false positive rates, and often leads researchers to draw sweeping verbal generalizations that lack a meaningful connection to the statistical quantities they are putatively based on. I argue that failure to take the alignment between verbal and statistical expressions seriously lies at the heart of many of psychology's ongoing problems (e.g., the replication crisis), and conclude with a discussion of several potential avenues for improvement.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239936932110319
Author(s):  
Yihe Yang ◽  
Zachary Kozel ◽  
Purva Sharma ◽  
Oksana Yaskiv ◽  
Jose Torres ◽  
...  

Introduction: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is high among kidney neoplasm patients because of the overlapping risk factors. Our purpose is to identify kidney cancer survivors with higher CKD risk. Methods: We studied a retrospective cohort of 361 kidney tumor patients with partial or radical nephrectomy. Linear mixed model was performed. Results: Of patients with follow-up >3 months, 84% were identified retrospectively to fulfill criteria for CKD diagnosis, although CKD was documented in only 15%. Urinalysis was performed in 205 (57%) patients at the time of nephrectomy. Multivariate analysis showed interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IFTA) >25% ( p = 0.005), severe arteriolar sclerosis ( p = 0.013), female gender ( p = 0.024), older age ( p = 0.012), BMI ⩾ 25 kg/m2 ( p < 0.001), documented CKD ( p < 0.001), baseline eGFR ⩽ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 ( p < 0.001), and radical nephrectomy ( p < 0.001) were independent risk factors of lower eGFR at baseline and during follow-up. Average eGFR decreased within 3 months post nephrectomy. However, patients with different risk levels showed different eGFR time trend pattern at longer follow-ups. Multivariate analysis of time × risk factor interaction showed BMI, radical nephrectomy and baseline eGFR had time-dependent impact. BMI ⩾ 25 kg/m2 and radical nephrectomy were associated with steeper eGFR decrease slope. In baseline eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 group, eGFR rebounded to pre-nephrectomy levels during extended follow-up. In partial nephrectomy patients with baseline eGFR ⩾ 90 ml/min/1.73 m2 ( n = 61), proteinuria ( p < 0.001) and BMI ( p < 0.001) were independent risk factors of decreased eGFR during follow up. Conclusions: As have been suggested by others and confirmed by our study, proteinuria and CKD are greatly under-recognized. Although self-evident as a minimum workup for nephrectomy patients to include SCr, eGFR, urinalysis, and proteinuria, the need for uniform applications of this practice should be reinforced. Non-neoplastic histology evaluation is valuable and should include an estimate of global sclerosis% (GS) and IFTA%. Patients with any proteinuria and/or eGFR ⩽ 60 at the time of nephrectomy or in follow-up with urologists, and/or >25% GS or IFTA, should be referred for early nephrology consultation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1471082X2096691
Author(s):  
Amani Almohaimeed ◽  
Jochen Einbeck

Random effect models have been popularly used as a mainstream statistical technique over several decades; and the same can be said for response transformation models such as the Box–Cox transformation. The latter aims at ensuring that the assumptions of normality and of homoscedasticity of the response distribution are fulfilled, which are essential conditions for inference based on a linear model or a linear mixed model. However, methodology for response transformation and simultaneous inclusion of random effects has been developed and implemented only scarcely, and is so far restricted to Gaussian random effects. We develop such methodology, thereby not requiring parametric assumptions on the distribution of the random effects. This is achieved by extending the ‘Nonparametric Maximum Likelihood’ towards a ‘Nonparametric profile maximum likelihood’ technique, allowing to deal with overdispersion as well as two-level data scenarios.


2018 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Aswi ◽  
S. M. Cramb ◽  
P. Moraga ◽  
K. Mengersen

AbstractDengue fever (DF) is one of the world's most disabling mosquito-borne diseases, with a variety of approaches available to model its spatial and temporal dynamics. This paper aims to identify and compare the different spatial and spatio-temporal Bayesian modelling methods that have been applied to DF and examine influential covariates that have been reportedly associated with the risk of DF. A systematic search was performed in December 2017, using Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, ProQuest and Medline (via Ebscohost) electronic databases. The search was restricted to refereed journal articles published in English from January 2000 to November 2017. Thirty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. Using a modified quality assessment tool, the median quality score across studies was 14/16. The most popular Bayesian statistical approach to dengue modelling was a generalised linear mixed model with spatial random effects described by a conditional autoregressive prior. A limited number of studies included spatio-temporal random effects. Temperature and precipitation were shown to often influence the risk of dengue. Developing spatio-temporal random-effect models, considering other priors, using a dataset that covers an extended time period, and investigating other covariates would help to better understand and control DF transmission.


Author(s):  
Thilini Samarakoon ◽  
Niroshan Withanage ◽  
Nimalakith Samarakoon ◽  
Upul Lekamge ◽  
Nadesha De Silva

Background: Currently, people infected with HIV are largely discriminated and discredited. Misunderstanding about the mechanism of HIV transmission has been identified as one reason for discrimination. This study assessed the socio-demographic and behavioral risk factors of the two misconceptions about HIV transmission, namely HIV is transmitted by sharing cups and plates with an HIV infected person (Myth 1) and HIV is transmitted by mosquito bites (Myth 2) among the trainees who were selected to the Tertiary and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Centers in Sri Lanka.Methods: This study applied stratified random sampling to select 955 respondents. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) approach was applied to find the associations between misconceptions about HIV and socio-demographic and behavioral risk factors of the trainees.Results: Level of education of trainees, family relationship, knowledge on sexual and reproductive health (SRH), knowledge about the risk of getting HIV after sexual intercourse, whether the trainee had participated in seminar or workshop on sexually transmitted diseases were identified as the possible factors to detect the knowledge about the misconceptions of HIV transmission.Conclusions: Even though the level of education among different social segments have not revealed remarkable differences in knowledge, the study convinced that the youth should be provided better awareness and education on STD and HIV through countrywide workshops and awareness programmes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Lee ◽  
Meggan Graves ◽  
Andrea Lear ◽  
Sherry Cox ◽  
Marc Caldwell ◽  
...  

AbstractPain management should be utilized with castration to reduce physiological and behavioral changes. Transdermal application of drugs require less animal management and fewer labor risks, which can occur with oral administration or injections. The objective was to determine the effects of transdermal flunixin meglumine on meat goats’ behavior post-castration. Male goats (N = 18; mean body weight ± standard deviation: 26.4 ± 1.6 kg) were housed individually in pens and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: (1) castrated, dosed with transdermal flunixin meglumine; (2) castrated, dosed with transdermal placebo; and (3) sham castrated, dosed with transdermal flunixin meglumine. Body position, rumination, and head- pressing were observed for 1 h ± 10 minutes twice daily on days −1, 0, 1, 2, and 5 around castration. Each goat was observed once every 5-minutes (scan samples) and reported as percentage of observations. Accelerometers were used to measure standing, lying, and laterality (total time, bouts, and bout duration). A linear mixed model was conducted using GLIMMIX. Fixed effects of treatment, day relative to castration, and treatment*day relative to castration and random effect of date and goat nested within treatment were included. Treatment 1 goats (32.7 ± 2.8%) and treatment 2 goats (32.5 ± 2.8%) ruminated less than treatment 3 goats (47.4 ± 2.8%, P = 0.0012). Head pressing was greater on day of castration in treatment 2 goats (P < 0.001). Standing bout duration was greatest in treatment 2 goats on day 1 post-castration (P < 0.001). Lying bout duration was greatest in treatment 2 goats on day 1 post-castration compared to treatment 1 and treatment 3 goats(P < 0.001). Transdermal flunixin meglumine improved goats’ fluidity of movement post-castration and decreased head pressing, indicating a mitigation of pain behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 216-216
Author(s):  
Mariana Boscato Menegat ◽  
Joel M DeRouchey ◽  
Jason C Woodworth ◽  
Mike D Tokach ◽  
Steve S Dritz ◽  
...  

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the effects of a multi-species direct-fed microbial (DFM) product based on lactic acid bacteria and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance and carcass characteristics of grow-finish pigs. A total of 1,188 pigs (PIC 359 × 1050; initially 25.8 kg BW) were used in a 121-d growth trial with 27 pigs/pen and 22 pens/treatment. Pigs were allotted to treatments based on initial BW in a randomized complete block design. Treatments included a control diet and the control diet with added DFM (BiOWiSH Technologies Inc., Cincinnati, OH) included at 0.055% of the diet at the expense of corn. Diets were based on corn, distillers dried grains with solubles, and soybean meal and fed in four dietary phases. Data were analyzed using a linear mixed model (PROC GLIMMIX, SAS®) with treatment as fixed effect, block as random effect, and pen as experimental unit. Overall (d 0 to 121), pigs fed the control diet had greater ADG (P < 0.05) and final BW (P < 0.001) compared to pigs fed the DFM diet (Table 1). There was no evidence for differences (P > 0.05) in ADFI or G:F between treatments. The difference in final BW resulted in heavier (P < 0.05) HCW in control pigs compared to DFM pigs, but no evidence for differences (P > 0.05) was observed in carcass yield, backfat, loin depth, and percentage lean between treatments. In conclusion, the inclusion of this multi-species DFM in growing-finishing diets reduced ADG in this commercial study. This response could be related to inclusion rate, feeding duration, or other factors not identified in this study, warranting further research to characterize the effects on pig performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly L. Botheras ◽  
Steven J. Bowe ◽  
Raquel Cowan ◽  
Eugene Athan

Abstract Background Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteraemia is increasingly acquired from community settings and is associated with a mortality rate of up to 40% following complications. Identifying risk factors for complicated S. aureus bacteraemia would aid clinicians in targeting patients that benefit from expedited investigations and escalated care. Methods In this prospective observational cohort study, we aimed to identify risk factors associated with a complicated infection in community-onset S. aureus bacteraemia. Potential risk factors were collected from electronic medical records and included: - patient demographics, symptomology, portal of entry, and laboratory results. Results We identified several potential risk factors using univariate analysis. In a multiple logistic regression model, age, haemodialysis, and entry point from a diabetic foot ulcer were all significantly protective against complications. Conversely, an unknown entry point of infection, an entry point from an indwelling medical device, and a C-reactive protein concentration of over 161 mg/L on the day of admission were all significantly associated with complications. Conclusions We conclude that several factors are associated with complications including already conducted laboratory investigations and portal of entry of infection. These factors could aid the triage of at-risk patients for complications of S. aureus bacteraemia.


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