•On dairy farms, prevalence of calf diarrhoea was linked to antimicrobial drug usage.•Improved disease detection and colostrum management reduced antimicrobial drug use.•Treatment algorithms resulted ...in a reduction in the number of calves treated.•Reduced antimicrobial treatment was not associated with increased calf mortality.
This study evaluated the impact of a multidisciplinary intervention to reduce and refine antimicrobial drug use for treatment of diarrhoea in dairy calves. The intervention consisted of modification of management practices for disease prevention, health evaluation training of farm staff, implementation of an algorithm directed at antimicrobial therapy for diarrhoeic calves, and monthly farm visits. A combination of retrospective (before intervention period BP, 1 year) and prospective (immediately after intervention period AP, 1 year) cohorts were used. Health outcomes measured included incidence of diarrhoea and overall mortality. Antimicrobial treatment rates for diarrhoea and total mass of antimicrobial drugs used at the calf and farm level were also evaluated. Outcomes were assessed using the χ2 or Fisher’s exact test, and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated.
Records of 2049 and 2251 calves from 10 farms were available in the BP and AP, respectively. Reduced antimicrobial treatment rates occurred on seven farms (P < 0.01), but not on three farms in the AP. A total of 85% (1303/1573) and 18% (310/1698) of diarrhoeic calves were treated with antimicrobial drugs in the BP and AP (P < 0.001), respectively. There were no differences in the incidence of diarrhoea or mortality between periods. In the AP, the use sulfamethazine and trimethoprim decreased on eight farms, one farm discontinued use of lincomycin and spectinomycin, while two farms discontinued use and one reduced use of cephalosporins. This multidisciplinary approach was effective in reducing antimicrobial drug use for calf diarrhoea on dairy farms without negative impacts on calf health.
Although general principles related to vaccination hesitancy have been well researched, reports on reluctance to be vaccinated for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States are ...somewhat surprising, given the disease's substantive disruption of everyday life. However, the landscape in which people are making COVID-19 vaccination decisions has recently evolved with releases of encouraging vaccine-related data and changes to official messaging about the virus. Therefore, this study sought to identify factors associated with reported likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19 among US adults in late January 2021.
We used the Prolific online research panel to survey a nationally representative sample of 1017 US adults.
Respondents were asked about their behavioral intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination, trust in science, perceptions related to COVID-19, and selected sociodemographic factors. We computed associations between those 11 independent variables and likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19 using multiple linear regression.
Around 73.9% of respondents indicated at least some likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Trust in science and perceived seriousness of COVID-19 were positively associated with intention to get vaccinated, and identifying as Black or African American was negatively associated with intention to get vaccinated. Other factors were moderately, weakly, or not at all associated with intention.
Building trust in science and truthfully emphasizing the seriousness of catching COVID-19 should be further researched for their potential to support campaigns to encourage COVID-19 vaccination. Data continue to suggest the importance of dialogue with Black communities about COVID-19 vaccination.
Objectives: The aim was to determine the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Spain's health budget. Methods: Budget impact analyses based on retrospective data from patients with suspected ...severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) admitted to a Spanish hospital between February 26 and May 21, 2020. Direct medical costs from the perspective of the hospital were calculated. We analyzed diagnostic tests, drugs, medical and nursing care, and isolation ward and ICU stays for three cohorts: patients seen in the emergency room only, hospitalized patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and patients who tested negative. Results: The impact on the hospital's budget for the 3 months was calculated at €15,633,180, 97.4% of which was related to health care and hospitalization. ICU stays accounted for 5.3% of the total costs. The mean cost per patient was €10,744. The main costs were staffing costs (10,131 to 11,357 €/patient for physicians and 10,274 to 11,215 €/patient for nurses). Scenario analysis showed that the range of hospital expenditure was between €14,693,256 and €16,524,924. The median impact of the pandemic on the Spanish health budget in the sensitivity analysis using bootstrapped individual data was €9357 million (interquartile range IQR, 9071 to 9689) for the conservative scenario (113,588 hospital admissions and 11,664 ICU admissions) and €10,385 million (IQR, 110,030 to 10,758) for the worst-case scenario (including suspected cases). Conclusion: The impact of COVID-19 on the Spanish public health budget (12.3% of total public health expenditure) is greater than multiple sclerosis, cancer and diabetes cost.
Background
BCoV is identified in both healthy and diarrheic calves, complicating its assessment as a primary pathogen.
Objectives
To investigate the detection rates of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) in ...feces of healthy and diarrheic calves and to describe the usefulness of a pancoronavirus reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR (PanCoV‐RT‐PCR) assay to identify BCoV in samples of diarrheic calves.
Animals
Two hundred and eighty‐six calves <21 days. Calves with liquid or semiliquid feces, temperature >39.5°C, and inappetence were considered as cases, and those that had pasty or firm feces and normal physical examination were designated as controls.
Methods
Prospective case–control study. A specific BCoV‐RT‐PCR assay was used to detect BCoV in fecal samples. Association between BCoV and health status was evaluated by exact and random effect logistic regression. Fecal (n = 28) and nasal (n = 8) samples from diarrheic calves were tested for the presence of BCoV by both the PanCoV‐RT‐PCR and a specific BCoV‐RT‐PCR assays. A Kappa coefficient test was used to assess the level of agreement of both assays.
Results
BCoV was detected in 55% (157/286) of calves; 46% (66/143), and 64% (91/143) of healthy and diarrheic calves, respectively. Diarrheic calves had higher odds of BCoV presence than healthy calves (OR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.26 to 3.83, P = 0.004). A good agreement between PanCoV‐RT‐PCR and BCoV‐RT‐PCR to detect BCoV was identified (κ = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.392 to 0.967; P < 0.001).
Conclusions and Clinical Importance
BCoV was more likely to be detected in diarrheic than healthy calves. The PanCoV‐RT‐PCR assay can be a useful tool to detect CoV samples from diarrheic calves.
The estimation of the road edge effect is useful to understand changes induced by the road network on ecosystems. Road networks on islands may break ecosystem integrity through microclimate edge ...effects, which are known to be associated with disturbances to animal and plant communities. Road edge effects have been scarcely studied on oceanic islands. In this paper we studied road edge effects on microclimate and canopy structure in laurel and pine forests in Tenerife (Canary Islands). We assessed depth of road edge effect for temperature at four vertical layers (soil, litter and air at 5
cm and 1.3
m above ground), light intensity, canopy cover and height, in transects running from narrow (6–7
m width) asphalt roads and dust trails to 100
m to the interior of both forests. We used an ANOVA procedure with Helmert difference contrasts to identify the distances along transects over which edge effects were significant. We detected significant gradients for most parameters but they were consistently narrow both within and between forests. In the laurel forest, we detected highly significant gradients for soil temperature, light, and canopy cover and height in both asphalt and unpaved roads. In the pine forest, we detected a highly significant gradient for soil temperature at asphalt roads, and a significant light gradient for both asphalt and unpaved roads. From the road edge to the forest interior, significant temperature changes persisted for only 3
m, light variation persisted for 6
m, and canopy cover and height changed significantly within the first 10
m. Asphalt roads and dust trails revealed different patterns of variation for temperature between edge and interior. No differences were found between the two types of roads in edge-interior trends for light or canopy structure. The abruptness of microclimate and canopy gradients was slightly higher in the laurel forest than in the pine forest, caused by a higher edge contrast in the former. The depth of the road edge effect found in laurel and pine forests was small, but it could have cumulative effects on forest microclimate and forest associated biota at the island scale. Such changes deserve attention by local road managers for planning and design purposes.
•Temperature and time during in-hospital distribution of BC affect quality and safety.•41 % of the Spanish Transfusion Services apply the 30-minute rule to discard RBC.•82 % of the Spanish TS accept ...PC to stock after being outside up to 60 min.•Laxer requirements for intra-hospital distribution would reduce BC loss.•A revision of current Guidelines on BC management is necessary.
Temperature and time conditions during storage and distribution of blood components (BC) and their permissible deviations are strictly regulated. The degree of compliance with these requirements in daily practice of transfusion services (TS) is not well known.
We conducted a survey among Spanish hospital TS covering different aspects of BC management in their daily activity.
Eighty-three TS managing 56 % of total transfusions answered the survey. Monitoring of red blood concentrates (RBC) temperature during in-hospital distribution was routinely performed by only 12 % of the TS. The main criterion for BC re-entry into the stock was the total time spent outside controlled temperature. Up to 41 % of the TS apply the “30-minute rule” to distributed RBC, while most services use a 60-minute rule for PC. No adverse events were detected when RBC that had remained longer than 30 or 60 min outside the TS were transfused. Fresh frozen plasma is usually thawed 2 h preissue and stored at 4 °C up to 24 h.
In the Spanish context, the 30- and 60-minute rules for re-entry of RBC and PC into the TS stock are loosely followed. Feedback for a large number of TS suggests that the extension of the 30-minute RBC rule to at least 60 min is feasible, if other safety requirements are met. Flexibility with some requirements could help reduce product loss without deleterious effect on BC safety.
In this study, the photocatalytic activity of coating mortars with synthetized and commercial TiO2 nanoparticles added has been evaluated at 2, 3 and 5% by weight of cement by calculating the ...degradation efficiency of methyl orange and red wine dyes exposed to both visible-light and UV radiation; also, the self-cleaning effect of coatings exposed to weather conditions (warm sub-humid climate) was assessed. TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized via the sol–gel method to a low synthesis temperature and characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The results show synthesized TiO2 particles in anatase phase with a crystallite size of 14.69 nm, and hemispherical particles with sizes of submicron order. The addition percentage with the best performance in the coating mortars was 3%, with both commercial and synthesized TiO2; however, coating mortars with synthesized TiO2 exhibited the highest degradation efficiency for both dyes when they were exposed to visible light, while mortars with commercial TiO2 exhibited the highest degradation efficiency when exposed to UV radiation. In addition, in coating mortars with synthesized TiO2, the self-cleaning effect was evident from the beginning of exposure to weather, reaching the largest dye-free surface at the end of exposure. The compressive strength increased significantly in mortars with TiO2 addition.
Sampling along a precipitation gradient in tropical South America extending from ca. 0.8 to 2.0 m a−1, savanna soils had consistently lower exchangeable cation concentrations and higher C / N ratios ...than nearby forest plots. These soil differences were also reflected in canopy averaged leaf traits with savanna trees typically having higher leaf mass per unit area but lower mass-based nitrogen (Nm) and potassium (Km). Both Nm and Km also increased with declining mean annual precipitation (PA), but most area-based leaf traits such as leaf photosynthetic capacity showed no systematic variation with PA or vegetation type. Despite this invariance, when taken in conjunction with other measures such as mean canopy height, area-based soil exchangeable potassium content, Ksa , proved to be an excellent predictor of several photosynthetic properties (including 13C isotope discrimination). Moreover, when considered in a multivariate context with PA and soil plant available water storage capacity (θP) as covariates, Ksa also proved to be an excellent predictor of stand-level canopy area, providing drastically improved fits as compared to models considering just PA and/or θP. Neither calcium, nor magnesium, nor soil pH could substitute for potassium when tested as alternative model predictors (ΔAIC > 10). Nor for any model could simple soil texture metrics such as sand or clay content substitute for either Ksa or θP. Taken in conjunction with recent work in Africa and the forests of the Amazon Basin, this suggests – in combination with some newly conceptualised interacting effects of PA and θP also presented here – a critical role for potassium as a modulator of tropical vegetation structure and function.
Abstract Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping using next generation sequencing (NGS) could be useful to study the HPV variant-specific epidemiology, including monitoring for possible ...emergence of new HPV variants after introduction of HPV vaccination programs. Objectives We wished to design and validate a method for rapid HPV detection, typing and sequencing in clinical samples. Study design Plasmids of 15 different HPV types were mixed and serially diluted in human DNA in concentrations ranging from 1 to 100 copies per sample, amplified using the HPV general PCR primer pair PGMY and sequenced using 454 technology. Sixty cervical samples were tested both with the NGS-based method and with a comparison method based on genotyping using type-specific probes bound to fluorescent beads (Luminex). Thirty-three clinical samples were repeat tested using NGS to evaluate reproducibility. Results The NGS-based method correctly identified all 15 mixed HPV types when present in 100 copies/sample and 13/15 types when present in 10 copies/sample. For 36/60 cervical samples genotyping results using NGS and Luminex were identical. For 12/60 samples the NGS method was more sensitive than the Luminex test and most of the remaining discrepancies could be explained by the different type coverage of the assays. Reproducibility testing found complete or partial concordance in 30/33 samples. Conclusions NGS provides a sensitive and accurate method for genotyping of HPV. The fact that also the amplimer sequence is obtained could be important for studying the epidemiology of viral variants and monitoring of HPV vaccination.
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