Low- and mid-level equine assisted services improved mood and state anxiety levels in health-care workers

The aim of this study was to measure the effect of equine assisted services (EAS) on mood and anxiety in health-care workers. While the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt in every aspect of our society, health-care workers have been hit especially hard. A survey conducted by Mental Health America during June - September in 2020, found 93% of health-care workers were experiencing stress and 86% reported experiencing anxiety. There is research to support a wide range of interventions to address stress, low mood, and anxiety, including pharmaceuticals, physical exercise, and animal interaction. While several studies have shown an improvement in anxiety and mood after interaction with horses, few studies have included a physically active control group to consider the effect of exercise on results. In this study conducted in October 2021, participants were recruited from area hospitals and randomly assigned to a control group (30-min guided walk with no horse interaction, n = 17), a low level EAS group (30-min self-guided farm tour, n = 20), or a mid-level EAS group (30 min of grooming a horse, n = 19). Before the intervention, participants completed a demographic survey. Pre and post activity, participants completed the Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS) and State Anxiety Inventory for AdultsTM that measured currentfeelings of mood and anxiety, respectively. Data were analyzed using the repeated measures one-way ANOVA procedure in SPSS. This study was approved by the MSU Human Research and Protection Program and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Fifty-six health-care workers participated in the study, with 32% having worked in health care for less than 5 years and 33.9% having worked in health care for over 20 years. All participants had a significant improvement in State-Anxiety scores after completing their group activity (P < 0.001), with no differences among groups. Similarly, all groups had an improved BMIS score (P < 0.001). However, there was significantly greater improvement in BMIS scores in the mid-level EAS (P < 0.01) when compared with the control group. While all participants in this study improved both their current feelings of anxiety and mood after completing an activity on the farm, there was a greater improvement in mood in those individuals who spent 30 min grooming a horse when compared with the walk group without horse interaction. The results from this study provide further support for the impact of equine assisted services as a means of improving mood.Copyright © 2023

Highly synergistic combinations of nanobodies that target SARS-CoV-2 reduce viral load in hACE2 transgenic mice

The ongoing emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants threatens current vaccines and renders current therapeutic antibodies obsolete, demanding powerful new treatments that can resist viral escape. We therefore generated a large nanobody repertoire to saturate the distinct and highly conserved available epitope space of SARS-CoV-2 spike, including the S1 receptor binding domain, N-terminal domain, and the S2 subunit, to identify new nanobody binding sites that may reflect novel mechanisms of viral neutralization. Structural mapping and functional assays show that these highly stable monovalent nanobodies potently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection, display numerous neutralization mechanisms, are effective against past and present emerging variants of concern, and are resistant to mutational escape. Rational combinations of these nanobodies that bind dissimilar sites within and between spike subunits exhibit extraordinary synergy and suggest multiple tailored therapeutic and prophylactic strategies. All mouse involved experiments were performed in compliance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and mice were housed and maintained in a specific pathogen-free conditions at Seattle Children's Research Institute. Infected mice with SARSCoV- 2 were housed in a Biosafety Level 3 facility in an Animal Biohazard Containment Suite. Prophylactic intranasal application of a synergistic pair of unmodified nanobodies in 10-12 week-old female K18-hACE2 transgenic mice, a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, showed significant reduction in viral load after 3 days post-challenge with SARS-CoV-2, the first demonstration of synergy in vivo. In summary, our results show that our diverse repertoire of nanobodies can neutralize current variants of live SARS-CoV-2, pairs of nanobodies that bind distinct sites on spike show tremendous synergy in neutralizing efficacy in vitro, and the application of synergizing pair of nanobodies translates to an in vivo mouse model of SARSCoV- 2. Research funded by the Mathers Foundation, Robertson Foundation, NIH P41GM109824.Copyright © 2023 The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Reproductive and developmental safety of nirmatrelvir (PF-07321332), an oral SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor in animal models

Nirmatrelvir (PF-07321332;NMV) the antiviral component of PAXLOVID PACK is a potent and selective inhibitor of the SARSCoV- 2 main protease (Mpro), which plays a critical role in viral replication. PAXLOVID PACK, comprised of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir (used as a pharmacokinetic enhancer), is an oral therapy currently in development as a therapeutic option for those infected with SARS-CoV-2 to prevent progression to severe disease, hospitalization, and death. It is also being tested for its potential benefit in the post-exposure prophylactic setting. Given that males and females of reproductive age are included in the intended patient population, we assessed the potential effects of NMV up to the limit dose of 1000 mg/kg/day in ICH guideline embryo-fetal development studies in rats and rabbits, and a fertility and early embryonic development study in rats. There were no effects on male and female fertility or early embryonic development in rats, and no severe manifestations of developmental toxicity in rats or rabbits. The lack of adverse findings reported here in nonclinical species is consistent with the intended therapeutic target of NMV (a virus specific protein not present in mammalian cells), the favorable off-target selectivity profile, and lack of genetic toxicity. All procedures performed on the animals in these studies were in accordance with regulations and established guidelines and were reviewed and approved by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or through an ethical review process.

COVID-19 Pandemic Response Preparedness and Risk Perceptions Among Peruvian Veterinarians and Animal Care Workers.

Peruvian veterinarians and animal care workers (VACW) are primary responders in the event of disasters or emergencies, yet they face unique concerns that could impede or block their essential functions in public health preparedness in comparison with VACWs in other countries. In this study, we used the Ready, Willing, and Able model via electronic survey to evaluate the perception of risks and barriers that Peruvian VACWs faced when deciding whether to continue working during the COVID-19 pandemic between July and December 2020. We used logistic regression models to evaluate associations between demographic characteristics, perceived role, and contact scores with 8 outcomes: knowledge of COVID-19; confidence in safety protocols; perceived threat; perceived job efficacy; perceived barriers; and readiness, willingness, and ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than 50% of respondents reported barriers to report to work during the pandemic. Respondents who reported higher contact with coworkers had an increased confidence in safety protocols (OR 5.16; 95% CI, 1.36 to 19.61) and willingness (OR 3.76; 95% CI, 1.14 to 12.47) to respond to the pandemic. Close contacts with essential workers and higher economic income were associated with higher reported knowledge of COVID-19. Respondents with higher perceived job efficacy had higher odds of reporting being ready, willing, and able to respond to COVID-19, while those who identified more barriers to report to work had lower odds of being ready, willing, and able to respond. The findings from this study, which showed differences from VACWs in the United States, can be used by individuals designing programs to improve pandemic and disaster preparedness in this essential, yet understudied and vulnerable, workforce.

Wall of Thanks: An Inexpensive, Socially Distant, and Highly Successful Platform for Staff Recognition

Laboratory animal caretakers deserve recognition for the hard work that they do. Recent staffing shortages and budget cuts related to COVID have made it difficult to motivate staff in a demotivating time. We used to have a popular digital Wall of Thanks on our website where staff could send a note of thanks that would be displayed for 1 mo. Sadly, it was taken down due to cybersecurity concerns. When a staff member suggested that we implement a platform for employees to recognize each other's accomplishments and small successes, we began discussing how to bring back the Wall of Thanks. We decided to use a whiteboard with colorful markers in each of our facilities. Instructions on the whiteboard indicate that it is for thanking our staff and can be done anonymously if preferred. When a board fills up monthly, we take a picture to save and erase it. The Wall of Thanks has been consistently in use since January 2021. The whiteboard version is better than the digital Wall of Thanks because it brightens the day of everyone who sees it. Our staff writes most comments, but researchers and others also use them. The intended audience for the Wall of Thanks was our animal care staff. Still, it has also been used to thank members of other departments (business office/facilities/veterinary staff) and has been unifying for our department. Staff members have reported feeling validated and that others noticed their efforts. Feeling appreciated by coworkers has been motivating for our staff to continue doing the hard work that they do. Managers have noticed star performers as their peers recognize them. As an unexpected benefit, managers were able to notice an area of concern when comments referenced a problem staff was experiencing. We encourage everyone to create their own Wall of Thanks and discuss the successes and benefits that can be realized from this simple, inexpensive tool.

Can Regionalized Livestock Production and Meat Packing Meet the Food Needs of Today’s Consumers?

Meat shortages in many of the largest retail chains during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of U.S. consumers. In addition, wait times for custom slaughter of meat animals increased from days to weeks to upwards of 14 mon. Interruptions in livestock slaughter and meat supplies have renewed the emphasis on medium, small, and very small meat slaughters/processors. Numerous states are investing in slaughter/processing plant construction, renovation of existing plants, and establishing or reestablishing state inspection programs. It is conceivable that this reinvestment may alleviate some of the meat supply limitations;yet, there are a number of factors these plants need to address for economic sustainability, including (but are not limited to): consistency of local and regional livestock supply;availability of trained, experienced workforce;plant holding pens and slaughter floor design;pre-slaughter animal welfare training and compliance;development and implementation of food safety programs;fresh and frozen storage capacities;local and regional marketing channels and modes of distribution;and by-products markets and offal disposal. Regardless of plant size, the ultimate goal of all meat packers/processors is the production of consistent, readily available and affordable, high-quality meat and meat products;however, the traditional driving forces of price and taste are being slowly supplanted by consumers’ concerns about production practices and animal management, perceived nutritional benefits, animal welfare concerns, food locality, and conveniences. This presentation will attempt to amalgamate the challenges facing medium, small, and very small meat processors with consumers’ preferences in relation to the sustainability of these revitalized segments of the livestock and meats industry.

Innovative Strategies for Managing Swine Welfare During Natural Disasters

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization. By April 2020, COVID-19 resulted in the simultaneous closure or reduced operations of many processing plants in the upper Midwest, which quickly resulted in supply chain disruptions. Iowa is the leading pork production and processing state, and these disruptions caused producer uncertainty, confusion, and stress, including time-sensitive challenges for maintaining animal care. The Resource Coordination Center (RCC) was quickly created and launched from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The RCC had strategic collaborations with public representation from the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Pork Industry Center, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and private partners through producers, veterinarians, and technical specialists. The RCC’s mission was four-fold: (1) implement appropriate actions to ensure the health and safety of RCC members, stakeholders, and the public, (2) evaluate and reassess appropriate actions as needed for continuity of pork production operations, (3) provide information to pork producers during supply chain disruptions, and (4) maintain a safe and abundant pork supply for consumers. The command structure included Incident Commanders, Command Staff, and four Section Chiefs whom worked with their respective experts. Sections covered (1) operations, (2) planning, (3) logistics, and (4) finance and administration. As it related to animal welfare, the RCC provided information on management decisions, dietary alterations to slow pig growth, pig movement to increase living space, alternative markets, on-farm euthanasia and mass depopulation. Veterinary oversight was continually maintained. A manual was created to provide up-to-date information to inform producer decisions and aid. Although originally created for swine, the RCC also assisted poultry, cattle and sheep producers. In a crisis, Iowa created a model that reacted to producer’s pragmatic and emotional needs. This model could be replicated for any emergency by other states.

Assessing COVID-19 Pandemic Risk Perception and Response Preparedness in Veterinary and Animal Care Workers.

Veterinary and animal care workers perform critical functions in biosecurity and public health, yet little has been done to understand the unique needs and barriers these workers face when responding during a pandemic crisis. In this article, we evaluated the perceived risks and roles of veterinary and animal care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and explored barriers and facilitators in their readiness, ability, and willingness to respond during a pandemic. We deployed a survey targeting US veterinary medical personnel, animal shelter and control workers, zoo and wildlife workers, and other animal care workers. Data were collected on respondents' self-reported job and demographic factors, perceptions of risk and job efficacy, and readiness, ability, and willingness to respond during the pandemic. We found that leadership roles and older age had the strongest association with decreased perceived risk and improved job efficacy and confidence, and that increased reported contact level with others (both coworkers and the public) was associated with increased perceived risk. We determined that older age and serving in leadership positions were associated with improved readiness, willingness, and ability to respond. Veterinary and animal care workers' dedication to public health response, reflected in our findings, will be imperative if more zoonotic vectors of SARS-CoV-2 arise. Response preparedness in veterinary and animal care workers can be improved by targeting younger workers not in leadership roles through support programs that focus on improving job efficacy and confidence in safety protocols. These findings can be used to target intervention and training efforts to support the most vulnerable within this critical, yet often overlooked, workforce.

MACHINE LEARNING AND RADIOMICS IDENTIFY NOVEL BIOMARKERS OF BONE LOSS

Purpose: Altered bone turnover is a factor in many diseases including osteoarthritis (OA), osteoporosis, inflammation, and viral infection. The absence of obvious symptoms and insufficiently sensitive biomarkers in the early stages of bone loss limits early diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, it is urgent to identify novel, more sensitive, and easy-to-detect biomarkers which can be used in the diagnosis and prognosis of bone health. Our previous data using standard micro-computed tomography (μCT) measurements showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice significantly decreased trabecular bone volume at the lumbar spine, suggesting that decreased bone mass, increased fracture risk, and OA may be underappreciated long-haul comorbidities for COVID patients. In this study, we applied integrated state-of-the-art radiomics and machine learning models to identify more sensitive image-based biomarkers of SARS-CoV-2-induced bone loss from μCT images. These radiomic biomarkers can potentially provide a non-invasive way of quantifying and monitoring systemic bone loss and evaluating treatment efficacy in both research and clinical practices. Methods: All animal use was performed with approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. To quantify SARS-CoV-2-induced bone loss, 6-week-old transgenic mice (16 male, 16 female) expressing humanized ACE2 receptors were inoculated with a 2020 strain of SARS-CoV-2 or phosphate-buffered saline (Control) [Fig. A]. Viral infection was confirmed by detection of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in throat swabs and histological identification of SARS-CoV-2 labeled cells. At 6-14 days post-infection, lumbar vertebral bodies (L5) were scanned with μCT (μCT 35, SCANCO Medical AG;6 μm nominal voxel size). The open-source research platform 3D Slicer v2020 with a built-in Python console v3.8 was used for medical image computing and fully automated segmentation of cortical and trabecular bone. Standard μCT assessment of bone microstructure was performed. Radiomic feature extraction and data processing were performed using python based PyRadiomics v3.0.1. A total of 120 radiographic features were extracted from the segmented images [Fig. B]. Principle component analysis (PCA) for feature selection, a support vector machine learning (SVML) predictive model for classification, holdback method for model validation, and all statistical analyses (significance at p<0.05) were performed using JMP Pro v15 (SAS). Results: Using standard μCT methods, SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly reduced the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) by 10 and 10.5% (p= 0.04) and trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) by 8 and 9% (p= 0.02) in male and female mice, respectively, compared to PBS control mice [Fig. C]. Radiomics detected a 20-fold greater magnitude in change over standard methods. SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly changed radiographic parameters with the largest change being a 300% increase in the second-order parameter: cluster shade [Fig. D]. The 45 radiomic features comprising the first 3 principal components were selected for inclusion in the SVML model. The SVML Model (radial basis function kernel;cost = 4.8;gamma = 0.46) produced an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 1.0 which reflects a perfectly accurate test [Fig. E]. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection of humanized ACE2 expressing mice caused significant bone changes, suggesting that decreased bone mass, increased fracture risk, OA, and other musculoskeletal complications could be long-term comorbidities for people infected with COVID-19. We developed an open-source, fully automated segmentation and radiomics system to assess systemic bone loss using μCT images. When coupled with machine learning, this system was able to identify novel radiographic biomarkers of bone loss that better discriminate differences in bone microstructure between SARS-CoV-2 infected and control mice than standard bone morphometric indices. The high accuracy of the SVML model in classifying SARS-CoV-2 infected mice opens the possibility of translating these biom rkers to the clinical setting for early detection of skeletal changes associated with long-haul COVID. The methods presented here were demonstrated using SARS-CoV-2 as a model system and can also be adapted to other diseases associated with altered bone turnover. Development of machine-learning methods for radiomic applications is a crucial step toward clinically relevant radiomic biomarkers of bone health and provides a non-invasive way of quantifying and monitoring systemic bone loss and evaluating treatment efficacy. [Formula presented]

Innovative strategies for managing swine welfare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iowa.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization and its impact on animal agriculture in the United States was undeniable. By April, COVID-19 resulted in the simultaneous closure or reduced operations of many meat processing plants in the upper Midwest, leading to supply chain disruptions. In Iowa, the leading pork production and processing state, these disruptions caused producer uncertainty, confusion, and stress, including time-sensitive challenges for maintaining animal care. The Iowa Resource Coordination Center (IRCC) was quickly created and launched by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS). The IRCC included public representation from the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA), Iowa Pork Industry Center (IPIC), and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and private partners including producers, veterinarians, and technical specialists. Supporting swine welfare, the IRCC provided information on management strategies, dietary alterations to slow pig growth, alternative markets, on-farm euthanasia, and mass depopulation under veterinary oversight. In a crisis, Iowa created a model that reacted to producers' pragmatic, mental and emotional needs. This model could be quickly replicated with an introduction of foreign animal disease.