Management and Prevention of Dystocia.

Dystocia is an inevitable challenge in the livestock industries, particularly with primiparous female animals. Prevention and appropriate management will decrease cow and calf morbidity and mortality, which will improve the economic status of the beef or dairy operation. Early identification and proper intervention improves outcomes, and the use of selection tools to decrease the potential for dystocia will have positive returns. Assisted reproductive technologies present a unique set of challenges to the calving process that both the producer and practitioner should be prepared to address.

Management of Preconditioned Calves and Impacts of Preconditioning.

When studying the practice of preconditioning (PC) calves, many factors need to be examined to determine if cow-calf producers should make this investment. Factors such as average daily gain, feed efficiency, available labor, length of the PC period, genetics, and marketing options must be analyzed. The health sales price advantage is an additional benefit in producing and selling PC calves but not the sole determinant of PC's financially feasibility. Studies show that a substantial advantage of PC is the selling of additional pounds at a cost of gain well below the marginal return of producing those additional pounds.

BRD in 2014: where have we been, where are we now, and where do we want to go?

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a worldwide health concern and is the number one disease of stocker, backgrounder, and feedlot cattle in North America. In feedlots in the USA, BRD accounts for 70-80% of all feedlot morbidity and 40-50% of all mortality. In 2011, the US Department of Agriculture's National Animal Health Monitoring System conducted a feedlot study that showed 16.2% of all feedlot cattle were treated for BRD. It is universally accepted that this number is distressingly high and that our industry has the tools available to reduce the incidence of BRD.

Evaluation of horizontal transmission of bovine viral diarrhea virus type 1a from experimentally infected white-tailed deer fawns (Odocoileus virginianus) to colostrum-deprived calves.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the transmission of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) from experimentally infected white-tailed deer fawns to colostrum-deprived calves by use of a BVDV strain isolated from hunter-harvested white-tailed deer. ANIMALS: 5 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns and 6 colostrum-deprived calves. PROCEDURES: Fawns were inoculated intranasally with a noncytopathic BVDV-1a isolate (2 mL containing 10(6.7) TCID(50)/mL), and 2 days after inoculation, animals were commingled until the end of the study. Blood and serum samples were obtained on days -6, 0, 7, 14, and 21 after inoculation for reverse transcriptase PCR assay, virus neutralization, and BVDV-specific antibody ELISA. Nasal, oral, and rectal swab specimens were collected on days 0, 3, 7, 14, 17, and 21 for reverse transcriptase PCR testing. By 21 days after inoculation, all animals were euthanized and necropsied and tissues were collected for histologic evaluation, immunohistochemical analysis, and virus isolation. RESULTS: All fawns became infected and shed the virus for up to 18 days as determined on the basis of reverse transcriptase PCR testing and virus isolation results. Evidence of BVDV infection as a result of cohabitation with acutely infected fawns was detected in 4 of the 6 calves by means of reverse transcriptase PCR testing and virus isolation. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: On the basis of these findings, BVDV transmission from acutely infected fawns to colostrum-deprived calves appeared possible.

Survey on management practices related to the prevention and control of bovine viral diarrhea virus on dairy farms in Indiana, United States.

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to describe the application of management practices known to be associated with the prevention of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infection on Indiana dairy farms and to determine the extent of BVDV vaccine use within Indiana dairy herds. The population in this study was Indiana dairy producers enrolled under the Indiana Premise ID list by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (n=1600). During the fall of 2008 a questionnaire was mailed to Indiana dairy producers. Returned questionnaires were entered into a database and descriptive statistics were performed. A total of 208 questionnaires were found useful for analysis. Small herds (<100 head) constituted 60% of the sample population, 33% farms were categorized as medium herds (100-499 head) and finally 7% were large herds (>500 head). Most of the herds (68%) acquired their replacements from external sources (open herds); however, preventive measures against the introduction of BVDV into the farm such as purchased animal history, quarantine and BVDV testing were not commonly performed. Even though producers commonly reported the use of BVDV vaccines, not all animals groups were vaccinated within herds. This study highlights the aspects of management practices of BVDV control on Indiana dairy farms that need reinforcement. In particular, dairy producers should be made aware that vaccination should be complementary to a comprehensive biosecurity program.

The Australian government's review of positron emission tomography: evidence-based policy-making in action.

The Commonwealth Government constituted the Medicare Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) to implement its commitment to entrench the principles of evidence-based medicine in Australian clinical practice. With its recent review of positron emission tomography (PETReview), the Commonwealth intervened in an established MSAC process, and sanctioned the stated objective to restrict expenditure on the technology. In our opinion: The evaluation of evidence by PETReview was fundamentally compromised by a failure to meet the terms of reference, poor science, poor process and unique decision-making benchmarks. By accepting the recommendations of PETReview, the Commonwealth is propagating information which is not of the highest quality. The use of inferior-quality information for decision-making by doctors, patients and policy-makers is likely to harm rather than enhance healthcare outcomes.

Observation of collective friction forces due to spatial self-organization of atoms: from Rayleigh to Bragg scattering.

We demonstrate that emission-induced self-organization of two-level atoms can effect strong damping of the sample's center-of-mass motion. When illuminated by far-detuned light, cold cesium atoms assemble into a density grating that efficiently diffracts the incident light into an optical resonator. We observe random phase jumps of pi in the emitted light, confirming spontaneous symmetry breaking in the atomic self-organization. The Bragg diffraction results in a collective friction force with center-of-mass deceleration up to 1000 m/s(2) that is effective even for an open atomic transition.

Observation of collective-emission-induced cooling of atoms in an optical cavity.

We report the observation of collective-emission-induced, velocity-dependent light forces. One-third of a falling sample containing 3 x 10(6) cesium atoms illuminated by a horizontal standing wave is stopped by cooperatively emitting light into a vertically oriented, confocal resonator. We observe decelerations up to 1500 m/s(2) and cooling to temperatures as low as 7 microK, well below the free-space Doppler limit. The measured forces substantially exceed those predicted for a single two-level atom.

Upper limits to submillimetre-range forces from extra space-time dimensions.

String theory is the most promising approach to the long-sought unified description of the four forces of nature and the elementary particles, but direct evidence supporting it is lacking. The theory requires six extra spatial dimensions beyond the three that we observe; it is usually supposed that these extra dimensions are curled up into small spaces. This 'compactification' induces 'moduli' fields, which describe the size and shape of the compact dimensions at each point in space-time. These moduli fields generate forces with strengths comparable to gravity, which according to some recent predictions might be detected on length scales of about 100 microm. Here we report a search for gravitational-strength forces using planar oscillators separated by a gap of 108 micro m. No new forces are observed, ruling out a substantial portion of the previously allowed parameter space for the strange and gluon moduli forces, and setting a new upper limit on the range of the string dilaton and radion forces.

Dificultades diagnósticasen la porfiria aguda intermitentecon manifestaciones neurológicas.A propósito de dos casos / Diagnostic difficulties in intermittent acute porphyria with neurological features. A report of two cases

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Effects of emotional imagery on physiological and facial responses in Type A and Type B individuals.

Type A behavior was examined in relation to physiologic and facial-expressive changes associated with anger, fear and distress. Affect was induced by an imagery procedure in which subjects recalled and described actual, emotion-related episodes. Type A was assessed by a structured interview. Subjects were healthy men, 21 Type As and 21 Type Bs, whose mean age was 39 yr. Type Bs showed higher systolic blood pressure responses and greater expression of negative affect than Type As. Data analysis also revealed a tendency for enhanced physiologic and facial responses of Type Bs relative to Type As to be greater during fear and distress than during anger. These results appear to reflect a coping process whereby Type A individuals show attenuated facial-expressive and physiologic reactivity as a means of maintaining a sense of control over aversive conditions.

Virus infections and chronic rheumatic disorders.

There is little direct evidence that viruses cause inflammatory arthritis in the sense that infectious agents classically cause disease. However, there are several mechanisms by which virus infections could be implicated in the pathogenesis of such disorders. In particular virus infection of lymphocytes could produce the combination of selective immunodeficiency and immune stimulation that characterizes many rheumatic disorders. In addition re-combination events between integrated pro-viruses in DNA and exogenous infections would account for the lack of any obvious correlation between the appearance of these disorders and any obvious preceding viral infection. Certainly, more sophisticated approaches will be needed to test such hypotheses rather than relying on classical techniques for viral isolation.