Participatory rural appraisal of dairy farms in the north west province of Cameroon

A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was conducted in dairy farms of the North West Province of Cameroon. The aim of the PRA was to have a better understanding of the prevailing dairy systems, identify problems, and set priorities for research and development that can contribute to improved systems of production. A multidisciplinary team of researchers and extension agents was constituted. It was made up of scientists of the following fields: cattle management, forage science, agro economy, veterinary, dairy technology, nutrition and extension. The research team visited farmers' groups and divided itself into subgroups for farm and village walks during which direct observations were also noted. The extension agent of the locality, key informants, gave additional information overlooked by farmers. Interviews were also carried out with other stakeholders of the dairy sector. The research team met the day following the visit to agree on a common report. Results show that five small scale dairy production systems are found in the region: transhumance, improved extensive, semi intensive, zero grazing and peri-urban. Agriculture is well integrated to dairying. Main constraints include in order of importance: poor marketing opportunities and long distances to market, limited grazing land and poor supplementation strategies, poor reproductive management and poor calving interval, inadequate knowledge in processing, hygiene and milk preservation, and limited health control. In market oriented farms, reproduction and feeding were the most important constraints. Main factors influencing dairy production are: milk collection, fresh milk price, consumer demand, genotype and management. These results suggest that much can be done to improve production by extending improved packages to dairy farmers.

The state of veterinary epidemiology and economics

Recent developments in the fields of veterinary epidemiology and economics are critically reviewed and assessed. The impacts of recent technological developments in diagnosis, genetic characterisation, data processing and statistical analysis are evaluated. It is concluded that the acquisition and availability of data remains the principal constraint to the application of available techniques in veterinary epidemiology and economics, especially at population level. As more commercial producers use computerised management systems, the availability of data for analysis within herds is improving. However, consistency of recording and diagnosis remains problematic. Recent trends to the development of national livestock databases intended to provide reassurance to consumers of the safety and traceability of livestock products are potentially valuable sources of data that could lead to much more effective application of veterinary epidemiology and economics. These opportunities will be greatly enhanced if data from different sources, such as movement recording, official animal health programmes, quality assurance schemes, production recording and breed societies can be integrated. However, in order to realise such integrated databases, it will be necessary to provide absolute control of user access to guarantee data security and confidentiality. The potential applications of integrated livestock databases in analysis, modelling, decision-support, and providing management information for veterinary services and livestock producers are discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hygiene assessment system (HAS) scores: an analysis of the available data from English slaughterhouses

As control systems have developed and the implications of poor hygienic practices have become better known, the evaluation of the hygienic status of premises has become more critical. The assessment of the overall status of premises hygiene call provide useful management data indicating whether the premises are improving or whether, whilst still meeting legal requirements, they might be failing to maintain previously high standards. Since the creation, for the United Kingdom, of the meat hygiene service (MHS), one of the aims of the service was to monitor hygiene on different premises to provide a means of comparing standards and to identify and encourage improvements. This desire led to the implementation of a scoring system known as the hygiene assessment system (HAS). This paper analyses English slaughterhouses HAS scores between 1998 and 2005 outlining the main incidents throughout this period, Although rising initially, the later results displayed a clear decrease in the general hygiene scores. These revealing results coincide with the start of a new meat inspection system where, after several years of discussion, risk based inspection is finally coming to a reality within Europe. The paper considers the implications of these changes in the way hygiene standards will be monitored in the future.

Animal health challenges and veterinary aspects of organic livestock farming identified through a 3 year EU network project

From 2003-2006, an EU network project ‘Sustaining Animal Health and Food Safety in Organic Farming' (SAFO), was carried out with 26 partners from 20 EU-countries and 4 related partners from 4 candidate or new member states. The focus was the integration of animal health and welfare issues in organic farming with food safety aspects. Four very consistent conclusions became apparent: 1) The climatic, physical and socio-economic conditions vary considerably throughout Europe, leading to different livestock farming systems. This limits the possibility for technology transfer between regions, and creates several challenges for a harmonised regulation, 2) Implementing organic standards at farm level does not always ensure that animal health and welfare reach the high ideals of the organic principles, 3) To overcome these deficiencies, organic farmers and farmer organisations need to take ownership of organic values and, 4) In all participating countries, a strong need for training of farmers and in particular veterinarians in animal health promotion and organic principles was identified. The article presents a summary of papers presented at the five SAFO workshops.

Overexpression of marA, soxS and acrB in veterinary isolates of Salmonella enterica rarely correlates with cyclohexane tolerance

Objectives: To determine the contribution of the AcrAB efflux system to cyclohexane tolerance in Salmonella enterica. Methods: The expression of the efflux pump gene, acrB, and regulators marA and soxS from 46 isolates of S. enterica of 14 different serovars was determined by comparative RT-PCR and denaturing HPLC analysis. Results: Twenty-one of the 46 isolates were cyclohexane tolerant, a phenotype associated with multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) and overexpression of efflux pumps. Of the cyclohexane-tolerant isolates 81% were MAR, whereas only 44% of the cyclohexane-susceptible isolates were MAR, confirming the association between cyclohexane tolerance and MAR. However, there was no correlation between cyclohexane tolerance or MAR and overexpression of acrB, soxS or marA. Conclusions: These data suggest that cyclohexane tolerance in S. enterica can be mediated by an acrB-independent mechanism.

Establishment of normal gut microbiota is compromised under excessive hygiene conditions

Background: Early gut colonization events are purported to have a major impact on the incidence of infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in later life. Hence, factors which influence this process may have important implications for both human and animal health. Previously, we demonstrated strong influences of early-life environment on gut microbiota composition in adult pigs. Here, we sought to further investigate the impact of limiting microbial exposure during early life on the development of the pig gut microbiota. Methodology/Principal Findings: Outdoor- and indoor-reared animals, exposed to the microbiota in their natural rearing environment for the first two days of life, were transferred to an isolator facility and adult gut microbial diversity was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. From a total of 2,196 high-quality 16S rRNA gene sequences, 440 phylotypes were identified in the outdoor group and 431 phylotypes in the indoor group. The majority of clones were assigned to the four phyla Firmicutes (67.5% of all sequences), Proteobacteria (17.7%), Bacteroidetes (13.5%) and to a lesser extent, Actinobacteria (0.1%). Although the initial maternal and environmental microbial inoculum of isolator-reared animals was identical to that of their naturally-reared littermates, the microbial succession and stabilization events reported previously in naturally-reared outdoor animals did not occur. In contrast, the gut microbiota of isolator-reared animals remained highly diverse containing a large number of distinct phylotypes. Conclusions/Significance: The results documented here indicate that establishment and development of the normal gut microbiota requires continuous microbial exposure during the early stages of life and this process is compromised under conditions of excessive hygiene.

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in intestine of pigs of different ages and hygiene status

Prostaglandins (PG) are bioactive lipids derived from the metabolism of membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and play important roles in a number of biological processes including cell division, immune responses and wound healing. Cyclooxygenase (COX) is the key enzyme in PG synthesis from arachidonic acid. The hypothesis of the present study was that expression of COX-2 in porcine intestine was dependent on the microbial load and the age of piglets. Piglets were obtained from sows raised either on outdoor free-range farms or on indoor commercial farms, and littermates were divided into three treatments: One group of piglets suckled the sow, a second group was put into an isolator and fed a milk formula, and a third group was put into the isolator fed milk formula and injected with broad spectrum antibiotics. Samples were collected from the 75% level of the small intestine at day 5, 28 and 56 of age. Tissue section from four piglets from each of these six treatment groups was analysed by immunofluorescence for COX-2 and type-IV collagen (basement membrane, defining lamina propria (LP)). Image analysis was used to determine the number of positive pixels expressing LP and epithelial COX-2. COX-2 expressing cells were observed in LP and epithelium in all porcine intestinal samples. When analysing images obtained on day 28, injection of antibiotics seemed to reduce the COX-2 expression in intestinal samples of piglets when compared to other treatments (P=0.053). No significant effect of farm, treatments or age of piglets was observed on COX-2 expressing data when analysing all data of images obtained at day 28 and 56. By double-labelling experiments, COX-2 was found not to be expressed on cell co-expressing CD45, CD16, CD163 or CD2, thus indicating that mucosal leukocytes, including dendritic cells, macrophages and NK cells did not express COX-2. Future research should investigate the role of COX-2 expression in the digestive tract in relation to pig health.

Verbal hygiene in the Hong Kong gay community

This paper explores the status and function of English among gay men in Hong Kong through the analysis of postings about English on a popular gay internet forum. The forum, gayhk.com, while mainly featuring discussions about sex, fashion, entertainment and relationships, also contains a surprising amount of discussion about the English language, mostly taking the form of what Cameron refers to as ‘verbal hygiene’ – the enforcement of language ‘standards’ through the criticism of the language use of particular individuals or groups. The analysis of these postings sees them not just as evidence of language attitudes within the gay community, but also as tools with which Chinese gay men in postcolonial Hong Kong position themselves in relation to one another, in relation to ‘foreign’ gay men, and in relation to the wider population of Hong Kong.