Effects of transdermal lidocaine or lidocaine with prilocaine or tetracaine on mechanical superficial sensation and nociceptive thermal thresholds in horses

Objective

To evaluate the transdermal local anaesthetic effect of lidocaine or lidocaine combined with prilocaine or tetracaine in horses.

Occurrence of helminths in pig fattening units with different management systems in Northern Germany

The helminth infections on 13 pig fattening farms with different management systems (complete or partial all-in-all-out system or continuous fattening) in North-Western Germany were investigated over at least three fattening periods. Pooled faecal samples were taken from pens once before and three times after anthelmintic treatment. At the beginning of fattening 34.9% of the samples contained helminth eggs, mainly from Oesophagostomum spp. (27.5%). Ascaris suum eggs were found in 10.5% of the samples, while other parasites were only rarely found. The number of pig-supplying farms was positively correlated with the helminth infection prevalence. Immediately after deworming, all pen samples were free of helminth eggs. However, the prevalences increased again, and by the end of fattening A. suum was found in 33.0% and strongylids in 6.0% of the samples. Pens harbouring A. suum-excreting pigs at the beginning of fattening had higher infection levels at the end, and this was also the case for nodular worms. The final prevalence of Ascaris was higher in partial exchange systems than in complete all-in-all-out systems and in old pig houses compared to new ones. Transmission of both Ascaris and Oesophagostomum was highest in autumn and winter. Thus, a single anthelmintic treatment at the beginning of fattening could not prevent infection during fattening, and the state of infection at the beginning was associated with the helminth burden at slaughter. Therefore, the purchase of parasite-free pigs in combination with appropriate hygiene management may minimise the initial infection pressure and keep subsequent infection of the herd at a minimum.     

Policy impacts on regulating ecosystem services: looking at the implications of 60 years of landscape change on soil erosion prevention in a Mediterranean silvo-pastoral system

Context

Policy decisions form a major driver of land use change, with important implications for socially and environmentally susceptible regions. It is well known that there can be major unintended consequences, especially where policies are not tailored to regionally specific contexts.

Objectives

In this paper we assess the implications of 60 years of agricultural policies on soil erosion prevention (SEP) by vegetation, an essential regulating ecosystem service in Mediterranean Europe.

Methods

To assess these implications we produced and analysed a time series of land cover/use and environmental conditions datasets (from 1951 to 2012) in relation to changing agricultural policies for a specific region in the southern Portugal. A set of indicators related to SEP allowed us to identify that land use intensification as increased soil erosion in the last 60 years.

Results

Particularly in the last 35 years, as a consequence of headage payments for cattle, the agricultural policy had a significant effect in the density and renewal of the tree cover, resulting in drastic effects for the provision of the SEP service. These are more significant after 1986, coinciding with the implementation of several Common Agricultural Policy instruments focused on increasing the modernization and productivity capacity of farm systems.

Conclusions

The results show some unintended effects of agricultural policy mechanisms on ecosystem service provision and highlight the need for context-based policies, tailored to the environmental constrains and potentials of each region.

     

Dietary plant bioactives for poultry health and productivity

1. Plants and their biologically active chemical constituents, sometimes called secondary metabolites or bioactives, present numerous opportunities for the improvement of livestock production by inclusion in the diet. 2. Many such plant derived materials have well established therapeutic values in man; however, their potential as feed additives in animal production, particularly of poultry, remains largely unexploited. 3. There is increasing evidence indicating that they can be efficient in controlling diseases, and plant bioactives may also influence production parameters such as feed efficiency and product quality. 4. It has been reported that they may even replicate some of the effects of antibiotic growth promoters, which were banned from use in Europe from 2006. 5. This review assesses the status of plant bioactives in poultry production and their mode of action on avian physiology, particularly in the digestive tract.     

Human-driven impacts on marine habitats: A regional meta-analysis in the Mediterranean Sea

Habitat destruction is one of the main threats to environmental integrity. Assessing the consequences of human impacts is crucial both to predict and prevent structural and functional changes of habitats. However, to date almost all studies on marine threats, from regional to global scales, have been entirely qualitative and generally based on little more than expert opinion. We have developed a meta-analytical approach to quantify overall effects of various stressors on different Mediterranean habitat types and to compare the relative importance of different impacts across a range of habitats. We first qualitatively reviewed and synthesized 366 experiments (either manipulative or correlative) collected in the literature. After a selection procedure, we finally quantitatively meta-analyzed 158 experiments. We showed that fisheries (destructive or not), species invasion, aquaculture, sedimentation increase, water degradation and urbanization have negative effects on Mediterranean habitats and associated species assemblages. We also explored the overlap between the impacts identified as important in the Mediterranean and those identified by experts as being important globally, highlighting the inadequacies of relying on expert opinion alone. Finally, we drew attention to the critical lack of empirical knowledge about marine systems in many areas of the Mediterranean, which impedes the implementation of effective conservation measures. Our study is the first to synthesize experimental analyses on human-driven impacts on marine habitats across such a broad geographic scale.     

Forstliche Ausbildung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Pronounced fluctuations of spruce bark beetle (Scolytinae: Ips typographus) populations do not invoke genetic differentiation

The dynamics of a recent outbreak of the spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) in Switzerland was ruled by a devastating winter storm in 1999 and the drought and heat of the summer 2003. Starting from a similar level of population sizes, estimated as the rate of infested growing stock, beetle populations increased differently in magnitude and time among different regions in Switzerland. Accordingly, we expected local or regional genetic differentiation as a result of such repeated population expansion/breakdown dynamics. We analyzed 5 nuclear microsatellites of spruce bark beetles sampled from pheromone traps at 30 locations distributed over Switzerland. Our genetic results did not indicate any sign of population differentiation, structure, isolation by distance, or recent bottlenecks. This complete lack of genetic structure suggests that spruce bark beetles are highly mobile, precluding the formation of a spatial structure at neutral molecular markers. Thus, this molecular–genetic approach does not allow us to discriminate among regional gene pools and to identify the origin of expanding beetle populations.