Prevalence of paratuberculosis in the dairy goat and dairy sheep industries in Ontario,Canada

A cross-sectional study was undertaken (October 2010 to August 2011) to estimate the prevalence of paratuberculosis in the small ruminant dairy industries in Ontario, Canada. Blood and feces were sampled from 580 goats and 397 sheep (lactating and 2 y of age or older) that were randomly selected from 29 randomly selected dairy goat herds and 21 convenience-selected dairy sheep flocks. Fecal samples were analyzed using bacterial culture (BD BACTEC MGIT 960) and polymerase chain reaction (Tetracore); serum samples were tested with the Prionics Parachek enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Using 3-test latent class Bayesian models, true farm-level prevalence was estimated to be 83.0% [95% probability interval (PI): 62.6% to 98.1%] for dairy goats and 66.8% (95% PI: 41.6% to 91.4%) for dairy sheep. The within-farm true prevalence for dairy goats was 35.2% (95% PI: 23.0% to 49.8%) and for dairy sheep was 48.3% (95% PI: 27.6% to 74.3%). These data indicate that a paratuberculosis control program for small ruminants is needed in Ontario.     

Taxation and investment implications of non-industrial private forestry within a Boreal Swedish municipality

The Swedish tax system affects distribution of forest revenue between national, municipal and individual interests. The study reported here takes a Boreal municipality perspective, with the objective of investigating the tax and investment implications of non-industrial private forestry (NIPF) in a case-study municipality at these three interest levels. Sales revenue, operating costs, investment, disposable income and direct tax revenue generated in NIPF within the boreal municipality are quantified, drawing on income tax return data. The question addressed is, does NIPF contribute to the local economy and thereby to development and maintenance of infrastructure in a typical boreal municipality, given the present NIPF ownership structure and tax system? Results support two different views. On one hand, tax revenues generated from NIPF to the resource municipality amounted to only 17% of the direct tax revenues or less then 1% of the tax revenues in the municipality budget. On the other hand, NIPF owners returned as much as 72% of sales revenue back into their firms in form of operating costs, and 20% in from of investments.     

Influence of soil mineralogy and chemistry on site quality within geological regions in Sweden

The relationship between soil properties and forest site quality was investigated. The site quality functions currently used fail in predicting variations within regions and the purpose of this study was to evaluate if the local accuracy in forest resource assessments could benefit from the use of geological and geochemical data. The investigation was conducted in mid-Sweden within two geological regions. The mineralogy of the parent material (C horizon) was estimated using a method for normative mineralogical assessment and the soil chemistry was determined for five soil horizons. The importance of individual minerals for site quality was different within the two geological regions. Functional relations were established between the properties in different soil horizons and site index. The functions between mineralogy and site index were improved by splitting the data according to the geologically different regions. The mineralogy explained 37–61% of the variation in site index, whereas the properties in the upper soil profile (O–B horizon) related more strongly to site index (18–80%). Stronger relations could be established in the mineralogically rich than in the mineralogically poor area.     

Predicting depth translocation of base cations after forest liming: results from long-term experiments

Forest liming is a common measure to counteract soil acidification. In forest practice, lime is applied to the forest floor where it changes the chemical properties. However, little is known about the depth impact of liming and the depth translocation of lime components. To investigate the long-term impact of forest liming, several study plots have been established in the 1980s in Germany in stands with different site conditions. We analysed soil chemical data obtained during the last 28?years from 45 of the study plots. We examined the depth impact of liming and predicted the main factors responsible for the increase in Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) stocks after liming in the mineral soil using multiple linear regression analyses (MLR). Stocks of Ca and Mg as well as base saturation (BS) showed a strong depth gradient with significant differences between limed and control plots down to 40?cm of the mineral soil. About 65–70?% of applied Ca and Mg were recovered in the forest floor and the upper 40?cm of the mineral soil. BS in 0–40?cm increased by a mean of 11?%. MLR models could explain 48–74?% of the variation in mean changes of Ca and Mg in 0–10, 10–20 and 20–40?cm soil depth when soil and climate variables, amount of applied lime and years after liming are included in the model. After testing the model robustness with a cross-validating procedure, we concluded that these models might be applied to many regions in Central Europe with comparable soil and climate conditions and thus, have widespread application.     

Neural mechanisms of foraging

Behavioral economic studies involving limited numbers of choices have provided key insights into neural decision-making mechanisms. By contrast, animals' foraging choices arise in the context of sequences of encounters with prey or food. On each encounter, the animal chooses whether to engage or, if the environment is sufficiently rich, to search elsewhere. The cost of foraging is also critical. We demonstrate that humans can alternate between two modes of choice, comparative decision-making and foraging, depending on distinct neural mechanisms in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) using distinct reference frames; in ACC, choice variables are represented in invariant reference to foraging or searching for alternatives. Whereas vmPFC encodes values of specific well-defined options, ACC encodes the average value of the foraging environment and cost of foraging.     

Decomposition of N-labelled maize leaves in soil affected by endogeic geophagous Aporrectodea caliginosa

A microcosm experiment was carried out for 56 days at 12 °C to evaluate the feeding effects of the endogeic geophagous earthworm species Aporrectodea caliginosa on the microbial use of ¹⁵N-labelled maize leaves (Zea mays) added as 5 mm particles equivalent to 1 mg C and 57 μg N g⁻¹ soil. The dry weight of A. caliginosa biomass decreased in the no-maize treatment by 10% during the incubation and increased in the maize leaf treatments by 18%. Roughly 5% and 10% of the added maize leaf-C and leaf-N, respectively, were incorporated into the biomass of A. caliginosa. About 29% and 33% of the added maize leaf-C were mineralised to CO₂ in the no-earthworm and earthworm treatments, respectively. The presence of A. caliginosa significantly increased soil-derived CO₂ production by 90 μg g⁻¹ soil in the no-maize and maize leaf treatments, but increased the maize-derived CO₂ production only by 40 μg g⁻¹ soil. About 10.5% of maize leaf-C and leaf-N was incorporated into the soil microbial biomass in the absence of earthworms, but only 6% of the maize leaf-C and 3% of the maize leaf-N in the presence of earthworms. A. caliginosa preferentially fed on N rich, maize leaf-colonizing microorganisms to meet its N demand. This led to a significantly increased C/N ratio of the unconsumed microbial biomass in soil. The ergosterol-to-microbial biomass C ratio was not significantly decreased by the presence of earthworms. A. caliginosa did not directly contribute to comminution of plant residues, as indicated by the absence of any effects on the contents of the different particulate organic matter fractions, but mainly to grazing of residue-colonizing microorganisms, increasing their turnover considerably.     

Infections with Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in fattening pigs. Influence of piglet production systems and influence on production parameters

Two hundred and sixty-four feeder pigs from an age-segregated herd (A-pigs) and 264 feeder pigs from a continuous production system (C-pigs) were transferred into identical but separate rooms in a fattening herd employing all-in all-out production. On arrival, none of the A-pigs and 39% of the C-pigs were seropositive to Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo). At slaughter 30% of the A-pigs and 99% of the C-pigs were seropositive to M. hyo. Pigs with acute swine enzootic pneumonia (SEP) at slaughter and pigs that seroconverted to M. hyo late in the rearing period showed a lower growth rate compared with pigs with chronic SEP or pigs that seroconverted to M. hyo early or not at all. No A-pigs and 12% of the C-pigs were seropositive to Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae 2 (A. pp 2) at arrival to the fattening herd. At slaughter, 10% of the A-pigs and 13% of the C-pigs were seropositive to A. pp 2. On arrival, the prevalence of pigs seropositive to A. pp 3 was lower among A-pigs than C-pigs. During the fattening period the situation was reversed. The prevalence of pleuritis at slaughter was low (2.7-4.2%) and there were no associations between pleuritis at slaughter and developments of antibodies to A. pp 2 or 3. However, pigs with pleuritis developed antibodies to M. hyo to a greater extent than pigs without pleuritis. Pigs with pleuropneumonia at slaughter and pigs that seroconverted to A. pp 2 or 3 had, during certain periods of the rearing, higher growth rates compared with pigs without pleuropneumonia or pigs that did not seroconvert to A. pp 2 or 3.     

Diagnosing diagnostic tests: evaluating the assumptions underlying the estimation of sensitivity and specificity in the absence of a gold standard

Latent class analysis to assess the sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test can be carried out under different assumptions. An often applied set of assumptions is known as the Hui-Walter paradigm, which essentially states that: (i) the population is divided into two or more populations in which two or more tests are evaluated under assumption that (ii) sensitivity and specificity of the tests are the same in all populations; and (iii) the tests are conditionally independent given the disease status. This study explores the implications of these assumptions. Through simulation studies, it is shown how the size of the difference between disease prevalences within the populations influences the precision of the estimates. It is also illustrated by a simulation study how a difference in a test sensitivity between populations may result in estimates that are biased towards the sensitivity of the test in the population with highest disease prevalence, since that population estimate is supported by most of the data. It is shown that the assumption of conditional independence between tests in general cannot be ignored in latent class models. Failure to impose conditional independence will result in a model that lacks identifiability in a way that cannot be handled by adding more tests or dividing the sample into more populations.