Woher kommen wir und wohin gehen wir? – Analyse des deutschen Erwerbsobstbaus anhand eines Branchenlebenszyklus-Modells

Cassia et al. (2006) claim that each industry develops along a specific industry life cycle with four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. This essay tries to analyze the German fruit-growing industry by the means of the industry life cycle model. The main aspects of the analysis are “consumption and prices”, “competition”, “product innovation” and “process innovation”. In summary, the German professional fruit-growing industry might be classified as to be in the mature stage.     

Evaluation of a focused assessment with sonography for trauma protocol to detect free abdominal fluid in dogs involved in motor vehicle accidents

OBJECTIVE: To establish a focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) protocol in dogs, determine whether FAST can be performed by veterinary clinicians without extensive ultrasonographic experience, and assess the frequency of free fluid (as determined via FAST) in the abdominal cavity of dogs following motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). DESIGN: Prospective study. ANIMALS: 100 client-owned dogs evaluated within 24 hours of an MVA. PROCEDURE: Dogs were placed in lateral recumbency for the FAST examination. To detect fluid in the abdomen, 2 ultrasonographic views (transverse and longitudinal) were obtained at each of 4 sites (just caudal to the xiphoid process, on the midline over the urinary bladder, and at the left and right flank regions). RESULTS: In the 100 dogs evaluated via FAST, free abdominal fluid was detected in 45 dogs. In 40 of those 45 dogs, abdominocentesis was performed; hemoperitoneum and uroperitoneum were diagnosed in 38 and 2 dogs, respectively. Compared with dogs that had no free abdominal fluid detected via FAST, dogs that had free abdominal fluid detected via FAST had significantly higher heart rates and serum lactate concentrations and significantly lower PCVs and total solid concentrations. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results indicate that FAST is a simple and rapid technique that can be performed on dogs in an emergency setting to detect intra-abdominal free fluid and can be performed by veterinary clinicians with minimal previous ultrasonographic experience.     

Comparison of homeopathy, placebo and antibiotic treatment of clinical mastitis in dairy cows - methodological issues and results from a randomized-clinical trial

Based on the widespread use of homeopathy in treatment of animal disease and the poor documentation of its possible effects and consequences, a clinical trial was carried out in order to evaluate the efficacy of homeopathy in treatment of clinical mastitis in dairy cows and a design for clinical studies on homeopathic treatment, taking into account the guidelines for randomized-clinical trials (RCT) as well as the basic principles of homeopathy. A three-armed, stratified, semi-crossover design comparing homeopathy, placebo and a standardized antibiotic treatment was used. Fifty-seven dairy cows were included. Evaluation was made by two score scales, with score I measuring acute symptoms and score II measuring chronic symptoms, and by recording the frequencies of responders to treatment based on four different responder definitions. Significant reductions in mastitis signs were observed in all treatment groups. Homeopathic treatment was not statistically different from either placebo or antibiotic treatment at day 7 (P = 0.56, P = 0.09) or at day 28 (P = 0.07, P = 0.35). The antibiotic treatment was significantly better than placebo measured by the reduction in score I (P < 0.01). Two-thirds of the cases both in the homeopathy and placebo groups responded clinically within 7 days. The outcome measured by frequencies of responders at day 28 was poor in all treatment groups. Evidence of efficacy of homeopathic treatment beyond placebo was not found in this study, but the design can be useful in subsequent larger trials on individualized homeopathic treatment.     

Effects of tetracycline and zinc on selection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type 398 in pigs

An in vivo experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of tetracycline and zinc on pig colonization and transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type (ST) 398. Eight piglets naturally colonized with MRSA ST398 and 8 MRSA-negative piglets of the same age and breed were assigned to three groups treated with tetracycline and zinc (Group 1), zinc (Group 2) or tetracycline alone (Group 3) and one non-treated group (Group 4), each containing two MRSA-positive and two MRSA-negative animals. Two additional non-treated control groups composed of only MRSA-positive (Group 5) and MRSA-negative (Group 6) animals were used to check for stability of MRSA carriage status. Nasal swabs and environmental wipes were collected on Days 0, 7, 14, and 21, and the occurrence of MRSA in each sample was quantified by bacteriological counts on Brilliance? MRSA agar. Significantly higher nasal MRSA counts were observed in the zinc-treated (p=0.015) and tetracycline-treated (p=0.008) animals compared to the non-treated animals. Environmental MRSA counts appeared to increase over time in Groups 1 and 2 but such an increase was not statistically significant. MRSA-negative animals housed with MRSA-positive animals became positive in all groups, whereas the carriage status of the animals in Groups 5 and 6 did not change. This study demonstrates that feed supplemented with tetracycline or zinc increases the numbers of MRSA ST398 in the nasal cavity of pigs. Transmission of MRSA from positive to negative animals housed within the same pen was not influenced by exposure to these agents.     

A new isolate of the nematophagous fungus Duddingtonia flagrans a biological control agent against free-living larvae of horse strongyles

An experiment was carried out in 1997 to test the efficacy of an isolate of the microfungus Duddingtonia flagrans against free-living stages of horse strongyles under conditions in the field and to assess the eventual effect of the fungus on the normal degradation of faeces. Faecal pats were made from faeces of a naturally strongyle infected horse, which had been fed fungal material at a dose level of 106 fungal unit/kg bwt. Control pats without fungi were made from faeces collected from the same animal just before being fed fungi. Faecal cultures set up for both groups of faeces to monitor the activity of the fungus under laboratory conditions showed that the fungus significantly reduced the number of infective third-stage larvae (L3) by an average of 98.4%. Five faecal pats from each batch of faeces were deposited on pasture plots at 3 times during spring-summer. The herbage around each pat was sampled fortnightly to recover L3 transmitted from faeces. The results showed that the herbage infectivity around fungus-treated pats was reduced by 85.8-99.4%. The remaining faecal material at the end of each sampling period was collected, and the surviving L3 were extracted. Significantly fewer larvae were recovered from the fungus-treated pats. Analysis of wet and dry weight of the collected pats, as well as their organic matter content, were performed to compare the degradation of faeces of both groups. The results indicated that the presence of the fungus did not alter the degradation of the faeces.     

Inter-laboratory and inter-assay comparison on two real-time PCR techniques for quantification of PCV2 nucleic acid extracted from field samples

Several real-time PCR assays for quantification of PCV2 DNA (qPCR) have been described in the literature, and different in-house assays are being used by laboratories around the world. A general threshold of 10(7) copies of PCV2 per millilitre serum for postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) diagnosis has been suggested. However, neither inter-laboratory nor inter-assay comparisons have been published so far. In the present study, two different qPCR probe assays used routinely in two laboratories were compared on DNA extracted from serum, nasal and rectal swabs. Results showed a significant linear association between the assays (p<0.0001), and a systematic difference of 1.4 log10 copies of PCV2 per millilitre of sample (p<0.0001). This difference indicated that the assay from laboratory 1 yielded a higher output than the one from laboratory 2. Results also showed that there was no linear association between the amount of PCV2 DNA and the amount of total DNA, neither in nasal (p=0.86) nor in rectal (p=0.78) swabs, suggesting that normalizing of PCV2 DNA load in swab samples to total DNA concentration is not suitable. The present exploratory study highlights the need for the performance of ring trials on qPCV2 protocols between laboratories. Meanwhile, the proposed thresholds for PMWS diagnosis should only be considered reliable for each particular laboratory and each particular assay.     

Pheno- and genotyping of Staphylococcus epidermidis isolated from bovine milk and human skin

The purpose of this study was to improve our knowledge concerning the epidemiology and strain diversity of Staphylococcus epidermidis isolated from bovine milk in commercial dairy herds. A total of 341 S. epidermidis isolates obtained from cows' milk (317), farmers (17) and patients (7) were characterized. Of these 105 isolates were from cows' milk in two farms, where also 17 isolates were sampled from farmers. The remaining 212 isolates from cows' milk were from 170 farms. All isolates were examined by antimicrobial susceptibility, whereas 202 were examined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and 122 by ribotyping. PFGE showed single patterns in the human strains with one exception; one strain was categorised as the same clone as four of the milk strains. PFGE divided 73 of the milk strains into 62 different patterns. The PFGE method had high discriminatory power and shows that many different S. epidermidis types exist in milk samples. Antibiotic resistance patterns matched the SmaI profiles closely in the two herds, but poorly in the routinely collected milk samples. Isolates from herd 1 showed one to five patterns, depending on the typing method used. Isolates from the milker's skin showed one pattern, which was identical to the most common pattern found in the milk isolates. Isolates from herd 2 showed three to four patterns, two of these being identical to skin isolates from the milker. As dairy cows are not a natural host for S. epidermidis the results suggest a human source of these udder infections.     

An abattoir survey of pneumonia and pleuritis in slaughter weight swine from 9 selected herds. IV. Bacteriological findings in chronic pneumonic lesions.

A total of 855 pig lungs were collected at slaughter and evaluated macroscopically. Bacteriological examinations were carried out on tissue samples from chronic pleuropneumonic lesions (n = 196) and from chronic bronchopneumonic lesions with suppuration (n = 14). Samples from normal lung tissue (n = 22) were also included. Pasteurella multocida was isolated from 54%, Actinobacillus (Haemophilus) pleuropneumoniae from 11%, and Streptococcus spp. from 14% of the pneumonic lesions, respectively. From normal lung tissue P. multocida was isolated from 3 (14%) of the samples, A. pleuropneumoniae was not recovered and streptococci were isolated from only 1 (5%) of these samples. The above mentioned bacterial species were recovered either in pure cultures or mixed with various other microbes. A total of 109 P. multocida strains were further characterized by capsular serotyping and testing for production of dermonecrotic toxin. Ninety-nine (91%) of the strains were capsular type A 10 (9%) were type D. Out of the type A and the type D strains 94% and 90% were toxigenic, respectively. Most of the A. pleuropneumoniae strains were serotype 2. Strains of serotypes 1 and 7 were also identified. The majority of the streptococci were identified as either Streptococcus suis or Streptococcus dysgalactiae. Actinomyces pyogenes was isolated from 14% of the lesions and anaerobic bacteria from 18%, respectively. The significance of the various bacterial species in relation to the development of chronic pneumonic lesions is discussed. Special attention is paid to P. multocida, and it is concluded that this bacterial species is probably of importance for the development of both types of chronic pneumonias.