Comparative evaluation of ectoparasiticide efficacy: non-inferiority and superiority assessment.

We present a statistical framework for the comparative evaluation of ectoparasiticide efficacy in controlled animal studies. Such a comparative evaluation can have one of two objectives: an assessment of non-inferiority of a test parasiticide to a reference parasiticide, or an assessment of superiority of one treatment over another. We show that the observed efficacy of an ectoparasiticide can be viewed as a point estimate of its conditional "kill" probability. Thus concepts used in the comparative evaluation of human antibiotics, which involve the comparison of cure probabilities, can be applied to the situation of comparing parasiticide efficacy. In particular, we define non-inferiority of a test parasiticide to a reference parasiticide in terms of the "test - reference" difference of their efficacies. We outline the hypothesis testing framework and associated statistical decision rules for declaring either non-inferiority or superiority. Both non-inferiority and superiority can be evaluated statistically using confidence intervals. SAS and R code for data analysis is presented, and the methodology is applied to a data set from a controlled animal study.

Invited Review: The role of cow, pathogen, and treatment regimen in the therapeutic success of bovine Staphylococcus aureus mastitis.

Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of udder infections in dairy herds. Both lactational and dry cow therapy are part of Staph. aureus control programs. Reported cure rates for Staph. aureus mastitis vary considerably. The probability of cure depends on cow, pathogen, and treatment factors. Cure rates decrease with increasing age of the cow, increasing somatic cell count, increasing duration of infection, increasing bacterial colony counts in milk before treatment, and increasing number of quarters infected. Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in hind quarters has a low cure rate compared with front quarters. Antimicrobial treatment of intramammary infections with penicillin-resistant Staph. aureus strains results in a lower cure rate for treatment with either beta-lactam or non-beta-lactam antibiotics. Other strain-specific factors may affect the probability of cure but routine diagnostic methods for use in bacteriology laboratories or veterinary practices are not yet available. The most important treatment factor affecting cure is treatment duration. Increased duration of treatment is associated with increased chance of cure. Economically, extended treatment is not always justified, even when indirect effects of treatment such as prevention of contagious transmission are taken into consideration. Usefulness of treatment trials could be improved by standardization of case definitions, consideration of host and strain factors, and sufficient statistical power. Treatment of young animals with penicillin-sensitive Staph. aureus infections is often justified based on bacteriological cure and economic outcome, whereas treatment of older animals, chronic infections, or penicillin-resistant isolates should be discouraged.

Assessment of pain in dogs: veterinary clinical studies.

Hundreds of thousands of animals are presented to US veterinarians annually for surgery or for evaluation of painful disease. This large population offers the opportunity for clinical research of both acute and chronic pain syndromes. Although there is growing interest by veterinary clinical specialists to explore the nature of animal pain and how best to treat it, this resource is relatively unknown to the pain research community. Computer-assisted collection of behavioral data has created new opportunities for characterizing the pain experience in animal species for the benefit of both animals and humans. This review describes the current state of veterinary clinical pain studies in dogs and an application of computer-assisted behavioral analysis.

Field trials with an oil emulsion Newcastle disease vaccine in broiler breeders.

Chickens vaccinated with live Newcastle disease (ND) vaccine and subsequently revaccinated with an inactivated oil emulsion vaccine had high and persistent hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody titers for at least 40 weeks. The geometric mean HI antibody titers of flocks vaccinated with the inactivated ND vaccine ranged from 48.8 to 91.9, whereas the titers of flocks vaccinated every 90 days with a live ND vaccine ranged from 8.6 to 43.5. Breeder flocks revaccinated with a liver LaSota ND vaccine had lower egg production than the flocks vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine. The average egg production per hen for the 40 week laying cycle was 177.8 and 174.8 eggs per hen for hens vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine, whereas those hens vaccinated with the live virus vaccine averaged 163.0 and 155.6 eggs per hen. The increase in egg production would more than offset the additional cost of the oil emulsion NDV vaccine as well as the cost of injecting each individual bird at point of lay. Maternal antibody titers in one-day-old chicks were related to the titers in the dams. Maternal antibody titers in chicks originating from breeder flocks vaccinated with the oil emulsion vaccine were higher than the maternal antibody titers of chickens from breeders vaccinated with the live NDV vaccine.