The low survival rate of European hare leverets in arable farmland: evidence from the predation experiment.

The low survival rate of leverets may significantly contribute to steep population declines and slow recovery of European hares (Lepus europaeus). However, the leveret survival rate in farmlands with different landscape structures is poorly understood, and the existing evidence comes mainly from Western Europe. In this study, we explored the survival of leveret hare dummies along linear semi-natural habitats in homogeneous Central European arable farmland during the main part of the European hare reproduction period (March-April) in 2019 and 2020. The survival rate of hare leverets during the 14-day period was only 22.2%, and all predation events were recorded during the first six days of the experiment. Mammalian predators were responsible for 53.1% of predation events, avian predators for 40.8%, and agricultural operations for 6.1%. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was the dominant predator in our study area and was the primary cause of leveret dummy mortality (32.7%), but it also had the highest use-intensity and visit frequency of all of the study plots. Predation by avian predators was associated with patches of lower vegetation height and cover (such as plowed fields) and during daylight hours, whereas the opposite was true for mammalian predators. We propose that improving the habitat quality of arable landscapes by increasing the proportion and quality of extensively used non-farmed habitats (e.g., set-asides, wildflower areas, extensive meadows, fallow land, and semi-natural habitats on arable land) providing cover and shelter for leverets could be an effective management measure for reducing predation risk on leverets.

Metagenomic evaluation of peanut rhizosphere microbiome from the farms of Saurashtra regions of Gujarat, India.

The narrow zone of soil around the plant roots with maximum microbial activity termed as rhizosphere. Rhizospheric bacteria promote the plant growth directly or indirectly by providing the nutrients and producing antimicrobial compounds. In this study, the rhizospheric microbiota of peanut plants was characterized from different farms using an Illumina-based partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing to evaluate microbial diversity and identify the core microbiome through culture-independent (CI) approach. Further, all rhizospheric bacteria that could grow on various nutrient media were identified, and the diversity of those microbes through culture-dependent method (CD) was then directly compared with their CI counterparts. The microbial population profiles showed a significant correlation with organic carbon and concentration of phosphate, manganese, and potassium in the rhizospheric soil. Genera like Sphingomicrobium, Actinoplanes, Aureimonas _A, Chryseobacterium, members from Sphingomonadaceae, Burkholderiaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae family, and Bacilli class were found in the core microbiome of peanut plants. As expected, the current study demonstrated more bacterial diversity in the CI method. However, a higher number of sequence variants were exclusively present in the CD approach compared to the number of sequence variants shared between both approaches. These CD-exclusive variants belonged to organisms that are more typically found in soil. Overall, this study portrayed the changes in the rhizospheric microbiota of peanuts in different rhizospheric soil and environmental conditions and gave an idea about core microbiome of peanut plant and comparative bacterial diversity identified through both approaches.

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Clostridium perfringens strains isolated from mastitis and enteritis in Egyptian dairy farms.

BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens, a common environmental bacterium, is responsible for a variety of serious illnesses including food poisoning, digestive disorders, and soft tissue infections. Mastitis in lactating cattle and sudden death losses in baby calves are major problems for producers raising calves on dairy farms. The pathogenicity of this bacterium is largely mediated by its production of various toxins. RESULTS: The study revealed that Among the examined lactating animals with a history of mastitis, diarrheal baby calves, and acute sudden death cases in calves, C. perfringens was isolated in 23.5% (93/395) of the total tested samples. Eighteen isolates were obtained from mastitic milk, 59 from rectal swabs, and 16 from the intestinal contents of dead calves. Most of the recovered C. perfringens isolates (95.6%) were identified as type A by molecular toxinotyping, except for four isolates from sudden death cases (type C). Notably, C. perfringens was recovered in 100% of sudden death cases compared with 32.9% of rectal swabs and 9% of milk samples. This study analyzed the phylogeny of C. perfringens using the plc region and identified the plc region in five Egyptian bovine isolates (milk and fecal origins). Importantly, this finding expands the known data on C. perfringens phospholipase C beyond reference strains in GenBank from various animal and environmental sources. CONCLUSION: Phylogenetic analyses of nucleotide sequence data differentiated between strains of different origins. The plc sequences of Egyptian C. perfringens strains acquired in the present study differed from those reported globally and constituted a distinct genetic ancestor.

Direct transmission of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus from farm-raised fur animals to workers in Weihai, China.

BACKGROUND: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease. SFTS virus (SFTSV) is transmitted by tick bites and contact with the blood or body fluids of SFTS patients. Animal-to-human transmission of SFTS has been reported in Japan, but not in China. In this study, the possible transmission route of two patients who fed and cared for farm-raised fur animals in a mink farm was explored. METHOD: An epidemiological investigation and a genetic analysis of patients, animals and working environment were carried out. RESULTS: It was found that two patients had not been bitten by ticks and had no contact with patients infected with SFTS virus, but both of them had skinned the dying animals. 54.55% (12/22) of the farm workers were positive for SFTS virus antibody. By analyzing the large, medium and small segments sequences, the viral sequences from the two patients, animals and environments showed 99.9% homology. CONCLUSION: It is suspected that the two patients may be directly infected by farm-raised animals, and that the virus may have been transmitted by aerosols when skinning dying animals. Transmission by direct blood contacts or animal bites cannot be ignored.

Outbreak of Natural Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus Infection in Farmed Minks, China.

We isolated severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) from farmed minks in China, providing evidence of natural SFTSV infection in farmed minks. Our findings support the potential role of farmed minks in maintaining SFTSV and are helpful for the development of public health interventions to reduce human infection.

Combining sentiment analysis and text mining with content analysis of farm vet interviews on mental wellbeing in livestock practice.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the How Farm Vets Cope project was to co-design, with farm veterinary surgeons, a set of web-based resources to help them and others deal with the different situations that they can face. As part of the wider project, participants were recruited for one-to-one semi-structured phone interviews. These interviews focused on elements of job satisfaction and how the participants coped during periods of poor mental wellbeing or with setbacks and failure. METHODS: Transcripts of these interviews were analysed using both quantitative methods of sentiment analysis and text mining, including term frequency/inverse document frequency and rapid automated keyword extraction, and qualitative content analysis. The twin aims of the analysis were identifying the important themes discussed by the participants and comparing the results of the two methods to see what differences, if any, arose. RESULTS: Analysis using the afinn and nrc sentiment lexicons identified emotional themes of anticipation and trust. Rapid automated keyword extraction highlighted issues around age of vets and support, whilst using term frequency/inverse document frequency allowed for individual themes, such as religion, not present across all responses, to be identified. Content analysis supported these findings, pinpointing examples of trust around relationships with farmers and more experienced vets, along with some examples of the difference good support networks can make, particularly to younger vets. FINDINGS: This work has confirmed previous results in identifying the themes of trust, communication and support to be integral to the experience of practicing farm veterinary surgeons. Younger or less experienced vets recognised themselves as benefiting from further support and signposting, leading to a discussion around the preparation of veterinary students for entry into a farm animal vet practice. The two different approaches taken showed very good agreement in their results. The quantitative approaches can be scaled to allow a larger number of interviews to be utilised in studies whilst still allowing the important qualitative results to be identified.

The ecological and biodiversity conservation values of farm dams: A systematic review.

Biodiversity is in rapid decline globally with agriculture being one of the leading causes. Within agricultural landscapes, some features provide a benefit to biodiversity that is disproportionate to their spatial area. An interesting example is artificial ponds-or farm dams-which can support a large variety of taxa. Here, we present a global review of farm dam research related to biodiversity conservation objectives to provide an overview of the topics, key research insights, and the characteristics of current research. We used a three-stage process to screen literature and identified 104 relevant papers across 27 countries encompassing studies of 13 different taxa. Most of the studies were short-term (less than 5 years) with small sample sizes (less than 20 sites). Of the 104 papers, 88 were focussed primarily on ecological outcomes, such as species richness or abundance, and 15 on primary production outcomes, such as crop and livestock yield, despite addressing or measuring ecological metrics. Only one study measured both ecological and primary production outcomes. Studies frequently examined how the features of dams (79 studies) and attributes of the surrounding landscape (47 studies) impact particular species and communities. Terrestrial mammals (1 study) were under-represented in the literature with macrophytes (28 studies), macroinvertebrates (26 studies), and amphibians (19 studies) receiving the most attention. Our results reveal a growing trend towards recognizing farm dams as habitats for various taxa, including amphibians, beetles, dragonflies, and other macroinvertebrates within agricultural environments. Significant knowledge gaps exist in understanding how dam age, invasive species, and effective management practices impact the biodiversity conservation values of farm dams. Future research should emphasize enhancing biodiversity by collaborating with landholders to increase habitat through strategic vegetation planning, minimizing runoff and nutrient inflow, and restricting stock access.

Access to bedding and outdoor runs for growing-finishing pigs: is it possible to improve welfare without increasing environmental impacts?

Providing bedding or access to an outdoor run are husbandry aspects intended to improve pig welfare, which is currently financially supported through animal welfare schemes in several European countries. However, they may significantly affect the environment through changes in feed efficiency and manure management. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to compare farms differing in animal welfare relevant husbandry aspects regarding (1) the welfare of growing-finishing pigs and (2) environmental impact categories such as global warming (GW), acidification (AC), and freshwater (FE) and marine eutrophication (ME), by employing an attributional Life Cycle Assessment. We collected data on 50 farms with growing-finishing pigs in seven European countries. Ten animal-based welfare indicators were aggregated into three pig welfare indices using principal component analysis. Cluster analysis of farms based on husbandry aspects resulted in three clusters: NOBED (31 farms without bedding or outdoor run), BED (11 farms with bedding only) and BEDOUT (eight farms with bedding and outdoor run). Pigs on farms with bedding (BED and BEDOUT) manipulated enrichment more often (P < 0.001), pen fixtures less frequently (P = 0.003) and showed fewer oral stereotypies (P < 0.001) than pigs on NOBED farms. There were fewer pigs with a short(er) tail on farms with than without bedding (P < 0.001). Acidification of BEDOUT and BED farms was significantly higher (compared to NOBED farms P = 0.002) due to higher ammonia emissions related to farmyard manure. Also, BEDOUT farms had higher ME than NOBED farms (P = 0.035). There were no significant differences regarding GW and FE between husbandry clusters, due to the large variability within clusters regarding feed composition and conversion. Therefore, both husbandry aspects associated with improved animal welfare have a significant influence on some environmental impacts, such as acidification and marine eutrophication. Nevertheless, the large variation within clusters suggests that trade-offs may be minimised through e.g. AC and ME.

Cryptosporidium spp. in large-scale sheep farms in China: prevalence and genetic diversity.

Cryptosporidium spp. are significant zoonotic intestinal parasites that induce diarrhea and even death across most vertebrates, including humans. Previous studies showed that sheep are important hosts for Cryptosporidium and that its distribution in sheep is influenced by geography, feeding patterns, age, and season. Environmental factors also influence the transmission of Cryptosporidium. Molecular studies of Cryptosporidium in sheep have been conducted in only a few regions of China, and studies into the effect of sheep-housing environments on Cryptosporidium transmission are even rarer. To detect the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in large-scale sheep-housing farms, a total of 1241 fecal samples were collected from sheep, 727 environmental samples were taken from sheep housing, and 30 water samples were collected in six regions of China. To ascertain the existence of the parasite and identify the species of Cryptosporidium spp., we conducted nested PCR amplification of DNA extracted from all samples using the small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene as a target. For a more in-depth analysis of Cryptosporidium spp. subtypes, C. xiaoi-and C. ubiquitum-positive samples underwent separate nested PCR amplification targeting the 60 kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene. The amplification of the Cryptosporidium spp. SSU rRNA gene locus from the whole genomic DNA of all samples yielded a positive rate of 1.2% (20/1241) in fecal samples, 0.1% (1/727) in environmental samples, and no positive samples were found in water samples. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. infection in large-scale housed sheep was 1.7%, which was higher than that in free-ranging sheep (0.0%). The highest prevalence of infection was found in weaning lambs (6.8%). Among the different seasons, the peaks were found in the fall and winter. The most prevalent species were C. xiaoi and C. ubiquitum, with the former accounting for the majority of infections. The distribution of C. xiaoi subtypes was diverse, with XXIIIc (n = 1), XXIIId (n = 2), XXIIIe (n = 2), and XXIIIl (n = 4) identified. In contrast, only one subtype, XIIa (n = 9), was found in C. ubiquitum. In this study, C. xiaoi and C. ubiquitum were found to be the predominant species, and Cryptosporidium was found to be present in the environment. These findings provide an important foundation for the comprehensive prevention and management of Cryptosporidium in intensively reared sheep. Furthermore, by elucidating the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in sheep and its potential role in environmental transmission, this study deepens our understanding of the intricate interactions between animal health, environmental contamination, and public health dynamics.

Molecular characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 isolates from pigeon meat farms in Shanghai (2009-2012).

The majority of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) strains are generally non-pathogenic to chickens; however, they can induce severe illness and high mortality rates in pigeons, leading to substantial economic repercussions. The genomes of 11 PPMV-1 isolates from deceased pigeons on meat pigeon farms during passive monitoring from 2009 to 2012 were sequenced and analyzed using polymerase chain reaction and phylogenetic analysis. The complete genome lengths of 11 isolates were approximately 15,192 nucleotides, displaying a consistent gene order of 3'-NP-P-M-F-HN-L-5'. ALL isolates exhibited the characteristic motif of 112RRQKRF117 at the fusion protein cleavage site, which is characteristic of velogenic Newcastle disease virus. Moreover, multiple mutations have been identified within the functional domains of the F and HN proteins, encompassing the fusion peptide, heptad repeat region, transmembrane domains, and neutralizing epitopes. Phylogenetic analysis based on sequences of the F gene unveiled that all isolates clustered within genotype VI in class II. Further classification identified at least two distinct sub-genotypes, with seven isolates classified as sub-genotype VI.2.1.1.2.2, whereas the others were classified as sub-genotype VI.2.1.1.2.1. This study suggests that both sub-genotypes were implicated in severe disease manifestation among meat pigeons, with sub-genotype VI.2.1.1.2.2 displaying an increasing prevalence among Shanghai's meat pigeon population since 2011. These results emphasize the value of developing pigeon-specific vaccines and molecular diagnostic tools for monitoring and proactively managing potential PPMV-1 outbreaks.

On-farm crop diversity, conservation, importance and value: a case study of landraces from Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.

Landraces are important genetic resources that have a significant role in maintaining the long-term sustainability of traditional agro-ecosystems, food, nutrition, and livelihood security. In an effort to document landraces in the on-farm conservation context, Central Western Ghat region in India was surveyed. A total of 671 landraces belonging to 60 crops were recorded from 24 sites. The custodian farmers were found to conserve a variety of crops including vegetables, cereals and pulses, perennial fruits, spices, tuber and plantation crops. The survey indicated a difference in the prevalence of landraces across the sites. A significant difference with respect to the Shannon-diversity index, Gini-Simpson index, evenness, species richness, and abundance was observed among the different survey sites. Computation of a prevalence index indicated the need for immediate intervention in the form of collecting and ex situ conservation of landraces of some crops as a back-up to on-farm conservation. The study also identified the critical determinants of on-farm conservation, including (i) suitability to regional conditions, (ii) relevance in regional cuisine and local medicinal practices, (iii) cultural and traditional significance, and (iv) economic advantage. The information documented in this study is expected to promote the collection and conservation of landraces ex situ. The National Genebank housed at ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi conserves around 550 accessions of landraces collected from the Central Western Ghats region surveyed in this report. Information collected from custodian farmers on specific uses will be helpful to enhance the utilization of these accessions.

Social capital, government guidance and contract choice in agricultural land transfer.

This study explores the impact of farm households' social capital characteristics and local government policies on the selection of farmland transfer contracts in China's rural industrial revitalization context. Utilizing field research data from 1,979 households in ethnic areas of Hunan Province, this paper constructs an econometric model to assess how farm households' social capital and local governments' involvement in rural industrial revitalization influence farmland transfer contract selections. The findings indicate that, lacking government program support, farmers' social capital significantly affects contract type and duration, but not the rent. Specifically, farmers possessing extensive social capital prefer verbal and short-term contracts (coefficients of 0.525 and 0.643, significant at the 5% level), whereas their influence on rent (coefficient of 2.418, significant at the 5% level) manifests under government program support. These results challenge the conventional theory of farmland transfer contracts and offer substantial empirical support for the development of local government policies in rural industrial revitalization, underlining the critical role of government guidance and social capital in enhancing farmland transfer.

Economic and financial viability of a pig farm in central semi-tropical Mexico: 2022-2026 prospective.

To estimate the economic and financial viability of a pig farm in central sub-tropical Mexico within a 5-year planning horizon, a Monte Carlo simulation model was utilized. Net returns were projected using simulated values for the distribution of input and product processes, establishing 2021 as base scenario. A stochastic modelling approach was employed to determine the economic and financial outlook. The findings reveal a panorama of economic and financial viability. Net income increased by 555%, return on assets rose from 3.36% in 2022 to 11.34% in 2026, and the probability of decapitalization dropped from 58% to 13%, respectively in the aforesaid periods. Similarly, the probability of obtaining negative net income decreased from 40% in 2022 to 18% in 2026. The technological, productive, and economic management of the production unit allowed for a favorable scenario within the planning horizon. There is a growing interest in predicting the economic sectors worth investing in and supporting, considering their economic and development performance. This research offers both methodological and scientific evidence to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a planning schedule and validating the suitability of the pork sector for public investment and support.

Farm-level risk factors and treatment protocols for lameness in New Zealand dairy cattle.

AIMS: To identify farm-level risk factors for dairy cow lameness, and to describe lameness treatment protocols used on New Zealand dairy farms. METHODS: One hundred and nineteen farms from eight veterinary clinics within the major dairying regions of New Zealand were randomly enrolled into a cross-sectional lameness prevalence study. Each farmer completed a questionnaire on lameness risk factors and lameness treatment and management. Trained observers lameness scored cattle on two occasions, between October-December (spring, coinciding with peak lactation for most farms) and between January-March (summer, late lactation for most farms). A four-point (0-3) scoring system was used to assess lameness, with animals with a lameness score (LS) ≥2 defined as lame. At each visit, all lactating animals were scored including animals that had previously been identified lame by the farmer. Associations between the farmer-reported risk factors and lameness were determined using mixed logistic regression models in a Bayesian framework, with farm and score event as random effects. RESULTS: A lameness prevalence of 3.5% (2,113/59,631) was reported at the first LS event, and 3.3% (1,861/55,929) at the second LS event. There was a median prevalence of 2.8% (min 0, max 17.0%) from the 119 farms. Most farmers (90/117; 77%) relied on informal identification by farm staff to identify lame animals. On 65% (75/116) of farms, there was no external provider of lame cow treatments, with the farmer carrying out all lame cow treatments. Most farmers had no formal training (69/112; 62%). Animals from farms that used concrete stand-off pads during periods of inclement weather had 1.45 times the odds of lameness compared to animals on farms that did not use concrete stand-off pads (95% equal-tailed credible interval 1.07-1.88). Animals from farms that reported peak lameness incidence from January to June or all year-round, had 0.64 times odds of lameness compared to animals from farms that reported peak lameness incidence from July to December (95% equal-tailed credible interval 0.47-0.88). CONCLUSIONS: Lameness prevalence was low amongst the enrolled farms. Use of concrete stand-off pads and timing of peak lameness incidence were associated with odds of lameness. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Veterinarians should be encouraging farmers to have formal lameness identification protocols and lameness management plans in place. There is ample opportunity to provide training to farmers for lame cow treatment. Management of cows on stand-off pads should consider the likely impact on lameness.

Response of soil organic carbon to straw return in farmland soil in China: A meta-analysis.

Straw return is an effective measure to promote sustainable agriculture by significantly improving soil fertility. At present, few studies have been conducted on the most effective carbon enhancing management measures for various crops. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis using data collected from 184 literature sources, comprising 3297 data sets to analyze the carbon increase effects of straw returning in three main crops (rice, maize, and wheat) in China and to explore the influence mechanism of natural factors, soil properties, straw return measures, and cropping systems on the carbon enhancement effect. The study showed that straw return significantly increased soil organic carbon and the rate of increase was higher for wheat at 15.88% (14.74%-17.03%) than for rice at 12.7% (11.5%-13.91%) and maize at 12.42% (11.42%-13.42%), with varying degrees of improvement in other soil physicochemical properties. Natural factors have the greatest impact on the carbon increasing effect of rice fields, reaching 28.8%, especially at temperature between 10 °C and 15 °C, less than 800 mm precipitation, low latitude, and short frost-free period. Maize and wheat are most affected by soil properties, reaching 41% and 34.5% respectively. Furthermore, field management practices also play a pivotal role, organic carbon increasing obviously was observed when the C/N ratio of exogenous nutrients is bigger than 20 with the low initial organic matter. Shallow tillage and less than 7.5 t hm-2 straw returning with 3-10 years to the field are ideal for rice and maize. Crop rotation, especially in drylands, increased soil organic carbon more significantly than continuous. The results of our analysis can provide valuable insights into the effect of straw return on carbon increase. In the future, the soil carbon can be improved by adopting rational cropping patterns and straw return measures with taking into account climate and soil characteristics for different crops.

Transforming Poultry Farming: A Pyramid Vision Transformer Approach for Accurate Chicken Counting in Smart Farm Environments.

Smart farm environments, equipped with cutting-edge technology, require proficient techniques for managing poultry. This research investigates automated chicken counting, an essential part of optimizing livestock conditions. By integrating artificial intelligence and computer vision, it introduces a transformer-based chicken-counting model to overcome challenges to precise counting, such as lighting changes, occlusions, cluttered backgrounds, continual chicken growth, and camera distortions. The model includes a pyramid vision transformer backbone and a multi-scale regression head to predict precise density maps of the crowded chicken enclosure. The customized loss function incorporates curriculum loss, allowing the model to learn progressively, and adapts to diverse challenges posed by varying densities, scales, and appearances. The proposed annotated dataset includes data on various lighting conditions, chicken sizes, densities, and placements. Augmentation strategies enhanced the dataset with brightness, contrast, shadow, blur, occlusion, cropping, and scaling variations. Evaluating the model on the proposed dataset indicated its robustness, with a validation mean absolute error of 27.8, a root mean squared error of 40.9, and a test average accuracy of 96.9%. A comparison with the few-shot object counting model SAFECount demonstrated the model's superior accuracy and resilience. The transformer-based approach was 7.7% more accurate than SAFECount. It demonstrated robustness in response to different challenges that may affect counting and offered a comprehensive and effective solution for automated chicken counting in smart farm environments.

Crop yields fail to rise in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Drawing on a harmonized longitudinal dataset covering more than 55,000 smallholder farms in six African countries, we analyze changes in crop productivity from 2008 to 2019. Because smallholder farmers represent a significant fraction of the world's poorest people, agricultural productivity in this context matters for poverty reduction and for the broader achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our analysis measures productivity trends for nationally representative samples of smallholder crop farmers, using detailed data on agricultural inputs and outputs which we integrate with detailed data on local weather and environmental conditions. In spite of government commitments and international efforts to strengthen African agriculture, we find no evidence that smallholder crop productivity improved over this 12-y period. Our preferred statistical specification of total factor productivity (TFP) suggests an overall decline in productivity of -3.5% per year. Various other models we test also find declining productivity in the overall sample, and none of them finds productivity growth. However, the different countries in our sample experienced varying trends, with some instances of growth in some regions. The results suggest that major challenges remain for agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. They complement previous analyses that relied primarily on aggregate national statistics to measure agricultural productivity, rather than detailed microdata.

Farmer typology and drivers of agricultural mechanization use in Haiti.

Agricultural mechanization is recognized as an important technology to increase agricultural productivity, face labor shortages, and reduce post-harvest loss. However, variations among farms' characteristics and agricultural production systems suggest adopting a targeted strategy in mechanization programs for farmers. This research aimed to answer the following questions in the particular case of Haiti: are there different types of smallholder farmers in terms of mechanization use and socio-economic characteristics? What types of mechanization are used by farmers, and what drives their use among different types of farmers? What are the different types of farms in terms of mechanization use? We used typology construction methodology (principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)) for a sample of 637 farmers and have identified four different clusters of farmers according to the characteristics of the farms they managed: "Little rain-fed farms" (cluster 1), "Little lowlands farms" (cluster 2), "Medium-sized farms in irrigated plains" (cluster 3), and "Large fragmented mountain farms". Farms in cluster 3 were those who used more agricultural mechanization, and the results of multinomial logistic regression (MNLR) model revealed that the significant drivers of this use were location, access to credit and low food security status. Mechanization use of farms in clusters 1 and 4 was distinctively driven by saving behavior and off-farm income, respectively. In the pooled sample, the drivers of mechanization were: regions or location, age of the farmers, irrigation, livestock, access to credit, off-farm income and food security status. This study contributes to the literature by testing new drivers of agricultural mechanization such as food security status, and off-farm income. The findings can be used to design appropriate mechanization strategies to increase productivity and face labor price/scarcity challenges. They suggest that mechanization policies should focus on agricultural equipment that are adapted to the specificities of the production systems of each farm type, and strengthen access to credit. Otherwise, mechanization will be predominantly used only in irrigated lowlands.

Culicoides Midge Abundance across Years: Modeling Inter-Annual Variation for an Avian Feeder and a Candidate Vector of Hemorrhagic Diseases in Farmed Wildlife.

(1) Background: Epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) and bluetongue virus (BTV) are orbiviruses that cause hemorrhagic disease (HD) with significant economic and population health impacts on domestic livestock and wildlife. In the United States, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are particularly susceptible to these viruses and are a frequent blood meal host for various species of Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) that transmit orbiviruses. The species of Culicoides that transmit EHDV and BTV vary between regions, and larval habitats can differ widely between vector species. Understanding how midges are distributed across landscapes can inform HD virus transmission risk on a local scale, allowing for improved animal management plans to avoid suspected high-risk areas or target these areas for insecticide control. (2) Methods: We used occupancy modeling to estimate the abundance of gravid (egg-laden) and parous (most likely to transmit the virus) females of two putative vector species, C. stellifer and C. venustus, and one species, C. haematopotus, that was not considered a putative vector. We developed a universal model to determine habitat preferences, then mapped a predicted weekly midge abundance during the HD transmission seasons in 2015 (July-October) and 2016 (May-October) in Florida. (3) Results: We found differences in habitat preferences and spatial distribution between the parous and gravid states for C. haematopotus and C. stellifer. Gravid midges preferred areas close to water on the border of well and poorly drained soil. They also preferred mixed bottomland hardwood habitats, whereas parous midges appeared less selective of habitat. (4) Conclusions: If C. stellifer is confirmed as an EHDV vector in this region, the distinct spatial and abundance patterns between species and physiological states suggest that the HD risk is non-random across the study area.

Prevalence, Time of Infection, and Diversity of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus in China.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRVS) is a major swine viral pathogen that affects the pig industry worldwide. Control of early PRRSV infection is essential, and different types of PRRSV-positive samples can reflect the time point of PRRSV infection. This study aims to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of PRRSV in China from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022, which will be beneficial for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)control in the swine production industry in the future. A total of 7518 samples (of processing fluid, weaning serum, and oral fluid) were collected from 100 intensive pig farms in 21 provinces, which covered all five pig production regions in China, on a quarterly basis starting from the fourth quarter of 2021 and ending on the fourth quarter of 2022. Independent of sample type, 32.1% (2416/7518) of the total samples were PCR-positive for PRRSV, including 73.6% (1780/2416) samples that were positive for wild PRRSV, and the remaining were positive for PRRSV vaccine strains. On the basis of the time of infection, 58.9% suckling piglets (processing fluid) and 30.8% weaning piglets (weaning serum) showed PRRSV infection at an early stage (approximately 90% of the farms). The sequencing analysis results indicate a wide range of diverse PRRSV wild strains in China, with lineage 1 as the dominant strain. Our study clearly demonstrates the prevalence, infection stage, and diversity of PRRSV in China. This study provides useful data for the epidemiological understanding of PRRSV, which can contribute to the strategic and systematic prevention and control of PRRSV in China.