Update on severe summer scour syndrome in cattle.

This focus article has been prepared by Vanessa Swinson, veterinary lead of the APHA Cattle Expert Group, Liz Nabb, of APHA Starcross, Katrina Henderson, of SRUC Dumfries, and Mick Millar, of the University of Bristol Veterinary School.

Determining the prevalence of antibodies to Salmonella Dublin in dairy herds in Great Britain by quarterly bulk tank testing.

Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Dublin has been the most common Salmonella serovar isolated from cattle in Great Britain for the previous 22 years. It can cause a wide variety of clinical presentations and result in significant welfare and productivity concerns in infected herds. Bulk tank antibody testing undertaken every three or four months forms the basis of eradication and monitoring programmes in Denmark and the Netherlands and has been shown to be a sensitive, specific and cost-effective way of establishing seroprevalence and monitoring infection at a herd level. A prevalence estimate based on quarterly bulk tank testing has not been previously carried out in Great Britain. This study recruited 410 herds across Great Britain, who submitted milk samples on a quarterly basis for screening by an ELISA for Salmonella Dublin antibody. Classifying herds according to the Danish eradication scheme classification gave an apparent prevalence of 38% (95% confidence intervals 34-43%) and an estimated true prevalence of 40% (95% confidence intervals 35-45%), taking into account the test sensitivity and specificity. Of the 401 herds which completed the quarterly bulk tank testing, 45% had one or more positive bulk tank results.

Deleterious AGXT Missense Variant Associated with Type 1 Primary Hyperoxaluria (PH1) in Zwartbles Sheep.

Severe oxalate nephropathy has been previously reported in sheep and is mostly associated with excessive oxalate in the diet. However, a rare native Dutch breed (Zwartbles) seems to be predisposed to an inherited juvenile form of primary hyperoxaluria and no causative genetic variant has been described so far. This study aims to characterize the phenotype and genetic etiology of the inherited metabolic disease observed in several purebred Zwartbles sheep. Affected animals present with a wide range of clinical signs including condition loss, inappetence, malaise, and, occasionally, respiratory signs, as well as an apparent sudden unexpected death. Histopathology revealed widespread oxalate crystal deposition in kidneys of the cases. Whole-genome sequencing of two affected sheep identified a missense variant in the ovine AGXT gene (c.584G>A; p.Cys195Tyr). Variants in AGXT are known to cause type I primary hyperoxaluria in dogs and humans. Herein, we present evidence that the observed clinicopathological phenotype can be described as a form of ovine type I primary hyperoxaluria. This disorder is explained by a breed-specific recessively inherited pathogenic AGXT variant. Genetic testing enables selection against this fatal disorder in Zwartbles sheep as well as more precise diagnosis in animals with similar clinical phenotype. Our results have been incorporated in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) database (OMIA 001672-9940).

Development of frailty measurement tools using administrative health data: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: Frailty is an increasingly common health condition and is seen more often due to the ageing population. This study reviews the evidence on the development and validation of these automated frailty measurement tools. DESIGN: Six databases: PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science were electronically searched. Selected studies must have developed and validated a new frailty measurement tool using administrative health data and published results in a peer-reviewed, English-language journal. Selected studies were synthesized narratively. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The review focused on large scale studies using administrative health data in developed countries. Participants included older people aged 65 years and above. MEASURES: The main measures of review studies include discrimination power and the prediction ability of adverse health outcomes; performance against established frailty measures; and validation records. RESULTS: Five studies were selected for narrative synthesis after screening the full-text. All frailty measurement tools in the selected five studies produced strong discrimination power with C-statistics ranging from 0.61-97. Two studies were independently validated in studies by other authors or conducted in other locations; one study developed an early prediction model, and no study has been applied in practice. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Automated frailty measurement tools using administrative health data are still in the early development stage with five tools developed since 2016. Selected studies have strong prediction of adverse health outcomes. Future studies should include validation and refinement of these tools in other countries and assessment of their clinical utility and capacity to inform cost-effective policy and practice.

Effect of Surgical Specialty on Management of Adnexal Masses in Children and Adolescents: An 8-Year Single-Center Review.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Children with adnexal masses might be managed by pediatric surgeons, urologists or gynecologists, with the potential for different management strategies between specialties. In this study we compared ovarian conservation rates and surgical approach for adnexal masses in children and adolescents managed either by pediatric surgeons/urologists or gynecologists at a tertiary care institution. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort review. SETTING: Tertiary pediatric and adult university hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients younger than 18 years of age with an adnexal mass managed surgically with removal of histologically confirmed ovarian or fallopian tube tissue from 2008 to 2015. INTERVENTIONS: Laparoscopic or open procedure for adnexal mass. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was rate of ovarian conservation relative to surgical specialty. The secondary outcome was surgical approach relative to surgical specialty. RESULTS: Forty-eight patients underwent surgery for adnexal masses; 26 (54%) under pediatric surgery/urology and 22 (46%) under gynecology care. Laparoscopy was performed in 5 (19%) pediatric and 19 (86%) gynecology cases (P = .000006). Of 24 patients older than 12 years of age with a benign tumor, 10 (42%) underwent procedures resulting in loss of an ovary with or without fallopian tube; 8 of these (80%) were under pediatric care. Of the remaining 14 (58%) who underwent ovarian conserving surgery, 12 (80%) were under gynecology care (P = .0027). CONCLUSION: Patients with a benign tumor were significantly more likely to undergo ovary-preserving surgery under gynecology care than under pediatric surgery/urology care. A multidisciplinary team approach involving gynecology and pediatric surgical specialties would be valuable in assessing the merits of ablative or conservative surgery in each case.

Thermal imaging to assess age-related changes of skin temperature within the supraclavicular region co-locating with brown adipose tissue in healthy children.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the feasibility of infrared thermal imaging as a reproducible, noninvasive method for assessing changes in skin temperature within the supraclavicular region in vivo. STUDY DESIGN: Thermal imaging was used to assess the effect of a standard cool challenge (by placement of the participant's feet or hand in water at 20°C) on the temperature of the supraclavicular region in healthy volunteer participants of normal body mass index in 3 age groups, 3-8, 13-18, and 35-58 years of age. RESULTS: We demonstrated a highly localized increase in temperature within the supraclavicular region together with a significant age-related decline under both baseline and stimulated conditions. CONCLUSION: Thermogenesis within the supraclavicular region can be readily quantified by thermal imaging. This noninvasive imaging technique now has the potential to be used to assess brown adipose tissue function alone, or in combination with other techniques, in order to determine the roles of thermogenesis in energy balance and, therefore, obesity prevention.

Real-time measurement of short-term peaks in environmental CO concentrations in the homes of the elderly in South Wales.

In order to determine whether short-term World Health Organization (WHO) guideline limits for carbon monoxide (CO) are exceeded in the home environment, a number of sensors were constructed capable of real-time measurement. These were deployed for a period of 7 days to continuously monitor CO concentrations in 44 non-smoking households using either gas, coal, electricity, liquid propane gas, or oil for heating fuel in South Wales. The mean environmental concentrations over the period monitored were less than 1 p.p.m and WHO short-term limits were not exceeded in any household. In another 20 homes containing a smoker the mean concentrations measured over a period of 2 days ranged from 0.1 to 21 p.p.m and WHO short-term limits were exceeded in one household.