COVID-19 is associated with early emergence of preeclampsia: results from a large regional collaborative.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between preeclampsia and SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women between March and October 2020. Pregnant patients admitted to 14 obstetrical centers in Michigan, USA formed the study population. Of the N = 1458 participants, 369 had SARS-CoV-2 infection (cases). Controls were uninfected pregnancies that were delivered in the same obstetric unit within 30 days of the index case. Robust Poisson regression was used to estimate relative risk (RR) of preterm and term preeclampsia and preeclampsia involving placental lesions. The analysis included adjustment for relevant clinical and demographic risk factors.Results: SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy increased the risk of preeclampsia [adjusted aRR = 1.69 (1.26-2.26)], preeclampsia involving placental lesions [aRR = 1.97(1.14-3.4)] and preterm preeclampsia 2.48(1.48-4.17). Although the highest rate of preeclampsia was observed in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 who were symptomatic (18.4%), there was increased risk even in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected patients (14.2%) relative to non-infected controls (8.7%) (p < 0.05). This association with symptomatology was also noted with preterm preeclampsia for which the rate doubled from 2.7% in controls to 5.2% in asymptomatic cases and reached 11.8% among symptomatic cases (p < 0.05). The rate of preterm preeclampsia among cases of pregnant people self-identified as Black reached 10.1% and was almost double the rate of the reminder of the group of infected pregnancies (5.3%), although the rate among uninfected was almost the same (2.7%) for both Black and non-Black groups (interaction p = 0.05).Conclusions: Infection with SARS-CoV-2 increases the risk of preeclampsia even in the absence of symptoms, although symptomatic persons are at even higher risk. Racial disparities in the development of preterm preeclampsia after SARS-CoV-2 infection may explain discrepancies in prematurity between different populations.

Current and potential use of animal disease data by stakeholders in the global south and north.

What cannot be measured will not be managed. The Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) will generate information on animal disease burdens by species, production system, type and gender of farmer and consumer, geographical region, and time period. To understand the demand for burden of animal disease (BAD) data and how end-users might benefit from this, we reviewed the literature on animal diseases prioritisation processes (ADPP) and conducted a survey of BAD information users. The survey covered their current use of data and prioritizations as well as their needs for different, more, and better information. We identified representative (geography, sector, species) BAD experts from the authors' networks and publicly available documents and e-mailed 1485 experts. Of 791 experts successfully contacted, 271 responded (34% response rate), and 185 complete and valid responses were obtained. Most respondents came from the public sector followed by academia/research, and most were affiliated to institutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Of the six ADPPs commonly featured in literature, only three were recognised by more than 40% of experts. An additional 23 ADPPs were used. Awareness of ADDPs varied significantly by respondents. Respondents ranked animal disease priorities. We used exploded logit to combine first, second and third disease priorities to better understand prioritzation and their determinants. Expert priorities differed significantly from priorities identified by the ADDPs, and also from the priorities stated veterinary services as reported in a survey for a World Organisation of Animal Health (WOAH) technical item. Respondents identified 15 different uses of BAD data. The most common use was presenting evidence (publications, official reports, followed by disease management, policy development and proposal writing). Few used disease data for prioritzation or resource allocation, fewer routinely used economic data for decision making, and less than half were aware of the use of decision support tools (DSTs). Nearly all respondents considered current BAD metrics inadequate, most considered animal health information insufficiently available and not evidence-based, and most expressed concerns that decision-making processes related to animal health lacked transparency and fairness. Cluster analysis suggested three clusters of BAD users and will inform DSTs to help them better meet their specific objectives. We conclude that there is a lack of satisfaction with current BAD information, and with existing ADDPs, contributing to sub-optimal decision making. Improved BAD data would have multiple uses by different stakeholders leading to better evidenced decisions and policies; moreover, clients will need support (including DSTs) to optimally use BAD information.

Population, distribution, biomass, and economic value of Equids in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Equids play a crucial role in the Ethiopian economy, transporting agricultural inputs and outputs in the dominant subsistence agricultural systems and the critical link for value chains throughout the country. However, these species are often neglected in policies and interventions, which reflects the data and information gaps, particularly the contribution of working equids to Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To assess population dynamics, distribution, biomass, and economic value of equids in Ethiopia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Equine population data were obtained from the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency (CSA) annual national agriculture surveys published yearbooks from 2004 to 2020. Parameters such as the number of effective service days and daily rental value were obtained from interviews and literature to estimate the stock monetary and service value of equids. Descriptive statistics were used to assess population dynamics and the geographical distribution was mapped. RESULTS: The estimated total Ethiopian equid population increased by more than doubled (by 131%) between 2004 and 2020 from 5.7 (4.9-6.6) million to 13.3 (11.6-15) million with 2.1 million horses, 10.7 million donkeys, and 380 thousand mules. Similarly, the number of households owning a working equid has increased. Equine populations are unevenly distributed across Ethiopia, although data were lacking in some districts of the country. The per human-capita equine population ranged from 0-0.52, 0-0.13, and 0-0.02 for donkeys, horses, and mules, respectively. The equid biomass was 7.4 (6.3-8.4) million Tropical livestock unit (TLU) (250 kg liveweight), 10% of total livestock biomass of the country. The stock monetary value of equids was USD 1,229 (651-1,908) million, accounting for 3.1% of total livestock monetary value and the services value of equids was USD 1,198 (825-1,516) million, which is 1.2% of Ethiopian 2021 expected GDP. CONCLUSION: The Ethiopian equine population has grown steadily over the last two decades. Equids play a central role in transportation and subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia and contribute significantly to the national economy. This pivotal role is insufficiently recognized in national livestock investments.

The Public Health Importance and Management of Infectious Poultry Diseases in Smallholder Systems in Africa.

Poultry diseases pose major constraints on smallholder production in Africa, causing high flock mortality and economic hardship. Infectious diseases, especially viral diseases like Newcastle disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and bacterial diseases, especially colibacillosis and salmonellosis, are responsible for most chicken losses, with downstream effects on human nutrition and health. Beyond production impacts, poultry diseases directly harm public health if zoonotic, can give rise to epidemics and pandemics, and facilitate antimicrobial resistance through treatment attempts. HPAI, campylobacteriosis, and salmonellosis are the priority zoonoses. Sustainable solutions for poultry health remain elusive despite recognition of the problem. This review summarises current knowledge on major poultry diseases in smallholder systems, their impacts, and options for prevention and control. We find biosecurity, vaccination, good husbandry, and disease-resistant breeds can reduce disease burden, but practical limitations exist in implementing these measures across smallholder systems. Treatment is often inefficient for viral diseases, and treatment for bacterial diseases risks antimicrobial resistance. Ethnoveterinary practices offer accessible alternatives but require more rigorous evaluation. Multisectoral collaboration and policies that reach smallholder poultry keepers are essential to alleviate disease constraints. Successful control will improve livelihoods, nutrition, and gender equity for millions of rural families. This review concludes that sustainable, scalable solutions for smallholder poultry disease control remain a critical unmet need in Africa.

Rationalising development of classification systems describing livestock production systems for disease burden analysis within the Global Burden of Animal Diseases programme.

The heterogeneity that exists across the global spectrum of livestock production means that livestock productivity, efficiency, health expenditure and health outcomes vary across production systems. To ensure that burden of disease estimates are specific to the represented livestock population and people reliant upon them, livestock populations need to be systematically classified into different types of production system, reflective of the heterogeneity across production systems. This paper explores the data currently available of livestock production system classifications and animal health through a scoping review as a foundation for the development of a framework that facilitates more specific estimates of livestock disease burdens. A top-down framework to classification is outlined based on a systematic review of existing classification methods and provides a basis for simple grouping of livestock at global scale. The proposed top-down classification framework, which is dominated by commodity focus of production along with intensity of resource use, may have less relevance at the sub-national level in some jurisdictions and will need to be informed and adapted with information on how countries themselves categorize livestock and their production systems. The findings in this study provide a foundation for analysing animal health burdens across a broad level of production systems. The developed framework will fill a major gap in how livestock production and health are currently approached and analysed.

Approximating the global economic (market) value of farmed animals.

Understanding the global economic importance of farmed animals to society is essential as a baseline for decision making about future food systems. We estimated the annual global economic (market) value of live animals and primary production outputs, e.g., meat, eggs, milk, from terrestrial and aquatic farmed animal systems. The results suggest that the total global market value of farmed animals ranges between 1.61 and 3.3 trillion USD (2018) and is expected to be similar in absolute terms to the market value of crop outputs (2.57 trillion USD). The cattle sector dominates the market value of farmed animals. The study highlights the need to consider other values of farmed animals to society, e.g., finance/insurance value and cultural value, in decisions about the sector's future.

Characterizing Ethiopian cattle production systems for disease burden analysis.

This paper addresses knowledge gaps in the biomass, productivity and value of livestock for the pastoral, mixed crop-livestock and specialized dairy systems in Ethiopia. Population size, reproductive performance, mortality, offtake and productivity of cattle were calculated from official statistics and a meta-analysis of data available in the published literature. This information was then used to estimate biomass and output value for 2020 using a herd dynamics model. The mixed-crop livestock system dominates the Ethiopian cattle sector, with 55 million cattle (78% total population) and contributing 8.52 billion USD to the economy through the provision of meat, milk, hides and draft power in 2021. By comparison, the pastoral (13.4 million head) and specialized dairy (1.8 million head) systems are much smaller. Productivity varied between different production systems, with differences in live body weight, productivity and prices from different sources. The estimated total cattle biomass was 14.8 billion kg in 2021, i.e., 11.3 billion kg in the mixed crop-livestock system, 2.60 billion kg in the pastoral system and 0.87 billion kg in the specialized dairy system. The total economic asset values of cattle in the mixed crop-livestock, pastoral and specialized dairy systems were estimated as 24.8, 5.28 and 1.37 billion USD, respectively. The total combined output value (e.g., beef, milk and draft power) of cattle production was 11.9 billion USD, which was 11.2% of the GDP in Ethiopia in 2021. This work quantifies the importance of cattle in the Ethiopian economy. These estimates of herd structure, reproductive performance, productivity, biomass, and economic value for cattle production systems in Ethiopia can be used to inform high-level policy, revealing under-performance and areas to prioritize and provide a basis for further technical analysis, such as disease burden.

Approaches for disease prioritization and decision-making in animal health, 2000-2021: a structured scoping review.

This scoping review identifies and describes the methods used to prioritize diseases for resource allocation across disease control, surveillance, and research and the methods used generally in decision-making on animal health policy. Three electronic databases (Medline/PubMed, Embase, and CAB Abstracts) were searched for articles from 2000 to 2021. Searches identified 6, 395 articles after de-duplication, with an additional 64 articles added manually. A total of 6, 460 articles were imported to online document review management software (sysrev.com) for screening. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 532 articles passed the first screening, and after a second round of screening, 336 articles were recommended for full review. A total of 40 articles were removed after data extraction. Another 11 articles were added, having been obtained from cross-citations of already identified articles, providing a total of 307 articles to be considered in the scoping review. The results show that the main methods used for disease prioritization were based on economic analysis, multi-criteria evaluation, risk assessment, simple ranking, spatial risk mapping, and simulation modeling. Disease prioritization was performed to aid in decision-making related to various categories: (1) disease control, prevention, or eradication strategies, (2) general organizational strategy, (3) identification of high-risk areas or populations, (4) assessment of risk of disease introduction or occurrence, (5) disease surveillance, and (6) research priority setting. Of the articles included in data extraction, 50.5% had a national focus, 12.3% were local, 11.9% were regional, 6.5% were sub-national, and 3.9% were global. In 15.2% of the articles, the geographic focus was not specified. The scoping review revealed the lack of comprehensive, integrated, and mutually compatible approaches to disease prioritization and decision support tools for animal health. We recommend that future studies should focus on creating comprehensive and harmonized frameworks describing methods for disease prioritization and decision-making tools in animal health.

Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli Isolates from Livestock and the Environment in Extensive Smallholder Livestock Production Systems in Ethiopia.

The objective of this study was to characterize the distribution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from livestock feces and soil in smallholder livestock systems. A cross-sectional study was carried out sampling 77 randomly selected households in four districts representing two agroecologies and production systems. E. coli was isolated and the susceptibility to 15 antimicrobials was assessed. Of 462 E. coli isolates tested, resistance to at least one antimicrobial was detected in 52% (43.7-60.8) of isolates from cattle fecal samples, 34% (95% CI, 26.2-41.8) from sheep samples, 58% (95% CI, 47.9-68.2) from goat samples and 53% (95% CI, 43.2-62.4) from soil samples. AMR patterns for E. coli from livestock and soil showed some similarities, with the highest prevalence of resistance detected against streptomycin (33%), followed by amoxycillin/clavulanate (23%) and tetracycline (8%). The odds of detecting E. coli resistance to ≥2 antimicrobials in livestock fecal samples were nearly three times (Odd Ratio-OR: 2.9; 95% CI, 1.72-5.17; p = 0.000) higher in lowland pastoral than in highland mixed crop-livestock production systems. These findings provide insights into the status of resistance in livestock and soil, and associated risk factors in low-resource settings in Ethiopia.

Maternal SARS-COV-2 infection and prematurity: the Southern Michigan COVID-19 collaborative.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 has been reported to increase the risk of prematurity, however, due to the frequent absence of unaffected controls as well as inadequate accounting for confounders in many studies, the question requires further investigation. We sought to determine the impact of COVID-19 disease on preterm birth (PTB) overall, as well as related subcategories such as early prematurity, spontaneous, medically indicated preterm birth, and preterm labor (PTL). We assessed the impact of confounders such as COVID-19 risk factors, a-priori risk factors for PTB, symptomatology, and disease severity on rates of prematurity. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women from March 2020 till October 1st, 2020. The study included patients from 14 obstetric centers in Michigan, USA. Cases were defined as women diagnosed with COVID-19 at any point during their pregnancy. Cases were matched with uninfected women who delivered in the same unit, within 30 d of the delivery of the index case. Outcomes of interest were frequencies of prematurity overall and subcategories of preterm birth (early, spontaneous/medically indicated, preterm labor, and premature preterm rupture of membranes) in cases compared to controls. The impact of modifiers of these outcomes was documented with extensive control for potential confounders. A p value <.05 was used to infer significance. RESULTS: The rate of prematurity was 8.9% in controls, 9.4% in asymptomatic cases, 26.5% in symptomatic COVID-19 cases, and 58.8% among cases admitted to the ICU. Gestational age at delivery was noted to decrease with disease severity. Cases were at an increased risk of prematurity overall [adjusted relative risk (aRR) = 1.62 (1.2-2.18)] and of early prematurity (<34 weeks) [aRR = 1.8 (1.02-3.16)] when compared to controls. Medically indicated prematurity related to preeclampsia [aRR = 2.46 (1.47-4.12)] or other indications [aRR = 2.32 (1.12-4.79)], were the primary drivers of overall prematurity risk. Symptomatic cases were at an increased risk of preterm labor [aRR = 1.74 (1.04-2.8)] and spontaneous preterm birth due to premature preterm rupture of membranes [aRR = 2.2(1.05-4.55)] when compared to controls and asymptomatic cases combined. The gestational age at delivery followed a dose-response relation with disease severity, as more severe cases tended to deliver earlier (Wilcoxon p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 is an independent risk factor for preterm birth. The increased preterm birth rate in COVID-19 was primarily driven by medically indicated delivery, with preeclampsia as the principal risk factor. Symptomatic status and disease severity were significant drivers of preterm birth.

Ovine gastrointestinal parasite burden and the impact of strategic anthelmintic treatment in community-based breeding sites in Ethiopia.

Introduction: In Ethiopia, small ruminants contribute significantly to livelihoods and food security but productivity is low with high disease burden and essential endoparasite control not widely practiced. The current study assessed worm burden and its control in three districts in Ethiopia. Methods: All sheep older than 3 months in nine villages were treated en-masse with albendazole and triclabendazole twice a year from 2018 to 2021. Treatments were administered under field conditions by animal health workers. Pre- and post-treatment data were assessed looking at fecal egg presence/absence and fecal egg per gram (EPG) count. Results: A total of 1,928 and 735 sheep were examined before and after deworming, respectively. Before treatment worms were detected in 54.4% (95% CI: 52.2-56.6) of sheep. Strongylid (30.4%) and Fasciola (18.2%) were the most frequently identified parasites. Animals living in wet mid-highland environments were more than 23 times more likely to have strongylid eggs in their feces and 5 times more likely to have eggs from any gastrointestinal tract (GIT) parasites detected, as compared to animals living in moist highland agro-ecology. Over the course of the 2018-2021 community intervention there was total elimination of animals with a high worm burden (EPG > 1,500), and elimination of a third of those with moderate infections. Mild infections remained, largely accounted for by strongylid, which remains at low levels in healthy sheep. However, there were signs of emerging drug resistance. Conclusion: Generally, sheep in smallholder systems in Ethiopia experience a needlessly large economic burden from GIT worms. Routine therapy reduces this burden but smart strategies are needed to limit the onset of drug resistance.

Knowledge, attitude and practice of tomato retailers towards hygiene and food safety in Harar and Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.

In this study, we assessed knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) related to tomato hygiene and food safety, among tomato vendors in the Ethiopian cities of Harar and Dire Dawa. From a total of 1498 tomato retail market vendors identified in the two cities through vendor mapping exercises, 151 outlets were randomly selected for a cross-sectional KAP survey on tomato handling, marketing, loss due to damage, safety, and hygienic practice. Tomato vendors claimed that they knew about food safety and hygiene, and risks associated with raw tomatoes. We found considerable variation in food safety knowledge, barriers, and practices during handling and marketing. The major concern of tomato traders in terms of food safety for vegetables was contamination with dirt. Around 17% of street vendors did not know about the importance of water quality and cleanliness for food safety. About 20% of tomato traders washed tomatoes after they purchased them and 43% and 14% of respondents who practiced tomato washing revealed that they cannot get the quantity and quality of water needed, respectively. Tomatoes were displayed in direct sunlight in about 85% of stalls. About 37% of vendors said rodents were present at night and could contact surfaces tomatoes are displayed on. For about 40% of outlets one or more flies were seen to be present on a third to two-thirds of their tomatoes. Overall, 40% of respondents reported they do not have adequate toilet facilities and 20% of those that use a toilet do not have water for washing hands after. The study identified areas that should be targeted by interventions aiming to improve food safety in this setting, however, without improvements in basic infrastructure to provide the pre-requisites for food safety the impact of small-scale food safety interventions may be limited.

Enhanced stimulated Raman scattering during intense laser propagation.

Stimulated Raman scattering is ubiquitous in many high-intensity laser environments. Parametric four-wave mixing between the pump and Raman sidebands can affect the Raman gain, but stringent phase matching requirements and strongly nonlinear dynamics obscure clear understanding of its effects at high laser powers. Here we investigate four-wave mixing in the presence of strong self-focusing and weak ionization at laser powers above the Kerr critical power. Theoretical analysis shows that the plasma generated at focus naturally leads to phase matching conditions suitable for enhanced Raman gain, almost without regard to the initial phase mismatch. Multidimensional nonlinear optical simulations with multiphoton and collisional ionization confirm the enhancement and suggest that it may lead to significantly higher Raman losses in some high-intensity laser environments.

Animal welfare knowledge, attitudes, and practices among livestock holders in Ethiopia.

Improving animal welfare is a human responsibility and influenced by a person's values and experiences. Thus, it is critical to have an in-depth understanding of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of animal welfare among animal owners. For livestock in Ethiopia, the greatest proportion of livestock are reared by pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities. A cross-sectional survey covering a range of species and animal welfare aspects was carried out on a total of 197 household (117 pastoral and 80 crop-livestock owners) and recorded information on 34 animal welfare KAP items. Item response theory models (IRT) were fitted to the data from KAP items to estimate the probability of correctly answering an item. This was used as a function of the respondents' KAP level. Overall, the highest percentage of desirable scores was recorded for the knowledge scale (35.7%) and the lowest was for the practice scale (24.6%). A significant correlation (P < 0.01) was found between knowledge of the farmers and their attitude toward animal welfare and self-reported practices. Generally, households practicing mixed crop-livestock farming system had better animal welfare knowledge, attitude, and practice than pastoralist. Mixed crop-livestock farmers had better knowledge on items related to observing the nutrition condition of the animal, animal-human relationship, the importance of water, and health inspection compared to pastoralists. In contrast, pastoralists had better knowledge of items related to natural behavior expression, animal care, and animal suffering than mixed crop-livestock farmers. Pastoralists had 3.3-times higher odds than mixed crop-livestock farmers to have a positive attitude to train their animals without beating. KAP scores demonstrate the need for targeted training to improve animal well-being (i.e., housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling) across livestock holding communities in Ethiopia.

Population, biomass, and economic value of small ruminants in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has a large population of small ruminants (sheep and goats) which are mostly kept in traditional subsistence production systems that are poorly described. Understanding these different systems, their population structure, biomass, production, and economic value is essential for further analysis and effective policy making. The objective of this study was to quantify these parameters for small ruminant production systems in Ethiopia to use them as a basis for analysis of disease burden within the Global Burden of Animal Diseases program. Population structure and trends of small ruminants were analyzed using data from ten annual national agriculture surveys. A stochastic herd model was used to simulate the small ruminant population, biomass, and economic value. The model was parameterised stochastically using data from statistical databases and the literature, and sensitivity analysis of main model outputs to the stochastic inputs was done. Small ruminants are held across the country mainly managed under two major production systems: the crop-livestock mixed system and the pastoral system. The small ruminant population has grown in the past 10 years with an average annual growth rate of 4.6% for sheep and 6.7% for goats. The national average small ruminant population for 2021 was projected at 96.4 (range 95.3-97.7) million heads and the mean stock biomass was about 2,129 (range 1,680-2,686) million kilograms. The monetary value of the small ruminant population was estimated at USD 5,953 (range 4,369-7,765) million. The annual monetary value of small ruminant production outputs was estimated at USD 1,969 (range 1,245-2,857) million. Although the small ruminant population is large and rapidly growing, contributing about 2% of national annual GDP, the sub-sector is characterized by low productivity, low offtake rates, and a limited range of production outputs with no signs of intensification. Efforts should be made to reduce small ruminant mortality, improve fertility, and better utilize products such as milk to improve the livelihoods of rural households and to benefit the national economy. The approaches developed in this study can be replicated in other systems and countries to reveal trends in the size and value of livestock systems, providing a better understanding of its economic importance and performance.

Economic impact of a peste des petits ruminants outbreak and vaccination cost in northwest Ethiopia.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an important endemic disease of small ruminants in Ethiopia. While vaccination is widely used in the country to control the disease, quantitative estimates of the actual economic losses due to outbreaks and costs of vaccination are scarce. This study assessed the economic impact and costs of PPR vaccination in Metema district, northwest Ethiopia. The economic impact of the disease was estimated from an outbreak investigation including interviews with 233 smallholder farmers in PPR-affected kebeles (subdistricts). The cost of PPR vaccination was obtained from vaccination programs in six kebeles of the district and from secondary data in the district veterinary office. In the investigated PPR outbreak, animal-level PPR morbidity and mortality rates were 51% and 22%, respectively, in sheep and 51% and 25%, respectively, in goats. The flock level morbidity rate was 83% for sheep flocks and 87% for goat flocks. The mean flock level loss was Ethiopian Birr (ETB) 7835 (USD 329 in 2018 average exchange rate) (95% CI: 5954-9718) for affected sheep flocks and ETB 7136 (USD 300) (95% CI: 5869-8404) for affected goat flocks. The losses in all study flocks during the outbreak were ETB 319 (USD 13.4) per sheep and ETB 306 (USD 12.9) per goat. Mortality accounted for more than 70% of the total losses in both sheep and goat flocks. Vaccination costs for PPR were estimated at ETB 3 per correctly vaccinated animal. Based on the estimated animal-level direct economic losses and vaccination cost, it can be conjectured that vaccination will pay if a district PPR outbreak occurs more than once every 13 years. This does not account for additional benefits from vaccine-derived herd immunity reducing disease burden in the wider population. In conclusion, PPR caused high morbidity and mortality in the affected flocks and resulted in high economic losses, equivalent to 14% of annual household income, dramatically affecting the livelihoods of affected flock owners. The vaccination practised in the district is likely to have a positive economic return, with strengthened vaccination programmes bringing reduced economic impact and improved livelihoods.

Longest Survival of Expectantly Managed Twin Gestation Complicated by Previable Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes at 13 Weeks' Gestation.

Previable preterm premature rupture of membranes (PV-PPROM) is defined as rupture of membranes prior to 24 weeks and is a rare phenomenon with an estimated prevalence of 0.5% of all pregnancies. Given that this phenomenon is even more rare in patients with dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA) twin pregnancies, there is no clear consensus in the literature on outcomes and management of DCDA PV-PPROM due to the scarcity of reports. We report a case of a rare successful prolongation of first trimester DCDA PV-PPROM pregnancy with rupture of the amniotic sac of one twin with survival of both twins without major complications. A 20-year-old female gravida 1 para 0 at about 13 weeks and three days presented with vaginal watery discharge mixed with vaginal bleeding. Abdominal ultrasound revealed a live twin dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA) spontaneous intrauterine gestation and a significantly low amniotic fluid volume involving fetus A. At 23 weeks gestational age, she experienced increased leaking of clear fluid, and she was admitted to the hospital for continuous monitoring with daily non-stress tests (NST), and ultrasounds every four weeks, and received antibiotics, betamethasone, and magnesium. Preterm labor occurred at 30w1d, and a primary low transverse cesarean section was performed on the 114th day after PPROM. Though, twin A required prolonged hospitalization both twins recovered and progressed well without complications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the longest case of successful expectant management of both twins with PV-PPROM yet reported.

Parallels, differences and lessons: a comparison of the management of foot-and-mouth disease and COVID-19 using UK 2001/2020 as points of reference.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an extremely infectious viral infection of cloven-hoofed animals which is highly challenging to control and can give rise to national animal health crises, especially if there is a lack of pre-existing immunity due to the emergence of new strains or following incursions into disease-free regions. The 2001 FMD epidemic in the UK was on a scale that initially overwhelmed the national veterinary services and was eventually controlled by livestock lockdown and slaughter on an unprecedented scale. In 2020, the rapid emergence of COVID-19 has led to a human pandemic unparalleled in living memory. The enormous logistics of multi-agency control efforts for COVID-19 are reminiscent of the 2001 FMD epidemic in the UK, as are the use of movement restrictions, not normally a feature of human disease control. The UK experience is internationally relevant as few countries have experienced national epidemic crises for both diseases. In this review, we reflect on the experiences and lessons learnt from UK and international responses to FMD and COVID-19 with respect to their management, including the challenge of preclinical viral transmission, threat awareness, early detection, different interpretations of scientific information, lockdown, biosecurity behaviour change, shortage of testing capacity and the choices for eradication versus living with infection. A major lesson is that the similarity of issues and critical resources needed to manage large-scale outbreaks demonstrates that there is benefit to a 'One Health' approach to preparedness, with potential for greater cooperation in planning and the consideration of shared critical resources.

Nonlinear underwater propagation of picosecond ultraviolet laser beams.

Meter-scale nonlinear propagation of a picosecond ultraviolet laser beam in water, sufficiently intense to cause stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), nonlinear focusing, pump-Stokes nonlinear coupling, and photoexcitation, was characterized in experiments and simulations. Pump and SRS Stokes pulse energies were measured, and pump beam profiles were imaged at propagation distances up to 100 cm for a range of laser power below and above self-focusing critical power. Simulations with conduction band excitation energy UCB=9.5eV, effective electron mass meff=0.2me, Kerr nonlinear refractive index n2=5×10-16cm2/W, and index contribution due to SRS susceptibility n2r=1.7×10-16cm2/W produced the best agreement with experimental data.

Correction to: Communicating with African-American Women Who Have Had a Preterm Birth about Risks for Future Preterm Births.

The article [Communicating with African-American Women Who Have Had a Preterm Birth About Risks for Future Preterm Births], written by [Allison S. Bryant, Laura E. Riley, Donna Neale, Washington Hill, Theodore B. Jones, Noelene K. Jeffers, Patricia O. Loftman, Camille A. Clare, and Jennifer Gudeman], was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal on January 16, 2020 without open access.