Behavioral Adaptations of Nursing Brangus Cows to Virtual Fencing: Insights from a Training Deployment Phase.

Virtual fencing systems have emerged as a promising technology for managing the distribution of livestock in extensive grazing environments. This study provides comprehensive documentation of the learning process involving two conditional behavioral mechanisms and the documentation of efficient, effective, and safe animal training for virtual fence applications on nursing Brangus cows. Two hypotheses were examined: (1) animals would learn to avoid restricted zones by increasing their use of containment zones within a virtual fence polygon, and (2) animals would progressively receive fewer audio-electric cues over time and increasingly rely on auditory cues for behavioral modification. Data from GPS coordinates, behavioral metrics derived from the collar data, and cueing events were analyzed to evaluate these hypotheses. The results supported hypothesis 1, revealing that virtual fence activation significantly increased the time spent in containment zones and reduced time in restricted zones compared to when the virtual fence was deactivated. Concurrently, behavioral metrics mirrored these findings, with cows adjusting their daily travel distances, exploration area, and cumulative activity counts in response to the allocation of areas with different virtual fence configurations. Hypothesis 2 was also supported by the results, with a decrease in cueing events over time and increased reliance with animals on audio cueing to avert receiving the mild electric pulse. These outcomes underscore the rapid learning capabilities of groups of nursing cows in responding to virtual fence boundaries.

Acceptable Risk of Sudden Incapacitation Among Safety Critical Transportation Workers: A Comprehensive Synthesis.

OBJECTIVE: Identify a risk threshold for sudden incapacitation for safety critical positions in transportation industries supporting medical fitness for duty standards. METHODS: Systematic literature searches were performed examining acceptable risk criteria for medically related incapacitation using PubMed Central and Google Scholar databases. Websites for professional societies and national and international governmental agencies were also accessed. Article abstracts were reviewed and exhaustive searches were performed. RESULTS: International regulatory bodies have adopted definitions of acceptable risk typically with a threshold of 1% to 2% absolute risk of sudden incapacitation per annum. Several "risk-of-harm" models have been proposed that incorporate factors modulating an absolute risk constant derived from epidemiological studies. CONCLUSION: A 1% absolute annual risk of sudden incapacitation should be adopted as the threshold for determining medical fitness for duty among employees in safety critical positions in transportation industries.

Photosensitisation of livestock grazing Narthecium ossifragum: Current knowledge and future directions.

Photosensitisation diseases can cause production and animal welfare losses world-wide. In North-West Europe a photosensitisation disease complex known as 'plochteach', 'yellowses', 'saut' and 'alveld' occurs in lambs on extensive pastures containing bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum). Affected lambs develop lesions on the ears, face and sometimes the back, with erythema, oedema, ulceration and necrosis that can be followed by secondary infection and death. Adult sheep appear unaffected, the incidence in lambs varies from year to year and there are variations in susceptibility between- and within-breeds. The definitive cause remains uncertain although ingestion of N. ossifragum, which contains hepatotoxic saponins, has been implicated in the aetiology. However, problems replicating the disease complex by feeding N. ossifragum in a controlled environment have led to alternative hypotheses, including possible intake of toxins from fungal spores and cyanobacteria. Further research is required to assess the putative role of N. ossifragum, the scale of economic and animal welfare losses associated with the disease, how best to identify affected animals before external clinical signs appear and the treatment and management of clinical cases. Given the challenges involved in isolating the causative agent(s) of plochteach, an animal breeding route may be effective if heritability of resistance/susceptibility can be demonstrated.

Methodology to update the practice recommendations in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's Occupational Medicine Practice Guidelines, second edition.

OBJECTIVE: To ensure that revisions to the second edition of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) guidelines are as valid and useful as possible. METHODS: The ACOEM Guideline Methodology Committee searched and synthesized the evidence-based medicine literature on systematic review and guideline development. The resulting process and tools were tested during guideline revision, and changes were made to the tools and process. RESULTS: The methodology specifies problem formulation, literature search methods, screening of studies, quality rating, summarization of the body of literature, recommendation drafting and rating, "first principles" of medical logic and ethics, training, expert panel review, stakeholder input, external review, pilot testing and Board of Directors approval. CONCLUSIONS: The process and tools developed are consistent with international guideline assessment criteria, robust, and internally and externally valid.

Employer benefit design considerations for the era of biotech drugs.

A growing number of employed persons in the United States live and work with potentially complex chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. Increasingly, many of the medications used to treat these serious conditions are costly, primarily because many of the newest drugs are high-cost biotechnology derived pharmaceuticals, referred to in this report as biotech drugs. The rapidly increasing use of new biotech medications for an expanding number of chronic and potentially disabling conditions of working-age adults has significant implications for US employers in the anticipated effect on worker productivity, human capital preservation, and health care costs. However, new approaches, including sophisticated modeling techniques, are providing employers with the insights and guidance necessary to make the benefit design decisions that will provide optimal outcomes to employees while managing employer costs effectively.