Assessing service usage and protective factors in a pediatric psychiatry clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Youth with developmental and pre-existing mental health conditions have been particularly vulnerable to declines in psychological functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to first, analyze service usage within an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry clinic in the months preceding and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and second, to examine associations with potential protective factors against mental health concerns in a treatment-engaged sample. Service usage was examined using clinic billing data, and reports on protective factors were gathered via parent survey of 81 children ages 6-17 years who received mental health treatment in an outpatient psychiatry clinic during the pandemic. Protective factors were assessed at the individual, family, and community levels, and included children's use of coping strategies, parental resilience, and parents' perceived social supports. Study outcomes, including mental health concerns, mental health emergencies, pandemic-related distress, and social impact of the pandemic, were analyzed via Pearson correlations and simultaneous multiple linear regressions. Findings suggest increased service usage and child coping, parental resilience, and social connectedness as factors associated with fewer mental health concerns in youth with psychiatric concerns during the pandemic. This study lends support for expanding psychiatric services with continued use of telemedicine platforms. Further, findings suggest a mental health benefit to optimizing individual, parental, and community-based resources to enhance children's psychological functioning, particularly for youth with pre-existing mental health conditions.

A field study on the occurrence of gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep over the wet and dry seasons in two West Indian islands

Objective: Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infestations of sheep are considered a major constraint to sheep production in the West Indies. Sheep are semiintensively managed under tropical conditions which are favorable for the development and survival of GIN. This study was conducted to determine if there was a relationship between GIN burdens in sheep with seasonality and management practices of farmers in Trinidad and Tobago (TT). Design and Methodology: Eighteen (18) farms were visited in Trinidad and 23 in Tobago on a monthly basis between January and December 2017. A maximum of ten sheep between three to nine months of age were selected using non-random sampling at each farm. Results: A total of 3053 fecal samples were collected and analyzed using the Modified McMaster Technique. A mixed effects Poisson regression model was constructed to analyze the relationship between eggs per gram (EPG) with season, management and deworming. The standard error was adjusted for clustering according to farm. EPG decreased according to wet season vs. dry season (coef. = - 0.6, 95% CI = -1.17 - -0.03, p = 0.039). Semiintensive management system experienced higher EPG than intensive system (coef. = 1.43; 95% CI = 0.72, - 2.14; p < 0.001). EPG did not vary significantly according to whether the farmer dewormed or not over the period (p = 0.54). Conclusion: Proper management is required for reducing the occurrence of GIN in sheep of TT throughout the year. Further investigation is needed to elucidate why EPG appear to be higher in the dry season than the wet season.

Parasitological and clinical responses of lambs experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus (L3) with and without ivermectin treatment

Haemonchus contortus is one of the most important parasites that infects sheep and exerts its pathogenic effects by sucking blood, causing disturbances of organ-functions and thus inducing alterations in various normal physiological parameters. Changes in live body weight, faecal egg count, kinetics of circulating eosinophils and PCV value were studied at weekly interval for a period of 84 days in 18 lambs of local breed after infection with a single dose of 5000 H. contortus (L(3)). In the two groups of lambs infected with nematodes both non-treated and treated with ivermectin (HcNT and HcIT), similar egg excretion patterns was observed starting from third week after infection, with a regular increase in FEC. Examination of whole abomasum of each animal revealed no developmental stage of nematode from treated and control lambs on day 84. The total mean number of H. contortus worms recovered at necropsy from abomasa of untreated infected lambs (group HcNT) was 2576.2 (+/-221.0). The significant loss of body weight, development of heavy worm burden and severe anaemia as indicated by reduced PCV in untreated infected lambs indicated high susceptibility of the lambs to H. contortus. On the other hand, complete absence of the parasite, improved PCV value and body weight after treatment of infected animals (HcIT) proved 100% efficacy of ivermectin against H. contortus.