[Livestock management and veterinary services for cattle and pigs in Switzerland]. / Bestandesbetreuung und tierärztliche Leistungen bei Rindern und Schweinen in der Schweiz.

INTRODUCTION: The role of livestock veterinarian has changed in recent decades and the advisory role of veterinarians is becoming increasingly important. Only vague statements have been made about the current distribution and content of the livestock management in Switzerland. The aim of this study was to collect information and data on veterinary services and the use of livestock management for cattle and pigs and to describe the current situation in Switzerland. Therefore, a survey was carried out among veterinarians and farmers. The results show that around half (46%) of the surveyed veterinarians offer livestock management. However, the majority (61%) of farmers do not make use of the livestock management. Around one third of the farms (31%) are serviced by the animal health services and almost every tenth farm (8%) using the integrated veterinary livestock management (ITB). The service is mainly used by larger cattle and pig farms. The number of cattle in managed and non-managed farms differ significantly (p = 0.01). In general, pig farms are managed more frequently than cattle farms - mostly in the form of an agreement with the Pig Health Service (SGD). 76% of pig farms, 21% of cattle farms and 44% of mixed farms are using the livestock management. The majority (79%) of the surveyed veterinarians classify the market for livestock management small and its future importance is largely assessed stable or decreasing by veterinarians and farmers. Half of the veterinarians and a tenth of farmers without livestock management mention excessively high costs as a reason for the limited market. In addition, more than half of the farmers with livestock management name costs as the limiting factor. Veterinarians see the greatest advantage of livestock management in cattle fertility, udder health and milk quality, while pig farms profit in reduced use of veterinary drugs, improved herd health and disease prophylaxis.

INTRODUCTION: Le rôle du vétérinaire rural s'est modifié au cours des dernières décennies et son rôle de conseiller devient de plus en plus important. Jusqu'à présent, cependant, seules de vagues déclarations ont été faites sur l'étendue et le contenu actuels de la médecine de troupeau en Suisse. Le but de cette étude était de collecter des informations et des données sur l'offre et l'utilisation de la médecine de troupeau pour les bovins et les porcs et de décrire la situation actuelle en Suisse. A cet effet, une enquête a été réalisée auprès des vétérinaires et des éleveurs. Les résultats montrent qu'environ la moitié (46%) des vétérinaires interrogés offrent des prestations de médecine de troupeau. Cependant, la majorité (61%) des agriculteurs ne profitent pas ces offres. Environ un tiers des exploitations (31%) sont prises en charge par les services de santé animale et moins d'une entreprise sur dix (8%) utilise l'offre de soins vétérinaires intégrés (ITB). Ce sont particulièrement les grands élevages de bovins et de porcs qui y ont recours. Le nombre de bovins dans les exploitations qui l'utilisent diffère statistiquement de manière significative (p = 0,01). En général, les élevages de porcs ont tendance à utiliser plus souvent la médecine de troupeau que les élevages de bovins et ce principalement sous la forme d'une convention du Service sanitaire porcin (SSP). Ventilés par type d'exploitation, on constate que 76% des élevages porcins, 21% des élevages bovins et 44% des exploitations mixtes pratiquent la médecine de troupeau. La majorité (79%) des vétérinaires interrogés considèrent la demande en matière de médecine de troupeau comme faible et son importance future est évaluée par les vétérinaires et les éleveurs comme constante voire décroissante. Des coûts trop élevés sont cités comme raison de la faible demande par plus de la moitié des vétérinaires et par environ un dixième des agriculteurs qui n'utilisent pas ces prestations. De plus, plus de la moitié des agriculteurs ayant recours à la médecine de troupeau considèrent les coûts comme le plus gros problème de mise en œuvre. Selon les vétérinaires, les progrès les plus importants sont réalisés chez les bovins dans les domaines de la fertilité, de la santé de la mamelle et de la qualité du lait, et, chez les porcs, dans les domaines de la réduction de l'utilisation des médicaments vétérinaires, de l>amélioration de la santé du troupeau et de la prophylaxie des maladies.

Quantification of Tumor Oxygenation Based on FMISO PET: Influence of Location and Oxygen Level of the Well-Oxygenated Reference Region.

Tumor hypoxia may play a fundamental role in determining the radiotherapy outcome for several cancer types. Functional imaging with hypoxia specific radiotracers offers a way to visualize and quantify regions of increased radioresistance, which may benefit from dose escalation strategies. Conversion of the uptake in positron emission tomography (PET) images into oxygenation maps offers a way to quantitatively characterize the microenvironment. However, normalization of the uptake with respect to a well-oxygenated reference volume (WOV), which should be properly selected, is necessary when using conversion functions. This study aims at assessing the sensitivity of quantifying tumor oxygenation based on 18F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) PET with respect to the choice of the location and the oxygenation level of the WOV in head and neck cancer patients. WOVs varying not only in shape and location but also with respect to the assigned pO2 level were considered. pO2 values other than the standard 60 mmHg were selected according to the specific tissue type included in the volume. For comparison, the volume which would be considered as hypoxic based on a tissue-to-muscle ratio equal to 1.4 was also delineated, as conventionally done in clinical practice. Hypoxia mapping strategies are found highly sensitive to selection of the location of well-oxygenated region, but also on its assigned oxygenation level, which is crucial for hypoxia-guided adaptive dose escalation strategies.

[Study on the current situation in farm animal medicine]. / Studie zur Versorgungslage in der Schweizer Nutztiermedizin.

INTRODUCTION: For a long time there has been a debate in Switzerland as to whether the veterinary farm animal service is still sufficiently guaranteed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the supply and demand of veterinary services for cattle and pigs through a representative survey of veterinarians and farmers. The results revealed that the veterinary farm animal service was rated by the majority of both, farmers and veterinarians, to be good or very good. Veterinary service shortages exist partly in mountain and peripheral regions, in small areas in otherwise well-served regions and in the canton of Ticino. By contrast, about one third of farm animal practices are rather underutilized and would prefer to increase livestock numbers. The emergency service is currently very well guaranteed. Ninety-five percent of veterinarians and farmers stated that on-site emergency service is provided within an hour or less. The quality of veterinary services were also assessed positively by the farmers. While a third of respondents said veterinary care improved compared to five years ago, only two percent felt that veterinary care had deteriorated. Almost all veterinarians stated that vacancies in farm animal practices were difficult to fill adequately. The majority of practice owners do not receive enough applications from suitable candidates. In addition, the majority of applicants were not trained in Switzerland. The security of farm animal veterinary service is currently mostly good to very well guaranteed. However, there is a lack of veterinarians trained to meet the future needs of farm animal veterinarians.

INTRODUCTION: On discute depuis longtemps pour savoir si l'offre de prestations vétérinaires pour les animaux de rente est encore suffisante en Suisse. Le but de la présente étude était de relever l'offre et la demande en matière de prestations vétérinaires pour les bovins et les porcs par le biais d'une enquête représentative auprès de vétérinaires et d'agriculteurs. Les résultats démontrent que l'approvisionnement en soins vétérinaires pour les animaux de rente est considéré, tant par les agriculteurs que par les vétérinaires, comme majoritairement bon à très bon. Il existe des carences en la matière dans les régions de montagnes et les régions périphériques, dans certains endroits de zones autrement bien desservies et dans le canton du Tessin. A l'opposé, environ un tiers des pratiques pour animaux de rente s'estiment sous-occupées et seraient prêtes à s'occuper de plus d'exploitations. Le service d'urgences est actuellement très bien assuré. Cinquante-cinq pour cent des vétérinaires et des agriculteurs ont indiqué qu'il fallait au maximum une heure pour que, en cas d'urgence, le vétérinaire soit sur place. La qualité des prestations vétérinaires a également été jugée de façon positive par les agriculteurs. Un tiers des sondés sont d'avis que la capacité professionnelle s'est améliorée dans les cinq dernières années contre seulement deux pour cent qui estiment qu'elle s'est détériorée. Presque tous les vétérinaires considèrent qu'il est difficile de repourvoir de façon adéquate les places vacantes dans le secteur de la médecine des animaux de rente. Une majorité des propriétaires de cabinets ne reçoit pas assez de postulation venant de candidats appropriés. Les propriétaires de cabinets déclarent également que la majorité des candidats n'ont pas fait leur formation en Suisse. La sécurité de l'approvisionnement en matière de médecine des animaux de rente est actuellement en grande majorité bonne à très bonne. Toutefois la Suisse ne forme actuellement pas assez de vétérinaires pour couvrir les besoins futurs en matière de praticiens ruraux.

Economic evaluation of the eradication program for bovine viral diarrhea in the Swiss dairy sector.

Since 2008, the Swiss veterinary service has been running a mandatory eradication program for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) that is focused on detecting and eliminating persistently infected (PI) animals. Detection was initially based on antigen testing from ear tag samples of the entire cattle population, followed by antigen testing of all newborn calves until 2012. Since then, bulk milk serology (dairy herds) and blood sample serology (beef herds) have been used for the surveillance of disease-free herds. From 2008 to 2012, the proportion of newborn PI calves decreased from 1.4% to less than 0.02%. However, this success was associated with substantial expenditures. The aim of this study was to conduct an economic evaluation of the BVD eradication program in the Swiss dairy sector. The situation before the start of the program (herd-level prevalence: 20%) served as a baseline scenario. Production models for three dairy farm types were used to estimate gross margins as well as net production losses and expenditures caused by BVD. The total economic benefit was estimated as the difference in disease costs between the baseline scenario and the implemented eradication program and was compared to the total eradication costs in a benefit-cost analysis. Data on the impact of BVD virus (BVDV) infection on animal health, fertility and production parameters were obtained empirically in a retrospective epidemiological case-control study in Swiss dairy herds and complemented by literature. Economic and additional production parameters were based on benchmarking data and published agricultural statistics. The eradication costs comprised the cumulative expenses for sampling and diagnostics. The economic model consisted of a stochastic simulation in @Risk for Excel with 20,000 iterations and was conducted for a time period of 14 years (2008-2021). The estimated annual financial losses in BVDV infected herds were CHF 85-89 per dairy cow and CHF 1337-2535 for an average farm, depending on the production type. The median net present value (NPV) was estimated at CHF 44.9 million (90% central range: CHF 13.4 million-69.4 million) and the break-even point to have been reached in 2015. Overall, the outcomes demonstrate that the Swiss BVD eradication program results in a net benefit for the dairy sector. These findings are relevant for planning similar BVD control programs in other countries.

A matched case-control study comparing udder health, production and fertility parameters in dairy farms before and after the eradication of Bovine Virus Diarrhoea in Switzerland.

An obligatory eradication programme for Bovine Virus Diarrhoea (BVD) was implemented in Switzerland in 2008. Between 2008 and 2012, all bovines were tested for antigen or antibodies against BVDV. By the year 2012, eradication was completed in the majority of farms. A decrease of the prevalence of persistently infected (PI) newborn calves was observed from 1.4% in 2008 to <0.02% in 2012. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of BVD eradication on different parameters of animal health, production and fertility in Swiss dairy herds which had completed the eradication programme. A matched case-control study was carried out using data from two periods, before (Period 1) and after (Period 2) the active phase of eradication. Case farms had at least two PI animals detected before or during the eradication; controls were BVD-free and matched for region, herd size and use of alpine pasture. A total of 110 farmers (55 pairs) were recruited. During a phone interview, a questionnaire about farm characteristics, animal health and appreciation of the BVD eradication programme was filled in. Breeding data and milk test day records were also analyzed. Parameters were first compared between (i) case and control herds before eradication, and (ii) Period 1 and Period 2 for case herds only. Milk yield (MY), bulk milk somatic cell count (BMSCC), prevalence of subclinical mastitis (SCM), and non-return rate (NRR) showed a p-value<0.25 in at least one of the univariable comparisons and were thus further analyzed with a multilevel mixed-effects model to account for repeated measures over time. In order to assess whether changes in health status over time were due to BVD eradication, an interaction variable between period and group (case-control) was created (IA). Except for MY, the IA was significant for all parameters modelled. Despite an overall p-value of 0.27, case herds tended to have a higher MY after eradication (ß=0.53, p=0.050). For BMSCC and SCM, case herds had higher values than controls in both periods; udder health was significantly improved in control herds and it remained stable in case herds, with a slight decrease of BMSCC (ß=-0.19, p=0.010). Finally, among fertility parameters, NRR showed a general improvement but it was significant only in control herds (ß=0.29, p=0.019). Even though the effects of the eradication programme measured in this study were less pronounced than expected, 73% of the participants of this study had a positive attitude towards the campaign.

A census to determine the prevalence and risk factors for caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus and visna/maedi virus in the Swiss goat population.

In Switzerland, viruses belonging to two different phylogenetic groups of small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) are currently circulating: the caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) and visna/maedi virus (VMV). In the past two decades, a mandatory national control program has led to a very low prevalence of seropositivity, while completely eliminating CAE as a clinical manifestation. However, in order to reduce the high costs and effort associated with this program, adjustments based on the most recent epidemiological knowledge are needed. The purpose of this study was to estimate the seroprevalence of CAEV and VMV using the newest diagnostic tools available, and to identify potential risk factors for infection with these viruses in Switzerland. For the prevalence estimation, a census was carried out including 10,696 farms with a total of 85,454 goats. Blood samples were analysed using a 3-step serological testing algorithm consisting of Chekit ELISA, Western Blot and SU5 ELISA. A risk factor analysis was conducted using logistic regression models built with data obtained from a mail questionnaire, and serological results from the census. The apparent herd-level prevalences were 0.38%, 2.77%, and 3.04% for CAEV, VMV and SRLV, respectively. Animal-level prevalences were 0.06% for CAEV, 0.55% for VMV, and 0.61% for SRLV. No statistically significant risk factors associated with CAEV or VMV infection were identified. However, the proportional high number of CAEV seropositive dwarf goats, in relation to their population size, could indicate that these hobby breeds may slip through some of the official controls. For an infection with SRLV, a medium herd size (7-40 goats) was found to be protective, compared with smaller (OR=1.90, p=0.034) and larger herds (OR=1.95, p=0.038). In conclusion, considering that all CAEV positive animals were culled, these results imply that CAEV is no longer actively spreading and has successfully been controlled in Switzerland. However, given the uncertain pathogenic potential of VMV in goats, future surveillance should also be taking into account the not insignificant number of VMV circulating in the Swiss goat population.

Observation and judgment in psychology: assessing agreement among markings of behavioral events.

In a sequence from a videotaped dialogue between two persons (e.g., psychotherapist and patient), observers are given the task of searching for, marking, and commenting on conspicuous events. The observers receive no information on where to look for conspicuous events and no information on what events are worth marking. Moreover, nothing is known about the observers' marking preferences. Marking is therefore very spontaneous and subjective. This marking freedom leads to the problem that a superimposition of all observers' markings yields complicated configurations of mutually overlapping intervals. To address this difficulty, a new definition of the concept of marking agreement is proposed that is based upon relational considerations. According to this definition, a set of agreeing marking subsets of various sizes can be found in marking configurations. A significance concept is proposed to allow comparison of different configurations, and standardization on the basis of random configurations is performed using Monte Carlo simulations.

[Tibial torsion deformities]. / Tibiale Torsionsfehler.

Tibial torsion defects are usually not clinically evident and, hence, are often overlooked. Clinical examination and CT scan have proved to be the best ways of measuring static tibial torsion, whereas dynamic measurements are usually performed in the clinic and the "gait laboratory." Only few studies have determined there to be a connection between a torsion defect in the lower leg and expected pathological conditions of the knee and ankle joints. However, patellofemoral instability, Osgood-Schlatter disease, osteochondrosis dissecans are increasingly being found in cases of increased external tibial torsion and arthrosis in reduced torsion. Although spontaneous correction may occur in certain cases, in others the only way to correct the condition is by employing physiologic torsion. Conservative treatment methods such as bandages or orthosis have been shown to not have any effect on torsion; thus, surgical treatment is the only successful way to correct a pathologic angle of rotation of the tibia. For this, supramalleolar osteotomy with fixation using Kirscher wires and plaster or an external fixator are the most common treatments.

[Allergy to house dust mites]. / Hausstaubmilbenallergie.

The prevalence of atopic disease in Switzerland is 15-20%. About 30% of these patients have perennial symptoms and a substantial proportion are allergic to house-dust mite proteins. If absolute air humidity is lower than 7.0 g water per kg air, house-dust mites will not proliferate. This is why the occurrence of house-dust mites varies between different regions. About half of the patients with allergy to house-dust mites complain of rhinitis, a quarter of asthma and a quarter of asthma and rhinitis. The diagnosis is usually by history, skin prick tests and if necessary provocation. Therapy includes allergen avoidance (reduction of air humidity in dwellings by ventilation, encasing of mattresses and bedding), medication (mainly topical corticosteroids) and specific immunotherapy.

Transient pure red cell aplasia caused by antilymphoblast globulin after cadaveric renal transplantation.

Transient pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) in three consecutive patients receiving ATG for management of kidney graft rejection prompted a systematic study of the effects on erythropoiesis of the ATG preparation used at our institution. We found that 90% of patients treated with rabbit anti-T lymphoblast globulin developed reticulocytopenia (less than 17,000 reticulocytes/mm3), with complete disappearance of reticulocytes in 65% of patients and increased requirement for red cell transfusion. PRCA, with selective aplasia of erythroblasts was confirmed by bone marrow aspiration in 4 patients volunteering for aspiration, and by the kinetic of the disappearance of blood reticulocytes in relation to the beginning of ATG treatment. The nadir of thrombocytes and lymphocytes, blood cells directly destroyed by ATG in circulation, followed the start of ATG treatment within 1 to 4 days. In contrast the nadir of reticulocyte counts occurred later, between day 7 and 13 after ATG was begun, reflecting the fact that toxicity was directed against red cell precursors rather than mature circulating cells. In agreement with these clinical findings ALG was found to be cytotoxic in vitro for erythroid precursors. Analogously to autoimmune PRCA caused by autoantibodies to erythroblasts, this type of PRCA could be viewed as "heteroimmune disease."