Effects of intensification of pastoral farming on greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand     

CS Pinares-Patiño  GC Waghorn  RS Hegarty  SO Hoskin 《New Zealand veterinary journal》2013,61(5):252-261

Abstract

AIMS: The aims of this cross-sectional study were to investigate the herd and cow-level prevalence of bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) in dairy farms in the northern Taranaki region of New Zealand, and to identify whether there was any spatial clustering of herds with the disease.

METHODS: A survey of 224 dairy farms in the northern Taranaki region of New Zealand was undertaken from September 2014 to February 2015. Following training in robust criteria to confirm BDD visually, a technician inspected the rear feet of every milking cow on the farms during milking. The identity of cows with lesions and the feet involved were recorded. The proportion of cows affected among the inspected population (cow-level prevalence), the proportion of a herd affected (farm-level prevalence), and proportion of farms with ≥1 cow with lesions, were calculated. A bivariate K function analysis was then used to assess whether farms with ≥1 cow with lesions were clustered, after accounting for the distribution of the farms involved in the study.

RESULTS: Bovine digital dermatitis lesions were observed on 143/224 (63.8 (95% CI=57.5–70.1)%) farms. Within-farm prevalence was 0% on 81 (36.2%) farms, between >0 and <3% on 120 (53.5%) farms, with a maximum prevalence of 12.7% on one farm. Overall, cow-level prevalence was 707/60,455 (1.2 (95% CI=0.9–3.0)%), and on affected farms was 707/41,116 (1.7 (95% CI=1.4–2.1)%). In affected cows, 268/707 (37.9%) had a lesion on left foot only, 262/707 (37.1%) on the right foot only and 177/707 (25.0%) on both feet. The K function analysis showed no evidence of clustering of farms with BDD.

CONCLUSIONS: Bovine digital dermatitis was widespread among the survey farms, but there was no evidence that there was any clustering of herds with BDD. The cow-level prevalence on affected farms was much lower than reported elsewhere.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Although the prevalence at the cow level was low, if these data are representative of other regions of New Zealand, BDD could easily become a major problem on dairy farms in New Zealand, as has been observed in other countries.  相似文献   

Profiling the New Zealand Thoroughbred racing industry. 1. Training,racing and general health patterns     

NR Perkins  SWJ Reid  RS Morris 《New Zealand veterinary journal》2013,61(1):59-68

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Temporal stability in soil water content patterns across agricultural fields     

A.K. Guber  T.J. Gish  Y.A. Pachepsky  M.T. van Genuchten  C.S.T. Daughtry  T.J. Nicholson  R.E. Cady 《CATENA》2008

When a field or a small watershed is repeatedly surveyed for soil water content, locations can often be identified where soil water contents are either consistently larger or consistently less than the study area average. This phenomenon has been called temporal stability, time stability, temporal persistence, or rank stability in spatial patterns of soil water contents. Temporal stability is of considerable interest in terms of facilitating upscaling of observed soil water contents to obtain average values across the observation area, improving soil water monitoring strategies, and correcting the monitoring results for missing data. The objective of this work was to contribute to the existing knowledge base on temporal stability in soil water patterns using frequent multi-depth measurements with Multisensor Capacitance Probes (MCPs) installed in a coarse-texture soil under multi-year corn production. Water contents at 10, 30, 50, and 80 cm depths were measured every 10 min for 20 months of continuous observation from May 2001 to December 2002. The MCPs revealed temporal stability in soil water content patterns. Temporal stability was found to increase with depth. The statistical hypothesis could not be rejected (P < 0.0001) that data collected each 10 min, each 2 h, each day, and each week had the same temporal stability. The locations that were best for estimating the average water contents were different for different depths. The best three locations for the whole observation period were the same as the best locations for a month of observations in about 60% of the cases. Temporal stability for a specific location and depth could serve as a good predictor of the utility of this location for estimating the area-average soil water content for that depth. Temporal stability could be efficiently used to correct area-average water contents for missing data. Soil water contents can be upscaled and efficiently monitored using the temporal stability of soil water content patterns.  相似文献   

Experimental transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) of elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) to white-tailed deer by intracerebral route     

Hamir AN  Richt JA  Miller JM  Kunkle RA  Hall SM  Nicholson EM  O'Rourke KI  Greenlee JJ  Williams ES 《Veterinary pathology》2008,45(3):297-306

To compare clinical and pathologic findings of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a natural host, 3 groups (n = 5) of white-tailed deer (WTD) fawns were intracerebrally inoculated with a CWD prion of WTD, mule deer, or elk origin. Three other uninoculated fawns served as controls. Approximately 10 months postinoculation (MPI), 1 deer from each of the 3 inoculated groups was necropsied and their tissues were examined for lesions of spongiform encephalopathy (SE) and for the presence of abnormal prion protein (PrP(d)) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot (WB). The remaining deer were allowed to live until they developed clinical signs of the disease which began approximately 18 MPI. By 26 MPI, all deer were euthanatized on humane grounds. Obvious differences in clinical signs or the incubation periods were not observed between the 3 groups of deer given CWD. In 1 of 3 nonclinical deer euthanatized at 10 MPI, minimal microscopic lesions of SE were seen in the central nervous system (CNS) tissues, and PrP(d) was observed by IHC in tissues of all 3 deer. In the clinical deer, CNS lesions of SE and PrP(d) accumulations were more severe and extensive. It is concluded that the 3 sources of CWD prion did not induce significant differences in time to clinical disease or qualitative differences in signs or lesions in WTD. However, this observation does not imply that these CWD agents would necessarily behave similarly in other recipient species.  相似文献   

Western blot detection of PrP Sc in archived paraffin-embedded brainstem from scrapie-affected sheep     

Robert A Kunkle  Eric M Nicholson  Semakaleng Lebepe-Mazur  Dennis L Orcutt  Megan L Srinivas  Justin J Greenlee  David P Alt  Amir N Hamir 《Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation》2008,20(4):522-526

Scrapie is a naturally occurring fatal neurodegenerative disease of adult sheep and goats, one of a group of mammalian diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) or prion diseases. Immunoassays that identify disease-associated prion protein (PrP Sc) are integral to the diagnosis of scrapie and other prion diseases. Results obtained by either immunohistochemistry (IHC) or Western blot (WB) assay are generally adequate for the definitive diagnosis. Approved or accepted methods for WB diagnosis of TSEs requires the use of fresh or frozen nonfixed tissue samples, whereas formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue is required for the localization of PrP Sc by IHC. Because disparate processing methods are used for these accepted diagnostic techniques, separate tissue samples are collected from the same animal. Occasions arise in which there is either insufficient quantity of tissue available to complete analysis by both techniques or initial tissue processing is incompatible with one of the assays. Also, results between the assays may differ because of the vagaries of sampling, especially in case material that contains moderate-to-low levels of PrP Sc. The present article describes a method to conduct a WB assay from the same paraffin-embedded brainstem sample used for the IHC diagnosis of experimentally induced sheep scrapie.  相似文献   

Invited review: Role of livestock in human nutrition and health for poverty reduction in developing countries   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Randolph TF  Schelling E  Grace D  Nicholson CF  Leroy JL  Cole DC  Demment MW  Omore A  Zinsstag J  Ruel M 《Journal of animal science》2007,85(11):2788-2800

Livestock keeping is critical for many of the poor in the developing world, often contributing to multiple livelihood objectives and offering pathways out of poverty. Livestock keeping also affects an indispensable asset of the poor, their human capital, through its impact on their own nutrition and health. This paper outlines the linkages between livestock keeping and the physical well-being of the poor, and examines a number of commonly held beliefs that misrepresent livestock development issues related to these linkages. These beliefs limit the scope of intervention programs to promote livestock and limit their potential contribution to poverty reduction. Recognition of the complexity of the role livestock play in household decision-making and of the opportunities foregone due to these misconceptions can enhance the ability of livestock to contribute to human well-being in the developing world.  相似文献   

Shape transition of germanium nanocrystals on a silicon (001) surface from pyramids to domes     

G Medeiros-Ribeiro  AM Bratkovski  TI Kamins  DAA Ohlberg  RS Williams 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1998,279(5349):353-355

Chemical vapor deposition of germanium onto the silicon (001) surface at atmospheric pressure and 600 degrees Celsius has previously been shown to produce distinct families of smaller (up to 6 nanometers high) and larger (all approximately 15 nanometers high) nanocrystals. Under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions, physical vapor deposition at approximately the same substrate temperature and growth rate produced a similar bimodal size distribution. In situ scanning tunneling microscopy revealed that the smaller square-based pyramids transform abruptly during growth to significantly larger multifaceted domes, and that few structures with intermediate size and shape remain. Both nanocrystal shapes have size-dependent energy minima that result from the interplay between strain relaxation at the facets and stress concentration at the edges. A thermodynamic model similar to a phase transition accounts for this abrupt morphology change.  相似文献   

Flowering and seed production of aspen in Scotland during a heavy seed year     

Worrell  R; Gordon  AG; Lee  RS; McInroy  A 《Forestry》1999,72(1):27-34

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A kuroko-type polymetallic sulfide deposit in a submarine silicic caldera   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

K Iizasa  RS Fiske  O Ishizuka  M Yuasa  J Hashimoto  J Ishibashi  J Naka  Y Horii  Y Fujiwara  A Imai  S Koyama 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1999,283(5404):975-977

Manned submersible studies have delineated a large and actively growing Kuroko-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit 400 kilometers south of Tokyo in Myojin Knoll submarine caldera. The sulfide body is located on the caldera floor at a depth of 1210 to 1360 meters, has an area of 400 by 400 by 30 meters, and is notably rich in gold and silver. The discovery of a large Kuroko-type polymetallic sulfide deposit in this arc-front caldera raises the possibility that the numerous unexplored submarine silicic calderas elsewhere might have similar deposits.  相似文献   

Within-field variability of Fusarium head blight pathogens and their associated mycotoxins   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

X.-M. Xu  D. W. Parry  P. Nicholson  M. A. Thomsett  D. Simpson  S. G. Edwards  B. M. Cooke  F. M. Doohan  S. Monaghan  A. Moretti  G. Tocco  G. Mule  L. Hornok  E. Béki  J. Tatnell  A. Ritieni 《European journal of plant pathology / European Foundation for Plant Pathology》2008,120(1):21-34

Within-field variability in the Fusarium head blight (FHB) and its associated mycotoxins was studied in four European countries. At each of 14 sites, each FHB pathogen and associated mycotoxins were quantified in 16 quadrat samples at harvest. Overall, the incidence of quadrat samples with detectable and quantifiable pathogen DNA was significantly lower in the grain than in the corresponding chaff. Deoxynivalenol (DON) was the most frequently detected toxin in the samples and its accumulation was most strongly associated with the presence of Fusarium graminearum. Nivalenol (NIV) accumulation was significantly associated only with the presence of F. culmorum. Zearalenone (ZON) accumulation was strongly associated with the presence of all three pathogens (F. graminearum, F. culmorum and F. poae). The levels of both DON and ZON concentrations were positively related to the amount of F. graminearum DNA in the grain or in the chaff. The presence/absence of FHB pathogens within a single quadrat appeared to be independent of each other. The presence of a particular FHB pathogen and the amount of its DNA, as well as the associated mycotoxin(s), varied greatly among samples at each site. This study demonstrated the large extent of within-field variability of FHB and its associated mycotoxins, and the importance of representative sampling in FHB studies.  相似文献