Determinants of antimicrobial treatment for udder health in Danish dairy cattle herds

Societal pressure to limit the use of antibiotics in livestock production systems, including dairy cattle systems, is consistently increasing. To motivate farmers to reduce antibiotic usage, it is important to understand the factors that determine whether a cow will be treated with antibiotics or not. If farmers' usual practices regarding antibiotic treatments are taken into account, they may be motivated to adopt control measures that can facilitate prudent use of antibiotics and are at the same time cost-effective. In this study, we analyzed database recordings of milk yield and somatic cell count from the routine milk recording scheme, clinical registrations of mastitis and PCR results, and cow factors such as days in milk and parity in relation to antibiotic treatments for 518 dairy herds in Denmark. Farm-wise logistic regressions were used to predict antimicrobial treatment based on these factors. The resulting regression coefficients of 422 herds were further analyzed by principal component analysis and clustering to determine the driving predictors for treatment in different groups of farms. The results showed that determinants that were most important for predicting antibiotic treatments vary from one farm to another. Health indicators such as PCR or somatic cell count were most indicative for treatment on some farms, whereas other groups seemed to depend more on production factors (milk yield) or later culling of the cows. This shows that farmers behave differently and differences can be identified in register data. This information can be considered when developing cost-effective herd-specific control measures of mastitis to promote prudent use of antibiotics in Danish dairy cattle farms.     

Determination of glutathione peroxidase activity in human milk

An analytical method for determining glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (EC 1.11.1.9) activity in whole blood has been adapted to human milk samples. The values obtained for precision (relative standard deviation: 8.4%), linearity and accuracy (recovery: 90.4%) indicate the adequacy of the method for the mentioned purpose. The method was applied to 11 human milk samples obtained in the range from 6 to 135 days post partum. The resulting GPx activities (83.3 +/- 23.6 U/L) did not correlate to the selenium content of the samples, though a reciprocal correlation was found between the duration of lactation and milk GPx activity.     

Matrix effects on the bioavailability of resveratrol in humans

The pharmacokinetics of resveratrol in 11 healthy male volunteers has been assessed in a randomized, crossover, controlled clinical trial after the administration of three grape products: red wine (250 mL), grape juice (1/L), or tablets (red wine extracts enriched with trans-resveratrol). Doses of trans-resveratrol independently of the product administered, were about 14 μg/kg. Biological samples were collected and analysed by capillary gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. cis-Resveratrol, trans-resveratrol and dihydroresveratrol were determined in plasma and urine. Plasma concentration of trans-resveratrol after hydrolysis increased as a response to all grape products and that of cis-resveratrol after wine and grape juice. Free forms of these phenolic compounds were deemed undetectable in plasma. Despite similar trans-resveratrol doses being administered, its bioavailability from wine and grape juice was 6-fold higher, than that from tablets. Resveratrol was better absorbed from natural grape products than from tablets, pointing out the importance of the matrix in its bioavailability.     

Determination of Cd,Co, Cu,Fe, Pb,Mn, Ni and Zn in diets: Development of a method

A method useful for the determination of cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc in diets is described. Organic matter is destroyed applying a wet procedure, and element content is measured by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) in the case of copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc, and by graphite furnace (GF-AAS) in the case of cadmium, cobalt and lead. The matrix interference study is carried out. Values found for linearity, detection and quantitation limits as well as accuracy show that the described method is useful to determine the elements taken into account at usual levels in diets.     

Determination of Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Ni and Zn in diets: development of a method.

A method useful for the determination of cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc in diets is described. Organic matter is destroyed applying a wet procedure, and element content is measured by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) in the case of copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc, and by graphite furnace (GF-AAS) in the case of cadmium, cobalt and lead. The matrix interference study is carried out. Values found for linearity, detection and quantitation limits as well as accuracy show that the described method is useful to determine the elements taken into account at usual levels in diets.     

Low residual reflectivity of angled-facet semiconductor laseramplifiers

Ridge-waveguide angled-facet semiconductor laser amplifiers for the 1.5 μm band have been fabricated with facet angles of 7° and 10°. Gain measurements performed with a stable, computer-controlled setup have revealed gain ripples as low as 0.025 dB at 22 dB gain for a 10° device. This corresponds to a residual reflectivity of 1×10^-5. Results demonstrate that the residual reflectivity of angled devices with one-layer antireflection coatings can be as low as that for normal facet devices with highly controlled double-layer antireflection coatings     

Economic and epidemiological impact of different intervention strategies for clinical contagious mastitis

The overall aim of this study was to compare different intervention strategies for clinical intramammary infections (IMI). We conducted a simulation study to represent a Danish dairy cattle herd with IMI caused mostly by Staphylococcus aureus and 9 different intervention strategies for clinical IMI. A standard intervention of 3 d of treatment consisting of intramammary injections for all clinical cases was used. Two of the strategies reflected the use of more antibiotics and 6 strategies reflected cow-specific treatment or culling decisions. For these strategies, we assessed the cost and effectiveness of culling as an IMI intervention. Our results showed that nearly all strategies could reduce the number of IMI cases [e.g., a median of 37 clinical cases with the extended intramammary treatment over 5 d strategy (Basic5) and 30 clinical cases with the cow culled with recovery probability below 50% (Before50)] compared with the standard intervention (median of 42 clinical cases). This happened alongside either increased antibiotic usage (e.g., from a median of 123 treatment days up to 179 treatment days with strategy Basic5) or an increased number of cows culled in relation to IMI (e.g., from a median of 16 up to 24 cows with strategy Before50). Strategies with more antibiotics or reactive culling had a slightly higher net income (e.g., €190,014 median net income with strategy Basic5 or €196,995 with strategy Before50 compared with €187,666 with the standard strategy). This shows that a cow-specific clinical intervention approach can be cost-effective in reducing IMI incidence.     

Monitoring of headspace volatiles in milk‐cereal‐based liquid infant foods during storage

The effect of storage (time and temperature) on the evolution of pentanal, hexanal, heptanal and pentane as volatile lipid oxidation products in two liquid ready‐to‐eat milk‐cereal‐based infant foods was studied. An SPME‐GC method was used to this effect. Samples were stored for 9 months at 25, 30 and 37 °C and tested eight times during this period. Freshly produced infant foods contained pentanal, hexanal and heptanal (mean values: 10.71, 71.5 and 1.2 µg/kg, respectively), which decreased during the first 3 months of storage, although from the fourth month onwards no significant differences among storage times were found. Aldehyde content was inversely proportional to storage temperature. Pentane content was directly proportional to storage temperature and increased (19.9 µg/kg at zero time) over all months of storage up to 43.1 µg/kg.     

Controlling desensitized states in ligand-receptor interaction studies with cyclic scanning patch-clamp protocols

Ligand-gated ion channels are important control elements in regulation of cellular activities, and increasing evidence demonstrates their role as therapeutic targets. The receptors display complex desensitization kinetics, occurring on vastly different time scales. This is not only important in biology and pharmacology but might also be of technological significance since populations of receptors under microfluidic control can function analogously to DRAM memory circuits. Using a novel microfluidic method, and computer modeling of the receptor state distributions, we here demonstrate that GABAA receptor populations can be controlled to display high or low EC50 values, depending on input function (i.e., the exact pattern of agonist application). The sensitivity of the receptors can be tuned up to 40-fold (beta-alanine) by the particular agonist exposure pattern. By combining patch-clamp experiments with computer modeling of receptor state distributions, we can control the assembly of receptors in desensitized states. The technique described can be used as an analytical tool to study the effect of desensitization on the activity of ion channel effectors. We describe the differential blocking effect of the competitive antagonist bicuculline on the high- and low-EC50 GABAA receptor preparations and conclude that the inhibition is dramatically dependent on how the different desensitized states are populated. Furthermore, we show that both GABA and beta-alanine, two agonists with different affinity but similar efficacy, induce the same type of desensitization behavior and memory effects in GABAA receptors.