Review state-of-the-art of output-based methodological approaches for substantiating freedom from infection.

A wide variety of control and surveillance programmes that are designed and implemented based on country-specific conditions exists for infectious cattle diseases that are not regulated. This heterogeneity renders difficult the comparison of probabilities of freedom from infection estimated from collected surveillance data. The objectives of this review were to outline the methodological and epidemiological considerations for the estimation of probabilities of freedom from infection from surveillance information and review state-of-the-art methods estimating the probabilities of freedom from infection from heterogeneous surveillance data.

Hair cortisol concentration in finishing pigs on commercial farms: variability between pigs, batches, and farms.

Hair cortisol is a stress indicator and could be used to assess the pigs' exposure to stressors in the weeks/months prior to non-invasive hair sampling. The main aim of this study was to describe the hair cortisol concentration (HCC) variability between individuals within a batch, between farms and between batches within a farm. The secondary aim was to determine how the number of sampled pigs influences the characterization of HCC within a batch.

Residues of veterinary antibiotics in manures from pig and chicken farms in a context of antimicrobial use reduction by implementation of health and welfare plans.

The use of antibiotics in food-producing animals can induce the presence of residual substances in manure, which are then released into the environment and may contribute to soil and groundwater contamination. During the on-farm implementation of strategies to improve animal health and welfare in chicken and pig farms, the consequences of antibiotic use were evaluated in terms of the occurrence and levels of antibiotic residues in manure. A set of 35 broiler farms from Cyprus, Greece, the Netherlands and 40 pig farms from France and Italy provided a total of 350 manure samples.

A framework for assessing confidence in freedom from infection in animal disease control programmes.

In the Surveillance Tool for Outcome-based Comparison of FREEdom from infection (STOC free) project (https://www.stocfree.eu), a data collection tool was constructed to facilitate standardised collection of input data, and a model was developed to allow a standardised and harmonised comparison of the outputs of different control programmes (CPs) for cattle diseases.

Analysis of Antimicrobials in Muscle and Drinking Water in Terms of Reducing the Need of Antimicrobial Use by Increasing the Health and Welfare of Pig and Broiler.

Antimicrobial residues may pose harmful effects on the health of consumers. At the same time, an adequate quality of drinking water for animals is one of the important element to ensure animal welfare and food without antibacterials. The presented study is aimed at estimating the residue levels of antibacterial compounds, such as penicillins, cephalosporin, macrolides, tetracyclines, quinolones, sulphonamides, aminoglycosides, diaminopirymidines, pleuromutilines and lincosamides in meat and on-farm drinking water samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), as a part of a surveillance system on pig and broiler farms within the project Healthy Livestock.