The Potential Role of Wild Suids in African Swine Fever Spread in Asia and the Pacific Region.

African swine fever (ASF) in Asia and the Pacific is currently dominated by ASF virus transmission within and between domestic pig populations. The contribution made by wild suids is currently not well understood; their distribution, density and susceptibility to the virus has raised concerns that their role in the epidemiology of ASF in the region might be underestimated. Whilst in the Republic of Korea wild suids are considered important in the spread and maintenance of ASF virus, there is an apparent underreporting to official sources of the disease in wild suids from other countires and regions.

Assessing the risk of ASFV entry into Japan through pork products illegally brought in by air passengers from China and fed to pigs in Japan.

A risk assessment was conducted to assess the risk of ASFV entry into Japan through pork products illegally brought in by air passengers from China and fed to pigs in Japan. Scenario tree modelling was used with the following entry and exposure pathway considered to be the most likely route of ASF entry: an ASFV infected pork product is illegally brought into Japan by air travellers from China; this pork product is then used in a restaurant where scrap waste is recycled for animal feed and subsequently fed to pigs without being heat-treated. Input parameter values were based on surveys conducted by the authors, scientific data gathered from the literature and official data published by government agencies.

The impact of anticipatory grief on caregiver burden in dementia caregivers.

Purpose: Interest in anticipatory grief (AG) has typically focused on terminal diseases such as cancer. However, the issues involved in AG are unique in the context of dementia due to the progressive deterioration of both cognitive and physical abilities. The current study investigated the nature of AG in a sample of dementia caregivers and examined the relationship between AG and caregiver burden.

The effects of widowhood and vascular risk factors on late-life depression.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the impact of conjugal loss on depression is greater in the presence of vascular risk factors (CVRFs) (stress vulnerability hypothesis), or whether conjugal loss and CVRFs are independent predictors of depression following spousal loss (independent pathways hypothesis).

Method: The current study is a secondary data analysis of the Changing Lives of Older Couples database, which is a study of older widowed persons. One thousand five hundred thirty-two participants engaged in a baseline interview, and interviews were conducted 6, 18, and 48 months after the death of a spouse.

Psychosocial and vascular risk factors for depression in the elderly.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine two competing hypotheses as they relate to the relationship between vascular and psychosocial risk factors for late-life depression. The stress-vulnerability hypothesis predicts that the depressogenic effect of psychosocial risk is stronger in the presence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs). The other predicts that psychosocial risk factors and vascular risk factors are independent pathways to depression and that there is no combined effect of vascular risk factors and life stress.