Refinement of international recommendations for cubicles, based on the identification of associations between cubicle characteristics and dairy cow welfare measures.

Maladjusted cubicles for dairy cattle may cause increased skin alterations, lameness, and dirtiness. The International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering has produced several recommendations for cubicle design, but a previous study showed that not all of them seem efficient. Here, we aim to refine and complete these recommendations.

New recommendations for self-locking barriers to reduce skin injuries in dairy cows.

The design of self-locking barriers can affect cows' skin injuries and impair welfare. This study aimed to propose and refine recommendations, expressed relatively to the cows' dimensions, for self-locking barrier design to reduce risks for skin injuries on the neck/shoulder/back and on carpus of dairy cows. We recorded individual body dimensions and the dimensions of self-locking barriers (e.

Do International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) dimension recommendations for loose housing of cows improve animal welfare?

Design of cubicles and self-locking barriers can affect cow skin alterations, lameness, and dirtiness. We investigated whether the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR, Gainesville, FL)-recommended cattle housing design and dimensions actually improve cow welfare. We recorded individual cow body dimensions and assessed skin alterations, dirtiness, and lameness on 3,841 cows from 131 loose housing dairy farms (76 farms with cubicles and 55 straw-yard systems).

Aggregation of measures to produce an overall assessment of animal welfare. Part 2: analysis of constraints.

The overall assessment of animal welfare is a multicriterion evaluation problem that needs a constructive strategy to compound information produced by many measures. The construction depends on specific features such as the concept of welfare, the measures used and the way data are collected. Welfare is multidimensional and one dimension probably cannot fully compensate for another one (e.

Aggregation of measures to produce an overall assessment of animal welfare. Part 1: a review of existing methods.

Several systems have been proposed for the overall assessment of animal welfare at the farm level for the purpose of advising farmers or assisting public decision-making. They are generally based on several measures compounded into a single evaluation, using different rules to assemble the information. Here we discuss the different methods used to aggregate welfare measures and their applicability to certification schemes involving welfare.

Cubicle housing systems for cattle: Comfort of dairy cows depends on cubicle adjustment.

Housing is important for the welfare of cows. Although recommendations have been proposed, abnormal movements and injury problems are still observed in cubicle houses. We conducted a survey on 70 French dairy farms that used cubicles.

A randomized, multicenter, controlled trial using intravenous pulses of methylprednisolone in the initial treatment of simple forms of giant cell arteritis: a one year followup study of 164 patients.

Objective: (1) To evaluate the corticosteroid sparing effect of an initial intravenous (i.v.) pulse of methylprednisolone (MP) in the treatment of simple forms of giant cell arteritis (GCA).

[Familial porphyria cutanea tarda disclosed by chronic hepatitis C. Apropos of a case].

The hepatitis C virus (VHC) is probably the main aetiological factor of severe liver damages associated with the sporadic variety of porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) in a 28 year-old woman revealed by a chronic C virus infection. Treatment with interferon alpha was delivered.

[Rhodococcus equi pulmonary abscess in HIV infection].

RE is a well-known Gram positive bacillus which is usually pathogenic in animals. Disease in humans is rare, but incidence has clearly increased with the advent of AIDS. In humans, RE predominantly infect people with impaired cellular immunity so that it is considered an opportunistic agent.

[Renal angiomyolipoma and pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis: a non-fortuitous association].

Angiomyolipoma is a rare tumor, frequently associated with tuberous sclerosis, but not observed in its isolated form. Usually, patients with tuberous sclerosis presented with pathognomonic cutaneous and central nervous system lesions. But the thesis of "formes frustes" without typical stigmata was suggested.

[Unresectable giant hepatic hemangioma and Kasabach-Merritt syndrome].

The Kasabach-Merritt syndrome was first described in children with cutaneous hemangiomas, but it can exceptionally be associated with visceral hemangiomas, especially in adults. Clotting and fibrinolysis within the hemangioma are thought to cause the coagulopathy observed in the so-called Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. This localised form of intra-vascular coagulation can progress to a secondary increased systemic fibrinolysis with fatal outcome for 20 to 30% of the patients.

[Chronic herpes resistant to acyclovir in a patient with AIDS].

Introduction: The prevalence of mucocutaneous herpetic infection is especially high in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In these patients, 8 p. 100 of the chronic or recurrent herpetic lesions are due to a mutant strain.

[Outcome of ruptured intracranial aneurysms treated in accordance with the principle of deferred surgery. 308 consecutive cases over an 11 year period].

The diagnosis of the aneurysm rupture either was assessed at the time of admission, or was assessed after the admission into the surgical department. Most patients were admitted after the first 24 hours following the S.A.

[Lead poisoning revealed by severe encephalopathy : pica does exist in France (author's transl)].

Subacute lead encephalopathy due a chronic poisoning was present in a 6 year-old child. Neurologic features (coma, seizures, CSF abnormalities) began after 2 weeks of vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation. Diagnosis was confirmed by studies of porphyrin metabolism.

Platelet volume, density and 5 HT organelles (mepacrine test) in acute leukaemia.

Qualitative platelet parameters (volume, 5 hydroxy-tryptamine (5 HT) organelles studied by the mepacrine test, and density) were evaluated in 31 patients with acute leukaemia: 11 myelomonocytic (AML), 8 lymphoblastic (ALL), 12 granulocytic (AGL). Macrothrombocytosis was observed in most of the cases of AML, was rare in AGL and was never found in ALL. The 5 HT organelles/volume ratio was normal in AGL and ALL but was significantly decreased in AML.

[Diastematomyelia. About a series of 6 cases (author's transl)].

The authors report 6 cases of diastematomyelia in children. They stress the rarety of this spinal cord diformity whose pathogenesis is obviously of dysraphic origin. From the clinical point of view, "orthopedic syndrom" is the most common complaint (cypho-scoliosis and - or - malformation of the feet) in a child with dorsal or lumbar cutaneous dysplasia.

[Extra-intracranial artérial by-pass. A clinical experience based upon 40 cases (author's transl)].

Unlabelled: Extra-intracranial by-pass between a branch of the external carotid artery and a branch of middle cerebral artery has been used since 1972 in the treatment of cerebral ischemia.

Material And Methods: 40 patients have been operated on (34 men and 6 women) aged from 28 to 68. Clinical data were TIA's or PRIND in 11 patients and stroke in 29 patients.

[Anemia in chronic lead poisoning. Apropos of 2 cases].

The authors report two cases of lead poisoning in which the diagnosis was made following anemia. They recall the clinical, laboratory and physiopathological characteristics of the blood signs of chronic lead poisoning. Anemia is the result of more rapid aging of the red cells, and of the effect of lead on erythropoiesis.