Publications by authors named "D M McCracken"
Background: The breeding population of the red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) in Scotland has fallen in recent years, with all breeding pairs now confined to the Hebridean islands of Islay and Colonsay. Demographic studies have shown that a significant factor in the population decline on Islay has been reduced survival from fledging to 1 year of age (juveniles). Understanding the significance of infectious and non-infectious diseases in chough mortality is crucial to the development of successful management strategies aimed at conserving breeding populations of choughs in Scotland and elsewhere.
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- Hill sheep farming is crucial to Scottish agriculture, especially in the Highlands and Islands, but faces challenges like high lamb loss rates, known as blackloss, which average around 18.6%.
- Various factors contribute to blackloss, including parasites, predation, and diseases, leading to significant welfare and sustainability concerns.
- A study categorized flock managers into three groups—large extensive farms, medium-sized farms, and small crofts—to assess their experiences with blackloss; findings showed similar health challenges across groups but distinct perceptions of predation threats, particularly from white-tailed eagles in larger farms.
Assessing the early use of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) or intrapleural enzyme therapy (IET) in pleural infection requires a phase III randomized controlled trial (RCT). To establish the feasibility of randomization in a surgery-versus-nonsurgery trial as well as the key outcome measures that are important to identify relevant patient-centered outcomes in a subsequent RCT. The MIST-3 (third Multicenter Intrapleural Sepsis Trial) was a prospective multicenter RCT involving eight U.
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