Effects of pullet housing on bone development in aviary-housed Dekalb White hens.

The skeletal health of laying hens improves when birds are given opportunities to perform load-bearing movements with elevated structures, such as perches. We investigated how early access to elevated structures varying in complexity and height would affect bone quality and subsequent keel bone fractures in a layer multitiered aviary. Female Dekalb White pullets were reared in floor pens furnished with floor perches (FL), single-tiered aviaries (ST), or 2-tiered aviaries (TT; n = 5 pens/treatment) through 16 wk of age.

Providing elevated structures in the pullet rearing environment affects behavior during initial acclimation to a layer aviary.

Spatial abilities of hens are particularly sensitive to development during early life. Experiences in pullet housing may have lasting consequences on adult hens' movements in cage-free environments. We tested whether opportunities to access elevated spaces during rearing improved hens' use of a multitiered aviary.

The effect of expressive writing on wound healing: Immunohistochemistry analysis of skin tissue two weeks after punch biopsy wounding.

Objective: To investigate the effects of expressive writing and its timing (pre or post wounding) on re-epithelialisation and leucocyte subsets within healing tissue. We previously showed expressive writing pre-wounding improved re-epithelialisation. Here we investigate cellular processes in the wound.

Rearing experience with ramps improves specific learning and behaviour and welfare on a commercial laying farm.

To access resources in commercial laying houses hens must move between levels with agility to avoid injury. This study considered whether providing ramps during rear improved the ability of birds to transition between levels. Twelve commercial flocks (2000 birds/flock) on a multi-age site were examined between 1 and 40 weeks of age.

Stiffness-matched biomaterial implants for cell delivery: clinical, intraoperative ultrasound elastography provides a 'target' stiffness for hydrogel synthesis in spinal cord injury.

Safe hydrogel delivery requires stiffness-matching with host tissues to avoid iatrogenic damage and reduce inflammatory reactions. Hydrogel-encapsulated cell delivery is a promising combinatorial approach to spinal cord injury therapy, but a lack of clinical spinal cord injury stiffness measurements is a barrier to their use in clinics. We demonstrate that ultrasound elastography - a non-invasive, clinically established tool - can be used to measure spinal cord stiffness intraoperatively in canines with spontaneous spinal cord injury.

Welfare Challenges of Dairy Cows in India Identified Through On-Farm Observations.

India has the largest population of dairy cattle in the world at over 48 million animals, yet there has been little formal assessment of their welfare reported. Through observations of dairy cows on 38 farms in Kerala, India, we aimed to investigate the welfare of these animals and the practicality of animal-based assessments within common farming systems. Substantial welfare challenges were identified.

Modeling collisions in laying hens as a tool to identify causative factors for keel bone fractures and means to reduce their occurrence and severity.

Keel fractures represent a major productivity and welfare issue for the laying hen industry with greater than 50% of birds in recent surveys across various commercial operations and nations exhibiting some form of damage by end of lay. While the causes are likely multifactorial and influenced by age, diet, genetic line, and other factors, high energy collisions with house furnishings and conspecifics in the barn are believed to be a major contribution to the frequency and severity of factures. The current study applies a previously described ex vivo impact testing protocol to quantify susceptibility to keel bone damage across an extensive range of collision energies and ages.

Behavioural and physiological responses of laying hens to automated monitoring equipment.

Automated monitoring of behaviour can offer a wealth of information in circumstances where observing behaviour is difficult or time consuming. However, this often requires attaching monitoring devices to the animal which can alter behaviour, potentially invalidating any data collected. Birds often show increased preening and energy expenditure when wearing devices and, especially in laying hens, there is a risk that individuals wearing devices will attract aggression from conspecifics.

Mechanical properties of 6 finger-trap suture techniques.

Objective: To identify the most common methods used by surgeons to place finger-trap sutures (FTS), and determine their influence on the biomechanical properties of constructs.

Study Design: Questionnaire and experimental study.

Methods: Six commonly used FTS methods (A-F) were identified from literature review and questionnaire.

Biomechanical evaluation of simulated feline patellar fracture repairs.

Objective: To investigate four techniques for stabilization of feline patellar fracture.

Methods: Feline cadaveric stifles with simulated patellar fracture were stabilized with one of four techniques: Group A - circumferential wire, group B - figure-of-eight wire, group C - combined figure-of-eight and circumferential wire, group D - pin and tension band wire. All repairs were subjected to a period of cyclic loading prior to load to failure testing.

Tensile Comparison of Polydioxanone, Polyglyconate, and Barbed Glycolide-Trimethylene Carbonate Suture in Canine Cadaveric Tensor Fascia Lata.

Objective: To compare the mode of failure, load at yield, ultimate load to failure and stiffness of non-barbed polydioxanone, non-barbed polyglyconate and barbed glycolide-trimethylene carbonate (GTC) suture in canine cadaveric fascia.

Study Design: Ex vivo biomechanical study.

Sample Population: 18 fascia lata specimens from 9 canine cadavers.

Illness Beliefs Predict Mortality in Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

Background: Patients' illness beliefs have been associated with glycaemic control in diabetes and survival in other conditions.

Objective: We examined whether illness beliefs independently predicted survival in patients with diabetes and foot ulceration.

Methods: Patients (n=169) were recruited between 2002 and 2007.

Stress-related changes to immune cells in the skin prior to wounding may impair subsequent healing.

Higher psychological stress is associated with slower dermal wound healing, but the immunological mechanisms behind this effect are only partially understood. This paper aims to investigate whether immune cells present in the skin prior to wounding can affect subsequent healing in high-stress and low-stress participants. Two studies are presented in which skin biopsies were analysed using immunohistochemistry for numbers of macrophages and Langerhans cells, and immune cell activation (Study 2 only).

Effect of Osteotomy Position and Tibial Plateau Rotation on the Tensile Force Required for Failure of the Canine Quadriceps Mechanism.

Objective: To measure the tensile force required for failure of the quadriceps mechanism with different tibial tuberosity widths and different degrees of rotation of the tibial plateau after radial osteotomy of the proximal tibia.

Study Design: Ex vivo study, randomized unblocked design

Animals: Thirty-five hind limbs from 18 adult Greyhound cadavers.

Methods: Part 1 (15 limbs)--The center of rotation of the proximal tibial radial osteotomy was advanced craniodistally, progressively reducing absolute tibial tuberosity width (ATTW) for 5 different widths.

Illness beliefs predict self-care behaviours in patients with diabetic foot ulcers: a prospective study.

Aims: Patients' illness beliefs are known to be influential determinants of self-care behaviours in many chronic conditions. In a prospective observational study we examined their role in predicting foot self-care behaviours in patients with diabetic foot ulcers.

Methods: Patients (n=169) were recruited from outpatient podiatry clinics.

Biomechanical comparison of canine fascia lata and thoracolumbar fascia: an in vitro evaluation of replacement tissues for body wall reconstruction.

Objectives: To compare the suitability of thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) and fascia lata (FL) for body wall defect repair in dogs, by examining their biomechanical properties and useable surface area.

Study Design: Experimental.

Animals: Dogs (n = 8).

Subchondral bone plate thickening precedes chondrocyte apoptosis and cartilage degradation in spontaneous animal models of osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder characterised by bone remodelling and cartilage degradation and associated with chondrocyte apoptosis. These processes were investigated at 10, 16, 24, and 30 weeks in Dunkin Hartley (DH) and Bristol Strain 2 (BS2) guinea pigs that develop OA spontaneously. Both strains had a more pronounced chondrocyte apoptosis, cartilage degradation, and subchondral bone changes in the medial than the lateral side of the tibia, and between strains, the changes were always greater and faster in DH than BS2.

Increased chondrocyte apoptosis is associated with progression of osteoarthritis in spontaneous Guinea pig models of the disease.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease characterised by degradation of articular cartilage and bone remodelling. For almost a decade chondrocyte apoptosis has been investigated as a possible mechanism of cartilage damage in OA, but its precise role in initiation and/or progression of OA remains to the determined. The aim of this study is to determine the role of chondrocyte apoptosis in spontaneous animal models of OA.

Development of an ex vivo protocol to model bone fracture in laying hens resulting from collisions.

Fractures of the keel bone, a bone extending ventrally from the sternum, are a serious health and welfare problem in free range laying hens. Recent findings suggest that a major cause of keel damage within extensive systems is collisions with internal housing structures, though investigative efforts have been hindered by difficulties in examining mechanisms and likely influencing factors at the moment of fracture. The objectives of this study were to develop an ex vivo impact protocol to model bone fracture in hens caused by collision, to assess impact and bird-related factors influencing fracture occurrence and severity, and to identify correlations of mechanical and structural properties between different skeletal sites.

Use of modified superabsorbent polymer dressings for protease modulation in improved chronic wound care.

Unlabelled:  With more than 6 million patients affected with them in the United States, chronic ulcers represent one of the greatest problems in wound care. High levels of corrosive proteases, particularly matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), within the wound environment are thoughtto contribute to the persistence of these wounds through denaturation of connective tissue proteins crucial to healing progression. Therefore, there is considerable interest in protease modulation using wound dressings to promote healing in chronic wounds.

IL-13 promotes collagen accumulation in Crohn's disease fibrosis by down-regulation of fibroblast MMP synthesis: a role for innate lymphoid cells?

Background: Fibrosis is a serious consequence of Crohn's disease (CD), often necessitating surgical resection. We examined the hypothesis that IL-13 may promote collagen accumulation within the CD muscle microenvironment.

Methods: Factors potentially modulating collagen deposition were examined in intestinal tissue samples from fibrotic (f) CD and compared with cancer control (C), ulcerative colitis (UC) and uninvolved (u) CD.

Reduced bone breakage and increased bone strength in free range laying hens fed omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplemented diets.

Introduction: The omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are the immediate precursors to a number of important mediators of immunity, inflammation and bone function, with products of omega-6 generally thought to promote inflammation and favour bone resorption. Western diets generally provide a 10 to 20-fold deficit in omega-3 PUFAs compared with omega-6, and this is thought to have contributed to the marked rise in incidence of disorders of modern human societies, such as heart disease, colitis and perhaps osteoporosis. Many of our food production animals, fed on grains rich in omega-6, are also exposed to a dietary deficit in omega-3, with perhaps similar health consequences.