Demonstration of a Fair Level of Agreement Between Escalation Scores Reported by Hospital Managers and Analysis of Stress-Related Hospital Metrics.

Background: The National Health System in Wales has developed a novel national electronic dashboard which reports a daily "escalation score," reflecting management's opinion of the pressure each hospital is facing, primarily due to unscheduled care. The aim of this study was to examine the possibility of replacing human scores with a quantitative model, based on the relationship between reported escalation scores and selected hospital metrics.

Methods: Generalized linear mixed models were used to model the association between hospital metrics and escalation scores between October one year and October the next year utilizing hospital bed occupancy rate, ambulance hours lost waiting outside emergency departments, number of "boarded out" patients in the hospital, and the daily ratio of admissions to discharges in the hospital.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination reduces the severity and progression of tuberculosis in badgers.

Control of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cattle has proven particularly challenging where reservoirs of infection exist in wildlife populations. In Britain and Ireland, control is hampered by a reservoir of infection in Eurasian badgers (Meles meles). Badger culling has positive and negative effects on bovine TB in cattle and is difficult, costly and controversial.

Diagnostic accuracy and optimal use of three tests for tuberculosis in live badgers.

Background: Accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) due to infection with Mycobacterium bovis is notoriously difficult in live animals, yet important if we are to understand the epidemiology of TB and devise effective strategies to limit its spread. Currently available tests for diagnosing TB in live Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) remain unvalidated against a reliable gold standard. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and optimal use of three tests for TB in badgers in the absence of a gold standard.

Culling-induced social perturbation in Eurasian badgers Meles meles and the management of TB in cattle: an analysis of a critical problem in applied ecology.

The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is implicated in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (TB) to cattle in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Badger culling has been employed for the control of TB in cattle in both countries, with varying results. Social perturbation of badger populations following culling has been proposed as an explanation for the failure of culling to consistently demonstrate significant reductions in cattle TB.