On the efficacy of current biosecurity measures at EU borders to prevent the transfer of zoonotic and livestock diseases by travellers.

Although many animal diseases have been eradicated from the European Union (EU), the animal production sectors in the EU are still under a major threat of disease pathogens introduced by travellers into a country through illegal importation of wildlife or production animals, and/or food products of animal origin. These may carry (exotic) pathogens or toxic metabolites that are hazardous for public health and have a zoonotic potential. According to experts, newly emerging diseases will most probably be zoonotic in nature.

Hazard perception of Dutch farmers and veterinarians related to dairy young stock rearing.

A group of 110 dairy farmers and 26 bovine veterinarians participated in a web-based questionnaire using the adaptive conjoint analysis technique to rank their perception regarding several hazards during 6 subsequent periods of the process of dairy young stock rearing. The method applied only involved selected respondents with a high consistency in their answering (correlation >30%). For the ranking, answers were first transformed into a utility score (US) for each hazard.

Drinking water for dairy cattle: always a benefit or a microbiological risk?

Drinking water can be considered an essential nutrient for dairy cattle. However, because it comes from different sources, its chemical and microbiological quality does not always reach accepted standards. Moreover, water quality is not routinely assessed on dairy farms.

The association of ruminal pH and some metabolic parameters with conception rate at first artificial insemination in Thai dairy cows.

The objective of this study was to determine the association of metabolic parameters and cow associated factors with the conception rate at first insemination (FCR) in Thai dairy cows. The investigation was performed with 529 lactations from 32 smallholder dairy farms. At 3-6 weeks after parturition, blood samples and ruminal fluid were collected.

Communication in production animal medicine: modelling a complex interaction with the example of dairy herd health medicine.

Background: The importance of communication skills in veterinary medicine is increasingly recognised. Appropriate communication skills towards the client are of utmost importance in both companion animal practice and production animal field and consultancy work. The need for building a relationship with the client, alongside developing a structure for the consultation is widely recognised and applies to both types of veterinary practice.

Ranking experts' preferences regarding measures and methods of assessment of welfare in dairy herds using Adaptive Conjoint Analysis.

Welfare in dairy herds can be addressed using different concepts. The difficulty is to extract which measures are the most important to practically address welfare at the herd level and the methods to assess traits considered most important. Therefore, the preferences of 24 acknowledged European welfare experts were ranked regarding 70 measures suitable to assess dairy cattle welfare at herd level using the Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA; Sawtooth Software, Inc.

Subacute ruminal acidosis in Dutch dairy herds.

The prevalence of subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) was determined in 197 dairy cows in 18 herds in the Dutch province of Friesland. Samples of rumen fluid were taken by rumenocentesis from between five and 19 animals on each farm and the pH of each sample was determined. The body condition of 139 of the cows was scored approximately three weeks before they calved and three weeks after they calved.

A case-based learning approach for teaching undergraduate veterinary students about dairy herd health consultancy issues.

A case-based learning (CBL) format was implemented at the Veterinary School of Nantes, France, for veterinary students in their last year of the curriculum who had chosen to track toward a farm animal career. The focus of the CBL format was learning about dairy herd health consultancy. The goal was to emphasize teamwork among students, introduce professional communications and advisory relationships with clients, and work within the technical and economic limitations of participating farms.

Capture-recapture analysis of East Coast fever in smallholder dairy herds in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania.

The prevalence of and case fatality rate due to East Coast fever (ECF) were estimated in 1402 dairy cattle in 87 small herds in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania, from January 2003 to January 2005 using a capture-recapture method. Information on clinical cases and deaths due to ECF were obtained from farm records and from a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey conducted between July 2003 and March 2005 as part of longitudinal studies of bovine mastitis in these herds. The number of clinical cases identified was 567 (from farm records) and 496 (from the questionnaire), and the number of deaths recorded were 305 (from farm records) and 251 (from the questionnaire).

HACCP-based quality risk management approach to udder health problems on dairy farms.

Against the background of prevailing udder health problems on dairy farms, this paper discusses a new approach to mastitis control. Current udder health control programmes, such as the 'five-point plan', are highlighted and their drawbacks indicated. The concept and principles of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) are introduced.

Application of HACCP principles to control visitor health threats on dairy farms open to the general public.

An increasing number of Dutch dairy farmers have diversified their activities, often opening their farm up to visitors (tourist accommodation, farm shop, contact with livestock, etc). It is essential to prevent these visitors from having accidents or becoming ill, which could result in financial claims and might harm the reputation of the agricultural sector. This article describes how the hazard analysis critical control points concept and principles (HACCP) can be applied to these activities and integrated with on-farm operational herd health and production management programmes.

Synthesis of semantic modelling and risk analysis methodology applied to animal welfare.

Decision-making on animal welfare issues requires a synthesis of information. For the assessment of farm animal welfare based on scientific information collected in a database, a methodology called 'semantic modelling' has been developed. To date, however, this methodology has not been generally applied.

Veterinary advice for entrepreneurial Dutch dairy farmers: from curative practice to coach-consultant: what needs to be changed?

Dairy farms are tending to become larger, with a milk quota of more than 8 tons a year, and are managed by entrepreneurial dairy farmers with their own specific characteristics and farming style. Some Dutch veterinary practices appear unable to respond to this different style and often do not serve such farms or lose them as client. Moreover, the veterinary curriculum often focuses on traditional, family-run, smaller dairy operations and not on larger farms, which raises the question whether newly qualified veterinary practitioners are adequately trained to provide these entrepreneurial farmers with the services they require.

Imbedding HACCP principles in dairy herd health and production management: case report on calf rearing.

Driven by consumer demands, European legislation has suggested the use of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) as the quality risk management programme for the whole dairy chain. Until now, an exception has been made for primary producers, but as regulations evolve, on-farm HACCP-like programmes should be ready to assure food safety as well as animal health and animal welfare. In our field experiment, the HACCP-concept was used to combine both optimal farm management and formalisation of quality assurance in an on-farm situation in the Netherlands.

The marketing of herd health and production management services on Dutch dairy farms: perceptions of dairy farmers and their veterinary surgeons.

A questionnaire-based survey on veterinary herd health and production management services was conducted on 194 specialist dairy veterinarians and 466 dairy farmers. The farmers were randomly selected from greater than 6,000 farmer clients of the surveyed veterinarians. This paper reports these survey findings and the findings of an earlier survey conducted among the veterinarians.

Interpretation of California mastitis test scores using Staphylococcus aureus culture results for screening of subclinical mastitis in low yielding smallholder dairy cows in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania.

Screening of subclinical mastitis under field conditions is done using the California mastitis test (CMT). CMT score of > or = 1 corresponding to > or = 500,000 somatic cells ml(-1) is commonly used as threshold of subclinical mastitis in temperate countries. However, given the innately high physiological level of somatic cells in low yielding dairy cows, this threshold may not apply to low yielding dairy cows.

Animal production systems in the industrialised world.

The production of food from animal origin is relatively stable in the industrialised world. However, animal production systems are changing dramatically with respect to location, herd size and specialisation. Increased pressure from a critical public is moving animal-based production towards systems such as organic production and loose-housing systems which allow the animals to better express normal behaviour.

Evaluation of the hygienic quality and associated public health hazards of raw milk marketed by smallholder dairy producers in the Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine three parameters of the quality of the raw milk marketed by milk selling points (MSPs) in Dar es Salaam region. Total bacterial count (TBC) was used as an indicator of the microbial quality of the milk; antimicrobial residues were determined; and the California mastitis test (CMT) was used to screen for milk somatic cells as an indication of the mastitis level in the cows that provided the milk. Moreover, a water sample at each MSP was taken for bacteriological culturing.

Veterinary dairy herd health management in Europe: constraints and perspectives.

The nature of veterinary work in dairy health management in Europe has changed over the past years and will change even more dramatically in the near future. The consumers and the media show increasing concern about animal welfare, safety of products of animal origin and traceability of animal products. Farmers in Europe have to produce under strict, often expensive and laborious regulations, while still commercially competing with farmers outside the EU and not subject to the same rules.

The assessment of biomarkers in sentinel cattle for monitoring vanadium exposure.

Various potential biomarkers were sampled for vanadium every 3-4 months from Bos indicus beef cattle farmed extensively immediately adjacent (high exposure (HE) group) and two km away (low exposure (LE) group) from a vanadium processing plant, respectively. Vanadium intake (mg vanadium kg(-1) bwt d(-1)) was modelled using environmental and physiological data as inputs. The vanadium intake ranged from 0.

A retrospective study of the aetiology and temporal distribution of bovine clinical mastitis in smallholder dairy herds in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania.

A 31-year record-based retrospective study was carried out to determine the aetiology and temporal distribution of bovine clinical mastitis in smallholder dairy herds in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania over the period November 1971-December 2002. Laboratory information on 1964 quarter samples from 1365 cows in 281 smallholder dairy herds were retrieved, compiled and studied. Eighty-eight percent of the quarter samples were culture-positive and the predominant mastitis pathogens isolated were Staphylococcus aureus (25.

Risk factors associated with the incidence rate of clinical mastitis in smallholder dairy cows in the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania.

Smallholder dairy herds around the Dar es Salaam region of Tanzania supply 86% of raw milk consumed by the city dwellers. Previous studies have indicated that clinical mastitis is an important disease affecting smallholder dairy cows and an 18-month questionnaire-based longitudinal field-study was conducted between July 2003 and March 2005 to elucidate risk factors associated with the incidence. A total of 6057 quarter-level observations from 317 lactating cows on 87 randomly selected smallholder dairy herds were analysed at the quarter and cow level using logistic and Poisson regression models, respectively.

The public health implications of farming cattle in areas with high background concentrations of vanadium.

Forty-two adult Brahman-cross cattle farmed extensively in two groups, immediately adjacent to and 2 km from a vanadium processing plant respectively, were slaughtered over a 5 year period at a nearby abattoir. Cattle were being exposed to vanadium at close to no-adverse-effect levels. The dose of vanadium that cattle were taking in prior to slaughter was calculated for each animal from environmental and physiological data using a stochastic risk assessment model.