Real-life effectiveness of extrafine beclometasone dipropionate/formoterol in adults with persistent asthma according to smoking status.

Background: The efficacy and safety of extrafine beclomethasone dipropionate 100 μg/formoterol 6 μg (BDP/F HFA) pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) in patients with moderate-to-severe persistent asthma, has been demonstrated in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The aim of this prospective observational study was to assess real-life effectiveness in terms of asthma control in smoking (most of the time excluded from RCTs) and non-smoking asthmatics.

Methods: Adult patients with persistent asthma, in whom treatment with an inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β(2)-agonist (ICS/LABA) combination is indicated, were included.

Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses of beef and dairy cattle experimentally infested with Psoroptes ovis.

Objective: To compare cellular and humoral immune responses of beef (Belgian White and Blue [BWB]) and dairy (Friesian-Holstein [FH]) cattle to Psoroptes ovis infestation and to determine whether P ovis infestation impaired immune responses to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBR) vaccine or an immunogenic protein (keyhole-limpet hemocyanin [KLH]).

Animals: 19 BWB and 6 FH 1-year-old calves.

Procedure: 2 trials were performed.

Effect of chemoprophylaxis with an ivermectin sustained-release bolus on acquired resistance to gastrointestinal parasites in cattle.

The influence of chemoprophylaxis with an ivermectin sustained-release bolus in the first grazing season on the resistance of cattle to gastrointestinal nematodes during the following grazing season was investigated. In 1993 and 1994 dairy replacement calves were either given one bolus at the start of their first grazing season or left untreated. The two groups were grazed separately on a pasture that was divided into two similar sized paddocks.

Evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the serological diagnosis of sarcoptic mange in swine.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using an extract from Sarcoptes scabiei var. culpes as antigen was evaluated for its usefulness in monitoring antibodies to S. scabiei var.

Epidemiological observations on gastrointestinal nematode infections in grazing cow-calf pairs in Belgium.

The epidemiology of gastrointestinal helminth infections in beef cows and calves on pasture was studied in Belgium during the 1990 and 1992 grazing seasons. Weight gain, faecal egg counts, generic differentiation of infective larvae, serum pepsinogen levels, herbage larval counts and worm burdens of tracer calves were used as parameters. In Study 1 two groups of ten cows with their spring-born calves grazing on separate pastures (A and B) were monitored during the 1990 grazing season.