Economics of reducing antibiotic usage for clinical mastitis and metritis through genomic selection.

Antibiotics use (ABU) in animal agriculture has been implicated in the emergence of antibiotic resistance, a global public health threat. Economically justifiable antibiotic reduction strategies can motivate farmers to reduce ABU for clinical mastitis (CM) and metritis, the most common reasons for ABU on dairy farms. Our objective was to quantify the reduction in incidence of CM, metritis, and ABU, and the herd performance of a representative US herd that uses genomic selection for Lifetime Net Merit 2018 (NM$) selection index, compared with genetic selection based only on the mastitis (MAST) or metritis resistance (METR) trait or a health trait subindex (HTH$).

Mastitis risk effect on the economic consequences of paratuberculosis control in dairy cattle: A stochastic modeling study.

The benefits and efficacy of control programs for herds infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) have been investigated under various contexts. However, most previous research investigated paratuberculosis control programs in isolation, without modeling the potential association with other dairy diseases.

Understanding the effect of producers' attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control on intentions to use antimicrobials prudently on New York dairy farms.

Understanding farmers' behavior, motivations, and perceptions toward antimicrobial use can influence how veterinarians translate research into practice and guide effective ways of implementing protocols. A multidisciplinary team investigated behavioral tendencies of New York dairy farmers toward antimicrobial use by administering a survey modeled with the reasoned action approach. This approach is a framework from social psychology containing the constructs attitude, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control, and is used in combination with structural equation modeling to determine what drives intentions.

Why foreign STEM PhDs are unlikely to work for US technology startups.

Visa policies to retain United States-trained STEM PhDs are of central importance to national innovation and economic competitiveness. There is also growing interest in "startup" visas that stimulate entrepreneurial activity and job creation, particularly in technology sectors. However, there is little understanding of how visa policies might influence foreign PhDs' employment in technology startups.

Antimicrobial Policies in United States Beef Production: Choosing the Right Instruments to Reduce Antimicrobial Use and Resistance Under Structural and Market Constraints.

Antimicrobial use (AMU) in animal agriculture contributes to the selection of resistant bacteria, potentially constituting a public health threat. To address antimicrobial resistance, public policies set by governments, as well as intra-sectoral approaches, can be implemented. In this paper, we explore how common policy instruments such as regulations, economic incentives, and voluntary agreements could help reduce AMU in beef production.

Absence labels: How does information about production practices impact consumer demand?

Absence labels promote the absence of a particular ingredient or production practice. Consumers usually perceive organic labels as an umbrella absence label for a variety of ingredients and production practices. Such organic labels often use similar language but are based on different certification requirements.

Can changing the position of online menu items increase selection of fruit and vegetable snacks? A cluster randomized trial within an online canteen ordering system in Australian primary schools.

Background: Manipulating the position of food items within the physical food environment has consistently been found to influence item selection. However, the extent to which this strategy is effective in an online food environment is unknown.

Objective: This study investigated whether an intervention to position fruit and vegetable snack items as the first and last menu items in an online school canteen ordering system increased the selection of those items.

The Potential Role of Insects as Feed: A Multi-Perspective Review.

Recently, insects have received increased attention as an important source of sustainable raw materials for animal feed, especially in fish, poultry, and swine. In particular, the most promising species are represented by the black soldier fly (, HI), the yellow mealworm (, TM), and the common house fly (, MD). Although rapid development is expected, insects remain underutilized in the animal feed industry mainly due to technical, financial, and regulatory barriers.

ASN-ASAS SYMPOSIUM: FUTURE OF DATA ANALYTICS IN NUTRITION: Modeling complex problems with system dynamics: applications in animal agriculture1.

Many problematic outcomes in agricultural and food systems have important dynamic dimensions and arise due to underlying system structure. Thus, understanding the linkages between system structure and dynamic behavior often is important for the design and implementation of interventions to achieve sustained improvements. System dynamics (SD) modeling represents system structure using stock-flow-feedback structures expressed as systems of differential equations solved by numerical integration methods.

Assessment of the bovine tuberculosis elimination protocol in the United States.

In this study, we analyzed the performance of the USDA's bovine tuberculosis (bTB) elimination protocol in a 1,000-cow closed dairy herd using an agent-based simulation model under different levels of initial bTB infection. We followed the bTB test sensitivity and specificity values used by the USDA in its model assessment. We estimated the net present value over a 20-yr horizon for a bTB-free milking herd and for bTB-infected herds following the USDA protocol.

Growing climatic sensitivity of U.S. agriculture linked to technological change and regional specialization.

A pressing question for climate change adaptation is whether ongoing transformations of the agricultural sector affect its ability to cope with climatic variations. We examine this question in the United States, where major increases in productivity have fueled most of agricultural production growth over the past half-century. To quantify the evolving climate sensitivity of the sector and identify its sources, we combine state-level measures of agricultural productivity with detailed climate data for 1960-2004.

College Students and Eating Habits: A Study Using An Ecological Model for Healthy Behavior.

Overweightness and obesity rates have increased dramatically over the past few decades and they represent a health epidemic in the United States (US). Unhealthy dietary habits are among the factors that can have adverse effects on weight status in young adulthood. The purpose of this explorative study was to use a qualitative research design to analyze the factors (barriers and enablers) that US college students perceived as influencing healthy eating behaviors.

Development of a mathematical model to predict pool sizes and rates of digestion of 2 pools of digestible neutral detergent fiber and an undigested neutral detergent fiber fraction within various forages.

The digestion of neutral detergent fiber treated with amylase and sodium sulfite and ash corrected (aNDFom) has been described as a single digestible pool and a fraction undigested in ruminants. Further, most models that predict rate and extent of digestion of aNDFom in the rumen assume first-order processes, in which the rates of digestion and passage are proportional to the pool size of aNDFom consumed and digested. Data exist demonstrating that the undigested fraction of aNDFom is not well described by a fixed coefficient and varies by maturity and agronomic growing conditions of the plant.

An assessment of the economic costs to the U.S. dairy market of antimicrobial use restrictions.

Antimicrobial resistance is a public threat for humans, generated by the use of antimicrobials in human medicine as well as animal agriculture. Consequently, governments set public policies aim at curbing antimicrobial use (AMU). In dairy production, the occurrence of diseases triggers AMU to limit the costs associated with these afflictions.

The low but uncertain measured benefits of US water quality policy.

US investment to decrease pollution in rivers, lakes, and other surface waters has exceeded $1.9 trillion since 1960, and has also exceeded the cost of most other US environmental initiatives. These investments come both from the 1972 Clean Water Act and the largely voluntary efforts to control pollution from agriculture and urban runoff.

When Everyone Wins? Exploring Employee and Customer Preferences for No-Haggle Pricing.

The organizational importance for interactions between frontline employees and customers has been examined in relation to dimensions such as climate or culture. In this article, we highlight the importance of pricing strategies - typically studied in relation to consumer preferences - for frontline employees. To do this, we apply an evolutionary perspective and present two complementary studies that focus on the relevance of price discipline in relation to employee attitudes and preferences.

A review of methods to assess the economic impact of distributed medical education (DME) in Canada.

Background: Canadian distributed medical education (DME) increased substantially in the last decade, resulting in positive economic impacts to local communities. A reliable and simple method to estimate economic contributions is essential to provide managers with information on the extent of these impacts. This review paper fills a gap in the literature by answering the question: What are the most applicable quantitative methods to assess the economic impact of Canadian DME programs?

Methods: The literature is reviewed to identify economic assessment methods.

The role of agriculture in women's nutrition: Empirical evidence from India.

In this paper, we establish a statistically important relationship between household agricultural income and women's BMI using a five-year panel dataset of rural households drawn from 18 villages across five Indian states. Using within household variation over time, we estimate both the extent to which short-term changes in agricultural income are associated with short-term changes in BMI, and the effect of agricultural income growth on BMI growth over a longer term. Over the longer term, and for the group of households that regularly farm, we find a 10 percentage point agricultural income growth to be associated with a 0.