Search

The article focuses on patriotism, presenting several examples of the same. A retired cavalry officer, who was a sworn enemy of the Federal Republic of Germany, organized his farmers and his kennelmen and huntsmen into a squadron armed with shotguns and revolvers which in the event of a Royalist rising was destined to take the nearest prefecture by a cavalry charge. Similarly, a country priest spends his days and nights going round the farms, telling each one what to do against Germany. He has been warned by the French authorities.

Information on the concurrent release and interactions between manure-borne phosphorus (P) and enteric bacteria to runoff from a live or dead grass sod is limited. A study of simulated runoff and an enzyme-based fractionation of runoff P forms from dairy manure applied on grass-covered soil in runoff boxes was conducted to compare the detachment and potential edge-of-field movement of manure P, Escherichia coli, and enterococci in runoff. Concentrations and mass loads of bioactive P forms and bacteria in runoff were log-normally distributed over time during all simulations. Although P and enteric bacteria were simultaneously released to runoff, high correlations were found predominantly between water turbidity, concentrations of bacteria, and phosphohydrolase-labile P, a fraction associated with particulate manure. Delayed bacteria and particulate P concentrations and mass loads indicated live leaf and bacterial surface interactions that impeded their release to runoff. Resultant deviations in linearity between manure water-extractable P and bacteria distributions and the significant correlation between bacteria and the phosphohydrolase-labile P fraction suggested that manure-borne E. coliwere released in association with manure particulates that contained organic P. The state of the grass cover determined the asymmetry of bacteria and bioactive P distributions. Given the micrometer size range of suspended particles, losses of colloidal particulate P and colloid-associated bacteria may extend well beyond the immediate vicinity of the deposited manure.

The article discusses the results of model tests aimed at investigating the effect of a dual draft hull on the behaviour of motion of a pipelay/heavy-lift ship in different sea states. The non-linear damping characteristics of the dual draft vessel and the calculations for the motion behaviour are tackled. The tests indicated that the roll behaviour of the dual draft vessel does not conform with the commonly observed response amplitude operator (RAO). It is noted that a significant reduction of the excess in stability of such vessels was found.

Forty crossbred steers were used to determine the effects of carbohydrate supply site on the indigenous bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract. Steers were fitted with ruminal and abomasal infusion catheters and assigned randomly to one of eight groups in a complete randomized block design. The experimental period was 36 d. Treatments included: 1) a pelleted basal diet fed at 0.163 Mcal ME•(kg BW0.75)−1•d−1(LE); 2) the basal diet fed at 0.215 Mcal ME•(kg BW0.75)−1•d−1(HE); 3) the basal diet fed at 0.163 Mcal ME•(kg BW0.75)−1•d−1with ruminal infusion of starch hydrolysate (SH) (RSH); 4) the basal diet fed at 0.163 Mcal ME•(kg BW0.75)−1•d−1with abomasal infusion of SH (ASH); and 5) the basal diet fed at 0.163 Mcal ME•(kg BW0.75)−1•d−1with abomasal infusion of glucose (AG). The total volume of infusate (5 kg•site−1• d−1) was equalized across treatments and infusion sites by infusion of water. Glucose and SH were infused at rates of 14.35 and 12.64 g • (kg BW0.75)•d−1, respectively. Ruminal, cecal, and fecal samples were obtained on d 36. Ruminal pH was low (5.79) in LE steers and unaffected (P> 0.10) by increased energy intake or carbohydrate infusion. Cecal and fecal pH were 6.93 and 7.00, respectively, for LE steers. Increasing energy intake (P< 0.10) and the rate of carbohydrate infusion (P< 0.01) significantly decreased cecal and fecal pH compared with LE. Ruminal counts of anaerobic bacteria in LE steers were 8.99 log10cells/g and abomasal carbohydrate infusion had no affect (P> 0.10) on these numbers. However, ASH and AG steers had approximately 1.5 log10cells/g more (P< 0.01) cecal and fecal anaerobic populations. Ruminal, cecal, and fecal aerobic bacterial counts were 40, 22, and 23%, respectively, lower than anaerobic counts. Generally, aerobic counts responded similarly to the anaerobic counts. Less than 1% of the anaerobic bacteria enumerated in the rumen, cecum, and feces were coliforms, and 97% of the coliforms were Escherichia coli.Carbohydrate infusions resulted in only numerical increases in fecal coliform and E. coliconcentrations (P> 0.10). Fecal E. coliwere highly acid sensitive in all steers, with less than 1% surviving a 1-h exposure to low pH (2.0). This suggests that cecal or fecal pH is not a good indicator of acid resistance, and it supports the concept that there are other factors that may induce acid resistance.

Abstract. The objectives of this study were to determine the variability in mineralization of dairy manure N, to determine if N mineralization can be predicted by compositional factors or by near- or mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Dairy manures (n =107) were collected from farms in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut. The composition of these manures ranged from 14 to 386 g dry matter kg^-1, 0.9 to 9.5 kg total N/m³, and 0.3 to 4.7 kg NH₄⁺-N/m³. Manure-amended soil was aerobically incubated at 25°C and concentrations of NH₄⁺-N and NO₃^--N were determined at day 2 and day 56. The manures were highly variable in their N mineralization characteristics, ranging from a net mineralization of 54.9% to a net immobilization of 29.2% of the organic N. When compositional parameters were individually regressed against percentage mineralized organic N, the highest correlation coefficient (r) was 0.164. A stepwise regression of all 11 variables yielded a maximal r of 0.486. These results suggest that the availability of dairy manure organic N is highly variable and that the availability cannot be predicted from simple compositional parameters. No relationship was found between near-infrared spectral characteristics and N mineralization suggesting that no simple relationship exists between N mineralization and compositional characteristics. There appears to be some potential for the use of mid-infrared for determining the mineralization potential of manures.

Current estimates of plant availability of manure N are highly variable. A study was conducted to examine C and N mineralization characteristics of manure components from feeds (immature and mature alfalfa and orchardgrass, soybean meal, roasted soybean meal), forage cell walls (acid detergent fiber [ADF] and neutral detergent fiber [NDFI), simple N compounds (urea, amino acids and peptides), and nondietary metabolic components (ruminal bacteria and colonic cells). Nitrogen and C mineralization were determined by aerobic incubation of sample‐amended soil. Changes in NH+4and NO−3concentration and CO2production were monitored over 112 d. At C to N ratios below 15, there was a declining exponential relationship between the initial potential rate of C mineralization and the sample C to N ratio. However, at C to N ratios above 15, the initial potential rate of C mineralization was low and insensitive to C to N ratio. Percent of added N mineralized ranged from 92% for urea and 13% for mature orchardgrass to a net N immobilization for ADF‐ and NDF‐amended soils. When the C to N ratio was below 42, there was a linear relationship between readily mineralizable N and the C to N ratio. There were also positive relationships between readily mineralizable C and N and the components' total N concentration. Manure contains a range of compounds that have rapid or intermediate N mineralization characteristics, or that are strong immobilizers of N. These results suggest that improved estimates of manure N mineralization may be obtained by considering both the readily available N components and components that strongly immobilize N.

In vitro incubations of manure‐amended soil are frequently used to evaluate manure N and C availability. Manures are typically frozen, refrigerated, or dried prior to analysis. An experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of these manure storage methods on C and N mineralization characteristics. Two dairy slurries were collected and seven treatments, fresh, frozen (4 or 5 wk), refrigerated (1 d, 1 wk 4 wk), freeze‐dried or oven‐dried, were compared. Rates and extents of N and C mineralization were determined by aerobic incubation of slurry‐amended soil at 25°C. Slurry was added at a rate equivalent to 265 kg N ha−1incorporated into the upper 15 cm of soil. The appearance of NH+4and NO−3and the production of CO2were monitored during 16 wk. Refrigeration or freezing had no effect on slurry N content; however, freeze drying and oven drying resulted in N losses of 30% or more. CO2‐C production followed first‐order kinetics during 9 wk for all treatments with approximately 18 to 26% of the slurry C mineralized. Net mineralization of organic N was minimal in all treatments and was not affected by freezing or refrigerating the slurries. With oven‐dried and freeze‐dried slurries, however, there was a greater immobilization of N when compared with fresh manure. Results indicate that oven drying and freeze drying are unsuitable methods of storage, but the mineralization characteristics of manure are not affected by refrigeration or freezing.

A steady-state model of the production, absorption, passage, and concentration of ruminal VFA and pH is developed from published literature data and is structured to use the feed descriptions and inputs from the net carbohydrate and protein system. Included are the effects of pH on growth rate and yield of structural and non-structural carbohydrate-fermenting bacteria; production of acetate, propionate, butyrate, lactate, and methane; conversion of lactate to VFA; ruminal absorption of acids; and prediction of ruminal pH from dietary measures and from ruminal buffering and acidity. The root mean square error of predicted total VFA concentration was 12 mM. Individual VFA fractions were inadequately predicted. In a review of literature data, effective NDF (eNDF) provided a better correlation with ruminal pH than forage or NDF. Digestion rate of NDF remained at normal levels above pH 6.2, which corresponds to a minimum eNDF of 20% of dietary DM. Further research is needed to determine the individual VFA produced from carbohydrate fractions at various pH, the appropriateness of partitioning the starch and pectin carbohydrate pool into slowly and rapidly degraded fractions, and the effect on microbial yield, total tract digestibility, and predicted energy values of feeds.

The efficacy of a benzodiazepine was compared with that of a neuroleptic for the rapid tranquilization of patients presenting at a psychiatric emergency room service. Thirty-seven highly agitated patients exhibiting psychotic symptoms were randomly assigned to receive either 2 mg lorazepam or 5 mg haloperidol as needed every 30 min for 4 h. Administration route was either intramuscular injection or oral concentrate. Symptom ratings were conducted each hour using double-blind procedures. Both medications reduced symptom ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Global Clinical Impression of Overall Symptom Severity Scale. Global Clinical Impression scores for the two medication groups did not differ significantly either at baseline or at 4 h after entry into the study. However, Global Clinical Impression scores of patients in the lorazepam group were less severe at intermittent ratings. The groups did not differ on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale at any rating time. No differences were found either in the number of doses administered or in the administration route selected. Given the potential for severe extrapyramidal symptoms developing hours or days after a single dose of haloperidol, lorazepam may provide an excellent alternative for the rapid tranquilization of the acutely agitated psychotic patient in the emergency room setting.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "From Bad to Worse," by George Lake, "The Struggle Over the Role of the Court," and an article relative to mentioning the need to have dead men in the Supreme Court.

From the present experiments it may be concluded that in the surroundings of natural gas leaks, methane, ethane and possibly some other components of the natural gas are oxidized by microbial activities as long as oxygen is available. This is demonstrated by an increased oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production, as well as by increased numbers of different types of bacteria. The resulting deficiency of oxygen, the excess of carbon dioxide, and perhaps the formation of inhibitory amounts of ethylene, are considered to be mainly responsible for the death of trees near natural gas leaks. Also the long period of time needed by the soil to recover, may be due to prolonged microbial activities, as well as to the presence of e. g. ethylene.

Antimicrobial resistance has become a major public health concern, and animal agriculture is often implicated as a source of resistant bacteria. The primary objective of this study was to determine prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonellaand E. colifrom healthy animals on dairy farms in Pennsylvania. Confidence intervals (CI) of farm prevalence were calculated for resistance, and the comparisons between different animal groups were adjusted for within-farm clustering. The secondary objective was to identify potential risk factors associated with antimicrobial resistance. In particular, we investigated the correlations between previous antimicrobial use and current resistance in E. coliusing multiple logistic regression models. A total of 444 composite manure samples were collected from 80 herds in Pennsylvania. Four age and production groups were included: pre-weaned calves, post-weaned calves, dry cows, and lactating cows. E. coli(n = 2370) and Salmonella(n = 1095), when isolated from the manure composite samples (n = 444), were screened for resistance on antimicrobial supplemented agar. Isolates of interest were further assayed against 14 antimicrobials using a broth microdilution method. Salmonellawas isolated from at least one composite manure sample from 51 (67%) farms, with 99% being pan-susceptible, and was detected more frequently in lactating cows and dry cows than pre- and post-weaned calves. The most prevalent Salmonellaserogroups were K, C1, and C2. Among the E. coliisolates, resistance was more frequently detected in pre-weaned and post-weaned calves than in dry and lactating cows for all 14 antimicrobials tested (P< 0.05). Multi-drug resistance (resistant to ≥3 antimicrobial classes) in E. coliwas detected in 66 farms (83%) and was detected more often in pre-weaned calves (P < 0.05). The blaCTX-Mand blaCMYgenes were found in cephalosporin-resistant E. colifrom 5% and 35% of the farms surveyed, respectively. A number of risk factors, including antimicrobial use, were found to be associated with an increased likelihood of resistance in E. coli, and these associations were not limited to the same antimicrobial classes. The results of this study showed dairy farms, especially pre-weaned calves and their environment, are significant reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance, and antimicrobial use may aggravate the resistance problem.

The extent to which carriage of antibiotic resistant bacteria in food animals is responsible for the burden of antibiotic resistance in human infections is currently not well known. Thus, there is a need to further evaluate the genomic diversity of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria and the microbial communities in which they are found within these animals. To further evaluate the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the feces of dairy animals, we sequenced the genomes of 160 antibiotic resistant Escherichia coliand 28 fecal metagenomes isolated from adult dairy cows, veal calves, and pre-weaned calves. E. coliisolates were collected from composite fecal samples and fecal grab samples taken directly from the animal. Isolates were screened for susceptibility to a panel of 14 antibiotics, and 150 showing resistance to at least one antibiotic and 10 antibiotic-susceptible isolates were selected for whole genome shotgun sequencing using a paired-end sequencing approach on an Illumina NextSeq 500. Twenty-eight fecal grab samples collected from animals shedding variable levels of antibiotic resistant E. coliwere selected for shotgun metagenomics sequencing. Phylogenetic relationships among the E. coligenomes were inferred using a maximum likelihood approach in RAxML, and sequence types were determined in silico. At least four E. coliisolates from each of the major phylogroups were detected. The most frequently detected sequence types were ST88 (10% of all isolates), ST10 (9%), and ST117 (6%). Within these sequence types, isolates from different animals on the same farm and isolates from different farms were closely related, indicating that some strains of antibiotic resistant E. colimay be circulating among dairy herds within the same region. Interestingly, several MDR ST117 isolates were closely related to human ExPEC isolates and isolates recovered from chickens with colibacillosis. Metagenomic analyses indicated that for all samples tetracycline resistance genes were the most frequently identified resistance genes (61% of all resistance genes), followed by aminoglycoside (20%), macrolide (8%), beta-lactam (3%), sulfonamide (0.8%), and trimethoprim (0.6%) resistance genes. In veal calf fecal samples trimethoprim and fluoroquinolone resistance genes were more frequently detected than in pre-weaned dairy calf samples. Future work will identify genomic features that may confer persistence of high frequency antibiotic resistant E. colistrains and sequence types in the dairy cow hindgut and factors that influence the presence of antibiotic resistance in pre-weaned calves.

Dairy farms are well-documented reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens. Salmonellaspp., Listeria monocytogenes, Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli, and Campylobacterspp. are often excreted in the feces of cows, and it is common for infected cows to show no signs of illness and not be recognized as sources of human health risks. Historically, comparisons of bacterial isolates from animals and humans were made using molecular genotyping tools, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and rep-PCR, or targeted sequencing techniques, like multilocus sequence typing. The discriminatory power of these tools has been exploited for strain differentiation and epidemiology tracing, the most widespread example being PulseNet. Decreased costs have made whole genome sequencing (WGS) a viable means of comparing the genomes of large numbers of bacterial isolates. Here, we describe several examples where we have used comparative genomics and metagenomics to describe relationships between dairy-associated isolates and isolates from other sources and elucidate the ecology of pathogens in dairy farm environments. Genome analysis of 118 Salmonella entericaserotype Kentucky (S. Kentucky) isolates from dairy, poultry, and humans identified some of the poultry and bovine isolates as sequence type (ST) 152, but there was a phylogenetic distinction between the poultry and bovine isolates. The human isolates were primarily distantly related ST198 strains. Three of the dairy isolates were ST198, suggesting that dairy animals are a potential reservoir of this human pathogen. We further compared the fecal microbial communities of S. Kentucky-shedding and non-shedding cows to search for potential shifts in community composition associated with S. Kentucky carriage. No significant differences between the two groups were observed, suggesting that S. Kentucky is a transient commensal gut inhabitant. For L. monocytogenes, we sequenced the genomes of 128 isolates from dairy cows and bulk tank milk and compared them to human-associated L. monocytogenesisolates. Phylogenetic inference revealed a high level of diversity among the isolated strains. Multiple sequence and virulence types were identified, including at least four virulence types known to be responsible for large outbreaks. Based on a whole genome phylogenetic analysis, several isolates were closely related to human clinical isolates, such as the strain isolated in the 2011 cantaloupe outbreak that was responsible for multiple deaths. Decreased cost and increased access to WGS is radically changing the understanding of the ecology of bacterial populations. With WGS data, much more subtle changes are readily accessible compared with historic methods of distinguishing strains.