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Background This study was conducted to assess the health status and safety practices among year-round adult farm workers and residents and included a telephone interview survey of 1,727 persons from 552 farms. Methods Logistic regression was used to analyze four safety questions. Results Among 541 farm owner/operators significant predictors of making substitutions in the use of chemicals and major changes to equipment include younger age, more persons assisting on the farm, and higher gross sales. Having training is associated with having more than a high school education. Among all participants the perception that personal protective equipment are useful is associated with being younger, male, an owner/operator or worker, and having at least a high school education. Conclusions These findings suggest that older and less educated farmers should be targeted for health and safety programs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 38:71–81, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

SUMMARY 1. The growth of the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis L., was studied in the wild by a mark and recapture technique, and in the laboratory. Growth in the wild, even after 2 years, was generally small and variable. 2. After being offered regular feeds of various preparations of bovine blood through a pig-ileum membrane and being allowed to feed to satiation, hatchling leeches in the laboratory showed a saltatory pattern of weight gain with increases greatly in excess of those seen in the wild. Twelve of twenty-five leeches starved from hatching survived for about 250 days. The ability to survive for long periods without feeding may well be important for the overwintering survival of late hatchlings.

SUMMARY 1. A hot branding method was used to mark medicinal leeches (Hirudo medicinalis L.) from five samples (four in 1984, one in 1985) at agravel pit at Dungeness in Kent. Analysis of capture-recapture data by the Fisher-Ford and Jolly methods gave similar results and indicated a population in excess of 10000 (0.112 leeches per m2) in 1984 and 1985. Successive estimates were each higher than the last suggesting a thriving community. 2. The population structure was skewed towards the lower weight classes. This may indicate good recruitment of hatchlings, as also indicated by the presence of cocoons, or the failure to capture heavier satiated or gravid leeches because of their relative unresponsiveness to the sampling method involving water disturbance, or their complete absence from the water during cocoon laying. Gravid leeches were always above 2 g in weight. Recaptured marked leeches revealed that they migrated throughout the site, indicating active foraging for hosts.

SUMMARY. 1. Serological examinations were made of the bloodmeals of medicinal leeches, Hirudo medicinalis L., collected from two sites at Dungeness, Kent, in order to determine their host range. 2. A modified miniature Ouchterlony agar diffusion method was used with antisera raised in rabbits against fish, bird, frog and mammal blood sera. 3. The results suggest that the marsh frog. Rana ridibunda Pall., was the most important host with smaller contributions from birds and fishes. Mammals appeared to be very rare hosts. These results reflect the availability of hosts as determined by field studies. Many leeches showed evidence of blood meals from more than one host. 4. Field observations indicated the importance of the smooth newt, Triturus vulgaris L., as a host for the leech, particularly early in the season. Predation on the newt appeared invariably to be fatal.