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Foot pad dermatitis (FPD) is considered a very important animal-related welfare indicator in broiler chickens and is mainly caused by wet litter. This field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of fermented herb extract (FKE) enriched charcoal as 0.2% feed additive on growth performance and FPD status of commercial broiler chickens (Ross 308). The charcoal was assumed to bind liquids, also in faeces, and reduce the moisture of the bedding compared with that in the control flock. This binding was thought to improve foot pad health and also reduce the adsorption of harmful substances and microorganisms that might influence the chickens' performance. This on-farm-experiment was conducted in five batches. During that period, the farm was visited weekly over six weeks (days 5, 12, 19, 26, 33, and 40 of life), and data about weights, FPD status, hock burns, soiled cloaca, and soiled feathering were collected. After emptying the flocks on day 42, pooled litter samples were collected for dry matter content analysis. No significant effect of the treatment was found for the body weight (p > 0.05). Hock burns, soiled cloaca and soiled feathering also revealed no significant differences due to the charcoal supplementation (all p > 0.05). However, scoring of FPD revealed a significant difference between treatment groups (p < 0.01), with feet of birds supplemented with charcoal performing better then control animals. In conclusion, supplementing broiler feed with 0.2% FKE enriched charcoal increased foot pad health but did not affect growth performance, hock burns, soiled cloaca and soiled feathering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to validate a visual scoring system to assess footpad dermatitis in Pekin ducks, it should be investigated whether there is a reliable linkage between parameters of visually detectable lesions and the prevalence of ulcerations, as an indicator for severe and potentially painful lesions. Therefore, feet of Pekin ducks (N = 100) representing each level of a visual five-point scoring scheme for assessing the occurrence and severity of footpad dermatitis (n = 20 per score level; subsequently named "visual scoring system") were collected at an abattoir. Size of metatarsal footpads and lesions as well as the respective proportion of lesions were investigated macroscopically using digital images of the feet (subsequently named "image analysis"). Additionally, a histopathological examination of each foot was performed. In order to assess the reliability of the visual scoring system, histopathological findings were compared with the results of the visual inspection using a descriptive analysis. Furthermore, correlation coefficients were calculated to find linkages between the occurrence of ulcerations and the visually assessed parameters (visual scoring system and image analysis). Histopathologically verified ulcerative pododermatitis occurred in 67 of 100 examined feet, whereas the visual scoring system detected only n = 20 feet with ulcerative pododermatitis. Thus, 47 feet histopathologically classified as severe lesions could not be detected by the visual scoring system. Correlation coefficient between size of lesion and occurrence of ulceration was 0.425 and 0.455 between percentage of lesion and ulceration, respectively. According to our results, there is no reliable linkage between the visual scoring system and histopathological classification in footpads of Pekin ducks, especially in terms of severe lesions. Our findings suggest that the examined parameters "visual scoring system", "size of lesion" and "percentage of lesion" are not appropriate to detect severe ulcerative footpad dermatitis in Pekin ducks in actual prevalence when performing visual inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the understanding of the extraction chemistry of An(iii) and Ln(iii) with N-donor ligands 2,6-bis(5-( tert -butyl)-1 H -pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine (C4-BPP) in the presence of 2-bromohexanoic acid was investigated. Extraction studies showed an excellent separation factor of SF Am(III)/Eu(III) ≈ 200 and SF Am(III)/Nd(III) ≈ 60 in comparison with the structurally similar ligand 2,6-bis(5-neopentyl-1 H -pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine C5-BPP (SF Am(III)/Eu(III) ≈ 100), even though C5-BPP showed significantly higher stability constants. Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) studies revealed the formation of the ternary 1 : 1 and 1 : 2 complexes [Eu(C4-BPP) n (2-bromohexanoate) m ] (3- m )+ ( n = 1-2) ( and ). [Eu(C4-BPP) 2 (2-bromohexanoate) m ] (3- m )+ was the relevant complex species in solvent extraction. In contrast, Cm(iii) form stable 1 : 3 complexes. The ability of 2-bromohexanoic acid to replace C4-BPP from the inner coordination sphere of Eu(iii) but not from Cm(iii) is due to a more favorable complexation of Cm(iii) over Eu(iii) with C4-BPP. This resulted in a notably more efficient separation of An(iii) and Ln(iii) in comparison with C5-BPP., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

To improve our understanding of the interaction mechanism in trivalent lanthanide and actinide complexes, studies with structurally different hard and soft donor ligands are of great interest. For that reason, the coordination chemistry of An(III) and Ln(III) with 2,6-bis(5-( tert -butyl)-1 H -pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine (C4-BPP) has been explored. Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) studies have revealed the formation of [Cm(C4-BPP) n ] 3+ ( n = 1-3) (log β 1 ' = 7.2 ± 0.4, log β 2 ' = 10.1 ± 0.5, and log β 3 ' = 11.8 ± 0.6) and [Eu(C4-BPP) m ] 3+ ( m = 1-2) (log β 1 ' = 4.9 ± 0.2 and log β 2 ' = 8.0 ± 0.4). The absence of the [Eu(C4-BPP) 3 ] 3+ complex shows a more favorable complexation of Cm(III) over that of Eu(III). Additionally, complementary NMR measurements have been conducted to examine the M(III)-N bond in Ln(III) and Am(III) C4-BPP complexes. 15 N NMR data have revealed notable differences in the chemical shifts of the coordinating nitrogen atoms between the Am(III) and Ln(III) complexes. In the Am(III) complex, the coordinating nitrogen atoms have shown a shift by 260 ppm, indicating a higher fraction of covalent bonding in the Am(III)-N bond compared with the Ln(III)-N bond. This observation aligns excellently with the differences in the stability constants obtained from TRLFS studies.

Free fatty acid (FFA) particles that originate from the enzymatic hydrolysis of polysorbate (PS) via co-purified host cell proteins generally appear abruptly in drug products during real-time (long-term) storage. Efforts were taken to understand the kinetics of FFA particle formation, aiming for a mitigation strategy. However, it is rather challenging particularly in the sub-visible particle (SVP) range, due to either the insufficient sensitivity of the analytical techniques used or the interference of the formulation matrices of proteinaceous drug products. In this study, we examined the feasibility of Raman microscopy, backgrounded membrane imaging (BMI) and total holographic characterization (THC) on the detection of FFA sub-visible particles (SVPs). The results indicate that THC is the most sensitive technique to track their occurrence during the course of PS hydrolysis. Moreover, with this technique we are able to distinguish different stages of FFA particle formation in the medium. In addition, a real time stability study of a biopharmaceutical was analyzed, demonstrating the viability of THC to monitor SVPs in a real sample and correlate it to the visible particles (VPs) occurrence., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Injurious pecking against conspecifics is a serious problem in turkey husbandry. Bloody injuries act as a trigger mechanism to induce further pecking, and timely detection and intervention can prevent massive animal welfare impairments and costly losses. Thus, the overarching aim is to develop a camera-based system to monitor the flock and detect injuries using neural networks. In a preliminary study, images of turkeys were annotated by labelling potential injuries. These were used to train a network for injury detection. Here, we applied a keypoint detection model to provide more information on animal position and indicate injury location. Therefore, seven turkey keypoints were defined, and 244 images (showing 7660 birds) were manually annotated. Two state-of-the-art approaches for pose estimation were adjusted, and their results were compared. Subsequently, a better keypoint detection model (HRNet-W48) was combined with the segmentation model for injury detection. For example, individual injuries were classified using "near tail" or "near head" labels. Summarizing, the keypoint detection showed good results and could clearly differentiate between individual animals even in crowded situations.

Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is an indicator of animal welfare in turkeys, giving evidence of the animals' physical integrity and providing information on husbandry management. Automated systems for assessing FPD at slaughter can present a useful tool for objective data collection. However, using automated systems requires that they reliably assess the incidence. In this study, the feet of turkeys were scored for FPD by both an automated camera system and a human observer, using a five-scale score. The observer reliability between both was calculated (Krippendorff's alpha). The results were not acceptable, with an agreement coefficient of 0.44 in the initial situation. Therefore, pictures of 3,000 feet scored by the automated system were evaluated systematically to detect deficiencies. The reference area (metatarsal footpad) was not detected correctly in 55.0% of the feet, and false detections of the alteration on the footpad (FPD) were found in 32.9% of the feet. In 41.3% of the feet, the foot was not presented straight to the camera. According to these results, the algorithm of the automated system was modified, aiming to improve color detection and the distinction of the metatarsal footpad from the background. Pictures of the feet, now scored by the modified algorithm, were evaluated again. Observer reliability could be improved (Krippendorff's alpha = 0.61). However, detection of the metatarsal footpad (50.9% incorrect detections) and alterations (27.0% incorrect detections) remained a problem. We found that the performance of the camera system was affected by the angle at which the foot was presented to the camera (skew/straight; p < 0.05). Furthermore, the laterality of the foot (left/right) was found to have a significant effect ( p < 0.001). We propose that the latter depends on the slaughter process. This study also highlights a high variability in observer reliability of human observers. Depending on the respective target parameter, the reliability coefficient (Krippendorff's alpha) ranged from 0.21 to 0.82. This stresses the importance of finding an objective alternative. Therefore, it was concluded that the automated detection system could be appropriate to reliably assess FPD at the slaughterhouse. However, there is still room to improve the existing method, especially when using FPD as a welfare indicator., Competing Interests: RG was employed by Heidemark Mästerkreis GmbH u. Co. JS-L was employed by CLK GmbH. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Stracke, Andersson, Volkmann, Spindler, Schulte-Landwehr, Günther and Kemper.)

Living donor robotic-assisted kidney transplantation (RAKT) is an alternative to open kidney transplantation (OKT), but experience with this technique is limited in the United States., Methods: A retrospective review of living donor kidney transplants performed between 2016 and 2018 compared RAKT with OKT with regard to recipient, donor, and perioperative parameters. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed on recipient/donor age, sex, body mass index, race, preoperative dialysis, and calculated panel reactive antibodies., Results: Outcomes of patient survival, graft survival, and postoperative complications were assessed for 139 transplants (47 RAKT and 92 OKT). Propensity score analysis (47:47) showed that RAKT recipients had longer warm ischemic times (49 versus 40 min; P  < 0.001) and less blood loss (100 versus 150 mL; P  = 0.005). Operative time and length of stay were similar between groups. Postoperative serum creatinine was similar during a 2-y follow-up. Post hoc analysis excluding 4 open conversions showed lower operative time with RAKT (297 versus 320 min; P  = 0.04) and lower 30-d (4.7% versus 23.4%; P  = 0.02) and 90-d (7% versus 27.7%; P  = 0.01) Clavien-Dindo grade ≥3 complications., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that RAKT is a safe alternative to OKT., Competing Interests: A.Y. is a consultant and proctor for Intuitive Surgical. The other authors declare no funding or conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Transplantation Direct. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Broiler chickens in Europe are usually raised in a barren environment. Elevated perforated platforms address this problem and can positively influence animal health and welfare. To evaluate the effect of an elevated perforated floor on the behavior of broiler chickens, one of two barns was equipped with a perforated flooring system under the food and water supply. The second barn was used as a control. In total, three fattening periods were observed, with 500 broiler chickens (Ross 308 breed) kept in each barn. To compare the behavior of the birds in these groups, cameras were installed in the two barns. The videos were analyzed by counting the number of birds and observing focal animals while recording their behavior. More animals were observed on the perforated floor than in the littered control area (p < 0.001), but focal animals spent less time on the perforated floor compared to the observed littered area in the control barn (p < 0.05). There were no differences in the length of the recorded behaviors between the treatments. These findings suggest that, in general, the elevated perforated floor is attractive for the animals. However, it does not promote one of the recorded behavior patterns. Our results show that an elevated perforated floor could be an option for structuring broiler barns.

Methionine is a common excipient used in therapeutic protein liquid formulations as stabilizer and antioxidant. The oxidation of methionine to methionine sulfoxide can be regarded as a sensitive marker of oxidative stress for drug product storage conditions. In this study, a sensitive HPLC method for the quantification of methionine sulfoxide in formulated protein product was developed and qualified according to regulatory requirements using a SIELC® Primesep 100 column with UV detection. The separation involves a mixed-mode mechanism including reversed phase and cationic exchange modalities. The operating range of the method was established between 1 µM and 35 µM of methionine sulfoxide. In this testing range, the method was shown to be linear (R 2  > 0.99), accurate (Recovery 92.9 - 103.6%, average recovery = 99.8 ± 1.4%) and precise (intermediate precision at LoQ, CV = 2.9%). The developed test system was successfully applied to study the effects of temperature and storage conditions on methionine sulfoxide formation in complex therapeutic antibody formulations., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To describe the use of robotic-assisted transplant ureteral repair (RATUR) for treating transplant ureteral stricture (TUS) in 3 patients who had undergone robot assisted kidney transplant (RAKT)., Method: We reviewed the medical records of 3 patients who experienced TUS after RAKT and who underwent RATUR between 2017 and 2020. The patients' RAKT, post-transplant clinical course, endourological interventions, reoperation, and recovery were assessed., Results: All patients diagnosed with TUS presented with deterioration of kidney function after RAKT. Method of diagnosis included ultrasound, antegrade ureterogram, and CT scan. All 3 patients had a short (<1 cm) area of TUS and underwent RATUR. For 2 patients, distal strictures were bypassed with modified Lich-Gregoir ureteroneocystostomy reimplantation. One patient was treated with pyelo-ureterostomy to the contralateral native ureter. No intraoperative complications, conversions to open surgery, or significant operative blood loss requiring blood transfusion for any patient were observed. Also, no patients had urine leaks in the immediate or late postoperative period. After RATUR, 2 patients developed Clavien grade II complications with rectus hematoma or urinary tract infection., Conclusion: RATUR is a technically feasible operation for kidney transplant patients with TUS after RAKT. This procedure may provide the same benefits of open operation without promoting certain comorbidities that may occur from open surgical procedures., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to develop a camera-based system using artificial intelligence for automated detection of pecking injuries in turkeys. Videos were recorded and split into individual images for further processing. Using specifically developed software, the injuries visible on these images were marked by humans, and a neural network was trained with these annotations. Due to unacceptable agreement between the annotations of humans and the network, several work steps were initiated to improve the training data. First, a costly work step was used to create high-quality annotations (HQA) for which multiple observers evaluated already annotated injuries. Therefore, each labeled detection had to be validated by three observers before it was saved as "finished", and for each image, all detections had to be verified three times. Then, a network was trained with these HQA to assist observers in annotating more data. Finally, the benefit of the work step generating HQA was tested, and it was shown that the value of the agreement between the annotations of humans and the network could be doubled. Although the system is not yet capable of ensuring adequate detection of pecking injuries, the study demonstrated the importance of such validation steps in order to obtain good training data.

Animal welfare is one of the most challenging issues in modern farm animal husbandry. Animal welfare indicators can be used to monitor welfare on farms or at slaughterhouses, with footpad dermatitis (FPD) being one of the most important indicators used in turkeys. Up to now, the severity of FPD has been measured by evaluating the size of altered lesions on the metatarsal pad of birds. However, such lesions are not only found on the metatarsal pads, but alterations can also occur on the digital pads of the animals, the latter is not included in the European standard scoring systems for turkeys so far. The aim of the present study was to give a detailed outline of alterations on the digital pads of turkeys and associate their occurrence to a standardly used five-point scoring system, which is based on alterations of the metatarsal pad only. Therefore, pictures of 500 feet of turkeys from 16 flocks at the end of the fattening phase were taken, using an automatic camera system. Based on these pictures, alterations on the digits were scored according to different parameters (lesions, swellings, and number of affected digits). Furthermore, detailed measurements were conducted using an imaging software. Results were compared with a standardly used five-point scoring system (standard FPD scoring system), based on the metatarsal pad as reference. Results provide no equivalence in occurrence and severity of alterations on the metatarsal pads compared to those found on the digits. Pathologic alterations on the digits were already present at standard FPD scoring level 0; no differentiation became obvious between the higher scoring levels 2-4. Strong correlations were found when comparing percentage of alterations of the standard FPD scoring system to those of a system including alterations on the digits and the metatarsal pad, using the total foot as a reference (r p = 0.9, p < 0.001). This was the first study conducting a detailed analysis of alterations on the digits of turkeys. In conclusion, results of this study show that including the evaluation of alterations on digits could refine the present FPD scoring system, especially when using FPD as an animal welfare indicator., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Stracke, Volkmann, May, Döhring, Kemper and Spindler.)

In this study, a new housing system for broiler was tested. This system consisted of a slatted floor area and a littered area with the aim of improving litter quality. Two experimental broiler houses were provided. In house 1, a slatted floor was installed below the drinker and feedlines. Littered areas flanked the slatted floor. Broiler house 2 reflected conditions in commercial systems, consisting of a full littered area. Litter samples were taken at day 11 and at day 32 of the fattening period. Manure samples were taken at day 32. The total bacteria count (TBC), coliforms, Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and ESBL-producing bacteria were determined. Furthermore, physical parameters (dry matter, water activity, pH) of litter and manure were measured. For statistical analyzes, a generalized linear mixed model (GLIMMIX procedure) was calculated. The floor did not show any significant effect on the bacteria content of the litter. Regarding TBC in litter, the floor showed a tendency for an effect (F = 5.42, p<0.1) with lower contents in house 1. Regarding the manure under the slatted floor, a tendency for a difference between house 1 and house 2 was found for the content of E. coli (F = 5.55, p<0.1) with higher contents in house 1. The floor did not show any significant effect on the physical parameters of litter and manure. The results of this experimental study showed no positive effects on the selected litter parameters, but further studies, especially on-farm experiments are necessary to confirm these results., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2020 The Authors.)

Objectives: During a 'cannot intubate, cannot oxygenate' situation, asphyxia can lead to cardiac arrest. In this stressful situation, two complex algorithms facilitate decision-making to save a patient's life: difficult airway management and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, the extent to which competition between the two algorithms causes conflicts in the execution of pivotal treatment remains unknown. Due to the rare incidence of this situation and the very low feasibility of such an evaluation in clinical reality, we decided to perform a randomised crossover simulation research study. We propose that even experienced healthcare providers delay cricothyrotomy, a lifesaving approach, due to concurrent cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a 'cannot intubate, cannot oxygenate' situation., Design: Due to the rare incidence and dynamics of such a situation, we conducted a randomised crossover simulation research study., Setting: We collected data in our institutional simulation centre between November 2016 and November 2017., Participants: We included 40 experienced staff anaesthesiologists at our tertiary university hospital centre., Intervention: The participants treated two simulated patients, both requiring cricothyrotomy: one patient required cardiopulmonary resuscitation due to asphyxia, and one patient did not require cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was the intervention. Participants were evaluated by video records., Primary Outcome Measures: The difference in 'time to ventilation through cricothyrotomy' between the two situations was the primary outcome measure., Results: The results of 40 participants were analysed. No carry-over effects were detected in the crossover design. During cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the median time to ventilation was 22 s (IQR 3-40.5) longer than that without cardiopulmonary resuscitation (p=0.028), including the decision-making time., Conclusion: Cricothyrotomy, which is the most crucial treatment for cardiac arrest in a 'cannot intubate, cannot oxygenate' situation, was delayed by concurrent cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If cardiopulmonary resuscitation delays cricothyrotomy, it should be interrupted to first focus on cricothyrotomy., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Charge heterogeneity profiling is important for the quality control (QC) of biopharmaceuticals. Because of the increasing complexity of these therapeutic entities [1], the development of alternative analytical techniques is needed. In this work, flow-through partial-filling affinity capillary electrophoresis (FTPFACE) has been established as a method for the analysis of a mixture of two similar monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The addition of a specific ligand results in the complexation of one mAb in the co-formulation, thus changing its migration time in the electric field. This allows the characterization of the charged variants of the non-shifted mAb without interferences. Adsorption of proteins to the inner capillary wall has been circumvented by rinsing with guanidine hydrochloride before each injection. The presented FTPFACE approach requires only very small amounts of ligands and provides complete comparability with a standard CZE of a single mAb., (© 2019 The Authors. Electrophoresis published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Wet litter is the most important cause of footpad dermatitis in poultry, this in turn being a highly relevant animal-related welfare indicator. This field study was subdivided into two experiments. In Experiment 1, the standard diet was supplemented by 0.2% enriched charcoal, being a non-specific absorber and therefore might be promising in reducing faecal moisture. In Experiment 2, the experimental group received a reduced crude protein diet during weeks 6-13, combined with a 0.2% enriched charcoal supplementation. The trials were each conducted with two batches on three farms under on-farm conditions. The animals were observed at 6, 10, 14 and 18 weeks of age to collect data on body weight and different health parameters. The mortality and litter samples were analysed after slaughtering. In Experiment 1, performance and health were not affected despite higher dry matter content of the litter. In Experiment 2, the weight of birds receiving the protein-reduced diet was decreased significantly throughout the experiment. However, the slaughter weight did not differ. The mortality was reduced by 0.5% in the experimental group. Therefore, it was concluded that 0.2% of enriched charcoal is not a valuable feed-additive regarding animal health, while temporary protein reduction might have positive effects., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

The aim of the presented study was to validate a three-point locomotion score (LS) classifying lameness in dairy cows. Therefore, locomotion of 144 cows was scored and data on claw lesions were collected during hoof trimming. Based on latter data a cluster analysis was performed to objectively classify cows into three groups (Cluster 1-3). Finally, the congruence between scoring system and clustering was tested using Krippendorff's α reliability. In total, 63 cows (43.7 per cent) were classified as non-lame (LS1), 38 (26.4 per cent) were rated as LS2 with an uneven gait and 43 (29.9 per cent) cows were ranked as clearly lame (LS3). In comparison, hoof-trimming data revealed 64 cows (44.4 per cent) to show no diagnosis, 37 (25.7 per cent) one diagnosis, 33 animals (22.9 per cent) two diagnoses and 10 (7.0 per cent) more than two. Comparing the respective categorisation received by either the cluster analysis or LS in between groups, a high correspondence (79.4 per cent and 83.7 per cent) could be found for LS1 and cluster 1 as well as for LS3 and cluster 3. Only LS2 had partial agreement (21.1 per cent) to cluster 2. However, Krippendorff's α was 0.75 (95 per cent CI 0.68 to 0.81), indicating a good degree of reliability. Therefore, the results of this study suggested that the presented LS is suitable for classifying the cows' state of lameness representing their claw diseases., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© British Veterinary Association 2018. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)