| 11. |
- Hedhammar, Åke, et al.
(author)
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Energy-intake and activity risk factors for owner-perceived obesity in a defined population of Swedish dogs
- 2010
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In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 96, s. 132-141
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Our main objective was to obtain baseline data on daily metabolisable energy (ME) intake, activity, and risk factors for obesity in a population of 460 privately owned Swedish dogs in 1999. A previously validated mail-and-telephone questionnaire was used (Sallander et al., 2001a). The dogs were of 124 breeds, 1-3 years old, and had body weights (BW) between 1 and 75 kg. The ME intakes of this population could be described with the equation ME(intake) (kilojoules, kJ/d) = 554BW(0.66) (r(sp) = 0.73, P=0.0001). The energy intake originating from commercial foods was 79% (median, range 45-97). Table foods generally had a higher fat content (median 13 g/megajoule, MJ, range 1-122) than commercial foods (median 8 g/MJ, range 2-18; P = 0.0001). The median energy density was 1603 kJ/100 g (median; range 1106-2105).Almost all (97%) dogs were taken for walks, and there was a significant difference between the duration of the walks during weekdays and weekends (medians 60 and 90 min/d, respectively, P = 0.006). Sixty percent of all dogs were trained in activities such as obedience (31%), hunting (27%) or tracking (18%) for a median of 35 min/d (range 1-146).The final regression model for obesity included the factors sex, appetite and feeding a home-made diet/table foods. Dogs that were perceived to have good or very good appetite had 3.42-fold greater odds for obesity than individuals with bad or very bad appetite (95% CI 1.19-9.80; P = 0.022). Females had 2.17-fold greater odds of being obese than males did (95% CI 1.30-3.70; P = 0.003). Also, dogs fed table foods or home-made diets had 2.06-fold greater odds of obesity than those that were not given these food items (95% CI 0.97-4.35; P = 0.050). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 12. |
- Hedhammar, Åke, et al.
(author)
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Feeding patterns and dietary intake in a random sample of a Swedish population of insured-dogs
- 2010
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 95, s. 281-287
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We used a validated mail and telephone questionnaire to investigate baseline data on feeding patterns and dietary intake in a random sample of 460 Swedish dogs. In 1999, purebred individuals 1-3 years old in the largest insurance database of Sweden completed the study.Most dogs were fed restricted amounts twice a day, and the feeding patterns seldom were changed after the age of 6 months. Typically, the main constituent of the meals was dry food [representing 69% of dry matter (DM)]. Four out of five dogs also got foods that (in descending order of the amount of energy provided) consisted of vegetable oil, meat, sour milk, bread, potatoes, pasta, lard/tallow, sausage, cheese, rice and fish.The heavier the dog (kg), the more dry dog food was consumed (g DM/d). The dry-food intakes (g DM/d) increased linearly with body weight (BW, in kg): intake = -15.3 + 8.33 BW (P = 0.0001; r = 0.998), a clear relationship that was not observed for other commercial foods.The non-commercial part of the diet had higher fat (13 and 8 g/megajoule, MJ, respectively; P = 0.00001) and lower protein (12 and 16 g/MJ, respectively; P = 0.00001) compared to the commercial part of the diet. Six out of ten dogs were given treats, and one-fourth was given vitamin/mineral supplements (most commonly daily).Most dogs consumed diets that were nutritionally balanced. No dogs in the study consumed diets that supplied lower amounts of protein than recommended by the NRC (2006). Only two individuals (<1%) were given total diets that were lower than the nutrient profiles in fat. Few dogs consumed total diets that were lower than recommended by the NRC (2006) in calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, D and E (2, 1, 3, 5, and 3% of the individuals, respectively). A few individuals consumed higher levels of vitamins A and D (<1 and 4%, respectively) than recommended.Diets that deviated from recommended levels were those consisting of only table foods with no supplements (too-low in vitamins and minerals) or commercial foods + no table foods supplied with extra vitamin and mineral supplements (too-high in vitamins and minerals). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 13. |
- Höjgård, Sören, et al.
(author)
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Willingness to pay for compulsory deworming of pets entering Sweden to prevent introduction of Echinoccoccus multilocularis
- 2012
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 106:1, s. 9-23
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To investigate if the Swedish entry rules for pets to prevent the introduction of Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) are proportional (i.e. that their costs do not exceed the value of their benefits), a dichotomous-choice contingent valuation study was conducted. The study was performed before the first case of EM was detected in Sweden in February 2011. About 5000, randomly selected, Swedish citizens were invited to participate and 2192 of them (44%) accepted to do so. Missing information on whether or not one would accept to pay for keeping the rules for 143 respondents resulted in 2049 observations (41%) available for the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP), and missing information on personal characteristics for another 274 respondents reduced the number of observations available for sensitivity analysis to 1775(36%). Annual expected WTP for keeping the rules ranged between (sic) 54.3 and (sic) 99.0 depending on assumptions about compensations demanded by respondents not willing to pay. The estimates are conservative since only answers from respondents that were absolutely certain they would pay the suggested bid were regarded as yes-responses. That WTP is positive implies that Swedish citizens perceived the benefits of the rules to be larger than their costs. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 14. |
- Ikwap, Kokas, et al.
(author)
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Salmonella species in piglets and weaners from Uganda: Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and herd-level risk factors
- 2014
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In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 115, s. 39-47
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is of concern in humans in sub-Saharan Africa, and this is partly due to the high number of immunocompromised persons. Pork and pork products could be among the sources of these non-typhi Salmonella spp. The aim of this study was to identify Salmonella spp. in piglets and weaners in northern and eastern Uganda, characterize their antimicrobial resistance patterns and determine herd-level risk factors. Fecal samples were collected from 465 piglets and weaners from 93 herds (49 and 44 from northern and eastern Uganda, respectively). In addition, information about the herd management and potential risk factors were collected. The fecal samples were cultured for the identification of Salmonella spp. The Salmonella spp. confirmed by serotyping were further characterized by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to 12 antimicrobials by broth microdilution. At individual level, the total prevalence of Salmonella spp. was 12% (12.2% in northern and 11.9% in eastern Uganda). At herd level, the total prevalence was 39% (43% in northern and 34% in eastern Uganda). From 56 samples with Salmonella spp., 20 serovars were identified including two serovars identified only by their antigenic formulae. The predominant serovars were S. Zanzibar, S. Heidelberg, S. Infantis, S. Typhimurium, S. Stanleyville, S. Aberdeen and S. Kampala. In total, 57% of the 53 Salmonella spp. analyzed, originating from 27% of the herds, were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent. The majority of drug-resistant isolates (60%) were from northern Uganda. Eight multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates were from northern Uganda and three MDR isolates were from eastern Uganda. Increased prevalence of Salmonella spp. was associated with feeding the young and adults separately as compared to feeding the young and adults together (p = 0.043, OR = 4.3; 95% CI 1.1, 17.38). Protective factors were "intensive" method of keeping the pigs versus "tethering and roaming" (p = 0.016, OR = 0.11; 95% CI 0.02, 0.64), "intensive" method versus "semi-intensive" method (p = 0.048, OR = 0.12; 95% CI 0.01, 0.96) and cleaning feeders after every two days versus daily (p = 0.017, OR = 0.18; 95% CI 0.05, 0.72). This study has revealed a high prevalence of infection of piglets and weaners with diverse non-typhi Salmonella serovars and highlights the potential role of pork and pork products as sources of these organisms for humans. In addition, this study has identified protective factors that could be promoted to control Salmonella spp. and in antimicrobial resistance reduction programs in rural pigs from Uganda. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 15. |
- Jansson Mörk, Marie, et al.
(author)
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Validation of a national disease recording system for dairy cattle against veterinary practice records
- 2010
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 93, s. 183-192
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In Sweden, morbidity in dairy cattle is monitored through a national disease recording system. This system gives valuable information for research as well as advisory work and genetic evaluation. Our main objective was to evaluate the completeness in the disease recording system.Farm copies of veterinary records (n = 851) from 112 herds, from March 2003 to April 2004, were compared with the information registered in the recording system. The evaluation of completeness was performed at two stages: (i) in the raw data transferred from the Swedish Board of Agriculture (SBA) to the Swedish Dairy Association (for records, cases and diagnostic events) and (ii) in the dairy disease database (DDD) at the Swedish Dairy Association (for diagnostic events). The evaluation was stratified by record type: manual and computerized records from state-employed veterinarians and private veterinarians, respectively.The completeness was high both for records (95-100%) and cases (90-99%) except manual records from private veterinarians (76% for records and 74% for cases). The overall completeness for diagnostic events was 75% in the DDD, with significant differences between record types. For all record types other than manual records from private veterinarians, the majority of diagnostic events lost disappeared after registration in the raw data from the SBA. The reasons for loss found suggest that there is potential for improvement.A multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that the completeness of diagnostic events in the DDD depended on region, diagnosis and veterinary employment. The random effect of veterinarian accounted for 35% of the modeled variation.Future studies are needed to assess how the differential misclassification affect estimates based on the data, and how to account for it. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 16. |
- Lindström, Tom, 1977-, et al.
(author)
-
Bayesian analysis of animal movements related to factors at herdand between herd levels : Implications for disease spread modeling
- 2011
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 98:4, s. 230-242
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- A method to assess the influence of between herd distances, production types and herd sizes on patterns of between herd contacts is presented. It was applied on pig movement data from a central database of Swedish Board of Agriculture. To determine the influence of these factors on the contact between holdings we used a Bayesian model and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to estimate the posterior distribution of model parameters. The analysis showed that the contact pattern via animal movements is highly heterogeneous and influenced by all three factors, production type, herd size, and distance between farms. Most production types showed a positive relationship between maximum capacity and the probability of both incoming and outgoing movements. In agreement with previous studies, holdings also differed in both the number of contacts as well as with what holding types contact occurred with. Also, the scale and shape of distance dependence in contact probability was shown to differ depending on the production types of holdings. To demonstrate how the methodology may be used for risk assessment, disease transmissions via animal movements were simulated with the model used for analysis of contacts, and parameterized by the analyzed posterior distribution. A Generalized Linear Model showed that herds with production types Sow pool center, Multiplying herd and Nucleus herd have higher risk of generating a large number of new infections. Multiplying herds are also expected to generate many long distance transmissions, while transmissions generated by Sow pool centers are confined to more local areas. We argue that the methodology presented may be a useful tool for improvement of risk assessment based on data found in central databases.
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| 17. |
- Lindström, Tom, et al.
(author)
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Estimating animal movement contacts between holdings of different production types
- 2010
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 95:1-2, s. 23-31
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Animal movement poses a great risk for disease transmission between holdings. Heterogeneous contact patterns are known to influence the dynamics of disease transmission and should be included in modeling. Using pig movement data from Sweden as an example, we present a method for quantification of between holding contact probabilities based on different production types. The data contained seven production types: Sow pool center, Sow pool satellite, Farrow-to-finish, Nucleus herd, Piglet producer, Multiplying herd and Fattening herd. The method also estimates how much different production types will determine the contact pattern of holdings that have more than one type. The method is based on Bayesian analysis and uses data from central databases of animal movement. Holdings with different production types are estimated to vary in the frequency of contacts as well as in what type of holding they have contact with, and the direction of the contacts. Movements from Multiplying herds to Sow pool centers, Nucleus herds to other Nucleus herds, Sow pool centers to Sow pool satellites, Sow pool satellites to Sow pool centers and Nucleus herds to Multiplying herds were estimated to be most common relative to the abundance of the production types. We show with a simulation study that these contact patterns may also be expected to result in substantial differences in disease transmission via animal movements, depending on the index holding. Simulating transmission for a 1 year period showed that the median number of infected holdings was 1 (i.e. only the index holding infected) if the infection started at a Fattening herd and 2161 if the infection started on a Nucleus herd. We conclude that it is valuable to include production types in models of disease transmission and the method presented in this paper may be used for such models when appropriate data is available. We also argue that keeping records of production types is of great value since it may be helpful in risk assessments.
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| 18. |
- Malm, Sofia, et al.
(author)
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Association between radiographic assessment of hip status and subsequent incidence of veterinary care and mortality related to hip dysplasia in insured Swedish dogs
- 2010
-
In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 93, s. 222-232
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Our objective was to evaluate the association between grading of hip status as assessed by radiographic examination (hip screening) and subsequent incidence of veterinary care and mortality related to hip dysplasia (HD) in five breeds of insured dogs in Sweden. Screening results for hip status from the Swedish Kennel Club and data on veterinary care and mortality from the insurance company Agria were merged based on the registration number of the dog. Dogs of five breeds (Bernese Mountain Dogs, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and Rottweilers) screened during 1995-2004 and covered by an insurance plan for veterinary care or life at the time of screening were included. The study populations included between 1667 and 10,663 dogs per breed. Breed-specific multivariable Cox proportional-hazards analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of radiographic hip status on time from hip screening to first HD-related veterinary and life claim, respectively. The effects of gender, birth season, and a time-varying covariate of year were also studied. Additional analyses, on the five breeds combined, were performed to investigate the effects of hip status, breed, and the interaction between hip status and breed. The effect of hip status was highly significant (P < 0.001) for both life and veterinary claims related to HD in all five breeds with increased hazard ratio (HR) for deteriorating hip status. Dogs with moderate or severe hip status at screening had a markedly increased hazard of HD-related veterinary care and mortality compared with dogs assessed as free or mild. The time-varying covariate of year showed a significantly higher HR in the last time period for German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers in the analyses of veterinary claims. In the analyses on all five breeds, German Shepherds had the highest HR for both veterinary care and mortality related to HD, followed by Bernese Mountain Dogs. Golden and Labrador Retrievers had the lowest HR. The effect of hip status on the hazard was the same irrespective of breed. However, as a consequence of differences between breeds in overall risk, the predictive ability of screening results for subsequent incidence of HD-related problems for individual dogs was breed-dependent. Based on the strong association between radiographic hip status and incidence of HD-related veterinary care and mortality, and the previously reported moderate heritability of hip status, we conclude that selection based on screening results for hip status can be expected to reduce the risk of HD-related clinical problems. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 19. |
- Nöremark, Maria, et al.
(author)
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Network analysis of cattle and pig movements in Sweden : Measures relevant for disease control and risk based surveillance
- 2011
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In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 99:2-4, s. 78-90
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Registration ofcattle and pigmovements is mandatory in Sweden and all registered movements between farms in the years 2006–2008 were investigated using network analysis. The networks were analysed as monthly and yearly networks, separately per species and with the two species together. Measures that have been previously discussed in relation to outbreaks and disease control were calculated; moreover a measure of the ingoing infection chain was constructed.The ingoing infection chain captures in going contacts through other holdings, taking the temporal aspect and sequence of the movements into account. The distribution of the contacts among the holdings was skewed.Many farms had few or no contacts, while others had many, a pattern which has also been described from other countries. The cattle network and the combined network showed a recurring seasonal pattern, while this was not seen in the pig network.The in-degree was not equivalent to the ingoing infection chain; there were holdings with limited direct contacts, but a large number of indirect contacts.The ingoing infection chain could be a useful measure when setting up strategies for disease control and for risk based surveillance as it identifies holdings with many contacts through live animal movements and thus at potentially higher risk for introduction of contagious diseases.
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| 20. |
- Stengärde, Lena, et al.
(author)
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Risk factors for displaced abomasum or ketosis in Swedish dairy herds
- 2012
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In: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 103, s. 280-286
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Risk factors associated with high or low long-term incidence of displaced abomasum (DA) or clinical ketosis were studied in 60 Swedish dairy herds, using multivariable logistic regression modelling. Forty high-incidence herds were included as cases and 20 low-incidence herds as controls. Incidence rates were calculated based on veterinary records of clinical diagnoses. During the 3-year period preceding the herd classification, herds with a high incidence had a disease incidence of DA or clinical ketosis above the 3rd quartile in a national database for disease recordings. Control herds had no cows with DA or clinical ketosis. All herds were visited during the housing period and herdsmen were interviewed about management routines, housing, feeding, milk yield, and herd health. Target groups were heifers in late gestation, dry cows, and cows in early lactation. Univariable logistic regression was used to screen for factors associated with being a high-incidence herd. A multivariable logistic regression model was built using stepwise regression. A higher maximum daily milk yield in multiparous cows and a large herd size (p = 0.054 and p = 0.066, respectively) tended to be associated with being a high-incidence herd. Not cleaning the heifer feeding platform daily increased the odds of having a high-incidence herd twelvefold (p < 0.01). Keeping cows in only one group in the dry period increased the odds of having a high incidence herd eightfold (p = 0.03). Herd size was confounded with housing system. Housing system was therefore added to the final logistic regression model. In conclusion, a large herd size, a high maximum daily milk yield, keeping dry cows in one group, and not cleaning the feeding platform daily appear to be important risk factors for a high incidence of DA or clinical ketosis in Swedish dairy herds. These results confirm the importance of housing, management and feeding in the prevention of metabolic disorders in dairy cows around parturition and in early lactation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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