Public Health Implications of Changing Rodent Importation Patterns – United States, 1999–2013

The United States imports a large volume of live wild and domestic animal species; these animals pose a demonstrated risk for introduction of zoonotic diseases. Rodents are imported for multiple purposes, including scientific research, zoo exhibits and the pet trade. Current U.S. public health regulatory restrictions specific to rodent importation pertain only to those of African origin. To understand the impacts of these regulations and the potential public health risks of international rodent trade to the United States, we evaluated live rodent import records during 1999–2013 by shipment volume and geographic origin, source (e.g. wild‐caught versus captive‐ or commercially bred), intended purpose and rodent taxonomy. Live rodent imports increased from 2737 animals during 1999 to 173 761 animals during 2013. Increases in both the number and size of shipments contributed to this trend. The proportion of wild‐captured imports declined from 75% during 1999 to <1% during 2013. Nearly all shipments during these years were imported for commercial purposes. Imports from Europe and other countries in North America experienced notable increases in volume. Gerbils and hamsters arriving from Europe and chinchillas, guinea pigs and hamsters arriving from other countries in North America were predominant taxa underlying this trend. After 2003, African‐origin imports became sporadic events under the federal permit process. These patterns suggest development of large‐scale captive rodent breeding markets abroad for commercial sale in the United States. While the shift from wild‐captured imports alleviates many conservation concerns and risks for novel disease emergence, such consolidated sourcing might elevate exposure risks for zoonotic diseases associated with high‐density rodent breeding (e.g. lymphocytic choriomeningitis or salmonellosis). A responsive border health system must periodically re‐evaluate importation regulations in conjunction with key stakeholders to ensure a balance between the economic benefits of rodent trade against the potential public health risks.     

WTO成员国医药化妆品领域技术性贸易措施通报内容分析

目的:为完善我国医药政策和推动医药产业发展提供借鉴。方法:通过查询中国技术性贸易措施网数据库,对世界贸易组织(WTO)成员国2000年1月1日至2012年12月31日在医药化妆品领域技术性贸易措施(TBT)的通报情况进行统计,就主要通报国家、通报产品类型(药品、医疗器械、化妆品)和内容进行分析。结果:全球针对药品、医疗器械和化妆品的通报数量呈上升趋势,其中药品通报数量最多(511件),化妆品通报数量较少(155件);且各国差异较大,以阿根廷、巴西、韩国、加拿大、美国、欧盟、日本的通报数量占据绝对优势,美国、欧盟、加拿大、日本、韩国等的通报数量总体呈上升趋势,但2010年后通报数量趋于稳定,反映出这些国家的医药政策变化趋于稳定。结论:TBT已成为世界各国调整贸易利益的重要手段。我国应在积极发展医药产业的同时,合理利用TBT建立更加完善的医药政策。     

Making space: Integrating meaningful interprofessional experiences into an existing curriculum

Many health professional education programs have instituted, or are in the process of developing, structures for implementing interprofessional education (IPE). Professional organizations are also adopting IP competencies for their respective memberships and accreditations. Our IPE design and educational framework was informed by evidence gathered from professional organizations; the students' lived experience with traditional approaches and evolving IPE designs and data from our school's longitudinal curriculum evaluation study. This paper briefly describes the evolution and design of an embedded IPE program within an existing master's level curriculum – which meets not only curriculum competencies but also nationally recognizes IPE competencies. In addition, the embedded program articulates with a mandatory faculty-wide IPE initiative. The creation of embedded IPE within existing courses allowed for enriched learning opportunities for both discipline-specific and IPE knowledge without changing the overall curriculum structure.     

Neonatal alcohol impairs the context preexposure facilitation effect in juvenile rats: Dose-response and post-training consolidation effects

Alcohol exposure on postnatal days (PND) 4-9 in the rat adversely affects hippocampal anatomy and function and impairs performance on a variety of hippocampus-dependent tasks. Exposure during this developmental window reveals a linear relationship between alcohol dose and spatial learning impairment in the context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE), a hippocampus-dependent variant of contextual fear conditioning. The purpose of the current report was to examine the effect of a range of alcohol doses administered during a narrower window, PND7-9, than previously reported (Experiment 1) and to begin to determine which memory processes involved in this task are impaired by developmental alcohol exposure (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, rats pups received a single day binge alcohol dose of either 2.75, 4.00, 5.25 g/kg/day or were sham-intubated (SI) from PND7-9. Conditioned freezing during the test day was evident in all dosing groups, except for Group 5.25 g, indicating no graded dose-related behavioral deficits with alcohol exposure limited to PND7-9. In Experiment 2, rat pups were exposed to the highest effective dose from Experiment 1 (5.25 g/kg/day) or were sham intubated over PND7-9. During training, rats remained in the conditioning context for 5-min following immediate shock delivery. During this test of post-shock freezing, both SI and alcohol-exposed rats given prior exposure to the conditioning context showed comparable freezing levels. Since alcohol-exposed rats showed normal post-shock freezing, deficits by these rats on the test day likely reflect a failure to consolidate or retrieve a context-shock association, rather than a deficit in hippocampal conjunctive processes (consolidation, pattern completion) that occur prior to shock on the training day. These findings illustrate the value of the CPFE for characterizing the separable memory processes that are impaired by neonatal alcohol exposure in this task.     

Is it possible to stabilize the trunk using rhythmic stabilization in the upper limb? A cross-sectional study of asymptomatic individuals

Objective: The study aim was to evaluate the immediate effect of rhythmic stabilization on local and distant muscles involved in a functional reach. Method: Prospective, observational cross-sectional study. Eight right-handed and non-impaired individuals (4 females and 4 males) aged 18–24 years (21.5 ± 1.58 years) were evaluated. Bilateral electromyographic recording of the biceps brachii, triceps brachii, multifidus lumbar, and rectus abdominis muscles was performed during three different tasks. Task 1 involved functional reach, while Task 2 involved rhythmic stabilization followed by a functional reach. Task 3 was similar to Task 2, but with 3 repetitions before a functional reach. Results: The results showed no difference between the tasks or sides. However, an interaction was observed between each side and muscles, with greater activation of the right multifidus lumbar muscle. Conclusion: Rhythmic stabilization during the task of reaching promotes an increase of multifidus activity ipsilateral to its application. Thus, this particular technique of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation can be useful for improving stability of the trunk and can be used in clinical practice for this purpose. Level of Evidence: 5.     

Best practice in clinical facilitation of undergraduate nursing students

Clinical facilitation is critical to successful student clinical experience. The research reported in this paper used an interpretive case study to explore perspectives of clinical facilitators on what constitutes best practice in clinical facilitation of undergraduate nursing students.Eleven clinical facilitators from South East Queensland, Australia, participated in focus groups, interviews and a concept mapping exercise to gather their perspectives on best practice. The data gathered information regarding their prior and current experiences as registered nurses and facilitators, considering reasons they became clinical facilitators, their educational background and self-perceived adequacy of their knowledge for clinical facilitation. Analysis was through constant comparison.Findings of the study provided in-depth insight into the role of clinical facilitators, with best practice conceptualised via three main themes; ‘assessing’, ‘learning to facilitate’ and ‘facilitating effectively’. While they felt there was some autonomy in the role, the clinical facilitators sought a closer liaison with academic staff and feedback about their performance, in particular their assessment of the students. Key strategies identified for improving best practice included educational support for the clinical facilitators, networking, and mentoring from more experienced clinical facilitators. When implemented, these strategies will help develop the clinical facilitators' skills and ensure quality clinical experiences for undergraduate nursing students.     

Assessing arsenic,cadmium, and lead contents in major crops in Brazil for food safety purposes

The food chain is one of the major sources of human exposure to non-essential trace elements (TEs) present in soils. Human exposure to contaminated food is a worldwide health concern and a food safety issue that threatens agricultural trade. To assess the quality of Brazilian food products with respect to non-essential TEs, we evaluated arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) contents in five major crops grown in Brazil: rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and potatoes. The samples were collected from field trials with a record of long-term use of phosphate fertilizers in the states of Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, Brazil. The TE concentrations in soils were all bellow the maximum allowable concentrations for agricultural soils. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, and Pb (μg kg⁻¹ dry weight) were as follows: below the detection limit <15, 29, and <40 for rice; 19, 23, and 64 for wheat; 47, 40, and 95 for corn; 65, 23, and 106 for soybeans; and 59, 22, and <40 for potatoes, respectively. Significant differences were found in the As and Cd contents of the different wheat cultivars. The levels of As, Cd, and Pb found in the studied crops are well below the values reported in the literature and are in accordance with the Codex Alimentarius and the European Union and Brazilian guidelines, indicating that the concentrations of these elements in the crops do not pose a risk to human health.     

The effect of the Kinesio Tape on the muscle power performance of elite weightlifters

IntroductionTo investigate the effect of the Kinesio Tape on the muscle power of the elite weightlifters.MethodsA randomized controlled trial, single blind. Forty-two male weightlifters were randomly assigned to the experimental Kinesio Tape and sham Kinesio Tape groups of the study. The participants then performed a single leg vertical jump and a single leg horizontal jump with three attempts of each to obtain the measurement of muscle power. Outcome measures were included single-leg vertical countermovement jump, estimated peak power, and single-leg horizontal countermovement jump.ResultSignificant effect of Kinesio Tape on horizontal jumps distance among the weightlifters in the experimental group (p = 0.002). The study showed that the vertical jump height (p = 0.433), estimated peak power (p = 0.542) and horizontal jump distance (p = 0.841) measurements did not improve significantly between the groups at level p = 0.05.ConclusionThere is a small and better improvement noticed on the outcome measurements after Kinesio Tape application, which may be considered clinical importance for the sport. However, there was no statistically significant effect of Kinesio Tape between the groups.     

A Review of OIE Country Status Recovery Using Vaccinate‐to‐Live Versus Vaccinate‐to‐Die Foot‐and‐Mouth Disease Response Policies II: Waiting Periods After Emergency Vaccination in FMD Free Countries

For countries with OIE status, FMD free country where vaccination is not practised, vaccinate‐to‐live policies have a significant economic disincentive as the trade restriction waiting period is double that of vaccinate‐to‐die policies. The disposal of healthy vaccinated animals strictly for the purpose of regaining markets with debatable scientific justification is a global concern. The feasibility of aligning the waiting periods to facilitate vaccinate‐to‐live is explored. The first article of this two‐part review (Barnett et al., 2015) explored the qualities of higher potency Foot‐and‐Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines, performance of differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) diagnostic assays particularly in vaccinates and carriers, as well as aspects of current limitations of post‐outbreak surveillance. Here, the history behind the OIE waiting periods for FMD free status is reviewed as well as whether the risk of vaccinated animals and their subsequent products differ appreciably at 3 versus 6 months. It is concluded that alignment is feasible for vaccinate‐to‐live using higher potency FMD vaccines within the current OIE waiting period framework of 3 and 6 months blocks of time. These waiting periods reflect precedence, historical practicalities and considered expert opinion rather than a specific scientific rationale. The future lies in updated epidemiological and diagnostic technology to establish an acceptable level of statistical certainty for surveillance or target probability of freedom of FMDV (infection or circulation) not time restricted waiting periods. The OIE Terrestrial Code limits trade from a FMD free country where vaccination is not practiced to animal products and live non‐vaccinated animals. The risk of FMDV in products derived from higher potency vaccinated animals is appreciably less than for countries with infected FMD status or even from a FMD free country where vaccination is practised for which the Code has Articles with guidelines for safe trade with time restrictions of 3 months or less. All these presume that key requirements in the implementation of emergency vaccination including appropriate vaccine match, vaccine application, susceptible population coverage, etc. are addressed.