Veterinary Record Open最新文献

Background: Industry-level figures suggest that up to two-thirds of Thoroughbred breeding operations in the UK are unprofitable and that around half of sales transactions of Thoroughbred yearlings, commercial breeders' predominant income source, return a loss. The industry strategy currently endorses investment in stallion covering fee; however, to date, a comprehensive evaluation of sales price determinants in the UK setting is lacking and could better inform economic decision making to improve profitability.

Methods: Sales catalogue and Weatherbys' stud book data from all Thoroughbred yearlings sold at the 2020 Tattersalls October yearling sale in the UK were used to build a hedonic sales price model. Explanatory variables representing sire, dam, yearling and sales attributes were evaluated. The final model's accuracy was assessed using out-of-sample data from all yearlings sold in the equivalent 2021 sale.

Results: In 2020, a total of 1506 catalogued yearlings, representing around 30% of the UK Thoroughbred foal crop, were sold, with a median price of £42,575 (interquartile range 15,750‒105,000; range 840‒3,570,000). The sires' covering fee, maternal siblings' race performance attributes, whether the yearling was the dams' first foal, consignment size, catalogue book and day of sale within book significantly influenced auction price; however, relationships were complex with significant interaction and confounding observed. The mean model forecasting error was £2074. The use of data from only one sale could affect generalisability.

Conclusions: These novel findings can inform breeding decisions to maximise profitability, give context for current industry strategies and can inform valuations of breeding stock.

Background: Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is a freely available online artificial intelligence (AI) program capable of understanding and generating human-like language. This study assessed veterinary students' perceptions about ChatGPT in education and practice. It compared perceptions about ChatGPT between students who had completed a critical analysis task and those who had not.

Methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed 498 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students at The University of Sydney, Australia. Second-year DVM students researched a veterinary pathogen and then completed a critical analysis of ChatGPT (version 3.5) output for the same pathogen. A survey based on the Technology Acceptance Model was then delivered to all DVM students from all years of the programme, collecting data using Likert-style, categorical and free-text items.

Results: Over 75% of the 100 respondents reported having used ChatGPT. The students found ChatGPT's output relevant and practical for their use but perceived it as inaccurate. They perceived ChatGPT output to be more useful for veterinary students than for pet owners or veterinarians. Those who had completed the critical analysis assignment had a more positive view of ChatGPT's practicality for veterinary students but noted its authoritative tone even when delivering inaccurate information. Over 50% of the students agreed that information about tools such as ChatGPT should be included in the veterinary curriculum. Students agreed that veterinarians should embrace AI but disagreed that AI would eventually replace the need for veterinarians.

Conclusions: A critical appraisal of outputs from AI tools such as ChatGPT may help prepare future veterinarians for the effective use of these tools.

Background: Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is a group of canine inherited retinal disorders affecting up to 100 breeds. Genetic tests are available. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the genetic variants associated with PRA among dogs residing in Italy.

Methods: Genetic data of 20 variants associated with different forms of PRA were collected through DNA tests over a 10-year period for several dog breeds in the Italian canine population. Allelic and genotypic frequencies were calculated.

Results: A total of 1467 DNA tests were conducted for 1180 dogs. Progressive rod-cone degeneration (PRCD) was the most tested form of PRA, with 58.15% (n = 853) of the DNA tests. Among the widespread breeds in Italy, Labrador retrievers and toy poodles showed a prevalence of heterozygous carriers higher than 15%. Among the others, 175 DNA tests for golden retrievers (GR) showed a prevalence of heterozygous carriers of 13.04% (n = 12) for GR-PRA1 and 8.43% (n = 7) for GR-PRA2. The zwergschnauzer breed was tested for the type B and/or the type B1 forms of PRA with 25.32% (n = 20) heterozygous carriers and 0%, respectively.

Conclusion: The study offers an overview of the prevalence of PRCD and other PRA forms within some of the most popular breeds in Italy.

Introduction: In the Netherlands, the veterinary disciplinary system is governmentally executed and was originally designed to provide an educational effect on veterinarians as part of maintaining quality standards.

Methods: Over 900 veterinarians were questioned (20% of the total number of veterinarians working in veterinary medicine in the Netherlands). It was ascertained whether or not they were aware of the disciplinary system, if it affected their way of working and what impact it had on their way of working after having faced a disciplinary case. Respondents were given the opportunity to express their opinions about the system and possible improvements.

Results: The risk of complaints was found to be significantly greater when a veterinarian owned a practice compared to veterinarians who were employees. Veterinarians with their own practice were generally older (male) veterinarians. Whether this was a direct effect or just the effect of having a longer career could not be answered. Multiple disciplinary procedures appeared to have no influence. In 13%, veterinarians indicated that the disciplinary system had led to a more defensive way of practicing medicine to avoid complaints.

Discussion and conclusions: Most veterinarians supported a disciplinary system as a tool for maintaining and improving the integrity and reputation of the profession as a whole. Recommendations to improve were (1) shortening the length of the procedure, (2) screening for validity, (3) using online systems for communication with the disciplinary council, (4) the option of mediation before getting involved in a full procedure and (5) instituting a complaint fee.

Background: Intussusception is a form of ileus of the intestines in which an oral intestinal segment slides into the adjacent aboral intestinal segment, causing obstruction of the bowel.

Methods: We analysed the medical records of 126 cattle with intussusception of the small intestine.

Results: Demeanour and appetite were abnormal in 123 cattle. Non-specific signs of pain occurred in 26.2%, signs of visceral pain in 46.8% and signs of parietal pain in 56.4%. Intestinal motility was decreased or absent in 93.7% of the cattle. The most common findings of transrectal palpation were rumen dilation (37.3%) and dilated small intestines (24.6%). In 96% of the cattle, the rectum was empty or contained little faeces. The principal laboratory findings were hypokalaemia (89.6%), hypocalcaemia (76.5%), base excess (72.9%), hypochloraemia (71.8%), azotaemia (62.1%) and haemoconcentration (61.1%). The main ultrasonographic findings were reduced or absent intestinal motility (98.2%) and dilated small intestines (96.0%). A diagnosis of ileus was made in 87.8% and a diagnosis of ileus attributable to intussusception was made in another 9.8%. Right-flank laparotomy was carried out in 114 cattle. Fifty-six (44.4%) cows were discharged.

Conclusions: Clinical findings of intussusception in cattle are often non-specific. Ultrasonography may be required to diagnose ileus.

Background: The aims of this retrospective study were to estimate interobserver agreement in detecting disc calcification with computed tomography (CT) and to compare the number of calcified intervertebral discs identified on CT and radiography in healthy British Dachshund dogs that underwent a screening programme. The current screening programme uses radiography to identify calcified intervertebral discs.

Methods: Healthy Dachshunds aged between 2 and 5 years presenting for spinal radiography and CT as part of a disc scoring scheme were included. The spinal radiographs were scored by an independent assessor as per the screening programme protocol. The CT images were blinded and reviewed by three different observers of differing levels of experience. The number of discs identified as being calcified was then compared between imaging modalities and between observers.

Results: Thirteen dogs were included. Overall, 146 calcified discs were identified by CT compared with 42 by radiography. There was an almost perfect agreement among the three observers identifying calcified discs with CT images (k = 0.92). There was a significant difference between the radiography scores and CT scores.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated a significant difference in the number of calcified intervertebral discs identified in the vertebral column of a small population of healthy Dachshunds between CT and radiography. Given the high agreement between the observers with CT, this may be a reliable method for assessing disc calcification in Dachshund dogs and could be a good candidate for future breeding schemes.

Background: Connections between the effects of pet ownership and exercise on mental health have previously been demonstrated in different populations. However, little is known about the potential effects of pet ownership and exercise on the mental health of veterinary professionals. Since these individuals have a high prevalence of poor mental health and suicide, while they deal with pets professionally, we investigated the impact of pet ownership, exercise and different types of pet ownership on this demographic group.

Method: Veterinary professionals over 18 years old answered an online questionnaire about pet ownership, exercise, mental health (including anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation) and mental health correlates. Regression models were used to identify variables significantly related to mental health outcomes.

Results: Of 1087 respondents, pet owners were more depressed than non-owners, while anxiety or suicidal ideation was not associated with pet ownership. Dog and horse owners were psychologically healthier (less anxiety, less suicidal ideation) than non-owners of these species. Veterinary professionals who ran regularly had lower anxiety and depression. Those who walked regularly and spent less time sitting experienced fewer depression symptoms.

Conclusions: Running, walking and avoiding prolonged sitting might protect the mental health of veterinary professionals. The type of pet owned may be an important factor in the relationship between pet ownership and mental health; however, generally, pet ownership was associated with worse mental health outcomes in this demographic group. Future studies should determine the causal nature of these relationships.

Purpose: To assess the capability of deep convolutional neural networks to classify anatomical location and projection from a series of 48 standard views of racehorse limbs.

Materials and methods: Radiographs (N = 9504) of horse limbs from image sets made for veterinary inspections by 10 independent veterinary clinics were used to train, validate and test (116, 40 and 42 radiographs, respectively) six deep learning architectures available as part of the open source machine learning framework PyTorch. The deep learning architectures with the best top-1 accuracy had the batch size further investigated.

Results: Top-1 accuracy of six deep learning architectures ranged from 0.737 to 0.841. Top-1 accuracy of the best deep learning architecture (ResNet-34) ranged from 0.809 to 0.878, depending on batch size. ResNet-34 (batch size = 8) achieved the highest top-1 accuracy (0.878) and the majority (91.8%) of misclassification was due to laterality error. Class activation maps indicated that joint morphology, not side markers or other non-anatomical image regions, drove the model decision.

Conclusions: Deep convolutional neural networks can classify equine pre-import radiographs into the 48 standard views including moderate discrimination of laterality, independent of side marker presence.

Background: Mushroom poisoning may result in a variety of signs ranging from mild, mostly gastroenteritis, to organ failure and death. To increase the knowledge of prevalence, treatment and outcome in dogs, information regarding mushroom ingestion was collected.

Materials and methods: This retrospective study analysed all inquiries of mushroom ingestion in dogs to the Norwegian Poison Information Center from 2011 to 2022. Mushrooms were identified by a mycologist or Norwegian-certified mushroom expert. Differences in mushroom species, clinical findings, treatments and outcome were evaluated.

Results: A total of 421 mushroom ingestions in dogs were included. The mushrooms were identified as non-poisonous in 45% of cases. The most frequently involved toxin group was gastrointestinal mushrooms, followed by muscarinic mushrooms and mushrooms containing isoxazoles. About 64% of cases were managed at home, 33% were hospitalised and received treatment, and 3% were observed by a veterinarian without treatment. The survival rate was 98.6%, with death occurring after ingestion of Amanita muscaria, Cortinarius rubellus, Amanita virosa, Clitocybe rivulosa and Inocybe sp.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the importance of rapid and accurate identification of the mushroom. This could prevent delays in therapeutic intervention and avoid unnecessary treatment of these dogs. With early, correct identification of mushrooms, our results demonstrated a good prognosis for dogs after ingestion.