In the Netherlands community-dwelling older people with dementia can attend regular day care services (RDCS). Since approximately 2000, farms (so-called ‘green care farms’) also offer day care. The present study introduces the concept of green care farms for older people with dementia. We further provide an integrative framework for the expected health benefits of day care at green care farms (GCF) for older people with dementia. We present an overview of evidence for dementia related interventions that correspond with the current developments in health care (i.e. environmental, activity-based and psychosocial interventions), and that are relevant for day care. We subsequently focus on the differences between day care at GCF and RDCS with regard to these interventions, and describe the integrative framework for the expected health benefits of GCF for older people with dementia. We conclude that at GCF interventions are naturally integrated in the environment. They are present simultaneously and continuously, which is more difficult to realize in RDCS. We hypothesize that GCF have more health benefits for older people with dementia than RDCS.

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Brucellosis is a major constraint for small-scale goat farming systems in Mexico. This study estimated the prevalence of testing positive to brucellosis and identified and quantified risk factors in goats from small-scale farms of Michoacán that had participated in a brucellosis campaign (i.e. vaccination, serological testing, culling and awareness) and of Jalisco that had negligible brucellosis campaign participation. A cross-sectional serological survey was conducted among 1,713 goats of 83 flocks. The prevalence of testing positive to brucellosis was higher (38%) in Jalisco than in Michoacán (11%). Logistic regression analysis indicated that goats from Michoacán had lower odds to test positive for brucellosis (odds ratio (OR) = 0.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.21-0.48) compared to goats from Jalisco. Goats in zero-grazing systems had lower odds than goats in grazing systems (OR = 0.22, 95% CI 0.09-0.57). When goats were kept in pens with low density (0.002 to 0.22 goat/m(2)), odds was lower (OR = 0.44, 95% CI 0.28-0.67) compared to goats kept in pens with higher density (0.23 to 1 goat/m(2)). Odds was higher for testing positive when farmers bought goats from goat traders (OR = 1.82, 95% CI 1.15-2.87) compared to farmers who did not. If scavenger poultry had access to goat pens, the odds was half (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.33-0.83) of those where poultry had no access. Regular disinfection of the pen reduced the odds (OR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.44-0.99) compared to where disinfection was not regular. The brucellosis control campaign was effective in reducing brucellosis seropositivity.

Day care at green care farms (GCFs) is a new care modality for community-dwelling older people with dementia. In view of the more physical and normal daily life activities available at GCFs than at RDCFs, we investigated whether functional decline differed between subjects from both day care settings. In this observational cohort study, primary caregivers of 47 subjects from GCFs and 41 subjects from RDCFs rated the subjects’ functional performance three times during one year. They also provided information on the subjects’ diseases and medication use. Generally, no significant change over time in functional performance, the number of diseases and the number of medications was observed, and no differences in these rates of change were found between subjects from both day care settings. This study suggests that GCFs are not more effective in maintaining functional performance or slowing down its decline in community-dwelling older people with dementia than RDCFs.

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