Background: Most information about spinal arachnoid diverticula (SADs) in dogs has been retrieved from relatively small case series. The aim of this study was to describe this disease in a larger number of dogs.Objectives: Description of the signalment, clinical presentation, and imaging findings of a large number of dogs with SADs.Animals: One hundred and twenty-two dogs with SADs. Methods: Retrospective case series study. All medical records were searched for a diagnosis of SAD. The diagnosis was made based on myelography, computed tomography myelography (CT-m), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Results: In the 122 dogs, 125 SADs were identified. Sixty-five were located in the cervical region and 60 in the thoracolumbar region. A higher body weight was significantly associated with a cervical localization of the SAD (P < .001). Ninety-five dogs were male and 27 dogs were female. Male dogs were significantly overrepresented (P < .0001). The most commonly affected breed was the Pug dog. Previous or concurrent spinal disorders, in the near proximity of the diagnosed SAD, were seen in 26 dogs. Eight of 13 French Bulldogs and 7 of 21 Pug dogs with SADs had a previous or concurrent spinal disease, whereas other spinal disorders occurred in only 1 of 17 Rottweilers with SADs.Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Pug dogs and French Bulldogs might have a predisposition for SAD development. In a large percentage of these dogs, a concurrent spinal disorder, which might predispose to SAD formation, was diagnosed. The high prevalence in male dogs warrants further investigation.

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Before broilers are slaughtered, several parties are involved in catching, loading, transportation and lairage. During these pre-slaughter activities, broilers are exposed to a variety of stressors. A detailed understanding of how broiler welfare is impaired during each stage could help the responsible parties to make targeted improvements. The aim of this study was to identify welfare problems occurring during the consecutive stages of commercial broiler transportation and to identify risk factors associated with the identified welfare problems. Commercial Belgian transports (n = 81) were assessed in spring (n = 14), summer (n = 33), autumn (n = 10), and winter (n = 24), and potential risk factors were recorded by the observer. Animal-based welfare indicators were scored before the start of the pre-slaughter phase as well as after the catching, transport and lairage, and slaughter stages to assess the impact of each stage. The most frequently observed welfare impairments were vent and thigh lesions, panting, wing fractures, and bruising on wings and breasts. Our results show that the impact of the pre-slaughter phase on broiler welfare is multifaceted. The overall pre-slaughter phase resulted in a mean weight decrease of 5.3%, a prevalence of 1.4% in leg bruising, and 3.7% in breast or wing bruising. Wing fractures occurred mainly during the catching stage: Prevalence increased from 0.1% to 1.9% (P = 0.003). A welfare comparison before and after transportation and lairage revealed that plumage had become more soiled (P = 0.003), body temperature decreased by 0.7°C (P < 0.001), huddling prevalence increased by 0.5% (P = 0.008), prevalence of birds with splayed legs increased by 0.08% (P = 0.008), prevalence of supine birds decreased by 0.05% (P = 0.003), and 0.1% fewer birds with wings stuck in the crates (P = 0.010) were observed. Risk factor analyses revealed that carefully choosing the catching crew, minimizing thermal stress, reducing duration of transportation, and worker training are promising actions that may improve broiler welfare during the pre-slaughter phase.

The pre-slaughter phase of the production process has potentially important animal welfare implications, including mortality (recorded as "Dead on Arrivals"; DOA: ). To reduce DOA%, specific risk factors need to be identified. DOA% can also be used as a first and quick screening of pre-slaughter broiler welfare under commercial conditions. The aim of the present study was to identify risk factors for DOA% in commercial broiler flocks and to find associations between DOA% and animal-based indicators of broiler welfare during the pre-slaughter phase. Eighty-one transported flocks to five slaughter plants were assessed. Farmers provided information on the flock and observers gathered data on pre-slaughter factors. DOA% was recorded by slaughter plant personnel. The association between risk factors and DOA% was tested using linear mixed models, with slaughter plant as the random effect. Mean (± SE) DOA% was 0.30 ± 0.05% and median was 0.19% (range 0.04 to 3.34%). Two risk factors for DOA% were identified, both related to flock health status during the production phase. Higher DOA% was found when farmers did not check chick quality upon arrival (P = 0.011), although one extreme DOA% caused this significant effect. In addition, on-farm mortality during production (including selective culling) was negatively associated with DOA% (P = 0.011), potentially due to the selective culling on farm. Further research is needed on the impact of on-farm health status on welfare during the pre-slaughter phase, as the current study provided some evidence that on-farm factors are linked to mortality during the pre-slaughter phase. No specific characteristics of the pre-slaughter phase could be identified as risk factor for increased mortality. DOA% was positively associated with five welfare indicators, including indicators of thermal stress, which indicates the potential to use DOA% as a quick, cost-efficient screening tool for those welfare aspects.

BackgroundLittle is reported about the role of medical management in the treatment of spinal arachnoid diverticula (SAD) in dogs.ObjectivesTo describe the outcome of 96 dogs treated medically or surgically for SAD.AnimalsNinety‐six dogs with SAD.MethodsRetrospective case series. Medical records were searched for spinal arachnoid diverticula and all dogs with information on treatment were included. Outcome was assessed with a standardized questionnaire.ResultsFifty dogs were managed medically and 46 dogs were treated surgically. Dogs that underwent surgery were significantly younger than dogs that received medical management. No other variables, related to clinical presentation, were significantly different between both groups of dogs. The median follow‐up time was 16 months (1–90 months) in the medically treated and 23 months (1–94 months) in the surgically treated group. Of the 38 dogs treated surgically with available long‐term follow‐up, 82% (n = 31) improved, 3% (n = 1) remained stable and 16% (n = 6) deteriorated after surgery. Of the 37 dogs treated medically with available long‐term follow‐up, 30% (n = 11) improved, 30% (n = 11) remained stable, and 40% (n = 15) deteriorated. Surgical treatment was more often associated with clinical improvement compared to medical management (P = .0002).Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceThe results of this study suggest that surgical treatment might be superior to medical treatment in the management of SAD in dogs. Further studies with standardized patient care are warranted.

Broiler chicks are transported to production sites within one to 2 d post-hatch. Possible effects of this transportation are poorly understood and could vary among chicks from breeder flocks of different ages. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of transportation duration and parental flock age on chick welfare, productivity, and quality. After hatch in a commercial hatchery, 1,620 mixed-sex chicks from 29-wk old (young) and 1,620 chicks from 60-wk old (old) breeders were subjected to transportation of 1.5 h or 11 h duration. After transportation, 2,800 chicks were divided among 100 pens, with each pen containing 28 chicks from one transportation crate (2 or 3 pens per crate). From the remaining chicks, on average 6 chicks (min 4, max 8) per crate (n = 228) were randomly selected and assessed for chick quality, weighed, and culled for yolk sac weighing (one d). Chicks that had not been assigned to pens or were not used for post-transportation measurements, were removed from the experiment (n = 212). Mortality, ADG, BW, and feed conversion (FC) of the experimental chicks were recorded until 41 d. Meat quality was measured for breast fillets (n = 47). No interaction effect of parental age and transportation duration was found for any variables. BW and yolk sac weight at one d were lower for chicks transported 11 h than 1.5 h and for chicks from young versus old breeders. The effect of parental flock age on BW persisted until slaughter. Additionally, parental age positively affected ADG until slaughter. Chick quality was lower in chicks from old versus young breeders. Chick quality and productivity were not affected by transportation duration. Mortality and meat quality were not affected by either parental age or transportation duration. To conclude, no long-term detrimental effects were found from long post-hatch transportation in chicks from young or old parent flocks. Based on these results, we suggest that 11 h post-hatch transportations under similar conditions do not impose long-term welfare or productivity risks.

Copulas and frailty models are important tools to model bivariate survival data. Equivalence between Archimedean copula models and shared frailty models, e.g., between the Clayton-Oakes copula model and the shared gamma frailty model, has often been claimed in the literature. In this note we show that, in both models, there is indeed the well known equivalence between the copula functions; the modeling of the marginal survival functions, however, is quite different. The latter fact leads to different joint survival functions.

The Welfare Quality consortium has proposed a science-based protocol for assessing broiler chicken welfare on farms. Innovative features make the protocols particularly suited for comparative studies, such as the focus on animal-based welfare measures and an integration procedure for calculating an overall welfare status. These protocols reflect the scientific status up to 2009 but are meant to be updated on the basis of inter alia implementation studies. Because only few such studies have been done, we applied the Welfare Quality protocol to compare the welfare of broiler flocks in Belgium (representing a typical European Union (EU) country which implies stringent animal welfare legislation) versus Brazil (the major broiler meat exporter to the EU and with minimal animal welfare legislation). Two trained observers performed broiler Welfare Quality assessments on a total of 22 farms in Belgium and south Brazil. All of the farms produced for the EU market. Although the overall welfare was categorized as 'acceptable' on all farms, many country differences were observed at the level of the welfare principles, criteria, and measures. Brazilian farms obtained higher scores for 3 of the 4 welfare principles: 'good feeding' (P = 0.007), 'good housing' (P < 0.001), and 'good health' (P = 0.005). Four of the 10 welfare criteria scores were, or tended to be, higher on Brazilian than Belgian farms: 'absence of prolonged thirst' (P < 0.001), 'ease of movement' (P < 0.001), 'absence of injuries' (P = 0.002), and 'positive emotional state' (P = 0.055). The only criteria with a higher score for the Belgian farms than their Brazilian counterparts were 'absence of prolonged hunger' (P = 0.048) and 'good human-animal relationship' (P = 0.002). Application of the Welfare Quality protocol has raised several concerns about the validity, reliability, and discriminatory potential of the protocol. The results also call for more research into the effect of animal welfare legislation as broiler welfare on the south Brazilian farms appeared to be superior to that on the Belgian farms. Animal-based welfare assessments on a larger sample of farms are needed to evaluate to what extent these findings may be generalized.