Summary After its introduction in Turkey in November 2013 and subsequent spread in this country, lumpy skin disease (LSD) was first reported in the western Turkey in May 2015. It was observed in cattle in Greece and reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in August 2015. From May 2015 to August 2016, 1,092 outbreaks of lumpy skin disease were reported in cattle from western Turkey and eight Balkan countries: Greece, Bulgaria, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania. During this period, the median LSD spread rate was 7.3 km/week. The frequency of outbreaks was highly seasonal, with little or no transmission reported during the winter. Also, the skewed distribution of spread rates suggested two distinct underlying epidemiological processes, associating local and distant spread possibly related to vectors and cattle trade movements, respectively.

These preliminary results demonstrate the sensitivity of the tool to discriminate between the different behaviours of the hoof on the different track surfaces at high speed. Deceleration and vibration of the hoof at impact were reduced on W compared to S, suggesting a better shock-absorbing quality of this track.

SummaryReasons for performing study: Sandy beaches are often considered good training surfaces for trotter horses. However, their biomechanical effects on locomotion are insufficiently documented. Events at hoof impact have mostly been studied under laboratory conditions with accelerometers, but there is lack of data (acceleration, force, movement) on events occurring under every day practical conditions in the field. Objectives: To investigate hoof landing and stride parameters on different tracks (from wet to dry) of a sand beach and on an asphalt road. Methods: The right front hoof of 4 trotter horses was equipped with a triaxial accelerometer and a dynamometric horseshoe. Acceleration and force recordings (10 kHz) were synchronised with a high speed movie (600 Hz). Horses were driven on a sand beach where 3 tracks of decreasing water content had been delimited (from the sea to the shore): firm wet sand (FWS), deep wet sand (DWS) and deep dry sand (DDS). Firm wet sand and DWS were compared at 25 km/h and DDS compared to an asphalt road at 15 km/h. Recordings (10 strides) were randomly repeated 3 times. Statistical differences were tested using a GLM procedure (P<0.05). Results: Main significant results were 1) a decrease in the amplitude of the vertical deceleration (and force) of the hoof during impact on a softer surface (about 59% between DWS and FWS and 95% between DDS and asphalt), 2) a decrease in the longitudinal braking deceleration (and force) on softer grounds (50% for DWS vs. FWS and 55% for DDS vs. asphalt), 3) a decrease in the stride length and an increase in the stride frequency on a softer surface. Conclusions and clinical relevance: Drier sand surfaces reduce shock and impact forces during landing. For daily training, it should, however, be realised that improved damping characteristics are associated with a shorter stride length and a higher stride frequency. evj_277 488..495

No abstract

Since 2013, the French Animal Health Epidemic Intelligence System (in French: Veille Sanitaire Internationale, VSI) has been monitoring signals of the emergence of new and exotic animal infectious diseases worldwide. Once detected, the VSI team verifies the signals and issues early warning reports to French animal health authorities when potential threats to France are detected. To improve detection of signals from online news sources, we designed the Platform for Automated extraction of Disease Information from the web (PADI-web). PADI-web automatically collects, processes and extracts English-language epidemiological information from Google News. The core component of PADI-web is a combined information extraction (IE) method founded on rule-based systems and data mining techniques. The IE approach allows extraction of key information on diseases, locations, dates, hosts and the number of cases mentioned in the news. We evaluated the combined method for IE on a dataset of 352 disease-related news reports mentioning the diseases involved, locations, dates, hosts and the number of cases. The combined method for IE accurately identified (F-score) 95% of the diseases and hosts, respectively, 85% of the number of cases, 83% of dates and 80% of locations from the disease-related news. We assessed the sensitivity of PADI-web to detect primary outbreaks of four emerging animal infectious diseases notifiable to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). From January to June 2016, PADI-web detected signals for 64% of all primary outbreaks of African swine fever, 53% of avian influenza, 25% of bluetongue and 19% of foot-and-mouth disease. PADI-web timely detected primary outbreaks of avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease in Asia, i.e. they were detected 8 and 3 days before immediate notification to OIE, respectively.

Maximal tendon force was significantly lower on W compared with S. In addition to maximal force peaks around mid-stance, earlier peaks were observed, more pronounced on S than on W, at about 13% (horse 2) and 30% (both horses) of the stance phase. Comparison with kinematic data revealed that these early peaks were accompanied by plateaux in the fetlock angle-time chart. For high tendon forces, the tendon maximal loading rate was significantly lower on W than on S. CONCLUSIONS AND POTENTIAL CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The all-weather waxed track appears to induce a lesser and more gradual SDFT loading than crushed sand. The SDFT loading pattern at high speed trot suggests proximal interphalangeal joint movements during limb loading.

This study demonstrates the ability and sensitivity of the DHS to discriminate track surfaces by measuring the GRF at high speed. These preliminary results show that the loading rate, the amplitude of horizontal braking and shock at impact are attenuated on W, which suggests a reduction of stresses in the distal limb.

SummaryReasons for performing study: Although beach training is commonly used in horses, limb loading on beach sand has never been investigated. A dynamometric horseshoe (DHS) is well adapted for this purpose. Objectives: To compare ground reaction force (GRF) and fetlock kinematics measured in harness trotters on 2 tracks of beach sand with different water content. Methods: Two linear sand tracks were compared: firm wet sand (FWS, 19% moisture) vs. deep wet sand (DWS, 13.5% moisture). Four French trotters (550 Ϯ 22 kg) were used. Their right forelimb was equipped with a DHS and skin markers. Each track was tested 3 times at 7 m/s. Each trial was filmed by a high-speed camera (600 Hz); DHS and speed data acquisition was performed at 10 kHz on 10 consecutive strides. All recordings were synchronised. The components Fx (parallel to the hoof solar surface) and Fz (perpendicular) of the GRF were considered. For 3 horses the fetlock angle and forelimb axis-track angle at landing were measured. Statistical differences were tested using the GLM procedure (SAS; P<0.05). Results: Stance duration was increased on DWS compared to FWS. Fzmax and Fxmax (oriented, respectively, downwards and forwards relatively to the solar surface) and the corresponding loading rates, were decreased on DWS and these force peaks occurred later. Fxmin (backwards) was not significantly different between both surfaces; the propulsive phase (Fx negative) was longer and the corresponding impulse higher, on DWS compared to FWS. The forelimb was more oblique to the track at landing and maximal fetlock extension was less and delayed on DWS. Conclusions: This study confirms that trotting on deep sand overall reduces maximal GRF and induces a more progressive limb loading. However, it increases the propulsive effort and likely superficial digital flexor tendon tension at the end of stance, which should be taken into account in beach training.