Research for Evidence Based Practice and Systemic Reviews

Question 1

Why need research for animal management

Answer 1

• find research gaps
• overcome limits in management
• cure/prevent disease
• increase/maintain productivity
• improve welfare
• sustainability
• profit
• prevent losses form death/disease
• improve public perception

Question 2

Lameness in sheep

• 2004 % sheep lame
• what is footrot
• cost to sheep industry

Answer 2

• 10% (80% caused by footrot)
• bacterial disease that causes inflammation of foot/hoof and results in wt loss, pain, distress and reduced productivity (DLWG)
• pain = hoof come away from foot, increase cortisol levels and stress
• less likely to jump females = reduce mating/lambs
• £24 million

Question 3

King et al 2013 - lameness

Answer 3

• wanted to see if routine foot trimming actually helps prevent lameness and famers perceptions on results
• no difference in lameness prevalence/foot damage/level of footrot and interdigital dermatitis
• farmers who use RFT reluctant to stop
• farmers with large flocks and high lameness prevelance more likely to stop.
• barriers to uptake recomendations: habbit, no disadvantage to stopping, need longer trials/larger no. sheep/ more variables (geography/soil/season)

Question 4

Current practices preventing lameness in sheep

- FAWC targets

Answer 4

• farm animal welfare council
• lameness reduced from 10% to 5% by 2016 and 2% by 2021
  hit 2016 target but not further
• average lameness = 3.2%, 52% farmers = <2%
• Best et al 2020

Question 5

Current practices preventing lameness in sheep

- % farmers carrying out management practices

Answer 5

• Clifton and Green 2017
• routine foot trimming at least once a year is not recommended: 2004 = 76% 2013= 56%
• always use trimming to treat foot rot not recomended: 2004 = 76%
  2013 = 40%
• always use antibiotic injection to treat foot rot is recommended: 2004= 10% 2013=24%

Question 6

Positive factors that aid implementation

Answer 6

• greater evidence
• recommendations by well known body (FAWC)
• benefits clearly described
• accessible written information - five point plan

Question 7

Five point plan

Answer 7

• Cull = build resistance
• Vaccine = establish immunity
• Avoid, treat, quarantine = reduce disease challenge

Question 8

Barriers to implement research findings

Answer 8

• unlicensed product for certain use
• reluctant people (habbit, lack of participation)
• lack of funding
• lack of staff/time
• generational changes
• relavence of research
• severity of problem
• lack of evidence/education
• bad previous experiences
• impact of outcome
• how quick see results

Question 9

What are systemic reviews and evidence based practice examples

Answer 9

= an analysis of secondary data
- assess and analyses all available literature following a distinct methodology to answer a specific research question

• Evidence-based veterinary medicine
• Evidence-based agriculture

Question 10

5 steps of systemic reviews

Answer 10

• Ask - identify/fram question proffesion need answers to
• Aquire - find best available evidence on subject of interest
• Appraise - appraise literature for quality and sources of bias that may affect validity of results (eliminate papaers)
• Summarise the evidence and extract
• interpret findings/results, analyse results. Meta-analysis if appropriate

Question 11

PICO method (ask)

Answer 11

• patient or population - who, specific as possible (e.g. geriatric dogs, puppies, spaniels
• intervention - what intervention interested in e.g. management strategy, diagnostic test, type of food)
• comparison/control - main alturnative (e.g. another management strategy want to compare, control, no intervention)
• outcome - what trying to acheive, measure, improve (e.g. what are the patient relevant consequences

Question 12

PICO (acquire) what to do next

Answer 12

• identify synonyms and related terms

- different authours use different terms to reffer to same concept

Question 13

EBVM appraise

Answer 13

• critically appraise articles
• strenghts/weaknesses
• bias
• study design
• subjects
• methodologies used and how well performed
• statistical analysis
• presentation and interpretation of results

Question 14

Advantages of systematic reviews

Answer 14

• access to large quantity of data
• results more applicable to species poplation
• identify research gaps
• advance practices quality
• identify areas which research should not focus
• draw strong conclusions = decrease time from research discoveries to implementation

Question 15

Limitations of systemic reviews

Answer 15

• many studies excluded due to incomplete reporting of data/methods
• variability in methods used to generate data between studies
• publication bias (more publications of studies with positive result)
• criteria for appraisal will vary between researchers
• data often funded by commercial organisations, possible bias
• lack of large scale studies
• lack of previous research available to draw ideas

Question 16

Example - population management strategies in dogs: about, management strategies

Answer 16

• 700 million domestic dogs (2019)
• 75% free roaming
• public health (300 zoonoses to human)
• welfare (emaciated body condition 50% in india)
• environment (pathogen polution predation, competition, hybridisation)
• cull, long term shelter, fertility control
• taxation for dog ownership
• public education

Question 17

Example - population management strategies in dogs: indicators of effect, limitations

Answer 17

• dog demographics
• dog health and welfare
• public perceptions of free roaming dogs
• dog population size
• studies within review often no control group (difficult to ascertain effect of management overtime)
• often more than one management strategy used (hard to determine effect of one specific strategy
• insufficient detail in methods to determine level of management (e.g. what proportion of dogs neutered or put into shelters)

Question 18

Example - population management strategies in dogs: conclusions

Answer 18

• where/when has impact of dog population management been assessed = many countries globally, researches/gov/animal welfare groups
• management methods used = range of methods in unison with different indicators of impact assessed
• what effect has management had on population size, dog health/welfare, public health risk, public attitude, risk to wildlife populations = robust conclusion could not be drawn. management overall has +ve impact. recommendations for future studies with reporting quality to allow stronger evidence base for systematic review

Question 19

Example: rotavirus in horses

• what it causes
• strains
• prevention

Answer 19

• group A rotavirus major cause of diarrhea and related mortality in foals up to 3 months old = 50-90% of cases
• infection results in damage to small intestine absorption, dehydration due to watery diarrhoea and death
• non-enveloped virus
• 14 G (glycoprotein and 14 P (protease sensitive) serotypes characterised
• G3P[12] and G14P[12] most freq reported in molecular epidemilogical studies world wide
• vaccination curent method to prevent/reduce RVA incidence ~ used on pregnant mares to increase RVA specific antibody levels in colostrum
• inactivated vaccines to prevent diarrhoea = UK H-2 inactivated strain, argentina use 3 strains, japan HO-5 equine RVA strain since 2001

Question 20

What is EBVM

Answer 20

the use of best relevant evidence in conjunction with clinical expertise to make the best possible decision about a veterinary patient

Question 21

Example: rotavirus in horses - study results

Answer 21

• 51.3% samples collected positive for RVA
• G/p types determined = 83.4%
• Out of g types: most prevalent G3 = 51.7% followed by G14 = 32.6%
• Out of p types; most prevalent P[12] = 90.3%
• most widespread G type identified in all continents = G3 (48-72.4%)
• out of 12 counties, only japan could provide relavent data within a large period of time ~ G14 gained increasing significance since 1990s when first reported

Question 22

Example: rotavirus in horses - limitations

Answer 22

• whether data from 12 countries truley represents complete molecular diversity of global equine RVA strain prevalence
• most data from single country (japan- 72% of all G type data)
• other countries with relevant data all temperate climates and industrial
• studies only reported data from domestic horses of high value (mostly race horses), additional diversity in wild horses or breeds and horses for different purposes. Rearing conditions may have genotypic impact
• papers included for analysis not unifrm in study design and data presentation which made comparisons across studies difficult

Question 23

Example: rotavirus in horses - conclusions

Answer 23

• once vaccination routine in countires where economic losses are recorded and animal welfare concerns rise, launching strain survalence to monitor vacine effectiveness will be important
• genonome sequencing used alongside vaccine uptake
• aid tracing interspecies transmission of RVA and could help implement more effective vaccine events