Gheel, the town of lunatics To the outsider Gheel is the town of lunatics. Here they go about freely, they can roam as they please, without any interference on the part of the public. The people of Gheel have a happy way of dealing with them and nobody objects to their presence. In fact they live and dwell with the families of Gheel, who take charge of them, as they give them board and lodging....

A model is proposed for predicting and measuring the housing satisfaction level of public housing schemes in South Africa, a case study of the Gauteng Province (economic hub of Southern Africa). The suggested model assumes the measurement of housing satisfaction both subjectively, in terms of beneficiaries’ satisfaction with the housing environment; the adequacy level of the dwelling and its en...

Background 81 million people face impoverishment from surgical costs every year. The majority of this impoverishment is attributable to the non-medical costs of care-for transportation, for food and for lodging. Of these, transportation is the largest, but because it is not viewed as an actual medical cost, it is frequently unaddressed. This paper examines the effect on surgical utilisation of ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess respiratory outcomes and environmental exposure levels of workers in cage-housed and floor-housed poultry operations. METHODS Poultry operations were evaluated for total dust, endotoxin, and ammonia, and respiratory symptoms and lung function tests of workers were conducted. RESULTS Workers in floor-housed poultry operations had significan...

The initial development of intestinal microbiota in poultry plays an important role in production performance, overall health and resistance against microbial infections. Multiplexed sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons is often used in studies, such as feed intervention or antimicrobial drug trials, to determine corresponding effects on the composition of intestinal microbiota. Howev...

The correct usage of disinfectants is an important component of a successful biosecurity program. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of time, temperature, and organic matter (OM) on disinfectant efficacy. Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella Typhimurium were used to represent gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria commonly found in commercial poultry housing. The first st...

Nutritional strategies to minimize Salmonella in food animal production are one of the key components in producing safer food. The current European approach is to use a farm-to-fork strategy, where each sector must implement measures to minimize and reduce Salmonella contamination. In the pre-harvest phase, this means that all available tools need to be used such as implementation of biosecurit...

BACKGROUND The Gran Chaco ecoregion, a hotspot for Chagas and other neglected tropical diseases, is home to >20 indigenous peoples. Our objective was to identify the main ecological and sociodemographic determinants of house infestation and abundance of Triatoma infestans in traditional Qom populations including a Creole minority in Pampa del Indio, northeastern Argentina. METHODS A cross-sec...

BACKGROUND Virginiamycin use in poultry selects for Enterococcus faecium with cross-resistance to quinupristin-dalfopristin, a drug for vancomycin-resistant E. faecium in humans. We conducted an epidemiologic study of poultry exposures as risk factors for human carriage of quinupristin-dalfopristin-resistant E. faecium. METHODS Rectal or fecal samples for E. faecium testing were obtained from...

Thailand is located in Southeast Asia and is a country that was affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemics during 2003–2004. Nevertheless, the Thai government’s issuance policy of strict control and prevention of the disease has resulted in efficient disease control of avian influenza (AI). Poultry farmers have been both positively and negatively affected by this policy. The...