Raphaël Vanderstichel

Proficiency in animal welfare is among the core competencies of graduating veterinary students. With growing societal concern surrounding welfare topics, it is imperative that veterinarians are knowledgeable advocates for animals’ welfare. However, animal welfare has not been consistently integrated into veterinary school curricula; some studies suggest that existing courses may not have achieved their intended outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate incoming veterinary students’ perceptions regarding animal welfare before and after completing a newly developed first-semester course in animal welfare and behavior. Perceptions were assessed through an anonymous, voluntary questionnaire containing 40 individual statements gauging students’ concern for animal welfare. A “total welfare concern” (TWC) score, indicative of predilection toward animal welfare, was calculated for each student based on responses collected before (PRE), after (POST), and 2.5 years after (LAST) course completion. A total of 105 students completed the PRE questionnaire, 81 completed the POST, and 59 completed the LAST. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test for matched pairs was used to compare median TWC scores between matched PRE, POST, and LAST data points. Results showed that the median TWC score increased from PRE to POST ( n = 69, p < .001) and from PRE to LAST ( n = 32; p < .001), with no significant difference between POST and LAST ( n = 32; p = .64). These findings suggest that students’ attitudes toward animal welfare and empathy toward animals increased after the course and remained elevated throughout their education. This novel first-semester course appears to have provided students with a foundation and evaluative framework for continued attentiveness to animal welfare.

Objective: The primary objective was to construct a time series model for the abundance of the adult female (AF) sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis in Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar farms in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada, for the period 2016–2021 and to illustrate its short-term predictive capabilities. Methods: Sea lice are routinely counted for monitoring purposes, and these data are recorded in the Fish-iTrends database. A multivariable autoregressive linear mixed-effects model (second-order autoregressive structure) was generated with the outcome of the abundance of AF sea lice and included treatments, infestation pressures (a measure that represents the dose of exposure of sea louse parasitic stages to potential fish hosts) within sites (internal) and among sites (external), and other predictors. The treatments were categorized by duration and type. Result: The effect of mechanical treatments decreased with increasing sea surface temperature. In-sample predictions had good accuracy. A one-standard-deviation increase in the external infestation pressures (EIPAF) produced a significant relative increase in the abundance of AF sea lice by 5% when other model predictors were kept constant. Sites separated by short seaway distances had stronger EIPAF than sites with more considerable distances. Conclusion: This model may be helpful for managers and farmers in implementing sea lice mitigation strategies on salmon farms in the Bay of Fundy.

The objective of this study was to estimate the impact of infestation pressures on the abundance of the parasitic sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick (NB), Canada, using the Fish‐iTrends database for the years 2009–2018. Infestation pressures were calculated as time‐lagged weighted averages of the abundance of adult female (AF) sea lice within a site (internal infestation pressure: IIP) and among sites (external infestation pressure: EIP). The EIP weights were calculated from seaway distances among sites and a Gaussian kernel density for bandwidths of 5 to 60 km. The EIP with a bandwidth of 10 km had the best fit, as determined with Akaike's information criterion, and historical AF sea lice abundance. This estimated dispersal distance of 10 km was similar to previous studies in Norway, Scotland and in New Brunswick. The infestation pressures estimated from empirical AF sea lice abundance within and among sites significantly increased the abundance of AF sea lice (p < .001). This study concludes that sea lice burdens within Atlantic salmon farms in the Bay of Fundy, NB, are affected by within site management and could be improved by synchronizing treatments between sites.

Background: A major cross‐match gel tube test is available for use in dogs yet has not been clinically evaluated.Objectives: This study compared cross‐match results obtained using the gel tube and the standard tube methods for canine samples.Methods: Study 1 included 107 canine sample donor–recipient pairings cross‐match tested with the RapidVet‐H method gel tube test and compared results with the standard tube method. Additionally, 120 pairings using pooled sera containing anti‐canine erythrocyte antibody at various concentrations were tested with leftover blood from a hospital population to assess sensitivity and specificity of the gel tube method in comparison with the standard method.Results: The gel tube method had a good relative specificity of 96.1% in detecting lack of agglutination (compatibility) compared to the standard tube method. Agreement between the 2 methods was moderate. Nine of 107 pairings showed agglutination/incompatibility on either test, too few to allow reliable calculation of relative sensitivity. Fifty percent of the gel tube method results were difficult to interpret due to sample spreading in the reaction and/or negative control tubes.Conclusions: The RapidVet‐H method agreed with the standard cross‐match method on compatible samples, but detected incompatibility in some sample pairs that were compatible with the standard method. Evaluation using larger numbers of incompatible pairings is needed to assess diagnostic utility. The gel tube method results were difficult to categorize due to sample spreading. Weak agglutination reactions or other factors such as centrifuge model may be responsible.