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Biomedical subjects

C W Schwabe

Publications and source records attributed to C W Schwabe.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

History of the scientific relationships of veterinary public health.

The origin of veterinary public health (VPH), as the term is understood today, dates back to the late 1940s and early 1950s with the creation of new responsibilities and a broader range of career openings for veterinarians within some public health agencies, especially in disease intelligence aspects of the newly developing science of epidemiology. Other well-established scientific relationships of veterinary medicine to human health (e.g. food safety, pathogenic microbiology, comparative pathology) experienced renewed vigour as a result of these innovations, the latter also in connection with VPH-facilitated development and support of a new veterinary clinical practice specialty of laboratory animal biology and medicine. Through these expanded interprofessional and intersectoral communication, liaison and cooperation channels, new academic programmes arose within veterinary schools. These programmes brought a number of innovations to the world of veterinary medicine, including newly developed methodologies. A variety of new biomedical research career roles for veterinarians within both veterinary and other medically oriented institutions were identified and filled during this overall process. Also related to these developments was the identification of new roles for veterinarians in environmental science research and practice, beyond those traditionally associated with veterinary food hygiene. Proposals have since been made for significant new intersectoral functions for agriculture-based governmental Veterinary Services in connection with these new aspects of environmental science and with the aims of recent primary health care programmes within public health.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Schofield memorial lecture. Bull semen and muscle ATP: some evidence of the dawn of medical science in ancient Egypt.

The importance of animal experimentation to human and animal health is not well understood by an increasingly articulate segment of the public. This could have very unfortunate consequences for man and his domestic animals. Even veterinarians and physicians are not as conversant as they need be about the great extent to which advances in human health have depended upon animal observations and experiments. Some believe that resort to "animal models" of biomedical phenomena, including diseases--a comparative or analogical approach to medical studies--is a relatively recent event. Even medical historians often treat these subjects as occasionally recurring aberrations which began with the Greeks, thus largely overlooking the historical meaning and continuing importance of "one medicine" irrespective of species. In fact, comparative medicine has probably been basic to medical progress ever since the dawn of a medical science. Recent research indicates that this approach to biomedical mysteries began to evolve in the minds of Egypt's healer-priests long before Aristotle and the later Alexandrian Greeks made the whole process explicit. Here we examine the origins of what were possibly the first two biomedical theories profounded from inferences based upon dissections, confirmed in at least one instance by experiment, and then applied to medical practice.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1981

Practices and beliefs of the traditional Dinka healer in relation to provision of modern medical and veterinary services for the Southern Sudan.

One class of traditional Dinka healers is a practical surgeon-bonesetter-obstetrician who practices (all but obstetrics) on both people and animals. His anatomical, physiological, and pathological knowledge and surmises, derived almost entirely from observations on cattle, are in some respects remarkable, especially those on the function of the kidney and nature of the circulatory system. He shares with ancient Egyptian healers the belief that sperm originate in the spinal cord and brain and performs a unique surgical operation on the horns of bulls that has been known in the Nile valley since the Egyptian 5th dynasty. With minimum training he might function effectively within the governmental health and veterinary services of the southern Sudan, an area populated mostly by transhumant cattle-culture peoples not easily reached through conventional health services.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Hydatid disease in New Zealand: changing patterns in human infection, 1878-1972.

Temporal trends in the prevalence and incidence of human hydatid disease in New Zealand were described with respect to the different phases in echinococcal control. The prevalence rate of human hydatid disease increased steadily from 1878 to 1954 despite some educational and legislative measures aimed primarily at controlling canine infections. There was not a marked reduction in incidence in young children and in Maoris until after the intensification of control activities by the voluntary committees in 1957, and the decline in incidence in all groups was maintained during the continuing national control programme. The incidence data were analysed by age, sex, race and residential history of patients, and by the site of hydatid cysts. Maoris were found to be at an unusually high risk of infection with Echinococcus granulosus, with incidence rates six times higher than those in non-Maoris.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Path analysis: application in an epidemiological study of echinococcosis in New Zealand.

The method of path analysis is described in detail. Application of this analyogical systems is demonstrated using data from an epidemiological study of echinococcosis in New Zealand. The results identified the major causal pathways determining Echinococcus granulosus prevalence in dogs, based on multiple regression analysis of a linear causal model constructed from prior biological and epidemiological knowledge. Only ethnic and sheep husbandry variables had important direct effect on prevalence in the North Island of New Zealand, with some climate factors (maximum temperature and relative humidity) and soil porosity acting indirectly through animal husbandry practices. It is suggested that path analysis, by permitting interaction between epidemiological theory and statistical analysis, provides a valuable additional tool to epidemiologists for the study of causal relationships among variables in multivariates systems.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Epidemiological analysis of factors influencing rate of progress in Echinococcus granulosus control in New Zealand.

The factors influencing the rate of progress in Echinococcus granulosus control in New Zealand were analysed by hydatid control area using stepwise multiple regression techniques. The results indicated that the rate of progress was related positively to initial E. granulosus prevalence in dogs and the efficiency with which local authorities implemented national control policy, and negatively to the Maori proportion in the local population and the number of dogs per owner. Problems in analysis of the New Zealand data are discussed and improved methods of monitoring progress in hydatid disease control programmes are described.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

An epidemiological analysis of factors influencing the increase in Taenia ovis prevalence during the New Zealand Echinococcus granulosus control program.

There was an 8-fold increase in the national prevalence of Taenia ovis in dogs during the first decade of the New Zealand hydatid disease control program. The temporal patterns in the prevalence of T. ovis were similar in both rural working dogs and urban pet dogs, with the highest prevalence found in the sheep farming areas. The dramatic increase in the prevalence of T. ovis was a reflection of the change in source of food for many working dogs, from the traditional raw viscera to carcase meat of sheep, a change necessitated by hydatid disease control. Other factors influencing the rise in prevalence of T. ovis in rural dogs were investigated using stepwise multiple regression techniques. The results of the regression analyses suggested that the rate of increase in the prevalence of T. ovis was influenced by 4 major factors: Taenia hydatigena variables (initial prevalence and rate of progress in control), an ethnic variable (Maori proportion in local population), canine variables (numbers of dogs per farm and per owner), and animal husbandry variables (pasture type, sheep density and numbers of sheep per farm). The results were discussed in the light of present knowledge of the epidemiology and immunology of the taeniid cestodes.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Hydatid disease in New Zealand: an epidemiological study of transmission among Maoris.

An epidemiological study was designed to determine the factors placing the Maori people of New Zealand at an unusually high risk of infection with Echinococcus granulosus. Using stepwise multiple regression techniques, it was shown that the most important determinant of the incidence rate of human hydatid disease was the proportion of Maoris in the local population. It was found that the Maori system of land tenure, based on the Maori land laws led to the formation of many small fragmented properties under multiple ownership, decreasing the incentive of individual Maori farmers to improve their farming methods. In addition, long-standing behavioral patterns, such as an easy familiarity with working dogs and the feeding of dogs on raw offal, were practices that changed slowly, thus contributing to the maintenance of high E. granulosus prevalence in dogs owned by Maoris. Those cultural and behavioral factors, together with poor dog control, exposed all members of the rural Maori community to an increased risk of infection with E. granulosus, with the result that the incidence rate of hydatid disease for all age-groups and for both sexes was strikingly higher in Maoris than in non-Maoris.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

An evolving pattern of human hydatid disease transmission in the United States.

Echinococcus granulosus infection was being acquired in the contiguous United States by Virginia sharecroppers and small-holders by the turn of the century. The last recorded human infection from that general area was diagnosed in 1947. By 1920 human infections were also being acquired in the lower Mississippi valley. Apparently, infection in both of these areas was maintained chiefly in swine. By 1940 a third transmission area definitely existed in the Central Valley of California, with its reservoir intermediate host sheep. Seemingly, infection has been disseminated from these California foci into Utah and more recently into northern New Mexico and Arizona. Human populations now at unusual risk in the western United States are transhumant sheep ranchers, including Basque-Americans in California, Mormons in central Utah, and Navajo and Zuni Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. Conditions highly favorable to E. granulosus transmission, intensification and spread now exist throughout relatively large areas of the American West.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Hydatid disease transmission in California. A study of the Basque connection.

A descriptive epidemiologic and anthropologic study was designed to determine by field observation and interview the extent of Basque involvement in the sheep industry of California, the nature of the sheep and dog husbandry practices of California Basques as they might influence Echinococus granulosus transmission, and the "folk knowledge" of hydatid disease possessed by California Basques, particularly as it might indicate the early presence of this infection in California and provide evidence for or against possible intensification or spread of transmission in the recent past. Basques were found to dominate the sheep industry of California's Central Valley from Sacramento south, but to be virtually absent from other sheep-raising areas of the state. In contrast to most other California sheep ranchers, Basques practice a transhumant form of husbandry in which bands of sheep are moved from location to location under the control of contract Basque shepherds from Spain and France and a number of sheep dogs.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Dairy calf mortality rate: characteristics of calf mortality rates in Tulare County, California.

Sixteen dairy farm owners in Tulare County, California, provided data on heifer calf births and deaths. Eleven of these dairymen had maintained records on the calves before this study was done, and 5 agreed to maintain them for 6 months. Basic statistical techniques, including time series analyses and life-table methods, were used to examine the data for temporal and demographic characteristics. Overall, the calf mortality rate on the 16 farms averaged 17.3 to 20.2%. The interfarm variation in mortality rate was large, ranging from 3.7 to 32.1%. Time series studies indicated that the extent of death losses increased during midsummer (June, July, August) and midwinter (November, December, January), with mortality rates in winter months being 20% greater than those in summer. Death losses in October and March were highly variable; however, losses in October usually exceeded the yearly average; those in March did not. Also, 80% of the dairymen recorded the same relative change in mortality rate during each of 2 consecutive winters and 2 consecutive summers. The risk of death for calves was greatest in their 1st week of life on most of the farms; of all deaths in calves less than 5 weeks old, 55% occurred during the 1st week of life, and 27% occurred during the 2nd. In general, the death loss in calves between 5 weeks and 3 months old was less than 2%.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Dairy calf mortality rate: influence of management and housing factors on calf mortality rate in Tulare County, California.

Data on calf mortality, calving site, calf-rearing facilities, and calf-management procedures were collected from 16 dairy farms in Tulare County, California. Discriminant analyses were used to test if any significant differences in these factors existed between farms with higher than average and farms with lower than average death losses. The average mortality rate over a period of at least 2 years on individual farms varied from a low of 3.5 +/- 1.1% to a high of 30.6 +/- 3.1%. Calf management personnel was the only factor significantly related to the mortality rate, with considerably fewer death losses on farms where the owner managed the calves than on farms where employees performed these duties. In general, other factor categories relating to size of the cow herd, calving site, and calf housing were not related significantly to calf deaths. The average number of heifer calves born each year on individual farms was increasing year by year, and on some farms, there seemed to be a concomitant increase in death losses. This, together with the tendency toward greater number of deaths on the larger owner-managed farms, indicated that calf care was diluted under these conditions.

Animals↗