Abstract: Previous work (Marc et al., 2000) suggested that plasma cortisol responses to treadmill exercise or ACTH injection are a reliable marker for performance evaluation in warmblood horses. For practical purposes blood sample collections and treadmill exercise tests are somewhat troublesome and time consuming. The goal of this study was thus to evaluate the use of saliva for cortisol determination (by direct EIA) as a marker for performance and to investigate the reliability and repeatability of plasma cortisol responses to a single i.v. injection of ACTH (50 micrograms or 250 micrograms). Furthermore, the effect of training horses for 8 weeks 3 times per week covering the same distance (increasing from 3.5 km during the first week to 8 km during the last week) either by trotting (approximately 240 m/min) or by cantering (375 m/min) was investigated. For this purpose initially ten four-year-old Hannovarian geldings, all reared in the same State stud, were used. Mean overall correlation between salivary cortisol and plasma cortisol concentrations was 0.64 when samples of various points of time were used. However, in spite of attempts to standardize saliva sample collection, correlation between salivary cortisol levels and plasma cortisol levels at distinct points of time in different tests were low and significant (r = 0.85, p < 0.02) only in one test. Thus, salivary cortisol measurements for diagnostic purposes are not reliable or useful. The repeatability of plasma cortisol responses to ACTH for untrained and trained horses were r = 0.86 and r = 0.8 respectively (p < or = 0.01 and p < or = 0.05 respectively). Training horses either by trotting or cantering did not affect the cortisol response either to treadmill exercise or to stimulation by ACTH. It is concluded that the relationship between salivary cortisol levels and plasma cortisol levels is not close enough to allow the use of salivary cortisol determination as marker of the training status/fitness of horses. The repeatability of the cortisol response to ACTH is similar to the cortisol response to treadmill exercise. Based on plasma cortisol responses to ACTH or treadmill exercise training horses by cantering at low speed is not superior to training by trotting for the fitness of horses.

Abstract: Data from an outbreak (August to October, 2002) of West Nile virus (WNV) encephalomyelitis in a population of horses located in northern Indiana was scanned for clusters in time and space. One significant (p = 0.04) cluster of case premises was detected, occurring between September 4 and 10 in the south-west part of the study area (85.70 degrees N, 45.50 degrees W). It included 10 case premises (3.67 case premises expected) within a radius of 2264 m. Image data were acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor onboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar-orbiting satellite. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated from visible and near-infrared data of daily observations, which were composited to produce a weekly-1km(2) resolution raster image product. During the epidemic, a significant (p < 0.01) decrease (0.025 per week) in estimated NDVI was observed at all case and control premise sites. The median estimated NDVI (0.659) for case premises within the cluster identified was significantly (p < 0.01) greater than the median estimated NDVI for other case (0.571) and control (0.596) premises during the same period. The difference in median estimated NDVI for case premises within this cluster, compared to cases not included in this cluster, was greatest (5.3% and 5.1%, respectively) at 1 and 5 weeks preceding occurrence of the cluster. The NDVI may be useful for identifying foci of WNV transmission.

Abstract: The present paper tries to identify the occupational risk factors (physical, chemical, biological, psychological), variable depending on jobs and tasks, to which the heterogeneous public safety/security workers are exposed. The fight against criminality and public order maintenance imply (sometimes fatal) traumatic risks, and expose to psychophysical and sensorial tiring, unfavourable macro- and microclimatic conditions, the risk of baropathy (air navigation, underwater activities), noise (generated by firearms and several other sources), vibrations and shakings (automatic weapons, transport vehicles), the risk of electric injury, ionizing (X and gamma rays) and non-inonizing (ultraviolet rays, microwaves and radiofrequencies, electromagnetic fields) radiations. Chemical hazards include carbon monoxide and other combustion products (fires, urban traffic), substances released in chemical accidents, tear gases, lead (firing grounds, metal works, environmental pollution), solvents, lubrificants and cutting oils (mechanic repair and maintenance), laboratory materials and reagents, irritant and/or sensitizing agents contained in gloves. The main biological risks are tetanus, blood-borne diseases (viral hepatitis, AIDS), aerogenous diseases (e.g., tuberculosis, Legionnaire's disease, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis), dog- or horse-transmitted zoonosis. Finally, emotional, psychosomatic and behavioural stress-related disorders (e.g., burn-out syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder) are typically frequent. The presence of numerous and diversified hazards among public safety/security forces imposes the adoption of occupational medicine measures, including risk assessment, health education, technical and environmental prevention, personal protective devices, sanitary surveillance and biological monitoring, clinical interventions (diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation of occupational accidents and illnesses), prompt medico-legal evaluation of occupational-related compensation claims.