Previous articles for the Veterinary Ireland Journal have outlined the critical role of the veterinary practitioner as an advocate for behavioural change in relation to antimicrobial resistance and herd health planning (Gribben and Burrell, 2023; Regan and Burrell, 2021). Within the realm of preventative veterinary medicine and herd health planning consults, evidence-based communication strategies which draw on psychological theory and practice have been shown to improve shared decision-making and collaboration between veterinary practitioners and their clients (Bard et al, 2022). In this article, we will describe the relational and technical components of motivational interviewing. The term ‘motivational interviewing’ (MI) might suggest images of someone standing on a stage with a handsfree microphone and an inspirational speech, something which it is not. In short, MI is a collaborative conversation style reflecting person-centred care and is used to elicit and strengthen a person’s own, intrinsic motivation to change. It is used by those working in a helping profession such as counsellors, social workers, doctors, teachers, physiotherapists, psychologists and probation officers. Miller and Rollnick (2013) give the example of a healthcare professional who is supporting a patient to respond to a chronic disease diagnosis. This patient’s future health, quality of life and indeed life expectancy may be determined by their behaviour and lifestyle. The kind of helping conversation that the healthcare professional might have with their patient in this situation can be described as being on a continuum of communication styles. On one side of this continuum is a ‘directing’ style of communication – the practitioner tells the patient what to do and how to do it and this requires adherence and compliance from the patient. On the other side of this communication continuum is ‘following’ – the practitioner merely seeks to understand and does not give any of their own views or advice at all. Motivational interviewing sits in between these two approaches, in a ‘guiding’ style of communication. Millner and Rollnick compare this ‘guiding’ style of communication to being a good tour guide – tourists neither want to be marched around a city being told exactly what to eat and where to go, nor do they want their tour guide to follow them around aimlessly. ‘Guiding’ involves actively listening and providing expertise when asked for. In the case of the healthcare professional and patient, this means exploring what a disease diagnosis means for that person and how they can realistically make the changes required, while incorporating the practitioner’s expertise and knowledge of the disease where needed.

Acceptance of insect-containing foods remains low among European consumers. This study aims to explore the factors affecting willingness to consume insects among students in two European countries with different culinary traditions, namely France and Ireland. An online survey was developed and distributed in both countries, with 183 participants (France: n = 103; Ireland: n = 80) included in total. While more participants in France (43.7%) had a positive opinion of entomophagy compared to the ones in Ireland (21.3%), no significant difference was found in their willingness to consume insects for the first time. When given information on the approval of insects as a novel food in Europe, students in France were significantly more willing to consume insects than students in Ireland. For both groups, food neophobia and disgust were impediments to entomophagy. Moreover, males older than 30 yr enrolled in engineering courses, not following a specific diet, more concerned about the environment and health and less about familiarity, culture and religion were the most willing to consume insects. Participants in France and Ireland were more willing to consume insects if they were tasty or disguised (invisible) in another product and not if they were presented in their usual form (‘whole’). This case study shows that entomophagy acceptance is affected by the characteristics of the products, food neophobia, disgust and food choice motives of the consumers, while the impact of information on regulation is country dependent. These findings could be the starting point to guide the development of insect-containing foods acceptable to consumers in Europe.

Ammonia (NH3) emissions from livestock production contribute to environmental pollution. To address this challenge, the European Union (EU) National Emission Reduction Commitments Directive 2016/2284 (NECD) sets NH3 reduction targets for EU member states. In order to achieve these targets, several strategies have been evaluated under Irish conditions. A compilation of emission factors (EFs) from studies which evaluated these strategies is necessary to assess their effectiveness. This paper reports NH3 EFs from cattle production under Irish conditions. The results from the review show that the mean EFs from the deposition of dung, urine and urea applied to urine patches on grasslands were 4%, 9% and 8% total nitrogen (TN), respectively. EFs from the application of urea to urine patches were reduced by 28% after the addition of the urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) to urea. The mean EF of 28% TN reported for urea fertiliser was almost 7 times higher than calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN). The inclusion of urease inhibitors with urea fertilisation on grassland led to EF reduction of up to 86%. The mean EFs from cattle houses, concrete yards, slurry storage pits and slurry landspreading were approximately 13%, 35%, 60% and 59% total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN), respectively. The most effective NH3 abatement strategies for concrete yards and slurry storage were immediate cleaning of concrete floors (up to 89% reduction) after excreta deposition and the application of chemical amendments (sulphuric acid, acetic acid, alum and ferric chloride) to slurry in storage pits (up to 98% reduction), respectively. Low-emission spreading strategies and slurry acidification were effective at abating EFs after slurry application to land.

Conservation science and planning, by measuring proxies of biodiversity and ecosystem services provision, aim to identify priority areas for nature conservation and ecosystem services. In Ireland, fine-scale data on ecosystems functioning and biodiversity are limited, making it challenging to map conservation value (CV) and natural capital value (NCV) accurately. We elicited expert knowledge to rank habitat classes mapped in the recently published National Land Cover Map (NLCM) (EPA and Tailte Éireann, 2023). A scoring system from 0 to 10 was used to score habitats based on their estimated provision of biodiversity (CV) and ecosystem services (NCV). As a case study, we applied this scoring system to a catchment in the south-east of Ireland (>2,000 km2) with land cover information available from the draft NLCM. The expert elicitation showed little overall difference between the scores assigned by the team and the experts invited to validate the CV and NCV scores. However, some scores were revised based on experts’ contributions. Results of the mapping exercise indicated a high correlation between monads with high CV and high NCV scores. Future work should focus on differentiating the weighting assigned to each ecosystem service associated with each land cover class. This could result in changes in the overall NCV scores assigned to each habitat (and monads). Nevertheless, the approach developed here has the potential to identify areas in the landscape that should be targeted for conservation. For reproducibility, we provide the R code for analysis at polygon scale.

Yellow dwarf viruses (YDVs) are the most economically important plant viruses impacting cereal production worldwide and include viruses from the genus Luteovirus (e.g., barely yellow dwarf virus (BYDV)-PAV, BYDV-PAS, BYDV-MAV, BYDV-kerII, BYDV-kerIII) and Polerovirus (e.g., cereal yellow dwarf virus (CYDV)-RPV, CYDV-RPS). Until now, much of our knowledge on YDVs infecting Irish barley crops (Hordeum vulgare L.) has come from serological assays; however, due to cross-reactivity it can be difficult to discriminate between viruses of different species. In this study, we have carried out a high-throughput sequencing survey of symptomatic crops, positive with serological assays, to identify YDVs infecting Irish spring and winter barley crops and establish reference genomes to support further development of molecular surveillance tools. In total, RNA was extracted from 45 symptomatic crop samples that were collected across Ireland over 2 yr and sequenced following rRNA depletion. Three samples of barley plants from BYDV-infected aphid colonies were also included. BYDV-MAV was identified in all field samples sequenced. This confirms previous evidence based on serological assays that BYDV-MAV is the dominant YDV in Irish barley crops. We have also identified BYDV-PAS in 29% of symptomatic field samples, the first report of this species in Ireland. In addition, BYDV-PAV was also found, and crop samples with mixed infections were common; although in mixed infections the greatest proportion of YDV reads originated from BYDV-MAV. Finally, CYDV-RPS, the more severe variant of CYDV-RPV belonging to the genus Polerovirus, was identified in a single sample. The complete genomes, assembled from this first sequence-based survey, will enable the development of molecular surveillance tools with greater virus specificity, to further support the Irish aphid and YDV monitoring network.

In Ireland, and in several other countries around the world, a situation of economic vulnerability exists for many farmers. Alongside this economic vulnerability, the farm management literature acknowledges that most farmers spend little time on financial management. In this context, we argue that farm advisory services have the potential to add value to the farming community by assisting farmers to make informed financial decisions, to combat these economic challenges. In this study, the role of professional advisors in the strategic financial decisionmaking process of farmers is explored to develop an understanding of how farmers avail of advice from, and interact with, farm advisors. A qualitative research approach of 27 semi-structured interviews and a focus group is adopted to explore the strategic financial decision-making process of farmers. The application of sensemaking theory helps us understand how advisors provide a sensegiving role in the farmer’s decision-making process. The evidence gathered identifies numerous professional advice sources that provide this sensegiving role in the strategic financial decision-making process of farmers but contends that two sources, accountants and agricultural consultants, appear most prominent. This study also reveals that the use of specific advice sources is strongly influenced by the type of strategic decision undertaken and the farm type in operation. The results provide an opportunity for policymakers, and those who provide advisory services to farmers, to reflect on how best to create an environment where farmers and farm advisors can work together, to develop sustainable farm enterprises which can contribute to rural development.

Septoria tritici blotch caused by the fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici is the most economically damaging disease of winter wheat in Ireland. As azoles have been intensively used, Z. tritici has developed different means of resisting their toxic effects with multiple alterations now reported in individual strains. Using previously characterised Irish collections of Z. tritici, the relationships between these different alterations have been examined using conditional inference trees and random forest. The results from this study highlight the importance of specific alterations I381V and S524T, with both contributing most to the reductions in epoxiconazole (EPZ) and metconazole (MTZ) sensitivity. As the azole class of fungicides is an extensive and diverse group, it is possible these alterations do not impact other azoles in a similar manner. Further analysis of these and contemporary collections to additional azoles, including mefentrifluconazole, which continues to provide good field control of Z. tritici, is warranted.

Animals subjected to intensive genetic selection require continuous monitoring to observe changes in economically important traits. The focus of this research was to estimate genetic and phenotypic trends for carcass traits for three genotypes: dairy dam and dairy sire (D×D), dairy dam and beef sire (D×B) and beef dam and beef sire (B×B). Linear regression models were used to generate genetic and phenotypic trends for carcass weight, conformation and fat score for both cows and prime animals (i.e. never parented an animal). Phenotypic trends for age at slaughter were also estimated in prime animals. Results indicated that carcass weight increased genetically by 1.1 kg per year for B×B animals, but decreased by 0.14 and 0.39 kg per year for D×B and D×D animals, respectively. Phenotypic trends reflected the genetic trends for carcass weight for D×B and B×B animals, but the decline in genetic trends for carcass weight for D×D animals was not replicated in their phenotypic trends. Carcass conformation declined genetically by 0.02 and 0.05 units per year for D×D and D×B animals, respectively, and increased by 0.05 units per year for B×B animals. Phenotypic trends for conformation were similar to genetic trends. Carcass fat showed a decrease genetically for D×D and B×B, but remained constant for D×B animals, although this was not reflected in the phenotypic trends. Age at slaughter decreased phenotypically for all genotypes. Current breeding programmes have a favourable impact on carcass traits for B×B animals, but an unfavourable trend was observed for D×D and D×B animals.

Under natural environment plants experience different light intensities which can affect photosynthesis and consequently the availability of carbohydrates for daytime growth and their transient storage to supply night growth. We grew a spring barley cultivar, Propino, under three different light intensities under warm days and nights, and evaluated the spatial and diurnal adjustments occurring in the transient carbon stores. Leaves under high light at the end of the day accumulated mainly sucrose (30%) and malate (35%), with lower content of hexoses (5%), starch (15%) and fructans (15%). Under low light, plants presented reduced photosynthesis, with lower metabolite contents at end of day. The malate represented 51% of the total carbon accumulated at end of the day, at the expense of sucrose (12%), other metabolite contributions remaining similar to high light. The percentage of metabolites consumed at night was similar for all light intensities with around 75% of the sucrose and starch being mobilized whilst malate and fructans were only partially mobilized with 56 and 44%, respectively. Altogether, sucrose and malate were the main contributors of the total carbon used at night by barley plants, sucrose being predominant under high light (35% vs. 27%), but malate being the major metabolite used under low light with 40% of the total carbon consumed. Interestingly, light intensity also influenced the location of the C transient stores, the plants under low light prioritizing the accumulation of the metabolites, mostly malate, in the youngest tissues. Therefore, light influences quantitatively, but also qualitatively and spatially the carbon stores in the spring barley cv. Propino, suggesting a tight regulation of the primary metabolism.

Here, the role of the dairy-processing chain as a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AR) determinants and a source of novel biocontrol quorum-sensing inhibitors is assessed through a functional metagenomics approach. A metagenomic library comprising ∼22,000 recombinant clones was built from DNA isolated from raw milk, raw milk cheeses, and cheese-processing environment swab samples. The high-throughput sequencing of 9,216 recombinant clones showed that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) dominated the microbial communities of raw milk cheese, while Gram-negative microorganisms of animal or soil origin dominated the microbiota of raw milk and cheese-processing environments. Although functional screening of the metagenomic library did not recover potential quorum-sensing inhibitors, in silico analysis using an in-house database built specifically for this study identified homologues to several genes encoding proteins with predicted quorum-quenching activity, among which, the QsdH hydrolase was the most abundant. In silico screening of the library identified LAB, and especially Lactococcus lactis, as a relevant reservoir of AR determinants in cheese. Functional screening of the library allowed the isolation of 13 recombinant clones showing an increased resistance toward ampicillin, which in all cases was accompanied by a reduced susceptibility to a wide range of β-lactam antibiotics. This study shows that the dairy-processing environment is a rich reservoir of AR determinants, which vary by sample source, and suggests that combining next-generation sequencing with functional metagenomics can be of use in overcoming the limitations of both approaches. IMPORTANCE The study shows the potential of functional metagenomics analyses to uncover the diversity of functions in microbial communities prevailing in dairy products and their processing environments, evidencing that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) dominate the cheese microbiota, whereas Gram-negative microorganisms of animal or soil origin dominate the microbiota of milk and cheese-processing environments. The functional and in silico screening of the library allowed the identification of LAB, and especially Lactococcus lactis, as a relevant reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AR) determinants in cheese. Quorum-quenching (QQ) determinants were not recovered through the execution of wet-lab function-based screenings but were detected through in silico sequencing-based analyses.