Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

The research was conducted to test the hypothesis that the inclusion of coffee husk (Coffea sp.) would improve the fermentation characteristics and quality of pearl millet silage (Pennisetum glaucum). Thus, the objective was to assess the effect of the inclusion of different levels of coffee husk in pearl millet silage on the chemical composition, fermentative characteristics and degradability in situ of silage. The experimental design used was completely randomized and the treatments consisted of the silage of the whole pearl millet plant with the inclusion of increasing levels of coffee husk: 0%, 7%, 14% and 21%, based on natural matter. After 60 days of fermentation, the silages were evaluated for chemical characteristics, fermentative, degradability in situ dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). The inclusion of coffee husk did not alter (P > 0.05) the contents of crude protein (11.94%), NDF (44.89%) and total digestible nutrients (65.09%). There were increases in the concentrations of DM and fiber in acid detergent, accompanied by a reduction in the concentrations of mineral matter and ether extract, as the proportion of coffee husks in silages increased. There was an increase in the lignin content up to the level of 7.59% inclusion of the coffee husk. There was no effect of the inclusion of the coffee husk on the pH of the silage (3.60). However, the inclusion of coffee husk resulted in a reduction in temperature, gas losses, and degradability in situ of silage DM and NDF. It is recommended to include coffee husk up to the level of 14.0% of the natural matter to improve the fermentation pattern and the quality of the pearl millet silage

Evaluating the effects of nanomaterials in cementitious systems is paramount to projecting high-performance construction materials. However, the synthesis of some nanomaterials on a large scale and their toxicity may limit their application. In this context, nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), a biodegradable and natural material stand out. Thus, this paper aims to study the influence of NFC on the fresh, hardened properties (compressive and flexural strengths) and mineralogy of cementitious systems. The results indicated that incorporating up 0.075 wt.% to CNF reduced the spread of cement pastes by up to 14.0%. A CNF content of 0.025 wt.% increased the 28-d compressive and flexural strengths by 22.0% and 25.0%, respectively, compared to the control sample. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that higher NFC contents (>0.025 wt.%) resulted in lower intensity portlandite peaks after 7 days, which may show a lower hydration degree, especially concerning the plain cement paste. These results suggest that the NFC can affect the hydration of cementitious matrices at early ages; however, it did not significantly affect the hydration degree after 28 days of hydration.

Objective To evaluate quality indicators of the Neonatal Screening Referral Service of the state of Mato Grosso (NSRS-MT) from 2005 to 2019. Methods Cross-sectional, retrospective, exploratory, descriptive, and observational study from 2005 to 2019. The following parameters were analyzed: age of newborns at the first collection, time between sample collection and arrival at the laboratory, time between the arrival and release of results and time between requesting the second sample and arrival at the NSRS. The population coverage of the program and the incidence of each clinical situation screened were also analyzed. Results NSRS-MT coverage was analyzed and recorded as 76%. The incidence was analyzed for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) 1:1867, phenylketonuria (PKU) 1:33,311, sickle cell disease (SCD) 1:2004, cystic fibrosis (CF) 1:12,663, congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) 1:15,843, and biotinidase deficiency (DB) 1:25,349. The median age (days) at the first consultation was: 44 for HC, 22 for PKU, 60 for DF, 52 for FC, 79 for HAC and 79 for DB. The mean time between exam collection and delivery to the NSRS was 8.4 days; between the arrival and release of results, 9 days; and for the return of recalls, 59 days. Conclusions Regarding the coverage of the target population and collection at the ideal age, the NSRS-MT presents values below the national average. However, regarding the mean age at the time of the first consultation, the state's performance is better than the national. Keywords: National health programs; Program evaluation; Public health; Metabolism, inborn errors

In this study, we analyzed the hypothesis that the combination of Nitrospirillum amazonense strain BR11145 with biological fertilizer prepared using Microgeo® and native microbiome from location of the product application results in morphological and nutritional gains for the initial development of sugarcane plants and soil chemistry. For this purpose, pre-sprouted sugarcane seedlings were grown in a greenhouse mesocosm experiment using soil amended with nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium fertilizer. The experimental treatments consisted of: 1) biological fertilizer with the addition of N. amazonense (100 mL ha-1), 2) biological fertilizer without the addition of N. amazonense, 3) inoculation with N. amazonense at a dose of 100 mL ha-1 with 2x108 viable cell mL-1, 4) inoculation with N. amazonense at a dose of 200 mL ha-1 with 2x108 viable cell mL-1, and 5) control, without the addition of biological fertilizer and N. amazonense. The biological fertilizer was applied at dose of 300 L ha-1, which was split at planting (200 L ha-1) and in the post-emergence phase (100 L ha-1). After 164 days of planting, it was detected an increase in leaf length +3, number of green leaves, leaf area and sulfur content in the leaves of sugarcane plants that received the biological fertilizer with the addition of N. amazonense. In conclusion, the combination of N. amazonense with biological fertilizer revealed positive effects through morphological and nutritional characteristics in sugarcane plants during their early stages of development when compared to plants grown only with the inoculation of N. amazonense, biological fertilizer or mineral fertilizers, with few notable positive effects on soil chemistry.

Resumen Objetivo: resumir la atención que brindan los profesionales de la salud, en los diferentes niveles de atención, a las familias de niños con Trastornos del Espectro Autista. Método: estudio cualitativo, basado en el marco teórico filosófico de la Atención Centrada en la Familia, desarrollado con 22 profesionales de tres equipos multidisciplinarios de servicios de la Red de Atención de la Salud en un municipio del estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Los datos fueron recolectados a través de dos grupos focales con cada equipo y organizados con la ayuda del software Atlas.ti 8 Qualitative Data Analysis ® y sometidos al Análisis de Contenido Temático. Resultados: los hallazgos muestran acciones enfocadas en situaciones específicas, principalmente en las demandas y necesidades que genera el cuidado del niño y su comportamiento atípico. Factores que influyen en la atención a la familia, como la sobrecarga de trabajo y la poca experiencia profesional, revelan las falencias que tiene la asistencia multidisciplinaria y la invisibilidad de la familia como unidad de atención. Conclusión: es necesario examinar el funcionamiento y la forma en que está organizada la red para la atención multidisciplinaria de los niños y sus familias. Se recomienda implementar acciones de educación continua que contribuyan a la capacitación de los equipos multidisciplinarios para la atención a las familias de niños con espectro autista.

Resumo Objetivo: sintetizar o cuidado prestado por profissionais de saúde, nos diferentes níveis de atenção, às famílias de crianças com Transtornos do Espectro Autista. Método: estudo qualitativo, baseado no referencial teórico filosófico do Cuidado Centrado na Família, desenvolvido com 22 profissionais de três equipes multidisciplinares de serviços da Rede de Atenção à Saúde de um município do estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Os dados foram coletados por meio de dois grupos focais com cada equipe, organizados com apoio do software Atlas.ti 8 Qualitative Data Analysis e submetidos à Análise Temática de Conteúdo. Resultados: as descobertas mostram ações centradas em situações pontuais, principalmente nas demandas e necessidades advindas do cuidado da criança e de seu comportamento atípico. Fatores influenciadores para o cuidado à família, como a sobrecarga de trabalho e a pouca experiência profissional, evidenciam a fragilidade da assistência multiprofissional e a invisibilidade da família enquanto unidade de cuidado. Conclusão: destaca-se a necessidade de rever o funcionamento e modo como a rede para o cuidado multiprofissional da criança e sua família está organizada. Recomenda-se a oferta de ações de educação permanente que contribuam com a qualificação das equipes multiprofissionais no cuidado às famílias de crianças no espectro do autismo.

Resumo Objetivo: analisar os fatores relacionados às alterações no sono relatadas pelos profissionais de enfermagem durante a pandemia de COVID-19. Método: trata-se de um estudo transversal e analítico, realizado com profissionais de enfermagem de todas as regiões do Brasil. Foram coletados dados de caracterização sociodemográfica, condições de trabalho e questões sobre alterações de sono. Para estimar o Risco Relativo foi utilizado o modelo de regressão de Poisson com medidas repetidas. Resultados: foram analisadas 572 respostas, as quais revelaram que a duração não ideal do sono, a má qualidade do sono e os sonhos com o ambiente de trabalho foram predominantes durante a pandemia, com 75,2%, 67,1% e 66,8% respectivamente, assim como as queixas de dificuldade ao dormir, sonolência diurna e sono não restaurador durante a pandemia foram relatadas por 523 (91,4%), 440 (76,9%) e 419 (73,2%) dos profissionais de enfermagem, respectivamente. O risco relativo de apresentar tais alterações de sono, durante a pandemia foi significativo para todas as variáveis e as categorias estudadas. Conclusão: duração não ideal do sono, má qualidade do sono, sonhos com o ambiente de trabalho, queixas de dificuldade ao dormir, sonolência diurna e sono não restaurador foram as alterações do sono predominantes entre os profissionais de enfermagem durante a pandemia. Estes achados apontam para possíveis consequências na saúde, bem como na qualidade do trabalho realizado.

Objective: to analyze the factors related to sleep disorders reported by Nursing professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: this is a cross-sectional and analytical study conducted with Nursing professionals from all Brazilian regions. Sociodemographic data, working conditions and questions about sleep disorders were collected. The Poisson regression model with repeated measures was used to estimate the Relative Risk. Results: 572 answers were analyzed, which revealed that non-ideal sleep duration, poor sleep quality and dreams about the work environment were predominant during the pandemic, with 75.2%, 67.1% and 66.8% respectively; as well as complaints of difficulty sleeping, daytime sleepiness and non-restorative sleep during the pandemic were reported by 523 (91.4%), 440 (76.9%) and 419 (73.2%) of the Nursing professionals, respectively. The relative risk of having such sleep disorders during the pandemic was significant for all variables and categories studied. Conclusion: non-ideal sleep duration, poor sleep quality, dreams about the work environment, complaints regarding difficulty sleeping, daytime sleepiness and non-restorative sleep were the predominant sleep disorders among Nursing professionals during the pandemic. Such findings point to possible consequences on health, as well as on the quality of the work performed.

Objective: to synthesize the care provided by health professionals, at different care levels, to the families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Method: a qualitative study, based on the Family-Centered Care philosophical theoretical framework and developed with 22 professionals from three multidisciplinary teams from the Health Care Network of a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The data were collected through two focus groups with each team, organized with the support of the Atlas.ti 8 Qualitative Data Analysis® software and submitted to Thematic Content Analysis. Results: the findings show actions centered on specific situations, especially on the demands and needs arising from the child's care and atypical behavior. Influencing factors for family care, such as work overload and little professional experience, show the weakness of multiprofessional care and the invisibility of the family as a care unit. Conclusion: the need is highlighted to review functioning of the network for the multiprofessional care of children and their families and how such network is organized. It is recommended to offer permanent education actions that contribute to the qualification of multiprofessional teams in the care of families of children in the autism spectrum.

Resumen Objetivo: analizar los factores relacionados con los trastornos del sueño que informaron los profesionales de enfermería durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Método: se trata de un estudio transversal y analítico realizado con profesionales de enfermería de todas las regiones de Brasil. Se recolectaron datos sobre caracterización sociodemográfica, condiciones de trabajo y preguntas sobre trastornos del sueño. Para estimar el Riesgo Relativo se utilizó el modelo de regresión de Poisson con medidas repetidas. Resultados: se analizaron 572 respuestas, que revelaron que durante la pandemia predominaron la duración del sueño no ideal, la mala calidad del sueño y los sueños sobre el ambiente laboral, con 75,2%, 67,1% y 66,8% respectivamente, además 523 (91,4%), 440 (76,9%) y 419 (73,2%) profesionales de enfermería manifestaron quejas de dificultad para conciliar el sueño, somnolencia diurna y sueño no reparador durante la pandemia, respectivamente. El riesgo relativo de padecer trastornos del sueño durante la pandemia fue significativo para todas las variables y categorías estudiadas. Conclusión: la duración del sueño no ideal, la mala calidad del sueño, los sueños sobre el ambiente laboral, las quejas de dificultad para conciliar el sueño, la somnolencia diurna y el sueño no reparador fueron los trastornos del sueño predominantes en los profesionales de enfermería durante la pandemia. Estos hallazgos indican posibles consecuencias para la salud, así como para la calidad del trabajo realizado.

Objective: to verify the implications of practical activities in the Skills and Simulation Laboratory on the motivation and feelings expressed by undergraduate students when returning to face-to-face activities after the social isolation caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Method: a quasi-experimental study, with a single group and of the pre- and post-test type, carried out through an educational intervention based on skills training on medication administration and venipuncture, with medical students from a Brazilian public university. The sample was comprised by 47 students. The instruments of students’ characterization and self-perceived feelings and the Situational Motivation Scale were used for data collection. Results: in the sample, 98% mentioned the lack of practical activities during the pandemic. The most frequently described feeling was anxiety. After carrying out the activity, there was a change in the frequency of expressed feelings, although there was no significant change in motivational levels. External Regulation (5.1 - 5.6), Identified Regulation (6.1 - 6.4) and Intrinsic Motivation (5.6 - 6.0) presented high results, showing similarity to the feelings reported by the learners. Conclusion: motivation is essential for effective learning and the use of active methodologies reinforces skills built in an affective way in the students facing the learning process.

Objetivo: verificar as implicações das atividades práticas no Laboratório de Habilidade e Simulação relacionado à motivação e os sentimentos expressos pelos estudantes universitários quando regressam às atividades presenciais após o isolamento social causado pela pandemia da COVID-19. Método: estudo quase-experimental, com um único grupo, do tipo pré e pós-teste, realizado por meio de uma intervenção educacional baseada no treino de habilidades de administração de medicamentos e punção venosa, com estudantes de medicina de uma universidade pública brasileira. A amostra foi composta por 47 estudantes. Para a coleta de dados, foram utilizados os instrumentos de caracterização dos sujeitos e sentimentos autopercebidos pelos estudantes e a Escala de Motivação Situacional. Resultados: na amostra, 98% referiram falta de atividades práticas durante a pandemia. O sentimento mais frequentemente descrito foi a ansiedade. Após a realização da atividade, observou-se uma mudança na frequência dos sentimentos expressos, embora não se tenha verificado uma mudança significativa nos níveis motivacionais. A Regulação Externa (5,1 – 5,6), a Regulação (6,1 – 6,4) e a Motivação Intrínseca (5,6 – 6,0) apresentaram resultados elevados, demostrando semelhança com os sentimentos relatados pelos alunos. Conclusão: a motivação é essencial para uma aprendizagem eficaz e a utilização de metodologias ativas reforça as habilidades construídas de uma forma efetiva nos estudantes frente ao processo de aprendizagem.

Objetivo: verificar las implicaciones de las actividades prácticas en el Laboratorio de Habilidad y Simulación relacionadas con la motivación y los sentimientos expresados por los estudiantes universitarios cuando regresan a las actividades presenciales luego del aislamiento social ocasionado por la pandemia del COVID-19. Método: estudio cuasiexperimental, con un solo grupo y del tipo pre y postest, realizado mediante una intervención educativa basada en el entrenamiento de habilidades en administración de medicamentos y venopunción, con estudiantes de medicina de una universidad pública brasileña. La muestra estuvo conformada por 47 estudiantes. Para la recolección de datos se utilizaron los instrumentos de caracterización y autopercepción de los individuos y la Escala de Motivación Situacional. Resultados: en la muestra, el 98% mencionó la falta de actividades prácticas durante la pandemia. El sentimiento descrito con mayor frecuencia fue la ansiedad. Después de realizar la actividad, hubo un cambio en la frecuencia de los sentimientos expresados, aunque no hubo un cambio significativo en los niveles de motivación. Regulación Externa (5,1 – 5,6), Regulación Identificada (6,1 – 6,4) y Motivación Intrínseca (5,6 – 6,0) presentaron resultados altos, demostrando similitud con los sentimientos relatados por los estudiantes. Conclusión: la motivación es fundamental para un aprendizaje efectivo y el uso de metodologías activas refuerza de manera efectiva las habilidades construidas en los estudiantes frente al proceso de aprendizaje.

Pollutant degradation has been a very important topic in environmental research. The present paper presents an approach to degrade atrazine, an environmentally harmful herbicide that has been widely used in the agriculture industry. Ti/TiO2 nanotube electrodes modified by porphyrins were prepared for photolysis, photocatalysis, and photoelectrocatalysis (PEC) applications. Manganese- and free base porphyrin were studied, and it was possible to verify the kinetic model more suitable for each system. Unfortunately, Mn-porphyrins had an inhibitory effect on the ATZ degradation activity by Ti/TiO2 nanotube electrodes. Although the Ti/TiO2-free base porphyrin under the PEC experiment (using surface water from a Brazilian river) did not lead to the best degradation system, we could verify the formed products, which have been not described for other porphyrin-mediated atrazine degradation, are equal or more toxic than the original atrazine. We highlight the importance of verifying the products formed in the degradation systems and determining their toxicities.

Background Recently we developed a gene orthology inference tool based on genome rearrangements (Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology 19:6, 2021). Given a set of genomes our method first computes all pairwise gene similarities. Then it runs pairwise ILP comparisons to compute optimal gene matchings, which minimize, by taking the similarities into account, the weighted rearrangement distance between the analyzed genomes (a problem that is NP-hard). The gene matchings are then integrated into gene families in the final step. The mentioned ILP includes an optimal capping that connects each end of a linear segment of one genome to an end of a linear segment in the other genome, producing an exponential increase of the search space. Results In this work, we design and implement a heuristic capping algorithm that replaces the optimal capping by clustering (based on their gene content intersections) the linear segments into m≥1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m\ge 1$$\end{document} subsets, whose ends are capped independently. Furthermore, in each subset, instead of allowing all possible connections, we let only the ends of content-related segments be connected. Although there is no guarantee that m is much bigger than one, and with the possible side effect of resulting in sub-optimal instead of optimal gene matchings, the heuristic works very well in practice, from both the speed performance and the quality of computed solutions. Our experiments on primate and fruit fly genomes show two positive results. First, for complete assemblies of five primates the version with heuristic capping reports orthologies that are very similar to the orthologies computed by the version of our tool with optimal capping. Second, we were able to efficiently analyze fruit fly genomes with incomplete assemblies distributed in hundreds or even thousands of contigs, obtaining gene families that are very similar to FLYBASE\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{F}} {\textsc{ly}} {\text{B}} {\textsc{ase}}$$\end{document} families. Indeed, our tool inferred a higher number of complete cliques, with a higher intersection with FLYBASE\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{F}} {\textsc{ly}} {\text{B}} {\textsc{ase}}$$\end{document}, when compared to gene families computed by other inference tools. We added a post-processing for refining, with the aid of the MCL\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\textsc{mcl}}$$\end{document} algorithm, our ambiguous families (those with more than one gene per genome), improving even more the accuracy of our results. Our approach is implemented into a pipeline incorporating the pre-computation of gene similarities and the post-processing refinement of ambiguous families with MCL\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\textsc {mcl}$$\end{document}. Both the original version with optimal capping and the new modified version with heuristic capping can be downloaded, together with their detailed documentations, at https://gitlab.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/gi/FFGC or as a Conda package at https://anaconda.org/bioconda/ffgc.

Sixteen triterpenoids with various skeletal types, five phenylpropanoid derivatives, and two flavonoids were isolated from a propolis sample produced by Apis mellifera collected in the Atlantic Forest of Midwest Brazil. Among these compounds, six triterpenes, namely 3β,20R‐dihydroxylanost‐24‐en‐3‐yl‐palmitate, (23E)‐25‐methoxycycloartan‐23‐en‐3‐one, 24‐methylenecycloartenone, epi‐lupeol, epi‐a‐amyrin, and epi‐β‐amyrin are being reported for the first time in propolis, while cycloartenone, (E)‐cinnamyl benzoate, and (E)‐cinnamyl cinnamate are new findings in Brazilian propolis. The presence of cycloartane‐ and lanostane‐type triterpenoids, the latter being a class of compounds of restricted distribution in propolis worldwide, has not been reported in propolis from Midwest Brazil until now. The ethyl acetate phase obtained from the ethanol extract was effective in preventing biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus, with an inhibition rate of about 96% at 0.5 mg.mL‐1, and with quercetin isolated as one of its active constituents. In contrast, the hexane phase exhibited notable antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, inhibiting bacterial growth by 92% at 0.5 mg.mL‐1; however, none of the triterpenoids isolated from this phase proved active against this pathogen. The ethanol extract was neither toxic nor mutagenic at the concentrations tested, as determined by the in vivo SMART assay on Drosophila melanogaster, even under conditions of high metabolic activation.

Our objective was to evaluate the productive parameters of ewes and their lambs in relation to ewe age and to develop models for predicting lamb weight at birth and weaning in a tropical warm-climate pasture. Individual data were collected from 273 ewes and 273 lambs, between 2013 and 2021. During this period all animals were kept on pastures of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu All lambs in the experiments were supplemented in creep-feeding. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed using the PROC SUMMARY procedure in SAS (SAS University Edition, SAS Institute Inc. Cary, CA, USA). Pearson correlation coefficients between variables were estimated using the PROC CORR procedure in SAS (SAS University Edition, SAS Institute Inc. Cary, CA, USA). Model adjustments and variable selection were performed using PROC REG in SAS (SAS University Edition, SAS Institute Inc. Cary, CA, USA). The STEPWISE option and Mallow's C(p) were used to select the variables included in the equations. Outliers were identified by evaluating the studentized residuals based on the predicted values from the equations. Residual analysis was predicted by regression minus observed values and those that fell outside the range of -2.5 to 2.5 were removed. Several statistics were used to assess the predictability of the equations, including the coefficients of determination (r2) and mean standard error (RMSE). The average ewe age at lambing was 3.4 ± 1.7 years, with an average weight of 56.9 ± 8,9 kg and average body condition score (BCS) of 2,4 ± 0.8 points. The average ewe age at weaning was 51.1 ± 7.9, with average BCS of 1.8 ± 0.8 points. The average lamb at birthing was 3.9 ± 0.9 kg. The average lamb at weaning was 21.0 ± 4.9, with daily gain of 0.2 ± 0.1 kg/day and total gain of 17.1 ± 4.7 kg birth to weaning. The lamb produced by ewe at lambing was 5.3 ± 1.7 kg/ewe. The lamb weaned by ewe at weaning was 28.7 ± 10.8 kg/ewe. The ratios of lamb produced per ewe at birth and at weaning were 0.1 ± 0.03 and 0.6 ± 0.2, respectively. The lamb’s birth weight showed a positive linear relationship with the age of the ewe, increasing by 115 g per year of age. The regression equations adjusted for ewe age had maximum points ranging from 4.2 to 5.2, occurring at average age of 4,7 years. The other characteristics showed a quadratic tendency. The results suggest the culling of ewes at five years of age to generate lambs with ideal weight at birth and at weaning raised in warm tropical pastures.

Background This study describes the effectiveness of a novel active pharmaceutical ingredient, fluralaner (isoxazoline class), against important ectoparasites infesting cattle in Brazil. Methods A total of 13 studies involving a 5% fluralaner-based pour-on formulation (Exzolt 5%; further referred to as Exzolt) were conducted. Specifically, the effectiveness of this formulation was studied against Rhipicephalus microplus (6 studies), Cochliomyia hominivorax larvae (4 studies), Dermatobia hominis larvae (1 study) and Haematobia irritans flies (2 studies). Results The therapeutic efficacy of Exzolt was found to exceed 98% at 4 days post treatment (DPT), while persistent efficacy (> 90% efficacy) against repeated infestations of R. microplus was observed for up to 79 DPT. In field studies, ≥ 98% therapeutic efficacy was demonstrated at all study sites by 7 DPT, and a persistent efficacy (> 90% efficacy) was observed for 42, 49 or 56 DPT. Exzolt prevented C. hominivorax eggs from developing to the larval stage, thus mitigating the development of myiasis in cattle naturally and artificially infested with this screworm. The efficacy of Exzolt against D. hominis larvae was 98% at 3 DPT, while persistent efficacy (> 90% effectiveness) was found to last for up to 70 DPT. Against H. irritans, Exzolt showed therapeutic efficacy (≥ 90%) within the first day of treatment at both study sites, while persistent efficacy (≥ 90%) was observed for 7 DPT at one site and for 21 DPT at the other site. Conclusions Overall, the results from these studies confirm that Exzolt is therapeutically efficacious against the most important ectoparasites infesting cattle in Brazil. The novel active pharmaceutical ingredient, fluralaner, provides a new treatment option for farmers to control cattle ectoparasites, especially where there is resistance to other chemical classes. In addition, an effective control of ectoparasites will improve overall cattle health and well-being as well as production. Graphical Abstract