ABSTRACT:The study describes significant outcomes of the 'Metrology for Meteorology' project, MeteoMet, which is an attempt to bridge the meteorological and metrological communities. The concept of traceability, an idea used in both fields but with a subtle difference in meaning, is at the heart of the project. For meteorology, a traceable measurement is the one that can be traced back to a particular instrument, time and location. From a metrological perspective, traceability further implies that the measurement can be traced back to a primary realization of the quantity being measured in terms of the base units of the International System of Units, the SI. These two perspectives reflect long-standing differences in culture and practice and this project -and this study -represents only the first step towards better communication between the two communities. The 3 year MeteoMet project was funded by the European Metrology Research Program (EMRP) and involved 18 European National Metrological Institutes, 3 universities and 35 collaborating stakeholders including national meteorology organizations, research institutes, universities, associations and instrument companies. The project brought a metrological perspective to several long-standing measurement problems in meteorology and climatology, varying from conventional ground-based measurements to those made in the upper atmosphere. It included development and testing of novel instrumentation as well as improved calibration procedures and facilities, instrument intercomparison under realistic conditions and best practice dissemination. Additionally, the validation of historical temperature data series with respect to measurement uncertainties and a methodology for recalculation of the values were included.

Increased incidence of protothecal mastitis has been recorded in several countries in the past ten years. The main goal of this article is to draw the attention of scientific and professional community to the emerging issue of mammary protothecosis. The article collates currently known facts about infection reservoirs, predisposing factors for the development of mastitis, clinical manifestations of the disease, and potential transmission routes within the herd as well as the measures for control and eradication. We would like to point out that identification of protothecal mastitis on a dairy farm is associated with a range of problems. Early detection of infected animals can be difficult because of predominantly subclinical course of early-stage infection, which easily spreads between cows via the milking system. Spontaneous recovery has not been recorded and infected cows typically develop chronic mastitis with granulomatous infiltration and progressive loss of functional parenchyma of the mammary gland. Substantial economic losses and health damages associated with mammary protothecosis strongly emphasise the need for developing effective prevention strategies aimed at control of the infection.

Launched in 2011 within the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) of EURAMET, the joint research project "MeteoMet" -Metrology for Meteorology -is the largest EMRP consortium: National Metrology Institutes, Universities, meteorological and climate agencies, Research Institutes, collaborators and manufacturers are working together, developing new metrological techniques, as well as improving already existing ones, for meteorological observations and climate records. The project focuses on: humidity in the upper and surface atmosphere, air temperature, surface and deep-sea temperatures, soil moisture, salinity, permafrost temperature, precipitation and snow albedo effect on air temperature. All tasks are performed under rigorous metrological approach and include design and study of new sensors, new calibration facilities, investigation of sensors characteristics, improved techniques for measurements of Essential Climate Variables with uncertainty evaluation, traceability, laboratory proficiency and inclusion of field influencing parameters, long-lasting measurements, and campaigns in remote and extreme areas. MeteoMet vision is to make a further step towards establishing full data comparability, coherency, consistency and long-term continuity, through a comprehensive evaluation of the measurement uncertainties for the quantities involved in the global climate observing systems and the derived observations. The improvement of quality of Essential Climate Variables records, through the inclusion of measurement uncertainty budgets, will also highlight possible strategies for the reduction of the uncertainty. This contribution presents selected highlights of the MeteoMet project and reviews the main ongoing activities, tasks and deliverables, with a view to its possible future evolution and extended impact.

The objective of the present study was to investigate nutritional and metabolic status in Simmental cows during early and mid-lactation. Fifteen early lactation cows and 15 mid lactation cows were chosen for the analysis. Blood samples were collected to measure beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), triglycerides (TG), glucose and the activity of aspartate transaminase (AST). Blood metabolites, milk yield, dry matter intake (DMI) and energy balance (EB) were recorded. Correlation analysis showed that DMI was significantly negatively correlated with NEFA, BHB and AST, and positively with glucose and TG. EB was significantly negatively correlated with NEFA, BHB and AST, and positively with glucose. Early lactation as compared to mid lactation cows were found to have significantly higher blood serum concentrations of NEFA, BHB and AST activities and lower blood serum concentrations of glucose and TG, but not significant. These metabolic changes were in correlation with DMI and EB, but not with milk yield. Suggest that they can serve as useful indicators of the nutritional and metabolic status of dairy cows during lactation.

A high percent of annual neonatal mortality attributed to orf infection was observed between 2001 and 2004 in 2 sheep and 2 mixed (sheep and goat) flocks of Northern Greece. In order to protect the neonatal lambs and kids from orf infection a commercially available live orf vaccine was used. Pregnant sheep and goats were vaccinated subcutaneously a month before parturition, while 10 sheep and 10 goats in each flock remained unvaccinated and were used as negative controls. The vaccine was significantly effective (P<0.05) in reducing the orf lesions and the mortality rate in lambs and kids of the 4 flocks. During the next year 3 of the 4 flocks were revaccinated. A significantly low percentage of orf lesions and neonatal mortality continued to occur in revaccinated flocks, while a significant percentage (P<0.05) of orf lesions and neonatal mortality reappeared in the nonrevaccinated flock. The antibody titres in vaccinated sheep and goats were increased significantly on days 60 and 105 post-vaccination, while the titres in the controls remained low (P<0.05)