Objective There is a critical need for safe and effective analgesic treatments to address pain resulting from surgical husbandry procedures in livestock. Piglet castration results in acute pain and stress to the animal; however, it is performed globally on millions of piglets annually, often without any analgesia what‐so‐ever. Tri‐Solfen® (Animal Ethics Pty Ltd, Yarra Glen, Victoria, Australia) is a combination local anaesthetic and antiseptic formulation which, applied topically to wounds, has proven effective, and is registered for use to alleviate pain associated with castration (and other wounds) in lambs and calves in Australia and New Zealand. It is also reported to be effective to reduce pain in piglets following castration. Design This randomised, blinded, placebo‐controlled study examined the safety and efficacy of the formulation, administered via an adapted wound instillation method, to control pain both during and following piglet castration. Method Piglets received Tri‐Solfen or placebo, instilled to the wound immediately following skin incision. A 30 s wait period was then observed prior to completing castration. Pain mitigation was assessed by grading nociceptive resistance movements and piglet vocal response during castration, as well as by grading response to mechanical sensory stimulation of the wound (von Frey and needlestick) following castration. Results There was a significant reduction in nociceptive motor and vocal response during castration and in response to mechanical sensory wound stimulation up to and including 2 h following castration. There were no adverse events. Conclusion Administered via this method, Tri‐Solfen is effective to mitigate acute peri‐operative castration pain in piglets.

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Tri-Solfen® is a combination topical anaesthetic and antiseptic solution containing lidocaine, bupivacaine, adrenaline and cetrimide. Applied to wounds, it is reported to reduce the pain experienced by calves following thermocautery disbudding. While lidocaine and bupivacaine are widely used in medicine, conflicting data exist on the impact of these compounds when applied directly to the surgical wound. To investigate the safety of Tri-Solfen® applied to thermocautery disbudding wounds of calves, experiments were performed to measure (i) the safety of Tri-Solfen® (including in overdose situations); and (ii) the impact of Tri-Solfen® application at recommended doses on disbudding wound healing under field conditions. Haematological, biochemical and urinalysis parameters did not show clinically significant differences between placebo and Tri-Solfen® groups (1×, 3× and 5× dose). No adverse health impacts were reported. Histopathological analysis of wounds noted a reduction in bacterial colonies in Tri-Solfen®-treated wounds. Under field conditions, no negative impacts on wound healing were noted. Conversely, there was reduced incidence of abnormal wounds, with an associated trend toward improved average daily gain at days 11–12 in Tri-Solfen®-treated animals. These data are considered to support the safety of topical anaesthesia, as formulated in Tri-Solfen®, to the thermocautery disbudding wound in calves.

BP policy specifies requirements for well barrier management throughout the life cycle of a well. Well barriers are specifically required to isolate energy sources within the earth from each other, the surface environment, and people. Annulus pressure management is fundamental to maintaining healthy well barriers and active monitoring assures the barriers are in place. In subsea wells, the only annulus that can be monitored in real time is between the tubing and production casing (aka A-annulus). When an anomaly is detected in the A-annulus, then a diagnostics and intervention program must be implemented to repair the suspected well integrity issue. In deepwater environments, repairing a well integrity issue with a rig can be costly and the traditional tools for well diagnostics and repair, such as wireline and coil tubing, are complex to deploy into subsea completions. Alternatives such as pressure-activated sealants have a proven track record repairing well integrity issues in dry tree wells. This technology is now being deployed to repair well integrity issues in subsea wells. This paper presents two case studies where pressure-activated sealants were used to successfully repair tubing by A-annulus (T × A) communication in a subsea wells. BP had utilized this technology with great success in its Alaska fields (SPE Papers10895 and 120978) and saw an opportunity to extend those learnings to subsea wells. These operations utilized innovative delivery techniques to enable sealant injection, placement, and activation downhole. Rigorous testing, simulation, and planning prior to starting the job increased confidence in the operational technique and reduced safety risks to the environment and the wells. Both efforts resulted in a successful repair of the well integrity issue. There were several benefits for using a pressure-activated sealant for these two interventions. The less complex non-rig interventions presented fewer safety and environmental risks and were completed with no HSE incidents. The non-rig repairs were completed for a small fraction of the cost of a conventional rig repair and rig time was kept available for drilling and completing new wells. Given its effectiveness and these benefits, the application of this technology may be especially useful for subsea wells with marginal remaining reserves where the relatively lower cost may help to optimize productive life and ultimate recovery. The integrity of a sealant repair can be monitored during the life of the well just like a conventional rig repair and a sealant repair does not preclude the ability to perform a conventional rig repair in the future.

Understanding the genetic causes of trait variation is a primary goal of genetic research. One way that individuals can vary genetically is through variable pangenomic genes - genes that are only present in some individuals in a population. The presence or absence of entire genes could have large effects on trait variation. However, variable pangenomic genes can be missed in standard genotyping workflows, due to reliance on aligning short-read sequencing to reference genomes. A popular method for studying the genetic basis of trait variation is linkage mapping, which identifies quantitative trait loci (QTLs), regions of the genome that harbor causative genetic variants. Large-scale linkage mapping in the budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaehas found thousands of QTLs affecting myriad yeast phenotypes. To enable the resolution of QTLs caused by variable pangenomic genes, we used long-read sequencing to generate highly complete de novo assemblies of 16 diverse yeast isolates. With these assemblies we resolved QTLs for growth on maltose, sucrose, raffinose, and oxidative stress to specific genes that are absent from the reference genome but present in the broader yeast population at appreciable frequency. Copies of genes also duplicate onto chromosomes where they are absent in the reference genome, and we found that these copies generate additional QTLs whose resolution requires pangenome characterization. Our findings demonstrate the need for highly complete genome assemblies to identify the genetic basis of trait variation.