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Animal and plant diseases pose a serious and continuing threat to food security, food safety, national economies, biodiversity and the rural environment. New challenges, including climate change, regulatory developments, changes in the geographical concentration and size of livestock holdings, and increasing trade make this an appropriate time to assess the state of knowledge about the impact that diseases have and the ways in which they are managed and controlled. In this paper, the case is explored for an interdisciplinary approach to studying the management of infectious animal and plant diseases. Reframing the key issues through incorporating both social and natural science research can provide a holistic understanding of disease and increase the policy relevance and impact of research. Finally, in setting out the papers in this Theme Issue, a picture of current and future animal and plant disease threats is presented.

Robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) are novel technologies that take over the labor of dairy farming and reduce the need for human–animal interactions. Because robotic milking involves the replacement of ‘conventional’ twice-a-day milking managed by people with a system that supposedly allows cows the freedom to be milked automatically whenever they choose, some claim robotic milking has health and welfare benefits for cows, increases productivity, and has lifestyle advantages for dairy farmers. This paper examines how established ethical relations on dairy farms are unsettled by the intervention of a radically different technology such as AMS. The renegotiation of ethical relationships is thus an important dimension of how the actors involved are re-assembled around a new technology. The paper draws on in-depth research on UK dairy farms comparing those using conventional milking technologies with those using AMS. We explore the situated ethical relations that are negotiated in practice, focusing on the contingent and complex nature of human–animal–technology interactions. We show that ethical relations are situated and emergent, and that as the identities, roles, and subjectivities of humans and animals are unsettled through the intervention of a new technology, the ethical relations also shift.

This paper analyses how the changing governance of animal health has impacted upon veterinary expertise and its role in providing public health benefits. It argues that the social sciences can play an important role in understanding the nature of these changes, but also that their ideas and methods are, in part, responsible for them. The paper begins by examining how veterinary expertise came to be crucial to the regulation of the food chain in the twentieth century. The relationship between the veterinary profession and the state proved mutually beneficial, allowing the state to address the problems of animal health, and the veterinary profession to become identified as central to public health and food supply. However, this relationship has been gradually eroded by the application of neoliberal management techniques to the governance of animal health. This paper traces the impact of these techniques that have caused widespread unease within and beyond the veterinary profession about the consequences for its role in maintaining the public good of animal health. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the development of the social sciences in relation to animal health could contribute more helpfully to further changes in veterinary expertise.

The thesis comprises a literature review and a research report. The review provides a critical evaluation and summary of literature pertaining to associations between emotion dysregulation and medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Owing to ambiguities in the conceptualisation of emotion dysregulation, the way in which emotion dysregulation is being conceptualised in the MUS literature (e.g. which strategies are being investigated in the disorder) was investigated followed by an evaluation of the associations between difficulties in these emotion regulation strategies and MUS. The researcher concludes that further research is needed to improve our understanding of emotion dysregulation in MUS. The research report investigated emotion dysregulation in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). The aetiology of PNES is not well understood, research suggests that the aetiology involves a complex interplay of factors. Recently, high levels of emotion dysregulation have been reported in PNES. In addition, high rates of traumatic experiences have been reported in the disorder. The researcher hypothesised that high levels of emotion dysregulation may be associated with traumatic experiences in PNES. High levels of emotion dysregulation were reported in both participants with PNES and participants with epilepsy but not in healthy controls. Higher levels of traumatic experiences were reported by the participants with PNES in comparison with participants with epilepsy and healthy controls. The researcher’s hypothesis was not supported; traumatic experiences did not account for the variance in emotion dysregulation, only anxiety accounted for this variance. The results are considered in relation to previous research and implications for practice and future research outlined

Animal and plant diseases pose a serious and continuing threat to food security, food safety, national economies, biodiversity and the rural environment. New challenges, including climate change, regulatory developments, changes in the geographical concentration and size of livestock holdings, and increasing trade make this an appropriate time to assess the state of knowledge about the impact that diseases have and the ways in which they are managed and controlled. In this paper, the case is explored for an interdisciplinary approach to studying the management of infectious animal and plant diseases. Reframing the key issues through incorporating both social and natural science research can provide a holistic understanding of disease and increase the policy relevance and impact of research. Finally, in setting out the papers in this Theme Issue, a picture of current and future animal and plant disease threats is presented.

Studies of the interactions between scientists, society and the environment show that different people understand problems in different ways using different forms of expertise and knowledge. For policy makers, recognizing these differences is important for they affect the way science is understood and acted upon. In studies of science, technology and the environment, the classic example is provided in Brian Wynne's (1992, 1996) account of the British government's reaction to radioactive fallout in Cumbria following the Chernobyl disaster. Scientists descended on farms to offer technical advice to farmers but failed to grasp how farmers' practical knowledges were interwoven with their own identities. Ignoring these complex relationships can often mean that traditional forms of science communication fail to address the problems at hand, and sometimes make them worse.

One researcher has been scouring the newly-opened MAFF archives to study bovine TB control in the 1970s and 1980s. The findings showed that in that period, government acknowledged the strong and opposing feelings diat people held about bovine TB and badger culling. Advisory committees were set up that tried to find a compromise between competing groups. More recently, though, policymakers have tried to ignore emotion and have appealed to economic arguments and evidence-based policy-making.

Reviews the American film \"Animal Attraction\" (U.S. release title: \"Someone Like You\"), directed by Tony Goldwyn. Calls the film a likable, if predictable, romantic comedy.

Reviews the film \"Miss Congeniality,\" directed by Donald Petrie. Contends that the characters in this comedy are \"frustratingly undeveloped.\" Also points out that the overall look of this movie, like the plot, \"holds no surprises.\" Includes cast and crew credits, as well as a synopsis of the plot.

Reviews the romantic comedy \"Woman on Top,\" directed by Fina Torres. Touches upon the director's \"superficial approach to the material.\" Includes cast and crew credits, as well as a synopsis of the plot.