Effects of epidural morphine on gastrointestinal transit in unmedicated horses

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of epidural morphine on gastrointestinal (GI) motility in horses.Study designRandomly ordered crossover design.AnimalsSix healthy adult horses weighing 585 ± 48 kg (mean ± SD).MethodsHorses were randomly assigned to receive either 0.2 mg kg^?1 morphine or an equal volume (0.04 mL kg^?1) of saline epidurally (the first inter coccygeal space) with 2 weeks between treatments. The horses were stabled, fed a standardized diet and allowed water ad libitum throughout the duration of the study. Radiopaque spheres were administered by stomach tube. Xylazine 0.2 mg kg^?1 intravenously was administered prior to epidural injection. Heart rate, respiratory rate, GI sounds score and behavior score were recorded before drug administration and after epidural injection at 4, 8, 12, 18, 24 hours and every 12 hours thereafter for 6 days. Feces were weighed, radiographed and the number of spheres counted. Data were analyzed using a mixed effect model.ResultsAt no time did horses exhibit signs of colic or show significant differences between treatments regarding heart rate, respiratory rate, GI sounds score, behavior score, or cumulative number of spheres. The concentration of spheres per kg of feces was significantly lower (p < 0.05) for the morphine group at 18 and 24 hours. Using the centroid of the curves (spheres kg^?1 plotted versus time) the average transit time after saline epidural was 38 hours and after morphine it was 43 hours. The weight of feces hour^?1 was significantly lower (p < 0.05) at only 4 and 8 hours after morphine.Conclusions and clinical relevanceEpidural morphine, at a dose of 0.2 mg kg^?1, temporarily reduced GI motility but did not cause ileus or colic in this small group of healthy unfasted horses. Care should be taken when extrapolating these data to situations in which other factors may also affect GI motility.     

Health innovation networks to help developing countries address neglected diseases

Gross inequities in disease burden between developed and developing countries are now the subject of intense global attention. Public and private donors have marshaled resources and created organizational structures to accelerate the development of new health products and to procure and distribute drugs and vaccines for the poor. Despite these encouraging efforts directed primarily from and funded by industrialized countries, sufficiency and sustainability remain enormous challenges because of the sheer magnitude of the problem. Here we highlight a complementary and increasingly important means to improve health equity: the growing ability of some developing countries to undertake health innovation.     

Spatiotemporal interactions between wild boar and cattle: implications for cross-species disease transmission

Controlling infectious diseases at the wildlife/livestock interface is often difficult because the ecological processes driving transmission between wildlife reservoirs and sympatric livestock populations are poorly understood. Thus, assessing how animals use their environment and how this affects interspecific interactions is an important factor in determining the local risk for disease transmission and maintenance. We used data from concurrently monitored GPS-collared domestic cattle and wild boar (Sus scrofa) to assess spatiotemporal interactions and associated implications for bovine tuberculosis (TB) transmission in a complex ecological and epidemiological system, Doñana National Park (DNP, South Spain). We found that fine-scale spatial overlap of cattle and wild boar was seasonally high in some habitats. In general, spatial interactions between the two species were highest in the marsh-shrub ecotone and at permanent water sources, whereas shrub-woodlands and seasonal grass-marshlands were areas with lower predicted relative interactions. Wild boar and cattle generally used different resources during winter and spring in DNP. Conversely, limited differences in resource selection during summer and autumn, when food and water availability were limiting, resulted in negligible spatial segregation and thus probably high encounter rates. The spatial gradient in potential overlap between the two species across DNP corresponded well with the spatial variation in the observed incidence of TB in cattle and prevalence of TB in wild boar. We suggest that the marsh-shrub ecotone and permanent water sources act as important points of TB transmission in our system, particularly during summer and autumn. Targeted management actions are suggested to reduce potential interactions between cattle and wild boar in order to prevent disease transmission and design effective control strategies.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13567-014-0122-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Effect of Dietary Protein Level on Apparent Heat Increment and Post-Prandial Nitrogen Excretion of Penaeus setiferus, P. schmitti, P. duorarum, and P. notialis Postlarvae

The calorigenic effect of feeding (apparent heat increment, AHI) and post-prandial nitrogen excretion (PPNE) were measured in postlarval (PL 25–30) Penaeus setiferus, P. schmitti, P. duorarum and P. notialis fed a fixed ration of 3 mg/animal using purified diets with 40, 50, 60, or 65% protein. Both AHI and PPNE increased with increasing dietary protein. The contribution of PPNE to AHI varied from 6.1 to 94%, with lesser values for P. setiferus and greater ones for P. duorarum . Also, the AHI coefficient (percentage of ingested energy) increased with increasing dietary protein. The AHI and PPNE coefficients for the four shrimp species ranged from 0.3 to 6.5% and 0.02 to 5.04% of ingested energy, respectively. These results suggest close relationships among protein requirements, the capacity to use dietary proteins as a source of energy, and adaptation by different species to different types of food. The amount of energy used for production of ammonia is proposed as an adequate measure of the part played by dietary proteins in food cost.     

Exploring the effect of changes in land use on soil quality on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote Volcano (Mexico)

Changes in land use on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote Volcano (Mexico) appear to have a negative effect on soil quality. In this study, we use a multivariate data set to research whether the change in land use has affected soil quality and to identify the indicators that best represent variability of the original data set. An elevation transect was identified as follows: upper segment (US), middle segment (MS) and lower segment (LS). The following nondisturbed areas and farm fields were sampled: US: pinus forest (PF), corn cropland (CP), and abandoned cropland (AC); MS: tropical cloud forest (TF), corn cropland (CC), and grassland (GL); LS: oak forest (OF) and sugarcane (SG). Sixteen soil chemical, physical, and biological attributes were measured on each site of interest. It was shown that the change in land use caused a reduction in organic material content, especially on MS and LS. The highest acidity was recorded in nondisturbed soils and abandoned cropland. Microbial biomass-C (C_m) and the microbial quotient (C_m/C) were altered the most on MS and LS. C_m and mineralized N (Nm) decreased from US to LS. Bulk density (BD) increased with the change in land use, especially on LS. Principal component analysis was used to analyze soil quality overall. The first principal component (PC1) explained 46% of the total variance of the data set, and seven soil attributes had significant loadings. C, N, and total porosity (TP) were negatively weighted and were contrasted with Mg, ECEC, BD, and C_m/C. The second principal component (PC2) explained 16% and had significant positive loadings on Ca, inorganic nitrogen (Ni), and C_m. LS soils had the highest PC1 scores and US soils the lowest. The positively high PC1 scores recorded for LS soils revealed a greater sensitivity to changes in land use. In US, there were no significant effects on PC1 caused by land use change, while in the MS, positively high PC1 scores obtained in the CC soil were related to greater microbial activity and a decrease in C and N. In LS, SG soil had significantly higher PC1 scores than OF soil, indicating an increase in microbial activity.     

Resistance screening essay of wine lactic acid bacteria on lysozyme: efficacy of lysozyme in unclarified grape musts

In wine making, the bacteriolytic activity of lysozyme has primarily been used to control the malolactic fermentation in wines. The use of lysozyme in musts before settling and the beginning of the alcoholic fermentation to inhibit the growth of lactic acid bacteria could be very beneficial. In a resistance test carried out in MT/b broth, lysozyme had greater antimicrobial activity toward Oenococcus oeni than Lactobacillus species. Several strains of wine bacteria belonging to Oenococcus proved sensitive to the bacteriolytic activity of lysozyme at low concentrations in both synthetic medium (MT/b) (50 mg/L), white must, or red must made with or without the skins (100 mg/L). Lactobacillus and Pediococcus strains survived at lysozyme concentrations of 200-500 and 500 mg/L, respectively, in MT/b and musts. Suspended solids in unclarified musts may strongly bind to lysozyme thereby causing its removal by filtration or centrifugation. One hour after lysozyme was added to musts, it was quantified by HPLC and found after centrifugation to be 40-50% and only 10% in musts made with or without the skins, respectively. Although appreciable amounts of lysozyme were bound to wine components, this did not appear to be a serious hindrance to lysozyme activity.     

Heterologous expression of type I antifreeze peptide GS-5 in baker's yeast increases freeze tolerance and provides enhanced gas production in frozen dough

The demand for frozen-dough products has increased notably in the baking industry. Nowadays, no appropriate industrial baker's yeast with optimal gassing capacity in frozen dough is, however, available, and it is unlikely that classical breeding programs could provide significant improvements of this trait. Antifreeze proteins, found in diverse organisms, display the ability to inhibit the growth of ice, allowing them to survive at temperatures below 0 degrees C. In this study a recombinant antifreeze peptide GS-5 was expressed from the polar fish grubby sculpin (Myoxocephalus aenaeus) in laboratory and industrial baker's yeast strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Production of the recombinant protein increased freezing tolerance in both strains tested. Furthermore, expression of the GS-5 encoding gene enhanced notably the gassing rate and total gas production in frozen and frozen sweet doughs. These effects are unlikely to be due to reduced osmotic damage during freezing/thawing, because recombinant cells showed growth behavior similar to that of the parent under hypermosmotic stress conditions.     

Emission of nitrous oxide from hydrocarbon contaminated soil amended with waste water sludge and earthworms

Soils in Mexico are often contaminated with hydrocarbons and addition of waste water sludge and earthworms accelerates their removal. However, little is known how contamination and subsequent bioremediation affects emissions of N₂O and CO₂. A laboratory study was done to investigate the effect of waste water sludge and the earthworm Eisenia fetida on emission of N₂O and CO₂ in a sandy loam soil contaminated with the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): phenanthrene, anthracene and benzo(a)pyrene. Emissions of N₂O and CO₂, and concentrations of inorganic N (ammonium (NH₄⁺), nitrite (NO₂^?) nitrate (NO₃^?)) were monitored after 0, 5, 24, 72 and 168 h. Adding E. fetida to the PAHs contaminated soil increased CO₂ production rate significantly 2.0 times independent of the addition of sludge. The N₂O emission rate from unamended soil expressed on a daily base was 5 μg N kg^?1 d^?1 for the first 2 h and increased to a maximum of 325 μg N kg^?1 d^?1 after 48 h and then decreased to 10 μg N kg^?1 d^?1 after 168 h. Addition of PAHs, E. fetida or PAHs + E. fetida had no significant effect on the N₂O emission rate. Adding sludge to the soil sharply increased the N₂O emission rate to >400 μg N kg^?1 d^?1 for the entire incubation with a maximum of 1134 μg N kg^?1 d^?1 after 48 h. Addition of E. fetida, PAHs or PAHs + E. fetida to the sludge-amended soil reduced the N₂O emission rate significantly compared to soil amended with sludge after 24 h. It was found that contaminating soil with PAHs and adding earthworms had no effect on emissions of N₂O. Emission of N₂O, however, increased in sludge-amended soil, but addition of earthworms to this soil and contamination reduced it.