Health of cows,calves and young stock on 26 organic dairy herds in Sweden

The health and housing of the stock on 26 organic dairy herds in four counties in eastern Sweden were studied for one year. The herds ranged in size from 12 to 64 cows, and their milk production from 3772 to 10,334 kg per cow per year. A large-animal practitioner visited the farms three times during the year, and a random sample of a third of the cows in each herd were examined. The calves and young stock and their housing were also studied. The calves were in good condition in all but four herds; their serum immunoglobulins varied from almost none to high levels. The young stock were in good condition and in good housing in 20 herds. No cows with clinical signs of metabolic disorders were found. Body condition scores were adequate or good except in two herds. Acetone was analysed in milk samples from individual cows three to six weeks postpartum, and only sporadic cases with high levels were found. The incidence of diseases treated by a veterinarian was lower in the organic herds than the average for the conventional herds in the local dairy association. The findings at the farm visits supported these data, and it is evident that a good standard of health and welfare can be achieved in organic dairy herds.     

Identification of bluetongue virus serotype 2 (Corsican strain) by reverse-transcriptase PCR reaction analysis of segment 2 of the genome

In October 2000, bluetongue virus was detected on the French island of Corsica. The disease was also reported in Sardinia, Calabria, Sicily and on the Spanish islands of Majorca and Minorca. This paper describes the use of molecular techniques for a rapid identification and serotype determination of serotype 2 of the virus. The nucleotide sequences of segments 2 and 7 of the genome of the Corsican strain were determined and its phylogenetic relationships are described.     

Portal hypertension in a dog due to circumscribed fibrosis of the wall of the extrahepatic portal vein

A two-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd dog with ascites and a high concentration of blood ammonia was investigated. Sonographically, its liver was normal but the portal vein was dilated and the flow of blood within it was slow. A liver biopsy showed that the liver was normal, and did not reveal any possible cause of portal hypertension or ascites. Postmortem, the cranial part of the portal vein was dilated with a cross-striped internal surface, but the caudal part looked normal; there was a stenotic ring between the normal and dilated parts. Histology of the dilated segment revealed marked hypertrophy of both the internal circular and the external longitudinal smooth muscle layers. At the site of the stenosis, the longitudinal muscular layer was replaced by connective tissue. Circumscribed fibrosis in the wall of the portal vein was responsible for the stenosis and the subsequent prehepatic portal hypertension. The cross-striped pattern in the dilated part of the vein was the result of hypertrophy of the inner circular smooth muscle layer.     

Pyogranulomatous myocarditis due to Staphylococcus aureus septicaemia in two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)

Staphylococcus aureus septicaemia was diagnosed in a dead, stranded harbour porpoise from the German Baltic Sea and in a live harbour porpoise by-caught in inner Danish waters and taken into captivity. Lesions included pyogranulomatous myocarditis, necrotising suppurative bronchopneumonia, pyelonephritis, osteomyelitis and leptomeningitis, and abscesses in lymph nodes and skeletal muscles. The captive animal had fibrinous suppurative epicarditis and pyogranulomatous myocarditis with abscesses. In both animals the organism was suspected to have entered through skin lesions or via the respiratory tract.     

Trilostane treatment of 78 dogs with pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism

The efficacy of trilostane in the treatment of canine pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism (PDH) was evaluated in 78 dogs with the condition which were treated for up to three years. The drug appeared to be well tolerated by almost all the dogs, and only two developed clinical signs and biochemical evidence of hypoadrenocorticism. Polyuria and polydipsia completely resolved in 70 per cent of the dogs that had these problems, and skin changes resolved in 62 per cent of the dogs that had skin abnormalities. There was a significant reduction (P<0.001 in each case) in both the mean basal and post-adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) cortisol concentrations after a mean of 12.3 days of treatment. The post-ACTH cortisol concentration decreased to less than 250 nmol/litre in 81 per cent of the dogs within one month of the start of treatment and in another 15 per cent at some later time. The median survival time of the 26 dogs which died was 549 days, and 51 of the dogs were alive at the completion of the study. One was lost to follow up after 241 days treatment.     

Position of the abomasum in dairy cows during the first six weeks after calving

The position of the abomasum in six cows was examined by ultrasonography at regular intervals for six weeks after they had calved. Its position was established by determining the distance between the margin of the left side of the abomasum and the ventral midline at two sites. During the last weeks of pregnancy, the abomasum was positioned in a small region of the left ventral side of the abdominal cavity. At parturition it was positioned high on the left side and then descended. The abomasum was furthest from the midline immediately after parturition. Its position was related to the interval after calving, the cow's feed intake, and the pH and osmotic pressure of the rumen fluid. There was considerable variation between the cows in the position of the abomasum, which was in part due to analytical variation, and in individual cows it had a circadian rhythm.     

Geographical clustering of cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) born in Switzerland after the feed ban

Over one-third of the cases of BSE in Switzerland have been born after the feed ban of December 1, 1990. Evidence for the geographical clustering of these cases emerged in two distinct regions. All the 354 BSE cases recorded until June 30, 2000 (set A), and the 376 cases recorded up to May 14, 2001 (set B), were georeferenced to the centres of the communities in which the herds of origin were located, and control populations were georeferenced to the centres of the communities in which these herds were located at the time of the census. The latitudes and longitudes of these centres were used in the statistical analysis of the spatial clustering. The Cuzick-Edwards test and the spatial scan statistics were applied to assess the significance of the clusters, while controlling for the spatial distribution of the underlying cattle population. There was global clustering of the cases born after the ban, and distinct and significant (P<0.05) spatial clusters were repeatedly identified in the two case datasets, and in several control populations (all cases born before the feed ban on a random sample of control farms) in terms of cattle density by region or cow density by region. Differential reporting was excluded as the underlying reason for the observed clusters.     

Toxin types of Clostridium perfringens isolated from free-ranging,semi-domesticated reindeer in Norway

Samples of faeces were taken from 166 healthy domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) from three flocks in different reindeer husbandry districts in northern Norway and examined bacteriologically for the presence of Clostridium perfringens. The organism was isolated from 98 (59 per cent) of the reindeer. The isolates were classified into C perfringens toxin types by PCR analysis specific for the genes encoding the four major toxins (alpha, beta, epsilon and tau) and were subclassified by the detection of the genes encoding C perfringens beta2-toxin and enterotoxin. All the isolates belonged to C perfringens toxin type A. In addition, 15 of the 98 isolates were PCR-positive for the beta2-toxin gene, and two of the isolates had the the gene encoding for enterotoxin.