Back muscle necrosis of pigs.

The clinical signs and pathological features of back muscle necrosis (BMN) in four pigs from three English pig herds were similar to those recorded in pigs from mainland Europe. The observations made support the view that BMN is a special manifestation of the porcine stress syndrome. Diagnosis of acute BMN can be made clinically supported by the analysis of plasma creatine phosphokinase activity and can be confirmed post mortem by macroscopic and microscopic observation on the back muscles.     

Normal behavior and the clinical implications of abnormal behavior in guinea pigs.

Cavies are becoming more popular as pets because they are relatively easy to care for and provide never-ending love and entertainment with their curious but gentle nature. As with other species, the best way to learn about guinea pig behavior is to own guinea pigs. Understanding normal behavior provides the practitioner with the ability to more easily recognize pathology and abnormal behavior. This allows the veterinarian to provide necessary supportive care and pain management more quickly while performing diagnostics and determining the need for therapeutics. Understanding the behavior of cavies allows the clinician to better educate guinea pig-owning clients and to better and more quickly serve the needs of their guinea pig patients.     

Protection of cattle against heartwater in Botswana: comparative efficacy of different methods against natural and blood-derived challenges

Five groups of Tswana-cross castrated male cattle between 20 and 30 months of age (a total of 158 animals) were transported from a ranch in a heartwater-free area of south Botswana to a feedlot near Gaborone in the east of Botswana where heartwater is endemic. On arrival, one group was vaccinated intravenously with the Onderstepoort sheep blood heartwater vaccine, one group was vaccinated intravenously with the new Onderstepoort tick-derived heartwater vaccine and a third group was vaccinated subcutaneously with this tick-derived vaccine. Vaccine reactions were blocked with long acting oxytetracycline on the first day of fever. A fourth group had a series of injections of long acting oxytetracycline on days 0, 7, 14 and 21 after arrival, and a fifth served as untreated controls. The animals remained at the feedlot for 65 days during which time they faced a low level of challenge by Amblyomma hebraeum ticks. None contracted heartwater and so they were then challenged, together with a further group of control cattle, with a dose of the sheep blood vaccine. Some animals in all groups had severe heartwater reactions and died despite therapy, but 76.7 per cent, 64.5 per cent and 74.3 per cent of the cattle in the blood vaccine, intravenous tick vaccine and long acting oxytetracycline groups respectively were resistant to challenge, compared with 48.3 per cent of the subcutaneous tick vaccine group and 36.4 per cent of the controls. It was concluded that intravenous vaccination of susceptible adult cattle with either the blood or the tick-derived vaccine needs careful monitoring in the month after vaccination and does not necessarily result in immune animals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Critical test evaluation of butamisole against gastrointestinal parasites of horses and ponies.

A critical test was performed to evaluate the anthelmintic properties of an injectable butamisole formulation and to compare the efficiency with that of a commercially available piperazine-thiabendazole anthelmintic. The test was done in 10 horses and 15 ponies with naturally acquired parasitic infections. Butamisole was administered at the dose level of 2.5 or 3.75 mg/kg of body weight by either subcutaneous or deep intramuscular injection. Given at the dose level of 2.5 mg/kg, butamisole was highly effective (99%) against Strongylus vulgaris and moderately effective (49%) against Parascaris equorum. At the 3.75 mg/kg dose rate, butamisole was highly effective against both S vulgaris (97%) and P equorum (94%). Butamisole had limited efficacy against other parasite species. Signs of toxicosis, long-term swelling of the injection sites, or tissue damage were not seen after injection.