Effect of cultivated copepods (Acartia tonsa) in first‐feeding of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) larvae

The aim of this study was to compare the nutritional composition and effects of short periods with cultivated copepod nauplii versus rotifers in first‐feeding. Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) larvae were given four different dietary regimes in the earliest start‐feeding period. One group was fed the copepod Acartia tonsa nauplii (Cop), a second fed enriched rotifers (RotMG), a third fed unenriched rotifers (RotChl) and a fourth copepods for the seven first days of feeding and enriched rotifers the rest of the period (Cop7). Cod larvae were fed Artemia sp. between 20 and 40 dph (days posthatching), and ballan wrasse between 36 and 40 dph, with weaning to a formulated diet thereafter. In addition to assessing growth and survival, response to handling stress was measured. This study showed that even short periods of feeding with cultivated copepod nauplii (7 days) had positive long‐term effects on the growth and viability of the fish larvae. At the end of both studies (60 days posthatching), fish larvae fed copepods showed higher survival, better growth and viability than larvae fed rotifers. This underlines the importance of early larval nutrition.     

Genetic variation in dieback resistance in Fraxinus excelsior confirmed by progeny inoculation assay

Ash dieback caused by the pathogenic fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus [previously known as H. pseudoalbidus (sexual stage) and Chalara fraxinea (asexual stage)] is a widespread problem in Europe. Here, we assess crown damage from natural infection and necrosis development following artificial controlled inoculations on full‐sib and half‐sib progeny from Danish Fraxinus excelsior clones with contrasting and well‐characterized levels of susceptibility to the disease. The inoculation assay was performed on a total of 123 offspring, and necrosis development monitored over two years. The offspring from low susceptible mother clones developed smaller necroses when compared to offspring from susceptible clones. Their crown damage due to natural infections was also significantly less. The correlation coefficient between average crown damages of mother clones and the average of their progeny was 0.85 (natural infections), while the correlation between crown damage of mother clones and the average necrosis development in their progeny after controlled inoculation was 0.73. The correlation between resistance of parent trees and crown damage/necrosis development on their offspring confirms the presence of heritable resistance and indicates that a bioassay based on controlled inoculations has the potential of becoming a fast and cost‐effective tool for estimation of dieback susceptibility in breeding programmes for resistance in ash trees.     

Recovering decomposing plant residues from the particulate soil organic matter fraction: size versus density separation

 A detailed size separation of particulate organic matter (POM) from soils amended with straw from Hordeum vulgare or Vicia sativa revealed that the loss of C during the first 56 days of incubation mainly occurred from particles >2,000 μm, without a concomitant reduction in the size of these large particles. Preliminary studies of POM from non-amended soil had shown that the stable heavy (>1.4 g cm^–3) POM fraction was mainly (>80%) composed of particles <400 μm, whereas the light fraction was dominated by larger particles (>80%). Therefore we decided to compare the POM <1.4 g cm³ with POM >400 μm. There was a very close relationship between POM>400 μm and POM <1.4 g cm^–3 with regard to amounts of C and N, as well as the appearance of these fractions under the microscope. Similarly there was a close relationship between changes in the C content of the POM fractions and the CO₂ respired, and this was also the case when comparing changes in POM-N with net N mineralization. This indicated that the biological activity during decomposition was actually localized in the POM. Due to the lighter workload and lower expenditure for reagents in connection with size separation of POM, we recommend the size separation procedure in connection with studies of residue decomposition in arable systems. Received: 23 May 2000     

Effects of forest residue harvesting on short-term changes in soil solution chemistry

Short-term (three to four years) effects of forest harvesting on soil solution chemistry were investigated at two Norway spruce sites in southern Norway, differing in precipitation amount and topography. Experimental plots were either harvested conventionally (stem-only harvesting, SOH) or whole trees, including crowns, twigs and branches were removed (whole-tree harvesting, WTH), leaving residue piles on the ground for some months before removal. The WTH treatment had two sub-treatments: WTH-pile where there had been piles and WTH-removal, from where residues had been removed to make piles. Increased soil solution concentrations of NO₃–N, total N, Ca, Mg and K at 30?cm depth, shown by peaks in concentrations in the years after harvesting, were found at the drier, less steep site in eastern Norway after SOH and WTH-pile, but less so after WTH-removal. At the wetter, steeper site in western Norway, peaks were often observed also at WTH-removal plots, which might reflect within-site differences in water pathways due largely to site topography.     

Prediction of Starch,Soluble Sugars and Amino Acids in Potatoes (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanum tuberosum</Emphasis> L.) Using Hyperspectral Imaging,Dielectric and LF-NMR Methodologies

Handling and processing of potatoes is performed in increasingly large and more automated facilities, and the industry calls for more automated machinery for quality assessment and sorting by concentration of starch, soluble sugars, protein, amino acids etc. of the potato tubers. The present study was designed to evaluate five different scanning methods for their potential use in potato assessment and sorting. Two methods were based on hyperspectral imaging, two were based on dielectric/bio-impedance and one was based on low-field nuclear magnetic resonance. A set of 60 potatoes of 10 different cultivars were simultaneously sampled for analyses of content and scanned by the five different scanning methods. The resulting multivariate dataset was used to estimate the prediction ability of the individual scanning methods on starch-related parameters, selected simple sugars, selected amino acids, conductivity of pressed cell sap and cell sizes. Results showed that most types of spectral analyses had relatively high potential for predicting the starch-related parameters and medium potential for predicting the concentration of the reducing sugars fructose and glucose. Most methods showed medium potential for prediction of several amino acids, including asparagine, which showed particularly promising predictions in the hyperspectral analyses of intact potatoes. The presented screening study enabled us to perform robust choices for the further development and optimization of the methods and instruments for industrial implementation.     

Associations between three ml-o powdery mildew resistance genes and agronomic traits in barley

Summary A population of 198 chromosome-doubled haploid lines of spring barley was scored for segregation in locus ml-o (powdery mildew reaction) on chromosome 4 and in the linked loci s (rachilla hair length) and ddt (reaction to the insecticide DDT) on chromosome 7. They were also tested in a disease-free field trial for the agronomic traits: grain yield, thousand grain weight, lodging, and necrotic leaf spotting. The three mutagen-induced resistance genes ml-o5, ml-o6 (from Carlsberg II) and ml-10 (from Foma) showed no detectable differences with respect to effects on agronomic traits. They all conferred a four per cent reduction in grain yield caused mainly by lower thousand grain weight, and an increase in necrotic leaf spotting. The two original mutants of Carlsberg II had additional mutant genes affecting agronomic traits. Lines with gene S (long hair) had on average a three per cent higher thousand grain weight than those with s. The alleles in locus ddt showed no association with the agronomic traits. It is concluded i) that the associations between the three ml-o alleles and agronomic traits are caused by pleiotropy, ii) that ml-o resistant, high-yielding lines may be selected, and iii) that the association between gene s and thousand grain weight may be due to genetic linkage.Abbreviations DH-lines chromosome-doubled haploid lines     

Caudal epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine in horses: An evaluation of analgesic properties and effects on locomotor function,mentation and physical examination parameters

Caudal epidural analgesia is a well-established therapeutic modality for pain alleviation in horses. Additionally, epidural analgesia could potentially be a complementary diagnostic tool for confirmation of pain-related conditions in horses presenting with nonspecific signs of poor performance or rideability issues. To use the epidural as a diagnostic tool, the administered medications should provide efficient analgesia without accompanying adverse effects. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to evaluate the analgesic properties and effects on locomotor function, mentation and physical examination parameters of caudal epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine in horses. Five mares received a caudal epidural injection of 0.1 mg/kg bwt methadone and 0.1 mg/kg bwt morphine diluted to a total volume of 4.4 mL/100 kg. Before and several times thereafter, horses were subjected to mechanical nociceptive threshold evaluation, physical examination, assessment of mentation and locomotor function examination. Horses were assigned ataxia scores (0–4) by a group of inexperienced raters (three senior-year veterinary students) and a group of experienced raters (two board-certified internal medicine specialists) that assessed the locomotor examinations either live or video-based. The epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine resulted in clinically relevant and statistically significant increases of horses’ tolerance to mechanical noxious stimuli at the coccygeal, perineal, sacral, lumbar and thoracic regions. Analgesia was evident after 4.4 h and lasted at least 5 h. Regional differences in the onset of analgesia reflected a cranial spread of the analgesic solution. No horses showed signs of gait disturbances; the overall median ataxia score was 0 at all times; and the average difference in scores between two randomly selected raters for a random horse at a random time point was 0.377 indicating high inter-rater agreement. There were no adverse changes of mentation and physical examination parameters. Observed side effects included signs of decreased frequency of defaecation, generalised sweating, and pruritus.     

Persistent spatial clusters of plasmacytosis among Danish mink farms

Aleutian disease (Plasmacytosis) is caused by the Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV), an autonomous parvovirus and affects many mustelid species, including the American mink (Neovisonvison). In Denmark, an eradication program reduced the prevalence of test-positive farms from 100% in 1976 to 15% in 1996. Nevertheless, the disease persists in the Vendsyssel district of Northern Jutland, despite the eradication efforts. In this study, we used spatial epidemiological analysis to test for spatial autocorrelation of the distribution of farms positive for the disease. We investigated 2375 farms in Denmark (342 of which were located in the Vendsyssel district), during the period 2000-2008. For the purpose of our study, a farm was considered positive when, on any test conducted in a year, at least three animals were tested positive. To detect spatial clusters, we performed a retrospective analysis with spatial scan statistics. We performed one analysis for each of the nine years (2000-2008). A separate analysis was conducted with only the farms in Vendsyssel included. The spatial cluster analysis revealed a significant cluster throughout the time period studied in Northern Jutland. The only exception was 2002 when an outbreak was detected in the southern part of Jutland, and not in the north. The farm-level prevalence of the disease in Denmark was highest in this year, suggesting that the outbreak in the south could have masked the persistent signal from the north; the northern cluster was still significant when analysing only the Vendsyssel populations. These results confirm that Northern Jutland continues to have a significantly higher number of cases than expected if the disease was randomly distributed.     

Herd and sow-related risk factors for mortality in sows in group-housed systems

Mortality of sows is a major problem for pig production worldwide. In this study, we used hierarchical multivariable logistic analyses to investigate different risk factors for mortality at the sow and herd level in herds with group-housed pregnant sows. Data included 3652 pregnant and 1266 lactating sows from 34 sow herds. A clinical examination for 16 clinical signs was carried out for each sow, and information about 16 herd related factors was obtained by interviews. Farm records were used to obtain information about whether or not sows died suddenly or were euthanized within 3 months after the clinical examination. Factors increasing the risk of sow mortality in the gestation unit were solid pen floors (OR = 1.87), presence of vulva bites (OR = 1.73) and unwillingness to stand when approached (OR = 1.62). Factors increasing the risk of sow mortality in the lactation unit were pale vulva color (OR = 12.69), body leanness (OR = 4.11), and presence of shoulder ulcers (OR = 2.89). The estimated between herd variation was small. Thus, the findings for the sow level variables may be generally applicable for sows in herds with group housed systems.