Water Quantity and Water Quality Issues: Who Has the Right to Use Water?

All of the indicators are in place for water quantity to become a major issue in the coming years. Just as water quality has surfaced on many agendas, water quantity could possibly be a larger subject. Water quantity and water quality will become almost synonymous in concern and attention in most parts of the United States and the world. As water quantity issues surface, the dreaded question, "Who owns the water rights?” will have to be answered.     

Preoperative and Postoperative L‐Lactatemia Assessment for the Prognosis of Right Abomasal Disorders in Dairy Cattle

Background

Preoperative L‐lactatemia and heart rate have been suggested as prognostic indicators of outcome for cows with right dilatation of the abomasum or volvulus (RDA/AV). However, postoperative L‐lactatemia has not been assessed as a potential prognostic tool.

Objectives

To determine the prognostic value of postoperative L‐lactatemia (LAC ₂), duration of treatment (Dt), relative L‐lactatemia difference (compared with preoperative L‐lactatemia [LAC₁]) ([LAC₂ − LAC₁]/LAC₂) and change in L‐lactate over time ([LAC₂ − LAC₁]/Dt) as compared to preoperative findings (LAC ₁ and heart rate [HR]) as prognostic factors in dairy cows with RDA/AV.

Animals

A total of 41 dairy cows were included: 19 with AV and 22 with RDA; 11 cows had a negative outcome (NO) and 30 cows had a positive outcome (PO) based on telephone follow‐up with owners 30 days after surgery.

Methods

Prospective cohort study. Analysis was performed using logistic regression and comparison of area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) using nonparametric tests.

Results

LAC₁ > 1.4 mmol/L or LAC₂ > 2.2 mmol/L had the same accuracy with sensitivity of 100% (95% CI, 75.1–100%) and specificity of 80% (95% CI, 61.4–92.3%) for predicting NO. The relative L‐lactatemia difference ([LAC₂ − LAC₁]/LAC₁) or lactate kinetics ([LAC₂ − LAC₁]/Dt) were not associated with prognosis. The AUC of the preoperative model (which included HR and lnLAC₁) was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.83–1.0) and that of the postoperative model (including only lnLAC₂) was 0.95 (95% CI, 0.88–1.0); these were not significantly different.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Postoperative L‐lactatemia is helpful to predict outcome in cows with RDA/AV. The short‐term change in blood L‐lactate is not a useful prognostic indicator, at least during the period of time spent on the farm for surgery and treatment.     

Change in β‐Catenin Localization Suggests Involvement of the Canonical Wnt Pathway in Boxer Dogs with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inherited myocardial disease with high prevalence in the Boxer dog population. It is characterized by replacement of the myocardium with fatty or fibro‐fatty tissue. Several mechanisms for the development of ARVC have been suggested, including dysfunction of the canonical Wnt pathway, which is linked to many cellular functions, including growth and differentiation of adipocytes.

Hypothesis

Wnt pathway dysfunction is involved in the development of ARVC in the Boxer as evidenced by mislocalization of β‐catenin, an integral Wnt pathway modulator, and striatin, a known Wnt pathway component.

Animals

Five dogs without ARVC and 15 Boxers with ARVC were identified by 24‐hour Holter monitoring and histopathologic examination of the heart.

Methods

Right ventricular samples were collected and examined using confocal microscopy, Western blots, and quantitative (q) PCR.

Results

Confocal microscopy indicated that β‐catenin localized at sites of cell‐to‐cell apposition, and striatin localized in a diffuse intracellular pattern in hearts without ARVC. In hearts affected with ARVC, both β‐catenin and striatin were colocalized with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) marker calreticulin. Western blots indentified a 50% increase in the amount of β‐catenin in ARVC samples. No change in β catenin mRNA was detected using qPCR.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that trafficking of Wnt pathway proteins from the ER to their proper location within the cell is inhibited in Boxers with ARVC. These results suggest that disturbances in the Wnt pathway may play a role in the development of ARVC in the Boxer.     

Can testicular artery Doppler velocimetry values change according to the measured region in dogs?

Testicular tissue maintenance is performed by the testicular artery, and the hemodynamics of this artery can be evaluated using Doppler ultrasonography. The aim of this study was to characterize the peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), pulsatility index (PI) and resistivity index (RI) of five regions of the testicular artery in dogs, including two proposed regions and three that have been previously described. Twenty‐two dogs were used, and the PSV, EDV, PI and RI of the testicular artery were measured in five regions: proximal, medial and distal supratesticular; marginal; and intratesticular. The median values for PSV (cm/s), EDV (cm/s), PI and RI in the five regions were as follows: proximal supratesticular (23.1, 3.7, 2.1 and 0.8); medial supratesticular (17.2, 4.5, 1.5, and 0.7); distal supratesticular (12.2, 5.7, 0.8, and 0.5); marginal (11.3, 6.5, 0.5, and 0.4); and intratesticular (5.7, 3.5, 0.5, and 0.4). There was a difference between the PSV of the medial and distal supratesticular regions. There were differences in the PSV, EDV, PI and RI among the distal supratesticular, marginal and intratesticular regions. Measurements of PSV, EDV, PI and RI of the testicular artery in dogs at the proposed regions showed different results due to the hemodynamic and morphological differences of the artery during its course in the spermatic cord and to the testicles. It is necessary to identify the region in testicular artery Doppler velocimetric evaluations of dogs, given that there is a difference according to the region measured.     

Rotavirus gastroenteritis: why to back up the development of new vaccines?

Rotaviruses (RVs) are the main aetiologic agent of severe acute diarrhoea in children under the age of 5, worldwide. Given that the currently available preventive measures to fight against the transmission of RV disease are not sufficiently effective, vaccination likely represents the only efficacious adapted response to the massive impact of this infection. Although the two current RV vaccines have shown good tolerance and significant efficacy to protect infant against severe RV disease, their development have raised key questions that are still unanswered regarding their cost, efficacy and safety. These two vaccines have in common the disadvantages related to the use of oral attenuated live viruses which limit their implementation in both developed and developing countries. In order to overcome these hurdles, it is important to support the development of new, non-replicating vaccines which will not suffer the potential disadvantages of the present vaccines. New approaches and other routes of administration are being tested in animal models and soon will be evaluated in humans. Among those are viral-like particle-based vaccines which have provided the most promising results. Finally, the epidemiology of the disease which differs in developed and developing countries can affect decisions about vaccine composition and delivery. The answer brought by the development of new RV vaccines could reside in developing several types of RV vaccines specifically designed to be used in different settings.     

Roots of the taxonomic impediment: Is the “integrativeness” a remedy?

The use of the “integrative approach” for classification of organisms since its formal establishment in 2005 has become a recurrent theme of zoosystematics. A bibliometric survey of the publications on integrative taxonomy of animals, which is aimed at exploring the most popular areas of research and characterizing the practical systematists’ attitudes to this new approach, is presented. An analysis of 582 papers, which appeared between 2005 and 2017 in journals indexed by Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection, has illustrated the gradual growth of the popularity of integrative taxonomy as well as some biases in the representation of higher taxa in “integrated” studies. It has been shown that the “integrative” papers have more chance of appearing in a top‐ranking journal and gain relatively more citations as compared with non‐integrative papers. The obtained results are discussed in the context of the “taxonomic impediment” problem thought to be a consequence of the institutional crisis of traditional taxonomy, which has been vividly debated over the past decades.     

Nutritional Programming of Intrauterine Development: A Concept Applicable to the Horse?

Human epidemiological observations and studies of experimental animals have shown that low birth weight is associated with adult phenotypes characterized by abnormalities in cardiovascular, metabolic, and endocrine function. In human populations, these changes can lead to overt degenerative diseases such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Because fetal growth depends primarily on the nutrient supply, the associations between birth weight and adult phenotype have been linked to poor nutrition in utero. The fetal supply of nutrients and oxygen depends on both the availability of these substances in the mother and the functional capacity of the placenta to supply them to the fetus. This review takes a comparative approach to examining the nutritional programming of adult physiological phenotype in mammals with emphasis on the horse where possible. It considers the role of maternal nutritional state and placental function in these processes and discusses the cellular and molecular mechanisms operating in utero that are responsible for the epigenetic regulation of phenotypical diversity.