The potential exceptional role of a small Baltic boulder reef as a solitary habitat in a sea of mud

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You are what you eat? Differences in lipid composition of cod larvae reared on natural zooplankton and enriched rotifers

A laboratory experiment with larval cod fed natural zooplankton and enriched rotifers was carried out to investigate the effects of feed type on fatty acid (FA) and lipid composition. A divergence in FA composition was observed within a week of feeding on respective diets, and subsequent transfers of larvae from one feeding regime to the other also confirmed a rapid change in FA composition towards that of the newly provided feed source. The rapid change in FA composition after switching diet is in part expected to be due to the high growth and tissue turnover of cod larvae during the early life stages and provides an opportunity to assess recent feeding history by means of FA analysis. The FA contents also varied between the main analysed lipid classes, with relatively higher eicosapentaenoic acid levels in neutral lipids than in polar lipid classes. Although zooplankton contained notably more polar lipids and less neutral lipids than enriched rotifers, the relative amounts of polar and neutral lipids in larvae from respective prey groups were similar, signifying that the larval composition only partly reflects what they have been eating. Still, the FA composition of the previous diet was still discernible in larvae after 1–2 weeks of transfer to a new diet or after weaning to a formulated feed. The potential long‐term effects of these nutritional differences are discussed.     

Phytomedicine in dogs and cats: web-based survey among veterinarians in Austria, Germany and Switzerland

In the last decades phytopharmaceuticals have stabilized their significance in human medicine. The aim of this study was to obtain information about the present situation of phytomedicine in three German-speaking countries. For that purpose questionnaires were sent via internet to 2675 veterinarians in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and the collected 189 answers were statistically evaluated. As shown in this paper, there is an increasing interest in veterinary phytotherapy. Presently three-quarters of the veterinarians are using phytoproducts in clinical practice. Herbal medicinal products are only seldom used in eye and ear infections as well as in endo- and ectoparasitoses but more often in diseases of the liver, joints, kidneys, heart and skin. Generally, phytodrugs are more frequently applied in chronic diseases as well as secondary medication, whereas the time of treatment usually exceeds one month. Basic advantages of medicinal phytoproducts have been shown to be the low side effects and the acceptance of the pet-owners and the only disadventage has been reported to be the lack of information. This study clearly shows the upward trend in using herbal drugs by veterinarians but the results also point to the lack of scientific knowledge about phytotherapeuticals in animal health.     

Chicken anemia virus in broilers: dynamics of the infection in two commercial broiler flocks

Chicken anemia virus (CAV) can cause a disease syndrome characterized by severe anemia, bone marrow atrophy, and severe immunosuppression in young chicks. Maternal antibodies prevent these clinical signs but do not prevent infection, transmission of the virus, or immunosuppression. The clinical disease is rare today because of the widespread practice of vaccinating breeders, but the subclinical form of the disease is ubiquitous. The dynamics of CAV infection, CAV antibody responses, relative lymphoid organ weights, and associated lesions were studied in two broiler flocks from a commercial producer. Both groups had detectable CAV antibodies at hatch, which waned over the first 3 wk of life. Both groups had detectable CAV DNA in both thymi and bursae over the same period. At 35 days of age, virus was detectable by polymerase chain reaction in 16 of 20 chickens, and 7 of 20 had detectable antibodies. By 42 days of age, virus was detectable in 18 of 20 chickens, and 18 of 20 had antibodies to CAV. We observed a decrease in relative thymic weights beginning at 35 days of age, coincidental withthe detection of CAV in the thymus. Bursal sizes began to decrease at 28 days of age, coincidental with a rise in antibody titers to infectious bursal disease virus. In this study, we demonstrated that under typical field conditions CAV infections in broilers have unique dynamics unlike those reported in egg laying strains of chickens managed under specific-pathogen-free conditions.