Characteristics of landfill leachates and alternatives for their treatment: A review

Sanitary landfilling is the most common way to eliminate solid urban wastes. An important problem associated to landfills is the production of leachates. The factors determining the characteristics of leachates from solid urban waste landfills are reviewed together with the reported compositions of leachates from various countries and origins. New data obtained from two landfills of different age in the same area are reported. The advantages and disadvantages of the various existing alternatives for solving the leachates problem are discussed under the items: (1) Leachate Channeling (Combined Treatment with domestic sewage, Recycling and Lagooning with recycling). (2) Biological Processing (Aerobic and Anaerobic). (3) Chemical/Physical Treatment (Chemical Precipitation, Chemical Oxidation, Adsorption onto activated carbon, Reverse osmosis, and Stripping of NH₃). The performance at several operational conditions of the most important methods is reviewed and summarized in several tables. From all this information a table designed to aid the choice of solutions for each particular case is presented.     

Contact action of diethylstilbestrol (DES)-impregnated paper strips on pregnant Levant voles: Effect of alteration of DES concentration and of total strip area

Placement of paper strips impregnated with a suspension of diethylstilbestrol (DES) in soybean oil into the cage of a pregnant Levant vole (Microtus guentheri [D. & A.]) causes disruption of pregnancy in almost all cases, provided the DES concentration is at least 0.062 mg/cm² and the total area of the strips is at least 100 cm². When the total strip area is 50 cm² or the DES concentration is 0.031 mg/cm², the activity of the strips is markedly reduced.     

Oesophageal strictures in cats associated with doxycycline therapy

Four cases of oesophageal stricture subsequent to doxycycline administration are reported. All cases were young to middle age (median age 3 years; range 1-7 years), and either domestic shorthair or domestic longhair breed. In all cases the predominant clinical sign was regurgitation, which developed at variable times after doxycycline administration. In all cases the reason for doxycycline use was treatment or prophylaxis of suspected infections (Mycoplasma haemofelis, Chlamydophila felis or Bordetella bronchiseptica), and the duration of therapy was variable. In one case the stricture was definitively diagnosed at post mortem examination, in the three other cases, definitive diagnosis was by endoscopy. Balloon dilation was successful in the three cases that were treated. This is the largest case series, to date, of oesophageal disease in cats associated with doxycycline administration. Caution should be exercised when administering oral medication to cats, especially doxycycline, and should be accompanied either by a water or food swallow.     

Effect of diethylstilbestrol treatment of the Levant vole female during lactation,on the reproduction of her female offspring

Reproduction of 105 females of Levant vole (Microtus guentheri), which ingested diethylstilbestrol (DES) with their mothers’ milk at the age of 0–12 days, and of 62 control females, was studied. In most cases ingestion of DES did not cause sterility, but delayed sexual maturity by 1.5–2 months. This delay was observed in all of the females which ingested DES when they were newborn and 1 day old, in 50% of those that received it at the age of 2 days, and in only 30–40% of those that received it at an older age. Ingestion of DES had no effect on litter size or sex ratio. The total pup production of females which were given DES through their mothers’ milk was about half that of control females.     

FIP: a novel approach to vaccination. Proceedings from the 2nd International FCoV/FIP Symposium, Glasgow, 4-7 August 2002

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a fatal disease of cats. Early attempts at vaccination have been unsuccessful, some even serving to exacerbate the disease through antibody-dependent enhancement. Replication-incompetent feline foamy virus (FFV) transducing vectors are being developed as potential vaccine agents, into which immunogenic fragments of feline coronavirus (FCoV) proteins will be inserted. To use a recombinant viral vector to express FCoV proteins, the agent chosen should be apathogenic and replication incompetent within the host following gene delivery. Spumaviruses confer several advantages over the more traditionally explored retroviral vectors. Stable helper cell line clones have been established by transfection of CRFK cells with FFV tas and assessed using beta-galactosidase assays, PCR, immunofluorescence and western blotting. The generation of infectious virions using these cell lines has been investigated using tas-deleted FFV vectors containing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) cassette.     

Effect of Weight Loss in Obese Dogs on Indicators of Renal Function or Disease

Background

Obesity is a common medical disorder in dogs, and can predispose to a number of diseases. Human obesity is a risk factor for the development and progression of chronic kidney disease.

Objectives

To investigate the possible association of weight loss on plasma and renal biomarkers of kidney health.

Animals

Thirty‐seven obese dogs that lost weight were included in the study.

Methods

Prospective observational study. Three novel biomarkers of renal functional impairment, disease, or both (homocysteine, cystatin C, and clusterin), in addition to traditional markers of chronic renal failure (serum urea and creatinine, urine specific gravity [USG], urine protein‐creatinine ratio [UPCR], and urine albumin corrected by creatinine [UAC]) before and after weight loss in dogs with naturally occurring obesity were investigated.

Results

Urea (P = .043) and USG (P = .012) were both greater after weight loss than before loss, whilst UPCR, UAC, and creatinine were less after weight loss (P = .032, P = .006, and P = .026, respectively). Homocysteine (P < .001), cystatin C (P < .001) and clusterin (P < .001) all decreased upon weight loss. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed associations between percentage weight loss (greater weight loss, more lean tissue loss; r = ?0.67, r² = 0.45, P < .001) and before‐loss plasma clusterin concentration (greater clusterin, more lean tissue loss; r = 0.48, r² = 0.23, P = .003).

Conclusion and Clinical Importance

These results suggest possible subclinical alterations in renal function in canine obesity, which improve with weight loss. Further work is required to determine the nature of these alterations and, most notably, the reason for the association between before loss plasma clusterin and subsequent lean tissue loss during weight management.

     

Changes in body composition during weight loss in obese client-owned cats: loss of lean tissue mass correlates with overall percentage of weight lost

Obesity is one of the most common medical diseases in cats, but there remains little information on success of weight loss regimes in obese client-owned cats. No information currently exists on body composition changes during weight loss in clinical cases. Twelve obese client-owned cats undertook a weight loss programme incorporating a high-protein low fat diet. Body composition was quantified by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, before and after weight loss. Mean (+/-standard deviation) weight loss was 27+/-6.8% of starting weight, and mean rate of weight loss was 0.8+/-0.32% per week. Mean energy allocation during weight loss was 32+/-7.0 kcal/kg target weight. Mean composition of tissue lost was 86:13:1 (fat:lean:bone mineral). The proportion of lean tissue loss was positively associated with overall percentage of weight loss (simple linear regression, r(2)=44.2%, P=0.026). Conventional weight loss programmes produce safe weight loss, but lean tissue loss is an inevitable consequence in cats that lose significant proportions of their starting body weight.