Association and General Notes

In a field disease outbreak, 60 female goats died over a 2–3 week period. Necropsies of seven of these does revealed that six had an acute exudative necrotising broncho-pneumonia, and moderate to high numbers of Pasteurella haemolytica were isolated from their lungs. Caprine herpesvirus, identified as Bovid herpesvirus type 6, was isolated from the lungs of two of these does, including one with pneumonia, and from nasal swabs of in-contact goats. Clinical disease was only observed in does, and deaths began 3 weeks after the introduction of a mob of goat hoggets from another farm.     

Promoter identification and effect on activation of NF-κB of porcine ISG58

Interferon (IFN)-stimulated gene (ISG) 56 family (composed of ISG54, ISG56, ISG58, and ISG60) plays important roles in defense against viral infection in mammalian cells. Numerous studies have been conducted on ISG54, ISG56, and ISG60; however, little is known on ISG58. In the present study, the upstream sequence of porcine ISG58 gene was first characterized as functional promoter by luciferase reporter assay, and then two directly adjacent IFN-stimulated response elements (ISREs), one at ?206 to ?194 (ISRE-I) and a second one, directly upstream of this element at ?219 to ?207?bp (ISRE-II), were identified using the bioinformatics method. The subsequent site-directed deletion and transient transfection experiments showed the candidate ISREs are functional. ISRE-I works better than ISRE-II and synergistic cooperation exists between two ISREs. Additionally, the effect of porcine ISG58 on activation of NF-κB was analyzed using the dual-luciferase reporter assay. The results will contribute to revealing the role of ISG58 in immune response.     

An evaluation of tympanometry, otoscopy and palpation for assessment of the canine tympanic membrane

Three techniques for the assessment of the integrity of the canine tympanic membrane were evaluated experimentally. Tympanometry, an objective technique, was shown to be very accurate for the evaluation of the integrity of the ear drum. Otoscopic examination by experienced personnel was shown to be moderately accurate under controlled conditions when the external ear canal was not inflammed. However, under field conditions when otitis externa was present, visual inspection of the tympanic membrane was seldom possible even after lavage of the ear. Palpation of the tympanic membrane with a blunt probe was shown to be very inaccurate and led to rupture of the tympanic membrane in a high proportion of cases. These results imply that two widely used techniques for the examination of the canine tympanic membrane are unsatisfactory. Furthermore, they suggest that previous reports of the prevalence of ear drum perforations in dogs may need reappraisal. Tympanometry is a non-invasive, objective and practical technique for the assessment of ear drum integrity which is worthy of further evaluation.     

Increased levels of DNA synthesis in hyperplastic renal tubules of aging nephropathy in female F344/NCr rats

Histoautoradiography was done to evaluate cell turnover by measuring levels of DNA synthesis in the different anatomic areas of the kidney in aging (76 to 103 weeks of age) female F344/NCr rats after injection of tritiated thymidine (3H-thymidine). All areas showed increased 3H-thymidine labeling indices (LI), including cortical and medullary tubules and interstitium. The extent of increase was directly correlated with increasing severity of the nephropathy. Atrophic, degenerative, and hyperplastic cortical tubules in areas of nephropathy had LI eight to nine times greater than nonaffected areas and more normal kidneys. These observations suggest that the hyperplastic responses of renal tubules to the unknown etiologic agents of aging nephropathy may be similar to those of tubules responding to chemical toxins.     

Pregnancy diagnosis in cows with linear‐array real‐time ultrasound scanning: A preliminary note

Summary

Pregnancy diagnoses were performed under farm conditions in 201 cows (Hungarian Red Pied and crosbreds with Holstein) between 21 and 70 days after last insemination date, using a linear‐array real‐time ultrasound scanner with a 3.0 MHz rectal tranducer. Identification of (a) sharply demarcated black area(s) and/or an embryo within the uterus were used as criterions for pregnancy.

Pregnancy was confirmed by rectal examination at 6 and/or 8 weeks after A.I. From the total number of correct positive diagnoses (n= 129), incorrect positivediagnoses (n = 3, made on days 36,40 and 44 after A I), correct negative diagnoses (n =62) and incorrect negativediagnoses (n = 7, made on days 25, 28, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 33 after A I). a sensitivity of 94.8%, a specificity of 95,3%, a positive predictive value of 97.7% and a negative predictive value of 89.8% were calculated.

From these preliminary results it was concluded that real‐time ultrasound scanning is a useful and reliable technique for early pregnancy diagnosis in cows. It is suggested that a combination of milk/plasma progesterone estimation between days 21 and 24 and real‐time ultrasound scanning between days 25 and 45 would allow the confirmation and quantification of (late) embryonic mortality in the cow.     

Reaction of Calves to Two Flooring Materials Offered Simultaneously in One Pen

Now that group housing is replacing individual crates, so that calves can lie, stand and walk on the pen floor, the quality of the floor for group-housed calves has become the focus of attention. The reaction of two groups of four calves to a double area of floor made from two materials (wooden slats and synthetic slats with a rubber coating) was examined round the clock for 5 days. The calves were switched between pens twice, and in each case the 5 day observation period was repeated. In all three phases all calves spent significantly more time ( P <0.01) lying on the wooden floor: on average 656 min day -1 compared with 294 min day -1 on the synthetic floor. The time spent in the standing/walking position on both floors, occurrence of slip incidents and self-maintenance behaviour did not differ significantly between floors. The observations on use of the pen floor for lying and for standing/walking in combination with feeding, plus observations on fouling of the floors with excreta suggest that future pen design could be functionally divided into lying and walking/eating areas.     

Optimizing the Conditions for In Vitro Maturation and Artificial Activation of Sika Deer (Cervus nippon hortulorum) Oocytes

With the goal of establishing experimental protocols for cloning sika deer, various conditions for in vitro maturation (IVM) and artificial activation of sika deer oocytes were examined. In vitro maturation was evaluated in seven different culture media. The highest rate of oocyte maturation was 75.4% in 10 μg/ml follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH), 1 μg/ml LH, 0.2 mm cysteamine and 50 ng/ml epidermal growth factor (EGF) after 24 h of IVM. The efficiency after 24 h of IVM did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) from that observed after 20 h. Cysteamine (0.2 mm ) significantly increased the maturation rates after 20 h (from 59.1% to 67.2%, p < 0.05) and after 24 h (from 63.2% to 71.6%, p < 0.05) of IVM. The IVM rates of oocytes collected during the oestrous season (75.4%) and the anoestrous season (23.3%) were significantly different at 24 h. The 20 μg/ml FSH, 2 μg/ml LH, 0.4 mm cysteamine and 100 ng/ml EGF significantly increased the maturation rates (from 23.3% to 54.2%, p < 0.01) at 24 h during the anoestrous season. For the activation experiments, the most effective method was chemical activation [ionomycin + 6‐dimethylaminopurine (6‐DMAP)], which promoted the development of sika deer oocytes to the blastocyst stage (32.4%). Our results indicate that in vitro matured sika deer oocytes are good candidates for parthenogenetic activation and that chemical treatment is needed for relatively efficient activation of the oocytes. These optimized conditions for IVM and parthenogenetic activation may be useful for efforts to restore populations of the endangered sika deer using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique.     

Analysis of genetic diversity in Bolivian llama populations using microsatellites

South American camelids (SACs) have a major role in the maintenance and potential future of rural Andean human populations. More than 60% of the 3.7 million llamas living worldwide are found in Bolivia. Due to the lack of studies focusing on genetic diversity in Bolivian llamas, this analysis investigates both the genetic diversity and structure of 12 regional groups of llamas that span the greater part of the range of distribution for this species in Bolivia. The analysis of 42 microsatellite markers in the considered regional groups showed that, in general, there were high levels of polymorphism (a total of 506 detected alleles; average PIC across per marker: 0.66), which are comparable with those reported for other populations of domestic SACs. The estimated diversity parameters indicated that there was high intrapopulational genetic variation (average number of alleles and average expected heterozygosity per marker: 12.04 and 0.68, respectively) and weak genetic differentiation among populations (F_ST range: 0.003–0.052). In agreement with these estimates, Bolivian llamas showed a weak genetic structure and an intense gene flow between all the studied regional groups, which is due to the exchange of reproductive males between the different flocks. Interestingly, the groups for which the largest pairwise F_ST estimates were observed, Sud Lípez and Nor Lípez, showed a certain level of genetic differentiation that is probably due to the pattern of geographic isolation and limited communication infrastructures of these southern localities. Overall, the population parameters reported here may serve as a reference when establishing conservation policies that address Bolivian llama populations.