Clinical Outcome of 14 Obese,Laminitic Horses Managed with the Same Rehabilitation Protocol

A specific method of rehabilitation was used to manage obese horses with laminitis, and clinical outcome was evaluated after 5 to 20 months. Clinical data from 14 similar laminitis cases were statistically analyzed to evaluate response to rehabilitation. Data were analyzed using repeated measures or logistic regression methodologies. Each horse presented as obese and laminitic with no history of a systemic inflammatory disease. The rehabilitation method emphasized a mineral-balanced, low nonstructural carbohydrate diet; daily exercise; hoof trimming that minimized hoof wall loading; and sole protection in the form of rubber hoof boots and/or hoof casts. Distal phalanx alignment within the hoof capsule was significantly improved, and hoof wall thickness was significantly decreased (P < .0001) following treatment. Solar depth was significantly increased (P < .0015). Reduction of palmar angle measurements was detected in acutely and chronically affected horses. This treatment effect was statistically greater for horses with chronic laminitis than for horses with acute laminitis (P interaction < .0001). Horses were 5.5 times more likely to be sound post-treatment than before treatment. Daily exercise, dietary modification, and removal of ground reaction force from the hoof wall were foci of the rehabilitation program. Hoof care and husbandry as applied to these horses may be an effective method of rehabilitation of horses from obesity-associated laminitis.     

Juvenile idiopathic epilepsy in Egyptian Arabian foals: 22 cases (1985-2005)

Background:Epilepsy is relatively uncommon in horses compared with other species and limited information is available.
Hypothesis:The objectives of the study were to describe the age of onset, clinical signs, clinicopathologic data, electroencephalographic findings, treatment, and outcome, including long-term prognosis in Arabian foals with idiopathic epilepsy.
Animals:Twenty-two foals were included in the study.
Materials and Methods: Medical records from 1985 to 2005 were reviewed.
Results:The age of onset of affected foals ranged from 2 days to 6 months. Seizures were characterized by generalized tonic and clonic motor activity, staring, and loss of consciousness. The most common postictal signs were transient blindness and abnormal mental status. The interictal neurologic examination was otherwise normal. Clinicopathologic data and imaging diagnostics were normal except in 4 foals that developed complications. Electroencephalography revealed epileptiform activity in 9 of 13 foals. Foals were treated with benzodiazepines for the short-term; whereas phenobarbital was used over the long-term. Potassium bromide was added in 3 foals in which seizures were multiple, frequent, and difficult to control. The long-term prognosis was favorable with cessation of seizures by 1 year of age. The most common complication was head trauma. The most common concurrent disease was pneumonia.
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Juvenile idiopathic epilepsy of Egyptian Arabian foals has an early clinical onset but appears to be self-limiting. Information obtained from this study strongly suggests a heritable condition that merits further investigation.     

The potential for respiratory droplet-transmissible A/H5N1 influenza virus to evolve in a mammalian host

Avian A/H5N1 influenza viruses pose a pandemic threat. As few as five amino acid substitutions, or four with reassortment, might be sufficient for mammal-to-mammal transmission through respiratory droplets. From surveillance data, we found that two of these substitutions are common in A/H5N1 viruses, and thus, some viruses might require only three additional substitutions to become transmissible via respiratory droplets between mammals. We used a mathematical model of within-host virus evolution to study factors that could increase and decrease the probability of the remaining substitutions evolving after the virus has infected a mammalian host. These factors, combined with the presence of some of these substitutions in circulating strains, make a virus evolving in nature a potentially serious threat. These results highlight critical areas in which more data are needed for assessing, and potentially averting, this threat.     

Three new species of Spiniloculus (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from Chiloscyllium punctatum (Elasmobranchii: Orectolobiformes) off Borneo with clarification of the identity of the type of the genus

The type species (Spiniloculus mavensis Southwell, 1925) of the previously monotypic tetraphyllidean genus Spiniloculus Southwell, 1925 is redescribed from the type material from Moreton Bay, Australia. As a consequence the identity of this species is definitively resolved. Three new species in the genus, all collected from Chiloscyllium punctatum Müller et Henle (brownbanded bambooshark), in Borneo, are described. Spiniloculus calhouni sp. n. conspicuously differs from all three of its congeners in its possession of post-poral testes. Spiniloculus fylerae sp. n. and Spiniloculus paigeae sp. n. differ from their two other congeners in that they are relatively small worms (4-6.5 and 2.2-5 mm in total length, respectively) with fewer than 30 proglottids. They can be distinguished from one another in that, while the vitelline follicles are interrupted at the level of its ovary in S. fylerae, this is not the case in S. paigeae. Furthermore, whereas the cirrus sac of the former species is pyriform, it is elongate-oval in the latter species. This brings the total number of species in the genus to four, and lends support to the suggestion that the original identity of the type host of S. mavensis as Mustelus sp. was in error. This work also extends the range of the genus to include the island of Borneo. A key to the species of Spiniloculus is provided. Morphological data generated here, using both light and scanning electron microscopy, support the suggested close affinities between Spiniloculus and Yorkeria Southwell, 1927, both of which parasitize bamboosharks.     

Human amygdala responsivity to masked fearful eye whites

The amygdala was more responsive to fearful (larger) eye whites than to happy (smaller) eye whites presented in a masking paradigm that mitigated subjects' awareness of their presence and aberrant nature. These data demonstrate that the amygdala is responsive to elements of.     

Common complications of fracture repair

Complications are a reality of fracture repair. Many can be avoided or minimized by being aware of their pathophysiology and predisposing factors. Others are unavoidable but their resolution may be aided by early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Major complications of fracture repair include osteomyelitis, delayed union, nonunion, malunion, premature physeal closure, and fracture associated sarcoma. Consideration of these complications should factor into presurgical patient evaluation as well as postoperative management. This discussion focuses on how to avoid, recognize, and treat these complications.     

Modelling effects of disturbance on population dynamics of generalized crayfish life history strategies

1. Crayfish play a crucial ecological role and are often considered a keystone species within freshwater ecosystems; however, North American crayfish species face disturbance and ecological threats including invasive species and intensified drought.
2. Demographic models can allow examination of population dynamics of a targeted species under a wide variety of disturbance scenarios. In this study, crayfish population dynamics were modelled and their responses to simulated biological invasions and drought were assessed.
3. As life history data on crayfish are relatively rare, models were used to explore the population viability of four generalized species with distinct life history strategies under 11 disturbance scenarios. RAMAS-Metapop was used to construct stage-based demographic metapopulation models parameterized using vital rates from established literature sources.
4. Models indicated that populations respond differentially to disturbance based on life history. However, both r- and K-selected species appear to be highly susceptible to decline when faced with the additive effects of reduced carrying capacity resulting from invasion and reduced survival rates caused by drought.
5. Constructing models that explore a broad array of life histories and disturbance regimes can provide managers with tools to develop generalized, widely applicable conservation strategies in data-depauperate systems.

     

Cuticular cracking in pepper fruit. I. Effects of night temperature and humidity

Summary

The objective of the present study was to characterize some of the anatomical and physiological characteristics of fruit cracking in bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Scanning-electron micrographs show that initiation of fruit cracking in bell pepper is by formation of mini-cracks on the cuticle layer; these then enlarge into cracks and traverse the epidermal cells. Pepper cultivars differ in their sensitivity to cracking, partly because of differences in fruit pericarp thickness. Limitation of night transpiration by high humidity or low temperature increased the turgor potential of the fruit pericarp and enhanced cracking. Likewise, leaf pruning suppressed night transpiration and concomitantly increased cracking. Fruit cuticle transpiration was found to be low in the early stages of fruit development and to increase as the fruit became susceptible to cracking. Environmental conditions which enhanced cracking also increased cuticle transpiration in a sensitive pepper cultivar but not in a less sensitive one. We suggest that fruit cracking in bell pepper occurs because reduction in night transpiration causes high turgor pressure in the fruit. As the cuticle becomes permeable to water, the inner turgor pressure causes the cuticle to crack. Differences in cultivar sensitivity may be partly due to differences in pericarp thickness and cuticle properties, but additional factors may be involved.