Do postvaccinal sarcomas occur in Australian cats ?

SUMMARY: A soft tissue sarcoma occurred in the interscapular area of a cat, 1 to 7 months after vaccination at that site. The vaccine contained inactivated feline panleucopaenia virus combined with modified live feline herpesvirus and calicrvirus. The tumour showed histological features of both fibrosarcoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma. The tumour was observed to evolve from the site of a presumed postvaccinal granuloma. Local recurrence 6 weeks post excision necessitated more radical resection. Euthanasia was performed 2 years later when pleural effusion developed. The cause of effusion was not determined. There was no palpable evidence of local tumour regrowth at the time of euthanasia. A causal relationship between vaccination and sarcoma formation is considered based on the temporal association between the two events, the anatomical location of the tumour and histopathology consistent with postvaccinal sarcomas reported overseas. Six other vaccine site fibrosarcomas, potentially vaccine associated using the above criteria, are summarised.     

Using Distribution-Modifying Functions to Predict Variation in Frequency Distributions of Tree Heights during Plantation Establishment

The height growth of individual trees was followed during theestablishment phase of four progeny tests (three with Piceasitchensis and one with Larixxeurolepis). The relationshipsbetween annual height increment and height at the start of theyear (distribution-modifying functions; DMFs) were calculatedfor each year during establishment. These DMFs were used toproduce simulated frequency distributions for tree height. Althoughit has been stated that changes in the frequency distributionof plant sizes can be predicted from DMFs, the reliability ofthe functions is not good since, with these data sets, the functionsaccounted for a low percentage of individual tree growth. Whilethe functions do estimate the first moment of the distribution(the mean), they do not accurately predict the second and thirdmoments (standard deviation and skew). The primary reason forthe rapid spread in the frequency distribution is variationin growth of seedlings with similar heights. Successful modellingof the changes in frequency distribution can be accomplishedonly if variation in growth (of seedlings with the same initialheight) is included with the DMF. However, calculation of DMFscan be useful in defining the duration of planting check.