A survey of farmers'' attitudes to services provided by consulting veterinarians to the Western Australian sheep industry

A postal survey was conducted of 80 sheep farmers in the Kojonup and Esperance districts of Western Australia to establish what they wanted from a veterinary service. Twenty five of the farmers surveyed used a sheep consultant, 25 did not, and 30 were interested in employing one. Farmers were asked questions about themselves and their attitudes to private veterinarians who provide specialist services to sheep farmers. Data reported here showed that farmers wanted a veterinarian who lived in the district, was well trained in sheep management and production, was enthusiastic and had good communication skills. The service provided should be whole-farm and available to members of the consultant's group only. Regular newsletters and field days were necessary, but the provision of contract services, such as mulesing, lamb-marking, drenching, pregnancy testing and sheep classing, and 'fire-brigade' services for sick animals, were not rated as important. Most farmers were unwilling or unable to give a dollar value for the likely benefits of a consultancy service. Non-financial benefits included keeping farmers up to date with new technical developments and information. The survey also showed that a veterinarian specialising in services to sheep farmers could be confident of employment.     

Survey of predation by domestic cats

Objectives To calculate the proportion of house cats which were observed by their owners to have caught prey and to describe the characteristics of these cats.
Design and procedure A telephone questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected population of 458 cat owners in metropolitan Perth. Specific questions were asked about demographic characteristics, habits and diets of the cats, and whether the owners had observed their cats catch prey in the 12 month period preceding the survey.
Results The owners of 36% of 644 cats had observed their cats with prey in the 12 month period preceding the survey. Cats which spent more time outside, were neutered, cross-bred, originated from households with only one or two cats or were not fed meat were significantly more likely to be observed to predate. The body condition and diet (other than feeding meat) of cats did not influence the reported frequency of predation.
Conclusion Although cats are only one factor involved in the reduction in the numbers and diversity of Australian wildlife, restriction of the outside activities of cats is likely to diminish predation, particularly in areas close to native vegetation.     

Heat-induced colour changes of pine (Pinus pinaster) and eucalypt (Eucalyptus globulus) wood

Heat treatment of Pinus pinaster and Eucalyptus globulus wood was carried out by hot air in an oven for 2–24 h at 170–200°C and by steam in an autoclave for 2–12 h at 190–210°C. The colour parameters L*, a* and b* were determined by the CIELAB method on radial, tangential and transverse sections of untreated and treated wood, and their variation with regard to the treatment (ΔL*, Δa* and Δb*) were calculated in percent. For untreated eucalypt wood, lightness (L*) varied between 54.1 and 63.8% with a* between 7.4 and 8.5, and b* between 15.7 and 19.9. For untreated pine wood, L* varied between 67.3 and 76.1%, a* between 6.9 and 7.6 and b* between 16.3 and 24.1. Oven heat-treated wood became darker (ΔL* about 50% for 4% mass loss), and this was more for eucalypt wood under the same treatment conditions. In general, the contribution of red (a*) and yellow (b*) colour decreased with heat treatment. The transverse section of the two species darkened less for both the treatments with small differences between radial and tangential sections. Lightness decrease was related to chemical changes; with good correlations with glucose (R ² = 0.96), hemicelluloses (R ² = 0.92) and lignin (R ² = 0.86). As regards colour, the heat treatments showed an interesting potential to improve the wood quality for solid timber products from pine and eucalypt.     

Cytotoxicity and antileishmanial activity of Annona muricata pericarp

Hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Annona muricata pericarp were tested in vitro against Leishmania braziliensis and L. panamensis promastigotes, and against cell line U-937. The ethyl acetate extract was more active than the other extracts and even of Glucantime used as reference substance. Its fractionation led to the isolation of three acetogenins--annonacin, annonacin A and annomuricin A.     

Understanding the effect of repeated administration of meloxicam on feline renal cortex and medulla: A lipidomics and metabolomics approach

Repeated administration of meloxicam can cause kidney damage in cats by mechanisms that remain unclear. Metabolomics and lipidomics are powerful, noninvasive approaches used to investigate tissue response to drug exposure. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the effects of meloxicam on the feline kidney using untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics approaches. Female young‐adult purpose‐breed cats were allocated into the control (n = 4) and meloxicam (n = 4) groups. Cats in the control and meloxicam groups were treated daily with saline and meloxicam at 0.3 mg/kg subcutaneously for 17 days, respectively. Renal cortices and medullas were collected at the end of the treatment period. Random forest and metabolic pathway analyses were used to identify metabolites that discriminate meloxicam‐treated from saline‐treated cats and to identify disturbed metabolic pathways in renal tissue. Our results revealed that the repeated administration of meloxicam to cats altered the kidney metabolome and lipidome and suggest that at least 40 metabolic pathways were altered in the renal cortex and medulla. These metabolic pathways included lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate, nucleotide and energy metabolisms, and metabolism of cofactors and vitamins. This is the first study using a pharmacometabonomics approach for studying the molecular effects of meloxicam on feline kidneys.