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Fat clogging, fat cell count and fat cell size in swine in relation to age and feeding intensity

Growth dependent changes of fat gain, the number of fat cells in the cutlet muscle and the size of the fat cells in the bacon of the back were studied in dependence on feeding intensity with a total of 145 male castrates of the genotype (L X E) XSF. Between their 5th and 32nd weeks of life the animals were butchered at intervals of 3 weeks and the parameters were determined. The gain of fat and the intramuscular fat content were highest in the high-level variant (daily weight gain 720 g) and lowest in the low-level variant (daily weight gain 530 g). The diameter of the fat cells in the middle layer of the bacon of the back increased up to an age of 26 weeks and then remained constant. Differences between the feeding groups were registered; the animals of the high-level group had the biggest fat cells from the 14th week onwards. A nutrition-caused difference between the number of fat cells per mm2 of the cutlet muscle could not be found. The calculated total number of fat cells in the cutlet muscle increased due to growth up to an age of 26 weeks. The results provided basic knowledge of fat gain and influences on it in pigs and they indicate possibilities of making statements on fat retention determining the microstructure of the fat tissue of the living animal by means of biopsy.     

Babesia--a historical overview

The history of the genus Babesia is briefly outlined. The classical differences with the main other genus of non-pigment-forming hemoparasites, Theileria, are the absence of extra-erythrocytic multiplication (schizogony) in Babesia and the cycle in the vector tick, which includes transovarial transmission in Babesia but only transstadial transmission in Theileria. Also, the multiplication in the red cell of Babesia, by budding, most often results in two daughter cells (merozoites), while that of Theileria gives four merozoites, often as a Maltese cross. In particular this means that what is still commonly called Babesia microti is not a Babesia and that it would be just as logical to speak of human theileriosis as of babesiosis. The small piroplasm of horses, long known as Babesia equi, is already commonly designated as Theileria equi. However, on molecular grounds, it may be necessary to create a new genus for these parasites. The Babesia species of domestic animals are briefly discussed and presented in a table.     

Institution, Legislation and Policy Analysis of China’s Wetland Protection

Wetland protection is a complex issue. In the executive system of wetland preservation, the central government is the main body of policy formulation and implementation. Although China has taken many steps to protect wetlands, there are still some institutional, legal and policy problems in the area of wetland protection. This article presents an analysis of these factors. First, the authors state and analyze the major legal and management problems currently hampering wetland protection in China. Then the authors believe that in the future, new problems of wetland protection will arise. Given the following three major aspects of wetland protection in China： i.e., the policy, law and management systems, this article provides some relevant suggestions in the area of policies and management.     

Regional simulation of maize production in tropical savanna fallow systems as affected by fallow availability

Upscaling of crop models from the field scale to the national or global scale is being used as a widespread method to make large-scale assessments of global change impacts on crop yields and agricultural production. In spite of the fact that soil fertility restoration and crop performance in many developing countries with low-input agriculture rely strongly on fallow duration and management, there are only few approaches which take into account the effect of fallowing on crop yields at the regional scale. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the sensitivity of maize yield simulations with the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to fallow availability at the field and regional scale and (2) to present a novel approach to derive a model-based estimate of the average fallow availability within a typical catchment of the sub-humid savanna zone of West Africa. Therefore, the EPIC model has been validated at the field scale and then incorporated into a spatial database covering a typical catchment within the sub-humid savanna zone of West Africa with 121 sub-basins. Maize-fallow rotations have been simulated within 2556 quasi-homogenous spatial units and then aggregated to the 10 districts within the catchment assuming three different scenarios of fallow availability: 100% of the bush-grass savanna area is available and used in fallow-crop rotations (FU100), 50% of the bush-grass savanna area is available and used in fallow-crop rotations (FU50) and 25% of the bush-grass savanna area is available and used in fallow-crop rotations (FU25). A new aggregation procedure has been developed which is based on changes in the frequency of fallow-cropland classes within the sub-basins to render the simulation results in the spatial database sensitive to changes in fallow availability. Comparison of the average simulated grain yield with the mean yield over the catchment shows that the simulations overestimate maize yields by 62%, 44% and 15% for scenario FU100, FU50 and FU25, respectively. The best agreement between simulated and observed crop yields at the district scale was found when using the assumption that 25% of the savanna is available as fallow land under the present cropping patterns, which corresponds to a fallow-cropland ratio of 0.9. Comparison with farm surveys shows that the combination of remote sensing and dynamic crop modelling with yield observations provides realistic estimates of effective fallow use at the regional scale.     

Elevation of the bacteriological content of milk of clinically unaffected lactating bitches of a canine research stock

In the years 1987-1989 a bacteriological investigation of the milk was made in 44 clinically healthy postparturient bitches. In 30 animals bacteria most commonly isolated were staphylococci. 30.3% (40 samples) of the samples yielded pure cultures and 6.8% (9 samples) anacultures. Small numbers of bacteria were isolated in most of the samples; 67.4% showed moderate bacterial growth (less than or equal to 10(4)/ml sample). In vitro drug sensitivity tests revealed lincomycin, erythromycin and polymyxin B proved to be most efficient. Moreover neomycin, kanamycin and chloramphenicol showed low resistance rates while colistin sulfate and carbenicillin were less effective. A direct influence of lactiferous gland colonization with bacteria on mortality of puppies was not observed. With respect to clinical aspects, the application of antibiotics for sanitation of the lactiferous gland colonization with bacteria in clinically healthy bitches has to be considered carefully. However, for this the estimation of drug sensitivity tests is not satisfactory and should be completed by accurate bacteriological identification.