Reproductive efficiency of heifers in the new guinea highlands

Summary Bos indicus × Bos taurus heifers were exposed to bulls at four different liveweights. The age and weight at first and second conception and first calf growth rates were studied to examine the effects of uncontrolled mating prior to or at a target mating weight of 295 kg. Initial conception rate was not affected although lighter conception weights were recorded for three groups of heifers that were served when below the target weight. However, at subsequent calving only the two heavier groups calved within the 36-month trial period. The results indicated a seasonal effect on conception, 94% of the heifers conceiving during the wet season. The effect of season also influenced post-partum body weight loss, calf growth rate to weaning and subsequent conception. It is therefore an advantage to have heifers conceiving during the latter part of the wet season so that they calve early in the following wet season, provided a minimum target weight of 285 kg is reached prior to initial conception.

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Eficiencia Reproductiva De Terneras En La Sierra De Nueva Guinea

Resumen Se cruzaron ternerasBos indicus ×Bos taurus de diferentes pesos con toros reproductores. Se estudiáron así los pesos y edades a la primera y segunda parición y las tasas de crecimiento de los recién nacidos, para medir los efectos de cruzamientos incontrolados versus controlados al alcanzar las hembras un peso de 295 kg. La tasa de concepción inicial no se afectó, aunque los recién nacidos de los grupos de hembras servidas cuando tenían pesos inferiores a 295 kg, pesaron menos. Sinembargo en pariciones sucesivas, solamente las hembras servidas con pesos de 295 kg, parieron en el lapso de 36 meses que duró el experimento. Los resultados indicaron también, que la estación del año afectó las pariciones, el 94% de las hembras concibieron durante la época lluviosa. La época del año también afectó el peso posparto de los recién nacidos, la tasa de crecimiento hasta el destete y las concepciones posteriores. Es por lo tanto ventajoso cruzar las hembras durante el final de la estación lluviosa para que paran en la siguiente estación lluviosa, procurando que éstas alcancen un peso mínimo de 285 kg, antes del apareamiento.

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Efficacite Reproductrice Des Genisses Des Hautes Terres De Nouvelle Guinee

Résumé Des génisses métissesBos indicus ×Bos taurus ont été mises en présence de taureaux à 4 poids vifs différents. L'age et le poids à la première et la seconde conception ainsi que les taux de croissance du premier veau ont été étudiés pour déterminer les effets l'accouplement incontrôlé avant ou à un poids cible d'accouplement de 295 kg. Le taux initial de conception n'a pas été affecté bien que des poids plus faibles à la conception aient été observés chez trois groupes de génisses qui étaient en dessous du poids cible au moment de la saillie. Cependant, lors du vêlàge suivant, seuls les deux groupes les plus lourds ont mis bas pendant la période d'observation de 36 mois. Les résultats montrent que la saison a une influence sur la conception. 94 p. 100 des génisses conçoivent pendant la saison des pluies. La saison a aussi influencé la perte de poids après la mise-bas, le taux de croissance des veaux jusqu'au sevrage et la conception suivante. Il est donc avantageux de faire féconder les génisses pendant la seconde moitié de la saison des pluies afin qu'elles mettent bas au début de la saison des pluies suivante pourvu qu'un poids cible minimum de 285 kg soit atteint avant la fécondation.

     

Equine herpesvirus abortion in Australia 1977 to 1982

Until 1977 no case of abortion caused by equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1) had been recorded in Australia although the virus, called equine rhinopneumonitis virus, had been known to have been present at least since 1962. Outbreaks of EHV1 abortion occurred in New South Wales in 1977 and in 1981. Sporadic cases of EHV1 abortion had been confirmed in some parts of Australia each year since 1975. It was concluded that an abortigenic subtype of EHV1 had been introduced to Australia in 1977 and that the previously endemic respiratory subtype occasionally caused abortion. Virus isolation in a variety of cell cultures and histopathological examination of tissue were shown to be satisfactory methods of diagnosis of EHV1 abortion. Lung proved to be the specimen of choice. Slight serological differences between "abortigenic" and "respiratory" subtypes of EHV1 were found in cross neutralisation tests. A serological survey of 219 Sydney horses of various ages revealed that most yearlings had already acquired neutralising antibody to both subtypes.     

Experimental transmission of intestinal coccidiosis to piglets: clinical, parasitological and pathological findings.

Twenty-eight piglets coming from a "specific pathogen free" herd were inoculated at three days of age with 50 000 or 100 000 sporulated oocysts of Isospora suis. Fecal samples were examined for oocyst shedding daily and several clinical parameters were recorded. Ten piglets were used as normal controls. Groups of piglets were euthanized from three days to 12 days postinoculation and routine necropsies were performed. Bacteriological, virological, parasitological and histopathological examinations were made on the intestinal tracts. The incubation period was four to five days. Clinical signs and microscopic intestinal lesions observed in the experimentally infected animals were similar to those reported in spontaneous cases of porcine neonatal coccidiosis. Lesions of villous atrophy in the small intestine seemed to result from the destruction of villous epithelial cells mainly during the peak of asexual reproduction which occurred around four to five days postinoculation. Intracellular coccidial organisms were difficult to find during the late atrophic and villous regrowth stages of the intestinal lesions. The prepatent period varied from four to seven days and the most common was five days. Eighty percent of the piglets kept alive more than four days postinoculation have shed oocysts. Piglets dosed with old sporulated oocysts (ten months old) shed many more oocysts than those infected with a fresh inoculum (less than two months old). The patent period was not determined precisely with the design of the experiment but some of the infected piglets shed oocysts for at least five days.     

Synthetic pyrethroids and avermectin for controlling the grapevine pestsLobesia botrana,Cryptoblabes gnidiella andDrosophila melanogaster

Field treatments in a vineyard with 0.015 or 0.01% a.i. of cypermethrin, fenvalerate, fenpropathrin or AC-222,705 were more efficient in controlling the grape-berry moth (Lobesia botrana Schiff.) and the honeydew moth (Cryptoblabes gnidiella Mill.) than four standard treatments consisting of two with 0.05% a.i. fenitrothion and two with 0.075% a.i. diazinon. In pyrethroid-treated plots, infestation at the end of the trials ranged between 2.5 and 12%, compared with 21% in the standard treatment plots and 34% in the untreated plots. Cypermethrin, fenpropathrin and AC-222,705 exhibited similar field activity, while that of fenvalerate was somewhat lower. Under laboratory conditions, cypermethrin at 0.005 and 0.01% a.i. was significantly more potent than fenvalerate, fenpropathrin and AC-222,705; at a higher concentration, 0.015% a.i., all pyrethroids were highly active, with mortality ranging between 75 and 95%. Under laboratory conditions the vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster Meig.) was in general more susceptible to pyrethroids than was the grape-berry moth. Cypermethrin and AC-222,705 at 0.005% a.i. and avermectin at 0.0035% a.i. were potent compounds against the vinegar fly and more active than fenvalerate and fenpropathrin.     

Biochemical properties of the pathogenesis-related proteins from tobacco

This review describes the discovery and identification of the pathogenesis-related proteins (PRs) from tobacco. In crude leaf extracts the PRs are distinguished from the proteins in uninfected plants by their solubility at pH 3, resistance to a range of proteases, and mobility in polyacrylamide gels upon electrophoresis (PAGE) in non-denaturing conditions. PAGE has been used as a qualitative and semi-quantitative assay for PRs, and their migration in gels made from different acrylamide concentrations has been used to identify charge and size isomers and electrophoretically identical PRs in different tobacco cultivars. The subunit composition and molecular weight (mol. wt) of the four PRs identified first in Xanthi-nc were determined by SDS-PAGE; staining the gels has shown that these same four proteins in Samsun NN did not contain carbohydrate, lipid or nucleic acid, nor were they isozymic forms of twenty five enzymes known to increase in activity following infection with TMV. Evidence suggests that most of the PRs in Xanthi-nc and Samsun NN are extracellular.The purification of several PRs from Xanthi-nc, Samsun NN and other tobaccos is described, as well as their mol. wt, subunit and amino acid composition. PRs 1a, b and c consist of a single polypeptide and have similar mol. wt and amino acid compositions. Antisera prepared against purified Xanthi-nc b₁ protein have been used to determine serological relationships between PRs and form the basis of a very sensitive quantitative assay using ELISA. The regulation of synthesis of some PRs has been shown to involve translational control.     

The genetic control of antibody formation

Studies of the molecular biology of lymphoid cells have markedly increased our understanding of how millions of different antibodies can be synthesized by a single animal. To date, the most detailed understanding has been achieved for the mouse, primarily because of the relatively greater experimental availability of this species. These studies, as well as those involving other species, have shown that the complete genes for antibody polypeptide chains are assembled from disparate genetic elements which are originally widely separated in the genome. The assembly process itself, together with the coding information present in the germ line genetic elements, contributes to the diversity of structure (and thus combining specificities) shown by mature antibody molecules. Specifically, the diversity of structure characteristic of antibody variable regions is due to three distinct mechanisms: innate variability of germ line genes; mismatching of individual gene segments during their somatic rearrangement leading to junctional diversity; and somatic mutation in variable region genetic material during or after the rearrangement. These processes lead to the wide array of combining specificities that permit the humoral immune system of a mature animal to interact with essentially any non-self antigen which it encounters. Complex genetic rearrangements are also responsible for the class switching phenomenon long known to be characteristic of the humoral immune response. A form of homologous recombination between constant region genes, possibly mediated by specific "switching" enzymes, is now believed to be involved in this phenomenon. It is also currently believed that the restriction of gene rearrangement processes to one of the two possible chromosomes of a diploid pair in each cell is responsible for the phenomenon of allelic exclusion that has long been associated with the normal functioning of mammalian B-cells.     

TRANSLOCATION OF AMINOTRIAZOLE AND DALAPON IN AG ROPY RON REPENS (L.) BEAUV.

Summary. Tracer studies using single drops of solutions containing 3–amino-1,2,4–triazole-5–¹⁴C (aminotriazole-¹⁴C) or 2,2–dichloropropionic acid-2–¹⁴C (datapon-¹⁴C) revealed that in couch plants (Agropyron repens (L.) Beauv.) growing under field conditions in the autumn and at the stage where the aerial shoots were 40–50 cm long, both compounds moved in both symplast and apoplast. Dalapon was less mobile in the symplast than aminotriazole and only negligible amounts of dalapon were translocated to the rhizomes. The nodes of the treated shoots appeared to act as barriers to translocation, a phenomenon more pronounced for dalapon than for aminotriazole.
Application to a basal green leaf led to a more uniform distribution of the compounds within plants and rhizomes than when the application was made to the youngest fully-expanded leaf.
In couch plants with aerial shoots 10–15 cm long treated in the stubble, the distribution of both aminotriazole and dalapon was mainly restricted to the treated shoots. Even 15 days after application only trace amounts of radioactivity could be found in the rhizomes and untreated shoots.     

THE ADSORPTION OF LINURON, ATRAZINE AND EPTC BY MODEL ALIPHATIC ADSORBENTS AND SOIL ORGANIC PREPARATIONS

Summary. Model adsorbents were prepared by treating cellulose phosphate powder with a series of alkyltrimethylammonium compounds in which the size of the alkyl group was varied from C₈to C₁₈. The adsorption of linuron, atrazine and EPTC by these materials was found to increase logarithmically with increasing chain length. The extent of the adsorption was large compared with the adsorption of these herbicides by a humic acid and by a preparation made by removing the bulk of the inorganic constituents of a peat soil with a mixture of HCl and HF. Since soil organic matter is thought to contain alkyl groups, it is concluded that the possible influence of such groups should be considered in any discussion of the mechanisms involved in the adsorption of organic molecules by soils.
Adsorption du linuron, de I'atrazine de l'EPTC par des adsorbants de la série aliphatique et des préparations organiques de sol