Tuberculosis in alpaca (Lama pacos) on a farm in Ireland. 2. Results of an epidemiological investigation

Tuberculosis (TB), due to infection with Mycobacterium bovis was diagnosed in a flock of alpaca in Ireland in 2004. An epidemiological investigation was conducted to identify the risk of TB for farmed alpaca where TB is endemic, the origin of the infection, the potential for alpaca-to-alpaca transmission and appropriate control measures. The investigation focused on the alpaca flock (including the farm, animal movements and breeding, feeding and flock health practice), the disease episode (including animal disease events and subsequent control measures) and TB infection risk in the locality. The TB risk to alpaca is high in areas where infection is endemic in cattle and badgers and where biosecurity is inadequate. It is most likely that the source of infection for the alpaca was a local strain of M. bovis, present in cattle in this area since at least 2001. Genotyping of isolates identified a single variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) profile in both cattle and alpaca in this region. Although a tuberculous badger was also removed from the vicinity, bacterial isolation was not attempted. On this farm, infection in alpaca was probably derived from a common source. Alpaca-to-alpaca transmission seems unlikely. Two broad control strategies were implemented, aimed at the rapid removal of infected (and potentially infectious) animals and the implementation of measures to limit transmission. Tests that proved useful in detecting potentially-infected animals included measurement of the albumin-to-globulin ratio and regular body condition scoring. Skin testing was time consuming and unproductive, and early detection of infected animals remains a challenge. The flock was managed as a series of separate groupings, based on perceived infection risk. No further TB cases have been detected.     

Modes of Resistance: Gendered Responses to Global Impositions in Coastal Philippines

This paper considers gender and the conjunction of global and local processes in three different social and spatial configurations; a Philippines locality, a transnational view embracing the Philippines and somewhere else, and globally. Gendered household livelihoods and contradictions in gender ideologies reveal the privileging of men’s work and political potential over women’s. Exporting women’s labour is the most economically viable household strategy; a pattern which creates new transnational social fields embracing the many national contexts where Filipino women work overseas. The conclusion eschews a binary approach to women’s resistance and highlights the paradoxical yet potentially radical political significance of inter/national dependency upon Filipino women’s domestic labour.     

The New Zealand apple genome mapping project

Summary This project was initiated three years ago to support the New Zealand apple breeding programme at HortResearch and is funded by both the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board. Our initial goal is to construct a linkage map comprising RFLP, RAPD and isoenzyme markers as well as characters of importance to our breeders and this will enable the breeders to use marker assisted selection to identify the most promising seedlings within progeny populations at an early age. Characters of interest in the shorter term include resistances to scab, powdery mildew, woolly apple aphid and silver leaf, and in the longer term more complex traits such as early and late fruit maturity, fruit quality characters, low temperature tolerance and rootstock influences such as dwarfing and precocity are under consideration. We are currently developing long-term plans for isolation of apple genes in association with other molecular biologists in Hort Research. We have used a cDNA library from apple flesh as a prolific source of RFLP probes and detect their hybridization to Southern blots using a chemiluminescent method. We have screened our mapping line of seedlings for more than 160 markers so far (1/3 RFLP, 2/3 RAPD). Detection of in situ hybridization of key RFLP probes to metaphase chromosome preparations for the purpose of associating marker linkage groups with physical chromosomes is by a digoxygenin or biotin linked immunoassay. The project has collaborative links to apple genome mapping projects in America and Europe.     

Protein content and amino acid composition of seven wheat cultivars subjected to water stress: Effects of nitrogen fertilizer treatments

Seven wheat cultivars of wide genetic base were grown with three levels of N (0, 100, and 200 kg/ha), and were subjected to a water stress at the flowering stage. The protein content and amino acid composition of the wheat grain were determined. Crude protein content increased with each increase of N rate for each cultivar but the largest increase was from the first increment. The percentages of three amino acids (glutamic acid, proline, and phenylalanine) increased with the first increment of nitrogen, and the percentages of eight (lysine, histidine, arginine, aspartic acid, threonine, glycine, alanine, and valine) decreased. None of the cultivar x N interactions for amino acid composition was significant, indicating that the relative changes in amino acid composition for the seven cultivars were the same. This shows that successful manipulation of amino acid composition through N fertilization of selected cultivars that were subjected to a soil water stress at the flowering stage is remote.     

A simple model for phosphorus uptake kinetics of wheat seedlings

A simple model to compare and predict phosphorus (P) uptake behavior of plants may be useful to agronomists. A predictive equation based on Michaelis‐Menten kinetics was developed for this purpose. Kinetic parameters for use in the model were determined in an experiment using two cultivars of winter wheat grown for 21 days in 14 soil treatments, including seven P levels, each in fumigated and unfumigated soil. In another experiment, the same wheat cultivars were grown for 7, 14, or 21 days at one soil P level in both fumigated and unfiimigated soil. Using parameter values developed in the first experiment with multiple P levels and one time period, the model closely (R²=0.966, P<0.001) predicted P uptake in the second experiment with one P level over multiple time periods. The model could be a useful agronomic tool because of its simplicity and because no data need be collected from artificial growing conditions.