A pilot study of the effects of mechanical shortening of ewes' incisors (bite correction) on body weight and the development of periodontal disease

A field trial was set up to determine the effects of mechanical shortening of long incisors (bite correction) of ewes with early periodontal disease on the progress of the disease and on their body weights. On a farm near Te Anau with a high prevalence of periodontal disease in sheep, the body weights of 75 sound mouth ewes and two groups each of 75 ewes with periodontal disease were recorded. At the start of the trial, the incisors of the ewes in one of the groups with periodontal disease were shortened using a grinder. The trial ran for 2 years. The mouths of almost all the sheep which had sound mouths at the start of the trial remained sound throughout. This suggests that on periodontal disease-prone farms it may be possible to select ewes at 3 or 4 years of age which will retain sound mouths throughout much of thei-r productive lives. Throughout the trial, sheep with advanced periodontal disease tended to be lighter than sheep with mild periodontal disease and those in turn tended to be lighter than sheep with sound mouths. Mechanical shortening of the incisors did not alter the proportion which subsequently developed advanced periodontal disease. Seventeen to eighteen percent of ewes in both periodontal disease groups had developed advanced periodontal disease by the end of the trial. There was no significant difference in body weight between the group with shortened incisors and the group with untreated periodontal disease. Consequently, the trial provides no evidence that the mechanical shortening of the incisors of ewes will improve their productivity.     

Clinical evaluation of protein electrophoresis of cerebral spinal fluid

Protein fractions of cerebral spinal fluid samples were analyzed in an effort to find a reliable, minimally invasive and cost effective method of diagnosing cervical vertebral myelopathy. There were six separate protein fractions analyzed by electrophoresis. In this study we specifically looked for a post beta spike in horses with spinal cord compression. There was no correlation in our study between horses with a post beta spike and CVM as diagnosed by a myelogram.     

Occurrence and mobility of the insecticide permethrin in rivers in the Southern Humber catchment,UK

The synthetic pyrethroid insecticides cis‐ and trans‐permethrin are widely used, particularly in sheep‐dips and for mothproofing within the textile industry. This study aims to establish the concentrations and mobility of permethrin within rivers in the Humber catchment, which contain some of the highest densities of wool‐scouring activity in the world. Our approach was to utilise three different surveys: (a) weekly and storm‐responsive sampling of ‘whole waters’ in the rivers Aire, Ouse, Don, Trent and Calder; (b) intensive sampling of ‘whole waters’ and suspended sediments in the rivers Aire (0.5 h) and Calder (1 h); (c) a bed‐sediment survey of the River Calder. Sediments were extracted by supercritical fluid extraction and all samples were analysed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Results demonstrated the presence of permethrin in ‘whole waters’ and sediments, particularly in the rivers Aire and Calder, and at concentrations in the bed‐sediment likely to cause ecotoxicological effects to benthic macro‐invertebrates. Mass‐balance calculations indicated some loss of permethrin from the water column during transport, with the greatest losses at low river‐discharge. Isomer ratios (trans:cis) give retention times of permethrin in different components of the system as ‘whole water’ < suspended sediments < bed‐sediments, with estimates of 4–26 days for suspended sediments and a maximum of 103–125 days for surface bed‐sediments. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Land and water interface zones

This paper reports analyses of C pools and fluxes in land-water interface zones completed at the International Workshop: Terrestrial Biospheric Carbon Fluxes; Quantification of Sinks and Sources of CO₂ (Bad Harzburg, Germany, March 1–5, 1993). The objective was to determine the role of these zones as global sinks of atmospheric CO₂ as part of a larger effort to quantify global C sinks and sources in the past (ca. 1850), the present, and the foreseeable future (ca. 2050). Assuming the world population doubles by the year 2050, storage of atmospheric C in reservoirs will also double, as will river loads of atmospheric C and nutrients. It is estimated that C sinks in temperate and boreal wetlands have decreased by about 50%, from 0.2 to 0.1 Gt C yr^?1 since 1850. The total decrease for wetlands may be considerably larger when tropical wetlands are taken into account, however, the area and C density of tropical wetlands are not well known at this time. Changes in cultivation practices and improved sampling of methaneogenesis have caused estimates of CH₄ emissions from ricelands to drop substantially from 150 to 60 Tg yr^?1. Even with doubled N and P loads, rivers are unlikely to fertilize more than about 20% of the new primary production in the coastal ocean. The source of C for this new production may not be the atmosphere, however, because the coastal ocean exchanges large quantities of DIC with the open ocean. Until the C fluxes from air-sea exchange of CO₂ and DIC are better quantified, the C-sink potential of the coastal ocean will remain a major uncertainty in the global C cycle. Analysis of model simulations of oceanic C uptake reconfirmed that the open ocean appears to take up about 2.0 Gt C yr^?1 from the atmosphere and that model estimates are in better accord now, ±0.5 Gt C yr^?1, than ever before. Land use management must consider the unique C sinks in coastal and alluvial wetlands in order to minimize the future negative impacts of agriculture and urban development. Long-term monitoring will be essential to prove the success, or failure, of management practices to sustain wetlands in the future. Relative to the other systems examined at the workshop, the C-sink capacity of the ocean (excluding estuaries) is not likely to be measurably affected in the foreseeable future by the management scenarios considered at the workshop.     

Interaction of formamidines with octopamine-, dopamine-and 5-hydroxytryptamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase in the nerve cord of Periplaneta americana

The interaction of chlordimeform, N¹-demethylchlordimeform [N²-(4-chloro-o-tolyl)-N¹-methylformamidine], BTS-27271 [N¹-methyl-N²-(2,4-xylyl)formamidine, the 2,4-xylyl analogue of N¹-demethylformamidine], and amitraz with octopamine-, dopamine-, and 5-hydroxytryptamine-mediated enhancement of cyclic-AMP production was investigated in nerve cord homogenates of the American cockroach Periplaneta americana. N¹-Demethylchlordimeform, BTS-27271 and amitraz simulated the actions of the monoamines in enhancing cyclic-AMP production, whereas chlordimeform showed no such agonism. Additivity studies indicated that these formamidine derivatives were interacting with dopamine- and 5-hydroxytryptamine-sensitive sites, in addition to their known interaction with octopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase. N¹-Demethylchlordimeform (Ki= 0.2μM) and amitraz (Ki=0.5μM) inhibited the dopamine-mediated response, but only N¹-demethylchlordimeform (Ki=2μM) effected appreciable inhibition of the octopamine-response. Pharmacological characterisation of the formamidineinduced elevation of cyclic-AMP production indicated that the agonistic effects of formamidines are expressed primarily through the octopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase, rather than the dopamine- or 5-hydroxytryptamine-sensitive sites. The results are discussed in the light of the proposal that the behavioural changes, associated with formamidine poisoning, reflect the cumulative effects of octopamine-agonism, and antagonism of the dopamine- and 5-hydroxytryptaminemediated processes.     

Use of Green Fluorescent Protein and Image Analysis to Quantify Proliferation of Trichoderma harzianum in Nonsterile Soil

ABSTRACT One drawback of traditional methods for fungal biomass measurement is the inability to distinguish biomass of an introduced fungus from that of the indigenous microbial community in nonsterile soil. We quantified biomass of a specific fungal biological control agent in nonsterile soil using epifluorescence microscopy and image analysis of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Trichoderma harzianum (ThzID1-M3). Numbers of colony forming units on a semiselective medium were compared with biomass estimates from image analysis, after ThzID1-M3 was incubated in soil that either remained moist (-0.05 MPa) for 14 to 21 days or remained moist for approximately 5 days and then was allowed to dry to <-3.0 MPa. Recovery of significant numbers of ThzID1-M3 propagules lagged approximately 3 days behind initiation of hyphal growth. Reductions in both colony counts and biomass were observed over time when soil was allowed to dry. However, in soil that remained moist, colony counts increased over a 14- to 21-day period even though biomass declined after approximately 3 to 5 days. Our results confirm that use of GFP, along with epifluorescence microscopy, is a useful tool to distinguish active hyphal biomass, the form of the fungus that is functional for biological control, from inactive propagules such as conidia or chlamydospores that are enumerated by plate counts.