In vitro morphogenesis of juvenile Annona cherimola Mill,bud explants

A micropropagation procedure for juvenile cherimoya (Annona clierimola Mill.) is described. Axillary shoot proliferation was obtained after culturing nodal sections with lateral buds in basal medium supplemented with either 0.66 μM BA or 1,36μM zeatin. For root induction shoots were pre-incubated for 7 d in basal medium supplemented with 1 gl^?1 activated charcoal, then cultured for 10 d (7 dark/3 light) on medium with 500 μM IBA, 58.4 mM sucrose, and 200 mg I“1 citric acid. Afterwards, shoots were transferred to the same medium without auxin and with the macroelements at half strength. Using this procedure, 95% of shoots rooted. The survival rate at the end of the acclimatization period was 70%.     

Thrombolytic Therapy in Dogs and Cats

Objective: To review the thrombolytic agents most commonly used in humans, their mechanisms of action, potential uses, adverse effects, and reports of their use in dogs and cats.
Human data synthesis: Thrombolytic agents avaliable in human medicine include streptokinase, urokinase, tissueplasminogen activator (t-PA), single-chain urokinase plasma activator (scu-PA) and anisoylated plasminogen-strep-tokinase activator complex (APSAC). These agents were originally used for the management of proximal deep vein thrombosis and severe pulmonary embolism but more recently, use of these drugs has been extended to include the treatment of acute peripheral arterial disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and acute coronary thrombosis. The most predictable side effect associated with the use of thrombolytic therapy is hemorrhage.
Veterinary data synthesis: Clinical experience with thrombolytic agents in small animals is limited to streptokinase and t-PA. It is possible, that as in humans, canine and feline patients with PTE and right ventricular dysfunction may benefit from thrombolytic therapy but there are no veterinary studies to support this theory to date. Successful use of streptokinase has been documented in a small number of canine patients with systemic thromboembolism. ⁶³ Thrombolytic therapy is relatively efficacious in cats with aortic thromboemboli but is associated with a high mortality rate. ^59,60,64 With regard to use of t-PA in veterinary medicine, the small number of animals treated with varying protocols makes it impossible to provide safe and effective dose recommendations at this time.
Conclusions: Future goals for thrombolytic therapy in veterinary medicine include determination of more specific clinical indications, as well as design of effective protocols that minimize mortality and morbidity.     

Milk progesterone enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as a tool to investigate ovarian cyclicity of water buffaloes in relation to body condition score and milk production

Background

Application of assisted reproductive technologies in buffaloes is limited to some extent by farmers’ inability to detect oestrus because of its poor expression. The present study aimed at investigating reliability of a milk progesterone enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the ovarian cyclicity during post partum, oestrus and post-breeding periods in water buffaloes.

Methods

Progesterone concentrations were measured by an ELISA in milk of 23 postpartum buffaloes in relation to oestrus, pregnancy, body condition score (BCS) and milk production. Two milk samples were taken at 10 days intervals, every month starting from day 30 and continued to day 150 post partum. BCS and milk production were recorded during sample collection. Milk samples from bred buffaloes were collected at Day 0 (day of breeding), Days 10–12 and Days 22–24. Defatted milk was preserved at −80°C until analysis. Pregnancy was confirmed by palpation per rectum on Days 70–90.

Results

Seventeen buffaloes had 47 ovulatory cycles, one to four in each, 13 were detected in oestrus once (28 % oestrus detection rate). Progesterone concentration ≥1 ng/ml in one of the two 10-day-interval milk samples reflected ovulation and corpus luteum formation. The intervals between calving to first luteal activity and to first detected oestrus varied from 41 to 123 days (n = 17) and 83 to 135 (n = 13) days, respectively. Eight buffaloes were bred in the course of the study and seven were found pregnant. These buffaloes had a progesterone profile of low (<1 ng/ml), high (≥ 1 ng/ml) and high (≥ 1 ng/ml) on Day 0, Days 10–12 and Days 22–24, respectively. Buffaloes cycling later in the postpartum period had fewer missed oestruses (P < 0.05). Buffaloes with a superior BCS had a shorter calving to oestrus interval and produced more milk (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Milk progesterone ELISA is a reliable tool for monitoring ovarian cyclicity and good BCS may be an indicator of resuming cyclicity in water buffalo.     

THE EFFECT OF INCLUDING DRIED GRASS IN THE SUPPLEMENT GIVEN TO LACTATING COWS AT PASTURE

An investigation into the effect of including dried grass in the supplement given to dairy cows at pasture is reported. Supplements containing 0, 50 and 100% dried grass were used in the investigation which was carried out in two parts. In the first part 12 high-yielding cows with unrestricted access to pasture were used in an experiment with a change over design to assess the effects of feeding 5 kg/day of each supplement on milk yield and composition. In the second part 8 steers, housed in stalls and given cut herbage from the same sward as that grazed hy the cows, were used in a change over experiment to assess the effects of the three supplements on herhage and total DM intake. No significant differences in milk yield between supplements were ohtained, the mean yields being 23·9, 24·5 and 23·9 kg/day for the supplements containing 0, 50 and 100% dried grass, respectively. Milk composition was also not significantly affected by including dried grass in the supplement. In the indoor feeding trial using the steers, the addition of 3·5 kg DM from the supplement resulted in an increase in total DM intake of only 1·3 kg/day. There was no significant difference hetween supplements on herbage and total DM intake.     

Risk factors associated with transmissible gastroenteritis in swine.

Commercial production data base records from 2 Illinois farms, on which epizootic or enzootic transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) was experienced, were accessed for an epidemiologic study. Risk factors investigated were sow parity, source of sows, location of farrowing crates, and breeding practices. At farm 1, an epizootic was experienced; at farm 2, an epizootic of TGE followed by enzootic TGE was experienced. Initially, crude risk ratios were calculated for these risk factors, and the crude risk ratios were subsequently adjusted for confounders and interactions, using multiple logistic regression techniques. After adjustment, parity-3 sows were 2.3 times more likely to have litters with TGE than were sows of all other parities on farm 1, and parity-1 sows were 2.6 times more likely to have litters that experienced TGE than were sows of all other parities on farm 2. A single boar on each farm was linked to increased likelihood of a sow's litter contracting epizootic TGE on each farm. Enzootic TGE was maintained by the periodic influx of outside-source gilts on farm 2; these gilts were 2.2 times more likely to have litters with TGE than were sows derived from farm 2. Sows housed in farrowing crates located under the cold air inlet of farm 2 were 1.7 times as likely as sows located in other rows to have litters with enzootic TGE.     

Transmissible gastroenteritis in neonatal dogs: experimental intestinal infection with transmissible gastroenteritis virus.

Fourteen neonatal dogs (4 through 11 days of age) were exposed orally to the Purdue strain of transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus, and six dogs of similar age were noninoculated controls. Clinical signs of enteric disease did not develop. Both exposed and control dogs had normal fecal passages and appetite throughout the experiment. Jejunal epithelium from dogs euthanatized at 12, 24, 48, and 96 hours and at 10 days after exposure did not exhibit morphologic alterations detectable by light microscopy. Electron microscopic examination indicated that jejunal epithelial cells contained TGE viral particles as early as 12 hours after dogs were exposed. There were no apparent morphologic alterations or signs of desquamation of virus-infected cells, however. Results of pig transmission studies indicated that viable TGE virus was in jejunal tissue of the dogs as early as 12 hours and as late as 10 days after exposure to the virus.     

Needle tract implantation after fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder and adenocarcinoma of the lung

This paper reports three clinical cases of needle tract implantation of neoplastic cells on the abdominal and thoracic wall after ultrasound (US) fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). Primary tumors were two transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder (2 dogs) and one pulmonary adenocarcinoma (1 cat). All three masses grew up along the needle tract. To our knowledge, the seeding of pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells after FNAB on the thoracic wall has never been reported in veterinary medicine.     

Relationship between level of forage intake,blood flow and oxygen consumption by splanchnic tissues of sheep fed a tropical grass forage

Four Polwarth castrated male sheep (42 ± 4.4 kg live weight (LW) surgically implanted with chronic indwelling catheters into the mesenteric, portal and hepatic veins, housed in metabolism cages and offered Cynodon sp. hay at rates (g of dry matter (DM)/kg LW) of 7, 14, 21 or ad libitum, were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square experiment to evaluate the effect of the level of forage intake on blood flow and oxygen consumption by the portal‐drained viscera (PDV), liver and total splanchnic tissues (ST). The portal blood flow and the oxygen consumption by PDV linearly increased at increased organic matter (OM) intake. No effect of level of OM intake was obtained for the hepatic artery blood flow and oxygen consumption by liver. As a consequence, the level of OM intake only tended to directly affect hepatic blood flow and oxygen consumption by total ST. Oxygen consumption was linearly and positively related to blood flow across PDV, liver and total ST. The heat production by PDV and total ST, as proportion of metabolizable energy (ME) intake, decreased curvilinearly at increased ME intake. In conclusion, the oxygen consumption by PDV, but not by liver, was directly related to the level of forage intake by sheep. Moreover, when ingested at levels below maintenance, most of ME was spent as heat produced by ST.