Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in a 14-year-old gelding

Abstract

CASE HISTORY: A 14-year-old Cleveland Bay cross gelding was presented with severe urinary incontinence that had been present for 1 year, and chronic polydipsia and polyuria over 4 years. Water intake had been recorded as 240 L over a 24-hour period.

CLINICAL FINDINGS: The horse had marked urinary incontinence and polyuria and polydipsia. The urine was markedly hyposthenuric, but no abnormalities on urinalysis were detected. There were no other abnormal clinical or neurological signs. Haematological and serum biochemical examinations showed no abnormalities and ultrasonographic and endoscopic examination of the urinary tract did not reveal any abnormalities. The horse underwent a modified water deprivation test and failed to concentrate its urine after 5 days. 1-desamino-8-d-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP) was administered I/V but the urine remained isosthenuric with a specific gravity of 1.010.

DIAGNOSIS: Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. A definitive cause of the urinary incontinence was not found but overflow incontinence was considered a possibility.

CLINICAL RELEVENCE: Despite being a rare condition in the horse diabetes insipidus should be considered in cases of severe polydipsia and polyuria in mature horses.     

Factors affecting the relationship between arterial and end-tidal carbon dioxide pressures in the anaesthetised horse

Objective To assess the effects of the duration of anaesthesia, position of recumbency, mode of ventilation, anaesthetic drug protocol, patient age and type of surgical procedure on the usefulness of capnometry as a measure of the partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide (P_aco ₂) during general anaesthesia in horses. Design A prospective study compared the P_aco ₂ values with those of partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETco ₂) in horses anaesthetised for elective or emergency surgical procedures. The difference between P_aco ₂ and ETco ₂ (P_aco ₂− ETco ₂) and the physiological dead space to tidal volume ratio (V_D/V_T) were calculated. The effects of the study parameters on these variables was determined. Results The agreement between P_aco ₂ and ETco ₂ was poor. P_aco ₂− ETco ₂ and V_D/V_T during the first 60 min of anaesthesia was significantly less than after 60 min of anaesthesia. Mode of ventilation, position of recumbency, anaesthetic drug protocol, patient age and type of procedure did not have a significant affect on either value. Conclusions P_aco ₂− ETco ₂ in anaesthetised horses can be large, making ETco ₂ unreliable as a predictor of P_aco ₂ and for assessment of pulmonary ventilation. For anaesthesia lasting less than 60 min at least one blood gas analysis of an arterial blood sample is required to assess P_aco ₂− ETco ₂. Arterial blood gas analysis should be repeated after 60 min of general anaesthesia.     

Genotypic and environmental variation of resistance to head blight in triticale inoculated with Fusarium culmorum

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a widespread disease of small‐grain cereals and can cause substantial losses in grain yield. To assess quantitative genetic parameters as a basis for an efficient breeding programme for resistance, 100 triticale (×Triticosecale Wittm.) genotypes were tested in various environments and artificially inoculated at anthesis with an aggressive isolate of Fusarium culmorum. A visual rating (1–9 scale) was used to assess head blight infection. Five grain yield traits relative to an uninoculated control were also measured. The mean value of the average rating, calculated from four or five readings, was 4.4. It ranged from 3.0 to 5.9 and showed continuous variation. Infection caused a 48% reduction of mean kernel weight per spike, which was the result of 26% fewer kernels per spike and a 32% lower 1000‐kernel weight. The 50‐ml kernel weight was affected by only 20%. The range and genotypic variation was highest for relative kernel weight per spike. For all relative grain yield traits, the most important source of variation was the environment, followed by genotype‐environment interaction, with genotype generally coming last. In contrast, genotypic variation was the most important factor for the disease rating, which also had the highest heritability (h²= 0.89). Phenotypic correlations between the average head blight rating and relative grain yield traits were moderate (r = 0.42–0.57). In conclusion, an average disease rating provides a quantitative assessment of resistance and is suitable for screening large numbers of genotypes. Relative kernel weight per spike gives a ranking of the genotypes that is very similar to the visual score.     

Effect of astaxanthin on the quality of boar sperm stored at 17°C,incubated at 37°C or under in vitro conditions

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the antioxidant astaxanthin on boar semen. Twenty ejaculates from 10 boars (two ejaculates/boar) were extended and split in three groups: semen control (SC), solvent control (C; semen with dimethyl sulfoxide, the diluent of astaxanthin) and semen with astaxanthin (A) in concentration 0.5 μmol/L. Sperm quality parameters (motility and kinetics, morphology, viability, functional integrity of sperm plasma membrane by Hypo‐Osmotic Swelling Test [HOST] and DNA integrity) were assessed at 0, 24 and 48 hr of storage at 17°C (experiment I), before (0 hr) and after (1 hr) of sperm thermal resistance assay at 37°C (experiment II) and finally before (0 hr) and after (1 hr) sperm in vitro incubation (38.5°C, 5% CO₂, maximum humidity [experiment III]). In experiment I, group A performed overall better than group SC and as a tendency better than group C regarding viability. Total motility, rapid spermatozoa and HOST remained constant across time in group A, whereas they decreased in the remaining groups. In experiment II, regarding motility and viability, group A displayed better results across time than the other two groups. In experiment III, viability and total motility decreased in groups SC and C, while in group A, these parameters were not significantly different between the examination time points. In conclusion, astaxanthin has a beneficial and protective effect on boar semen quality under the investigated conditions.     

Nanotribology and Nanofabrication of MoO3 Structures by Atomic Force Microscopy

Atomic force microscopy was used to characterize the sliding of molybdenum oxide (MoO3) nanocrystals on single-crystal molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) surfaces. Highly anisotropic friction was observed whereby MoO3 nanocrystals moved only along specific directions of the MoS2 surface lattice. The energy per unit area to move the MoO3 nanocrystals along their preferred sliding direction was an order of magnitude less than required to slide macroscopic MoS2-bearing contacts. This extreme friction anisotropy was exploited to fabricate multicomponent MoO3 nanostructures. These reversibly interlocking structures could serve as the basis for devices such as mechanical logic gates.     

Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia is a heritable trait of the dam rather than the calf and correlates with the magnitude of vaccine induced maternal alloantibodies not the MHC haplotype

Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP), a bleeding syndrome of neonatal calves, is caused by alloantibodies absorbed from the colostrum of particular cows. A commercial BVD vaccine is the likely source of alloantigens eliciting BNP associated alloantibodies. We hypothesized that the rare occurrence of BNP in calves born to vaccinated dams could be associated with genetic differences within dams and calves. We found that the development of BNP within calves was a heritable trait for dams, not for calves and had a high heritability of 19%. To elucidate which genes play a role in the development of BNP we sequenced candidate genes and characterized BNP alloantibodies. Alloantigens present in the vaccine have to be presented to the dam’s immune system via MHC class II, however sequencing of DRB3 showed no differences in MHC class II haplotype between BNP and non-BNP dams. MHC class I, a highly polymorphic alloantigen, is an important target of BNP alloantibodies. Using a novel sequence based MHC class I typing method, we found no association of BNP with MHC class I haplotype distribution in dams or calves. Alloantibodies were detected in both vaccinated BNP and non-BNP dams and we found no differences in alloantibody characteristics between these groups, but alloantibody levels were significantly higher in BNP dams. We concluded that the development of BNP in calves is a heritable trait of the dam rather than the calf and genetic differences between BNP and non-BNP dams are likely due to genes controlling the quantitative alloantibody response following vaccination.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13567-014-0129-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Effect of Mating Frequency on Sow Reproductive Performance under Field Conditions and Natural Mating in Large Outdoor Production Units

The effect of mating frequency on fertility and litter size of sows, kept in outdoor production systems was investigated. Sows that were mated once or twice during a single oestrus were included in the study to compare the effect of number of matings on farrowing rate and litter size. Natural mating was used during the study period. Four groups of sows of parity two or more were either mated once 28–30 h after the onset of oestrus or were mated 28–30 h after the onset of oestrus and again 24 h later. The farrowing rate did not differ significantly between single‐ and double‐mated sows, although a noticeable but non‐significant depression in farrowing rate was evident between the groups of single‐mated and double‐mated animals. With the exception of total‐born litter size (p > 0.05), the total number born and number of live‐born piglets per litter were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in the group of sows that received only one mating compared with the double‐mated animals. The implication of these results is that the double mating by natural service of sows kept in an outdoor production systems may improve litter size.     

Effects of local anaesthesia of 4 to 8 hours duration on the acute cortisol response to scoop dehorning in calves

Objective To determine the effect of a long-acting local anaesthetic on the plasma cortisol response in calves dehorned using a scoop.
Design A physiological study with controls.
Procedure Seventy female calves, 3 to 4 months old, were divided into seven groups and dehorned by scoop with or without a long acting local anaesthetic (bupivacaine) which provides local anaesthesia for 3 to 4 h. In some treatment groups the local anaesthetic was given a second time, after 4 h, to give 8 h of anaesthesia. Blood samples were taken before and for 9 h after treatment and plasma cortisol concentrations were measured.
Results Scoop dehorning caused a marked rise in plasma cortisol concentration, which returned to pre-dehorning values after 7 h. The cortisol concentrations of calves given bupiva-caine were similar to those of control animals for 4 h after dehorning, but then a significant and protracted rise occurred, with concentrations returning to pretreatment values at about 9 h after dehorning. In calves given a second treatment of bupivacaine 4 h after dehorning, the plasma cortisol concentration remained similar to control values for 8 h after dehorning but then increased sharply.
Conclusions During its period of activity long-acting local anaesthetic prevented the rise usually seen after scoop dehorning in plasma cortisol concentrations; by inference it also alleviated the pain-induced distress caused by this procedure. However, when its effects had worn off the plasma cortisol values rose sharply indicating that animals still experienced pain-induced distress despite local anaesthetic being administered.