Effect of Ergopeptines Associated with Tall Fescue Ingestion on Recovery of Horses Subjected to Standardized Exercise Tests

Ten horses were paired by body weight, age, and skill level, and one of each pair was assigned to one of two groups. Horses were fed alfalfa hay and a mixture of commercial sweet feed and pellets. Horses in group A were fed fescue seed that contained both ergovaline and ergotamine (E+), whereas those in the other group were fed seed that was free from ergot alkaloids (E−). After the first 35 days, horses were switched to the opposite seed treatment. Seed was fed at 8.2% of the diet, resulting in 406 ppb of ergotamine plus ergovaline in the E+ diet. During weeks 3, 5, 7, and 10, horses were subjected to two separate standardized exercise tests (SETs). The aerobic test consisted of walking, trotting, and loping and was designed to maintain horse's heart rate (HR) to less than 150 beats per minute (bpm). The anaerobic test consisted of 40 turns in less than 4 minutes in response to the movements of a mechanical cow and was designed to increase the horse's HR to more than 150 bpm. There were no treatment effects on water consumption or sweat production. There were also no treatment effects on rectal temperature at rest or during recovery from the anaerobic SET. However, rectal temperatures were higher (P < .05) 1 and 30 minutes after the aerobic SET for horses consuming E+ seed. When horses were on the E+ treatment, HRs were lower (P < .05), both at rest and during the SET. HRs were also lower (P < .05) for the E+ treatment at 1 minute after the aerobic test and 5 and 10 minutes after the anaerobic test. Respiration rates were higher (P < .05) 30 minutes after the aerobic SET and 30 and 60 minutes after the anaerobic SET for the E+ treatment. Horses may have increased respiration rates to compensate for a reduction in the efficiency of evaporative cooling, which resulted from vasoconstriction of peripheral blood vessels.     

Detection of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi using a triplex qPCR assay

Genome sequencing data for Streptococcus equi subspecies equi and zooepidemicus were used to develop a novel diagnostic triplex quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay targeting two genes specific to S. equi (eqbE and SEQ2190) and a unique 100 base pair control DNA sequence (SZIC) inserted into the SZO07770 pseudogene of S. zooepidemicus strain H70. This triplex strangles qPCR assay can provide results within 2 h of sample receipt, has an overall sensitivity of 93.9% and specificity of 96.6% relative to the eqbE singlex assay and detects S. equi at levels below the threshold of the culture assay, even in the presence of contaminating bacteria.     

Greater Sage-Grouse and Severe Winter Conditions: Identifying Habitat for Conservation

Developing sustainable rangeland management strategies requires solution-driven research that addresses ecological issues within the context of regionally important socioeconomic concerns. A key sustainability issue in many regions of the world is conserving habitat that buffers animal populations from climatic variability, including seasonal deviation from long-term precipitation or temperature averages, and that can establish an ecological bottleneck by which the landscape-level availability of critical resources becomes limited. We integrated methods to collect landscape-level animal occurrence data during severe winter conditions with estimation and validation of a resource selection function, with the larger goal of developing spatially explicit guidance for rangeland habitat conservation. The investigation involved greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) that occupy a landscape that is undergoing human modification for development of energy resources. We refined spatial predictions by exploring how reductions in the availability of sagebrush (as a consequence of increasing snow depth) may affect patterns of predicted occurrence. Occurrence of sage-grouse reflected landscape-level selection for big sagebrush, taller shrubs, and favorable thermal conditions and avoidance of bare ground and anthropogenic features. Refinement of spatial predictions showed that important severe winter habitat was distributed patchily and was constrained in spatial extent (7–18% of the landscape). The mapping tools we developed offer spatially explicit guidance for planning human activity in ways that are compatible with sustaining habitat that functions disproportionately in population persistence relative to its spatial extent or frequency of use. Increasingly, place-based, quantitative investigations that aim to develop solutions to landscape sustainability issues will be needed to keep pace with human-modification of rangeland and uncertainty associated with global climate change and its effects on animal populations.     

Ochetostoma Erythrogrammon (Leuckart & Rüppell 1828) (Echiurida) from Isipingo Beach,Natal, South Africa

The first record of O. erythrogrammon from Isipingo was found in a crevice at the high-water mark. The specimen has a mucilaginous cap covering the posterior end of the trunk. The anatomy shows that the intestinal siphon terminates posteriorly at the opening of the rectal diverticulum into the rectum. There is a pair of anal vesicles beset with numerous stalked ciliated funnels. Replacement setae are found associated with each of the two functional setae. Each nephridium is provided with a single outgrowth which divides into two coiled appendages. There are 12 muscle bundles of limited extent.     

Organisms associated with the sandy-beach bivalve Donax serra Röding,with a description of Cercaria serrae sp. nov. (Trematoda)

Examination of two collections of Donax serra from a South African west coast beach revealed the presence of Ciliophora, Trematoda, Nematoda and a parasitic pycnogonid. This is the first record of a pycnogonid from the genus Donax and the first published report of such a parasite from any southern African bivalve mollusc. One of the two trematode species found is described as new and its epidemiology is discussed briefly. No epibiota were found on the bivalve shell.     

Soil nitrogen distribution and deposition on shortgrass prairie adjacent to a beef cattle feedyard

Cattle feedyards can impact local environments through emission of ammonia and dust deposited on nearby land. Impacts range from beneficial fertilization of cropland to detrimental effects on sensitive ecosystems. Shortgrass prairie downwind from an adjacent feedyard on the southern High Plains of Texas, USA changed from perennial grasses to annual weeds. It was hypothesized that N enrichment from the feedyard initiated the cascade of negative ecological change. Objectives were to determine the distribution of soil nitrogen and estimate N loading to the pasture. Soil samples were collected from 119 locations across the pasture and soil total N (TN), nitrate-N and ammonium-N (AN) determined in the top 30 cm. Soil TN concentration decreased with distance downwind from the feedyard from 1.6 ± 0.2 g kg⁻¹ at 75 m to 1.2 ± 0.05 g kg⁻¹ at 582 m. Nitrate-N concentration decreased within 200 m of the feedyard and changed little at greater distances. Ammonium-N concentration decreased linearly (P < 0.001) with increasing distance from the feedyard from 7.9 ± 1.7 mg kg⁻¹ within 75 m from the feedyard to 5.8 ± 1.5 mg kg⁻¹ at more than 550 m from the feedyard; however, distance only explained 12% of the variability in AN concentration. Maximum nitrogen loading, from 75 to 106 m from the feedyard, was 49 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ over 34 years and decreased with distance from the feedyard. An estimate of net dry deposition of ammonia indicated that it contributed negligibly to N loading to the pasture. Nitrogen enrichment that potentially shifted vegetation from perennial grasses to annual weeds affected soil N up to 500 m from the feedyard; however, measured organic and inorganic N beyond that returned to typical and expected levels for undisturbed shortgrass prairie.

How do hedgerows influence soil organic carbon stock in livestock‐grazed pasture?

Hedgerows have the potential to influence ecosystem function in livestock‐grazed pasture. Despite this, they are often ignored when quantifying farmland ecosystem service delivery. In this study, we assess the contribution of hedgerows to the ecosystem function of carbon (C) storage, with a particular emphasis on soil organic carbon (SOC). We measured SOC stock (kg C m^?2), on an equivalent soil mass basis, at 0–0.15 m depth in pasture adjacent to 38 hedgerows (biotic) and 16 stone walls or fences (abiotic controls) across ten farms in the county of Conwy, Wales, UK. Pasture SOC stock (~7 kg C m^?2) was similar adjacent to biotic and abiotic field boundaries, positively associated with soil moisture and negatively with soil bulk density (BD). For biotic boundaries, two further variables were significantly associated with SOC stock, distance from hedgerow (decrease in SOC stock) and slope orientation (upslope SOC stock greater than downslope). For pasture adjacent to hedgerows, a model combining the aforementioned variables (BD, soil moisture, distance from hedgerow, slope orientation) explained 78% of variation in SOC stock. This study demonstrates that whilst hedgerows do have subtle positive effects on SOC stock in adjacent pasture, SOC storage adjacent to field boundaries is influenced more by soil moisture content and BD than field boundary type.     

Diagnostic real-time PCR assay for the quantitative detection of Theileria equi from equine blood samples

We developed a TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the quantitative detection of Theileria equi from the in vitro-cultured parasite and field blood samples collected from horses living in Ghana and Brazil. The detection limit for the assay was determined to be 1.5 parasites/microl per sample, and the quantitative capacity was demonstrated using the in vitro-cultured parasite. For field applications, the real-time PCR assay was compared to a previously established nested PCR assay used as the gold standard for the real-time PCR assay. Of 65 field blood samples, 46 samples were T. equi-positive in the nested PCR assay, while the real-time PCR assay also detected the parasite in all 46 of the nested PCR-positive samples but did not detect T. equi in the remaining 19 negative blood samples. This quantitative real-time PCR assay provides a valuable tool for fast laboratory diagnostic assessment of T. equi infection in horses.