Primary orthostatic tremor in Great Danes

Two Great Danes were presented for an investigation of 6-month histories of incessant tremor of all 4 limbs and trunk occurring only when the dogs were standing at rest. Dog 1 was a 2-year-old intact female harlequin Great Dane living in the UK, and dog 2 was a 2-year-old castrated male fawn Great Dane living in the United States. The owners described both dogs as having constant quivering of the limbs while standing, suggestive of an involuntary dance, since the age of 18 months. The intensity of the tremors was reported in both dogs to have steadily increased since onset. In dog 1, tremors were noticed to be more pronounced in the fore limbs when she was eating and more pronounced in the hind limbs when she was trying to sit. The owner of dog 1 also reported that the dog could no longer assume a position of recumbency without manual assistance because of the severity of the tremors. Intermittently, tremors were reported to involve the facial musculature of dog 2. Vaccinations were current, and the owners of both dogs did not report any previous medical history, exposure to natural or manufactured toxins, or concurrent treatment. No familial relationship was identified between these 2 dogs.     

Variation in Occurrence of Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes on Forage Bermudagrass over Years, Sampling Times, and Locations

ABSTRACT Leaf samples of forage bermudagrass with symptoms of infection by species of Bipolaris, Curvularia, and Exserohilum (dematiaceous hyphomycetes) were collected from three swine waste application sites in Mississippi at eight sampling times during each of 3 years. Samples were assayed for pathogens by observing sporulation on plated leaf tissue. Among 3,600 leaves assayed, eight species of the three genera were observed. Features and criteria for the practical identification of species on plated leaf samples are described. Sporulation by dematiaceous hyphomycetes was observed on 97% of leaves; a single pathogen was observed on 20% and two to five pathogens were observed on 77% of leaves. Distributions of leaves among classes with one to five pathogens per leaf, for sites within years, always differed significantly (P = 0.01) from a Poisson distribution and usually included fewer leaves than expected with four or five pathogens. Significant (P = 0.05) variation in frequencies of occurrence of pathogens among 72 samples of 50 leaves each was attributed to pathogen species, sampling times, and species-time interactions. Exserohilum rostratum, Curvularia lunata, and Bipolaris cynodontis were the most frequent pathogens across years and sites; B. spicifera and C. geniculata were intermediate; and B. hawaiiensis, B. sorokiniana, and B. stenospila were least frequent. For the five most common pathogens, significant differences in frequency among locations were commonplace. Six pathogens exhibited significant (P = 0.05) positive and negative correlations with others in overall frequencies of occurrence across years, sampling times, and sites. However, chi(2) tests of dual occurrence indicated that interactions between specific pairs of pathogens in or on leaves are not likely to be major causes for overall frequency correlations. Results indicate that dematiaceous hyphomycetes typically infect forage bermudagrass on swine waste application sites in complexes rather than as individual species; that E. rostratum, C. lunata, and B. cynodontis are the predominant pathogens; and that frequencies of pathogens often differ significantly between locations.     

Resistance to benzimidazole and macrocyclic lactone anthelmintics in cattle nematodes in Argentina

In April 2003, persistent scouring and ill-thrift that was reported in calves form an intensive beef rearing operation in central Argentina despite treatments with benzimidazole and ivermectin. In order to conduct a controlled faecal egg count reduction test on this herd, 40 calves 5-8-months-old were selected on the basis that they had a nematode eggs per gram (epg) of faeces count greater than 150. Animals were divided into four groups (1-4) of 10 calves. Calves of groups 1-3 were treated, respectively, with subcutaneous injection of ivermectin (200 mcg/kg), ricobendazole (4 mg/kg) and levamisole (7.5 mg/kg), while calves of group 4 remained as untreated controls. The egg count reductions carried out 10 days later were lower than 15% in calves treated with ivermectin and ricobendazole, but 100% in animals receiving levamisole. Pooled post-treatment faecal cultures showed larval percentages of 92 and 95 for Haemonchus and 8 and 5 for Cooperia in the faeces of calves treated with ivermectin and ricobendazole, respectively. This is the first reported case of Haemonchus parasiting cattle showing simultaneous resistance to avermectins and benzimidazole type anthelmintics.     

Toxoplasmosis in two cats with inflammatory intestinal disease

Lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis, a chronic inflammatory intestinal disease, was diagnosed in 2 cats. In 1 cat, recurrence of clinical signs after initiating treatment was attributed to relapse of the inflammatory intestinal disease, but was found to be attributable to relapsing toxoplasmosis secondary to immunosuppressive drug therapy. Treatment with clindamycin resolved the recurrent toxoplasmosis. In the second cat, clinical signs of toxoplasmosis did not develop, but serologic testing yielded evidence of active toxoplasmosis. Treatment with clindamycin caused the titers to decrease. Relapsing toxoplasmosis may be responsible for apparent resistance to treatment in cats for inflammatory intestinal disease being treated with immunosuppressive drugs.     

Genetic characterization by fluorescent AFLP of Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi strains isolated from different host species

The genetic diversity of 71 Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi strains isolated from different host species and from diverse geographical regions was determined by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (f-AFLP) analysis. The study was carried out using three different selective primer combinations. Strains of P. syringae pv. syringae , P. syringae pv. phaseolicola , P. syringae pv. glycinea , P. syringae pv. tagetis and P. amygdali were also included as outgroups. Based on cluster analysis of f-AFLP data, all P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi strains showed a high degree of similarity, grouping in a cluster and forming a taxon clearly separate from outgroup strains. AFLP analyses failed to support placing strains of P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi , P. syringae pv. phaseolicola and P. syringae pv. glycinea in the same species. Strains of P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi formed subclusters that correlated with the host species. Strains identified within these subclusters were related to the geographical region where the strains were isolated. Strains of P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi from olive were divided into two subclusters. Strains from oleander were differentiated from those from ash and were divided into two additional subclusters, distinct from olive strains. Three strains isolated from jasmine showed a high level of similarity among them but, at a lower Dice similarity coefficient, were linked to a subcluster including olive strains. Finally, two strains isolated from privet were similar to strains from olive and were included in the same subcluster.     

Doubled-haploid versus single-seed descent and S1-family variation for testcross performance in a maize population

Progress made in the in situ gynogenesis technique since 1990 now allows production of a high number of maize (Zea mays L.) doubled-haploid (DH) lines. The aim of the study was to compare DH lines versus selfing lines for testcross performance. DH and single-seed descent (SSD) lines were produced from random S₁ progenies of a broad-base population. For grain yield, kernel moisture, plant height, ear height and leaf length, the three population means were similar. Except for kernel moisture, the genetic variance of DH lines was nearly twice as high as the genetic variance of S₁ families, as expected. On the other hand, genetic variance among SSD lines was only 1.5 times higher than the genetic variance of S₁ families. This lower variance could be due to a selection bias in the method of production of SSD lines. However, for all traits, heritability of SSD or DH lines was higher than heritability of S₁ families. Epistasis effects in DH progenies were not significant. The consequence was a high correlation between S₁ testcross progenies and DH or SSD testcross progenies, meaning that the S₁ testcross value can be used to select the best families from which DH lines will be extracted. As a whole, the observed variation in DH lines appeared to be more in accordance with the observed variation among S₁ families than with the observed variation among SSD lines.     

Morphological characterization of the IVIA persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) germplasm collection by multivariate analysis

Diospyros kaki Thunb. originated in Eastern Asia, as evidenced of its culture in China as early as several centuries B.C. In the seventh century, persimmon was introduced to Japan and later, in the fourteenth century to Korea. There is no information about persimmon culture in Europe until the seventeenth century, with the spread over the world occurring in the eighteenth century. The genus Diospyros contains more than 400 species, with levels of ploidy ranging from diploid (2n = 2x = 30) up to nonaploid (2n = 9x = 135). The primary economic crop species is Diospyros kaki Thunb., which is mainly hexaploid (2n = 6x = 90) and includes hundreds of cultivars. Although a relatively recent introduction in Europe, the species has adapted well, and the genetic diversity have been expanded with culture and selection for the past 200 years in the Mediterranean basin. These locally adapted cultivars were evaluated with cultivars from Asian origin in a germplasm collection established at IVIA in Valencia, Spain. In this paper 27 cultivars from the IVIA collection were studied by multivariate analysis, and 37 variables were analyzed using a Principal Components Analysis and cluster analysis following the method UPGMA. Studies on correlations and significance among variables identified the most relevant ones, and thus provided information for a future core collection.     

Detection of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Infection in Pigs

It is difficult to control the spread of porcine haemophilus pleuropneumonia caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae because there is no sensitive and specific way to accurately determine whether or not a pig herd is infected. This paper reports bacteriological and serological techniques used to detect A. pleuropneumoniae infection in pigs from a herd with endemic disease.

The bacteria were isolated from the anterior nasal mucosa of grower pigs, but not from younger or older pigs. Bacteriological culture of several tissues from the respiratory tract showed that nine of ten young finishing pigs were infected, but culture of lung tissue from slaughtered hogs detected infection in only 39 of 288 (13.5%). Both cooler storage temperature and use of selective medium prolonged the time that lung tissue could be stored and the organism still recovered. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detected serotype-specific antibodies in serum of infected pigs.