Pasteurella haemolytica A1 and Bovine Respiratory Disease: Pathogenesis

The severe fibrinonecrotic pneumonia associated with pneumonic pasteurellosis usually results from colonization of the lower respiratory tract by Pasteurella haemolytica biotype A, serotype 1(A1). Despite recent research efforts, the authors lack a detailed understanding of the interactions and host response to P. haemolytica in the respiratory tract. The authors hypothesize that management and environmental stress factors or viral infection alters the upper respiratory tract (URT) epithelium allowing P. haemolytica to colonize the epithelium. Once the URT is colonized, large numbers of organisms enter the lung where they interact with alveolar macrophages. Endotoxin, released from the bacteria, crosses the alveolar wall where it activates pulmonary intravascular macrophages, endothelium, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, complement, and Hageman factor leading to complex interactions of cells and mediators. It is the progression of this inflammatory response with neutrophil influx that is ultimately responsible for the pulmonary injury. Leukotoxin is a major virulence factor of P. haemolytica that allows it to survive by destroying phagocytic cells. At subcytolytic concentrations it may also enhance the inflammatory response by activating cells to produce mediators and release reactive oxygen metabolites and proteases.     

The influence of fasting on blood glucose,triglycerides, cholesterol,and alkaline phosphatase in rats

Serum concentrations of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, and serum alkaline phosphatase activity were measured over different periods of time of food deprivation in male rats. Thirty percent of non-fasted rat's sera was found to be lipemic. At 16 hours of fasting, glucose levels dropped by 30% compared to the level of the non-fasting control group, and remained at a relatively constant level for up to 48 hours of fasting. Triglyceride concentrations decreased at 16 hours after fasting. Serum cholesterol levels were not changed at any of the fasting periods compared to the non-fasted control group. Alkaline phosphatase activity was decreased at 8 hours of fasting, with further declines in activity of the serum enzyme seen at 16, 24, and 48 hours of fasting. It was concluded that at 16 to 18 hours fasting, a non-absorptive state had been reached in male rats.     

Infarctive purpura hemorrhagica in five horses

Five horses were examined because of signs of muscle stiffness, colic, or both. All 5 had been exposed to Streptococcus equi within 3 weeks prior to examination or had high serum titers of antibodies against the M protein of S equi. Horses had signs of unrelenting colic-like pain and focal areas of muscle swelling. Four horses were euthanatized. The fifth responded to treatment with penicillin and dexamethasone; after 3 weeks of treatment with dexamethasone, prednisolone was administered for an additional 10 weeks. Common hematologic and serum biochemical abnormalities included neutrophilia with a left shift and toxic changes, hyperproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, and high serum creatine kinase and aspartate transferase activities. Necropsy revealed extensive infarction of the skeletal musculature, skin, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and lungs. Histologic lesions included leukocytoclastic vasculitis in numerous tissues and acute coagulative necrosis resembling infarction. These horses appeared to have a severe form of purpura hemorrhagica resembling Henoch-Sch?nlein purpura in humans and characterized by infarction of skeletal muscles. Early recognition of focal muscle swelling, abdominal discomfort, neutrophilia, hypoalbuminemia, and high serum creatine kinase activity combined with antimicrobial and corticosteroid treatment may enhance the likelihood of a successful outcome.     

The Past,Present and Future of Domestic Equines in Tanzania

Equines are minor species in Tanzania’s array of domestic livestock. Attempts to use them for transport by early explorers from the mid-nineteenth century usually failed. Donkeys were used extensively as pack animals to complement human porters by both British and German forces in the First World War, but their advantages were often outweighed by slow progress and competition with troops and porters for water, and they died in huge numbers. The British had regular cavalry troops in their campaign and mules found limited use as individual mounts for officers. In modern times, there are very few horses in Tanzania but they find several uses. Exotic safaris are made on horseback, they are used as stock horses on ranches, there is a polo club in northern Tanzania and there are leisure riding activities around the capital city. Official census records for donkeys estimate numbers at under 300,000 with concentrations in the northern pastoral and agropastoral areas where they are used as pack animals with water being the main commodity transported. Elsewhere donkeys are used to a limited extent in transport and traction work. There is little interest in equines by the central and local governments or the general public and the status quo can be expected to continue.     

Evaluation of biomarkers of kidney injury following 4% succinylated gelatin and 6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4 administration in a canine hemorrhagic shock model

Objective : To investigate the association between synthetic colloids and biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI) in dogs with hemorrhagic shock. Design : Experimental interventional study. Setting : University. Animals : Twenty‐four healthy ex‐racing Greyhounds. Interventions : Anesthetized Greyhounds subjected to hemorrhage for 60 min were resuscitated with 20 mL/kg of fresh whole blood (FWB), 6% hydroxyethyl starch (HES) 130/0.4, 4% succinylated gelatin (GELO), or 80 mL/kg of isotonic crystalloid (CRYST) over 20 min (n = 6 per treatment). Concentrations of biomarkers of AKI were measured at baseline, end of hemorrhage, and at 40 (T60), 100 (T120), and 160 (T180) min after fluid bolus. Biomarkers included neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin in urine and serum (uNGAL; sNGAL), and urine cystatin C (uCYSC), kidney injury molecule‐1 (uKIM), clusterin (uCLUST), osteopontin, gamma‐glutamyl transferase, monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1 (uMCP), interleukin‐6, interleukin‐8, protein (uPROT), hyaluronan, and F₂‐isoprostanes. Renal histology was scored for tubular injury and microvesiculation. Biomarker fold‐change from baseline was compared between groups using mixed effects models (Bonferroni–Holm corrected P<0.05). Frequencies of histology scores were compared by Fisher's exact test. Measurements and main results : In dogs treated with GELO, uNGAL fold‐change was markedly greater compared with all other groups at T60, T120, and T180 (all P<0.001), and uCYSC was greater at T60 compared with CRYST (P<0.001), and at T120 and T180 compared with all other groups (all P<0.001). Smaller, albeit significant, between‐group differences in uKIM, uCLUST, uMCP, and urine protein concentration were observed across the FWB, GELO, and HES groups, compared with CRYST. The GELO group more frequently had marked tubular microvesiculation than the other groups (P = 0.015) although tubular injury scores were comparable. Conclusion : In dogs with hemorrhagic shock, GELO was associated with greater magnitude increases in urine biomarkers of AKI and more frequent marked tubular microvesiculation, compared with FWB, CRYST, and HES.     

An investigation into the grazing efficiency of perennial ryegrass varieties

The objective of this study was to compare the grazing efficiency of 30 perennial ryegrass varieties, differing in ploidy and heading date. Plots were grazed by lactating dairy cows and managed under a rotational grazing system with 19 grazing events occurring over two years. Pre-grazing and post-grazing compressed sward heights were measured with a rising plate meter. A mixed model was used to predict the post-grazing sward height of each variety based on year, grazing event, block and pre-grazing sward height. Residual grazed height (RGH) was derived as the difference between the actual and predicted post-grazing sward height and was used as the measure of grazing efficiency. Negative RGH values indicated that the actual herbage removed was greater than that predicted and so indicated a superior grazing efficiency. Varieties differed in their level of grazing efficiency (p < .001), with RGH values ranging from −0.38 to +0.34 cm. Tetraploid varieties exhibited significantly greater grazing efficiency performance than diploids (p < .001), with average RGH values of −0.13 and +0.13 cm respectively. A significant difference in grazing efficiency was found among recommended perennial ryegrass varieties that are not being recorded by mechanically harvested simulated grazing protocols. A variety reappraisal that included grazing efficiency could identify varieties capable of improving on-farm livestock productivity from grass.     

Conversion of native forest to exotic Pinus radiata plantation: Response of understorey plant composition using a plant functional trait approach

This study aimed to determine the response of native plant species to changed growing conditions, especially increased shade, following establishment of exotic Pinus radiata plantation on cleared native eucalypt forest. In the Northern Hemisphere, species tolerant to shading are typically herbaceous perennials, with large seeds, no obvious mechanism of seed dispersal, and spread by clonal means. We investigated whether life form, mode of seed dispersal, leaf area, specific leaf area (SLA), nutrient uptake strategy, seed mass, fire response, plant height, and clonal spread differed between understorey species of pine plantation and native forest. Further, we asked whether plant functional traits that confer tolerance to stress through shading differ from those in other floras. The study was conducted on the Delatite Peninsula in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. Vegetation of adjacent native forest and pine plantation were surveyed using eight 7 m × 7 m plots per site, randomly located within five paired sites. Differences in plant traits between land-use types were tested by Non-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling (NMDS), analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) and paired t-tests. Cluster analysis of the nine plant traits was used to define emergent groups, with differences between land-use types examined by ANOSIM and indicator species analysis. There was a significant change in the composition of understorey vegetation following conversion to pine plantation that included a decline in the richness of native species. NMDS of plant attributes showed a clear separation of native forest from pine plantation with land use strongly correlated in ordination space (r² = 0.611). Cluster analysis produced seven emergent groups of plant functional traits for 78 identified plant species. Phanerophytes split into two groups (myrmecochorous trees and shrubs; myrmecochorous shrubs), perennial herbs into four groups (upright herbs, myrmecochorous herbs, barochorous herbs, flat rosette herbs) with one group representing therophytes and anemochorous perennials. Perennial herbs with intermediate SLA and clonal spread were tolerant of the shaded conditions in pine plantation while the two groups of phanerophytes and the myrmecochorous herbs were largely excluded. Shared traits of excluded emergent groups included those that provided an over-riding adaptation to mineral nutrient stress, including myrmecochory, low SLA, ectomycorrhizal and ericoid mycorrhizal associations and N₂-fixation. These plant traits could not provide tolerance to stress through shading, which is better explained by the open canopied nature of the native forest.     

Fish species redundancy in estuaries: A major conservation concern in temperate estuaries under global change pressures

1. Fish assemblages in estuaries have a much lower species richness (number of taxa) when compared with the combined numbers of freshwater and marine species from adjacent aquatic ecosystems. This is primarily because of the relatively harsh and fluctuating physico-chemical conditions in estuaries compared with the more stable freshwater and marine environments.
2. A comprehensive fish survey of estuaries in South Africa is used as a basis to determine fish species richness in subtropical, warm temperate, and cool temperate systems along the coast, and to assess the degree of redundancy in the different biogeographic regions.
3. In general, only one or two species belonging to each of the detritivorous, piscivorous, zoobenthivorous, and zooplanktivorous fish guilds are numerically well represented in the larger cool temperate estuaries, but between four and 10 species in each of these guilds are usually recorded in the larger subtropical estuaries.
4. Although the overall low redundancy of fish species groups in estuaries has already been formally recognized in the literature, this short note highlights the sensitivity of certain trophic guilds in temperate South African estuaries to any form of redundancy, a characteristic that may be equally applicable, based on declining species richness with increasing latitude, to temperate estuaries in other parts of the world.