Resolution of skin lesions and long-term survival in a dog with superficial necrolytic dermatitis and liver cirrhosis

A nine-year-old, neutered female Shetland sheepdog was presented with crusted, ulcerative skin lesions affecting the footpads, commissures of the lips and the lateral canthi of the eyes. Histopathological examination of skin biopsies revealed changes consistent with superficial necrolytic dermatitis and biochemical analysis demonstrated elevated liver enzymes. Abdominal radiography revealed a small liver which, on ultrasonography, appeared diffusely mottled and showed changes suggestive of periportal fibrosis. On exploratory laparotomy, the pancreas appeared normal, but the liver was small and had multiple nodules throughout the parenchyma. This appearance was confirmed as cirrhosis on histopathological examination. The dog was placed on a hepatic support diet and treated with colchicine, essential fatty acid supplementation and raw egg yolks. After four weeks, the skin lesions had resolved and the dog remained free of clinical signs over a 22-month follow-up period.     

Effects of ractopamine on genetically obese and lean pigs

Twenty-eight genetically obese and 24 lean barrows (65.0 and 68.7 kg average BW, respectively) were allotted within genotype to a 16% CP corn-soybean meal basal diet or this basal diet + 20 ppm ractopamine (a phenethanolamine beta-adrenergic agonist) and allowed ad libitum access to feed for 48 d. Compared to lean pigs, obese pigs had lower ADG, gain to feed ratio, longissimus muscle area, predicted amount of muscle, and weights of trimmed loin and ham, ham lean, heart, spleen, kidney and gastrointestinal tract (P less than .05). Obese pigs also had shorter carcass but higher dressing percentage, backfat thickness, fat depth, fat area, untrimmed loin weight and fasting plasma urea N concentration (P less than .05). Dietary supplementation with 20 ppm ractopamine reduced daily feed intake and improved gain to feed ratio in both lean and obese pigs (P less than .05). Pigs fed ractopamine had shorter carcasses, less fat depth and fat area, smaller weights of stomach and colon plus rectum, but higher dressing percentages, longissimus muscle areas, weights of trimmed Boston butts, picnics and loins, ham lean and predicted amounts of muscle than pigs not fed ractopamine (P less than .05). Supplemental ractopamine had no effect on fasting plasma concentrations of urea N, nonesterified fatty acids, triglyceride or glucose (P greater than .05). No genotype x ractopamine interactions for the criteria described above were detected (P greater than .05). These results suggest that ractopamine will improve the efficiency of feed utilization and carcass leanness in swine with different propensities for body fat deposition.     

Tolerance of Snakehead Channa striatus to Ammonia at Different pH

Tolerance of snakehead Channa striatus to ammonia was tested at three pH levels (8.0, 9.0. and 10.0) in experimental tanks. At pH 8.0, ammonia LC50 estimates for snakehead at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h were >205.7, >203.5, 152.6, and 107.3 mg total ammonianitrogen (TAN)/L (or >10.3, >10.2, 7.6, and 5.4 mg NH₃-N/L), respectively. At pH 9.0, ammonia LC50 estimates at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h were >52.4, 62.8, 56.1, 43.4 mg TAN/L (or >18.0, 21.6, 19.3, and 14.9 mg NH₃-N/L), respectively. At pH 10.0, ammonia LC50 estimates at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h were 25.7, 21.6, 20.3, and 18.7 mg TAN/L (or 21.6, 18.1, 17.1, and 15.7 mg NH₃-N/L). respectively. Our data indicate that the tolerance of snakehead to ammonia was associated with pH. Thus, we recommend that snakehead should not be subjected to prolonged exposures of NH₃-N concentration more than 0.54 ma at pH 8.0, more than 1.49 mg/L at pH 9.0, or more than 1.57 mg/L at pH 10.0.     

Multiple embryo-transplant offspring produced from quartering a bovine embryo at the morula stage

A non-surgical embryo collection was completed on a day 7 superovulated Chianina donor cow. Because all but two of the ova from the collection were unfertilised and a surplus of potential recipients was available, one embryo (an excellent quality late morula) was dissected into four equal portioned 'quarter' embryos using a simplified micromanipulation procedure. Each quarter embryo was then placed in a 0.25 ml French straw and non-surgically transplanted to four different crossbred beef recipient females. The remaining embryo was similarly transplanted to a herd mate recipient as an intact embryo. One recipient returned to oestrus, one recipient had an extended post transfer cycle and the two remaining recipients produced a live quarter embryo transplant calf each within 24 hours of the other. The intact embryo placed in a herd mate recipient did not produce a transplant calf. To the authors' knowledge, these transplant offspring are the first live births reported from a non-surgically collected later-stage bovine morula (day 7), which had been dissected into quarters and then individually transplanted non-surgically to recipient females. The procedure was relatively simple to perform and was completed in less than one hour.