Public awareness in New Zealand of animal welfare legislation relating to cats

Abstract

AIMS: To ascertain the levels of awareness of legislation governing the welfare of cats, and provision of basic care, including vaccination, by cat-owners within two locations in New Zealand. To assess the ability of respondents to differentiate between the terms ‘stray’ and ‘feral’.

METHODS: A face-to-face questionnaire, consisting of 12 questions in three sections, was distributed by volunteers within Auckland (n=255) and Kaitaia (n=99) to gather information pertinent to the study's aims. Section 1 covered respondents’ personal details; Section 2, ownership and care of cats, including whether or not the cats were vaccinated against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV); and Section 3, awareness of legislation and differences between the terms ‘stray’ and ‘feral’.

RESULTS: Overall, fewer than half of respondents were aware of the animal welfare legislation within New Zealand or the semantic differences between the terms ‘stray’ and ‘feral’ as they appear in the dictionary. Respondents ≥41 years old, and individuals employed in the animal-related sector, were significantly more likely to be aware of the legislation and make the correct distinction between the terms compared with those aged ≤40, and those working in a non-animal-related profession.

A significantly greater percentage of cat-owners (42%) provided care for cats they did not own compared with non-owners (26%). Results also indicated a large majority of cat-owners may consider standard annual vaccinations to include vaccination against FIV and FeLV.

CONCLUSION: Dissemination of information about animal welfare legislation is important for the care of cats within New Zealand, and the definitions of the terms ‘stray’ and ‘feral’ need to be more clearly stated in order to prevent confusion. This is especially important when cats may be controlled using lethal measures under different legislative precedents that are not necessarily consistent with one another.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Veterinary clinics may act as a primary source for the dissemination of information about relevant welfare acts as well as preventative health care, thus improving the welfare of cats. Cat-owners need to be better educated about the diseases covered by annual vaccination.     

The effect of intermittent irrigation with cold nutrient solution on the growth of tomato seedlings propagated in rockwool

Seedlings of tomato, cv. Counter, propagated in rockwool blocks were irrigated five times every 24 h with nutrient solution at 10°C or 18°C for up to three weeks. The mean block temperature was lowered by 3.5-4.0 degrees C by irrigation at 10°C. One week of irrigation at the lower temperature caused the seedlings to develop a characteristic dark purplish colour. This treatment reduced fresh weight and leaf area but not dry weight which suggests that water uptake was also reduced. Dry weight was reduced following two or more weeks of irrigation at 10°C. When seedlings which had been irrigated at 10°C were returned to irrigation at 18°C, the purple colour slowly disappeared and the percent dry matter decreased. When plants were grown on, the total yield of fruit was unaffected by these seedling treatments.     

The impact of changing light levels and fruit load on the pattern of tomato yields

Summary

Experiments in glasshouse and controlled environment facilities investigated the effect of different fruit removal and lighting/shading treatments on the pattern of tomato yields. While the removal of flowering trusses resulted in a yield loss about eight weeks later, there was little loss in cumulative yield as assimilates were distributed to neighbouring trusses. In the growth room experiment, increased photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) for one week resulted in a period of increased yield from 4–6 weeks after the start of the treatment, followed by suppressed yields due to smaller fruits on subsequent trusses. However, neither fruit load nor assimilate availability appeared to be responsible for the fluctuations in yield recorded within the glasshouse crop. In this experiment fruit size remained fairly consistent (except when fruit removal treatments were applied), whereas the number of fruits picked per week exhibited much greater variability. This was the case even when all trusses were pruned to leave five fruits, and so was not due to a cycle in the number of fruits set per truss. The flushes in yield were found to be a consequence of a hastening of fruit maturation.     

Vernalization promotes flowering of a heat tolerant Calandrinia while long days replace vernalization for early flowering of Brunonia

The flowering responses of Brunonia australis (blue pincushion) and Calandrinia sp. to vernalization, photoperiod, temperature and plant age were investigated to provide a foundation for manipulating flowering in these potential potted plants. Plants were vernalized at 4.8 °C for 0, 3 or 6 weeks at the plant age of 1–4 or 8–14 leaves. Following vernalization, plants were grown at 25/10 or 35/20 °C (day/night) under short days (11 h, ambient daylight averaged 380 ± 44 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) or long days (16 h) provided by an additional 5 h night break (21:00–2:00 h at <4.5 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ from incandescent lamps), for 85 days. This is the first work to investigate flowering of these ornamental species. Both species showed enhanced flowering following vernalization and a quantitative requirement for long days. The reduction of the time until the first visible inflorescence (Brunonia) or flower (Calandrinia) buds by 8–13 days was affected by vernalization for 3 or 6 weeks, respectively. Long days were effective for reducing the time to first visible floral bud and increasing the number of inflorescence or flowers per plant for both species. For Brunonia, LDs replaced vernalization when applied to plants with 1–4 leaves. Raising temperature from 25/10 to 35/20 °C increased the number of flowers per plant of Calandrinia by 2–2.5-fold for plants with 1–4 or 8–14 leaves respectively.     

The therapeutic efficacy and prophylactic activity of doramectin against Dictyocaulus viviparus in cattle

SUMMARY Three groups of 8, 4-month-old male Jersey or Jersey-cross calves were infected with 2400 Dictyocaulus viviparus L₃ larvae and either left untreated or injected subcutaneously with 200 μg/kg doramectin 5 or 25 days after infection (DAI). Lungworms were found in all untreated cattle (geometric mean = 49) at necropsy 39 or 40 DAI. None was found in any of the treated cattle. In a second experiment, groups of 6, 8-month-old calves were untreated or injected with 200 μg/kg doramectin 28, 21 or 14 days before each calf was challenged with 2700 D viviparus larvae. Lungworms were recovered at necropsy 32 to 34 DAI. The geometric mean worm burden in the untreated cattle was 550. This was reduced by 100%, 99.5% and 94.1% in calves treated with doramectin 14, 21 or 28 days, respectively, before infection. It was concluded that doramectin is a highly effective anthelmintic against D viviparus adult or L₄ infections of cattle, and that reinfection of treated cattle will be significantly reduced for at least 28 days after treatment.     

Modelling the structure of the softwood cell wall for computation of mechanical properties

A means to quantitatively construct two layer models of the wood cell-wall utilising basic density and mean microfibril angle data is discussed. It is assumed that the lignin distribution is uniform in the secondary wall layers, that there is a fixed polysaccharide ratio throughout the wall and that variation in wall thickness arises only from variation in S2 layer thickness. It is shown that the relative thickness of those cell wall layers in which the cellulose is transversely oriented (M+P, S1 and S3) have a significant effect on longitudinal shrinkage and that variance between computed and measured shrinkage values is reduced when compared with earlier models if both basic density and mean microfibril angle are taken into account.     

Double outlet right ventricle in a calf.

Double outlet right ventricle, a rare congenital heart anomaly of either animals or man, was diagnosed in a three day old Brangus heifer. The clinical course was brief, consisting of terminal recumbency, dyspnea and cyanosis. Upon necropsy, the heart was enlarged as a result of marked dilatation of the right atrium and the right ventricle. The aorta arose from the right ventricle while the left ventricle ended blindly near the ventral cusp of the left atrioventricular valve. The wall of the left ventricle was thickened, reducing the ventricular lumen.