Suspected pseudohypoparathyroidism in a domestic ferret

A 1.5-year-old ferret examined because of seizures was found to have low serum calcium, high serum phosphorus, and extremely high serum parathyroid hormone concentrations. Common causes of these abnormalities, including nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, chronic renal secondary hyperparathyroidism, tumor lysis syndrome, and hypomagnesemia, were ruled out, and a tentative diagnosis of pseudohypoparathyroidism was made. Pseudohypoparathyroidism is a hereditary condition in people that, to our knowledge, has not been identified in ferrets previously and is caused by a lack of response to high serum parathyroid hormone concentrations, rather than a deficiency of this hormone. The ferret improved after treatment with dihydrotachysterol (a vitamin D analog) and calcium carbonate. It was still doing well after 3.5 years of continued treatment.     

Postoperative integrity of veterinary surgical gloves

A multicenter, prospective study was performed to document the incidence of defective gloves postoperatively in veterinary surgery and to correlate defects with a variety of influencing factors. Gloves were collected after surgical procedures performed by the small animal clinical services at two veterinary teaching hospitals and one institution's student surgery laboratories. Gloves were evaluated for defects using electrical resistance testing. The overall incidence of glove defects was 23.3%. Significantly more defects occurred in gloves used for nonsoft-tissue procedures and in gloves worn on the nondominant hand. Eighty-four percent of all defects occurred in procedures lasting >60 minutes. No differences were detected in the brands of gloves used nor among surgeons of different experience levels. The individuals performing the surgery were not able to accurately predict the presence of a defect in their gloves. Surgeons should remain alert for possible glove defects and consider measures such as changing gloves every 60 minutes or double-gloving to minimize potential complications.     

Surgical education: attitudes toward animal use in teaching surgery at Louisiana State University

Concerns over the use of animals in teaching have lead to a reduction in the number of live animal laboratories. A survey of 275 students and faculty was conducted to characterize their attitude toward the use of animals in teaching surgery. Respondents favored live animal use. They believed that model laboratories were helpful in learning aseptic technique and suturing skills but less helpful in learning tissue handling, dissection, hemostasis, or anesthesia.     

Genetic characterization of 2 novel feline caliciviruses isolated from cats with idiopathic lower urinary tract disease

Feline caliciviruses (FCVs) are potential etiologic agents in feline idiopathic lower urinary tract disease (I-LUTD). By means of a modified virus isolation method, we examined urine obtained from 28 male and female cats with nonobstructive I-LUTD, 12 male cats with obstructive I-LUTD, and 18 clinically healthy male and female cats. All cats had been routinely vaccinated for FCV. Two FCVs were isolated; I (FCV-U1) from a female cat with nonobstructive I-LUTD, and another (FCV-U2) from a male cat with obstructive I-LUTD. To determine the genetic relationship of FCV-U1 and FCV-U2 to other FCVs. capsid protein gene RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA, amplified, and sequenced. Multiple amino acid sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees were constructed for the entire capsid protein, hypervariable region E, and the more conserved (nonhypervariable) regions A, B, D, and F. When compared to 23 other FCV isolates with known biotypes, the overall amino acid sequence identity of the capsid protein of FCV-U1 and FCV-U2 ranged from 83 to 96%; identity of hypervariable regions C and E ranged from 58 to 85%. Phylogenetically, FCV-U1 clearly separated from other FCV strains in phenograms based on nonhypervariable regions. In contrast, FCV-U2 consistently segregated with the Urbana strain in all phenograms. Clustering of isolates by geographic origin was most apparent in phenograms based on nonhypervariable regions. No clustering of isolates by biotype was apparent in any phenograms. Our results indicate that FCV-UI and FCV-U2 are genetically distinct from other known vaccine and field strains of FCV.     

An ecological risk assessment for spinosad use on cotton

Spinosad is a reduced-risk insecticide with a novel mode of action that provides an alternative to older classes of insecticides such as organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. A comprehensive ecological risk assessment for spinosad use in US cotton crops is presented within a framework of tiered levels of refinement following the guidelines of the US EPA for ecological risk assessments. Toxicity information for a variety of species is documented and utilized, environmental concentrations estimated, and risk characterizations in the form of risk quotients are quantified. Results indicate that spinosad use in cotton does not exceed the most conservative Tier I levels of concern (LOC) values for groundwater, mammals and birds or acute risk to aquatic organisms. Use of very conservative Tier I screening methods resulted in exceeding LOC values for chronic exposure for some aquatic organisms, thus prompting further refinement. When the exposure prediction was refined using less conservative, Tier II mechanistic environmental fate transport models to predict offsite transport and environmental concentrations, chronic risk was not predicted for these species. Spinosad is acutely toxic to bees under laboratory conditions, but toxicity of residue studies and field studies indicate that under actual use conditions the impact on bees is minimal.     

Disease outbreak investigation in food animal practice.

In addition to excellent observation skills and a good understanding of production medicine, veterinarians require the tools of epidemiology for the successful investigation of disease outbreaks. Food supply veterinary practitioners are often called upon to investigate various types of disease outbreaks. In this article, the authors outline the primary questions a practitioner should address and summarize a systematic approach to determining the causes of an outbreak and minimizing further losses. The investigation of disease outbreaks provides an opportunity for the herd veterinarian to show clients the advantages of a herd health program and the value of a good record-keeping system.