Environmental influences on histological changes in the reproductive cycle of four New South Wales sea urchins

The suitability of a sea urchin population for commercial harvesting and culturing depends on the timing and duration of the spawning season. Pilot studies have shown that the New South Wales echinoids produce mature gonads for several months.Investigations were made into the influence of those exogenous factors which could be modified under aquacultural conditions.Temperature and food appeared to affect gonad (roe) development, while depth and density did not. The relationship between macro and micro changes in the gonads was established and methods of estimating stages of gametogensis were compared.     

Field trial of a staphylococcal mastitis vaccine in dairy herds: clinical, subclinical and microbiological assessments

Objective To assess the efficacy of a new staphylococcal mastitis vaccine under commercial dairying conditions.
Design A field trial involving 1819 cows and heifers conducted on seven dairy herds in Victoria. The trial was done 'blind'; approximately half the animals were vaccinated and the remainder were untreated controls.
Procedure The vaccine was given twice during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Effects of vaccination were assessed, during the ensuing lactation, on the basis of clinical and sub-clinical mastitis and microbiological investigations of the milk.
Results A total of 273 cases of clinical mastitis were recorded. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 112 of these, 45 cases in vaccinates and 67 cases in controls; the difference was not statistically significant. One herd was notable in having a high incidence of clinical staphylococcal mastitis. This herd accounted for 15.8% of the animals in the field trial but 54.5% of cases of clinical staphylococcal mastitis. For this herd, vaccinated animals had significantly lower incidence of clinical staphylococcal mastitis and prevalence of subclinical mastitis, relative to controls. An unexpected feature of the trial as a whole was the low incidence of clinical mastitis from which S aureus was isolated in pure culture (26.3% of cases) and the high incidence of clinical Streptococcus uberis mastitis (22.7% of cases).
Conclusions The trial showed that the vaccine was efficacious in reducing the incidence of clinical mastitis and prevalence of subclinical mastitis in a herd that had a serious staphylococcal mastitis problem.     

Amoebic meningoencephalitis caused by Balamuthia mandrillaris in an orang utan

Objective
To describe a case of meningoencephalitis caused by Balamuthia mandrillaris in an orang utan.
Design
A pathological case report.
Animal
A 20 years old male orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus).
Procedure
The disease process was investigated by clinical pathology, necropsy, histopathology and immunofluorescence labelling.
Results
The orang utan developed sudden onset of depression, lethargy, inappetence and apparent head pain. The condition was considered to be related to a 2 year history of upper and lower respiratory disease, and the animal was placed on antibiotics after extensive testing. By the seventh day the animal had become ataxic and disoriented and a brain abscess was suspected. He died on the ninth day of illness. At necropsy, and subsequent sectioning, the brain showed multiple circular, soft, white to grey brown areas of varying size, the largest being in the left temporal (3.5 cm diameter) and right occipital (2.5 cm diameter) regions of the cerebrum. Histological examination of these regions revealed many amoebic trophozoites and occasional cysts associated with areas of haemorrhage and inflammatory necrosis. The trophozoites were packed in perivascular spaces and their nuclei often contained two or more prominent nucleoli. Immunofluorescent labelling of histological sections suggested that the agent was B mandrillaris.
Clinical implications
This report provides further evidence that B mandrillaris , a free living amoeba, can act as a pathogen in animals as well as people, and cause fatal meningoencephalitis. Along with Naegleria and Acanthamoeba spp, B mandrillaris should be considered amongst the causes of acute onset meningoencephalitis in animals.     

Changes in fruit antioxidant activity among blueberry cultivars during cold-temperature storage

Antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, anthocyanin content, and six other fruit characters including titratable acid concentration, soluble solids, firmness, and percentage of bruised berries were determined for nine blueberry (Vaccinium L. sp.) cultivars at harvest and at various postharvest intervals after storage at 5 degrees C. Berries from MSU-58, Brigitta, and Legacy stored successfully for 7 weeks, Bluegold stored for 3-5 weeks, Bluecrop, Elliott, and Nelson stored for 3 weeks, and Jersey and Little Giant stored for fewer than 3 weeks. During the time they retained marketable quality, one cultivar (MSU-58) demonstrated a 29% increase in antioxidant activity. None of the cultivars showed a significant decrease from the harvest antioxidant activity value during storage. Antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and anthocyanin content were strongly correlated with each other (r = 0.87-0.99, P < 0.01). All three parameters were moderately correlated with soluble solids (r = 0.47, P < or =0.05; r = 0.44, P < or = 0.05; and r = 0.64, P < or = 0.01, respectively), and antioxidant activity and total phenolic content were both moderately correlated with pH (r = 0.53 and 0.49, respectively; P < or = 0.05). However, antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and anthocyanin content showed no correlation with firmness, percent severely bruised berries, or weight loss. Antioxidant activity and total phenolic content at harvest both correlated with titratable acidity at harvest (r = 0.68, P < or = 0.05 and r = 0.70, P < or = 0.05, respectively) on a cultivar mean basis. Berries from Elliott were also harvested from plants at two levels of bush ripeness (30-50% and 60-80% ripe berries on plants) and separated into three fruit maturity classes on the basis of percent blue color. The level of bush ripeness had no significant effect on antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, or anthocyanin content; however, fruit maturity had a significant effect on antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and anthocyanin content, and bush ripeness x fruit maturity interactions were significant for these three traits. Berries with 50-75% blue coloration harvested from bushes with 60-80% mature fruit showed a significant increase in antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and anthocyanin content during the first 3 weeks in storage. Our results demonstrate that increases in antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and anthocyanin content may occur in the blueberry during cold storage and are cultivar-dependent. The increases that occur in immature fruit, such as in Elliott, may be advantageous for producers who wish to delay marketing of the fruit.     

Turloughs - Ireland’s unique wetland habitat

Turloughs are karst wetland ecosystems that are virtually unique to Ireland. Flooding annually in autumn through springs and fissures in the underlying limestone and draining in the springtime, often through the same fissures or swallow-holes, they have been described as ‘temporal ecotones’. Over 300 have been documented. They are priority habitats in the EU Habitats Directive and support a variety of wet grassland and fen type vegetation. Though the vegetation has been recorded and mapped for over 80 turloughs, records for invertebrates are more sporadic. Characteristic species include some aquatic species-often benefiting from the absence of fish-, and many wetland terrestrial species, including carabid beetles that are rare on a European scale. Due to their shallow nature and the full vegetation cover of the basin, turloughs can host internationally significant numbers of visiting winter wildfowl, particularly whooper swans. The variety of plant and invertebrate communities between turloughs is primarily due to different hydrogeomorphological characteristics, but also depends on the range of grazing practices on turloughs. Since these often vary within a turlough basin, this helps maintain within-turlough biodiversity. The main threat to turloughs in the past was drainage, but pollution by nutrients is also now potentially detrimental. However, a more recent and important threat may be the cessation of farming within turloughs. As potentially threatened wetlands of European importance, turloughs require a full inventory of their biodiversity and the factors affecting it. The collation here of all literature concerning turloughs will provide a basis for an integrated approach to future research on turloughs that is essential for a full understanding of these complex ecosystems.     

A Fluted Point from the Uptar Site, Northeastern Siberia

Lanceolate bifacial points, including one fluted specimen, have been collected from beneath an early Holocene tephra at the Uptar site, northeastern Siberia. Thus, the technology associated with the well-known Paleoindian tradition was not confined to the Americas. The Uptar collection does not compare readily with other Beringian complexes and demonstrates that there is greater diversity in the archaeological record of northeastern Siberia than traditional colonization models imply.