Profile of Steroid Receptors and Increased Aromatase Immunoexpression in Canine Inflammatory Mammary Cancer as a Potential Therapeutic Target

Canine inflammatory mammary cancer (IMC) has been proposed as a model for the study of human inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). The aims of this study were to compare the immunohistochemical expression of aromatase (Arom) and several hormone receptors [estrogen receptor α (ERα), estrogen receptor β (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR) and androgen receptor (AR)], in 21 IMC cases vs 19 non‐IMC; and to study the possible effect of letrozole on canine IMC and human inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in vitro using IPC‐366 and SUM‐149 cell lines. Significant elevations of the means of Arom Total Score (TS), ERβ TS and PR TS were found in the IMC group (p = 0.025, p = 0.038 and p = 0.037, respectively). Secondary IMC tumours expressed higher levels of Arom than primary IMC (p = 0.029). Non‐IMC PR‐ tumours contained higher levels of Arom than non‐IMC PR+ tumours (p = 0.007). After the addition of letrozole, the number of IMC and IBC cells dropped drastically. The overexpression of Arom found and the results obtained in vitro further support canine IMC as a model for the study of IBC and future approaches to the treatment of dogs with mammary cancer, and especially IMC, using Arom inhibitors.     

Retrospective evaluation of the use of small-bore wire-guided catheters for the management of peritoneal effusion in cats and dogs

Objective

To describe the use of small-bore wire-guided catheters in the management of peritoneal effusion in cats and dogs and to detail any associated adverse events.

Design

Retrospective study.

Setting

University teaching hospital

Animals

Forty-five client-owned animals that had peritoneal catheters placed for management of peritoneal effusion between July 2010 and June 2021.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and Main Results

Forty-five cases were included (25 dogs and 20 cats). Twenty-eight animals had the catheter placed to aid management of a uroabdomen, 8 of which recovered without surgical management, 11 had the catheter placed to allow autotransfusion of hemoabdomen, 3 had peritonitis, and 3 had ascites secondary to cardiac disease. Twenty-seven cases (15 dogs and 12 cats) received sedation (n = 24) or local anesthesia alone (n = 3) to facilitate catheter placement, and 6 cases had the catheter placed while under general anesthesia. Median length of catheter persistence was 24 hours (range: 2–144 h). The most common adverse events reported were impaired drainage (n = 7) and leakage at the insertion site (n = 4).

Conclusions

Peritoneal catheters can be inserted percutaneously for management of peritoneal effusion. Indications include stabilization and conservative management of uroabdomen, and autotransfusion. They can often be placed with minimal or no sedation and adverse events appear infrequent in occurrence.     

Welfare and environmental benefits of integrating commercially viable free-range broiler chickens into newly planted woodland: A UK case study

The commercial, welfare and environmental impacts of rearing small colonies of free-range chickens in newly planted woodland at two sites in the UK, during the first 2 years of the enterprise, were investigated. Newly planted rather than established trees were used so that commercially viable species could be planted in a way that would suit the management of the chicken enterprise, and small colonies were used so that farmers wishing to diversify could buy into the system progressively. It was anticipated that marketing a high specification product would provide an immediate income, whilst waiting for the future investment in trees to grow.     

Characterization of resistance to the wheat stem sawfly in spring wheat landrace accessions from targeted geographic regions of the world

Plant landraces have long been recognized as potential gene pools for biotic and abiotic stress-related genes. This research used spring wheat landrace accessions to identify new sources of resistance to the wheat stem sawfly (WSS) (Cephus cinctus Norton), an important insect pest of wheat in the northern Great Plains of North America. Screening efforts targeted 1409 accessions from six geographical areas of the world where other species of grain sawflies are endemic or where a high frequency of accessions possesses the resistance characteristic of solid stems. Resistance was observed in approximately 14% of accessions. Half of the lines displayed both antixenosis and antibiosis types of resistance. Among the resistant accessions, 41% had solid or semi-solid stems. Molecular genetic screening for haplotypes at the solid stem QTL, Qss.msub.3BL, showed that 15% of lines shared the haplotype derived from ‘S-615’, the original donor of the solid stem trait to North American germplasm. Other haplotypes associated with solid stems were also observed. Haplotype diversity was greater in the center of origin of wheat. Evaluation of a representative set of resistant landrace accessions in replicated field trials at four locations over a three year period identified accessions with potential genes for reduced WSS infestation, increased WSS mortality, and increased indirect defense via parasitoids. Exploitation of distinct types of plant defense will expand the genetic diversity for WSS resistance currently present in elite breeding lines.     

Prioritising sites for pollinators in a fragmented coastal nectar habitat network in Western Europe

Landscape Ecology - Habitat loss and fragmentation contribute significantly to pollinator decline and biodiversity loss globally. Conserving high quality habitats whilst restoring and connecting...     

Relationship between soil respiration and soil moisture

Microbial activity is affected by changes in the availability of soil moisture. We examined the relationship between microbial activity and water potential in a silt loam soil during four successive drying and rewetting cycles. Microbial activity was inferred from the rate of CO₂ accumulating in a sealed flask containing the soil sample and the CO₂ respired was measured using gas chromatography. Thermocouple hygrometry was used to monitor the water potential by burying a thermocouple in the soil sample in the flask. Initial treatment by drying on pressure plates brought samples of the test soil to six different water potentials in the range -0.005 to -1.5MPa. Water potential and soil respiration were simultaneously measured while these six soil samples slowly dried by evaporation and were remoistened four times. The results were consistent with a log-linear relationship between water potential and microbial activity as long as activity was not limited by substrate availability. This relationship appeared to hold for the range of water potentials from ?0.01 to ?8.5 MPa. Even at ?0.01 MPa (wet soil) a decrease in water potential from ?0.01 to ?0.02 MPa caused a 10% decrease in microbial activity. Rewetting the soil caused a large and rapid increase in the respiration rate. There was up to a 40-fold increase in microbial activity for a short period when the change in water potential following rewetting was greater than 5 MPa. Differences in microbial activity between the wetter and drier soil treatments following rewetting to the original water potentials are discussed in terms of the availability of energy substrate.     

Can placement of seed away from relic stubble limit Rhizoctonia root rot in direct-seeded wheat?

Rhizoctonia root rot of wheat can be a problem in no-till systems, especially during the transition from conventional tillage. There are no effective chemical controls or resistant varieties, leaving only cultural methods to manage this disease. In a no-till system, residue and inoculum of soilborne pathogens are not moved by cultivation, therefore the inoculum may be concentrated in the seeding row of the previous year. Using GPS tracking systems with sub-meter accuracy, the seeding row could be placed away from the row of the previous year. We tested the hypothesis that seeding away from the relic row may reduce Rhizoctonia root rot. In two field experiments, plants were sampled at three distances from the seed row, as well as from fumigated plots. Intact soil cores were also removed from the field, planted with seeds at various distances from the previous row, and grown in the greenhouse under controlled conditions. Pasteurized cores served as controls. Disease levels were higher in the field in the second year, but there was no consistent effect of seed row placement on disease or plant parameters. However, soil fumigation and pasteurization had significant effects, indicating that soilborne pathogens were active. Inoculum of Rhizoctonia is not produced in the crowns and lower stems of the plant, but the pathogen survives in living and dead roots of the previous year crop, volunteers, and grassy weeds. Thus, high inoculum densities may be present in between the relic rows, as well as within the rows. If this is the situation with Rhizoctonia, precision placement of seed rows would not be efficacious.     

Fine-scale vegetation patches decline in size and cover with increasing rainfall in Australian savannas

Fine-scale vegetation patches (<5 m in width) are critically important in many landscapes because they function to obstruct surface flows of water and wind. These obstructions increase the infiltration of runoff and the capture of nutrients in runoff sediments and in wind-blown soil and litter. The importance of redistribution of runoff into runon patches from spaces between patches (fetches) is likely to be greater in drier than in wetter environments. In this paper we examine the hypothesis that the ratio of fetch to patch decreases as rainfall increases, and that this trend will be most evident on intermediate-textured soils because these soils are more prone to runoff. We measured fine-scale patches on 38 sites with sand, loam or clay soils. Sites were located along a 1000-mm rainfall gradient in the savannas of northern Australia. The width and intercept length of patches and the fetch between patches was measuring along line transects of 100–120 m oriented down slope. We found that the ratio of fetch to patch area did not decrease with decreasing rainfall, but increased on both sand and loam soils. This result was because with increasing rainfall mean spacing between patches disproportionally increased while mean patch size and cover declined. The cover of patches was negatively correlated with tree canopy cover, which significantly increased with rainfall. This negative correlation suggests that in higher rainfall savannas the size and spacing of ground-layer patches is controlled by the tree layer, and that as rainfall decreases this control decreases and runoff-runon processes increasingly structure the landscape. For savannas on clay soils these trends were not significant except that on the highest rainfall sites the cover of ground-layer patches was nearly 100% while trees were absent.