Egg production response of laying chickens to feather clipping,cool water and aspirin during hot weather conditions

An 8-week trial was conducted between March and May (hot-dry season) to determine effects of water temperature, feather clipping and aspirin on egg production of chickens. The treatments tested were hens given ordinary drinking water (control), cool water (100 g ice block per L) and aspirin (0.3 mg per L of ordinary water) and hens whose feathers were clipped (about two thirds of body feathers clipped). At 32 weeks of age, 120 Lohmann brown layer chickens of similar live weights were randomly divided into 12 groups of ten hens each and assigned to the treatments in triplicate using a completely randomized design. Feed and water were given ad libitum. Data included feed intake, water consumption, hen-day egg production and egg weight. Ambient house temperature, hen’s cloacal temperature and water temperature were monitored daily during the experimental period. Mean daily ambient temperature increased from 28.4 to 35.0 °C during the study period with consequent increase in cloacal temperatures (40.31 to 41.18 °C) of hens, ordinary drinking water and cool water. None of the treatments had any significant (P?>?0.05) effects on feed intake and water consumption of the birds. Hens given cool water produced more (P?P?P?>?0.05). It is concluded that the provision of cool water in a hot-dry climate had a beneficial effect on egg laying performance of chickens.     

Right ventricular outflow tract fractional shortening: an echocardiographic index of right ventricular systolic function in dogs with pulmonary hypertension

Objectives

To create reference intervals for right ventricular outflow tract fractional shortening (RVOT-FS) in healthy dogs and examine diagnostic performance of this index in dogs with pulmonary hypertension (PH). In addition, we examine the impact of myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) without PH on RVOT-FS.

大豆雄性不育系柱头活力研究

对大豆质核互作雄性不育系W931A和可育对照品种9240-25的柱头活力测定结果表明:W931A的雌蕊育性正常,其柱头活力与正常品种相仿.在延迟授知情况下,柱头活力可保持22.5天,以盛花末花期中上部的花柱头活力最强,在同一节位上授粉花数控制在12个范围内,成荚率可高达50%60%.     

HPLC does not differentiate Mycobacterium paratuberculosis from Mycobacterium avium

HPLC, which is gaining its place as identification tool in mycobacteriology laboratories, has been proposed to distinguish Mycobacterium paratuberculosis from Mycobacterium avium. We had reported no significant difference between M. avium and M. paratuberculosis reference strain ATCC 19698. Because of the advantages offered by such a method, we enlarged our observations to include more isolates of M. paratuberculosis. Within the double cluster of peaks obtained by both M. avium and M. paratuberculosis, we could not find a consistent difference typical of M. paratuberculosis. Therefore, the present study confirmed that M. avium and M. paratuberculosis could not be distinguished by HPLC, raising doubts of a straightforward use of HPLC to identify M. paratuberculosis.