Intrauterine Idiopathic Amputation of the Head of a Porcine Foetus

An anencephalic full‐term porcine foetus accompanied by a mummified head was submitted for examination. The neck almost entirely lacked skin and was covered by granulation tissue as were the exposed parts of the spine and spinal cord. The case represents a rare case of intrauterine amputation. A definitive cause could not be established because the placenta was not available. The most likely cause is strangulation of the neck. Such strangulation could be due to a defect of the allantoamnion with herniation of the foetal head or entanglement by amniotic constriction bands.     

Veterinary practice, competition and advertising: 1985-1994

In 1985, members of the veterinary profession and four other professional groups in New Zealand were surveyed to establish their attitudes towards the developing commercialisation of their professions, and particularly towards advertising. This survey was repeated in 1988, and again in 1994. The results of the three surveys are presented in this paper. There was a sharp movement towards acceptance of advertising, and toward a competitive orientation in general, between 1985 and 1988, with a consolidation of these changes during the following 6 years. The acceptance of the idea of an openly competitive profession now has widespread support among veterinarians. Similarly, there is general support for the use of most kinds of informative advertising, with many practitioners viewing advertising as a business building tool, but with the advertising of fees remaining an area over which there is still considerable caution. Although clients are seen as more demanding than in the past, the client-practitioner relationship is still expected to be an enduring one. We suggest that, in view of the relaxed attitudes towards advertising that now exists among members of the veterinary profession, control of advertising should cease to be a concern to the profession.     

Ultrastructure of the hydrophobic gastric surfactant barrier in the dog

OBJECTIVES: To confirm the hydrophobicity of the luminal surface of the canine stomach and to elucidate the ultrastructure of the lining imparting that property. DESIGN AND PROCEDURES: Gastric and duodenal mucosal samples from eight dogs were collected immediately after euthanasia and subjected to contact angle measurement using a goniometer. Other samples were examined by electron microscopy following a fixation procedure known to preserve phospholipids and oligolamellar structures. RESULTS: Contact angles for the canine gastric mucosal surface (85.1 +/- 5.5) were significantly greater (P < 0.0001) than for the duodenum (24.0 +/- 1.7). Electron microscopy revealed the existence of surfactant as abundant osmiophilic phospholipid material within the gastric and duodenal mucosae. CONCLUSION: We have confirmed the hydrophobic nature of the canine gastric mucosa whereas the luminal surface of the duodenum is hydrophilic. We propose that the water-repellent nature of the canine gastric lining contributes to the 'gastric mucosal barrier' and is imparted by an oligolamellar layer of surface-active phospholipid ('gastric surfactant') adsorbed to the surface. Both gastric and duodenal mucosae may also utilise phospholipids as an intercellular defense mechanism in the event that tight junctions are breached by acid. It is tempting to speculate that a deficiency of gastric phospholipids may predispose dogs to ulcers. Further, exogenous administration of phospholipids may be useful in preventing gastric ulceration.     

A long‐term study of burning effects on a plant pathogen in tallgrass prairie

Tallgrass prairie species have evolved with regular exposure to fire. However, burning has been used as a management tool for reducing plant disease in agricultural systems, posing the question of how plant pathogens of tallgrass prairie would be affected by burning. The rust fungus Puccinia dioicae, infecting Erigeron strigosus (Asteraceae), was studied for 8 years in long‐term experiments to evaluate the effects of burning in native tallgrass prairie. This experiment also allowed evaluation of the effects of nutrient additions, although E. strigosus was rare in the plots with added nutrients in most years. Burning reduced rust severity in most years, but effects from additions of nutrients were rarely observed. There was high interannual variation in rust severity within a location, suggesting that weather may be the most important of these three abiotic factors in determining infection. An analysis of weather variables associated with disease severity found that solar radiation in the month prior to sampling was associated with severity in unburned plots; temperature approximately 2 months prior to sampling was also associated with severity in burned plots. High interannual variation also suggests that the effects of this pathogen on its host would be sporadic and difficult to study in short‐term experiments.     

Validation of the BioPRYN enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay for detection of pregnancy‐specific protein‐B (PSPB) and diagnosis of pregnancy in American bison (Bison bison)

This study assessed the accuracy of the commercial BioPRYN^® ELISA for the detection of pregnancy‐specific protein‐B (PSPB) using a single blood sample to determine pregnancy status in American bison (Bison bison). A total of 49 bison cows were used in the study, and sampled at two time‐points during the gestation period, fall and spring, correlating with early‐ to mid‐term gestation (average 62.9 days post‐mating) and mid‐ to late‐term gestation (average 229.2 days post‐mating), respectively. Sensitivity of the test during early‐ to mid‐term gestation sampling period (fall) was 87.1%, while specificity was 100%; sensitivity of the test during late‐term gestation sampling period (spring) was 96.3%, while specificity remained at 100%. In total, the test showed a total sensitivity of 91.4%, specificity of 100% and total accuracy of 93.8%, similar to domestic cattle. Use of the single‐sample BioPRYN^® ELISA in American Bison for pregnancy diagnosis is economical and practical, minimizing animal handling time, frequency and subsequent stress while providing accurate results for pregnancy diagnosis at 62 days post‐mating. This method should be considered over more traditional pregnancy diagnosis methods for use in managed bison herds.     

Environmental Impacts of Chemicals for Snow and Ice Control: State of the Knowledge

As chemicals are widely used for snow and ice control of highway and airfield pavements or aircrafts, recent years have seen increased concerns over their potentially detrimental effects on the surrounding environment. The abrasives used for winter operations on pavements are also a cause of environmental concerns. After some background information, this paper presents a review of the environmental impacts of chemicals used for snow and ice control, including those on: surface, ground, and drinking waters; soil; flora; and fauna. The paper provides a state-of-the-art survey of published work (with a focus on those in the last two decades) and examines mainly the impacts of abrasives, chlorides, acetates and formates, urea, glycols, and agro-based deicers. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of public perception of such impacts and best management practices (BMPs) to mitigate them.     

Genetic diversity and species delimitation in the cultivated and wild Guinea yams (Dioscorea spp.) from Southwest Ethiopia as determined by AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) markers

Yams (Dioscorea spp.) rank as the fourth most important root and tuber crop after potatoes, cassava and sweet potatoes. They are an economic crop in most of the tropics especially in West Africa, which produces over 95 % of the world output. Despite their cultural and economic importance there is taxonomic confusion regarding Guinea yams. The currently used classification scheme, which relies on vegetative and inflorescence characters, does not consistently delimit species boundaries between members of Guinea yams (D. cayenensis Lam.–D. rotundata Poir. complex), their wild relatives (D. abyssinica Kunth and D. praehensilis Benth.,) and D. sagittifolia Pax. Establishing the taxonomic identity of the germplasm and understanding the systematic relationships among crops is vital to the management of genetic resources and the utilization of accessions. In this study, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) genetic fingerprinting was used to evaluate and characterize 43 individual plants, belonging to different populations of wild and cultivated Guinea yams. The three primer combinations used in the AFLP analyses generated 158 scorable bands, with an overall polymorphism of 78 %. Ordination and cluster analyses of AFLP data failed to produce any clear species boundary between either the Guinea yam accessions or between them and their wild relatives. The average genetic similarity between the study individuals of Guinea yams and their wild relatives ranged from 60 to 100 %. The first, second and third principal coordinates axes cumulatively account for 77.45 % of the total variation. AFLP analyses also revealed a higher genetic divergence among cultivated Guinea yam accessions of the Sheko cultivars. Ordination and cluster analysis using UPGMA revealed no clear species boundaries between members of the complex. Thus, the taxonomy of these “species” needs to be revisited using other markers.     

Autoantibody profiles in the sera of patients with Q fever: characterization of antigens by immunofluorescence,immunoblot and sequence analysis

Recent reports have shown that some of the immunological aspects of Q fever, a rickettsiosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, could be related to self-antigen responses. The aim of this study was to determine the specificity of the autoantibody response of patients with acute and chronic Coxiella infections. Smooth muscle and cardiac muscle-specific autoantibodies were observed in significant percentages in acutely or chronically affected Q fever patients when compared to healthy volunteers. Moreover, the incidence of cardiac muscle-specific autoantibody was significantly higher among chronically ill patients compared to acutely ill patients. Moreover, a band of 50 kD of a HeLa extract was detected in most of the sera of individuals with chronic infections and previous sequence analysis suggests that this antigen presents a high degree of homology with the human actin elongation factor 1 alpha. Further research would be necessary to confirm if antibodies to human cytoskeletal proteins could be of clinical importance in chronically infected Q fever patients.