Behaviour and welfare of individual laying hens in a non-cage system

1. A leg band containing a transponder was fitted to 80 birds in a perchery containing 1,000 birds. 2. The transponder emitted a unique identification number when a bird walked on one of 8 flat antennae on the floor. The recording apparatus was used to measure the amount of time that each of the tagged birds spent on the slatted and littered areas in a 6-week period. 3. Some birds spent long periods of time on the slats, possibly as a means of avoiding repeated attacks. Duration on the slats was greatest in birds with the worst (as opposed to better) feather scores of the head, back and tail regions. 4. Birds that spent long periods on the slats were lighter than other birds at both 39 weeks of age and 72 weeks of age and had greater back, head and tail feather damage, consistent with these birds being victims of pecking. 5. Tagged birds received a social avoidance test outside the perchery at 39 weeks of age, which suggested that birds retreated to the slats in response to pecks rather than just to close proximity to other birds. 6. The failure to find that duration on the slats was related to anatomical indicators of stress (liver, spleen and bursa of Fabricius) suggests that retreating to the slats following pecking attenuates physiological stress responses. 7. We conclude that the provision of areas where birds in a large group can avoid pecking may improve the welfare of a minority of victimised birds.     

Experimental Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis primary infection in goats: kinetics of IgG and interferon-gamma production, IgG avidity and antigen recognition by Western blotting

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is the cause of caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in small ruminants, a chronic granulomatous disease that provokes significant zootechnics losses to ovine and goat breeders in northern Brazil. The present work was conducted to analyse aspects of humoral and cellular immune responses after experimental infection. Eight goats were infected intradermally with a single dose of virulent C. pseudotuberculosis strain and specific IgG, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) production as well as IgG avidity and antigens pattern recognition dynamics against an excreted-secreted antigen were recorded during 20 weeks. At the end of the follow-up, animals were slaughtered and necropsied. Although no animals showed apparent clinical signs of infection at the end of the trial, IFN-gamma response, even more so than the humoral response, differentiated animals into two groups of high or medium/low response. The time-course of IFN-gamma production presented a short-lived primary response on day 5 after infection of animals of both groups, and a strong and long lasting secondary response starting on day 16 after infection in the high response group. The indirect ELISA used was able to detect a positive antibody titre between 6 and 11 days after infection in the two groups. IgG avidity index oscillated initially between 15 and 45%, and showed approximately 5% units increment during the 20 follow-up weeks. With only one individual exception, the qualitative antigens pattern recognition showed on day 11 after infection remained constant through the experiment. IgG avidity is highly correlated with IgG production, but could not be related with specific immunodominant bands. Both humoral and cellular responses kinetics presented a similar pattern of activation/deactivation but necropsy results suggested that the IFN-gamma test would be a very specific marker of CLA status.     

Microbial activity in the gut of piglets: I. Effect of prebiotic and probiotic supplementation

Four groups of six 21 days-old piglets were used to evaluate the effect of a prebiotic or probiotic on the intestinal fermentative activity. In each group, piglets received one of the following diets: basal diet (C); basal diet supplemented with xylo-oligosaccharide (C-XOS); basal diet supplemented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (C-SC); and basal diet supplemented with xylo-oligosaccharide and S. cerevisiae (C-XOS + SC).

The short chain fatty acids in the colon of piglets were decreased with the inclusion of S. cerevisiae in the diet (P < 0.01). The xylanolytic activity was higher (P < 0.05) in the small intestine of piglets fed C-XOS + SC diet, but no significant differences were found in the caecum and colon. In the caecum contents, the cellulolytic activity was increased (P < 0.05) by the C-XOS and C-SC diets, but remained similar when the diet was supplemented with the two additives combined.     

Introduction of non-native freshwater fish can certainly be bad

In this paper, we respond to Gozlan's views of the introduction of freshwater fish, as we strongly disagree with his view and approach. We demonstrate that many real-world examples of freshwater fish introductions have catastrophic ecological consequences. We detail a few noteworthy examples, such as those of the Nile perch, carp, tilapias, catfishes, and the zebra mussel. We discuss within-nation introductions, and we explore several related problems, such as hybridization and spread of pathogens and parasites. We propose that Gozlan's analysis is biased, as more reliable data on impacts that are already widespread are urgently needed, mainly in the biologically richest areas of the world. Thus, we continue to advocate the precautionary principle, because species introductions, once established, are largely irreversible.     

Spectrofluorimetric study of the interaction of methyl-parathion with fish serum albumin

The interaction of methyl-parathion with the albumin of Piaractus mesopotamicus (Holmberg 1887) (= pacu), a fish species typical of Brazilian rivers, was studied and the results compared with known values for human and bovine albumin obtained in an earlier investigation. Methyl-parathion (O,O-dimethyl O-p-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate) is an organophosphorous pesticide still used in agriculture and fish farming in many countries. The fluorescence quenching technique with tryptophan as a natural probe was used to detect for the presence of methyl-parathion. Fluorescence can be mathematically expressed by the Stern–Volmer equation to calculate quenching constants, and changes in the behavior of Stern–Volmer curves at different temperatures indicate the nature of the mechanism causing the quenching. Our results indicate that methyl-parathion forms a complex with fish albumin. The estimated association constant is 9.73 × 103 (± 4.9 × 102) M⁻¹ at 25°C.     

Optimum Level of Nitrogen and Phosphorus to Achieve Better Papaya (Carica papaya var. Solo) Seedlings Growth and Mycorrhizal Colonization

An experiment under greenhouse conditions was carried out to evaluate the best level of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), which promote the growth of papaya (Carica papaya L. var. Solo) seedlings without affecting the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) activity. Seedlings of papaya were transplanted to pots inoculated or not with Gigaspora margarita spores at four levels of N (0, 50, 100, and 200 ppm) and P (0, 25, 50, and 100 ppm). P was amended at the same time of pot filling up with substrate but N was applied weekly. The experiment was harvested after 100 days and plant dry weight together with AMF colonization was measured. The major response on the plant dry weight and height was from the fertilizers (N and P) where it proportionally increased. For the dry weight, at low amounts of nutrients the effects of AMF were greater, but as much as the fertilizer level in soil increased this response decreased. The colonization decreased as the nutrient levels increased, especially the P. The best combination of N and P for plant growth and AMF colonization could be at 50 and 25 ppm, equivalent to 5 and 2.5 kg/10a, respectively.     

Biologic and molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii isolates from pigs from Portugal

Little is known of Toxoplasma gondii infections in animals in Portugal. In the present paper, we report the first isolation of viable T. gondii from pigs in Portugal. Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 52 (15.6%) of 333 pigs prior to slaughter using the modified agglutination test (MAT) at a serum dilution of 1:20. Attempts were made to isolate T. gondii from 37 seropositive pigs. Samples of brain and/or heart from each pig were digested in acid pepsin, and bioassayed into mice. Viable T. gondii was isolated from 15 pigs. Restriction fragment length polymorphism on products of SAG2 locus amplified by PCR and microsatellite analysis revealed that 11 isolates were Type II and four were Type III. The results indicate that phenotypically and genetically T. gondii are similar to isolates from pigs from the U.S.     

Astroglial cells in primary culture: a valid model to study Neospora caninum infection in the CNS

The protozoan Neospora caninum has a veterinary importance because it causes abortion in cattle and neuromuscular alterations in dogs. We infected rat astrocytes, in vitro, with different concentrations of N. caninum. Astrocytes responded to infection by producing the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha and the neurotoxic-free radical NO, 24 and 72 h post-infection. These data suggest that astrocytes, which are essential for brain function, are targets for the parasite and this represents a practical and valid model to study the effects of N. caninum on the CNS.     

A radio pulsar spinning at 716 Hz

We have discovered a 716-hertz eclipsing binary radio pulsar in the globular cluster Terzan 5 using the Green Bank Telescope. It is the fastest spinning neutron star found to date, breaking the 24-year record held by the 642-hertz pulsar B1937+21. The difficulty in detecting this pulsar, because of its very low flux density and high eclipse fraction (approximately 40% of the orbit), suggests that even faster spinning neutron stars exist. If the pulsar has a mass less than twice the mass of the Sun, then its radius must be constrained by the spin rate to be <16 kilometers. The short period of this pulsar also constrains models that suggest that gravitational radiation, through an r-mode (Rossby wave) instability, limits the maximum spin frequency of neutron stars.