Interactive effects of dietary fishmeal level and plant essential oils supplementation on European sea bass,Dicentrarchus labrax: Growth performance,nutrient utilization,and immunological response

The inclusion of phytogenics in fish feed is a promising strategy to compensate for the negative performance effects of replacing fishmeal (FM) with vegetable sources. The present work assessed the interactive effects of different dietary FM levels (22.5 and 10% of formulation) and the supplementation of a commercial blend of anise, citrus, and oregano essential oils (Digestarom PEP M.G.E 150) on European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax growth performance, nutrient utilization, gut morphology, antioxidant status, and immunological response over a 60‐day growth trial. Results showed decreased growth and protein efficiency ratio and increased feed conversion ratio with a low dietary FM level. In contrast, supplementation of the phytogenic product demonstrated improved performance and nutrient utilization together with increased protein and energy retention. Supplementation with the plant essential oils fully compensated for the negative intestinal changes observed in sea bass fed a low‐FM diet but showed little improvement in fish immunological response, except for the 30% increase in lysozyme activity observed in fish fed the low FM‐supplemented diet compared to those fed the standard high‐FM diet. Overall, this study supports the use of this phytogenic product in low‐FM diets as a possible tool to decrease feed costs associated with FM without compromising fish performance, nutrient utilization, and health.     

Practical implications of using non-relational databases to store large genomic data files and novel phenotypes

The objective of our study was to provide practical directions on the storage of genomic information and novel phenotypes (treated here as unstructured data) using a non-relational database. The MongoDB technology was assessed for this purpose, enabling frequent data transactions involving numerous individuals under genetic evaluation. Our study investigated different genomic (Illumina Final Report, PLINK, 0125, FASTQ, and VCF formats) and phenotypic (including media files) information, using both real and simulated datasets. Advantages of our centralized database concept include the sublinear running time for queries after increasing the number of samples/markers exponentially, in addition to the comprehensive management of distinct data formats while searching for specific genomic regions. A comparison of our non-relational and generic solution, with an existing relational approach (developed for tabular data types using 2 bits to store genotypes), showed reduced importing time to handle 50M SNPs (PLINK format) achieved by the relational schema. Our experimental results also reinforce that data conversion is a costly step required to manage genomic data into both relational and non-relational database systems, and therefore, must be carefully treated for large applications.     

Dark respiration rate increases with plant size in saplings of three temperate tree species despite decreasing tissue nitrogen and nonstructural carbohydrates

In shaded environments, minimizing dark respiration during growth could be an important aspect of maintaining a positive whole-plant net carbon balance. Changes with plant size in both biomass distribution to different tissue types and mass-specific respiration rates (R(d)) of those tissues would have an impact on whole-plant respiration. In this paper, we evaluated size-related variation in R(d), biomass distribution, and nitrogen (N) and total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentrations of leaves, stems and roots of three cold-temperate tree species (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill, Acer rubrum L. and Pinus strobus L.) in a forest understory. We sampled individuals varying in age (6 to 24 years old) and in size (from 2 to 500 g dry mass), and growing across a range of irradiances (from 1 to 13% of full sun) in northern Minnesota, USA. Within each species, we found small changes in R(d), N and TNC when comparing plants growing across this range of light availability. Consistent with our hypotheses, as plants grew larger, whole-plant N and TNC concentrations in all species declined as a result of a combination of changes in tissue N and shifts in biomass distribution patterns. However, contrary to our hypotheses, whole-plant and tissue R(d) increased with plant size in the three species.     

Molecular and serological detection of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi in donkeys (Equus asinus) in Brazil

Piroplasmosis in donkeys has been recognized as a serious problem of major economic importance, since the affected animals manifest loss of appetite and decreased working capacity. The present work is aimed at detecting infection or exposure of donkeys in S?o Paulo, Brazil to Theileria (T.) equi and Babesia (B.) caballi using molecular and serological approaches. EDTA-blood and serum samples were collected from 88 donkeys (Equus asinus). From 88 sampled donkeys, 65 (73.86%; 95% confidence interval, PI=63.41, 82.65) and 82 (93.2%; 95% confidence interval, PI=85.75, 97.46) animals showed IgG antibodies to T. equi (by ELISA) and B. caballi (by IFAT), respectively. Twenty-eight (31.81%; 95% confidence interval, PI=22.3, 42.61) and 18 (20.45%; 95% confidence interval, PI=12.6, 30.39) donkeys were positive to T. equi and B. caballi nested PCR assays, respectively. The results indicated that T. equi and B. caballi are prevalent among donkeys in Brazil.     

Removal of Chromium, Copper, and Nickel from an Electroplating Effluent Using a Flocculent Brewer’s Yeast Strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The release of heavy metals in aquatic systems due to the discharge of industrial wastewaters is a matter of environmental concern. Heat-inactivated cells of a flocculent strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used in the bioremediation, in a batch mode, of a real electroplating effluent containing Cu, Ni, and Cr. In this approach, no previous reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) was required. Cr(VI) was selectively removed (98%) by yeast biomass at pH 2.3. At this pH, Cr(VI) is mainly in the form of HCrO ₄ ^? and yeast surface is surrounded by H⁺ ions, which enhance the Cr(VI) interaction with biomass binding sites by electrostatic forces. Subsequently, pH of the effluent was raised up to 6.0; this pH maximizes the efficiency of cations removal since at this pH the main binding groups of yeast cells are totally or partially deprotonated. The passage of effluent through a series of sequential batches, at pH 6.0, allowed, after the third batch, the removal of Cu(II), Ni (II), Cr total, and Cr(VI) in the effluent to values below the legal limit of discharge. The strategy proposed in the present work can be used in plants for the treatment of heavy metals rich industrial effluents containing simultaneously Cr(VI) and Cr(III).     

Anesthesia and pain management in Russia

There was only limited emphasis on anesthesia and pain management in veterinary colleges in Russia until the last ten years. There is now great interest in improvement by Russia practitioners. This effort is hampered by the lack of approved and available medications and limited instructions. At this time, the small animal practitioners have tranquilizers, alpha₂ agonists local anesthetics and NSAID's for their use. Propofol is available through pharmacies and efforts are being made for veterinarians to use ketamine. Only a few practices have inhalant anesthetic units and halothane. During a recent lecture tour of Russia, general clinical principles and specific anesthetic and pain management protocols were taught. The audience, primarily young and progressive veterinarians, actively participated and showed great desire to practice quality anesthesia and pain management for their patients. Teaching young veterinarians how to manage their cases without the availability of opioids, ketamine advanced anesthetic equipment and monitors was indeed challenging. Protocols for perioperative management consisting of medetomidine with or without local anesthesia followed by carprofen for post-operative pain is an improvement. We sometimes spend so much time discussing which of many drug combinations we will use but seldom consider what we would do if we were practicing our specialty in parts of the world where we would have to modify dosages and combinations to achieve humane care with few drug choices.     

Progressive tetraparesis and laryngeal paralysis in a young Rottweiler with neuronal vacuolation and axonal degeneration: an Australian case

A 5-month-old female Rottweiler dog was diagnosed to have a neurodegenerative disease that has been recently report ed in Rottweilers from North America and Europe. The dog was presented with progressive signs of ataxia, tetraparesis and inspiratory stridor. The clinical investigation included analysis of CSF, radiography, myelography and electrophysiolog-ical testing. No evidence of vertebral malformation or inflammatory CNS disease was identified. Bilateral laryngeal paraly sis was identified in the lightly anaesthetised dog. Electromyography showed abnormal spontaneous activity from the intrin sic musculature of the larynx. At necropsy there were no gross abnormalities of the nervous system but there was atrophy of the dorsal cricoarytenoid muscles of the larynx. There were widespread histological abnormalities throughout the ner vous system including neuronal vacuolation, spongiform changes in the neuropil and axonal degeneration which was most prominent in the spinal cord. These clinical and pathological findings are consistent with the diagnosis of a new neurode-generative disease reported from North America and Europe. This diagnosis is of particular significance in Australia where transmissible spongiform encephalopathies have not been identified.