Salmonella Brandenburg in non-pregnant 8-month-old sheep

Abstract

Extract

S. Brandenburg has been reported as a cause of abortion and often subsequent death of ewes from areas of the South Island of New Zealand (Bailey, 1998 Bailey, K.M. 1997. Sheep abortions associated with Salmonella Brandenburg. Surveillance, 24(4): 10–11.  [Google Scholar] and Clark et. al., 1999 Clark, G, Fenwick, S, Boxall, N, Swanney, S and Nicol, C. 1999. “Salmonella Brandenburg abortions in sheep, pathogenesis and pathology”. In Proceedings of the 29^pth Seminar of the Society of Sheep and Beef Cattle Veterinarians NZVA 13–22. Palmerston North, , New Zealand: Veterinary Continuing Education, Massey University,.  [Google Scholar]). This bacterium has also been isolated from a bitch with metritis, a dog with diarrhoea, cattle with diarrhoea and black-backed gulls (Laurus dominicanus) (Clark et. al., 1999 Clark, G, Fenwick, S, Boxall, N, Swanney, S and Nicol, C. 1999. “Salmonella Brandenburg abortions in sheep, pathogenesis and pathology”. In Proceedings of the 29^pth Seminar of the Society of Sheep and Beef Cattle Veterinarians NZVA 13–22. Palmerston North, , New Zealand: Veterinary Continuing Education, Massey University,.  [Google Scholar]). It has also been isolated from pigs, goats, a takahe (Notornis mantelli) and a deer (Bailey, 1998 Bailey, K.M. 1997. Sheep abortions associated with Salmonella Brandenburg. Surveillance, 24(4): 10–11.  [Google Scholar]). Until recently S. Brandenburg was thought only to affect sheep in the later stages of pregnancy.     

A guide to professional conduct – do we really need it?

Extract

The 1985 edition of the Guide to Professional Conduct for veterinarians in New Zealand is about to be released. Changing demands of society, and of the profession itself, mean that any document which attempts to give guidance on matters of conduct must be continually reviewed or become irrelevant. Thus a new edition of the Guide has been produced some five years after the last edition.     

Disaggregation of legacy soil data using area to point kriging for mapping soil organic carbon at the regional scale

Legacy data in the form of soil maps, which often have typical property measurements associated with each polygon, can be an important source of information for digital soil mapping (DSM). Methods of disaggregating such information and using it for quantitative estimation of soil properties by methods such as regression kriging (RK) are needed. Several disaggregation processes have been investigated; preferred methods include those which include consideration of scorpan factors and those which are mass preserving (pycnophylactic) making transitions between different scales of investigation more theoretically sound. Area to point kriging (AtoP kriging) is pycnophylactic and here we investigate its merits for disaggregating legacy data from soil polygon maps. Area to point regression kriging (AtoP RK) which incorporates ancillary data into the disaggregation process was also applied. The AtoP kriging and AtoP RK approaches do not involve collection of new soil measurements and are compared with disaggregation by simple rasterization. Of the disaggregation methods investigated, AtoP RK gave the most accurate predictions of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations (smaller mean absolute errors (MAEs) of cross-validation) for disaggregation of soil polygon data across the whole of Northern Ireland.Legacy soil polygon data disaggregated by AtoP kriging and simple rasterization were used in a RK framework for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations across the whole of Northern Ireland, using soil sample data from the Tellus survey of Northern Ireland and with other covariates (altitude and airborne radiometric potassium). This allowed direct comparison with previous analysis of the Tellus survey data. Incorporating the legacy data, whether from simple rasterization of the polygons or AtoP kriging, substantially reduced the MAEs of RK compared with previous analyses of the Tellus data. However, using legacy data disaggregated by AtoP kriging in RK resulted in a greater reduction in MAEs. A jack-knife procedure was also performed to determine a suitable number of additional soil samples that would need to be collected for RK of SOC for the whole of Northern Ireland depending on the availability of ancillary data. We recommend i) if only legacy soil polygon map data are available, they should be disaggregated using AtoP kriging, ii) if ancillary data are also available legacy data should be disaggregated using AtoP RK and iii) if new soil measurements are available in addition to ancillary and legacy soil map data, the legacy soil map data should be first disaggregated using AtoP kriging and these data used along with ancillary data as the fixed effects for RK of the new soil measurements.     

Short‐Term Antiandrogen Flutamide Treatment Causes Structural Alterations in Somatic Cells Associated with Premature Detachment of Spermatids in the Testis of Pubertal and Adult Guinea Pigs

In spite of widespread application of flutamide in the endocrine therapies of young and adult patients, the side effects of this antiandrogen on spermatogenesis and germ‐cell morphology remain unclear. This study evaluates the short‐term androgen blockage effect induced by the administration of flutamide to the testes of pubertal (30‐day old) and adult (65‐ and 135‐day old) guinea pigs, with an emphasis on ultrastructural alterations of main cell types. The testes removed after 10 days of treatment with either a non‐steroidal antiandrogen, flutamide (10 mg/kg of body weight) or a pharmacological vehicle alone were processed for histological, quantitative and ultrastructural analysis. In pubertal animals, flutamide androgenic blockage induces spermatogonial differentiation and accelerates testes maturation, causing degeneration and detachment of primary spermatocytes and round spermatids, which are subsequently found in great quantities in the epididymis caput. In post‐pubertal and adult guinea pigs, in addition to causing germ‐cell degeneration, especially in primary spermatocytes, and leading to the premature detachment of spherical spermatids, the antiandrogen treatment increased the relative volume of Leydig cells. In addition, ultrastructural evaluation indicated that irrespective of age antiandrogen treatment causes an increase in frequency of organelles involved with steroid hormone synthesis in the Leydig cells and a dramatic accumulation of myelin figures in their cytoplasm and, to a larger degree, in Sertoli cells. In conclusion, the transient exposition of the guinea pigs to flutamide, at all postnatal ages causes some degenerative lesions including severe premature detachment of spermatids and accumulation of myelin bodies in Leydig and Sertoli cells, compromising, at least temporarily, the spermatogenesis.     

Penny ice cap cores, baffin island, canada, and the wisconsinan foxe dome connection: two states of hudson bay ice cover

Ice cores from Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada, provide continuous Holocene records of oxygen isotopic composition (delta18O, proxy for temperature) and atmospheric impurities. A time scale was established with the use of altered seasonal variations, some volcanic horizons, and the age for the end of the Wisconsin ice age determined from the GRIP and GISP2 ice cores. There is pre-Holocene ice near the bed. The change in delta18O since the last glacial maximum (LGM) is at least 12.5 per mil, compared with an expected value of 7 per mil, suggesting that LGM ice originated at the much higher elevations of the then existing Foxe Dome and Foxe Ridge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The LGM delta18O values suggest thick ice frozen to the bed of Hudson Bay.     

Strong regularities in world wide web surfing

One of the most common modes of accessing information in the World Wide Web is surfing from one document to another along hyperlinks. Several large empirical studies have revealed common patterns of surfing behavior. A model that assumes that users make a sequence of decisions to proceed to another page, continuing as long as the value of the current page exceeds some threshold, yields the probability distribution for the number of pages that a user visits within a given Web site. This model was verified by comparing its predictions with detailed measurements of surfing patterns. The model also explains the observed Zipf-like distributions in page hits observed at Web sites.     

The structure of the upper atmosphere of mars: In situ accelerometer measurements from mars global surveyor

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) z-axis accelerometer has obtained over 200 vertical structures of thermospheric density, temperature, and pressure, ranging from 110 to 170 kilometers, compared to only three previous such vertical structures. In November 1997, a regional dust storm in the Southern Hemisphere triggered an unexpectedly large thermospheric response at mid-northern latitudes, increasing the altitude of thermospheric pressure surfaces there by as much as 8 kilometers and indicating a strong global thermospheric response to a regional dust storm. Throughout the MGS mission, thermospheric density bulges have been detected on opposite sides of the planet near 90 degreesE and 90 degreesW, in the vicinity of maximum terrain heights. This wave 2 pattern may be caused by topographically-forced planetary waves propagating up from the lower atmosphere.     

Qualitative analysis of cartilaginous jaw element malformation in cultured yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) larvae

A central problem facing worldwide culture of yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) is the presence of skeletal malformations, including jaw deformities. This study presents a morphological characterization of normal and abnormal cartilage jaw structures during early larval development. Samples of 70–150 larvae were collected from three cohorts from 2 to 9 days post hatching, anaesthetized and fixed for cartilage staining. Cartilaginous components were defined clearly at four days post hatch (dph) (4.65 ± 0.05 mm total length), and abnormal jaw structures were detectable at this time. Jaw deformities observed included extension of Meckel's cartilage with or without ventral bending of the anterior tip, displacement of ceratohyal and hypohyal cartilage ventrally and below Meckel's cartilage, and shortening and dorsal flexion of the lower jaw. At 4 dph, between 44% and 47% of all larvae examined had jaw abnormalities. The contribution of each deformity to the total number of deformities was variable among the three cohorts examined. To compare shape difference accurately we performed an exploratory, landmark‐based geometric morphometric analysis using seven homologous landmarks. Larvae were classified into three jaw morphology groups. The geometric morphometric approach provides a useful tool to standardize classification of cartilage jaw abnormalities at early developmental larval stages. Early recognition of developing abnormalities is of importance for fish farmers in both improving fish selection efficiency and for evaluating effects of rearing parameters.     

Field trials of a formulation containing moxidectin and 6 in 1 vaccines for sheep

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of a formulation containing moxidectin and 6 in 1 vaccine in sheep under field conditions.
Design: Efficacy and safety study.
Animals: Two hundred and five crossbred Merino lambs and two hundred and eight Merino ewes were used in the studies.
Procedure: A formulation was made for the simultaneous treatment of sheep with moxidectin and immunisation against clostridial diseases and caseous lymphadenitis. The efficacy against nematodes, vaccine response and safety were assessed.
Results: Effective control of nematodes and responses to antigens were achieved following subcutaneous administration. The formulation was safe to administer; occasional minor tissue reactions were evident, but no other adverse effects of treatment were observed in either pregnant ewes or lambs, using either the recommended dose, or an overdose of the formulation.
Conclusion: Administration of a formulation containing moxidectin, five clostridial antigens and caseous lymphadenitis antigen proved safe and efficacious under field conditions.