Orchardgrass and perennial ryegrass with applied nitrogen and in mixtures with legumes

High-yielding grass-legume mixtures play an important role in forage-animal systems but finding compatible and adapted species can sometimes be difficult. The objective of this study was to examine productivity of perennial ryegrass and orchardgrass in pure stands with N and in mixtures with legumes.
Broadcast sowings were made on conventionally prepared seedbeds in August 1979 and May 1980 on a Hagerstown silt loam soil (fine, mixed mesic Typic Hapludalf). When sown alone orchardgrass cv. Pennlate and perennial ryegrass cv. Reveille received rates of N ranging from 0 to 448 kg ha⁻¹ a⁻¹. The grasses were also grown in mixtures with alfalfa cv. Arc, red clover cv. Arlington, or birds foot trefoil cv. Viking. The same legumes were sown alone. Four legume seed rates were used in both the pure legume and mixed stands.
Orchardgrass-N swards were more productive than ryegrass-N swards over 3 years. More dry matter (DM) was harvested from pure stands of     

Unusual histiocytic disease in a Somali cat

An 8-year-old Somali cat presented with a 9-month history of inappetence, vomiting and weight loss. The disease progressed to involve neurological signs associated with a mass lesion at the level of the first lumbar vertebra. Histopathology identified the condition as malignant histiocytosis affecting the lungs, stomach, mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, spleen, brain and spinal cord. However, the presentation of this case differs from previously reported cases of malignant histiocytosis, and may therefore represent a variant form of histiocytic disease.     

Engaging farmers in environmental management through a better understanding of behaviour

The United Kingdom’s approach to encouraging environmentally positive behaviour has been three-pronged, through voluntarism, incentives and regulation, and the balance between the approaches has fluctuated over time. Whilst financial incentives and regulatory approaches have been effective in achieving some environmental management behavioural change amongst farmers, ultimately these can be viewed as transient drivers without long-term sustainability. Increasingly, there is interest in ‘nudging’ managers towards voluntary environmentally friendly actions. This approach requires a good understanding of farmers’ willingness and ability to take up environmental activities and the influences on farmer behavioural change. The paper aims to provide insights from 60 qualitative farmer interviews undertaken for a research project into farmers’ willingness and ability to undertake environmental management, particularly focusing on social psychological insights. Furthermore, it explores farmers’ level of engagement with advice and support networks that foster a genuine interest, responsibility and a sense of personal and social norm to sustain high quality environmental outcomes. Two conceptual frameworks are presented for usefully exploring the complex set of inter-relationships that can influence farmers’ willingness to undertake environmental management practices. The research findings show how an in-depth understanding of farmer’s willingness and ability to adopt environmental management practices and their existing level of engagement with advice and support are necessary to develop appropriate engagement approaches to achieve sustained and durable environmental management.     

First account of the metazoan parasite fauna of oilfish Ruvettus pretiosus Cocco, 1829 (Perciformes: Gempylidae) in South African waters

Parasites are an important but neglected component of ecosystems that can be used as indicators of host biology and ecology. In the present study, the metazoan parasite assemblage of Ruvettus pretiosus, an understudied but widely distributed predatory gempylid, caught off South Africa was surveyed. A total of seven parasite taxa, including four new infection records (Bolbosoma capitatum, Rhadinorhynchus sp., Hepatoxylon trichiuri and Anisakis sp.), two new locality records (B. capitatum and Rhipidocotyle sp.) as well as the ectoparasitic copepod Sagum foliaceus and the cestode Tentacularia coryphaenae were recovered from the eight specimens examined.     

Transcutaneous direct current cardioversion in a foal with lone atrial fibrillation

There are rare published reports of atrial fibrillation (AF) in foals, all of which are associated with structural heart disease or within the adaptive period of newborns. This report describes a 3-month-old Thoroughbred filly with AF and a structurally normal heart on echocardiography. Medical cardioversion of the foal's AF was attempted with three 20mg/kg doses of quinidine sulfate therapy without success. Timed, transcutaneous, direct current cardioversion was successfully performed using adhesive patches on the midthorax in conjunction with intravenous procainamide at a total dose of 20mg/kg. A normal sinus rhythm was maintained through discharge from the hospital and at recheck 5 months after cardioversion. Transcutaneous direct current cardioversion presents a feasible alternative to quinidine sulfate or transvenous electrical cardioversion in young or lower body weight equids.     

Comparative toxicity of coniine, an alkaloid of Conium maculatum (poison hemlock), in chickens, quails, and turkeys

Coniine, an alkaloid of Conium maculatum (poison hemlock), was administered by gavage to immature chickens, quails, and turkeys at 0, 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg body weight. At 25 mg coniine/kg body weight, clinical signs were observed only in quails (2/10) and consisted of excitement, depression, hypermetria, seizures, opisthotonos, and flaccid paralysis. Chickens (9/10) and quails (8/10) dosed at 50 mg/kg body weight were affected, and several birds of each species died (2/10 and 5/10, respectively). Turkeys (7/10) were affected only when dosed at 100 mg/kg body weight, and quails (6/10), turkeys (4/10), and chickens (10/10) died at this dose. There were no gross or microscopic lesions. Coniine was detected in skeletal muscle and liver of birds dying after ingestion and was present in some survivors 7 days post-treatment.     

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR LAND DEGRADATION MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY THINKING

It is increasingly recognised that land degradation monitoring and assessment can benefit from incorporating multiple sources of knowledge, using a variety of methods at different scales, including the perspectives of researchers, land managers and other stakeholders. However, the knowledge and methods required to achieve this are often dispersed across individuals and organisations at different levels and locations. Appropriate knowledge management mechanisms are therefore required to more efficiently harness these different sources of knowledge and facilitate their broader dissemination and application. This paper examines what knowledge is, how it is generated and explores how it may be stored, transferred and exchanged between knowledge producers and users before it is applied to monitor and assess land degradation at the local scale. It suggests that knowledge management can also benefit from the development of mechanisms that promote changes in understanding and efficient means of accessing and/or brokering knowledge. Broadly, these processes for knowledge management can (i) help identify and share good practices and build capacity for land degradation monitoring at different scales and in different contexts and (ii) create knowledge networks to share lessons learned and monitoring data among and between different stakeholders, scales and locations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.