Versuche mit Herbiziden in Gemeiner Ringelblume (Calendula officinalis L.) in Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen

Between 2000 and 2005 12 experiments with 18 herbicides were carried out in marigold in experimental stations and on marigold fields of Thuringian farms. The main objective of the tests was to get the necessary data for the authorization procedure according to the regulations of §?18 a PflSchG. Marigold plants are very susceptible against some herbicides Betanal Progress, Goltix Compact + ?l, Kontakt 320 SC, Lentagran WP und Stefes IPU. These herbicides and cause severe damages on this culture. The use oft the herbicides Bandur, BASTA and further herbicides with the active ingredient Glufosinat was authorized for the application in marigold according the regulations of §?18 a PflSchG in the past. The herbicides Devrinol FL, Fusilade MAX, Goltix 700 SC, Roundup UltraMAX und Targa Super can be used in artichoke according the regulations of §?18 b PflSchG. These herbicides aren??t enough for the chemical control of weeds likeEchinochloa spec.,Galinsoga spec., Polygonum spec. in marigold. In addition to the application of the herbicides mechanical measures are necessary.     

The first appearance of infectious hemorrhagic disease of rabbits in Austria

In three Austrian rabbit units (two in the west, one in the east) heavy losses occurred in April/May 1989. The clinical course (deaths in adult animals, haemorrhagic diathesis) of the disease was indicative for an infection with the RHD-virus. Necropsy confirmed the suggestive clinical diagnosis as bleeding of the nostrils, hyperaemia in the respiratory tract, spleen tumor, partly decolorized livers, hyperaemia of kidneys with rare petechias could be observed. Histologic examination revealed centrolobular liver necrosis, lung bleeding and edema, tumor of spleen and atrophy of spleen follicles. Rabbits infected with organ suspensions died within 48 hours. The organ suspensions and the suspensions of the already necropsied animals showed a haemagglutination titer for above 1:100. This reaction could be inhibited with a specific RHD-antiserum. The intramuscular application of a RHD-reference strain in one hare, two wild rabbits and a rabbit did not induce clinical disease or death of the leporids during a six week observation period. The rabbit died within 48 hours post infection. However the hare and wild rabbits showed high antibody titers by ELISA at the end of the observation period. Before infection the two wild rabbits were serologically negative.     

Effects of tetracycline and zinc on selection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type 398 in pigs

An in vivo experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of tetracycline and zinc on pig colonization and transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type (ST) 398. Eight piglets naturally colonized with MRSA ST398 and 8 MRSA-negative piglets of the same age and breed were assigned to three groups treated with tetracycline and zinc (Group 1), zinc (Group 2) or tetracycline alone (Group 3) and one non-treated group (Group 4), each containing two MRSA-positive and two MRSA-negative animals. Two additional non-treated control groups composed of only MRSA-positive (Group 5) and MRSA-negative (Group 6) animals were used to check for stability of MRSA carriage status. Nasal swabs and environmental wipes were collected on Days 0, 7, 14, and 21, and the occurrence of MRSA in each sample was quantified by bacteriological counts on Brilliance? MRSA agar. Significantly higher nasal MRSA counts were observed in the zinc-treated (p=0.015) and tetracycline-treated (p=0.008) animals compared to the non-treated animals. Environmental MRSA counts appeared to increase over time in Groups 1 and 2 but such an increase was not statistically significant. MRSA-negative animals housed with MRSA-positive animals became positive in all groups, whereas the carriage status of the animals in Groups 5 and 6 did not change. This study demonstrates that feed supplemented with tetracycline or zinc increases the numbers of MRSA ST398 in the nasal cavity of pigs. Transmission of MRSA from positive to negative animals housed within the same pen was not influenced by exposure to these agents.     

A new isolate of the nematophagous fungus Duddingtonia flagrans a biological control agent against free-living larvae of horse strongyles

An experiment was carried out in 1997 to test the efficacy of an isolate of the microfungus Duddingtonia flagrans against free-living stages of horse strongyles under conditions in the field and to assess the eventual effect of the fungus on the normal degradation of faeces. Faecal pats were made from faeces of a naturally strongyle infected horse, which had been fed fungal material at a dose level of 106 fungal unit/kg bwt. Control pats without fungi were made from faeces collected from the same animal just before being fed fungi. Faecal cultures set up for both groups of faeces to monitor the activity of the fungus under laboratory conditions showed that the fungus significantly reduced the number of infective third-stage larvae (L3) by an average of 98.4%. Five faecal pats from each batch of faeces were deposited on pasture plots at 3 times during spring-summer. The herbage around each pat was sampled fortnightly to recover L3 transmitted from faeces. The results showed that the herbage infectivity around fungus-treated pats was reduced by 85.8-99.4%. The remaining faecal material at the end of each sampling period was collected, and the surviving L3 were extracted. Significantly fewer larvae were recovered from the fungus-treated pats. Analysis of wet and dry weight of the collected pats, as well as their organic matter content, were performed to compare the degradation of faeces of both groups. The results indicated that the presence of the fungus did not alter the degradation of the faeces.     

Inter-laboratory and inter-assay comparison on two real-time PCR techniques for quantification of PCV2 nucleic acid extracted from field samples

Several real-time PCR assays for quantification of PCV2 DNA (qPCR) have been described in the literature, and different in-house assays are being used by laboratories around the world. A general threshold of 10(7) copies of PCV2 per millilitre serum for postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) diagnosis has been suggested. However, neither inter-laboratory nor inter-assay comparisons have been published so far. In the present study, two different qPCR probe assays used routinely in two laboratories were compared on DNA extracted from serum, nasal and rectal swabs. Results showed a significant linear association between the assays (p<0.0001), and a systematic difference of 1.4 log10 copies of PCV2 per millilitre of sample (p<0.0001). This difference indicated that the assay from laboratory 1 yielded a higher output than the one from laboratory 2. Results also showed that there was no linear association between the amount of PCV2 DNA and the amount of total DNA, neither in nasal (p=0.86) nor in rectal (p=0.78) swabs, suggesting that normalizing of PCV2 DNA load in swab samples to total DNA concentration is not suitable. The present exploratory study highlights the need for the performance of ring trials on qPCV2 protocols between laboratories. Meanwhile, the proposed thresholds for PMWS diagnosis should only be considered reliable for each particular laboratory and each particular assay.     

Results of the German investigation in the EU Project "Salmonella in Pork (Salinpork)"--2. Investigations in a slaughterhouse

In 1997 bacteriological examinations for the distribution of Salmonella in slaughterhouses were carried out in Germany within the framework of an international study "Salmonella in Pork (Salinpork)". During 6 days, 1,200 swab and water samples from slaughtered pigs and the environment were taken. 4.4% of the samples (n = 53) were Salmonella positive. S. typhimurium was isolated mainly (69.8%; n = 37), and 6 phagetypes were differentiated. In addition, S. derby and S. panama could be demonstrated. The resistance pattern of the different isolated S. typhimurium-phagetypes are presented. The phagetype DT 104 was multiresistant to ampicillin, spectinomycin, streptomycin, sulphonamide and tetracycline. In comparison with the serological prevalence of 7.3% of the fattening pigs in the farms (Part 1), only 1.0% of the samples taken from the surface of the carcass were Salmonella-positive. Swabs taken from the liver were in 2.7% positive and samples from the tongue gave in 5.3% of the cases Salmonella-positive results. In the examination of the environment Salmonella was demonstrated mainly from the water outlets, whereas Salmonella could not be isolated from water of the scalding tank. There was only one case (0.7%) in which Salmonella could be isolated from the hands of the personnel, and also only one swab of the polishing machine was positive (1.1%). But 6.7% samples of the saw were Salmonella-positive. A comparison of repeated, at intervals taken samples showed that the number of Salmonella-positive samples was higher in the last examination round of the particular slaughter days. The reason is suspected in the increasing number of slaughtered pigs and supplying farms, which may increase the probability of bringing in Salmonella.     

Fatal equine meningoencephalitis in the United Kingdom caused by the panagrolaimid nematode Halicephalobus gingivalis: case report and review of the literature

A fatal case of eosinophilic and granulomatous meningoencephalitis caused by the free-living panagrolaimid nematode Halicephalobus gingivalis is reported in a 10-year-old Welsh gelding in the United Kingdom. Clinical examination first revealed behavioural abnormalities which rapidly progressed to severe ataxia, reduced mentation status and cranial nerve signs. Despite symptomatic treatment no amelioration of neurological signs was achieved and the horse was subjected to euthanasia. A complete post mortem examination revealed eosinophilic and granulomatous meningoencephalitis mainly affecting the cerebellum and brain stem with intralesional adult nematodes, larvae and eggs. There was also eosinophilic meningitis of the cervical spinal cord. The intralesional nematodes were morphologically consistent with the panagrolaimid nematode H. gingivalis. Although infection by this facultative neurotropic parasite is extremely rare, it needs to be considered in the differential diagnosis of central nervous signs in horses and, in particular, other equine helminthic infection of the central nervous system. This fatal case is unusual since lesions were locally very extensive and the nematodes did not colonise haematogenously to other organs as seen often in equine halicephalobosis. As the taxonomy of H. gingivalis has changed and some recent reports in the literature still refer to this species as Micronema deletrix or Halicephalobus deletrix, we here provide a short update of the species and some insights on the order Tylenchida, which contains free-living nematodes with parasitic tendencies.     

Molecular evidence for the infection of zoo chimpanzees by pig Ascaris

We here describe the transmission of the pig roundworm, Ascaris suum to chimpanzees maintained in the Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark. Using a technique for whole genome fingerprinting, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and the technique PCR restricted fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, the worms from the chimpanzees were compared with Ascaris spp obtained from humans and pigs in order to identify the source of the infection. By the use of different distance and clustering based methods on the AFLP data set the worms from the chimpanzees were assigned to the same cluster as that of the worms from pigs. The PCR-RFLP analysis supported the AFLP results. Therefore, the zoo chimpanzees have required Ascaris infections by cross-infection from pigs. Pigs as a potential source of Ascaris infections for both captive and wild chimpanzees and other animals, therefore needs to be considered and appropriate steps taken to prevent such infection.