Nonstationary Phase of the Plio-Pleistocene Asian Monsoon

Paleoclimate records indicate that the strength of the Asian summer monsoon is sensitive to orbital forcing at the obliquity and precession periods (41,000 and 23,000 years, respectively) and the extent of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Over the past 2.6 million years, the timing (phase) of strong monsoons has changed by approximately 83 degrees in the precession and approximately 124 degrees in the obliquity bands relative to the phase of maximum global ice volume (inferred from the marine oxygen isotope record). These results suggest that one or both of these systems is nonstationary relative to orbital forcing.     

Dexamethasone and mastitis in cows

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Sir, — The use of corticosteroids to induce early parturition to obtain a concentrated calving period has been widely accepted in New Zealand. Retention of the placenta following treatment with corticosteroids has been described by Adams (1969 Adams, W. M. 1969. The elective induction of laborand parturition in cattle. J. Am. vet. Med. Ass., 154: 261–265.  [Google Scholar]), Lauderdale (1972 Lauderdale, J. W. 1972. Effects of corticoid administration on bovine pregnancy. J. Am. vet. med. Ass., 160: 867–871.  [Google Scholar]) and Jochle et al. (1972 Tochle, W., Esparza, H., Gimenez, T. and Hidalgo, M. A. 1972. Inhibition or corticoid-induced parturition by progesterone in cattle: Effect on delivery and calf viability. J. Reprod. Fert., 28: 407–412.  [Google Scholar]). Welch et al. (1973 Welch, R. A. S., Newling, P. and Anderson, D. 1973. Induction of parturition in cattle with corticosteroids: An analysis of field trials. N.Z. vet J., 21: 103–108. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), using dexamethasone trimethylacetate* *Opticortenol: Ciba-Geigy. in the Huntly and Bay of Plenty areas, reported that calf mortality was disturbingly high — 31.3% and 17.1% for the respective areas. Despite having no apparent effect on milk production or subsequent fertility it is possible pre-existing infections may be exacerbated by the use of corticosteroids.     

Isolation of Parainfluenza type 3 virus from sheep in New Zealand

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Bovine virus diarrhoea (BVD) and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) viruses are commonly thought on clinical grounds to be widespread in the. New Zealand cattle population, and records of virus isolation and serology from this laboratory support this assumption. To date, however, few reports have been published on the prevalence of these two diseases in New Zealand.     

The effect of mid-cycle insemination on subsequent conception rates of cattle

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Sir,—The proportion of return intervals after first insemination of less than 18 days' duration is between 16 and 20% in New Zealand dairy cattle (Macmillan, 1970 Macmillan, K. L. 1970. Return intervals to first insemination and conception rates to second insemination in New Zealand cattle. N.Z. Jl agric. Res., 43 in press [Google Scholar]) whereas the comparable figure in American herds is 3.5% (Moeller and VanDemark, 1951 Moeller, A. N. and Van Demark, N. L. 1951. The relationship of the interval between inseminations to bovine fertility. J. Anim. Sci., 10: 988–992. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Flerchinger and Erb, 1954 Flerchinger, F. H. and Erb, R. E. 1954. Influence of treatment and fertility level of semen on distribution and non-return decline of repeat service intervals. J. Dairy Sci., 37: 949–949. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Since the incidence of these short cycles tends to increase with increasing: herd size, these short return intervals after first insemination may be the result of errors made by the farmer identifying or diagnosing oestrous cows. Such errors will arise because (1) the farmer correctly submits a cow in the first instance but then unnecessarily resubmits the same cow because of incorrect identification or diagnosis; (2) the initial incorrect submission is followed by correct diagnosis and submission; or (3) errors in detection and diagnosis are made on consecutive occasions.     

Ulcero-membranous gingivitis in the sheep

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Ulcero-membranous gingivitis, commonly referred to as Vincent's Angina, or Trench Mouth, is a not uncommon condition in human beings but we can find no references in the literature to the condition being recorded as such in domestic animals. The purpose of this communication is to record what is believed to be this condition in sheep.     

Molecular Cloning and Characterization of CD9 cDNA from Sheep and Cashmere Goat

CD9 is a glycoprotein of the transmembrane 4 superfamily (TM4SF) and is involved in various cellular processes. Some CD9 cDNA have been cloned in mammals and certain fish genera in recent years, but goat and sheep counterparts of cattle, human and mouse have not been identified. To facilitate the studies, we cloned the cDNA encoding for CD9 of cashmere goat (Capra hircus) and sheep (Ovis aries), and expressed sheep CD9 in Escherichia coli cells. Structural analysis indicated for both goat and sheep that a 1123 bp cDNA spanned an open reading frame of 681 bp which predicted a protein of 226 amino acids with a typical TM4SF structure, including four highly conserved transmembrane domains, two extracellular domains and a CCG motif, which is a hallmark of the TM4SF. The predicted amino acid sequences were highly homologous to those of cattle, mouse and human CD9. Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on CD9 cDNA sequences indicated that goat and sheep CD9 were closely related to CD9 of cattle, which is in agreement with their morphological taxonomy.     

A MUCOSAL DISEASE VIRUS AS A CAUSE OF ABORTION, HAIRY BIRTH COAT AND UNTHRIFTINESS IN SHEEP

A condition in Australian sheep resembling border disease was transmitted by the inoculation of pregnant ewes with material from affected lambs. This material contained mucosal disease virus (MDV). Twenty-two lambs comprising 6 from uninoculated control ewes, together with 11 with hairy coats and 5 with normal coats from inoculated ewes, were observed from 7 to 182 days after birth. Nine of the lambs from inoculated ewes died during the experiment from a variety of causes. Glial cell abnormalities were observed in control and affected lambs, but only 4 of the 11 hairy lambs were judged to have abnormal glial cells. There were no consistent histopathological findings indicative of MDV infection. MDV was recovered from tissues of all 11 hairy lambs, but not from any of the lambs with normal coats. The hairy lambs appeared to be immunologically tolerant to the virus. Susceptible sheep in contact with the hairy lambs were infected with MDV. It is suggested that a condition in Australian lambs characterised by hairiness of the birth coat and poor viability is due to foetal infection with a mucosal disease virus.