Cuticular hydrocarbons in two parapatric species of ants and their hybrid

Discrimination between nestmates and non‐nestmates in social insects is thought to rely on the pattern of cuticular hydrocarbons. We investigated the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of 2 parapatric sibling ant species, Temnothorax nylanderi (Förster, 1850) and Temnothorax crassispinus (Karavaiev, 1926), and their hybrid. We found that although the profiles show considerable similarities, a discriminant analysis based on the relative peak areas of cuticular hydrocarbons separates the 3 taxa. The profiles of hybrids were not consistently intermediate between those of the paternal species, suggesting either non‐additive interactions among the parental biosynthetic pathways or systematic differences in environment‐derived odor cues.     

Comparative pharmacokinetics of paracetamol (acetaminophen) and its sulphate and glucuronide metabolites in desert camels and goats

Paracetamol was administered at dosages of 5 mg/kg to camels and 10 mg/kg to goats by the intravenous and intramuscular routes. Parent paracetamol had a significantly slower clearance (21.9 ± 1.4 mL/min.kg vs. 52.8 ± 7.3 mL/min.kg) (P < 0.01) in camels than in goats. In camels the predominant metabolite in plasma was the sulphate, although the ratios of glucuronide:paracetamol and sulphate:paracetamol were similar (5.20 ± 0.50 vs. 6.59 ± 0.51) following intravenous administration. In goats the glucuronide metabolite was the predominant moiety in plasma, and the area under the curve (AUC) of the sulphate was only 3.89% of that of the glucuronide conjugate. The apparent AUC for paracetamol in the camel following intramuscular administration was larger than that following intravenous administration, however, when the bioavailability (F) was determined, with correction for altered half-life, within the animal and between study phases it was 71 ± 17% in goats and 105 ± 26% in camels.     

Assessing attitudes toward farm animal welfare: a national survey of animal science faculty members

A survey to measure attitudes toward farm animal welfare was developed. We targeted animal science faculty because of their influence on animal production in the United States. We initially interviewed 34 faculty members from a large Midwestern public university to assist with questionnaire development. After our written survey was developed, we pilot-tested our questionnaire at this same university. Thereafter, we sent an e-mail advance notice, first survey, and follow-up survey/thank-you to the national population of animal science faculty members. With an n = 446 (response rate = 45%), we observed the following: 51% (for layer birds), 58% (for meat birds), 66% (for swine), 84% (for dairy), 86% (for sheep), and 87% (for beef) of our respondents agreed that the predominant methods used to produce various types of animal products provided appropriate levels of animal welfare. Our findings showed that greater than 90% of respondents support general principles of animal welfare, such as keeping animals free from unnecessary fear and distress. However, specific practices that have been shown to elicit distress (e.g., castration without anesthetic) were deemed a concern by only 32% of the respondents. Various industry practices/outcomes were assessed for level of concern and varied from a high of 83% of respondents agreeing that flooring effects on lameness in intensively farmed animals are a concern, to a low of 16% agreeing that early weaning in pigs is a concern. Summed attitude scores showed significant relationships with the demographic variables of gender (P < 0.01) and political ideology (P < 0.01), with women and those holding more liberal political views being more concerned about farm animal welfare issues. Gaining an awareness of various stakeholders' attitudes (e.g., animal scientists, veterinarians, producers, and consumers) toward farm animal welfare will assist animal welfare scientists in knowing which research topics to emphasize and, perhaps, where critical gaps in accessibility of knowledge exist.     

Effects of boar presence on agonistic behavior, shoulder scratches, and stress response of bred sows at mixing

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of boar presence on aggression, shoulder scratches, and salivary cortisol in group-housed sows during the period after mixing, which is when dominance hierarchies are formed. A total of 225 York-shire sows were used. Five groups of 15 sows were each exposed to 1 of 3 levels of boar presence (n = 15): physical (boar in pen with sows; 2.15 m2 per sow), fenceline (boar housed adjacent to sows; 2.3 m2 per sow), or control (no boar in the room; 2.3 m2 per sow). The experiment was divided into 2 phases. In phase 1, behavioral measurements were taken for 48 h after mixing and boar introduction. In phase 2, behavioral measurements were taken beginning on d 6 after mixing and included 24 h before and 48 h after boar removal. In phases 1 and 2, shoulder scratches were scored 24 h before and 24 h after mixing and boar removal, respectively. Saliva samples were collected each morning (0600 to 0700) and afternoon (1600 to 1700) during both phases. Frequencies of intersow aggressive contact (bite, body knock, and head knock) and threats as well as frequencies and durations of fighting bouts were determined from video recordings during daily feeding (49.6 +/- 1.4 min) and nonfeeding (21 +/- 0.2 h) periods. During phase 1, boar presence did not affect the frequency of threats during either the feeding or nonfeeding periods. Control groups had fewer aggressive contacts at feeding during the 25- to 48-h period compared with the fenceline groups (P = 0.01). Total duration of fighting and average fighting bout duration were unaffected by treatment. However, the number of fights occurring during feeding 25 to 48 h postmixing was lower in the physical groups than in the fenceline groups (P = 0.023); measures for the control groups were intermediate. Physical sows also received fewer shoulder scratches postmixing than did control sows (P = 0.048). After mixing, physical sows showed greater morning (P = 0.08) and afternoon (6 h postmixing, P = 0.01; 32 h postmixing, P = 0.08) salivary cortisol concentrations compared with fenceline sows, although they were only numerically greater than those for control sows. During phase 2, removing the boar did not increase fighting among sows or affect shoulder scratches or salivary cortisol concentrations. The presence of a boar was minimally effective at reducing fighting and scratches during the postmixing period, and sows showed a greater stress response in the presence of a boar.     

Evaluation of five serological tests for the diagnosis of porcine brucellosis in French Polynesia

Porcine brucellosis due to Brucella suis biovar 1 raises important issues for pig breeders in French Polynesia. In this region, the disease is enzootic, spreads silently and engenders economic losses in infected farms as well as sporadic human cases. While serological tests are essential in surveillance and control programmes of animal diseases, to date none of the available tests have been shown to be reliable enough to be used as a gold standard in routine individual diagnosis of porcine brucellosis. Few studies about the estimation of the sensitivity and the specificity of porcine brucellosis screening tests have been published, none of them dealing with French Polynesia. The studied population included 1,595 pigs from French Polynesia. Five tests were evaluated: Rose Bengal test, fluorescence polarisation assay, indirect ELISA, and two competitive ELISAs (C-ELISA). The sensitivity and the specificity of each test were estimated. C-ELISA₂ was the most sensitive test (Se C-ELISA₂?=?0.954 [0.889; 0.992] 95 % credibility interval (CrI)) while both C-ELISA and Rose Bengal test (RBT) were the most specific ones (Sp C-ELISA₁?=?0.856 [0.806; 0.915] 95 % CrI; Sp C-ELISA₂?=?0.849 [0.817; 0.879] 95 % CrI; Sp RBT?=?0.853 [0.812; 0.898] 95 % CrI).     

A dielectric omnidirectional reflector

A design criterion that permits truly omnidirectional reflectivity for all polarizations of incident light over a wide selectable range of frequencies was used in fabricating an all-dielectric omnidirectional reflector consisting of multilayer films. The reflector was simply constructed as a stack of nine alternating micrometer-thick layers of polystyrene and tellurium and demonstrates omnidirectional reflection over the wavelength range from 10 to 15 micrometers. Because the omnidirectionality criterion is general, it can be used to design omnidirectional reflectors in many frequency ranges of interest. Potential uses depend on the geometry of the system. For example, coating of an enclosure will result in an optical cavity. A hollow tube will produce a low-loss, broadband waveguide, whereas a planar film could be used as an efficient radiative heat barrier or collector in thermoelectric devices.     

Tracking the long-term decline and recovery of an isolated population

Effects of small population size and reduced genetic variation on the viability of wild animal populations remain controversial. During a 35-year study of a remnant population of greater prairie chickens, population size decreased from 2000 individuals in 1962 to fewer than 50 by 1994. Concurrently, both fitness, as measured by fertility and hatching rates of eggs, and genetic diversity declined significantly. Conservation measures initiated in 1992 with translocations of birds from large, genetically diverse populations restored egg viability. Thus, sufficient genetic resources appear to be critical for maintaining populations of greater prairie chickens.     

Assignment of new loci to river buffalo chromosomes confirms the nature of chromosomes 4 and 5

Introduction Rapid development of the river buffalo physical map can be achieved by coupling its development to that of the cattle gene map. Syntenic conservation between cattle and buffalo has been demonstrated, mainly using somatic cell hybrids (de Hondt et al. 1991; El Nahas et al. 1993, 1996, 1998; de Hondt et al. 1997; El Nahta 1996; Oraby et al. 1977), and by using in situ hybridization as reviewed by Iannuzzi (1997). G- and R-banding comparisons between cattle (2n = 60) and river buffalo (2n = 50) chromosomes have revealed a large number of banding homologies between the two species, both at early-metaphase (Gupta and Ray -Chaudhury 1978; Di Berardino et al. 1981) and prometaphase stages (Iannuzzi et al. 1990). Banding homology indicates that the five river buffalo biarmed pairs originate from centric fusion translocation between two of ten homologous cattle autosomes, which is very supportive of the hypothesis that both species have a common ancestor (Wurster and Benirschke 1968). Based on cytological analysis and banding homology between cattle and buffalo chromosomes, the five biarmed chromosomes of the river buffalo BBU1, BBU2, BBU3, BBU4, BBU5 were thought to originate from fusion of cattle chromosome (BTA) 1/25; 2/23; 8/19; 5/28; and 16/29 respectively (Iannuzzi et al. 1990; Report of the Committee for the Standardization of Banded Karyotopes of the River Buffalo 1994). However, the analysis of synteny between molecular markers assigned to different cattle syntenic groups demonstrated that BBU1 results from fusion of BTA 1 and 27 rather than 1 and 25 (El Nahas et al. 1977). This called for expanding the analysis of syntenic relationships between marker loci to confirm the nature of the other biarmed buffalo chromosomes. The purpose of this study is to test synteny between markers in buffalo and to confirm the nature of the biarmed buffalo chromosomes 4 and 5, using marker loci and somatic cell hybrids.     

Anabolism,catabolism and proteomic analysis in the slow‐twitch muscle of pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) submitted to prolonged fasting followed by refeeding

Here, we aimed to study the slow muscle of the fish Piaractus mesopotamicus submitted to 30 days of fasting (D30) followed by 1 day (D31) or 30 days of refeeding (D60). Histological analysis of fibre diameter was performed in D30 and D60. The gene expression of parvalbumin (pvalb), atrogenes (murf1a, murf1b, mafbx) and anabolic genes (igf‐1, mtor) was analysed using RT‐qPCR in D30, D31 and D60. The proteome was obtained by shotgun proteomics at D30 and D60, and the set of differentially expressed proteins was analysed by bioinformatics. In all experiments, the control was regularly fed fish. The histological analysis showed no changes in muscle fibre diameter. The expression of catabolic and anabolic genes was not changed, except for the downregulation of igf‐1 in D30 and of mafbx in D31. The expression of pvalb was not changed in D30 and D60 but was decreased in D31. The proteomic analysis identified 169 proteins in D30 (24 upregulated and 18 downregulated) and 170 proteins in D60 (17 upregulated and 21 downregulated); many of them were related to energetic metabolism and intracellular Ca²⁺ homoeostasis. Overall, our results indicate that the slow‐twitch muscle presented few changes upon prolonged fasting and refeeding condition.