Concentrations of interleukin-6, -8, -10 and tumour necrosis factor-α in the faeces of dogs with acute diarrhoea

Aim: To compare the concentration of faecal cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, -8, -10, and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α in dogs with acute diarrhoea with clinically normal (non-diarrhoeic) dogs.

Methods: A total of 14 dogs presenting with acute diarrhoea, and 25 dogs with no history of gastrointestinal signs in the 2 months prior to enrolment, were recruited from two veterinary hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. Concentrations of IL-6, -8, -10, and TNF-α were measured in faecal samples using canine-specific ELISA.

Results: The diarrhoeic dogs were diagnosed with or managed for acute gastroenteritis (n?=?6), extra-intestinal neoplasia (n?=?2), parvoviral enteritis (n?=?1), hepatopathy (n?=?1), acute pancreatitis (n?=?1), hypoadrenocorticism (n?=?1), gastric dilatation volvulus (n?=?1) and myelopathy (n?=?1). IL-6 was detectable in the faeces of 10/14 (71%) diarrhoeic and 7/25 (28%) non-diarrhoeic dogs, and median concentrations were 10.8 (min 0.0, max?54.0) and 2.0 (min 0.0, max15.0) pg/mL, respectively (p?=?0.01). IL-8 was detectable in the faeces of all diarrhoeic and 11 non-diarrhoeic dogs, and median concentrations were 149.7 (min 3.72, max?730.1) and 3.4 (min 0.0, max?22.5)?pg/mL, respectively (p?<?0.001). TNF-α was detected in the faeces of two of the diarrhoeic dogs (3.4 and 15.6?pg/mL) and none of the non-diarrhoeic dogs. IL-10 was not detected in the faeces of any dog.

Conclusions: Faecal concentrations of IL-6 and -8 were higher in diarrhoeic compared to non-diarrhoeic dogs, and are therefore potential candidates for non-invasive biomarkers to assess the severity and resolution of acute intestinal disease in dogs. However their correlation with disease progression and severity needs to be further investigated before their full clinical application can be determined.     

Treatment response and long term follow up in nineteen dogs diagnosed with chronic enteropathy in Australia

Chronic enteropathy (CE) in dogs is common worldwide, but little data is available from Australia. The aim of this study was to describe treatment response and long‐term outcome in a cohort of dogs with CE. Dogs were prospectively enrolled at Murdoch University and the University of Melbourne. After diagnostic investigation to rule out diseases other than CE, dogs underwent sequential therapeutic trials until achieving a clinical response (diet then antibiotics, and finally immunosuppressants). Success was defined as 75% reduction of clinical severity for a minimum of five weeks. A total of 21 dogs were enrolled, and 19 completed the study. One dog was euthanised for lack of response to treatment and one excluded for lack of owner compliance. Most dogs responded to diet (n = 10), followed by antibiotics (n = 7) and immunosuppressants (n = 2). Long‐term remission (median 21.1 months, [3.0‐44.7]) was achieved in eight out of ten dietary responders without additional treatment. In contrast, only two dogs with antibiotic response remained in long‐term remission, of which one needed on‐going antibiotic treatment. Longer term remission was achieved in the two dogs treated with immunosuppressants with on‐going low dose therapy. This study concludes that most dogs referred for CE in Australia respond to dietary treatment (even after previous dietary interventions), and remission is long‐term compared to dogs treated with an antibiotic. Furthermore, the need for long‐term antibiotics in some dogs to maintain response may lead to antibiotic resistance. This study supports adequate dietary trials for CE in dogs, and a need for alternative second‐line treatments.     

Effect of feeding forest foliages, rice straw and concentrate-based total mixed ration on nutrient utilization and growth in mithun (Bos frontalis)

The study aimed to evaluate the effect of feeding Borrena hirticulata (BH), Ficus hirta (FH), rice straw (RS) and concentrate-based total mixed ration (TMR) on nutrient utilization, rumen fermentation and growth in mithun. Growing male mithun calves were randomly allotted to 2 feeding groups (6 in each), TMR₁ and TMR₂. The TMRs consisted of RS 300 g kg^− 1, concentrate 400 g kg^− 1 and BH 300 g kg^− 1 (TMR₁) or FH 300 g kg^− 1 (TMR₂) on a dry matter (DM) basis. Both TMRs were fed ad libitum to the animals for 121 d and a digestibility study was conducted during the last 7 d of the experiment. To assess rumen fermentation, rumen fluid was collected at 2 h interval for 24 h. Apparent digestibility of DM, crude protein (CP) and crude fibre (CF) did not differ significantly between the TMRs. Nevertheless, apparent digestibility of ether extract was found to be significantly (P < 0.01) greater in TMR₂ (0.59) compared to TMR₁ (0.54). Body weight gain (BWG; g d^− 1), DM intake (kg d^− 1), CP intake (g d^− 1) and feed efficiency (kg feed kg^− 1 gain) were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) greater in TMR₁ (548, 5.14, 713 and 9.28) compared to TMR₂ (496, 4.91, 703 and 10.03). An insignificant positive association (r = 0.35) between DM intake and BWG, but a significant (P < 0.01) positive association (r = 0.74) between CP intake and BWG were evident. Rumen pH (5.71 to 7.18) and ammonia-nitrogen (8.0 to 25.0 mg/dl) did not differ significantly between the TMRs, but differed significantly (P < 0.01) at different h post-feeding. In contrast, rumen total volatile fatty acid (42 to 105 mM) and total nitrogen (40.4 to 90.3 mg/dl) differed significantly (P < 0.05) between the TMRs and at different h post-feeding. The study revealed that BH, FH, RS and concentrate-based TMRs may be fed to mithun for satisfactory growth.     

Application of unmanned aerial systems for high throughput phenotyping of large wheat breeding nurseries

Background

Low cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have great potential for rapid proximal measurements of plants in agriculture. In the context of plant breeding and genetics, current approaches for phenotyping a large number of breeding lines under field conditions require substantial investments in time, cost, and labor. For field-based high-throughput phenotyping (HTP), UAS platforms can provide high-resolution measurements for small plot research, while enabling the rapid assessment of tens-of-thousands of field plots. The objective of this study was to complete a baseline assessment of the utility of UAS in assessment field trials as commonly implemented in wheat breeding programs. We developed a semi-automated image-processing pipeline to extract plot level data from UAS imagery. The image dataset was processed using a photogrammetric pipeline based on image orientation and radiometric calibration to produce orthomosaic images. We also examined the relationships between vegetation indices (VIs) extracted from high spatial resolution multispectral imagery collected with two different UAS systems (eBee Ag carrying MultiSpec 4C camera, and IRIS+ quadcopter carrying modified NIR Canon S100) and ground truth spectral data from hand-held spectroradiometer.

Results

We found good correlation between the VIs obtained from UAS platforms and ground-truth measurements and observed high broad-sense heritability for VIs. We determined radiometric calibration methods developed for satellite imagery significantly improved the precision of VIs from the UAS. We observed VIs extracted from calibrated images of Canon S100 had a significantly higher correlation to the spectroradiometer (r = 0.76) than VIs from the MultiSpec 4C camera (r = 0.64). Their correlation to spectroradiometer readings was as high as or higher than repeated measurements with the spectroradiometer per se.

Conclusion

The approaches described here for UAS imaging and extraction of proximal sensing data enable collection of HTP measurements on the scale and with the precision needed for powerful selection tools in plant breeding. Low-cost UAS platforms have great potential for use as a selection tool in plant breeding programs. In the scope of tools development, the pipeline developed in this study can be effectively employed for other UAS and also other crops planted in breeding nurseries.

     

Effects of dietary protein on growth performance,nutrient utilization,digestive enzymes and physiological status of grey mullet,Mugil cephalus L. fingerlings reared in inland saline water

A 60 days feeding trial was conducted to illustrate the effect of graded levels of protein on the growth and metabolic enzymes of grey mullet (Mugil cephalus L.) fingerlings reared in inland saline water (ISW). Six isoenergetic (16 MJ/kg) and isolipidic (60 g/kg) diets containing 240, 260, 280, 300, 320 and 340 g crude protein (CP)/kg diet were formulated and fed to triplicate. Weight gain %, specific growth rate, protein utilizing efficiency, feed efficiency and RNA:DNA ratio were significantly higher (p < .05) in 320 and 300 g CP/kg diets. Fish fed with 240 g CP/kg diet showed significantly higher (p < .05) feed intake, whole‐body lipid content, hepatosomatic index value and liver glycogen content. Transaminase enzymes and malate dehydrogenase activities were elevated in fish fed 340 g CP/kg diet. Protease activity increased with increasing dietary CP level, but amylase activities showed an inverse relationship. No significant (p > .05) variations were observed for lactate dehydrogenase, oxidative stress enzymes, blood parameters and serum osmolality among all the treatment groups, but red blood cell count increases with increasing dietary CP levels. Based on the results, feeding dietary protein level of 300 g CP/kg is economically viable for rearing of grey mullet in ISW.     

Emulation Engines: Choice and Quantification of Uncertainty for Complex Hydrological Models

Complex, mechanistic hydrological models can be computationally expensive, have large numbers of input parameters, and generate multivariate output. Model emulators can be constructed to approximate these complex models with substantial computational savings, making activities such as sensitivity analysis, calibration and uncertainty analysis feasible. Success in the use of an emulator relies on it making accurate and precise predictions of the model output. However, it is often unclear what type of emulation approach will be suitable. We present a comparison of reduced-rank, multivariate emulators built upon different ‘emulation engines’ and apply them to the Australian Water Resource Assessment System model. We examine first-order and second-order approaches which focus on specifying the mean and covariance, respectively. We also introduce a nonparametric approach for quantifying the uncertainty associated with the emulated prediction where this has bounded support. Our results demonstrate that emulation engines based on second-order approaches, such as Gaussian processes, can be computationally burdensome and may be comparable in performance to computationally efficient, first-order methods such as random forests.Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear online.     

Leveraging the Antibacterial Properties of Knitted Fabrics by Admixture of Polyester-Silver Nanocomposite Fibres

Leveraging the antibacterial properties of polyester-cotton knitted fabrics has been attempted in this research by admixture of small proportion of polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres. Polyester-cotton (50:50) yarns were spun by mixing 10, 20 and 30 % (wt.%) polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres with normal polyester fibres so that overall proportion of polyester fibre becomes 50 %. The proportion of cotton fibre was constant (50 %) in all the yarns. Three parameters, namely blend proportion (wt.%) of nanocomposite fibres, yarn count and knitting machine gauge were varied, each at three levels, for producing 27 knitted fabrics. Polyester-cotton knitted fabrics prepared from polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres showed equally good antibacterial activity (65-99 %) against both S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. Antibacterial properties were enhanced with the increase in the proportion of polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres, yarn coarseness and increased compactness of knitted fabrics. Yarn count and blend proportion of nanocomposite fibre were found to have very dominant influence in determining the antibacterial properties of knitted fabrics.