AAFP and ISFM feline-friendly handling guidelines

BACKGROUND: The number of pet cats is increasing in most countries, often outnumbering pet dogs, yet cats receive less veterinary care than their canine counterparts.(1) Clients state the difficulty of getting the cat into a carrier at home, driving to the clinic, and dealing with the fearful cat at the veterinary clinic as reasons for fewer visits.(2) Educating and preparing the client and the veterinary team with regard to respectful feline handling is necessary in order to avoid stress and accomplish the goal of good health care. Without such preparation, feline stress may escalate into fear or fear-associated aggression. The resulting stress may alter results of the physical examination and laboratory tests, leading to incorrect diagnoses (eg, diabetes mellitus) and unnecessary treatments.(3-5) Without compassionate and respectful handling by the veterinary team, clients may feel the team lacks skills and compassion, or does not understand cats. Injury may occur to the cat, client and/or veterinary team.(6) Clients who want to avoid stress for their cat may avoid veterinary visits or choose another practice instead. GOALS: The use of feline-friendly handling techniques should reduce these problems. Handling is most successful when the veterinary team adapts the approach to each individual cat and situation. The goal of these guidelines is to provide useful information for handling cats that can lead to: ? Reduced fear and pain for the cat. ? Reinforced veterinarian-client-cat bond, trust and confidence, and thus better lifelong medical care for the cat. ? Improved efficiency, productivity and job satisfaction for the veterinary team. ? Increased client compliance. ? Timely reporting and early detection of medical and behavioral concerns. ? Fewer injuries to clients and the veterinary team. ? Reduced anxiety for the client.     

Pinch-induced behavioral inhibition ('clipnosis') in domestic cats

Research has documented immobilization of rodents, rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs by mechanical means, typically using neck clips or inversion ('animal hypnosis'). In contrast, only a few studies of mechanical immobilization of cats are available, although some success has been reported in the literature. Domestic cats may be effectively immobilized by clips placed along the animal's dorsum. We use the term 'pinch-induced behavioral inhibition' (PIBI) for this behavior because it describes both the method and the response, while avoiding the more anthropomorphic term 'hypnosis'. We investigated the effectiveness of PIBI and its neurological and habituation effects in healthy cats and cats with idiopathic cystitis (IC). Although not all cats were susceptible to PIBI and effectiveness varied among individuals, PIBI was useful for gentle restraint in most cats.     

Soil carbon mineralisation responses to alterations of microbial diversity and soil structure

Soil organisms are of fundamental importance for many soil functions, such as organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling and energy flow. Most research suggests that soil microbial communities are functionally redundant, meaning that there is little relationship between microbial diversity and soil functions. However, the activity of biological communities is known to be affected by their physical environment. Here, the effects of changes in microbial diversity and soil structure on organic C (OC) mineralisation were investigated. Sterile soil samples that had been subjected to different physical perturbations were inoculated with microbial communities with different levels of diversity. The samples were incubated for a period of 127 days and the mineralisation of native and added (¹³C-labelled substrates, fructose and vanillin) OC was measured. It was hypothesised that the magnitude of the effect of changes in soil structure on OC mineralisation would increase as diversity decreased. The diversity treatment had a small but significant effect on the mineralisation of SOC and of the added substrates. The soil structure treatment had a significant effect only on the mineralisation of the added substrate C. There was no interaction between diversity and soil structure treatments, indicating that the relationship between diversity and OC decomposition was not dependent on the soil physical environment.     

Experimental study on the toxicity of imidacloprid given in syrup to honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies

Two groups of eight honey bee colonies were fed with two different concentrations of imidacloprid in saccharose syrup during summer (each colony was given 1 litre of saccharose syrup containing 0.5 microg litre(-1) or 5 microg litre(-1) of imidacloprid on 13 occasions). Their development and survival were followed in parallel with control hives (unfed or fed with saccharose syrup) until the end of the following winter. The parameters followed were: adult bee activity (number of bee entering the hive and pollen carrying activity), adult bee population level, capped brood area, frequency of parasitic and other diseases, mortality, number of frames with brood after wintering and a global score of colonies after wintering. The only parameters linked to feeding with imidacloprid-supplemented saccharose syrup when compared with feeding with non-supplemented syrup were: a statistically non-significant higher activity index of adult bees, a significantly higher frequency of pollen carrying during the feeding period and a larger number of capped brood cells. When imidacloprid was no longer applied, activity and pollen carrying were re-established at a similar level for all groups. Repeated feeding with syrup supplemented with imidacloprid did not provoke any immediate or any delayed mortality before, during or following the next winter, whereas such severe effects are described by several French bee keepers as a consequence of imidacloprid use for seed dressing in neighbouring cultures. In any case, during the whole study, mortality was very low in all groups, with no difference between imidacloprid-fed and control colonies. Further research should now address several hypotheses: the troubles described by bee keepers have causes other than imidacloprid; if such troubles are really due to this insecticide, they may only be observed either when bees consume contaminated pollen, when no other sources of food are available, in the presence of synergic factors (that still need to be identified), with some particular races of bees or when colonies are not strong and healthy.     

Assessment of PCR-based tools for the specific identification of some temperate Meloidogyne species including M. chitwoodi,M. fallax and M. minor

Several conventional PCR tests have been developed for the identification of the European quarantine root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne chitwoodi and M. fallax but data are lacking for the evaluation of their performance in terms of sensitivity, repeatability, reproducibility and specificity against a large range of populations. This study evaluated the performance criteria of three conventional PCR tests recommended by the consensus diagnostic protocol for Meloidogyne chitwoodi and Meloidogyne fallax published by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO): a species-specific PCR (IGS target), a SCAR PCR, and a rDNA ITS PCR-RFLP. Evaluation was carried out with DNA extracts from juveniles, males and females according to EPPO recommendations for test validation. A minimum of 34 populations of target and non target nematode species were tested to check the specificity of these three PCR assays. The three PCR tests were ranked according to their specificity (with regard to cross reaction with other nematodes species or genus) and their sensitivity (detection of a single juvenile or mixed with other species). The species-specific PCR proved to be more sensitive but less specific than the SCAR PCR. The PCR-RFLP enables the identification of several Meloidogyne species but profile analysis can be difficult when several species are present in the mixture. Specific PCR products and RFLP profiles were also observed for M. arenaria and M. enterolobii, and described for M. minor and M. artiellia.     

A cardiac vascular hamartoma in a calf: Ultrasonographic and pathologic images

A right atrial mass was observed by ultrasound in a 3-month-old red Holstein calf. Differential diagnoses included endocarditis or tumor. Due to the poor prognosis, the calf was euthanized. On gross examination, there was a marked dilation of the right atrium. A round, poorly delineated, 2 cm mass was visualized in the right atrium. Microscopic findings were consistent with a vascular hamartoma.     

Solanum incanum and S. heteracanthum as sources of biologically active steroid glycosides: confirmation of their synonymy

A new spirostanol saponin (1), along with four known saponins, dioscin (2), protodioscin (3), methyl-protodioscin (4), and indioside D (5), and one known steroid glycoalkaloid solamargine (6) were isolated from the two synonymous species, Solanum incanum and S. heteracanthum. The structure of the new saponin was established as (23S,25R)-spirost-5-en-3β,23-diol 3-O-{β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→2)-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-[O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)]-β-D-glucopyranoside}, by using a combination of 1D and 2D NMR techniques including (1)H, (13)C, COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC and HMBC experiments and by mass spectrometry. The compounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 were evaluated for cytotoxicity against five cancer cell lines and for antioxidant and cytoprotective activity.     

Characterisation of Erwinia carotovora subspecies and detection of Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica in potato plants, soil and water extracts with PCR-based methods

A PCR-RFLP test based on a pectate-lyase encoding gene permits the detection of several Erwinia carotovora subspecies, but requires complete DNA extraction. This paper reports on the suitability of a simplified PCR-RFLP protocol to characterise E. carotovora strains and on the performance of PCR, using the same primers, to detect the atroseptica subspecies in substrates of epidemiological significance. A collection of 140 strains from various hosts and geographical origins was characterised for biochemical traits and PCR-RFLPs. PCR performed on boiled bacterial suspensions yielded an amplification product of 434 bp in 109 of the 140 strains. None of the E. carotovora subsp. betavasculorum strains was amplified, even after complete DNA extraction. RFLPs of the PCR product yielded 24 groups, 3 of which were new. Twenty one groups were specific to one subspecies. Several strains biochemically similar to E. carotovora subsp. atroseptica, but growing at 37 °C, showed PCR-RFLP profiles characteristic of E. carotovora subsp. carotovora. Phenetic and cladistic analyses gave three main domains, not strictly related to hosts or geographical origins. The atroseptica (RFLP groups 1 and 2) and wasabiae (group 21) subspecies constituted one of the domains, despite clustering distantly from one another. Host specialisation and molecular homogeneity suggest a clonal structure within these subspecies. Conversely, E. carotovora subsp. odorifera, despite its limited host range and geographical distribution, and E. carotovora subsp. carotovora showed great molecular diversity, spreading respectively across five and 19 RFLP groups. These two subspecies shared RFLP groups 4, 5 and 6. The tree nodes in the phenograms showed a low robustness when bootstrapping the data matrix. PCR coupled with a 48h enrichment step in a polypectate-rich medium improved detection thresholds of E. carotovora subsp. atroseptica (1.5.10²- 1.5.10³ bacteria/ml in leaves, stems, and tuber peel extracts to 4.10⁷ bacteria/ml in wash water) relative to either immunomagnetic separation coupled with PCR or DAS-ELISA (2.10⁵ in plant samples to 2.10⁷ bacteria/ml in wash water).