Gossypol toxicity in preruminant calves

SUMMARY Twenty-four of 57 calves fed a diet containing 33% cotton seed meal (CSM) died between 7 and 15 weeks of age. Initial deaths were not accompanied by premonitory signs, but after CSM withdrawal most calves developed rough coats, anorexia, weakness, ascites and subcutaneous oedema. Those that died had large volumes of serous fluid in the body cavities, hard livers of ‘nutmeg’ appearance, and pulmonary congestion. Histopathologically the livers showed periacinar necrosis in acute cases and periacinar fibrosis in chronic cases. Lungs from several calves had oedema, haemosiderosis and fibrosis in some pulmonary vessels. Atrophy of myocardial fibres was present in most cases. The concentration of free gossypol in the diet was 100 to 220 mg/kg. Ante-mortem and post-mortem findings supported a diagnosis of gossypol poisoning. The deaths continued for 4 weeks after withdrawal of CSM from the diet.     

The use of ultrasonography in the reproductive evaluation of boars

The objective was to study the use of ultrasound as a complementary test in the breeding soundness evaluation in male pigs and study the pattern of echogenicity of the testicular parenchyma in boars of different racial groups. Twenty‐six adult boars from four different racial groups were used, 10 from the Piau breed (group 1), four from the commercial and finishing group (group 2), six Pietrain breed (group 3) and six from the Duroc breed (group 4). All animals were evaluated for breeding soundness evaluation and the ultrasound examination of the testicles. The groups of animals that were evaluated showed no difference in the main semen parameters that were evaluated, except for the sperm volume, concentration of the ejaculated sperm and the supravital staining; the lowest figures were for the animals from the Piau breed (group 1). In relation to the testicular biometrics, Duroc animals (group 4) had a greater scrotal width compared to the other groups. But when we assessed the intensity of pixels of the testicles, there was a difference between groups. The groups 2 (finishing animals), 3 (Pietrain) and 4 had no difference between themselves. Group 3 had greater pixel intensity in relation to group 1. Of the 26 animals studied, five showed an abnormality during ultrasound evaluation, like hydrocele, hyperechoic mass in the testicular parenchyma, cyst in the head of the epididymis and the presence of fluid in the head and tail of the epididymis. The various animal groups studied did not differ in the principal reproductive parameters evaluated, showing that despite the great variability of reproductive traits between breeds and within the same breed, the breeding soundness evaluation, the more complete it is, is essential for the selection of breeders and the ultrasonography of the reproductive system becomes an important addition in this examination.     

Repeated grading of weed abundance and multivariate methods to improve the efficacy of on-farm weed control trials

We evaluated whether new information could be drawn from additional data collection and unconventional statistical analyses of an on-farm trial. First, we compared a conventional sampling method using a biomass estimate of weed abundance to repeated visual assessment of the percentage ground cover of weeds. The biomass was sampled once after the treatment, whereas the ground cover was repeatedly sampled once before weed control plus several occasions after weed control. Second, we contrasted the outcomes from analysis of variance ( anova ), taking samples from a single point in time with repeated measures (rm) anova and a multivariate method. As the outcomes and conclusions drawn were relatively similar, we conclude that the ground cover estimate of weed abundance was as reliable as the biomass estimate. The rm anova enabled us to follow the temporal trend in response to treatments in the most abundant species, including possible initial differences. Multivariate analysis went even further, by clearly displaying species-wise responses and treatment selectivity.     

Dielectric properties of copper-ethanolamine treated Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata Hook.)

In order to clarify the interaction between copper and wood substances in wood treated with copper containing water-borne wood preservatives, the dielectric constant ε′ and dielectric loss factor ε″ of untreated wood and wood treated with four concentration levels of copper-ethanolamine (Cu-EA) solutions were determined within a temperature range from –100 to 40°C and a frequency range from 100 to 1 MHz. Three dielectric relaxation processes were observed in the ε″ spectrum; among them R-I is based on the reorientation of methylol groups in the amorphous region of wood cell walls and R-II is related to wood extractives. R-III appeared in Cu-EA treated wood, and its magnitude decreases with the concentration of Cu-EA solutions used in this experiment. This relaxation process was considered to be based on the reorientation of copper-ethanolamine-wood complexes in wood cell walls. At low copper retention, the hydrogen in the complex can form hydrogen bonding with adjacent hydroxyl groups, which results in a strong bonding state between copper and wood; at high copper retention, the numerous copper-ethanolamine complexes not only hinder them from forming hydrogen bonding with adjacent wood molecules due to steric hindrance, but also weaken the interaction between wood molecules themselves, which corresponds to reducing ε″ values of both R-I and R-III processes. The results explain the fact of in-creasing copper leaching in wood treated with high concentration copper-based water-borne preservatives.     

Biological performance of a formulation containing water-dispersible copper naphthenate and sodium fluoride against decay fungi

ABSTRACT

Two formulations of wood preservative one containing water-dispersible copper naphthenate (CuN) alone and in combination with sodium fluoride (NaF) were used to treat southern pine sapwood blocks to determine the effect of the addition of sodium fluoride in the QNS on the protection against wood decay fungi using laboratory soil block tests following AWPA (American Wood protection Association) standard E10-16 [American Wood Protection Association AWPA-E10. (2016 American Wood Protection Association. (2016) Standard E10-16 Laboratory Method for Evaluating the Decay Resistance of Wood-Based Materials Against Pure Basidiomycete Cultures: Soil/Block Test. [Google Scholar]) Laboratory Method for Evaluating the Decay Resistance of Wood-based Materials Against Pure Basidiomycete Cultures: Soil/Block Test]. The standard consists in exposing treated blocks to pure monoculture of white rot (Irpex lacteus (FP-105915) and Trametes versicolor (R-105)) and brown rot fungi (Gloeophyllum trabeum (Madison 617) and Postia placenta (Madison 698) during a specific period. The weight loss (WL) in percentage of treated blocks was used as an indicator of the biological performance of treated blocks against basidiomycetes at specific retentions. Minimum WL was obtained with blocks treated with the formulation containing mixture of QNS and sodium fluoride with the retention of 0.29?kg/m³ Cu and 0.51?kg/m³ of fluorine in treated blocks. A copper retention of 1.65?kg/m³ from blocks treated with formulations containing only QNS was needed to obtain similar WL to blocks containing blocks Cu++ and F? (fluorine). The lower Cu retention is attributed to a combination of the presence of the fluorine with some toxic activities against bacteria and decay and the interaction of anions fluorine and ionic Cu (II) in the aqueous treating solutions to form more soluble biological toxic hydrate of copper fluoride ((H₂O Cu (II) F2) in treated blocks compared to copper complexes less biological available in water-dispersible CuN-treated bocks.     

Surface energy of preservative-treated southern yellow pine (Pinus spp.) by contact angle measurement

In this study, the contact angles of four different reference liquids (including distilled water, diiodomethane, formadide and glycerol) formed on the surfaces of wood, treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and two other emerging copper-based water-borne systems (commercial names: NW and NS) were measured with sessile drop method. Based on the contact angle data, the surface energy was obtained from the acid-base approach. The total surface energy consisted of Lifshiz-van der Waals parameter and acid-base parameter. Results showed that the NW and CCA treatments made the wood surface more hydrophobic while the NS treatment had the reverse effect on the wood surface mainly owing to the increased penetration of earlywood. By using three liquids, diiodomethane, formamide and distilled water, the total surface energy obtained for untreated earlywood, untreated latewood, CCA-treated earlywood, CCA-treated latewood, NW-treated earlywood, NW-treated latewood, NS-treated earlywood and NS-treated latewood were 43.1, 44.5, 43.4, 45.1, 49.4, 40.6, 46.0 and 40.9 mJ/m², respectively. The surface energy of CCA-treated wood was almost the same as untreated wood. After NW and NS treatments, the surface energy of both earlywood and latewood changed a little. However, the change was not so obvious as to draw any further conclusion concerning the influence of NW and NS treatments on the surface energy of wood. __________ Translated from Journal of Beijing Forestry University, 2006, 28(4): 1–4 [译自: 北京林业大学学报]     

Properties of red maple laminated veneer lumber impregnated with waterborne micronized and two soluble copper formulations

ABSTRACT

Certain important quality parameters of red maple (Acer rubrum) laminated veneer lumber (LVL) impregnated with three waterborne formulations: copper azole (CA-B), micronized copper azole (MicroCA or MCA) and alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ-D) bonded with phenol formaldehyde or cross-linked polyvinyl acetate (XPVAc) adhesives were evaluated. Pre-dipping of veneers before LVL production and two post-manufacturing procedures, viz., vacuum-pressure and post-dipping of LVL, were applied. Maximum copper retention in pre-dip-treated, vacuum-pressure and post-dip-treated LVL was 1.4, 9.7 and 1.7?kg/m³, respectively. Copper retention in MCA-treated LVL was relatively lower than soluble formulations. Various physical, mechanical and bonding properties of treated LVL such as density, water absorption, swelling, flexural properties, hardness, tensile shear strength, delamination and wood failure (%) were studied and compared with untreated LVL. Little to negligible deleterious effect was observed on properties of LVL due to these chemical treatments. Analysis of variance results showed that most of properties of red maple LVL were not significantly different compared with those of untreated LVL. Therefore, vacuum-pressure impregnation process can be used to treat the red maple LVL with novel micronized copper formulations for increasing the service life of such products against biodegradation without affecting techno-mechanical quality parameters.