Treatment of a strandling whale (Kogia breviceps)

A stranded young pygmy sperm whale was nursed for four days in a pool, fed an artificial diet via a stomach tube and injected intramuscularly with antibiotics and corticosteroids. Initially unable to maintain her balance or to swim, she showed progressive improvement and by the third day could swim and dive quite strongly. Early on the fifth day her condition rapidly worsened and she died. An autopsy revealed extensive deep bruising in the head and mid-abdominal regions consistent with injuries sustained during the stranding.     

Flow Cytometry Identification of X- and Y-Chromosome-Bearing Goat Spermatozoa

Flow cytometric sorting technology was used to measure the difference in DNA content between X- and Y-chromosome-bearing spermatozoa in bucks. Spermatozoa were analysed by flow cytometry to characterize X- and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm populations and to quantify the DNA difference between them. Two symmetrical, overlapping and clearly separated peaks, corresponding to X- and Y-bearing spermatozoa, were detected. The difference in fluorescence intensity between the peaks was 4.4 +/- 0.03% without any significant inter- or intra-animal variations. Therefore, the identification and selection of high-purity samples of sperm populations for sex sorting is easier in bucks compared with other domestic species.     

Review: The strobilurin fungicides

The original article to which this Correction refers was published in Pest Management Science 58 (7): 649–662 (2002).Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Equine pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction: current understanding and recommendations from the Australian and New Zealand Equine Endocrine Group

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the current knowledge and opinions about the epidemiology, clinical findings (including sequelae), diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of equine pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, particularly in the Australian context. This information and the recommendations provided will assist practitioners in making informed decisions regarding the diagnosis and management of this disorder.     

Effect of bovine seminal plasma on bovine endometrial epithelial cells in culture

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of seminal plasma (SP) from bulls of known fertility on bovine endometrial epithelial cells (bEEC) in culture. The bEEC from passage 5, approximately 5.0–13 × 10⁵ cells per flask, were challenged with SP from bulls of high or low fertility (n = 3 and 2, respectively) or PBS (control), at 1% (75 μl) or 4% (300 μl) and were incubated for 72 hr (n = 13 per challenge). Total cell number and viability of bEEC after challenge with 1% SP from either high‐ or low‐fertility bulls (75H or 75L, respectively) did not differ from controls. In contrast, challenge with 4% of SP from high‐ or low‐fertility bulls (300H or 300L) negatively affected bEEC cell number and viability. Challenge with 300 L had a greater adverse effect than 300H. These results suggest that the negative effect of bovine SP on bEEC is both dose‐dependent and fertility‐dependent.     

A framework for evaluation of on-farm mastitis diagnostics in Australia

Numerous culture-based diagnostics are available on the Australian and international markets for on-farm detection of bacterial pathogens in milk. Use of such diagnostics may provide an opportunity to improve the prudent use of antimicrobials in udder health management. Farms are low-resource settings in terms of diagnostic microbiology capacity. The World Health Organisation has identified criteria for the evaluation of diagnostic tests in low resource settings based on Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, User-friendliness, being Rapid or Robust, Equipment-free and being Deliverable (ASSURED). Here, we review how those criteria can be interpreted in the context of microbiological diagnosis of mastitis pathogens, and how on-farm diagnostics that are currently available in Australia perform relative to ASSURED criteria. This evaluation identifies multiple trade-offs, both with regard to scientific criteria and with regards to convenience criteria. More importantly, the purpose of testing may differ between farms, and test performance should be evaluated relative to its intended use. The ability of on-farm mastitis diagnostics to inform mastitis treatment decision-making in a timely and cost-effective manner depends not just on test characteristics but also on farm-specific pathogen prevalence, and on the farm enterprise's priorities and the farm manager's potential courses of action. With most assay evaluations to date conducted in professional laboratories, there is a surprising dearth of information on how well any of the diagnostic tests perform on-farm and, indeed, of the on-farm decision-making processes that they aim to inform.     

Soluble organic nitrogen in agricultural soils

 The existence of soluble organic forms of N in rain and drainage waters has been known for many years, but these have not been generally regarded as significant pools of N in agricultural soils. We review the size and function of both soluble organic N extracted from soils (SON) and dissolved organic N present in soil solution and drainage waters (DON) in arable agricultural soils. SON is of the same order of magnitude as mineral N and of equal size in many cases; 20–30 kg SON-N ha^–1 is present in a wide range of arable agricultural soils from England. Its dynamics are affected by mineralisation, immobilisation, leaching and plant uptake in the same way as those of mineral N, but its pool size is more constant than that of mineral N. DON can be sampled from soil solution using suction cups and collected in drainage waters. Significant amounts of DON are leached, but this comprises only about one-tenth of the SON extracted from the same soil. Leached DON may take with it nutrients, chelated or complexed metals and pesticides. SON/DON is clearly an important pool in N transformations and plant uptake, but there are still many gaps in our understanding. Received: 10 June 1999     

Effects of Azoxystrobin on Mycotoxin Production in a Carbendazim-Resistant Strain ofFusarium sporotrichioides

Carbendazim-resistant (RS) and control (CS) strains ofFusarium sporotrichioides Sherb., previously developed in our laboratory, were exposed to graded concentrations of azoxystrob in in broth media under shake-culture conditions for 2, 3, 4 and 8 days. Azoxystrobin concentrations were 0, 1, 10 and 100 mg 1^-1 broth and cultures were incubated at a constant 25°C. Mycelial growth was significantly affected by strain (P<0.01), azoxystrobin concentration (P<0.001) and incubation time (P<0.001). Combined results for the four incubation times showed that CS yielded higher mycelial mass than RS (P<0.01) only in the absence of azoxystrobin. At fungicide additions of 1, 10 and 100 mg P^-1 mycelial growth was reduced (P<0.001) with minimal strain differences (P>0.05) at all three doses of azoxystrobin. Significant (P<0.05 or better) strain-fungicide interactions were recorded in trichothecene production following exposure to azoxystrobin. At 4 and 8 days of incubation, the 10 mg 1^-1 addition of azoxystrobin stimulated T-2 toxin synthesis (P<0.05) only in RS cultures. In contrast, T-2 toxin enhancement in CS cultures occurred only on day 8 but at a lower level of azoxystrobin (1 mg1^-1). Thus, the stimulation of T-2 toxin synthesis depended upon strain and azoxystrobin level. Production of diocetoxyscirpenol (DAS) was affected by a more complex set of interactions. Overall means showed that, in comparison with initial values (on day 2 or 3), DAS output maximized significantly(P<0.05) on day 4 in RS cultures and on day 8 in CS. Marked strain effects were observed on exposure to the 10 mg 1^-1 level of azoxystrobin. At this level, DAS production was enhanced in RS only after 4 (P<0.01 ) and 8 (P<0.05) days of incubation, while in contrast, CS reduced DAS production. As with T-2 toxin, DAS production in CS was stimulated (P<0.05 or better) only at low exposure levels of azoxystrobin. In the case of neosolaniol (NEO), however, the main effect of strain was significant (P<0.05), with CS producing consistently more of the mycotoxin than RS on day 4 of the experiment. At this point, the NEO:T-2 toxin ratio was also higher in CS (0.63) than in RS (0.12), a feature reported by us previously. In conclusion, the present investigation has shown for the first time that the development of resistance to one fungicide can affect trichothecene production inF. sporotrichioides on exposure to a second fungicide. These results have been incorporated into a new classification scheme for fungicide efficacy which is also presented in this paper. http://www.phytoparasitica.org posting Oct. 7,2001.