A formal method of determining the dietary amino acid requirements of laying‐type pullets during their growing period

1. The amino acid requirements of laying type pullets during the growing period can be estimated by measuring the growth of different components of the body and making use of nutritional constants that define the amount of each amino acid that is required for the production of the tissues being formed.

2. In this experiment, carcase analyses of each of three breeds of pullets were conducted at weekly intervals throughout the growth of the pullets, to 18 weeks of age. Measurements were made of body weight, gut‐fill and feather weight, and chemical analyses consisted of water, protein, lipid and ash measurements of both the body and the feathers. Each age group comprised 10 birds of each breed.

3. Gompertz functions accurately estimated the growth of both body protein and feather protein, to 18 weeks of age, from which the rate of growth of these two components of the body could be estimated. The mature weight of pullets was overestimated by the Gompertz growth curve, which may indicate that a pullet ceases to increase in body protein content once sexual maturity has been reached.

4. Using allometric relationships between the chemical components of the body and of feathers, all the components of growth could be estimated from the growth of body protein and feather protein. These components were then added together to determine the growth rate of the body as a whole.

5. The daily amino acid requirements for 4 functions were calculated, namely, those for the maintenance of body protein and feather protein, and for the gain in body protein and feather protein. These requirements were then summed to determine the requirement of pullets on each day of the growing period.

6. Using the ‘effective energy’ system, the amount of energy required by these pullets was calculated for each day of the growing period, from which the desired daily food intake of the pullets could be predicted. By dividing the amino acid requirement by this daily food intake it was possible to determine the concentration of amino acids that would be needed in the diet in order to meet the requirements of a pullet.

7. The results indicate that the ratio between the requirement for lysine and for methionine and cysteine changes dramatically during the growing period, negating the concept of a fixed ratio between all the amino acids during growth.

8. The above process is the first step in determining the optimal feeding programme for a population of pullets of a given genotype. The constraining effects, of the diet being offered and of the environment in which the pullets are housed, on the food intake and growth rate of each pullet have to be estimated, and such a theory can then be expanded to include all the individuals in the population. Only by the use: of simulation models can all these constraining effects be considered simultaneously.     

Evolution of equine infection control programs.

The science of control of infectious diseases in hospitals was born in 1847 when Semmelweis, a physician, ordered his medical students to scrub their hands in chlorinated lime water between patients and demonstrated that this simple procedure resulted ina dramatic decline in patient morbidity and mortality. In the late nineteenth century came huge breakthroughs in the understanding that microorganisms cause many disorders, and methods to eliminate and control these microorganisms were attempted. By 1910, sterile instruments, gowns, masks, and gloves had become standard for surgical procedures in large university human hospitals, and isolation of human and veterinary patients with contagious diseases became standard. With the advent of vaccines, many epidemic viral diseases could be controlled, and antimicrobial drugs allowed many previously devastating bacterial diseases to be treated effectively. Before long, however, bacterial resistance became an important issue and remains so today, particularly for Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus in horses. Vaccination has decreased the number of animals susceptible to equine influenza and equine herpesvirus 1, yet these contagious diseases still pose a serious issue in large equine veterinary hospitals. The development of equine isolation facilities and improved methods of barn cleaning; mandatory application of procedures, such as handwashing or use of disinfectant hand wipes, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases; and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance and use of restricted antimicrobial drugs were driven by recognition and necessity and have given rise to current equine infection control programs.     

Survey of equine castration techniques,preferences and outcomes among Australian veterinarians

Objectives

(1) To collect the perceptions of veterinarians performing equine castrations in Australia on techniques, preferences and outcomes, (2) to investigate veterinarian use and experience with the Henderson castrating instrument and (3) to investigate potential associations between demographics, castration methods and techniques, and complications.

Design

Online survey of members of the Australian Veterinary Association’s Special Interest Group, Equine Veterinarians Australia (EVA).

Methods

A link to the survey was included in the EVA e‐newsletter and practices on the EVA website were contacted by telephone and follow‐up email. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine associations between ligation and complications. A generalised linear model with a negative binomial family was used to determine associations between count response variables and categorical independent variables.

Results

Responses were obtained from 138 veterinarians (response rate, 13.1%) who performed 5330 castrations over 12 months. Castrations were most commonly performed in the field, on anaesthetised horses, using emasculators, via an open approach and without ligation of the spermatic cord. Estimated complications after use of emasculators were swelling (25%), haemorrhage (5%) and infection (5%). The Henderson instrument was used by approximately 10% of respondents and its use for castration was associated with fewer reports of postoperative swelling compared with emasculators (P = 0.002). Rates of evisceration with the Henderson and emasculator methods were comparable (0.43% and 0.9%, respectively).

Conclusion

Castration preferences varied widely among survey participants. Reported complication types and rates were comparable to those reported previously in other countries. Perceptions that the Henderson instrument was associated with less swelling should be investigated further via a prospective controlled investigation.     

Flow alteration and thermal pollution depress modelled growth rates of an iconic riverine fish,the Murray cod Maccullochella peelii

The serial discontinuity concept (SDC) proposes that hypolimnetic‐releasing impoundments cause major disruptions to the naturally occurring physical, chemical and biological gradients of rivers but that this impact diminishes with distance downstream. Such a gradient in discharge, flow velocity and temperature regime occurs below a large hypolimnetic‐releasing impoundment, the Hume Dam, on the River Murray in south‐eastern Australia. To examine the effects of this disturbance gradient on a warm‐water large‐bodied freshwater fish, the Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), a bioenergetics model was developed and calibrated to explore energy expended under differing water velocities and temperature regimes. Model simulations predicted negative growth of juveniles directly downstream of the impoundment, due largely to the energetic costs associated with active and, to a lesser extent, standard metabolism outweighing the achievable energetic gains through food consumption. As flow velocity and temperature regimes became more favourable downstream, so did the simulated growth of the species. It was not until +239 km downstream of the impoundment that the model predicted that flow velocity and temperature regimes were suitable for greater weight gains. The modelled growth responses of juvenile Murray cod are consistent with the predictions of the SDC, emphasising that changes in the bioenergetics of individuals are likely to be reflected in reduced growth rates under the changed flow velocity and temperature regimes imposed by disturbance gradients. This research represents a valuable step in the biological understanding of Murray cod within variable riverine environments and emphasises the urgency required to mitigate impacts associated with hypolimnetic impoundments.     

Evaporation from fetch-limited water bodies

An analytic model to calculate evaporation from fetch-limited water bodies is described. By modifying the surface boundary condition to an analytic solution to the advection-diffusion equation for specific humidity in the air flow over a water body, we are able to solve for the entire specific humidity field q (x, z) from a single measurement of humidity, surface temperature, and wind speed. Comparisons of model predictions with measurements from Rushy Billabong, a small turbid lake, over a 146 day period show that on average the model underestimates evaporation rates by 12%. We believe that the evaporation shortfall is due to the downwind advection of heat within the billabong when the billabong is highly stratified in temperature. When the thermal stratification is weak, the advection of heat within the water column is less important and the model is an accurate predictor of evaporation.     

Simulated crop production under saline high water table conditions

Summary Many irrigated lands in semi-arid regions of the world are underlain with saline high water tables. Water management is critical to maintain crop productivity under these conditions. A multi-seasonal, transient state model was used to simulate cotton and alfalfa production under various irrigation management regimes. The variables included in-season water application of 1.0 or 0.6 potential evapotranspiration (PET), and 18 or 33 cm pre-irrigation amounts for cotton. The water table was initially at a 1.5m depth and a 9 dS/m salinity. A impermeable lower boundary at 2.5 m depth was imposed. Irrigation water salinity was 0.4 dS/m. Climatic conditions typical to the San Joaquin Valley of California were used for PET and precipitation values. The simulations were for no-lateral flow and also lateral flow whereby the water table was raised to its initial level prior to each irrigation event. Uniform application of 1.0 PET provided for relative cotton lint yields and alfalfa yields of 95% or more for at least 4 years. In-season irrigation of cotton with 0.6 PET had higher yields when associated with a 33 cm rather than an 18 cm pre-irrigation. Lateral flow provided for higher cotton lint yields production than the no-lateral flow case for each pre-irrigation treatment. The beneficial effects of lateral flow diminished with time because of the additional salt which accumulated and became detrimental to crop production. Substantial alfalfa yield reductions occurred after the first year when irrigation was set at 0.6 PET regardless of other conditions. Evaporation losses from the soil during the cotton fallow season were higher when the soil water content entering the fallow season were higher.Research was supported by the University of California Salinity/ Drainage Task Force     

The influence of soil properties on the structure of bacterial and fungal communities across land-use types

Land-use change can have significant impacts on soil conditions and microbial communities are likely to respond to these changes. However, such responses are poorly characterized as few studies have examined how specific changes in edaphic characteristics do, or do not, influence the composition of soil bacterial and fungal communities across land-use types. Soil samples were collected from four replicated (n = 3) land-use types (hardwood and pine forests, cultivated and livestock pasture lands) in the southeastern US to assess the effects of land-use change on microbial community structure and distribution. We used quantitative PCR to estimate bacterial–fungal ratios and clone libraries targeting small-subunit rRNA genes to independently characterize the bacterial and fungal communities. Although some soil properties (soil texture and nutrient status) did significantly differ across land-use types, other edaphic factors (e.g., pH) did not vary consistently with land-use. Bacterial–fungal ratios were not significantly different across the land-uses and distinct land-use types did not necessarily harbor distinct soil fungal or bacterial communities. Rather, the composition of bacterial and fungal communities was most strongly correlated with specific soil properties. Soil pH was the best predictor of bacterial community composition across this landscape while fungal community composition was most closely associated with changes in soil nutrient status. Together these results suggest that specific changes in edaphic properties, not necessarily land-use type itself, may best predict shifts in microbial community composition across a given landscape. In addition, our results demonstrate the utility of using sequence-based approaches to concurrently analyze bacterial and fungal communities as such analyses provide detailed phylogenetic information on individual communities and permit the robust assessment of the biogeographical patterns exhibited by soil microbial communities.