Naturally occurring bacteraemia in American lobsters, Homarus americanus Milne-Edwards, in Long Island Sound

The health status of the American lobster, Homarus americanus Milne-Edwards, in Long Island Sound (LIS) has been in decline, with seasonal mortality events occurring since 1998. In order to assess the potential effects of environmental conditions on lobster health via haemolymph analysis, lobsters collected from various sites in LIS were examined and sampled while concurrent environmental data (water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen) were recorded. The pH of the haemolymph of each lobster was tested, followed by a collection of haemolymph for serum biochemistry analysis and bacterial culture. This report focuses on the results of the bacterial sampling. The majority of bacteria cultured were opportunistic pathogens commonly found in the environment, including some that are associated with sewage and pollution. The prevalence of bacteraemia was correlated with the site of collection, the month in which the lobsters were sampled, and water temperature.     

Computed tomographic assessment of vascular invasion and resectability of mediastinal masses in dogs and a cat

AIMS: To assess the sensitivity of non-angiographic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) to determine the presence of vascular invasion of cranial mediastinal masses in dogs and a cat, and to evaluate the association between vascular invasion and peri-operative mortality.

METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on 25 dogs and one cat. CT scans were completed with slices ranging from 2 to 10 mm. CT images were evaluated by a board-certifi ed radiologist blinded to previous diagnoses and surgical fi ndings. Each CT study was evaluated for vascular invasion, defi ned as disruption of the vessel wall and extension of the mass into the vessel lumen. Data retrieved from the surgery reports included surgical approach, whether vascular invasion was present, the surgeon's decision on operability, and post-operative complications.

RESULTS: Computed tomographic evaluation revealed 25/26 masses had no evidence of vascular invasion. During surgical exploration, 10/26 masses were found to invade major regional vasculature; the cranial vena cava (CVC) was the vessel most commonly invaded (7/10 animals), and 4/7 (57%) patients with invasion of the CVC were euthanised or died in the perioperative period, from surgical or disease-related problems, which was signifi cantly higher than patients without vascular invasion (p=0.045).

CONCLUSIONS: Non-angiographic contrast-enhanced CT was signifi cantly less sensitive for detecting vascular invasion of cranial mediastinal masses when compared with surgical evaluation. If the CVC was invaded by a tumour there was a signifi cant risk of death peri-operatively when compared with non-invasive cases.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Due to the signifi cantly higher mortality risk associated with invasion of the CVC, a more sensitive method than CT should be investigated to determine vascular invasion of mediastinal masses pre-operatively.     

Nasopharyngeal cryptococcosis

Naturally occurring cryptococcosis in five cats, a dog and a koala is described. Involvement of the nasopharynx was documented in all patients, and nasopharyngeal mass lesions accounted for the major presenting complaints in four. Signs referable to nasopharyngeal disease included snoring, stertor, inspiratory dyspnoea and aerophagia. Diagnoses were made by caudal rhinoscopy using a retroverted flexible endoscope, vigorous orthograde flushing with saline, or at necropsy. Concurrent cryptococcal rhinitis was present in all cases, although involvement appeared limited to the caudal nasal cavity in most cases. Typical signs of nasal cavity disease, such as sneezing and nasal discharge, were often absent. Treatment of nasopharyngeal cryptococcosis should include physical dislodgement or debulking of lesion(s) to provide immediate alleviation of upper airway obstruction, followed by systemic antifungal therapy to eliminate residual infection from the nasal cavity. Infections caused by Cryptococcus neoformans var gattii accounted for a disproportionately large number of these cases.     

Foresters' beliefs about farmers: a priority for social science research in social forestry

This study suggests that one of the most productive (and most neglected) uses of social science research in forestry development projects is to examine foresters' beliefs regarding rural peoples. This suggestion is illustrated with data from the Forestry Planning and Development Project, Pakistan's first nation-wide social forestry project.The operational component of this project, intended to assist small farmers to cultivate trees on their farmlands, ran into immediate difficulties. Many of the foresters involved insisted that small farmers were simply not interested in tree cultivation. A comprehensive base-line study subsequently was carried out to examine the validity of this belief. The results of this study (confirmed by the subsequent experience with the project in the field) varied markedly from the foresters' beliefs.While many of the foresters believed small farmers were opposed to having trees on their farms and would not agree to plant trees under the project, most farmers already had trees on their farms and expressed interest in planting more; while many foresters believed farmers would only be interested in planting large blocks of market-oriented exotics, most farmers requested small plantings of multi-purpose native trees; while many foresters believed farmers would plant trees only for market sale, most farmers requested trees to meet household needs for fuel and timber; and while many foresters did not think that increasing supplies of fuelwood could reduce the burning of dung, all of the evidence provided by the farmers suggested that it would.The disparity between farmer reality and forester belief is attributed to failures on the part of both foresters and social scientists — failure by foresters to distinguish their non-empirical beliefs about farmers from their empirically-based knowledge of trees, and failure by social scientists to recognize the belief systems of foresters as a legitimate and important object of study. Their study comprises three parts: finding out what the foresters think the farmers want, finding out from the farmers what they actually want, and then analyzing and explaining the differences.     

Anthropogenic grasslands in Southeast Asia: Sociology of knowledge and implications for agroforestry

Anthropogenic grasslands, meaning grasslands that have been influenced and modified by humans, are one of the most important land covers of the tropics, but their management is dominated by conflicted and contested views, which is reflected in the problematic record of grassland development intervention. This chapter analyzes the historic, cultural, political, and institutional factors that affect the way grasslands are viewed, drawing largely on data from Southeast Asia. These data suggest that perceptions of grasslands are colored in part by the marginal place that they occupy in the cosmology of western industrialized societies, which idealize forest covers. Consequently, national and international agencies view grasslands not as a common land cover but as a development problem. The agendas of government and development agencies are often not grounded in a proper understanding of the local human and bio-physical ecology of grasslands or of successful local agroforestry practices; and research on many of the most important dimensions of grassland management is poorly conducted and/or utilized. The recent rise in scientific interest in indigenous knowledge, environmental history, and non-equilibrium systems, has opened up new possibilities for the study of grasslands. Agroforestry, given its inherent bridging of nature and culture, is ideally suited to benefit from these possibilities, by focusing research attention on the bio-social factors that determine the appearance, disappearance, and maintenance of anthropogenic grasslands.

     

Theories of swidden agriculture,and the political economy of ignorance

Swidden agriculture is today the focus of a great deal of debate in the context of agroforestry development in humid, tropical countries. This paper argues that much of this debate deals not with the empirical facts of swidden agriculture, however, but rather with widely-accepted myths, and that this explains the widespread failures of developmental schemes involving swidden agriculturalists. The paper examines three of these myths in some detail. One myth is that swidden agriculturalists own their land communally (or not at all), work it communally, and consume its yields communally. The truth is that their land (including land under secondary forest fallow) is typically owned by individual households, it is worked by individual household labor forces and/or by reciprocal but not communal work groups, and its yields are owned and consumed privately and individually by each household. A second myth is that swidden cultivation of forested land is destructive and wasteful, and in the worst cases results in barren, useless grassland successions. The truth is that swidden cultivation is a productive use of the forests, indeed more productive than commercial logging in terms of the size of the population supported, and forest-grassland successions are typically a function not of rapaciousness but of increasing population/land pressure and agricultural intensification — the grasses, including Imperata cylindrica, having value both as a fallow period soil-rebuilder and as cattle fodder. A third myth is that swidden agriculturalists have a totally subsistence economy, completely cut off from the rest of the world. The truth is that swidden agriculturalists, in addition to planting their subsistence food crops, typically plant market-oriented cash crops as well, and as a result they are actually more integrated into the world economy than many of the practitioners of more intensive forms of agriculture. In the conclusion to the paper, in a brief attempt to explain the genesis of these several myths, it is noted that they have generally facilitated the extension of external administration and exploitation into the territories of the swidden agriculturalists, and hence can perhaps best be explained as a reflection of the political economy of the greater societies in which they dwell.     

MALDI‐MS Lipid Profiles of Oocytes Recovered by Ovum Pickup from Bos indicus and 1/2 indicus × taurus with High vs Low Oocyte Yields

The aim of the present study was to compare the lipid profile in oocytes of indicus and 1/2 indicus × taurus cows with high and low antral follicle count (AFC)/oocyte yields. After an OPU procedure (D0), antral follicles ≥3 mm were counted by ultrasonography (D4, 19, 34, 49, 64), and cows were assigned to groups with either high AFC (≥30 follicles; indicus, NH group; 1/2 indicus × taurus, AH group) or low AFC (≤15 antral follicles; indicus, NL group; 1/2 indicus × taurus, AL group). The lipid profiles of the oocytes were determined by MALDI‐MS. For GI, GII and GIII oocytes, the indicus samples tend to cluster separately from the 1/2 indicus × taurus samples. The lipid species [PC (P‐38:5) + H]⁺ and/or [PC (P‐36:2) + Na]⁺, [PC (38:2) + H]⁺, [PC (38:5) + Na]⁺ and [TAG (60:8) + NH⁴]⁺ were more abundant in indicus (NH and NL groups) than 1/2 indicus × taurus. The higher lipid content in the indicus oocytes likely reflects differences in the rate of lipid metabolism and may contribute to oocyte competence and embryo development.     

SnakeMap: four years of experience with a national small animal snake envenomation registry

SnakeMap is a national cloud-based, veterinary snakebite registry. It was designed to prospectively collect data of the clinical circumstances and temporospatial information on cases of snake envenomation in dogs and cats. We herein introduce the project and summarise the data from the first 4 years of SnakeMap. The registry is a veterinary community-based online database allowing case entry from veterinary hospitals across Australia. Registry data comprise hospital characteristics, patient characteristics, envenoming snake type, treatment and outcome variables, including time and geolocation of the snake bite. We present summative information on select key variables from the SnakeMap registry (1 July 2015 to 30 June 2019). Twenty-eight hospitals from 6 states/territories entered 624 cases into the registry, including 419 dogs (67%) and 205 cats (33%). Bite time was available in 216 animals of which 90 (42%) were reported to be bitten in the 3 hours between 03:00 pm and 05:59 pm; median bite to presentation interval was 60 (interquartile range [IQR] 30, 211) minutes in dogs and 95 (IQR 41, 238) minutes in cats. Bites occurred in the owner's yard in 356 dogs (85%) and 53 cats (26%). A snake venom detection kit was used in 172 cases (28%) and antivenom was administered in 523 cases (85%). Most animals (n = 534, 88%) survived to discharge (median hospitalisation of 25 [IQR 16, 62] hours). SnakeMap effectively collects relevant clinical data from dogs and cats with presumed snake bite and provides locally specific information on the epidemiology of snake envenomation in small animals.     

Ventricular septal defect repair in a small dog using cross-circulation

SUMMARY A haemodynamically significant ventricular septal defect was diagnosed in a 3-month-old male Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. A median sternotomy was performed and the 6.5 kg dog placed on cardiopulmonary bypass using pump-assisted cross-circulation. A 10 mm diameter peri-membranous ventricular septal defect was closed using a continuous suture of 4–0 polypropylene, via a 2.5 cm incision in the right ventricular outflow tract. The duration of cardiopulmonary bypass was 90 minutes. Complications in the immediate postoperative period were mild and easily managed.