Clinical studies on daily low dose oxytocin in mares at term

The aim of this study was to test whether low dose oxytocin i.v. injection once a day to mares diagnosed as being ready for birth by mammary secretion calcium strip test measurements could be used as a reliable method to induce parturition and/or predict the mare would not foal during the following night if parturition did not occur within 2 h of treatment. Fifty-one near-term Haflinger mares were used and a single injection of 2.5 iu oxytocin was given between 1700 and 1900 h, including 10 mares used as controls which were administered a placebo. Administration of oxytocin resulted in the delivery of a normal foal within 120 min in 95% of mares. Twenty-four out of 38 (63%) treated animals foaled in response to the first oxytocin injection, 9 out of 38 (24%) in response to the second injection and 3 out of 38 (8%) in response to the third treatment. Two out of 38 (5%) treated mares foaled during the night irrespective of treatment whereas 7 out of 10 (70%) control mares foaled during the night. It was concluded that the major advantage of injecting a daily low dose of oxytocin appears to be that such a low dose induces delivery only in mares carrying a mature fetus and which are ready to foal.     

Pharmacokinetics of levosulpiride after single‐dose administration in goats (Capra hircus) by different routes of administration

Levosulpiride (LSP) is the l‐enantiomer of sulpiride, and LSP recently replacing sulpiride in several EU countries. Several studies about LSP in humans are present in the literature, but neither pharmacodynamic nor pharmacokinetic data of LSP is present for veterinary species. The aim of this study was to assess the pharmacokinetic profile of LSP after intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), and oral (PO) administration in goats. Animals (n = 6) were treated with 50 mg LSP by IV, IM, and PO routes according to a randomized cross‐over design (3 × 3 Latin‐square). Blood samples were collected prior and up to 24 hr after LSP administration and quantified using a validated HPLC method with fluorescence detection. IV and IM administration gave similar concentration versus time curve profiles. The IM mean bioavailability was 66.97%. After PO administration, the drug plasma concentrations were detectable only in the time range 1.5–4 hr, and the bioavailability (4.73%) was low. When the AUC was related to the administered dose in mg/kg, there was a good correlation in the IV and IM groups, but very low correlation for the PO route. In conclusion, the IM and IV administrations result in very similar plasma concentrations. Oral dosing of LSP in goats is probably not viable as its oral bioavailability was very low.     

The Odd Log-Logistic Student <Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis> Distribution: Theory and Applications

The normal distribution is most used in analysis of experiments. However, it is not suitable to apply in situations where the data have evidence of bimodality or heavier tails than the normal distribution. So, we propose a new four-parameter model called the odd log-logistic Student t distribution as an alternative to the normal and Student t distributions. The new distribution can be symmetric, platykurtic, mesokurtic or leptokurtic and may be unimodal or bimodal. Its various structural properties can be determined from the linear representation of its density function. The estimation of the model parameters is performed by maximum likelihood. The proposed distribution can be used as an alternative for randomized complete block design, thus providing analysis of real data more realistic than other special regression models. We perform a sensitivity analysis to detect influential or outlying observations, and construct generated envelopes from the residuals to select appropriate models. We illustrate the importance of the proposed model by means of three real data sets in analysis of experiments carried out in different regions of Brazil.     

Evaluation of Plasma Membrane Integrity of Donkey Spermatozoa

The aim of the study was to develop a hypo‐osmotic swelling test (HOS‐test) for evaluating plasma membrane integrity in donkey spermatozoa. In the first study, six different hypo‐osmotic solutions (fructose or fructose/sodium citrate, 75 or 150 mOsm, or bi‐distilled water at 1 : 10 semen : solution ratio, or bi‐distilled water at 1 : 3) were compared. The 75 mOsm fructose solution (1 : 10) and bi‐distilled water (1 : 3) were chosen for study 2, where two incubation times (5 or 45 min) were tested. Bi‐distilled water showed a significantly higher proportion of plasma membrane intact spermatozoa than the fructose solution (p < 0.05), it was thus concluded that the simple incubation for 5 or 45 min at 37°C of one part of semen with three parts of bi‐distilled water is an applicable HOS‐test in the semen analysis of donkey spermatozoa. Regression analyses showed a significant correspondence of the latest method with Sybr 14‐ propidium iodide staining.     

Genetics components of rice root architecture and carbon isotopic fractionation parameters: a tracer for breeding in a water-saving irrigation management

Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology - Phenotyping is the major bottleneck in the effort to develop varieties of rice (Oryza sativa L.) suitable for growing under a water-saving irrigation...     

(Methyl)Mercury,Arsenic, and Lead Contamination of the World’s Largest Wastewater Irrigation System: the Mezquital Valley (Hidalgo State—Mexico)

We investigate the potential of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to predict some heavy metals content (Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr and Ni) in several soil types in Stara Zagora Region, South Bulgaria, as affected by the size of calibration set using partial least squares (PLS) regression models. A total of 124 soil samples from the 0–20 and 20–40 cm layers were collected from fields with different cropping systems. Total Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr and Ni concentrations were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. Spectra of air dried soil samples were obtained using an FT-NIR Spectrometer (spectral range 700–2,500 nm). PLS calibration models were developed with full-cross-validation using calibration sets of 90 %, 80 %, 70 % and 60 % of the 124 samples. These models were validated with the same prediction set of 12 samples. The validation of the NIR models showed Cu to be best predicted with NIR spectroscopy. Less accurate prediction was observed for Zn, Pb and Ni, which was classified as possible to distinguish between high and low concentrations and as approximate quantitative. The worst model performance in cross-validation and prediction was for Cr. Results also showed that values of root mean square error in cross-validation (RMSE_cv) increased with decreasing number of samples in calibration sets, which was particularly clear for Cu, Pb, Ni and Cr content. A similar tendency was observed in the prediction sets, where RMSEP values increased with a decrease in the number of samples, particularly for Pb, Ni and Cr content. This tendency was not clear for Zn, while even an increase in RMSEP for Cu with the sample size was observed. It can be concluded that NIR spectroscopy can be used to measure heavy metals in a sample set with different soil type, when sufficient number of soil samples (depending on variability) is used in the calibration set.     

Anaesthetic and antioxidant effects of Myrcia sylvatica (G. Mey.) DC. and Curcuma longa L. essential oils on tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum)

Anaesthetic substances are necessary to reduce fish stress during aquaculture activities. The objectives of this study were: (i) to determine the efficacy of essential oils (EOs) of Myrcia sylvatica (EOMS) and Curcuma longa (EOCL) as anaesthetics for Colossoma macropomum and (ii) to evaluate the effects of rapid anaesthesia and long‐term sedation (6 h) with these oils. Therefore, the main primary stress indicator (cortisol) and secondary factors (biochemical indices, hepatic metabolism, oxidative biomarkers) were measured. Sedation with the EOCL resulted in lower cortisol levels compared to control group. Total cholesterol levels were lower in fish sedated with EOMS than in control. Lactate levels were higher in fish anaesthetized with both EOs and sedated with EOCL compared to control. Both EOs increased hepatic glycogen levels after anaesthesia and EOMS increased this parameter after sedation compared to control. Anaesthesia and sedation with EOs resulted in lower levels of lipid peroxidation (LPO) compared to control. In turn, the activity of some antioxidant enzymes evaluated (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione‐S‐transferase), the content of non‐protein thiols and total reactive antioxidant potential were higher in tissues of fish anaesthetized and sedated with EOs compared to control. This induction of antioxidant capacity in the tissues could be due to the antioxidant property exerted by these EOs. Thus, EOMS and EOCL are recommended for anaesthesia and sedation of fish because in spite of inducing anaerobic metabolism, these EOs did not alter most biochemical parameters, reduced the LPO and increased the antioxidant capacity in vital tissues.