Plasma lipopolysaccharide elevations in cattle associated with early-stage infection by Fasciola hepatica

Fasciolosis is an endemic zoonotic parasitic disease with significant impacts on human health and both animal health and production. Early post-infection impacts on the host remain unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the changes, if any, to levels of endotoxin in cattle plasma in response to early-stage infection with Fasciola hepatica. Thirty-six (36) commercial bred cattle were experimentally infected with approximately 400 viable metacercariae. Plasma lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) levels were examined on 24 occasions from 0 h before infection to 336 h after infection using the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate chromogenic end point assay and compared with that of six (6) uninfected control animals. Peak lipopolysaccharide levels in infected animals were reached at 52 h after infection and returned to pre-infection levels at time 144 h after infection. Infected animals had significantly elevated lipopolysaccharide levels between 24 and 120 h after infection when compared to uninfected animals. The mean change in endotoxin units (EU)/mL over time after infection was statistically significant in infected animals. Elevations of lipopolysaccharide occurred in all infected animals suggesting a possible repeatable and titratable endotoxemia conducive to therapeutic agent model development.     

Ethephon and the Delay of Early Budding in Chrysanthemums

Delayed flower bud formation was recorded when a single spray of 200 ppm ethephon was applied to rooted chrysanthemum cuttings three days after planting in long days. The cuttings were of three American garden cvs and an autumn-flowering cv known to bud readily in long days. The technique might be useful for propagators and growers of chrysanthemums to delay bud formation on stock plants and on rooted cuttings.     

Effects of photoperiod on leaf greenness of four bedding plant species

Summary

Short-day (SD) and long-day (LD) photoperiodic treatments were compared, at equal light integral, for their effects on the seedling growth of four bedding plant species: geranium, impatiens, pansy and petunia. Total leaf area was frequently increased by LD given either by day-extension lighting or night-break lighting, but this response was inconsistent and varied greatly between species and experiments. In contrast, leaf greenness measured using a SPAD-502 meter, a measure of chlorophyll content per unit area of leaf, was consistently and significantly increased in LD in all four species. However, night-break lighting may have been somewhat less effective than day-extension lighting. Increasing the day-extension lighting from 16 h to 24 h gave no further intensification of greenness. Consistent with increases in leaf greenness, total dry weight was generally increased in LD, and increases were of a similar magnitude to those given by doubling the daily light integral. The promotional effect of LD on chlorophyll content appears to have been largely ignored or overlooked in recent years, but this may be because simple methods for measuring ‘greenness’ have only recently become widely available.     

Bluetongue virus serotypes 1 and 3 infection in Poll Dorset sheep

Objective To study the clinical signs following bluetongue virus serotypes 1 and 3 infection in Poll Dorset sheep.
Design A clinical and pathological study.
Procedure Twenty Poll Dorset sheep were inoculated with bluetongue virus serotypes 1 or 3, each inoculum having a different passage history. The sheep were examined daily and their clinical appearance and rectal temperatures recorded. Heparinised and non-heparinised blood samples were taken at intervals for virological and serological study. Gross pathological findings were recorded for several sheep at necropsy and tissue samples were collected from three sheep for virological studies.
Results All inoculated sheep developed clinical disease. The clinical signs and gross pathological changes varied considerably but were consistent with damage to the vascular endothelial system. There was a decline in the titres of infectious bluetongue virus and of antigen in tissues collected between 7 and 12 days after infection.
Conclusions The severity of disease was related to the speed of onset and duration of pyrexia and not the development or titre of viraemia. Generally, those animals with sensitive mouths, depression, coronitis, recumbency and reluctance to move were the most debilitated. Whole blood was the most reliable source of infectious virus from acutely and chronically infected and convalescent animals. However, tissue samples particularly spleen, collected from dead or killed animals suffering from either peracute or acute forms of disease were most appropriate for the rapid confirmation of a clinical diagnosis.     

Avoiding edge effects in agroforestry experiments; the use of neighbour-balanced designs and guard areas

A number of different types of edge effects on experimental plots are defined, and it is shown that they are frequently important in agroforestry experiments. Methods of eliminating edge effects, either at the design or the analysis stage, are described. Computer simulations, based on uniformity data, are used to investigate the efficacy of neighbour-balanced designs, with and without neighbour terms, for reducing the problem of neighbour effects between different treatments. It is concluded that, while neighbour-balanced designs may be useful in certain situations or in combination with other methods, it is preferable to eliminate edge effects by using adequate guard rows. Recommendations are therefore made concerning the correct use of guard areas in agroforestry experimentation.     

Effect of Oil Overlay on Inhibition Potential of Roscovitine in Sheep Cumulus‐Oocyte Complexes

Inhibitors of cyclin‐dependent kinases, as roscovitine, have been used to prevent the spontaneous resumption of meiosis in vitro and to improve the oocyte developmental competence. In this study, the interference of oil overlay on the reversible arrest capacity of roscovitine in sheep oocytes as well as its effects on cumulus expansion was evaluated. For this, cumulus‐oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured for 20 h in TCM 199 with 10% foetal bovine serum (Control) containing 75 μm roscovitine (Rosco). Subsequently, they were in vitro matured (IVM) for further 18 h in inhibitor‐free medium with LH and FSH. The culture was performed in Petri dishes under mineral oil (+) or in 96 well plates without oil overlay (?) at 38.5°C and 5% CO₂. At 20 and 38 h, the cumulus expansion and nuclear maturation were evaluated under stereomicroscope and by Hoechst 33342 staining, respectively. No group presented cumulus expansion at 20 h. After additional culture with gonadotrophins, a significant rate of COCs from both Control groups (+/?) exhibited total expansion while in both Rosco groups (+/?) the partial expansion prevailed. Among the oocytes treated with roscovitine, 65.2% were kept at GV in the absence of oil overlay while 40.6% of them reached MII under oil cover (p < 0.05). This meiotic arrest was reversible, and proper meiosis progression also occurred in the Control groups (+/?). So, the culture system without oil overlay improved the meiotic inhibition promoted by roscovitine without affecting the cumulus expansion rate or the subsequent meiosis progression.     

Replication in initial selection trials of clonally propagated crops

Summary A mathematical model was constructed to determine the theoretical effectiveness of selection under various protocols in initial trials of clonally propagated crops. Effectiveness was quantified as the proportion of top phenotypes selected that can also be expected to be the best genotypes in trial. In the absence of replication there is a non-linear increase in this proportion with increase in broad-sense heritability. The proportion of best genotypes included is reduced as the intensity of selection increases. Replication effectively raises broad-sense heritability. The resulting increases in selection effectiveness are quantified for three levels of single-plant heritability (0.1, 0.5 and 0.9) and three selection intensities (0.1, 0.01 and 0.001) using a model based on the Normal Distribution and in which it is assumed that the trial area increases in size in direct relation to the degree of replication.When the trial area is of fixed size, replication reduces the number of genotypes that can be tested and the effectiveness of selection is, therefore, calculated with regard to the initial population of genotypes which could have been tested in the absence of replication. This showed that replication has a marginal benefit only where very high selection intensities are applied to characters with very low heritabilities. In other cases, replication is not beneficial since increases in selection effectiveness fail to compensate for good genotypes left in the seed packet. This conclusion proved to be equally valid when genetic variation was non-Normally distributed. Any increase in trial area for initial selection is best employed by increasing the total number of genotypes and growing just one representative plant of each. These conclusions could be relevant in other circumstances such as the evaluation stage of the single-seed descent breeding method for sexually propagated crops.