Snake bites recorded by veterinary practices in Australia

Objective To determine the extent of the snake bite problem in domestic animals, its regional significance and the effects of antivenom treatment.
Design A questionnaire was designed seeking information on the number and type of domestic animals referred, whether treated or untreated, type of snakes and management of the bite.
Procedure The survey form was sent to 10% of veterinary surgeons, selected at random throughout Australia.
Results The response of 106 veterinary surgeons revealed that snake bite in domestic animals is frequent, with an estimated 6200 cases reported annually. Bites were more prominent in rural (78%) than urban areas (22%) with brown, tiger and black snakes accounting for 76%, 13% and 6% of cases, respectively. Cats and dogs were the most frequently reported victims. Ninety-one percent of cats and 75% of dogs survived following the administration of antivenom whereas 66% of cats and 31% of dogs survived without antivenom. Overall, in 33% of cases antivenom was not used, and venom detection kits were used in only 1% of cases. A number of drugs were used in various combinations with or without antivenom and intravenous fluids in the treatment of animals with snake bite, but their role in reducing the severity of envenomations was not assessed.
Clinical implications Antivenom significantly improves the chances of survival of domestic animals bitten by snakes.     

Using the VS‐Fast methodology for soil degradation assessment: a case study from Senegal

Soil degradation threatens sustainable food production and accelerates global warming. Poorer countries, whose agricultural sectors are highly dependent on their natural resource bases, are hit particularly hard by declining soil productivity. Calls for soil‐quality monitoring are therefore, justified and this could inform decision‐makers on the preparation of appropriate interventions. However, the provision of monitoring methodologies is not an easy task. Soil degradation affects several soil characteristics that at larger scales cannot be evaluated with models or remote‐sensing techniques. Therefore, this study focuses on investigating the use of field‐based soil assessment methodologies to differentiate degrees of soil degradation. Specifically, we test the Visual Soil Field Assessment Tool (VS‐Fast) for detecting and monitoring soil degradation using a cross‐section of 71 sites in Senegal, the soil quality of which were classed by local experts. We found low correlation between VS‐Fast classes and expert assessments. By using an ordered logit model to quantify class boundaries, we show that experts categorized areas as ‘degraded’ for a wider range and higher VS‐Fast scores than the corresponding VS‐Fast class. Yet, from general linear models and analysis of variance procedures we found that areas classed by experts as ‘degraded’ had statistically significant lower VS‐Fast scores compared to those that were judged as ‘normal’ and ‘good’, while differences of the VS‐Fast scores between the latter two were negligible. It is remarkable that the visual assessment, the cheaper component of the VS‐Fast score, performs better in differentiating degradation status than its measured counterpart. The results support the need to investigate the applicability of other VSA methodologies that only use field observations and tactile methods.     

Impact of foot-and-mouth disease on mastitis and culling on a large-scale dairy farm in Kenya

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly transmissible viral infection of cloven hooved animals associated with severe economic losses when introduced into FMD-free countries. Information on the impact of the disease in FMDV-endemic countries is poorly characterised yet essential for the prioritisation of scarce resources for disease control programmes. A FMD (virus serotype SAT2) outbreak on a large-scale dairy farm in Nakuru County, Kenya provided an opportunity to evaluate the impact of FMD on clinical mastitis and culling rate. A cohort approach followed animals over a 12-month period after the commencement of the outbreak. For culling, all animals were included; for mastitis, those over 18 months of age. FMD was recorded in 400/644 cattle over a 29-day period. During the follow-up period 76 animals were culled or died whilst in the over 18 month old cohort 63 developed clinical mastitis. Hazard ratios (HR) were generated using Cox regression accounting for non-proportional hazards by inclusion of time-varying effects. Univariable analysis showed FMD cases were culled sooner but there was no effect on clinical mastitis. After adjusting for possible confounders and inclusion of time-varying effects there was weak evidence to support an effect of FMD on culling (HR = 1.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.88-3.1, P = 0.12). For mastitis, there was stronger evidence of an increased rate in the first month after the onset of the outbreak (HR = 2.9, 95%CI 0.97-8.9, P = 0.057).

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13567-015-0173-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Evaluation of the effect of ketoprofen on experimentally induced ephemeral fever in dairy heifers

Objective To evaluate ketoprofen for the therapy of ephemeral fever.
Design A blind controlled clinical trial.
Animals Sixteen cattle (one immature Holstein bull, eight Holstein and seven Jersey heifers).
Procedure Ephemeral fever was induced by the intravenous injection of blood leucocyte layer from a clinical case. Ketoprofen solution or a coded placebo was injected intramuscularly at the rate of 3 mg/kg daily for three days.
Results Ketoprofen reversed locomotor dysfunctions significantly compared with controls, but did not have any effect on rectal temperatures, leucocyte counts, plasma fibrinogen concentrations, ionised Ca-concentrations or the presence of dyspnoea.
Conclusion Ketoprofen is a safe and effective drug for the treatment of locomotor symptoms of milk fever, but has no effect on the duration of clinical respiratory abnormalities.     

Improved discrimination of self-incompatibility S-RNase alleles in cherry and high throughput genotyping by automated sizing of first intron polymerase chain reaction products

A novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach to determine and confirm the self‐incompatibility (S) genotype of cherries is reported. The method involves PCR amplification with a new pair of consensus primers that immediately flank the first intron of cherry S‐RNases, one of which is fluorescently labelled. Fluorescent amplification products range from 234 to c. 460 bp and can be sized accurately on an automated sequencer. Thirteen S alleles reported in sweet cherry can be distinguished, except for S₂ and S₇, which have an amplification product of exactly the same size. S₁₃, which is also amplified, gives a microsatellite‐like trace which shows minor intra‐allelic length variation. This method gives fast and accurate results and should be especially useful for medium/high‐throughput genotyping of wild and cultivated cherries.     

Genetics of self-compatibility in dihaploids of Solanum tuberosum L. 5. The S-genotype of tetraploid potato cultivar gineke

Summary Investigations of the genetics of self-compatibility and self-incompatibility in dihaploids and diploid derivatives from cv. Gineke revealed the presence of S ₁, S₂ and S ₃ at the S-locus of Gineke and in addition an S ₁-allele on a translocation. By means of a complete tester set involving the S-alleles S ₁, S₂ and S ₃ (all from Gineke) and S ₄ (from Black 4495) it was demonstrated that some Gineke dihaploids were compatible with all six testers. This indicated a fourth S-allele in Gineke, which differs from those in the tester series and was therefore assigned S ₅. Additional evidence was obtained from an analysis of F₁'s from crosses of two S ₅-bearing dihaploids and one of the testers. So the S-genotype of cv. Gineke was identified as S ₁S₂S₃S₅/S₁, the second S ₁ being the S-allele on a translocated fragment.