Milk fever and subclinical hypocalcaemia--an evaluation of parameters on incidence risk, diagnosis, risk factors and biological effects as input for a decision support system for disease control.

The present review analyses the documentation on incidence, diagnosis, risk factors and effects of milk fever and subclinical hypocalcaemia. It is hereby evaluated whether the existing documentation seems sufficient for further modelling in a decision support system for selection of a control strategy. Several studies have been carried out revealing an incidence of milk fever most often in the level of 5-10%. Few studies indicate that the incidence of subclinical hypocalcaemia is several times higher than milk fever. The diagnosis based on clinical or laboratory methods or based on presence of risk factors is outlined. The clinical symptoms of milk fever are highly specific and the disease level may thus be determined from recording of treatments. Diagnosis of subclinical hypocalcaemia needs to include laboratory examinations or it may be determined by multiplying the incidence of milk fever by a certain factor. From the documentation on risk factors, it is very complex to predict the incidence from the exposure level of the risk factors. Due to uncertainty, sensitivity analyses over a wide range of values for each parameter are needed. The documentation of cow characteristics, nutrition, environment and management as risk factors are described. Among cow characteristics, parity or age, body condition and production level were found to be important. Risk factors associated with nutrition included most importantly dietary cation-anion difference and calcium level whereas the importance of general feeding related factors like type of feed stuff and feeding level were less clear. Environment and management included season, climate, housing, pasturing, exercise, length of dry period and prepartum milking. Several of the parameters on environment and management were confounded among each other and therefore firm conclusions on the importance were difficult. The documentation of the effect of milk fever includes the downer cows, reproductive disorders, occurrence of other diseases and the effect on milk production, body weight and culling. The reproductive disorders included most importantly dystocia, uterine prolapse, retained placenta, metritis and repeat breeding, and occurrence of other diseases included ketosis, displaced abomasum and mastitis. The documentation was substantial and often quantifiable within certain limits. Overall it is concluded that the present documentation on milk fever concerning incidence, diagnosis, risk factors and effects seems sufficient for a systematic inclusion in a decision support system. A model on milk fever should take into consideration the variation in biological data and individual herd characteristics. The inclusion of subclinical hypocalcaemia would be more uncertain and probably should await further documentation on possibilities of determining the herd level incidence and also the effect of this condition on production.     

Studies on in Vitro Erythrocyte Uptake of I131-Labelled 1-Triiodothyronine as A Test of Thyroid Function in Dairy Cattle

Uptake of I¹³¹-labelled triiodothyronine by erythrocytes (EU test) as a test of thyroid function has been studied in cattle. The normal EU value for 141 Swedish Red-and-white cows was 6.99 ± 0.95 (range 4.45–10.23) at an incubation time of one hour. Statistically significantly higher values were obtained for newly-calved cows. The EU values for calves are significantly higher but by 12 to 18 months of age decline to the same level as for older cows.The principle of the test is described and the results obtained compared with those for human beings. The EU test is suitable for screening thyroid function for large groups of animals and for studying associations between thyroid activity and different production qualities.     

Seed Shattering of Cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule Aellen)

Cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule Aellen) is a semi‐domesticated relative of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) with high nutritious quality. It is tolerant to frost, drought, saline soils and pests. One seed yield limitation is seed loss during the maturity stages. Two greenhouse experiments in Denmark and field experiments in Bolivia were carried out to determine seed shattering in landraces and cultivars with different growth habits. 15–21 % of the seed shattering in the fields took place whilst the plants still were flowering and 25–35 % during physiological maturity. Seed shattering varied between locations on the Bolivian Altiplano. Cañahua types with the semi‐prostrate growth (‘lasta’) had the highest seed shattering rate in the greenhouse experiments. The Umacutama landrace had lower seed shattering (1 %) than the cultivar Kullaca (7.2 %) both of the ‘lasta’ type. Under field conditions, the cultivar Illimani with the erect growth (‘saihua’) had the highest seed shattering rate (6.4–33.7 %) at both locations and at four different sowing dates. The Umacutama had the lowest rate (0.5–1.5 %). There were no significant differences between plants of the ‘lasta’ and the ‘saihua’ types. The landrace had significantly less seed loss than the cultivars. However, in the greenhouse, the landrace yield was approximately 25 % lower than the yields of the cultivars. In general, cañahua cultivars had higher yield compared to landraces, but also a higher seed shattering rate. Landraces may be used in breeding programmes to develop high‐yielding cultivars with reduced seed shattering.     

Caudal epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine in horses: An evaluation of analgesic properties and effects on locomotor function,mentation and physical examination parameters

Caudal epidural analgesia is a well-established therapeutic modality for pain alleviation in horses. Additionally, epidural analgesia could potentially be a complementary diagnostic tool for confirmation of pain-related conditions in horses presenting with nonspecific signs of poor performance or rideability issues. To use the epidural as a diagnostic tool, the administered medications should provide efficient analgesia without accompanying adverse effects. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to evaluate the analgesic properties and effects on locomotor function, mentation and physical examination parameters of caudal epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine in horses. Five mares received a caudal epidural injection of 0.1 mg/kg bwt methadone and 0.1 mg/kg bwt morphine diluted to a total volume of 4.4 mL/100 kg. Before and several times thereafter, horses were subjected to mechanical nociceptive threshold evaluation, physical examination, assessment of mentation and locomotor function examination. Horses were assigned ataxia scores (0–4) by a group of inexperienced raters (three senior-year veterinary students) and a group of experienced raters (two board-certified internal medicine specialists) that assessed the locomotor examinations either live or video-based. The epidural co-administration of methadone and morphine resulted in clinically relevant and statistically significant increases of horses’ tolerance to mechanical noxious stimuli at the coccygeal, perineal, sacral, lumbar and thoracic regions. Analgesia was evident after 4.4 h and lasted at least 5 h. Regional differences in the onset of analgesia reflected a cranial spread of the analgesic solution. No horses showed signs of gait disturbances; the overall median ataxia score was 0 at all times; and the average difference in scores between two randomly selected raters for a random horse at a random time point was 0.377 indicating high inter-rater agreement. There were no adverse changes of mentation and physical examination parameters. Observed side effects included signs of decreased frequency of defaecation, generalised sweating, and pruritus.     

Loser cows in Danish dairy herds: definition, prevalence and consequences

During the last few years, many Danish dairy farmers have expressed increasing concerns regarding a group of cows, which we have chosen to term ‘loser cows’. Until now, a loser cow has not been described scientifically. We defined a loser cow on the basis of a clinical examination of the cow. A total of 15,151 clinical examinations were made on 6,451 individual cows from 39 randomly selected, large Danish dairy herds with loose-housing systems using a clinical protocol. Scores for the clinical signs lameness, body condition, hock lesions, other cutaneous lesions, vaginal discharge, condition of hair coat and general condition were converted into a loser cow score. Cows with a loser cow score of 8 or more were classified as loser cows. The overall prevalence of loser cows was 2.15%, 4.50% and 2.98% during the first, second and third round of herd visits, respectively.

The associations between the loser cow state and milk production, mortality, morbidity, culling and workload for the farmer were evaluated using data from herd visits and from the Danish Cattle Database and a number of different statistical techniques. It was concluded that the loser cow state has significant negative consequences for both the farmer and the cow. On average, loser cows yielded 0.61 to 2.24 kg energy corrected milk less per day than non-loser cows depending on parity. Hazard ratio for death or euthanasia was 5.69 for loser cows compared to non-loser cows. Incidence rate ratio for disease treatments was 0.69 for non-loser cows compared to loser cows. Loser cows were often culled in an ‘unfavourable’ way and generally caused extra workload for the farmer.

A simplified version of the loser cow score was evaluated and is recommended for future research and use in practice.     

Automated image analysis as a tool to quantify the colour and composition of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss W.) cutlets

The goal of this paper is to propose and evaluate automated image analysis methods for describing muscle cutlets in rainbow trout. The proposed automated image analysis methods were tested on a total of 983 scanned images of trout cutlets, and included quality traits such as fat percentage, flesh colour and the size of morphologically distinguishable subparts of the cutlet. A sub-sample of 50 images was randomly selected for manual segmentation of the cutlet, the dorsal fat depot and the red muscle and regions. The identification of these regions by manual and automatic image analysis correlated strongly (r = 0.97, r = 0.95 and r = 0.91, respectively). The estimated fat percentage obtained from image analysis, based on the area of visible fat and the colour of the cutlet flesh, correlated well with chemical fat percentage measured by mid-infrared transmission spectroscopy (MIT) (r = 0.78). The automated image analysis methods are therefore a reliable means of predicting the fat percentage of trout cutlets. Principal component analysis (PCA) loading plots were used to identify subsets of variables from the image analysis of special significance for further studies; cutlet area, dorsal fat depot area, red muscle area, back height, cutlet width, and width of left and right abdomen wall were among the variables selected. PCA loading plots of different colour variables indicated that simple statistical coefficients such as percentiles and mean values can be used to quantify different aspects of flesh colour. In conclusion, the methods presented here provide a powerful toolbox for describing important morphological structures and quality traits of trout cutlets.     

Degradation and effect of hydrogen peroxide in small‐scale recirculation aquaculture system biofilters

From an environmental point of view, hydrogen peroxide (HP) has beneficial attributes compared with other disinfectants in terms of its ready degradation and neutral by‐products. The rapid degradation of HP can, however, cause difficulties with regard to safe and efficient water treatment when applied in different systems. In this study, we investigated the degradation kinetics of HP in biofilters from water recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The potential effect of HP on the nitrification process in the biofilters was also examined. Biofilter elements from two different pilot‐scale RAS were exposed to various HP treatments in batch experiments, and the HP concentration was found to follow an exponential decay. The biofilter ammonia and nitrite oxidation processes showed quick recuperation after exposure to a single dose of HP up to 30 mg L^?1. An average HP concentration of 10–13 mg L^?1 maintained over 3 h had a moderate inhibitory effect on the biofilter elements from one of the RAS with relatively high organic loading, while the nitrification was severely inhibited in the pilot‐scale biofilters from the other RAS with a relatively low organic loading. A pilot‐scale RAS, equipped with two biofilter units, both a moving‐bed (Biomedia) and a fixed‐bed (BIO‐BLOK^®) biofilter, was subjected to an average HP concentration of ～12 mg L^?1 for 3 h. The ammonium‐ and nitrite‐degrading efficiencies of both the Biomedia and the BIO‐BLOK^® filters were drastically reduced. The filters had not reverted to pre‐HP exposure efficiency after 24 h, suggesting a possible long‐term impact on the biofilters.     

Characterization of hemiacetal forms of anthocyanidin 3-O-beta-glycopyranosides

The 3-O-beta-glucopyranosides of delphinidin, petunidin, and malvidin (1-3) and cyanidin 3-O-beta-galactopyranoside (4) dissolved in deuterated methanolic solutions without and with acid (5%, CF3COOD) were identified by homo- and heteronuclear NMR techniques. The hemiacetal forms of all the four anthocyanins were characterized as two epimeric 2-hydroxy-hemiacetals on the basis of assignments of both proton and carbon NMR signals together with chemical shift considerations. This is the first report of 13C NMR assignments of two epimeric anthocyanin hemiacetal forms. No 4-hydroxy-hemiacetal form was detected for any of the pigments. For each anthocyanin dissolved in deuterated methanol, the equilibrium between each of the two epimeric hemiacetals and the corresponding flavylium cation was confirmed by the observed positive exchange cross-peaks in the 2D 1H NOESY spectra. The molar proportions of the flavylium cation and the two hemiacetals of 1-4 in deuterated methanol were very similar for all pigments, even during storage for weeks. The majority of the anthocyanins reported to occur in fruits have the same or similar structures as 1-4. These pigments have been proposed to exist predominantly as hemiacetals in slightly acidic to neutral solvents, which is a relevant pH range in plants and in the human gastrointestinal tract.     

Mercury in the Swedish environment — Recent research on causes,consequences and corrective methods

During the last decade a new pattern of Hg pollution has been discerned, mostly in Scandinavia and North America. Fish from low productive lakes, even in remote areas, have been found to have a high Hg content. This pollution problem cannot be connected to single Hg discharges but is due to more widespread air pollution and long-range transport of pollutants. A large number of waters are affected and the problem is of a regional character. The national limits for Hg in fish are exceeded in a large number of lakes. In Sweden alone, it has been estimated that the total number of lakes exceeding the blacklisting limit of 1 mg Hg kg-1 in 1-kg pike is about 10 000. The content of Hg in fish has markedly increased in a large part of Sweden, exceeding the estimate background level by about a factor of 2 to 6. Only in the northernmost part of the country is the content in fish close to natural values. There is, however, a large variation of Hg content in fish within the same region, which is basically due to natural conditions such as the geological and hydrological properties of the drainage area. Higher concentrations in fish are mostly found in smaller lakes and in waters with a higher content of humic matter. Since only a small percentage of the total flow of Hg through a lake basin is transferred into the biological system, the bioavailability and the accumulation pattern of Hg in the food web is of importance for the Hg concentrations in top predators like pike. Especially, the transfer of Hg to low trophic levels seems to be a very important factor in determining the concentration in the food web. The fluxes of biomass through the fish community appear to be dominated by fluxes in the pelagic food web. The Hg in the lake water is therefore probably more important as a secondary source of Hg in pike than is the sediment via the benthic food chain. Different remedy actions to reduce Hg in fish have been tested. Improvements have been obtained by measures designed to reduce the transport of Hg to the lakes from the catchment area, eg. wetland liming and drainage area liming, to reduce the Hg flow via the pelagic nutrient chains, eg. intensive fishing, and to reduce the biologically available proportion of the total lake dose of Hg, eg. lake liming with different types of lime and additions of selenium. The length of time necessary before the remedy gives result is a central question, due to the long half-time of Hg in pike. In general it has been possible to reduce the Hg content in perch by 20 to 30% two years after treatments like lake liming, wetland liming, drainage area liming and intensive fishing. Selenium treatment is also effective, but before this method can be recommended, dosing problems and questions concerning the effects of selenium on other species must be evaluated. Regardless how essential these kind of remedial measures may be in a short-term perspective, the only satisfactory long-term alternative is to minimize the Hg contamination in air, soil and water. Internationally, the major sources of Hg emissions to the atmosphere are chlor-alkali factories, waste incineration plants, coal and peat combustion units and metal smelter industries. In the combustion processes without flue gas cleaning systems, probably about 20 to 60% of the Hg is emitted in divalent forms. In Sweden, large amounts of Hg were emitted to the atmosphere during the 50s and 60s, mainly from chlor-alkali plants and from metal production. In those years, the discharges from point sources were about 20 to 30 t yr 1. Since the end of the 60s, the emission of Hg has been reduced dramatically due to better emission control legislation, improved technology, and reduction of polluting industrial production. At present, the annual emissions of Hg to air are about 3.5 t from point sources in Sweden. In air, more than 95% of Hg is present as the elemental Hg form, HgO⁰. The remaining non-elemental (oxidized) form is partly associated to particles with a high wash-out ratio, and therefore more easily deposited to soils and surface waters by precipitation. The total Hg concentration in air is normally in the range 1 to 4 ng m-3. In oceanic regions in the southern hemisphere, the concentration is generally about 1 ng m^?3, while the corresponding figure for the northern hemisphere is about 2 ng m-3. In remote continental regions, the concentrations are mainly about 2 to 4 ng m^?3. In precipitation, Hg concentrations are generally found in the range 1 to 100 ng L^?1. In the Nordic countries, yearly mean values in rural areas are about 20 to 40 ng L^?1 in the southern and central parts, and about 10 ng L^?1 in the northern part. Accordingly, wet deposition is about 20 (10 to 35) g km^?2 yr^?1 in southern Scandinavia and 5 (2 to 7) in the northern part. Calculations of Hg deposition based on forest moss mapping techniques give similar values. The general pattern of atmospheric deposition of Hg with decreasing values from the southwest part of the country towards the north, strongly suggests that the deposition over Sweden is dominated by sources in other European countries. This conclusion is supported by analyses of air parcel back trajectories and findings of significant covariations between Hg and other long range transported pollutants in the precipitation. Apart from the long range transport of anthropogenic Hg, the deposition over Sweden may also be affected by an oxidation of elemental Hg in the atmosphere. Atmospheric Hg deposited on podzolic soils, the most common type of forest soil in Sweden, is effectively bound in the humus-rich upper parts of the forest soil. In the Tiveden area in southern Sweden, about 75 to 80% of the yearly deposition is retained in the humus layer, chemically bound to S or Se atoms in the humic structure. The amount of Hg found in the B horizon of the soils is probably only slightly influenced by anthropogenic emissions. In the deeper layers of the soil, hardly any accumulation of Hg takes place. The dominating horizontal flow in the soils takes place in the uppermost soil layers (0 to 20 cm) during periods of high precipitation and high groun water level in the soils. The yearly transport of Hg within the soils has been calculated to be about 5 to 6 g km^?2. The specific transport of total Hg from the soil system to running waters and lakes in Sweden is about 1 to 6 g km^?2 yr¹. The transport of Hg is closely related to the transport of humic matter in the water. The main factors influencing the Hg content and the transport of Hg in run-off waters from soils are therefore the Hg content in soils, the transport of humic matter from the soils and the humus content of the water. Other factors, for example acidification of soils and waters, are of secondary importance. Large peatlands and major lake basins in the catchment area reduce the out-transport of Hg from such areas. About 25 to 75% of the total load of Hg of lakes in southern and central Sweden originates from run-off from the catchment area. In lakes where the total load is high, the transport from run-off is the dominating pathway. The total Hg concentrations in soil solution are usually in the range 1 to 50, in ground water 0.5 to 15 and in run-off and lake water 2 to 12 ng L^?1, respectively. The variation is largely due to differences in the humus content of the waters. In deep ground water with a low content of humic substances, the Hg concentration is usually below 1 ng L^?1. The present amount and concentrations of Hg in the mor layer of forest soils are affected by the total anthropogenic emissions of Hg to the atmosphere, mainly during this century. Especially in the southern part of Sweden and in the central part along the Bothnian coast, the concentrations in the mor layer are markedly high. In southern areas the anthropogenic part of the total Hg content is about 70 to 90%. Here, the increased content in these soils is mainly caused by long-range transport and emissions from other European countries, while high level areas in the central parts are markedly affected by local historical emissions, mainly from the chlor-alkali industry. When comparing the input/output fluxes to watersheds it is evident that the present atmospheric deposition is much higher than the output via run-off waters, on average about 3 to 10 times higher, with the highest ration in the southern parts of Sweden. Obviously, Hg is accumulating in forest soils in Sweden at the present atmospheric deposition rate and, accordingly, the concentrations in forest soils are still increasing despite the fact that the emissions of Hg have drastically been reduced in Sweden during the last decades. The increased content of Hg in forest soils may have an effect on the organisms and the biological processes in the soils. Hg is by far the most toxic metal to microorganisms. In some regions in Sweden, the content of Hg in soils is already today at a level that has been proposed as a critical concentration. To obtain a general decrease in the Hg content in fish and in forest soils, the atmospheric deposition of Hg has to be reduced. The critical atmospheric load of Hg can be defined as the load where the input to the forest soils is less than the output and, consequently, where the Hg content in the top soil layers and the transport of Hg to the surface waters start to decrease. A reduction by about 80% of the present atmospheric wet deposition has to be obtained to reach the critical load for Scandinavia.