Liver biopsy techniques for adult horses and neonatal foals to assess copper status

Objective To evaluate standing, percutaneous, ultrasound-guided, transthoracic liver biopsy in mares, and transabdominal, laparoscopically-guided, liver biopsy under general anaesthesia in foals, as techniques for obtaining tissue for assessment of copper status. The techniques were evaluated with respect to ease of use and effect on the animal.
Procedure Twenty of 24 Thoroughbred mares and 21 of their foals were biopsied. The animals were part of a larger study of the effect of copper supplementation on copper status and the prevalence of developmental orthopaedic disease. Livers were also collected from unrelated horses and sampled to investigate the variability in the distribution of copper in liver tissue.
Result The biopsy technique caused no lasting effect on the mares, but there was an increased risk of viscus penetration associated with taking multiple biopsy cores. The use of ultrasonography to scan the target area for the liver identified four cases that were not appropriate candidates for liver biopsy, because of large intestine being located in the biopsy area. In the foals there were no serious postoperative adverse effects, nor was there any evidence of problems caused by the procedure when the abdomen was examined post-mortem at 5 months of age. In livers collected to investigate the variability of copper concentration, copper appeared to be relatively evenly distributed through the liver.
Conclusion Standing, percutaneous, ultrasound-guided, transthoracic liver biopsy in mares, and transabdominal, laparoscopically-guided, liver biopsy under general anaesthesia in foals are convenient procedures for obtaining liver tissue for assessing copper status in horses. The use of ultrasound to identify liver tissue is recommended, especially in older mares.     

7500 years of prehistoric footwear from arnold research cave, missouri

Accelerator mass spectrometer dating of an assemblage of fibrous and leather footwear from Arnold Research Cave in central Missouri documents a long sequence of shoe construction by prehistoric Midwestern peoples, beginning perhaps as early as 8300 calendar years before the present (cal years B.P.). An earlier fibrous sandal form dates from 8325 to 7675 cal years B.P., and later fibrous or leather slip-ons span the period from 5575 to 1070 cal years B.P. The assemblage adds to a growing picture of the highly varied nature of prehistoric footwear production in the United States throughout the Holocene.     

Profiling nutraceuticals in bael [Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa] at various stages of fruit development

Bael [Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa], a medicinally important fruit tree grown on the Indian sub-continent, contains two bio-active furanocoumarins, marmelosin and psoralen, with pharmacological properties, plus two powerful groups of natural anti-oxidants, polyphenols and tannins. The present investigation aimed to measure the levels of these nutraceuticals at various stages of fruit development [150–345 days after fruit set (DAFS)] in two promising selections of bael from the Institute, CISH B-1 and CISH B-2, using a simple high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. Marmelosin and psoralen were extracted from 5 g of homogenised fruit mesocarp using benzene, while tannins were extracted as tannic acid with 80% (v/v) methanol in water. Polyphenol concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically at 760 nm using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. The concentrations of marmelosin declined from 1,660 and 726 µg g^?1 at 150 DAFS, to 523 and 170 µg g^?1 at 345 DAFS in CISH B-1 and CISH B-2, respectively, whereas psoralen concentrations decreased from 216 and 41 µg g^?1 to 102 and 9 µg g^?1 during the same growth period in CISH B-1 and CISH B-2, respectively. Tannic acid concentrations decreased from 1.65 and 2.02 g 100 g^?1 at 150 DAFS, to 1.52 and 1.54 g 100 g^?1 at 345 DAFS in CISH B-1 and CISH B-2, respectively. The concentrations of total polyphenols did not show any significant changes in either bael selection over the same growth period. The concentrations of marmelosin and psoralen in CISH B-1 were highest in October (150 DAFS), while these values peaked in November (190 DAFS) in CISH B-2. The results suggest that fruit harvested at an early stage of growth (October–November) contained higher concentrations of nutraceuticals, increasing their suitability for fruit processing and use in the phyto-pharmaceutical industries.     

Amelioration of oxidative stress using N‐acetylcysteine in canine parvoviral enteritis

Previously, antioxidants have not been evaluated for treatment of parvoviral diarrhea in dogs. In this study, antioxidant potential of N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) in dogs infected with canine parvovirus with a nonblinded randomized clinical trial has been carried out. A total 18 parvo‐infected dogs were randomly divided into two groups: nine parvo‐infected dogs were treated with supportive treatment and nine parvo‐infected dogs were treated with NAC along with supportive treatment. Simultaneously, nine healthy dogs were kept as healthy control. In parvo‐infected dogs, marked hemoconcentration, leucopenia, neutropenia and oxidative stress were noticed compared to healthy dogs. The NAC treatment progressively improved the leukocyte, neutrophil, monocyte, and eosinophil counts over the time in parvovirus‐infected dogs compared to dogs that received only supportive treatment. In addition, NAC treatment significantly improved glutathione S‐transferase (GST) activity and decreased nitrite plus nitrate (NOx) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations on day 3 and 5 compared to supportive treatment in parvo‐infected dogs. However, supportive treatment alone failed to ameliorate oxidative stress in the infected dogs till day 5. The results of this study suggest that NAC represents a potential additional treatment option that could be considered to improve the health condition and minimize the duration of hospitalization in case of canine parvoviral diarrhea.     

Ultrastructural characteristics of the blood cells of chickens commonly reared under backyard poultry farming in Mizoram,India

The present study was undertaken to characterize the ultrastructural morphology of the blood cells of commonly reared chickens in the state of Mizoram, India under backyard poultry farming. For this study, 2 ml of whole blood was aseptically collected from the wings veins of 12 chickens of three different breeds namely the Zoar, Aseel and Rhode Island Red and processed for ultrastructural imaging under standard protocols. Under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) the matured erythrocytes of Zoar, Aseel and Rhode Island Red appeared elliptical in shape while the leukocytes and thrombocytes appeared round in shape with variable surface modifications. Under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) the granules of the heterophils of Zoar, Aseel and Rhode Island Red appeared predominantly fusiform in shape, the granules of the eosinophils appeared round in shape and that of the basophils appeared pleomorphic in shape. The cytoplasm of the monocytes, medium-to-large lymphocytes and thrombocytes of Zoar, Aseel and Rhode Island Red under TEM appeared to be vacuolated and granular while that of the small lymphocytes appeared to be granular but non-vacuolated. The study concluded that the ultrastructural characteristics of the blood cells of the three breeds of chicken studied were almost similar to the blood cells of other birds reported earlier.     

Production of Transgenic Farm Animals by Viral Vector-Mediated Gene Transfer

Transgenic technology holds considerable promise to advance understanding in biomedical and agricultural systems with some believing that one day transgenic animals may directly contribute to farming and breeding practice. Nevertheless, applications in livestock have been restricted in part by the inefficiency of the technology. The recent development of lentivirus vectors for transgene delivery may overcome some of this limitation. This presentation describes these vectors, their advantages and limitations.