Investigation of diabetes mellitus in Burmese cats as an inherited trait: a preliminary study     

CA O'Leary  DL Duffy  MA Gething  C McGuckin  JS Rand 《New Zealand veterinary journal》2013,61(6):354-358

AIM: To investigate, in a pilot study, a possible genetic component to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in Burmese cats in New Zealand by analysing pedigree data.

METHODS: Pedigrees were obtained for 305 Burmese cats living in New Zealand; diabetes was diagnosed in 19 of these due to presence of polyuria and polydipsia, persistent concentrations of glucose in plasma >16?mmol/L and glucosuria prior to insulin treatment. Pedigrees were also submitted for 16 cats with no clinical signs of T2D. The remaining 270 cats were unobserved relatives of these individuals. Inbreeding coefficients and heritability were calculated, and a single major locus model segregation analysis was conducted using pedigree analysis software.

RESULTS: Nineteen cats were diagnosed with T2D. Males (n = 14) and females (n = 5) were both affected, suggesting that the gene or genes causing diabetes are autosomal rather than sex-linked. Examination of the pedigree revealed few signs of fully penetrant dominant gene action: diabetes was ostensibly rarely seen in sequential generations and nearly always skipped at least one and often more generations; apparently unaffected offspring of apparently unaffected parents sometimes produced affected progeny. The mean relatedness of the affected animals within the core pedigree (16 diabetic cats) was 0.049, and mean inbreeding 0.033. Based on 100,000 permutations of the trait values, the expected relatedness of a random sample of 16 animals taken from the phenotyped animals would be 0.013 (SD 0.007) (permutation p = 0.0009). The observed inbreeding was also significant (permutation p= 0.02).

Heritability was estimated to be 9 (95% CI = 0–57)% assuming all animals with unknown status were unaffected. The best fitting genetic model was a major gene model with dominant expression with the risk allele frequency at 15% with 60% penetrance.

CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study the increased inbreeding in the cases, lack of likely sampling bias, the increased frequency of T2D in Burmese, and small number of breed founders are consistent with the involvement of a major locus in diabetes in Burmese cats with a significant risk allele prevalence. However, low case numbers meant this could not be unambiguously confirmed. A genome-wide association study may be useful for investigating the genetic cause of T2D.  相似文献   

Serological survey of pre-weaned New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) for brucellosis and leptospirosis     

GF Mackereth  KM Webb  JS O'Keefe  PJ Duignan  R Kittelberger 《New Zealand veterinary journal》2013,61(6):428-432

AIM: To conduct a longitudinal serological survey for evidence of Brucella spp and Leptospira spp infection of pre-weaned New Zealand fur seals in a colony on the Otago Peninsula.

METHODS: Seal pups were repeatedly captured on a monthly basis from February through to July 2001. Pups were tagged at first capture and a blood sample was taken at each capture event. A total of 163 sera were collected from 118 seal pups. Where sufficient volume was collected, the sera were tested for leptospirosis using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), and for brucellosis using the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for Brucella abortus.

RESULTS: None of 128 sera from 101 seals tested positive to the ELISA for B. abortus. All tests for Leptospira interrogans serovars Grippotyphosa, Copenhageni, Bratislava and Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Ballum were negative at a cut-off of <1/100 dilution. Positive or suspicious titres were found to L. interrogans serovars Canicola and Pomona and L. borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo. The highest titres (12,800) were found to serovar Pomona. The titre to serovar Pomona in one seal rose from <1/50 in March to 12,800 in April and was <1/50 when re-sampled in July. The titre to serovar Pomona in another seal dropped from 12,800 in May to <1/50 in June. These seals also had titres to serovar Hardjo, which rose or fell in the same manner. All suspicious or positive titres occurred in late April and early May, when the pups were approximately 4–5 months old. In June and July, all seals tested were negative.

CONCLUSIONS: There was no serological evidence of Brucella infection in the pre-weaned fur seals at the colony. Positive titres to serovars Pomona, Hardjo, or Canicola suggest that a Leptospira species was present at the colony, however isolation or visualisation of the organism is required to confirm this. Care should be exercised when handling New Zealand fur seals to prevent human infection or inadvertent transfer of leptospirosis to another marine mammal species.  相似文献   

Effect of Embryonic and Maternal Genotype on Embryo and Foetal Survival in Rabbit     

JS Vicente  MD Llobat  E Jiménez‐Trigos  R Lavara  F Marco‐Jiménez 《Reproduction in domestic animals》2013,48(3):402-406

The aim of this work was to study the influence of embryonic and maternal genotype of two lines of rabbits selected by growth rate (line R) and litter size at weaning (line A) on prenatal survival. Embryos were recovered at 48 h of gestation from R and A donors (39 and 35 does, respectively) and reciprocally transferred to the oviducts of recipient does to the R (n = 15) and A (n = 14) lines. Each recipient doe received six embryos from line R into one oviduct and six embryos from line A into the other. Recipient does were examined by laparoscopy to determine implantation rate on day 14 and slaughtered on day 25 of gestation to determine the number of live foetuses and the weight of foetuses and placentas. No differences were found between lines in fertilization rate and stage of embryo development at 48 h post‐insemination. Implantation rate was affected by both the embryonic and maternal genotype. While embryos from donor line A had the highest implantation rate (0.78 ± 0.032 vs 0.65 ± 0.036 for line R), recipient line R had a better implantation rate (0.78 ± 0.033 vs 0.64 ± 0.036 for line A). Foetal survival was affected by the embryonic genotype. Embryos from donor line A had a higher foetal survival rate than embryos from donor line R (0.65 ± 0.036 vs 0.53 ± 0.038, respectively) but lower foetal and placenta weights. In conclusion, while embryonic genotype influenced both implantation and foetal survival rate, R embryos had the lowest rates, maternal genotype affected the implantation rate and R recipients may show a greater uterine receptivity during implantation period. Moreover, it must be observed that foetal and placenta weights were significantly affected by embryonic genotype and heavier for R line.  相似文献   

Neonatal mortality due to equid herpesvirus 4 (EHV-4) in a foal     

JS O'KEEFE  MR ALLEY  D. JONES  CR WILKS 《Australian veterinary journal》1995,72(9):353-354

  相似文献   

Polymerase chain reaction and other laboratory techniques in the diagnosis of long incubation rabies in Australia   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

KA MCCOLL  AR GOULD  PW SELLECK  PT HOOPER  HA WESTBURY  JS SMITH† 《Australian veterinary journal》1993,70(3):84-89

SUMMARY Blood and post-mortem tissues from a 10-years-old girl were submitted to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory. Clinical signs and histopathological lesions had suggested a diagnosis of rabies, but, an unusually long incubation period of at least 5 years did not encourage such a diagnosis. Serological examinations by the rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test revealed a dramatic increase in rabies virus-neutralising antibody during the 10-day period of hospitalisation. The results of a fluorescent antibody test on brain smears, and an immunoperoxidase test on formalin-fixed sections of brain were also consistent with a diagnosis of rabies. Attempts to isolate virus were unsuccessful. Polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) were conducted on a 10% suspension of a post-mortem sample from the patient's brain, using primers based on the published sequence of the Pasteur virus strain of rabies virus. 413 and 513 bp fragments from the nucleoprotein gene and a 403 bp fragment from the glycoprotein gene were amplified. Subsequent sequencing of these fragments, and comparison with equivalent regions of known rabies viruses, confirmed that the fragments originated from a virus belonging to the rabies virus serotype. This case demonstrated the advantage of using a range of laboratory techniques to obtain a definitive diagnosis. In particular, a PCR-based test may allow a diagnosis, even in the face of conditions that preclude virus isolation such as apparently occurred in this case. Finally, this case demonstrated that an unusually long incubation period should not discourage a tentative clinical diagnosis of rabies.  相似文献   

Seminal Plasma Composition from Ejaculates Collected by Artificial Vagina and Electroejaculation in Guirra Ram     

F Marco-Jiménez  JS Vicente  MP Viudes-de-Castro 《Reproduction in domestic animals》2008,43(4):403-408

This study was conducted to evaluate changes in ram seminal plasma composition from ejaculates obtained using artificial vagina (AV) and electroejaculation (EE). To address this question, we assessed the effect of semen collection method on volume, sperm concentration, sodium concentration, potassium concentration, sodium/potassium ratio, total protein content and protein profile using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and 2-D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The main findings from this study were: (i) similar volume was obtained, while sperm concentration was significantly lower for EE method; (ii) potassium and sodium/potassium concentration ratio were not influenced by recovery method, while sodium concentration increased significantly when semen was recovered using EE; (iii) approximately 80% of the total relative seminal plasma protein is represented by four protein fractions of molecular weights around 15, 21, 24 and 50 kDa and there were not differences and (iv) focussing the two-dimensional SDS-PAGE gel on the 10–25 kDa rank, the image analysis software detected around 22 spots with isoelectric points ranging from 5.1 to 6.1. Two protein spots (15 kDa and 5.5 and 22 kDa and 5.2 for molecular weight and isoelectric point respectively) increased significantly when semen was recovered using EE. One spot protein with molecular weight around 25 kDa and isoelectric point of 5.2 were only found in the seminal plasma from the semen recovery by AV. As it was demonstrated, ejaculates obtained with EE modify the sodium concentration, alter two proteins concentration and induced the loss of one protein in seminal plasma.  相似文献   

When less is more: heterogeneity in grass patch height supports herbivores in counter-intuitive ways     

Rina CC Grant  Judith Botha  Thelani C Grant  Mike JS Peel  Izak PJ Smit 《African Journal of Range and Forage Science》2019,36(1):1-8

Herbivores are an integral part of the African landscape and have evolved with the vegetation to create the savanna landscape. Managers of these landscapes can benefit from a better understanding of how indigenous herbivores use the landscape to which they are adapted. In this study we observed which patches were frequently utilised, by doing regular monthly road counts, grass height observations and dung counts on selected short grass patches in the Kruger National Park. Smaller-framed impala and blue wildebeest (meso-herbivores) were most regularly seen on these nutritious patches, while from dung deposits it was clear that the even larger-framed buffalo (mega-herbivores) spent time there. This preference can be explained by considering the nutritional needs and food intake of the herbivores. Smaller-framed herbivores seem to be able to satisfy their dietary requirements on the high-quality forage patches, while larger-framed herbivores seem to supplement the quality forage by also spending foraging time on areas of higher grass biomass. From this insight we propose that range management should take herbivore preferences into account and allow herbivores to select and concentrate their foraging on the most nutritious forage. This approach is likely to decrease inputs while allowing animals to maintain or increase production.  相似文献   

Systemic granulomatous disease in dairy cattle during a dicyandiamide feeding trial     

J Cayzer  JS Munday  SF Ledgard  A Heiser  A Thatcher 《New Zealand veterinary journal》2018,66(2):108-113

CASE HISTORY: Mature, in-calf, non-lactating, Friesian or Friesian-cross cows were fed dicyandiamide (DCD) at daily doses of 0.15 g/kg (Group 1; n=31), 0.45 g/kg (Group 2; n=21) and 0.75 g/kg (Group 3; n=12), as part of a safety trial, which also included a control group (n=15). Daily health observations were carried out on each cow until Day 86 of the study. On Day 28 one cow from Group 3 was observed with signs of disease, and subsequently disease was noted in other cows.

CLINICAL FINDINGS: Clinical signs in the first case included depression, pyrexia (40.9°C), salivation and dehydration, in addition to progressive weight loss, followed by death on Day 32. Other cows from all treatment groups developed clinical signs of disease resulting in euthanasia of seven animals. Disease occurred in 10/12 (83%) cows in Group 3, 11/21 (52%) cows in Group 2, and 7/31 (23%) cows in Group 1. Clinical signs were variable and included dermatitis and pruritus of the head and neck, petechial haemorrhages, pyrexia, weight loss, thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and regenerative anaemia.

PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS: Gross findings included generalised lymphadenopathy, subcutaneous oedema, petechiation of mucosal and serosal surfaces, and gastrointestinal haemorrhage. Histologically, multiple organs and tissues contained inflammatory foci characterised by infiltrates of lymphocytes, plasma cells, macrophages and occasionally prominent multinucleated giant cells and eosinophils.

DIAGNOSIS: Multisystemic granulomatous and haemorrhagic syndrome resembling cell-mediated hypersensitivity, associated with DCD ingestion.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE:: This is the first report of toxicity in cattle associated with ingestion of DCD. The proportion of affected cows increased with increasing dose of DCD, but not all cattle in the high dose group developed disease, therefore additional factors may determine whether or not an individual cow will develop DCD-associated disease.  相似文献