A national programme for mastitis control in Australia: Countdown Downunder.

In 1998, Countdown Downunder, Australia's national mastitis and cell count control programme, was created. With funding from the country's leading dairy organisation, Dairy Australia, this programme was originally intended to run for three years but is now in its tenth year. As it was the first time Australia had attempted a national approach to mastitis control on the farm, the first three years of the programme were largely concerned with the development of resources to be used by farmers and service providers.

Sensitivity and specificity of two serological tests for the detection of ovine paratuberculosis.

Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of an absorbed ELISA and an AGID test for the detection of clinical and subclinical paratuberculosis in sheep.

Design: By testing a panel of sera from 1257 Australian Merino and crossbred sheep greater than 1 year of age, of which 1137 sheep were not infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis and 120 sheep had paratuberculosis.

Procedure: Sera were collected from 457 sheep in Victoria and 800 sheep in Western Australia.

Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis: IS900 restriction fragment length polymorphism and IS1311 polymorphism analyses of isolates from animals and a human in Australia.

The distribution and prevalence of strains of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis were determined among sheep, cattle, and other species with Johne's disease in Australia. A total of 328 isolates were evaluated from numerous farms in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, Australia.

Evaluation of diagnostic tests for Johne's disease in young cattle.

Objective: To investigate the development of immune responses in calves experimentally and naturally infected with Mycobacterium paratuberculosis and to evaluate the potential for diagnostic tests to detect infected calves.

Design: Sequential testing of four treatment groups of calves over a 2 year period.

Procedure: Twenty-nine calves were allocated to four groups.

Kinetics and sites of sequestration of indium 111-labeled human platelets during cardiopulmonary bypass.

A new approach for the study of the kinetics and quantification of the in vivo and ex vivo sites of sequestration of platelets during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is described. Autologous platelets of four patients were labeled with 111In-oxine and reinfused on the day prior to CPB for coronary artery bypass grafting. Changes in blood 111In-labeled platelet radioactivity and blood platelet counts were monitored during the operation.