Practices and opinions of New Zealand sheep farmers towards pain management in lambs during castration and/or tail docking.

Aims: To collect baseline data from New Zealand sheep farmers on techniques for docking and castrating lambs, their perceptions of the level of pain lambs experience following these procedures, and their opinions about the use of pain relief.

Methods: From a voluntary cross-sectional survey of New Zealand sheep farmers, descriptive statistics were provided for quantitative study variables. Thematic analysis was performed on the free-text comments.

Zwitterionic dicopper helicates: anion encapsulation and binding studies.

The synthesis and spectroscopic studies of a dicopper(II) double helicate capable of binding anions is described. X-Ray crystallographic analysis of three anion variations of the complex have shown that the helicate is capable of accommodating anions with an approximate volume of 0.09 nm(3) and smaller.

Selenium reference ranges in New Zealand cattle.

Aim: To compare serum selenium and liver selenium concentrations with whole blood concentrations in samples taken at the same time from unsupplemented cattle, and to use these comparisons to establish a reference range for use in diagnosing selenium deficiency.

Methods: Selenium was measured in concurrent whole blood, serum and liver samples obtained from cattle in unsupplemented herds in the Manawatu, Waikato and Wairarapa regions of New Zealand. The results were statistically analysed.