A descriptive study of dairy goat predation in Louisiana.

Questionnaires concerning herd size, housing and management, and previous instances of predation were mailed to 124 goat owners in Louisiana. Postcards were mailed over a period of one year on a monthly basis, to the 84 individuals who responded to this questionnaire. Owners were asked to indicate whether they had seen predators on their property and whether any goats were injured or killed by the predators.

A questionnaire for the clinical assessment of veterinary adverse drug reactions.

Despite widespread occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), their clinical identification has been a nonreproductible act of unspecified subjective judgment. Adequate criteria have not been available for diagnostic decisions about the cause of an observed clinical manifestation. To improve scientific precision in diagnosis of ADRs, the ADR questionnaire has been developed to rank the probability of linking a drug to a suspected clinical manifestation.

Correlation between laboratory services and reporting requirements for selected zoonoses.

Questionnaires on the reporting required and the diagnostic services provided for selected zoonoses were completed by all departments of public health and all departments of agriculture in the 50 States. The public health departments offered services for a larger number of zoonoses than did the agricultural agencies. The correlation between the required reporting of a disease and the availability of services for that disease was stronger in the case of public health laboratories.

Reporting of zoonotic diseases.

Departments of public health and agriculture in all 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia were queried in 1977 to determine which of some selected zoonoses are reportable, the method of reporting and the diagnostic stage at which reporting is required. Fifty-three of the 62 diseases on the public health questionnaire were listed as reportable, with hepatitis A required by 49 of the 51 jurisdictions. Telephone reporting was required in nearly 19% of the disease-jurisdiction combinations and, in nearly 55%, reporting was required when the disease first was suspected.

Experimental toxoplasmosis in calves and pregnant cows.

Experimental Toxoplasma gondii infections were studied in pregnant cows and in calves. In tests to compare their virulence, three strains of the toxoplasmal parasite were red to cats; then fecal oocysts were collected and given per os to calves. In tests to determine their effects, virulent tachyzoites or oocysts were given to 10 calves and to 22 pregnant cows by the oral, IV, or intraamniotic routes.

The need for integrated control programs for zoonoses affecting livestock.

Prior to recognition of etiologic agents of zoonoses (infections transmitted between animals and man), physicians encountered these illnesses in man and veterinarians observed them in animals. As the agents were identified, interspecies relationships (and spread) became evident and control programs evolved without consideration of cost-effectiveness. Today, the public demands efficient use of financial resources.

Interfacing professional training in health maintenance and preventive medicine.

Because of emerging economic realities of the latter half of this century, the practice of preventive medicine, as opposed to curative medicine, is becoming essential in developed and developing countries. This holds true in veterinary medicine as well as in human medicine, and as we become increasingly aware of this fact, we also recognize the increasing interdependence of both fields. To determine the extent to which veterinarians are prepared to deal with this change in emphasis, two surveys have been prepared; one directed to various specialty groups within the profession and the other directed to schools of veterinary medicine.

Occupational health and safety programs in schools of veterinary medicine.

From a survey of 22 U.S. veterinary schools and the university campuses where they are located, it was found that none of the schools had a full- or part-time health and safety officer whereas 16 campuses did.

Development of a health and safety program at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.

An accident prevention and zoonotic disease control program at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, was developed by a Health and Safety Committee comprised of members from all instructional departments. The program incorporated safety educational input during the basic, preclinical, and clinical years; a standardized accident reporting procedure; rabies vaccination, with serologic evaluation; a blood serum bank; and recommendations for future control procedures.

Changes of biochemical constituents in bovine fetal fluids with gestational age.

Serum, amniotic fluid, allantoic fluid, stomach contents, and urine were taken from 141 bovine fetuses 120 to 245 days old. The concentrations of the biochemical constituents were examined in tests to ascertain systematic changes with increasing crown-rump length, i.e.

Immunoglobulin concentrations and bovine enterovirus inhibitors in fetal bovine fluids.

Fluids from 53 bovine fetuses ranging in age from 90 to 240 days were examined for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) and neutralizing activity to ten bovine viruses. Non-specific inhibitors to bovine enteroviruses were found in serum, allantoic, and amniotic fluids of most samples tested. In most cases, serum IgG were within normal values.

Developmental changes of free amino acids in bovine fetal fluids with gestational age and the interrelationships between the amino acid concentrations in the fluid compartments.

Thirty ninhydrin-positive compounds were determined in the sera, amniotic fluid, stomach content and allantoic fluid from 29 bovine fetuses of various gestational ages. Fetal serum was found to contain about 3-fold higher concentrations of free amino acids (FAA) than maternal serum, and allantoic fluid contained about 3-fold higher concentration of FAA than fetal serum. Decreasing concentrations of FAA were found in serum as a function of the crown-rump length for the amino acids taurine, aspartic acid, threonine, serine, ornithine and lysine.

Developmental changes of tissue enzyme patterns in the bovine fetus with gestational age.

The activities of aspartate aminotransferase (GOT), alanine aminotransferase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (alkP), creatine kinase (CPK), and ornithine carbamoyltransferase (OCT) were determined in liver, heart, skeletal muscle, brain, kidney, lung, spleen, adrenals, pancreas, thyroid, thymus, and red cells of 56 bovine fetuses varying in gestational age from 115 to 255 days. The tissue aminotransferase activities were the most variable with gestational age. The GPT activity of liver, kidney, spleen, and red cells and the GOT activity of red cells decreased with fetal age.

Adult isoantigen and lectin reactivity of bovine fetal red cells.

Evidence is presented that fetal red cell membranes differ from membranes of their dams in isoantigenic and lectin reactivities. Evidence for nonsimultaneous development of 'adult' antigenic factors is extended. It is proposed that 'adult' phenogroups develop from replacement or displacement of factors in 'fetal' phenogroups.