[The zoological garden of Amsterdam Natura Artis Magistra during world War II].

Thanks to the wise management of its director, dr. Armand Sunier, and his team, 'Artis' survived the difficult war period without great losses of its animals and only material damage to some buildings. Artis has meant very much for the inhabitants of the city of Amsterdam during the war.

Isolation and partial characterization of a lentivirus from talapoin monkeys (Myopithecus talapoin).

We have identified a novel lentivirus prevalent in talapoin monkeys (Myopithecus talapoin), extending previous observations of human immunodeficiency virus-1 cross-reactive antibodies in the serum of these monkeys. We obtained a virus isolate from one of three seropositive monkeys initially available to us. The virus was tentatively named simian immunodeficiency virus from talapoin monkeys (SIVtal).

Daudi supernatant, unlike other H-Y antigen sources, exerts a sex-reversing effect on embryonic chick gonad differentiation.

In vitro cultures of intact chick gonads (organ cultures) and reaggregation cultures of dispersed gonad cells (roller cultures) were made. Gonads or gonad cells from 7-day-old chick embryos, at the stage when sex-specific differentiation begins, were cultured in the presence of presumed H-Y antigen-containing supernatants, or co-cultured in the presence of H-Y antigen-producing cell lines. The H-Y antigen-producing cells tested were of human, mouse, bovine and chicken origin.

[Veterinary education; is it balanced?].

As a professional body, we are continually torn between two alternatives: do we love animals or do we see them as bioindustrial objects, do economics prevail or do ethics, should we specialize or should we retain a broad basis of knowledge? I would like to go further and philosophize about a totally different sort of specialisation - veterinarians who are concerned solely with intensive animal husbandry and veterinarians who are concerned solely with the free-range sector. Could something such as moral specialisation exist?