Cutaneous leiomyosarcoma with visceral metastases in a White Carneau pigeon and literature review.

Cutaneous leiomyosarcomas are malignant mesenchymal tumors of smooth muscle origin and are reported occasionally in avian species. A 14-y-old male laboratory White Carneau pigeon () was presented for surgical excision of a cervical soft tissue mass. Ultrasonography with color flow Doppler imaging revealed multiple cavitations of mixed echogenicity within the mass and vascularization.

The Role of Feed in Aquatic Laboratory Animal Nutrition and the Potential Impact on Animal Models and Study Reproducibility.

Feed plays a central role in the physiological development of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Historically, the feeding practice of aquatic research species derived from aquaculture, farmed, or ornamental trades. These diets are highly variable, with limited quality control, and have been typically selected to provide the fastest growth or highest fecundity.

Use of Air-activated Thermal Devices during Recovery after Surgery in Mice.

Laboratory mice (Mus musculus) are susceptible to hypothermia, especially during anesthetic events, disease states, and exposure to environmental stressors. Thermal support devices for small mammals are numerous, but often require a power source and may be impractical to use for cages on a rack. Air-activated thermal devices (AATD) are mixtures of chemicals that cause an exothermic reaction.

Isolation and molecular characterization of group B from laboratory Long-Evans rats () with and without invasive group B streptococcal disease.

Group B (, GBS) is a Gram-positive opportunistic pathogen that inhabits the respiratory, urogenital and gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals. Maternal colonization of GBS is a risk factor for a spectrum of clinical diseases in humans and a principle cause of neonatal meningitis and septicaemia. We describe polymicrobial sepsis including GBS in two gravid adult female Long-Evans rats experiencing acute mortality from a colony of long-term breeding pairs.

Generating Chimeric Mice by Using Embryos from Nonsuperovulated BALB/c Mice Compared with Superovulated BALB/c and Albino C57BL/6 Mice.

The reliable generation of high-percentage chimeras from gene-targeted C57BL/6 embryonic stem cells has proven challenging, despite optimization of cell culture and microinjection techniques. To improve the efficiency of this procedure, we compared the generation of chimeras by using 3 different inbred, albino host, embryo-generating protocols: BALB/cAnNTac (BALB/c) donor mice superovulated at 4 wk of age, 12-wk-old BALB/c donor mice without superovulation, and C57BL/6NTac-Tyr(tm1Arte) (albino B6) mice superovulated at 4 wk of age. Key parameters measured included the average number of injectable embryos per donor, the percentage of live pups born from the total number of embryos transferred to recipients, and the number of chimeric pups with high embryonic-stem-cell contribution by coat color.

Helicobacter Species Identified in Captive Sooty Mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) with Metastatic Gastric Adenocarcinoma.

Background: Of all human cancers, gastric carcinoma is the one of the leading causes of death. Helicobacter pylori is considered a major etiologic agent of this disease. Spontaneously occurring gastric carcinoma is a rare diagnosis in nonhuman primates.