An International Perspective on the Tools and Concepts for Effluent Toxicity Assessments in the Context of Animal Alternatives: Reduction in Vertebrate Use.

Since the 1940s, effluent toxicity testing has been used to assess potential ecological impacts of effluents and help determine necessary treatment options for environmental protection prior to release. Strategic combinations of toxicity tests, analytical tools, and biological monitoring have been developed. Because the number of vertebrates utilized in effluent testing is thought to be much greater than that used for individual chemical testing, there is a new need to develop strategies to reduce the numbers of vertebrates (i.

Evaluation of Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery for Treatment of Spontaneous Pneumothorax and Pulmonary Bullae in Dogs.

Objective: To describe the operative findings and clinical outcome in dogs undergoing video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) for treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax and pulmonary bullae.

Study Design: Multi-institutional retrospective case series.

Animals: Dogs (n = 12) with spontaneous pneumothorax and/or pulmonary bullae.

Portal site metastasis of invasive mesothelioma after diagnostic thoracoscopy in a dog.

Case Description: A 10-year-old Golden Retriever evaluated because of recurrent pericardial and pleural effusion underwent thoracoscopy with biopsy of the pleura and mediastinum.

Clinical Findings: Before thoracoscopy, 5 L of serosanguinous fluid was removed from the pleural cavity via thoracocentesis. During thoracoscopic exploration, it was observed that the parietal pleura and mediastinum were covered by miliary white to tan nodules 1 to 3 mm in diameter.

Cryptosporidium is more closely related to the gregarines than to coccidia as shown by phylogenetic analysis of apicomplexan parasites inferred using small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences.

The phylogenetic placement of gregarine parasites (Apicomplexa: Gregarinasina) within the Apicomplexa was derived by comparison of small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequences. Gregarine sequences were obtained from Gregarina niphandrodes Clopton, Percival, and Janovy, 1991, and Monocystis agilis Stein, 1848 (Eugregarinorida Léger 1900), as well as from Ophriocystis elektroscirrha McLaughlin and Myers, 1970 (Neogregarinorida Grassé 1953). The sequences were aligned with several other gregarine and apicomplexan sequences from GenBank and the resulting data matrix analyzed by parsimony and maximum-likelihood methods.