The politics of punishment in colonial Mauritius, 1766-1887

The history of imprisonment in British colonial Mauritius is intertwined with its political economy, most especially the relationship between metropolitan government and plantation owners. Whether labour was predominantly enslaved, apprenticed or indentured, incarceration was part of a broader process through which the regulation of the colonial workforce was taken from the private to the public sphere and became associated with economic development. Nevertheless, prisoners both challenged and used prison regimes as vehicles for the improvement of their lives. Mauritian jails were intensely political arenas in which the changing nature of colonial relations and the regulation of labour was both expressed and contested

Effects of Age of Dairy Calves First Offered Free Drinking Water on Feed Intake, Growth, and Health

Offering adequate amount of clean drinking water to dairy calves has become recently a significant concern in the dairy industry. This also brought attention to the fact that many dairy farmers wait for a couple of weeks to offer drinking water to newly borne calves even though offering water from birth is the recommendation. Neonate calves could consume considerable amount of water via whole milk or milk replacer but it’s not clear that amount alone would fulfill the water requirements to support growth and development. The present study was conducted to examine the effects of receiving drinking water from birth or about two weeks (wk) later on water and grain intake, and growth and health performances of Holstein heifer calves receiving a large amount (6 to 9 kg/d) of whole milk. The results revealed that, when offered from birth, calves drank significant amount (0.70 kg) of water in addition to a large amount of water they received via whole milk (about 5.0 kg/d) during the first two weeks of their life. Calves not receiving drinking water from birth consumed more grain and drank more water, once offered. Nonetheless, both groups achieved similar drinking water and grain intakes by the time they were 5 wk old. Regardless of the water and grain intake differences during neonate life, calves receiving or not receiving drinking water from birth had similar growth rates and body weight from birth to 10 wk of age. Nonetheless, calves receiving water from birth tended to have lower scours scores, and greater body lengths and hip heights after weaning compared to the calves receiving drinking water later. Overall, offering drinking water to calves from birth itself appeared to offer positive benefits even in systems promoting a large amount of liquid feed (whole milk or milk replacer) intake

DNA fingerprinting of Haemophilus somnus, Histophilus ovis and Actinobacillus seminis

H. somnus, H. ovis and A. seminis are closely-related Gram-negative pleomorphic bacteria. They are very similar in cultural and biochemical characteristics and these phenotypic characteristics are highly variable between strains of each species. Thus their identification is often uncertain. H. somnus causes thromboembolic meningoencephalitis, pneumonia and reproductive failure including abortion in cattle. H. ovis causes similar disease syndromes in sheep. A. seminis is a common cause of epididymitis and infertility in rams. Genotypic characterisation of bacteria, in many cases, has been shown to provide a clearer, more discriminating and more reliable means of differentiating species and strains within species. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fingerprinting methods, using different primer sets targeted against specific chromosomal regions are being applied successfully for the typing of a wide range of human and veterinary pathogens. This work has involved the characterisation of a large number of isolates from bovine and ovine sources, including strains provided by Scottish Veterinary Investigation Centres or isolated as part of this study from slaughterhouse materials. This slaughterhouse survey showed that 18% of randomly selected reproductive tracts of cows contained H. somnus and this was much higher than earlier reports from elsewhere. The identity of the strains was confirmed by conventional cultural and biochemical tests (including API ZYM) and the strains were also characterised in terms of their plasmid profiles and antibiotic resistance. A high proportion of H. ovis isolates contained plasmids (63%) when compared to H. somnus (13%) and A. seminis (8%). Nine H. ovis and two A. seminis isolates contained two plasmids while the rest contained single plasmids. The size range of these plasmids was 1.7 kb to 5 kb. The sensitivity of these strains to a number of commonly used antibiotics was determined but there was no apparent relationship between resistance and the presence of plasmids. Although A. seminis is generally regarded as an ovine pathogen, one isolate was obtained from a bovine source. The main thrust of the work was to develop PCR techniques for identification and typing. Three primer sets, namely REP, ERIC and Ribosomal, have been applied in order to generate reproducible profiles of PCR amplimers. Of the 29 H. somnus strains studied, 11, 16 and eight groups were recognised by the use of REP, ERIC, and Ribosomal primers respectively. For the 19 H. ovis isolates 11, seven and five groups were identified by the three primer sets respectively. For the 24 isolates of A. seminis, REP- and ERIC- PCR yielded five and nine types respectively, but PCR-ribotyping gave a similar- pattern for all isolates except one. The use of a combination of the primer sets provided a high resolution fingerprinting method for these strains which could be useful for epidemiological studies of these related bacteria. PCR-ribotyping produced a relatively simple pattern which was useful for rapid identification of these species after primary isolation and for differentiation of these species from each other and from other related bacteria. These PCR fingerprinting methods were simple to perform and reproducible. Clearly distinguishable profiles were obtained between respiratory and genital isolates of H. somnus by all three typing methods. The discrimination of H. ovis isolates was better in REP-PCR than in ERIC-PCR. In general, PCR-ribotyping produced a simple pattern but REP- and ERIC- PCR produced complex patterns. The genetic heterogeneity of A. seminis was revealed. The two major amplimers of PCR-ribotyping of A. seminis were cloned and sequenced. The sequences showed that A. seminis contains at least two ribosomal operons, termed rrnA and rmB and that these encode one and two tRNAs, respectively, in the spacer region between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes. Species-specific primers for A. seminis were developed from the sequence of the spacer region of rrnB for the specific identification and detection of A. seminis by PCR. The PCR assay was able to detect approximately 300 colony forming units of A. seminis per ml of 10-fold diluted raw semen sample. Storage solution added to semen for long-term storage was found to inhibit the PCR and the assay would best be performed for diagnostic purposes on fresh semen prior to storage