Veterinary treatment in organic husbandry

The organic farming regulations put emphasis on the preservation of animal health by prophylaxis in the agriculture. The No 5 of the regulation EC 1804/99 (EC organic regulation) Appendix I B defines the veterinary treatments in organic animal husbandry. The veterinarian can use any medicine, which is effective for the indication and the animal species. If possible, effective homeopathics, phytotherapeutics or the like should have priority. Problems of implementing the EC organic regulation into the daily farm practice arise mostly from the doubling of the withdrawal period and the restriction of the numbers of treatments. The strict ban on prophylactic treatments is not mentioned any longer in the new regulation 834/2007, which shall apply as from 1st January 2009. Clarification of the guidelines for animal treatments in organic farming seems to be useful for farmers, veterinarians and boards of control

Incidence of anthelmintic resistance in cattle farms in Northern Germany – first results

Anthelmintic resistance (AR) is an increasing problem worldwide especially for small ruminants and it is also rising in cattle. To maintain the efficacy of anthelmintics is an important objective. The current project aims at the investigation of the current efficacy of macrocyclic lactone anthelmintics for strongylid nematodes in first season grazing (FSG) calves in Northern Germany. On 8 participating farms in Northern Germany faecal egg count reduction tests (FECRT) with ivermectin (IVM) were performed. On 3 farms the efficacy of IVM was found to be ≤90% and on only 4 farms it was > 95% at 14 days post treatment (d.p.t.). Only 2 farms showed a reduction ≥ 95% at 21 d.p.t.. This survey reveals a rising problem of AR. The problem of drug resistance places the welfare of animals at risk. In organic farming, without a preventive treatment, livestock may harbour high worm counts. Therefore it is necessary to maintain powerful anthelmintic drugs to guarantee the welfare of animals that need salvage treatment. To investigate the AR problem in cattle more surveys with different anthelmintic drug classes are urgently needed

The Trouble with Hubble Types in the Virgo Cluster

Quantitative measures of central light concentration and star formation activity are derived from R and Halpha surface photometry of 84 bright S0-Scd Virgo Cluster and isolated spiral galaxies. For isolated spirals, there is a good correlation between these two parameters and assigned Hubble types. In the Virgo Cluster, the correlation between central light concentration and star formation activity is significantly weaker. Virgo Cluster spirals have systematically reduced global star formation with respect to isolated spirals, with severe reduction in the outer disk, but normal or enhanced activity in the inner disk. Assigned Hubble types are thus inadequate to describe the range in morphologies of bright Virgo Cluster spirals. In particular, spirals with reduced global star formation activity are often assigned misleading early-type classifications, irrespective of their central light concentrations. 45+-25% of the galaxies classified as Sa in the Virgo Cluster sample have central light concentrations more characteristic of isolated Sb-Sc galaxies. The misleading classification of low concentration galaxies with low star formation rates as early-type spirals may account for part of the excess of `early-type' spiral galaxies in clusters. Thus the morphology-density relationship is not all due to a systematic increase in the bulge-to-disk ratio with environmental density.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Latex aaspp4.sty, 9 pages, 2 Postscript (embedded) figures. Also available at http://www.astro.yale.edu/koopmann/preprint.htm

Medikamente im Ökolandbau und Nachhaltigkeit?

The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment was frequently reported and possible adverse effects on non-target organisms are of increasing concern. The presence of veterinary drugs in manure may cause largely unknown ecotoxicological effects. Organic animal health management puts emphasis rather on prevention than on treatment. This could be an approach to develop a more sustainable production system. The current health situation in organic farming still requires veterinary drugs. Investigating the extent of the use and the toxic potential of pharmaceuticals could demonstrate that organic farming is the less polluting system

Investigation on the influence of nematophagous fungi as feed additive on nematode infection risk of sheep and goats on pasture

Gastrointestinal nematodes in small ruminants cause high economic losses. Thus on most farms anthelmintic treatment is required. In response to increasing problems with anthelmintic resistance, biological control, for example the use of nematophagous fungi, has received significant attention. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Duddingtonia flagrans orally applied to small ruminants on natural infection with gastrointestinal nematodes in a field study in Northern Germany. 20 goats and 20 sheep were fed daily for 3 months with 5x105 spores of D. flagrans per kg bodyweight. Differences in body weight, faecal egg count and larval development in faeces and on pasture in comparison with same-sized control groups were analysed. After 3 months the control goats showed significantly higher mean faecal egg count than the fungus-fed group. No significant difference was found between the two sheep groups. The maximum in larval reduction in faeces was 81.3 % in the sheep groups and 67.9 % in the goat groups (not significant). At the end of the study the body weight gain in the fungus-treated groups was 1.7 kg higher in goats and 0.7 kg higher in sheep than in the control groups (not significant). Regarding the first-year-grazing goats only, the bodyweights revealed significant differences (p<0.05). No statistically significant differences were observed in pasture larval counts. In the study presented here, no clear effect of fungus could be observed. A modified feeding regimen, perhaps with permanent release boluses or feed blocks, may improve the efficacy. Furthermore, it seems that climatic conditions during the study period could have influenced the results and displayed how sensitive the fungus application may be on such parameters

Ongoing Gas Stripping in the Virgo Cluster Spiral NGC 4522

The Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4522 is one of the best spiral candidates for ICM-ISM stripping in action. Optical broadband and H-alpha images from the WIYN telescope of the highly inclined galaxy reveal a relatively undisturbed stellar disk and a peculiar distribution of H-alpha emission. Ten percent of the H-alpha emission arises from extraplanar HII regions which appear to lie within filamentary structures >3 kpc long above one side of the disk. The filaments emerge from the outer edge of a disk of bright H-alpha emission which is abruptly truncated beyond 0.35R(25). Together the truncated H-alpha disk and extraplanar H-alpha filaments are reminiscent of a bow shock morphology, which strongly suggests that the interstellar medium (ISM) of NGC 4522 is being stripped by the gas pressure of the intracluster medium (ICM). The galaxy has a line-of-sight velocity of 1300 km/sec with respect to the mean Virgo cluster velocity, and thus is expected to experience a strong interaction with the intracluster gas. The existence of HII regions apparently located above the disk plane suggests that star formation is occuring in the stripped gas, and that newly formed stars will enter the galaxy halo and/or intracluster space. The absence of HII regions in the disk beyond 0.35R(25), and the existence of HII regions in the stripped gas suggest that even molecular gas has been effectively removed from the disk of the galaxy.Comment: to appear in The Astronomical Journal, 16 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Weak- to strong pinning crossover

Material defects in hard type II superconductors pin the flux lines and thus establish the dissipation-free current transport in the presence of a finite magnetic field. Depending on the density and pinning force of the defects and the vortex density, pinning is either weak-collective or strong. We analyze the weak- to strong pinning crossover of vortex matter in disordered superconductors and discuss the peak effect appearing naturally in this context.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure