Aquaculture in Tunisia : interest, perspectives of developping and problems of sanitary control of breeding

Kilani M., Dhaoui S. L’aquaculture en Tunisie. Intérêt, perspectives de développement et problèmes de la maîtrise sanitaire des élevages. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 141 n°4, 1988. pp. 419-430

Performances de croissance et risques de mortalité des agneaux D’man élevés en système intensif dans les oasis tunisiennes

National audienceLes ovins D’man originaires du Maroc possèdent des caractéristiques reproductives intéressantes, en particulier une prolificité élevée, une précocité sexuelle et une activité de reproduction continue. C’est grâce à ses caractéristiques que la race D’man se prête facilement à un rythme d’agnelage accéléré permettant d’avoir trois agnelages tous les deux ans. Ceci peut expliquer l’extension rapide de la population D’man (14000 têtes) à travers les oasis tunisiennes depuis son introduction en 1994. Bien que cette extension est en faveur d’une adaptation aux conditions locales (Rekik et al., 2002), les faibles performances de croissance et les taux de mortalité élevés (>15%) des agneaux D’man constituent des contraintes majeures pour les éleveurs. Ces problèmes sont dus à une multitude de facteurs qu’il nous faut identifier vu leur impact économique important. L’objectif de ce travail est de déterminer les facteurs de risque qui affectent la croissance des agneaux D’man et contribuent à des taux élevés de mortalité dans les conditions des oasis tunisiennes

Does lambing season affect mother-young relationships and lamb vigor in D’man sheep reared in oases?

International audienceAlthough sheep are known to be seasonal breeders and give birth in winter, not all of them follow this trend. A few breeds can be mated and give birth all year round, meaning that mothers and neonates will have to face contrasting climatic conditions. The aim of this study was to test whether lambing season affects maternal and neonatal behaviors in D’man sheep. During four different lambing seasons (winter, autumn, summer, spring), periparturient ewes (n = 111) and their lambs (n = 213) were kept under 24-h-video surveillance in order to record post-partum behaviors. Mother-young preference was tested around 48 h after parturition. Lamb vigor was studied by the determination of birth weight, early postnatal behavior and rectal temperature at birth and 48 h later. Litter expulsion time was not affected by lambing season but birth weight was biased against summer and winter born lambs. Ewes provided a higher intensity of care to their offspring in winter: latency for grooming was shorter and time spent grooming was longer compared to lambing in spring and summer (P = 0.01 in all cases). On the other hand, lambs were the most active in spring as they were faster to extend their hind legs (P = 0.01), stand up (P = 0.04) and reach the udder (P = 0.04). Rectal temperature at 48 h was affected by season of birth (P < 0.001) with higher values observed in summer. Glycaemia variation between birth and 48 h was the lowest in spring born lambs and plasma levels increased less in spring born lambs than in winter (P < 0.0001), autumn (P < 0.0001) and summer born lambs (P < 0.0001). In the choice test, mothers clearly preferred their own young and no season effect was detected except that in the first minute of the test they spent less time near their own young in winter than in the other seasons (P = 0.04). Lambs also chose their mother successfully without any major effect of the season however, but winter born lambs were the least vocal (P = 0.01). Overall, this study show that maternal care, lamb behavior and vigor vary lightly according to seasons, albeit not in a consistent manner. In conclusion, a season is no more detrimental than another for the onset of mother-young relationships. Keywords: parturition, maternal behavior, neonate behavior, bonding, glycaemi

Variable responsiveness of generalized pustular psoriasis to treatment with dapsone and colchicine: report of 2 cases

We attempt to critically review the relevant information on currently available unapproved indications of dapsone and colchicine in pustular psoriasis. Observations Case 1: a 66-year-old woman had a 12 years history of pustular psoriasis. She had responded well to methotrexate treatment until we reach a cumulative dose of 1.48 g. A trial of dapsone was started for a new attack of her disease. The patient recovered after 2 weeks then she presented a relapse and a drop in hemoglobin level. Dapsone was stopped and we prescribed colchicine with good response. One month later, a new attack occurred. Case 2: a 38-year-old man had severe generalized pustular psoriasis of 28 years’ duration. Treatment modalities including acitretin methotrexate were applied, but induced short remissions. We try dapsone. At the third week, the patient did not show any significant clinical improvement. Afterwards, he was pyrexial, with red, painful, inflamed skin studded with monomorphic, sterile pustules. We stopped dapsone and prescribed acitretin at 25 mg/day and the lesions were cleared after 2 weeks. Discussion. Our present observations indicate that dapsone is not an effective and well-tolerated therapeutic option for patients with pustular psoriasis and that the effectiveness of colchicine is variable. A larger cohort with study design would be needed to draw further conclusions

The imperative for Higher Education to incorporate agility and resilience into our Information Systems Offerings

To succeed in today’s dynamic environment, Higher Education (HE) must continue to evolve at a rapid pace to create “resilient” graduates. Increasingly, our role as educators centres around the ability to create “industry-ready” graduates that meet the expectations of our industry partners. Future graduates need to be flexible and equipped with an ability to tackle and address complex business problems as soon as they enter the workforce. As educators, we need to ensure that we too are able to rise to the challenge and meet these increasing demands from our industry partners, our students, and the society in which we live and work.The fast pace of emerging technologies and digital innovation continue to reshape the workplace and widen the gap between the skills our students learn and those which they may need to be future-ready. More than ever, we must foster strong connections and collaborate closely with ourindustry partners, practitioners and other key stakeholders to ensure our ability to produce industry ready graduates. Close collaboration and engagement are vital to ensure our ability to successfully integrate work experiences and industry best practices into our Information Systems (IS) curricula. Given the fast-paced changes within our discipline, the importance of industry relevance of our IS curricula continues to be a major focus across many of our university offerings

Gravity Analysis of the Precambrian Basement Topography Associated with the Northern Boundary of Ghadames Basin (Southern Tunisia)

Gravity data were analyzed to determine the structural development of the northern boundary of the Ghadames Basin in southern Tunisia. The Ghadames Basin which also occurs in eastern Algeria and northwestern Libya is one of the most prolific hydrocarbon producers in North Africa with several of the largest oil fields occurring along its northern boundary. The Ghadames Basin was formed during a series of tectonic events ranging from the Early Paleozoic to the Early Cenozoic. These tectonic events produced a basin in southern Tunisia that has a complex basement configuration which is not completely known. A residual gravity anomaly map constructed using polynomial trend surfaces, and vertical and horizontal gravity derivative maps indicate that the northern boundary contains a series of maxima and minima anomalies that trend in two prominent directions: northeast “southwest and east “west. The horizontal and vertical derivative gravity anomaly maps indicate that the width of the basement structures range between 10 and 20 km in width. Three-dimensional (3D) Euler deconvolution and 3D forward modeling constrained by well data, one seismic reflection profile and remote sensing data confirm the width of the basement structures and indicates that the depth of basin varies between 1.5 and 5 km, with deeper sections in general more numerous in the southern sections of the boundary. The gravity analysis constrained by the seismic reflection profile and well data implies that the basement topography may have been formed during the Pan African and/or late Mesozoic rifting. However, additional seismic reflection and well data are needed to confirm this conclusion. The discovery of the numerous basement structures suggests that there may exist additional hydrocarbon traps within the northern boundary of the Ghadames Basin