Use of Leg-Loin Cross-Sectional Tracings for Prediction of Lamb Carcass Composition

Animal Scienc

Development and regression of cellular lesions induced by chloroquine in liver, skeletal muscles, and cardiac muscle of swine

Specific-pathogen-free (SPF) swine were given orally 15 mg/kg of chloroquine daily; 8 were sacrificed at 24 hours after 2-12 doses and 3 at 6, 10 and 16 days after completing 14 daily doses. Liver, myocardium and diaphragm and biceps femoris muscles were saved for ultrastructural evaluations and chloroquine assay procedures. The most consistent changes were found in lysosomes and related structures. After a transient decrease, evident only in the liver, lysosomal structures increased in number and size with the tissue concentrations of chloroquine. Lysosomes were aggregated and often contained incompletely digested substances and subsequently concentric membranous whorls or membranous cytoplasmic bodies (MCB). Since these changes were found at peak tissue concentrations, it was suggested that chloroquine or its metabolites were inhibiting the intracellular digestive system. "Ring structures," found only in muscle tissue, were thought to be Golgi membranes predestined for lysosomal formation. Dilation and proliferation of the terminal cisternae of the longitudinal sarcoplasmic reticulum in skeletal muscle were consistent ultrastructural changes associated with chloroquine toxicity in the pig. In general, concentrations of chloroquine increased in all four tissues with each day of treatment and declined with the length of time after cessation of treatment. Pigs with greater areas of pigmented skin has higher concentrations of chloroquine both initially and in the regression period than did lightly pigmented animals. The severity of the lysosomal changes in all tissues examined and of the sarcotubular changes in skeletal muscle was directly proportional to tissue concentrations of chloroquine. Changes were found to be reversible

Development and Evaluation of a Novel Taqman Real-Time PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of Mycoplasma bovis: Comparison of Assay Performance with a Conventional PCR Assay and Another Taqman Real-Time PCR Assay

The objective of this study was to develop and validate a Taqman real-time PCR assay for the detection of Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis). Unique primers targeting the highly conserved house-keeping gene (uvrC) were designed and the probe sequence was derived from a previously published microarray study. There was 100% agreement in the outcome between our assay and the other two published assays for M. bovis detection. The analytical limit of detection of our assay is 83 copies of the uvrC gene. This assay was validated on a total of 214 bovine clinical specimens that were submitted to the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL), Texas, USA. The specificity of the assay was assessed to be 100% since no cross-reactivity occurred with 22 other bacterial and other Mycoplasma species. We conclude that the uvrC gene serves as a good and reliable diagnostic marker for the accurate and rapid detection of M. bovis from a wider variety of specimen matrices