Pathogens associated with acute infectious canine tracheobronchitis in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Veterinary Studies in Virology at Massey University, Turitea, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Infectious canine tracheobronchitis (ICT) or canine infectious respiratory disease, commonly known as kennel cough, is an acute, highly contagious respiratory disease that affects the larynx, trachea, bronchi, and occasionally the parenchyma of the lower respiratory tract. Several pathogens have been implicated in ICT including viruses, bacteria and mycoplamsa. Little is known about the prevalence of canine respiratory pathogens in New Zealand. Hence, the aim of this study was to identify potential respiratory pathogens from dogs that are affected by ICT in New Zealand, and compare agents found in diseased dogs to those found in healthy dogs. In house (IH) qPCR assays were developed for the detection of canine adenovirus type 2 (CAdV-2), canine herpesvirus (CHV) and canine parainfluenza (CPIV). A total of 96 dogs were sampled, including 47 healthy and 49 diseased dogs, which comprised three different groups of dogs: greyhounds, pet dogs, and working farm dogs. A questionnaire was included for each dog sampled. The samples collected were then subjected to the following tests: virus isolation, haemagglutination assay for CPIV, IH qPCR for CAdV-2 and CHV, as well as IDEXX RealPCR respiratory disease panel, and bovine respiratory coronavirus ELISA to detect antibody to canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV). Based on IDEXX qPCR, CPIV (7.3%), Bordetella bronchiseptica (7.3%) and Mycoplasma cynos (17.0%) were the most common agents detected in samples from diseased dogs, whereas CAdV-2 (10.6%) was the most common pathogen amongst healthy dogs. Based on IH qPCR, CAdV-2 infection was very common among all dogs sampled, with 34/47 (72%) positive diseased dogs and 37/47 (78.6%) positive healthy dogs. A total of 47/92 (51%) of dogs were positive for CRCoV antibodies, including 32/46 (69.6%) of diseased dogs and 14/46 (30.4%) of healthy dogs. In addition, acute serum samples from diseased dogs were significantly more likely to be positive for CRCoV antibodies compared to sera from healthy dogs (RR 5.22, CI 1.972, 14.115, p=0.0003). The results of this study suggest that CRCoV, M.cynos and potentially CPIV may have a role in ICT in New Zealand, however further investigation is required to support these findings. In addition, if one excluded dogs positive for CAdV-2 (as there was no difference in levels of detection of this virus between healthy and diseased dogs), then only 13/47 (27.6%) of diseased dogs were positive for at least one agent via IDEXX and IH qPCR. This suggests that other aetiological agents, not examined in this study, may have contributed to respiratory disease in sampled dogs. Techniques such as next generation sequencing may help to identify these pathogens

An Evolving Partnership: Collaboration between university 'experts' and net-fishers

This paper reflects on the evolution of a university-community partnership that has benefited both the community and the university, through joint research and mutual capacity development. It highlights the value of working collaboratively with communities and other stakeholders to jointly tackle complex human-ecological problems and demonstrates that knowledge that resides in communities is fundamental to resolving problems. While the initial focus of the project was on providing ‘expert’ advice to assist a fishing community, as well as to ‘build their capacity’ to enable effective participation in management decisions, over time the relationship shifted to one characterised by mutual learning, collaborative research and the co-production of knowledge in the face of policy changes. This article offers reflections on this 15 year university-community engagement process and highlights the shifts in perceptions, research approaches and positions of the university researchers as the partnership developed and expanded as understanding of this fishery system increased

Improving the practice of public participation in environmental planning and decision-making in South Africa

Despite calls for greater public parti­cipation in all aspects of environmen­tal planning, assessment and decision­making, opportunities for participation in the planning, legal and admini­strative systems governing these activi­ties are limited. Furthermore, there is little information and guidance on how this may be achieved in practice. The emphasis of this article is therefore, to suggest ways of making public participation operational. It begins by defining the concept of public partici­pation and explores how the principles and tasks of participation may be integrated into the environmental planning process. It proposes a public participation process which indicates when, how, why and to what extent the public should be involved in the activities of environmental planning and decision-making. Adoption of the principles of public participation, and the application of the process outlined in the article, should contribute to improving the practice of public par­ticipation

An assessment of recreational carrying capacity at Infanta, South Cape

Bibliography: pages 145-148.A proposal to develop 100 additional residential erven at Infanta, a holiday township on the South Cape coast, prompted this study. Current pressure of human activities imposed on the Infanta coastal and estuarine environment during peak holiday periods is determined from questionnaire analysis and direct observations. Projections of potential recreational demand anticipated at the proposed higher level of development are made. An assessment of recreational carrying capacity indicates in broad terms what levels of use are acceptable for the different recreational activities pursued in the area. At the present population pressure these levels are already attained or exceeded for most activities. Major physical, ecological and social constraints for further township development are identified. The beach and swimming area, as well as ancillary shore facilities for boats, are already inadequate to support current recreational pressure. Increased recreational pressure will result in competition for water space and conflicts between different recreational interest groups will occur. Surveys conducted during this study suggest that particular bait and shellfish organisms (e.g. Alikreukel) are already overexploited. There is also evidence of a decline in the numbers and size of fish caught. At one recreation site, bank erosion and destruction of salt marsh vegetation is indicative of heavy boating and watersports activities. An increased holiday population would result in overcrowding at recreation sites. This would reduce the quality of the recreation experience for both the present holidaymakers and newcomers to the area. It is concluded that both the environmental resources and existing man-made amenities in the area are already stressed by present recreational pressure and cannot support an increased holiday population during peak holiday periods. Increased development will destroy the attributes which attracted development in the first instance. Additional township development which will increase population numbers during peak holiday periods should not be permitted. It is recommended that an evaluation of present recreational pressure, projections of potential recreational demand and an assessment of recreational carrying capacity based on physical, ecological and social constraints should be a routine procedure in the consideration of applications for the extension or establishment of coastal townships

An environmental evaluation procedure for coastal township and resort development proposals in South Africa

Includes bibliographies.Most coastal nations recognise the environmental, economic and educational value of their coastal zones. Consequently, they have developed integrated management programmes and employ a variety of strategies, in particular, Environmental Impact Assessment, to promote the sustainable use and development of these resource- rich areas. In South Africa, the absence of a formal, holistic and systematic procedure for evaluating proposals that affect the coastal environment is identified as one of the main causes of coastal degradation. The Integrated Environmental Management Procedure, developed in 1992, provides a generic framework within which the planning and evaluation of proposals, significantly affecting the environment can be made. Further development of more detailed procedures, practical guidelines and tools for specific activities or in particular environments, is now urgently required. The central aim of this dissertation is to develop an environmental evaluation procedure for coastal township and resort development proposals, consistent with the principles of Integrated Environmental Management, and appropriate to the conditions in a developing country, such as South Africa. The proposed procedure addresses key weaknesses inherent in most Environmental Impact Assessment systems in developing countries and incorporates and builds upon relevant Coastal Zone Management strategies operative in South Africa. Furthermore, it seeks to unpack and clarify the Environmental Impact Assessment concept by identifying its underlying principles, clarifying procedural requirements and making operational the processes which characterise it. To assist with implementation, a variety of tools and a series of practical guidelines have been developed. The key features of the procedure were derived from an extensive literature review, an examination of the environmental evaluation and coastal management systems operating in South Africa, a questionnaire survey amongst coastal managers, and from case study material. Action research informed ideas for making operational the processes of scoping and public participation. Particular attention was given to identifying and developing appropriate methods and guidelines for identifying impacts, determining impact significance, involving the public, assessing recreational carrying capacity, clarifying trade-offs amongst alternatives, marrying expert opinion and local experiential knowledge and incorporating subjective value judgements into the assessment and decision-making processes. It is submitted that the employment of this procedure to all proposals affecting the coastal zone and the establishment of the proposed institutional mechanisms for its implementation, will streamline and enhance existing coastal management efforts and give direction to the further development and implementation of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management programme for South Africa

An approach to determining water surface zoning systems

The expansion of recreational boating in South Africa and the subsequent in­creased demand for water space has led to overcrowding and congestion on many estuaries, especially during peak holiday periods. In this paper, an approach to determine appropriate and acceptable water surface zoning systems to regulate recreational boating on the Kromme River estuary is described. Information on recreational boating patterns on the estuary, attitudes of recreation users towards current boating pressure and proposed regulatory measures was ob­tained from questionnaire surveys. This information provided the basis for de­vising zoning strategies for the Kromme River estuary. The advantages of employ­ing this approach for planning and re­gulating recreational use of estuaries are outlined

Rethinking capitalist transformation of fisheries in South Africa and India

Source at https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10461-230427.The industrialization of fisheries and the growth of a capitalist sector within fisheries have received considerable scholarly attention. For the most part, scholars have emphasized how capitalism has led to privatization of the commons, forced small-scale resource users into wage labor, and marginalized the sector. This analysis does not, however, explain the continued presence of such a vibrant and important small-scale sector in fisheries throughout the world. Drawing on the notion of Foucauldian governmentality, other scholars have argued that the small-scale sector or what they term the “need economy” is a product of primitive accumulation. The state must, in conditions of democracy, address the welfare needs of all those who have been dispossessed in order to govern. We engage with this theorization in the context of fisheries and argue that seeing small-scale fisheries only as a product of primitive accumulation and Foucauldian governmentality ignores the moral economies of these fisheries. By analyzing capitalist transformation of fisheries in two “democratic” countries, South Africa and India, we highlight how small-scale fishers resist increasing marginalization and how governments have afforded a measure of protection to this sector, and confirm the importance of their moral economies to sustainable and equitable fisheries in the future

The Magnetic Acoustic Change Complex and Mismatch Field:A Comparison of Neurophysiological Measures of Auditory Discrimination

The Acoustic Change Complex (ACC), a P1-N1-P2-like event-related response to changes in a continuous sound, has been suggested as a reliable, objective, and efficient test of auditory discrimination. We used magnetoencephalography to compare the magnetic ACC (mACC) to the more widely used mismatch field (MMF). Brain responses of 14 adults were recorded during mACC and MMF paradigms involving the same pitch and vowel changes in a synthetic vowel sound. Analyses of peak amplitudes revealed a significant interaction between stimulus and paradigm: for the MMF, the response was greater for vowel changes than for pitch changes, whereas, for the mACC, the pattern was reversed. A similar interaction was observed for the signal to noise ratio and single-trial analysis of individual participants’ responses showed that the MMF to Pitch changes was elicited less consistently than the other three responses. Results support the view that the ACC/mACC is a robust and efficient measure of simple auditory discrimination, particularly when researchers or clinicians are interested in the responses of individual listeners. However, the differential sensitivity of the two paradigms to the same acoustic changes indicates that the mACC and MMF are indices of different aspects of auditory processing and should, therefore, be seen as complementary rather than competing neurophysiological measures

The potential of plant polyphenols as natural photostable sunscreen active ingredients.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Protection from the sun dates to prehistoric times as a measure against the deleterious effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Overexposure to this harmful UV radiation is a leading cause of pathological changes of the skin, such as erythema and the worst being skin cancer. Commercial sunscreen products contain UV filter substances that are designed to protect human skin from erythema. These sunscreen products incorporate chemical UV-absorbing compounds and physical blockers that allow UV radiation to be reflected, scattered, or absorbed. This research discusses the use of certain organic UV absorbers and their importance in protection against the effects of UV radiation. The issues faced with certain UV absorbers are that they are susceptible to photodegradation over time, their degradation products can be phototoxic, and they provide protection only over a limited wavelength region. This causes a significant problem in sunscreen products as their efficacy is reduced. This has led to research on finding an alternative solution that can provide beneficial protection and maintain photostability. Interest was drawn to the plant kingdom for a more natural source of sunscreen absorbers since plants have developed various photoprotection mechanisms to counter enhanced levels of UV radiation. Polyphenols in plants have strong UV-absorbing properties that cover a broad spectrum, and they also possess excellent antioxidant activity. Therefore, they can play a dual role by acting as both natural absorbers of harmful radiation and quenchers of free radical damage also caused by sunlight. This project highlights the limitations in photostability of four commonly used chemical UV filters found in commercial sunscreen products, namely, avobenzone, benzophenone-9, 2-ethylhexyl-p-methoxycinnamate and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, and involves testing a South African based plant extract to increase the current efficacy of sunscreens due to its photochemoprotective properties. Attempts at photostabilising the selected UV filters were made by incorporating extracts from Sutherlandia frutescens, also known as the Cancer Bush plant. Photostability studies were conducted on the extracts alone and when mixed with each of the sunscreen filters by means of UV-visible spectrophotometry. Phenolic compounds, namely, flavonoids and phenolic acids, were extracted, identified and quantified. From an industrial perspective, a cheaper alternative to the Cancer Bush plant is extracting polyphenols from commercial tea. Phenolic acids were extracted from Rooibos and green teas by means of a simple ethanol-water extraction technique. For comparison, the tea extracts were compared with the Cancer Bush extract. Green tea was found to provide excellent photostability. The phenolic acids that were extracted from the Cancer Bush plant and teas were analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The identification and quantitation of six phenolic acids was achieved by reversed-phased HPLC. Identification of phenolic acids was achieved by matching the retention times and spectra of the extract components with those of phenolic acid standards. The identified phenolic acids were gallic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid and p-coumaric acid. The six phenolic acids were identified in the Cancer Bush ethanol-water extract and p-coumaric acid showed the highest concentration. Only three phenolic acids were successfully identified in the green tea extract and four in the Rooibos tea extract with the highest concentration being p-coumaric acid. A general sunscreen formulation was employed to assess the possible inclusion of polyphenols in sunscreens. Sunscreens were made with and without UV filters and photostability tests were conducted. A small amount of sunscreen was smeared onto a quartz plate and exposed to sunlight for a total of six hours. UV-visible spectrophotometric analysis was conducted at 30-minute intervals before and after exposure to determine their photostability. Sunscreen formulations containing plant extracts showed noteworthy photostability when compared with products without plant extracts by increasing the absorbance values. This shows that plant extracts may contribute synergistically to improve the efficacy of sunscreen formulations. The stability of the sunscreens was tested to determine formulation stability and safety. Furthermore, in vitro testing was applied to test sunscreen formulation parameters, such as, sun protection factor (SPF) and occlusion factor. Results show that the addition of the Cancer Bush plant improved the SPF of the sunscreen preparation. Therefore, this research has shown that the addition of the Cancer Bush extract can improve photostability and provide additional UV protection