NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
106
AIR TEMPERATURE AND PREGNANCY
[Vol. XXVIII, Part II,
heated throughout the whole of pregnancy. Short periods of only 7-8 days' duration
were used in this experiment mainly in the hope of defining precisely particular
periods of gestation which might be specially vulnerable to heat.
In our experiments, the body temperature of the pregnant cows exposed to heat
always-remained higher than that of control. In the evening, however, the body
temperature reached a critical level of about 106-107°F each day. Under such a
heat-stress, pregnancy remained undisturbed suggesting that the animals were
well adapted to heat.
Whereas Ragsdale, Brody, Thompson and Worstell [1948] reported abortion
of 4½ and 6- month foetuses respectively in two cows, two days following a 27-hour
exposure to heat, no abortion occured in the present experiment. This difference
possibly relates to differences in the adaptability of the two groups of animals used.
It might be that the Australian Illawara Shorthorn has, through selection, become
adapted to the warmer Australian environment and so show heat effects less readily
than cattle in colder regions such as U.S.A.
Although our experiments failed to show any effect of heat on birth weight of the
calves, Bonsma [1948, 1949] reported that calves born after a summer gestation are
small in the case of unadapted breeds of cattle. He, however, found no difference
in the birth weight of calves born to cows of adapted breeds. This also supports
the suggestion that the A.I.S. breed is well adapted to heat.
SUMMARY
Twelve Australian Illawara Shorthorn cows were divided into four groups of three
cows each. One group acted as a control. Animals in the other three groups were
heated for periods centring round the 10th, 30th and 50th days of pregnancy res-
pectively. These animals were again heated at about 4 months' pregnancy. The heat
exposure for experimental animals lasted for 7-8 days at an average room tempera-
ture of 105°F dry-bulb and 86°F wet-bulb.
During the entire heat exposure, the morning body temperature of the experi-
mental animals was higher than that of control, while the evening body temperature
reached a critical level of 106-107°F each day.
Under these conditions of heat stress, the pregnancy in all the Australian Illa-
wara Shorthorn cows proceeded normally with one exception when the pregnant
animal after heat treatment returned to oestrus. Body weights of the calves born
to heat-treated cows were the same as that of the control. It appears that this
breed is relatively well adapted to hot environments.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is grateful to Professor W. V. Macfarlane for his assistance, advice
and encouragement and to the members of the staff of the Physiology Department,
University of Queensland (Australia) for their kind co-operation.
The author is also grateful to his supervisor Dr. N. T. M. Yeates for his
guidance and particularly for his advice during preparation of the manuscript.
June, 1958]
C.
C. TANEJA
107
REFERENCES
Bonsma, J. C. Scholtz, G.D.J., and Badenhorst, F.G.J. (1940).—Fmg. S. Africa, 15 : 7
Bonsma, J.C., (1948). Fmg. S. Africa, 23 : 439
—(1949).
A. Agric. Sci. 39 : 204
—Marle
Van, J., and Hofmeyr, J. H. (1953). Emp. J. Agric., 21 : 154
Casady, R.B., Myers, R. M., and Legates, J. E. (1953). J. Dairy Sci. 36 : 14
Dutt, R. C. (1953). J. Anim. Sci. 12 : 945
—and
Simpson, E. C. (1954). J. Anim. Sci. 13 : 1019
Erb, R. E. Andrews, F. N. and Hilton, J. H. (1942). J. Dairy Sci. 25 : 815
Gunn, R.M.C., Sanders, R.N. and Granger, W. (1942). Coun. Sci. Industrial. Res. Aust. Bull. No. 148
Hammond, J. (1949). Proc. U.N. Sci. Conf. Conserv. Utiliz. Resources, 6 : 414
Heitman, H. Jr. Highes E. H. and Kelly, C. F. (1951). J. Anim. Sci. 10 : 907
Hilder, R. A., Fohrman, M. H. and Graves, R. R. (1944). J. Dairy Sci. 27 : 981
McKenzie, F. F. and Berliner, V. (1937). Mo. Agric. Exp. Sta. lies. Bull. No. 265
Milton, A. A., Berry, R. O. and Butler, O. D. (1951). J. Anim. Sci. 10 : 993
Morgan, R. F. and Daivs, H. P. (1938). Nebraska Agric. Exp. Sta. Res. Bull. No. 104
Ogle, C. (1934). Amer. J. Physiol. 107 : 627
Phillips, R. W. and McKenzie, F. F. (1934). Mo. Agric. Exp. Sta. Res. Bull. No. 217
Ragsdale, A. C., Brody, S., Thompson, H. J. and Worstell, D. M. (1948). Mo. Agric. Exp. Sta. Res.
Bull. No. 425
Steinach, E. and Kammerer, P. (1920). Arch. Entw. Mech. Org. 46 : 391
Sundstroem, E. S. (1922). Amer. J. Physiol. 60 : 397
Sundstroem, E. S. (1927). Physiol. Rev. 7 : 320
Trimberger, G. W. and Davis, H. P. (1945). J. Dairy Sci. 28 : 659
Villegas, V. (1939). Philipp. Agric. 27 : 693
Yeates, N. T. M. (1953). J. Agric. Sci. 43 : 199
ABSTRACTS
Some observations on bovine pasteurellosis in Kenya, Parts I and II. SHRILAW, J. F.
(1951). Brit. Vet. J., 113, 35-46 and 71-87
S HIRLAW traced the history of incidence of haemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle
in Kenya Colony as gleaned through the annual reports of the Veterinary
Department, Kenya and outlined reliable methods for accurate and rapid bacteriolo-
gical diagnosis of the disease, such as bone-marrow and blood culture and biological
tests on white mice. The peculiar epizootiological features were that outbreaks
occurred throughout the year, uninfluenced by climatic variations and persisted
on a few stock farms with higher attack rate over a period of several months. No
cases were encountered in sheep running with affected cattle. The author could
not isolate any strain of Pasteurella septica from the nasophenynx of slaughtered
cattle at Kabete, Kenya.
The morphological and biochemical characters of 25 strains of P. septica isolated
from field outbreaks of the disease were given. These were found to be fully
capsulated and virulent only when grown in 0.1 per cent bovine or rabbit blood
broth for a period of 7 days at 37.5°C and after 10 to 15 hours in 10 per cent serum
agar of pH 7.6. Variations of pH temperature and period of incubation did not
materially influence the capsule formation. Biochemically all the strains behaved
as typical P. septica belonging to Robert's type 1, except four strains that fermented
maltose. Strains of P. septica survived in artificially infected pond water for
periods varying from 10 to 30 days and maintained their virulence when held in
plain broth at laboratory temperature for periods ranging from 80 to 145 days.
The author recorded his failure to maintain through successive subcultures the
stability of a rough avirulent strain evolved as a vaccine strain, which was found
to confer good protection in the early tests. Challenge strains employed in the
work on immunity were maintained by weekly rabbit passage and culturing of
heart blood on serum agar plates. The blue colonies were subcultured on blood
agar.
Though in vitro trials indicated that all strains were equally sensitive to aureo-
mycin, streptomycin and penicillin, penicillin therapy proved a failure in experi-
mental pasteurellosis in rabbits as well as in natural cases of the disease in cattle.
In the hands of the author agglutination tests were of no value in determining the
serological types within the species. Studies on immunological typing of field
strains could not be carried out due to an outbreak of salmonellosis in stock mice.
The author reported the successful evolution of a concentrated formalinised vaccine,
prepared from strains of high virulence and capsular content, which was found to
bestow a high degree of immunity in cattle up to a period of one year following
vaccination. Field trials with the new vaccine confirmed its efficacy. Its keeping
109
1 AR/58
12
ABSTRACTS
111
Effect of progesterone therapy on embryo survival in cows of lowered fertility. J. N.
WILTBAND, H. W. HAWK, H. E. KIDDER, W. G. BLACK, L. C. ULBERG and L. E.
CASIDA. (1956). J. Dairy Sci. 36 : 456-461
W ITH a view to study the effects of exogenous progesterone on embryonic
survival in repeat-breeding cows, the authors conducted an experiment on
134 cows having history of impaired fertility without any detectable abnormality.
Progesterone was injected subcutaneously in doses of 50 mg. and 200 mg. daily
in groups of 36 and 31 cows respectively. An equal number of cows was kept as
controls. The cows were bred about 12 hours after the onset of heat. The injec-
tions were started 3 days after the beginning of heat and were continued until the
cows were slaughtered 34 days after the commencement of oestrus, or earlier in
case the corpus luteum started to regress.
Sixteen cows out of 36 receiving 50 mg. of progesterone had normal embryos
at 34 days (44.4 per cent) as compared to 12 (33.3 per cent) in the control cows.
Of the 31 cows injected with 200 mg. of progesterone, 12 (38.7 per cent) had normal
embryos as compared to 8 (25.8 per cent) in the control animals. The differences
in the number of normal embryos between the treated and control cows in 50 mg.
trial (11.1 per cent) as well as in 200 mg. trial (12.9 per cent) were not statistically
significant. When the data of both the treated groups were combined and compared
with the controls, the differences were also not found significant.
The authors suggest that this study should be carried out on a large number of
cows in order to draw a definite conclusion. They are of the opinion that pro-
gesterone therapy may help in embryo survival in cows of lowered fertility. (S.N.C.)
Cooling cattle by mechanically increasing air movement. F. R. ITTNER, C. F. KELLY
and T. E. BOND. (1957). (University of California), J. Anim. Sci. 16 : 732-736
E ARLIER work by the same authors had shown that animals kept in wire
enclosures showed greater gains in body weight than those kept in wooden
enclosures. It was suspected that this difference was due to cooling by increased
air movement and hence the study was undertaken.
Beef steers were divided into lots of seven each and kept in identical wooden
enclosures, of which one was ventilated with a 42 in. barn-ventilating fan (17,000
c.f.m. capacity) during, 70-day periods in the summers of 1955 and 1956. The
summer of 1955 was exceptionally hot and humid (mean temperature and humidity
(80°F and 46 per cent respectively) while 1956 summer was particularly cool and dry
(68°F and 36 per cent). The fan caused winds with velocity of 325 f.p.m. in the
centre of the experimental per while the control pen recorded a velocity of 55 f.p.m.
in 1955. Measurements of wind velocities were not taken in 1956.
112
ABSTRACTS
It was observed that in 1955, the cattle gained 2.37 lb. per head per day in the
fan pen as against 1.29 in the controls. In 1956, the gains were 2.40 and 1.87
respectively. These differences were significant at 1 per cent level.
Four other more manageable animals were observed for the effect of air move-
ment on skin and body temperatures. Body temperatures were reduced by 1.35 to
0.05°F while skin temperatures were reduced by 5.8°F to 1.5°F.
The authors suggest that air movement causes convective cooling, possibly due
to evaporation of moisture, up to about 106°F. At higher air temperatures wind
causes convective heating. (P.G.N.)
The development of calves reared on varying amounts of whole milk. JANET
P. TIBBITS J. Agric. Sci. (1957). 49, 328-345
I NVESTIGATIONS have been reported on the influence of feeding varying
amounts of milk on the growth and development of body form of heifer calves.
Following the randomized block layout, 75 Shorthorn calves were divided into
three groups reared on 40, 65 and 90 gal. whole milk. Except for the milk allow-
ance, calves in all the three groups were fed and managed alike. The first two
groups received a gruel supplement to keep the total liquid allowance same in all
groups. It was found that the calves on the 40 gal. milk allowance were significantly
retarded, compared to both the other groups, from 2 months until one year. No
significant difference was noticed between the calves reared on the 65 and 90 gal.
milk allowances at any stage.
A second experiment consisted of four groups of 28 Shorthorn and 28 Friesian
calves reared on 35, 57, 79 and 100 gal. of milk. Instead of gruel, a dry meal was
allowed at varying ages. With regard to live-weight, a significant difference between
the treatments was found only between 13 and 23 weeks. Fifteen linear body
measurements showed even lesser differences between the four groups. A breed
effect was noticed between the groups, the Shorthorns showing greater differences
both in live-weight and most of the body measurements.
The results of both experiments indicated that increasing the milk allowance
above 57-60 gal. would not produce appreciably greater gains in live-weight (I.K.)
Effect of naturally occurring outbreak of New Castle disease on egg quality and
production. JOSEPH P. QUINN, A. W. BRANT and CLARENCE H. THOMPSON.
J. Poult. Sci. 35, No. 1-196, page 3-9
A flock of 149 early hatched White Leghorn pullets selected and bred for superior
albumen quality was affected with New Castle disease, but a similar lot of
62 late hatched pullets which were sisters and half sisters of the infected pullets and
REVIEWS
MERCK VETERINARY MANUAL
Published by Merck & Co., Inc. U. S. A., pp. 1347. Price $7.50
M ERCK Veterinary Manual was first published in 1955, and was reprinted in
1957. Its publication is stated to have been stimulated by the firm's " exten-
sive research and interest in veterinary science, as well as the wide and enthusiastic
reception accorded to the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy by the medical
and allied professions"
More than 200 contributors are said to have co-operated in the preparation of
this volume, " ensuring accuracy and completeness of all basic physiologic, pathologic,
and therapeutic information
Diagnosis and therapy are given primary emphasis
but pathology and epizootiology have not been neglected. Surgical procedures
are mentioned wherever indicated, but are not described". Though emphasis has
been placed on conditions occurring in North America, the almost encyclopaedic
information packed in this handy volume should prove very useful to students and
practitioners of veterinary medicine in all countries.
The book is divided into five main parts. Part I, which occupies the bulk of the
volume, deals with diseases and abnormalities of the various body systems and
tracts—digestive, respiratory, vascular, genito-urinary, muscule-skeletal, skin and
connective tissue, endocrine organs, and sense organs. In addition, there are
special chapters devoted to infectious diseases, with sections on sulphonamide
therapy and antibiotic therapy ; parasitic diseases ; metabolic disturbances ; diseases
caused by physical influences ; neoplasms ; allergy, photo-sensitisation, and urticaria,
and nutrition, nutritional requirements, and nutritional deficiencies of cattle, sheep,
swine, horses, dogs, fur-bearing animals, zoo animals, and poultry, including feeding
practices and composition of feed-stuffs.
Part II deals with toxicology, and contains sections on poisoning caused by
organic and inorganic substances, including plant poisons, toxic minerals, insecticides,
rodenticides, herbicides, botulism, fungal toxicoses, and snake bite.
Part III deals exclusively with viral, bacterial, mycotic, parasitic, and other
diseases of poultry. An independent chapter on poultry diseases is justified "because
of the special problems involved, and the place that poultry practice has gained in
veterinary medicine".
Part IV is devoted to the care, handling, and management of the fur and labora-
tory animals and caged birds and their diseases and disorders, and includes sections
on diseases of zoo animals and fish diseases.
Part V comprises the addendum, which contains sections on routine immunology
procedures, routes of medication, oxygen therapy, radiology, clinical laboratory
procedures, social behaviour of animals, collection and submission of specimens for
toxicological and histopathological examinations, meat inspection, examination
of animals prior to sale, and disposal of carcasses and disinfection of premises. It
also contains some ready reference tables and guides on normal body temperatures,
weights and measures, equivalents, and conversion formulae.
115
116
REVIEWS
At the end of each section is given a list of selected prescriptions, numbered for
convenience of reference in the text, covering standard pharmacopoeial drugs as
well as modern proprietory preparations representing not the preferences of the
editors but the recommendations of the various contributors. A brief fairly represen-
tative list of alternative proprietory preparations, grouped into general therapeutic
categories, is also provided in Part V.
The book includes an exhaustive subject index, which provides the convenience
of cross titling. The get-up is excellent and the publishers deserve to be
congratulated on their admirable effort to present to the profession such valuable
information in so well arranged and concise a volume. (R.N.M.)
THE ALIMENTARY TRACTS OF RUMINANTS
BY D. P. Benzie and A. T. Philipson. Published by Oliver and Boyed
Price: 27s. 6d.
T HIS book which is in fact a radiological atlas of the alimentary tract of the rum-
inants is probably the first of its kind ever to be published. It contains a large
number of radiographic reproductions (54 plates) of the movements of the stomach
of the small ruminants. Six kid goats, twelve lambs, six adult sheep and four
calves were used for recording the observations. Six other adult sheep of small size
were used for making cine-radiological film. These records illustrate the movements
of the compound stomach of the ruminant and the manner in which the food is
propelled through its various compartments. The object of using cine-radiography
was to take serial exposures so as to clearly record the movements of the stomach.
These records provide valuable information on the abdominal anatomy and physio-
logy of the ruminants. The use and the value of radiographic technique in studying
the movements of the alimentary tract of the ruminant has been fully illustrated.
It also indicates the necessity and desirability of careful training of the experimental
animals for radiological work in order to achieve successful results.
The publication of this book at a time, when the study of ruminant physiology,
is engaging the active attention of research workers the world over, seems rather
appropriate. It would be of immense help for research workers as well as teachers
interested in anatomy and physiology of the ruminants.
MGIPC—M—1 AR/58—24-1-59—1,300
GASTROENTERITIS IN YOUNG CALVES
I—SALMONELLA INFECTED CASES*
[ Received for publication on September 6, 1957
Accepted for publication on January 17, 1958]
By S. S. KHERA and M. E. DHANDA, Indian Veterinary Research Institute,
Mukteswar-Kumaon
T HE disease syndrome, affecting young calves, with diarrhoea as the main
feature, is responsible for a large number of early deaths in calves. The affection
is not limited to the digestive tract alone. In most cases, it is a general systematic
disease with chief manifestation of digestive disturbance and diarrhoea. In new-
born and a few days old calves the course of the disease is very severe, proving fatal
within a few hours or one or two days after the appearance of the symptoms. In
older calves the symptoms are usually milder and the course more protracted. In
the latter cases it is not uncommon to find the disease complicated with pulmonary
lesions, which may partially or sometimes completely obscure the primary disease
at necropsy.
Aetiologically, a good proportion of such cases may be due to infection with
Salmonella organisms. As early as 1893, Jensen [1893] incriminated an oval coli
form bacillus morphologically and culturally indistinguishable from Bact. coli.
By feeding cultures of this organism he was consistently able to reproduce the disease
in young calves, though Bact. coli., commonly found in the intestinal tract of normal
healthy calves, is known to be completely harmless. However, the author's descrip-
tion of this organism is not sufficient to clearly determine the true identity of the
organisms in the light of the present day knowledge. Thomassen [1897] of Hol-
land was probably the first to give fairly dependable description of "Gaertner like
organism" isolated by him from septicaemic disease of calves often associated with
diarrhoea. The organism failed to ferment lactose or to produce indol and was
named "Pseudo-typhoid bacillus" due to its similarity with Salmonella typhi. Poels
[1899] described this organism as "pseudo-coli bacillus". Later, in 1903 Jensen
[1913] introduced the name Bacillus paracoli for a similar calf pathogen in Denmark
and showed that this organism was serologically related to Gaertner's bacillus. Simi-
larly, the organisms studied by several other workers [Langer, 1904 ; Schmidt, 1908 ;
Miessner and Kohlstock, 1912 ; Christiansen, 1914 ; Meyer, Traum and Roadhouse,
1916, and others cited by Henning, 1953] isolated from outbreaks of a similar disease
in calves were regarded as belonging to the Gaertner group of Salmonellas. It
was only after White [1929] had differentiated Salmonella dublin from Salmonella
enteritidis serologically and had given it the status of an independent species that
the position was clarified. Six strains of Bacillus paracoli, isolated from cases of
calf disease in Denmark, and some other old laboratory strains labelled as Bact.
*This work was carried out with the financial support from the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research under the Research Fellowship Scheme.
117
15 AR/58
2
September, 1958]
S.
S.
KHER
AND
M.
R.
DHANDA
119
caused by Salm. dublin affecting 610 cases. The cause of spread was raw milk
from a tuberculin tested herd. Salm. dublin was isolated from the milk, udder and
the faeces of an affected cow. It has been observed [Field, 1948] that the adult
cattle, after a clinical recovery from salmonellosis, usually remain carriers and con-
tinue to discharge the organisms for an indefinite period. Under Indian conditions
where there is much closer association of livestock with human beings, both in rural
and urban areas, this should form an important source of infection and a potential
danger to human health more than anywhere else. It is quite likely that many
cases of this nature occurring in rural areas go unrecorded.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Source of material
Seventyfour cases of Salmonella infection described in this article were out of
a total of 191 examined at three places, namely, Government Milk Colony, Aarey,
Bombay ; Government Dairy Farm, Chakganjaria, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and the
Experimental Dairy Herd of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar-
Kumaon, Uttar Pradesh. The materials for bacteriological examination were
collected at necropsy. Though calves up to the age of three months were included
for study, the majority of the calves examined, i.e. 179 out of 191, were within one
month of age.
TABLE I
Source of material
Place
Government Milk Colony, Aarey, Bombay
Government Dairy Farm, Chakganjaria, Lucknow,
U.P.
Experimental Dairy Herd of Indian Veterinary Re-
search Institute, Mukteswar-Kumaon, U.P.
Total
Number of
buffalo
calves
177 (71)*
5 (2)
..
182 (73)
Number of
cow calves
..
3 (1)
6
9 (1)
Total
177 (71)
8 (3)
6
191 (74)
*The figures in parenthesis are of cases found positive for Salmonella infection.