Search

In attempts to achieve sustainability, ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management are becoming increasingly applicable. Indicators to assess the success of management measures are an important component of this approach. Data from a recreational linefishery are used to develop and propose a simple set of indicators to assess local fishery sustainability. The indicators have been organised within a framework based on the ecological, institutional and social sustainability domains and scored through a rapid assessment matrix. Results indicate that the estuarine, rock-and-surf (coastal) and skiboat-based fisheries in Plettenberg Bay on the south coast of South Africa are presently non-sustainable. The institutional domain had very low scores whereas the socio-economic domain had the highest scores. The validity and usefulness of the indicators as a tool for the development of local fishery management plans are discussed.

CASE HISTORY: Veterinarians from the Investigation and Diagnostic Centre (IDC), Wallaceville, New Zealand, investigated a novel vesicular disease in a 397-cow dairy herd, characterised by erosive stomatitis.CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS: The investigation commenced with a report of erosive stomatitis in four dairy cows. The herd was examined that day and 30/397 (8%) adult cows were found to be affected. Two weeks later, the oral cavity of 180 cows from one management group were re-examined, and it was estimated that 80% of this group had healing erosive lesions. During the course of the investigation, intact vesicles were observed on the muzzle of two affected animals. None of the affected animals was systemically ill and there was no decrease in milk production.DIAGNOSIS: No infectious aetiological agent was detected using virus isolation, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), electron microscopy (EM) and serological tests, for any exotic infectious vesicular disease or any endemic cause of vesicular disease.CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Lesions of erosive stomatitis occurring in cattle must be differentiated from vesicular disease during exotic disease investigations.

AbstractAIMS: To assess whether stoats (Mustela erminea) would eat small baits containing 0.1% sodium monofluoroacetate (1080); whether they would die from it; how long it would take to kill them; and to document the behaviour of 1080-intoxicated stoats.METHODS: Stoats were offered 1-g baits of two semi-fluid formulations containing 0.1% 1080, presented in open dishes, and their subsequent behaviour was monitored by video and direct observation. Muscle samples from stoats that died were analysed for 1080 residues.RESULTS: There was no significant difference between two types of bait with regard to acceptance, mortality, and time to death, and behavioural effects were similar; consequently, results from the two types of bait were combined. Twelve of 14 stoats offered the baits ate them voluntarily, and a 13th licked bait off its fur; all 13 died between 1 h 15 min and 4 h 7 min (mean 2 h 38 min) later. At first (range 29 min — 2 h 7 min, mean 1 h 1 min), their behaviour appeared to be normal. Ataxia and hyperactivity were the first behavioural signs of poisoning, and lasted 2 min — 1 h 40 min (mean 26 min). This was followed by recumbency with convulsions and rapid breathing (range 16 min to 2 h, mean 58 min), then recumbency with limited activity and progressively shallow breathing prior to death (range 1–51 min, mean 33 min). Stoats became non-responsive to a light being turned on, or to touch once recumbency became sustained.Residues of 1080 were found in muscle tissue of all 13 dead stoats, at concentrations ranging from 0.075 μg/g in a 287-g male that died 4 h 7 min after eating only 0.74 g of bait, to 2.5 μg/g in a 254-g female that died 2 h 42 min after taking a whole 1-g bait.CONCLUSION: Stoats will voluntarily take small (1-g) baits containing a lethal dose of 1080 at 0.1%, and die from it comparatively rapidly for a mammalian carnivore.

The concluding session of the symposium on Oocyte Donation held in Melbourne in November 1991 focused upon the practical aspects of an oocyte donation programme. A background is here provided to the many exogenous sex steroid replacement regimens and clinical management protocols employed by centres throughout Europe, the United States and Australia. The participants were asked to provide information about their own centres' protocols (Tables 1, 2 and 3). In addition, a panel considered a hypothetical request for oocyte donation. A summarized case history and the ensuing discussion concerning management is presented.

This paper reviews the results of oocyte donation programmes around the world. Data on 1608 cycles of ovum donation were received from 11 clinics and medical centres. Significance among and between groups of donors and recipients was also assessed.

AIM: To assess the prevalence of faecal excretion of Salmonella serovars by wild tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) on Stephens Island, New Zealand.METHODS: One hundred cloacal swabs obtained as part of health-screening for the translocation of adult tuatara from Stephens Island were subjected to general aerobic culture and enrichment, and cultured specifically for Salmonella spp.RESULTS: No Salmonella spp were cultured from any of the cloacal samples, which suggests that, at the 95% confidence interval, the maximum prevalence of tuatara in the island population that were shedding Salmonella spp not detected by our sample size was 1.5%. Mixed bacteria were grown from the 70 cloacal swabs cultured aerobically. A predominant organism was evident in 30 cultures, and these were identified as Hafnia alvei type 1 (n=16) and type 2 (n=7), Corynebacterium spp (n=4), Klebsiella oxytoca (n=2), and Moraxella spp (n=1).CONCLUSIONS: The absence of intestinal carriage of Salmonella spp by the tuatara sampled in this study may indicate either lack of exposure, or an innate resistance to intestinal colonization in tuatara. The significance of the other bacteria cultured as potential pathogens to the tuatara and as zoonotic risks is also uncertain. Wildlife managers should screen translocated reptiles for Salmonella spp, and thereby avoid exposing wild and managed populations to infection.

ExtractThe pathology of mycoplasmal gonitis in a Friesian cow aged 15 months, and polyarthritis in a 3-week-old East Friesian sheep was described.Both stifle joints of the cow, which was 1/63 calves that developed polyarthritis after being fed milk contaminated with Mycoplasma mycoides mycoides large colony type (MmmLC), were distended with yellow flocculent fluid. The capsular and synovial tissues and their associated tendon sheaths were greatly thickened due to chronic active fibrinopurulent inflammation with ulceration of synovial membranes and progressive organisation of the exudate by granulation tissue and fibrosis. Nodular aggregates of lymphocytes and plasma cells studded the membrane. Articular surfaces were unremarkable. Mycoides cluster organisms were demonstrated on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of the joint tissues and these were confirmed on culture as MmmLC.