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The aim of the study was to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of tramadol compared to butorphanol administered locally in ventral surface of the hind paw of rats. Prospective, randomized experimental study; twenty-one adult male Wistar rats were selected. Heart rate (beats minute-1), respiratory rate (breaths minute-1), and paw withdrawal latency (onset of radiant heat until paw withdrawal/seconds) were measured prior (T0) and after (T5, T10, T15, T20) intraplantar injection with saline solution 0,9% (group S), butorphanol 1 mg kg-1 (group B), and tramadol 1 mg kg-1 (group T). Shapiro-Wilk normality test and Friedman test were used to analyze the data expressed by median and range. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Statistical analysis of heart rate showed that there were significant differences between groups at different monitoring times. There were no significant differences in respiratory rate after intraplantar injection in any of the treatment groups. The paw withdrawal latency values at T5, T10, and T15 minutes after intraplantar injection in the group B were significantly higher compared to baseline value and to the values of the other groups. The paw withdrawal latency were no significant changes in the measurements of intragroup in S and T. Intraplantar administration of butorphanol provides a good analgesia and significantly increases paw withdrawal latency compared to tramadol. Intraplantar injection of butorphanol could be useful and safe and safe technique to achieve local analgesia for minor surgical procedures in rats.

We used physiological parameters and the duration and quality of anesthesia to compare the effects of two ambient temperatures and of the duration of pre-immobilization confinement on the chemical immobilization of fallow deer. We divided 45 free-ranging fallow deer ( Dama dama ) into two groups: Group A were deer captured in winter (average 12 C), using 1 mg/kg of xylazine and 1 mg/kg of tiletamine-zolazepam; and Group B were deer captured in spring (average 24 C), using 2 mg/kg of xylazine and 1.5 mg/kg of tiletamine-zolazepam, after being confined in a pen. We observed lower mean respiratory rate and oxygen saturation in Group B. In contrast, the mean body temperature and the mean blood lactate concentration were significantly higher in Group B, and quality of anesthesia was better in Group A. Mean induction time (time to achieve recumbency) and durations of recumbency were the same in Groups A and B: approximately 8 and 50 min, respectively. Despite the lower drug dosage, better sedation was obtained in Group A than in group B. The time of year, most likely associated with differences in ambient temperature and in confinement, influenced the recommended dosage for xylazine and tiletamine-zolazepam in fallow deer. As all the animals were sound, we concluded that the only factors that influenced the outcome of the present study were the ambient temperature and the level of stress caused by confinement in the pen.

We here describe turtle remains from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of Cessaniti (Calabria, southern Italy), an area that recently has been palaeogeographically reconstructed as being, at that time of the Neogene, directly connected (or at least rather proximate) to northern Africa, instead of Europe. The material pertains to three different turtle clades, i.e., pan-trionychids, pan-cheloniids, and pan-geoemydids. Although the material is incomplete, it nevertheless permits a more precise identification for the pan-trionychid specimens, which are referred to the species Trionyx pliocenicus, as well as the pan-geoemydid, which is attributed to the genus Mauremys. Especially for the case of T. pliocenicus, the new Cessaniti specimens expand its geographic and stratigraphic distribution and further comprise the sole existing material known for this species, considering that its holotype and so far only known material is currently lost. Overall, besides its taxonomic significance, the Cessaniti chelonian assemblage affords the potential for important biogeographic implications, attesting that the lineages of Trionyx and Mauremys could have potentially used the Sicily-Calabria arch for their dispersal from Europe to Africa during the Tortonian. The new turtle specimens further complement the associated mammal remains in envisaging the Cessaniti assemblage as a mosaic of both African and Eurasian (Pikermian) faunal elements.