Age-related behavioural changes should be considered by practicing veterinarians because of their relative high prevalence among geriatric dogs, especially in females.

No abstract

A blight disease on fruits and foliage of wild and cultivated Solanum spp. was found to be associated with a new species of Phytophthora. The proposed novel species is named Phytophthora andina Adler & Flier, sp. nov. based on morphological characteristics, pathogenicity assays, mitochondrial DNA haplotyping, AFLP fingerprinting and nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence analyses. Isolates of P. andina (n = 48) from the Andean highland tropics of Ecuador were collected from 1995 to 2006. Phytophothora andina is closely related to P. infestans and has semipapillate, ellipsoidal sporangia borne on sympodially branched sporangiophores. It is heterothallic and produces amphigynous antheridia. The species consists of several clonal lineages, including the EC-2 and EC-3 RFLP lineages, which were described previously as P. infestans. Approximately 75% of isolates react as compatibility type A2 when paired with an A1 compatibility type isolate of P. infestans. However, when A2 isolates from the Anarrhichomenum section of Solanum were paired in all combinations, viable oospores were obtained in several crosses, suggesting that there is a unique compatibility interaction in P. andina that is complementary to that described in P. infestans. Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence analysis supported the species designation of P. andina. This newly identified heterothallic pathogen shares a common ancestor with P. infestans and may have arisen from hybridization events with sister taxa in the Andes.

The loading and unloading of cattle for road transport is stressful but the stress is difficult to evaluate in terms of the welfare of the cattle. Over one year, 40 normal commercial journeys in northern Spain were analysed in terms of time limits and behavioural events in order to design an objective method for assessing the stresses imposed on the animals, and a scoring method was developed for assessing the welfare of the animals during loading and unloading. Several definitions of time intervals were assessed to calculate a time score per animal, and easily observable behavioural events were scored and combined with the time score to obtain a total loading/unloading score. More than half of the loadings and unloadings involved turns, slips and vocalisations. Mounts and bouts of fighting were infrequent and balks and falls were significantly more frequent during loading than unloading. The plasma concentrations of cortisol, glucose and lactate, the activity of creatine kinase and the pH of the meat 24 hours after the animals were slaughtered were also measured. The results indicated that loading was more stressful than unloading and that higher scores implied significantly higher levels of stress.

A field study at three highland sites near Quito, Ecuador, was conducted to determine whether host-diversity effects on potato late blight would be as important as recently found in studies conducted in temperate areas. We compared three potato mixtures and use of mixtures in combination with different planting densities and two fungicide regimes. Treatment comparisons were made by absolute and relative measures of host-diversity effects and incorporating a truncated area under the disease progress curve as a means of standardizing comparisons across sites. Potato-faba intercrops consisting of only 10% potato provided an estimate of the effects of dilution of susceptible host tissue. Host-diversity effects were very different across study sites, with a large host-diversity effect for reduced disease only at the site most distant from commercial potato production. Planting density had little influence on host-diversity effects or on late blight in single-genotype stands. Fungicide use in combination with potato mixtures enhanced a host-diversity effect for reduced late blight. Potato-faba intercrops produced only a small decrease in potato late blight. Effects of host diversity on yield were variable, with the greatest increase in yield for mixtures treated with fungicides at the site most distant from commercial potato production. The effects of host diversity on late blight severity may be less consistent in the tropical highlands than in the temperate zone, but can contribute to integrated disease management.