A survey was conducted of the prevalence of environmental pathogens, especially Streptococcus uberis, as causes of clinical mastitis in dairy cows. The response of intramammary infections with S uberis to conventional treatment was monitored by taking milk samples for bacteriology and somatic cell counting seven, 14 and 21 days after the treatment. The results showed that 51 per cent of the infections failed to respond, and the odds of cases failing to respond was significantly increased when the individual quarter somatic cell count seven days after the treatment was greater than 201,000 cells/ml. Ninety-six per cent of the suspected S uberis isolates identified by culture were confirmed as S uberis by using the api 20 Strep system. Restriction endonuclease fingerprinting was used to type the strains of S uberis isolated from 75 milk samples from 32 cows. Analysis showed that 96 per cent of the cases of S uberis that failed to respond to conventional treatment were persistent infections with one strain rather than reinfections with different strains. The persistent cases of S uberis were treated further with an extended course of intramammary preparations containing either procaine penicillin with dihydrostreptomycin or cefquinome. There was no significant difference between the cure rates achieved by the two preparations, and 55 per cent of the cases that had failed to respond to conventional treatment responded to the additional treatment.

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Hypomagnesaemic tetany and composition ofbody fluids. Use of vitreous for the postmortem diagnosis of hypomagnesaemia. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie Sklodowska. Sectio DD, Medicina Veterinaria 51, 179-198 TODD, J. R. (1965) The influences of soil type on the effectiveness of single dressings of magnesia in raising pasture magnesium content and in controlling hypomagnesaemia.

Signs of ascites were observed in only nine of 1863 cattle examined over a period of five years. The ascites was most commonly associated with either primary or secondary cardiac disease; cattle with ascites have a poor prognosis because the condition is usually assocaited with terminal disease. Two animals had cor pulmonale with chronic pneumonia, three had cardiomyopathy, one had bacterial endocarditis, two had thrombosis of the caudal vena cava and one had diffuse abdominal epithelioid mesothelioma.

Characterization of mycoplasmas by PCR and sequence analysis with universal 16S rDNA primers. In Mycoplasma Protocols. Eds R. Miles, R. Nicholas. Towota, Humana Press. pp 145-165 NOUGAYREDE, P., PERRIN, G. & ANDRAL, B. (1985) Apport du laboratoire pour le depistage des mycoplasmoses majeures de la dinde. Poitnt Veterinaire 88, 127-139 SHIMIZU, T., ERN0, H. & NAGATOMO, H. (I1978) Isolation and characterization of Mycoplasma columbinum and Mycoplasnma columborale, two new species from pigeons.