From 2004 until 2016, 21 Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) have died for unknown reason at Zoo Duisburg. These deer, also known as milu, have succumbed from a myopathy that occurred seasonally in autumn and in spring. The clinical signs shown by the animals closely resembles those of a disease called equine atypical myopathy (EAM), which is formerly known in horses. The cause for EAM in Europe was found in the ingestion of hypoglycin A, contained in samaras and seedlings of the sycamore maple tree (Acer pseudoplatanus). To test the hypothesis that the mortality of milus was caused by ingestion of hypoglycin A, 79 sera from all zoos and wildlife parks that have kept milus in Germany and Austria, including 19 diseased and 60 healthy animals, were used. Selected biochemical values and additionally hypoglycin A, methylenecyclopropyl acetic acid-carnitine (MCPA-carnitine), and acylcarnitines, which have been found in horses suffering from EAM, were determined. The results showed greater values of serum activities of creatine kinase (P < 0.001) and aspartate aminotransferase (P < 0.001) in diseased milus comparing to healthy ones confirming a myopathy in affected animals. Moreover, hypoglycin A and MCPA-carnitine were found in the blood of Père David's deer and thus, hypoglycin A intoxication was considered to be a potential cause for the myopathies by ingestion of sycamore maple samaras that were present in the enclosure of the affected animals. Hypoglycin A values were greater in diseased animals (P < 0.01) as well as MCPA-carnitine levels (P < 0.05). Additionally, affected milus showed greater C5-OH-carnitine (P < 0.01) and C6-carnitine (P < 0.001) values. Until now hypoglycin A intoxication was only known in the family of Equidae, in humans, and in laboratory rats, and it has not been previously described in other zoological families. Comparing to horses, ruminants do have a different digestive tract and it will need further investigation to find out if several factors are involved to trigger an outbreak in ruminants.

Hematologic and serum biochemical values were determined for 26 (16 males and 10 females) clinically healthy captive fossas (Cryptoprocta ferox) living at Zoo Duisburg, Germany. The animals were net-restrained and anesthetized with ketamine and medetomidine for a general examination. A total of 11 animals were classified as subadult (1-3 yr of age) and 15 as adult (aged between 4 and 13 yr). The results include reference intervals and analysis of sex and age differences. Levels of inorganic phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, glutamate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and calcium were significantly higher in the subadult group. The white blood cell count and red blood cell count were significantly lower in the adult group than among the subadult group.

On February 18th 2012 the referendum on the Draft Law ‘Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia’ took place in Latvia. Its purpose was to decide whether or not the Russian language should be made the second official language of the Republic of Latvia. But this referendum was just the preliminary climax in a chain of events that exposed the relations between the ethnic Latvian and the ethnic Russian parts of Latvian society. The burden of historical events concerning the loss of Latvia's independence after World War II and its as-similation in the Sowjet Union including deportations and the repression of the Latvian national identity still effects the relations between Latvia’s citizens, especially when it comes to political decisions. This article gives an overview over the chain of events leading to the referendum including observations about the perticular importance of language in terms of national identity. The main focus, however, will be on the analysis of relations between ethnic Latvians and ethnic Russians based on Niklas Luhmann's concept of trust. Mistrust as the downside of trust is constitutive for many parts of Latvian public life, which is widely discussed in all social sectors and even passed on through the generations. Considering the trust issues within Latvian society severe consequences for everyday life can be detected: long-term stereotypes and prejudice between the ethnic groups. In this article the kind and content of the stereotypes and prejudices are named and analyzed. This leads to the question, if it is even necessary to use Erving Goffmans concept of stigma to describe the relations.

The paper deals with the problems of definition, correlation and synthesis of two text types: announcement and annotation. The main goal of this article is to postulate they have enough similar features to be combined in one text type. The examination of the relationship between different types of text is one of the most current research topics in the European linguistic literature, to which more and more studies draw the attention. However, the empirical research is still rarely carried out. In this paper, announcement and annotation have been examined on common and different features of both speech genres with a view to a correlation of these genres. After the synthesis of two text types, the authors determined their common traits which evidence these genres consistency. After all, the suggestion was made to integrate the definitions of announcement and annotation texts into one definition: announcementannotation texts (or annotexts). Although this postulate needs to be modified and supplemented in view of text types selected for analysis, it is a good starting point for further research.