The Phycodnaviridae: The Story of How Tiny Giants Rule the World

The family Phycodnaviridae encompasses a diverse and rapidly expanding collection of large icosahedral, dsDNA viruses that infect algae. These lytic and lysogenic viruses have genomes ranging from 160 to 560 kb. The family consists of six genera based initially on host range and supported by sequence comparisons. The family is monophyletic with branches for each genus, but the phycodnaviruses have evolutionary roots that connect them with several other families of large DNA viruses, referred to as the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV).The phycodnaviruses have diverse genome structures, some with large regions of noncoding sequence and others with regions of ssDNA. The genomes of members in three genera in the Phycodnaviridae have been sequenced. The genome analyses have revealed more than 1000 unique genes, with only 14 homologous genes in common among the three genera of phycodnaviruses sequenced to date. Thus, their gene diversity far exceeds the number of so-called core genes. Not much is known about the replication of these viruses, but the consequences of these infections on phytoplankton have global affects, including influencing geochemical cycling and weather patterns.

EC28-234 Nebraska System for Tattooing Hogs for Identification after Slaughter

A plan to identify the individual farm upon which hogs reaching markets are produced has been developed in connection with the efforts toward eradicating tuberculosis among farm animals. While primarily intended as a means of tracing back to determine sources of disease infection, the system of tattooing which is being developed has other significant possibilities. With the growing emphasis on quality products in the market, it is only fair that the producers of high quality commodities receive the premiums paid by processors and consumers. Health of farm animals is a quality factor. The producer of healthy hogs should be rewarded. Likewise, the producer of diseased hogs profits from knowledge that his animals are infected and can institute efforts to control that source fo loss. This 1928 extension circular covers what each letter of a tattoo stands for, where it is to be placed on an animal, and material used in tattooing.

Book Review of Stone by Stone: Exploring Ancient Sites on the Canadian Plains by Liz Bryan

Liz Bryan begins her book with a description of the Canadian Plains:" . .. a voluptuous landscape of hills and valleys and plains, of lakes and tiny twinkling potholes, of flower-filled coulees and vast sand dunes." Her emphasis throughout on the landscape of southern Saskatchewan and Alberta is necessary since the ancient monuments she describes only truly resonate within this setting. Indeed, almost every page of this attractive book is adorned with at least two color images-of scenery, stone features, artifacts, and aboriginal events. She then proceeds to an eclectic overview of the archaeological record of the Plains of Saskatchewan and Alberta, including the earliest human evidence, such as the Clovis points from the Wally's Beach site, Alberta, where the trackways of mammoths, camels, and muskoxen were miraculously and briefly exposed in the late 1990s. There is one perplexing error, however-the attribution of the extinction of the ice age bestiary, about 12,000 years ago, to the meteorite that felled the dinosaurs!

Evaluation of a New Strategy for Control of Bovine Tuberculosis in Michigan White-Tailed Deer: Year 1 Progress Report

The State of Michigan is striving to eliminate bovine tuberculosis (Tb) infection among free-ranging white-tailed deer in the northeastern Lower Peninsula of the state. Aggressive reduction in the overall deer population abundance may help to further reduce TB prevalence, but this course of action is unacceptable to many hunters and landowners. Targeted culling of sick deer would likely be far more acceptable to these stakeholders, so in the winter of 2003 the Michigan Department of Natural Resources pilot-trialed a new strategy based on live-trapping and Tb-testing of wild deer. The field study was conducted in a township with relatively high TB prevalence within Deer Management Unit 452 in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. Over a 2-month trapping period, 119 individual deer were live-trapped, blood sampled, fitted with a radio-collar, and released. A total of 31 of these deer were subsequently classified as Tb-suspect by at least one of five blood tests employed (however there was a low level of agreement among tests). A delay in testing meant that only six of these suspect deer were culled by sharpshooters before pre-programmed release of their radio-collars, after which they could no longer be located. Mycobacterium bovis was cultured from one of these six suspect deer; the other five were negative on culture. All target deer were located to within shooting range with 1 – 2 days of effort, and all the radio-collars on the apparently-healthy deer dropped off after the intended 90-day interval, and were thereafter recovered for re-use. There was considerable support for this pilot project among hunters, farmers, state and federal agriculture agencies, the media and the general public, and so we recommend that further field trials be undertaken using this technique. The initial focus of these trials should be on improving the efficacy and reliability of the blood testing procedure.