Records of performance and sanitary status from a dairy cattle herd in southern Brazil

Over the last decades, the emphasis on the health of dairy cows has changed from an individual to a herd level. In this scenario, the role played by the recording system and its interpretation by veterinarians has gained primordial importance. The records of productive and reproductive performance and of sanitary status from a southern Brazilian dairy cattle herd have been presented and discussed. The period of study was 2000-2009. Mean values per lactation period were 349D 8436M 290F 275P 201SCS (D: days in lactation, M: kg of milk yield, F: kg of fat, P: kg of protein and SCS: somatic cell score in 1000 cells/ml of milk). Major indexes of reproductive efficiency included age at first calving (31 months), services per conception (2.1), intercalving interval (428 days), calving to conception interval (146 days), mean annual rates of parturitions (76.2%), fetal losses (9.8-19.0%), and stillbirths (3.6%), apart of voluntary waiting period (94 days). Main information on sanitary status of the herd was associated with the mean prevalence of common disorders of dairy cattle such as anaplasmosis (29.8%), mastitis (27.8%), digital diseases (26.3%), ovarian cysts (21.3%), placental retention (19.7%), postpartum uterine infections (10.6%), and calf diarrhea (23.7%) and pneumonia (16.8%), among others. In addition, culling reasons (low reproductive performance [56.3%] and udder/mastitis problems [33.6%]), causes of cattle deaths (anaplasmosis [16.4%] and leukosis [11.4]), and the impact of cattle diseases such as tuberculosis, leukosis, and neosporosis on the herd have also been presented and succinctly discussed. Numbers between brackets represent rates accumulated in the 10-year period.

Primary bone neoplasms in dogs: 90 cases

A retrospective study of necropsy and biopsy cases of 90 primary bone tumors (89 malignant and one benign) in dogs received over a period of 22 years at the Laboratório de Patologia Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, was performed. Osteosarcoma was the most prevalent bone tumor, accounting for 86.7% of all malignant primary bone neoplasms diagnosed. Most cases occurred in dogs of large and giant breeds with ages between 6 and 10-years-old. The neoplasms involved mainly the appendicular skeleton, and were 3.5 times more prevalent in the forelimbs than in the hindlimbs. Osteoblastic osteosarcoma was the predominant histological subtype. Epidemiological and pathological findings of osteosarcomas are reported and discussed.