Pneumonia in cats caused by Pneumocystis carinii purified from mouse lungs

Fourteen mice trapped in or near houses were infected with Pneumocystis carinii and the establishment of pneumonia was helped by injecting with cortisone acetate for 6 weeks. Then 16 cats were infected with P. carinii by injection of lung homogenate from the mice which contained from 1.3 X 10(5) to 2.6 X 10(5) P. carinii cysts. The infection resulted in severe cough and tachypnea in Cats 1-8 injected with cortisone acetate, and a subclinical infection in Cats 9-16. In Cats 1-8, the main pathological finding was typical P. carinii pneumonia, but there only was slight swelling of the lungs in Cats 9-16.

Sexual behavior in a one-male unit of Rhinopithecus bieti in captivity

Data regarding the sexual behavior of black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) were collected in 1998 in a one-male unit in captivity by all-occurrences sampling during the mating season. Before the present study, little was known about the sexual behavior of this species. This study showed that female solicitation is mainly expressed as "prostration plus glancing laterally" (PG) or "sitting plus head moving up and down" (HM), and male solicitation is exhibited by the "grunt bared-teeth display." The mount-to-ejaculation ratio was 5.2 on average, and single-mount ejaculations (SMEs) were observed in only 4.4% of mounts on days with at least one ejaculation. Therefore, the main copulatory pattern of this species is multiple-mount ejaculation (MME). Females initiated 72% of 18 ejaculatory mounts. Females initiated more ejaculatory mounts than non-ejaculatory ones. In general, the patterns of sexual behavior in this species are similar to those reported for other Colobines. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Separation and purification of ovulation-inducing factors in the seminal plasma of the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus)

Ovulation in the Bactrian camel depends upon ovulation-inducing factors in the seminal plasma. The present study was conducted to isolate and purify the bioactive fractions from the seminal plasma of these camels. The seminal plasma was fractionated by anion-exchange chromatography, and six fractions were obtained. The bioactive potential of each fraction was estimated from its effect on rat pituitary tissue cultured in vitro and by the effect of an intramuscular injection of the fraction into female camels in vivo. Both the third fraction (F3) and the fifth fraction (F5) stimulated the release of LH in vitro and in vivo. In addition, female camels ovulated within 48 h after intramuscular injection of F3. However, neither F3 nor F5 had any significant effect on the secretion of FSH, either in vitro or in vivo. When F3 was further fractionated into four subfractions, the third subfraction (F3-3) still stimulated the in vitro release of LH, but not of FSH. An attempt to further purify the ovulation-inducing factors in F3-3 failed owing to the similarity of the molecular characters.

Ontogeny of IgM-producing cells in the mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi identified by in situ hybridisation

The ontogeny of IgM-producing cells was studied in juvenile mandarin fish Simperca chuatsi, an important fish in China's aquaculture sector. The IgM-producing cells were localised through in situ hybridisation with a probe complementary to the Ig mu-chain in lymphoid-related tissues, including head kidney, spleen, thymus, intestine and gills. In head kidney, transcripts of Ig mu were first detected at 20 days post-hatching (dph) with a few positive signals. and the number of IgM-producing cells increased obviously from 39 dph onwards. At 136 dph, a large amount of positive cells were observed in the entire organ with clusters of these cells located around the blood vessels. In spleen, IgM-producing cells were found from 26 dph onwards, followed by an increase until 67 dph: clusters of positive cells were also detected around blood vessels at 102 dph. In thymus, IgM-producing cells were first observed at 39 dph; thereafter, no obvious increase was detected until 78 dph. The positive cells in thymus were distributed mainly in the outer zone of thymus. A few IgM-producing cells were still observed in thymus of 1-year-old mandarin fish. IgM-producing cells were not detected in the intestine until 87 dph, with several discrete positively stained cells distributed in the lamina propria. IgM-producing cells, scattered mainly in primary gill filaments around blood vessels, were detected in gills from 90 dph. As in other teleosts, these results indicated that the head kidney appears to be the primary organ for IgM production in mandarin fish, and IgM-producing cells exist in all organs examined in the present study, implying their lymphoid role in fish. In addition, it is suggested that vaccination after 20 dph may be much more effective in mandarin fish. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.