vol. 10 núm. 20 (2014)

The native snail Megalobulimus oblongus, also known as guácara, criollo snail or caracol de boca rosada (pink-mouth snail), is a South American species of land snail found in Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela. It is about 100 mm high and 60 mm wide with a thick, pink apertural lip, four tentacles on the head, and big flaps on both sides of the oral region. It has nocturnal, detritivorous habits and can live up to 14 years. From a dietary point of view, it has important features that position it as a high quality nutritional source that could be a good food supplement for humans and animals. Additionally, it has great potential for cosmetic and craft industry. However, its existence is currently threatened by habitat destruction and removal of specimens from their natural settlements for illegal trade due to its similarity in size to the giant African snail. The aim of this essay is to appeal to the national scientific community to develop strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of this native snail through a deep study of its nutritional, cosmetic and craft potential.

Introduction: the nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (pcr)technique has been standardized for the diagnosis of porcine proliferative enteropathy caused by Lawsonia intracellularis. Methods: such technique was based upon amplifying a region of 270 pb of the 16s arnr gene of the Lawsonia intracellularis. For such purposes, adna sample was taken from the bacteria with a Purelink Genomic kit, Invitrogen ®, from 100 samples of porcine ileum of the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga (Santander). The dna samples were quantified with fluorometry and adjusted to 20 ng/μL concentration. The first amplification of the 319 pb part of the 16s gene was completed with the external initiators: 5’-tat ggc tgt caa aca ctc cg-3’ and 5’-tga agg tat tgg tat tct cc-3’. The result of this first amplification was used as a pattern for the second reaction, where the internal part of 270 pb of the 16s arn gene of L. intracellularis was amplified using the specific internal initiators: 5’- tta cag gtg aag tta ttg gg-3’ and 5’-ctt tct cat gtc cca taa gc-3’. The optimal conditions for the pcr for both internal and external initiators included 2,5 μm de mgcl2; 0,15 μm of each dntp; 1x of reaction buffer; 0,8 μm of each initiator; and 2,5u of Taq polymerase. As a positive control for the taken dna samples and the pcr, the bacterial dna taken from Enterisol ®(Boheringer Ingelheim®) was used. Results: optimal temperatures of annealing for the simple and nested pcr were 50 and 55°C, respectively. The detection limit of the technique was 5 fg. Conclusions: no cross reactions were found with Esquerichia coli, or with Salmonella typhimurium, which are bacteria with similar clinical conditions.

Introduction: the objective of this paper was to find a connection between cystic endometrial hyperplasia (ceh)-pyometra and polycystic ovaries through observation and macroscopic measurements of canine uterus in subjects with pyometra that underwent hysterectomy to solve the problem. Methods: such organs were obtained from two clinics in Bucaramanga. All the found variables were registered in Excel 2003 and analyzed with Epi Info 7, so as to develop an invariable descriptive statistics analysis, a contingency table and a Fisher’s exact test. The pyometra and ceh were correlated with polycystic ovaries (po). Statistically, there was no relation between such variables, (p> 0,05). Results : existence of ceh was 87.10% of the total cases in respect of the polycystic ovaries frequency, since only 32.26% was not found to be statistically related. Literature reports that the etiology of the ceh complex is caused by an increase in estrogenic hormones in the diestrus phase [1] and such hormone imbalance is in turn responsible for the development of polycystic ovaries. Conclusions: it would be thus appropriate to conduct studies with the hormone measurements in canine subjects with pyometra and verify the macroscopic findings of such cases.

In the daily clinic of small animals, it is very common to find cardiac pathologies, which are diagnosed using imageology examinations like radiology, electrocardiograms and echocardiography. However, in spite of the broad researches on such techniques, it is still hard to clearly make the patient’s prognosis and objectively evaluate such pathologies. There are even patients with hidden heart diseases that may not be observed in the clinical and imageology examinations. Therefore, new methods have been studied in the past years to quickly and effectively diagnose heart diseases. Such is the case of cardiac biomarkers, like troponins and natriuretic peptides, which are more frequently used in human and animal medicine to help make the diagnosis, prognosis and evolution of heart issues in a very precisely and specifically manner. This article is intended to update the concepts on cardiac biomarkers in heart diagnosis of cats and dogs.

Animal welfare has been a matter of concern through the past decades. Researches have proved it to be related to physical and psychological health of animals, and to production, reproduction and quality of livestock products. In this display that has caused some policies, standards and models, etc. to be created, the interest to provide good conditions for animals has been mainly based on economic and human use grounds. Based on this point of view, this article describes some important aspects to cause a critical position in the reader to encourage future discussion, which are less anthropocentric, about the primary production of livestock products.

Introduction: mites are microorganisms found in the common house dust, which in most cases cause respiratory and skin diseases. This has a significant impact on quality of life and turns this issue into a veterinary public health matter, given that house mites are potentially related to having pets. The general objective of this paper is to determine the amount of house mites/grams of dust in ninety homes in three areas of Bogota (Ciudad Bolivar, Rafael Uribe Uribe and San Cristobal). Methods: the methodology was based upon collecting samples by vacuuming mattresses, pillows and floors. Works were conducted in thirty houses in such areas, having a total of ninety families and 270 dust samples. Results: per family they were compiled in the stated form specifying the amount of dust mites per gram of dust. Then, the collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency. The most determinant species was found to be the Dermatophagoides pteronissynus with the highest percentage found in pillows (Ciudad Bolivar, 71. 32% ; Rafael Uribe Uribe, 69. 66%, and San Cristobal, 75%). However, mattresses and floors also showed a predominant percentage. Conclusions: the highest average of dust mites/grams of dust were found in the mattresses of Ciudad Bolivar (92.50) and San Cristobal (617.49), while Rafael Uribe Uribe showed to have the highest percentage on floors (36.59).