núm. 13 (2007)

The gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN), in domestic animals, especially in bovines are a very important factor that affects their productivity, because cattle production systems have intervened in the relationship between gastrointestinal parasites (PGI) and the host, breaking therefore the ecological balance between them. In many opportunities the development of parasitic populations have been favored or a parasitic population have been led to extinction, it has made that these populations express genes that would not express under normal conditions, favoring thus, resistance to medications that were made to their destruction. NGI are highly important in all cattle exploitations, but their inappropriate handling, mainly in the pharmacological aspect, has created vermifuge resistance by some parasitic populations. This article will determine the importance of the vermifuge resistance in cattle exploitations, as a factor of risk for the control of parasitic populations. The most important antihelmintic groups used in bovine are Benzimidazoles, Levamisol and Ivermectine and with these products resistance has been reported by parasitic populations such as in Haemochus contortus, Trichostrongylus. colubriformis, Ostertagia circumcicta, Ostertagia ostertagi. Different risk factors were classified in extrinsic (which don’t depend on the gastrointestinal parasite) and intrinsic (which depend directly on gastrointestinal parasites related with genetics) which occupy a great importance in the development of the vermifuge resistance.

The study was made to 12 purebred Arabian breed equines, two adult males and ten adult females, ranging from four to eleven years old. The animals were divided in two groups, with six equines each, thus making the GI and GII groups alike. They performed 3 weekly sessions of 45 minutes. On the first 45 days, the average speed was 13.9km/h and on the following 45 days, 15.7km/h. Each two weeks, an additional session was conducted, being this one in the GI with the same speed and duration as the others; in the GII, it was with a 4-hour duration, prevailing the walk gait. The animals performed three tests on a treadmill: before (non-trained) and after 45 days (1st phase) and 90 days (2nd phase) of training. The glucose values increased during the Test and later returned to the basal values six hours after the end of the exercise for both groups, presenting statistical difference between these, reaching higher values in the T maximum peak (T3) and at the end of the warm down (T4). Concerning to the plasmatic insulin values, these diminished drastically in the T3 of the ET in the G1 and G2 during the progressive advance of the physical effort test for both training groups, presenting statistical difference for each group and between groups. Finally, the cortisol levels were higher in the T3 of Test.

The following document arises from the study, reflection of the educational and professional practice of its authors, in order to socialize arguments, concepts and methodologies offered by the sciences of the behavior animal (among them the ethology), to the education of the students of farming sciences. This document also presents a bibliographical review of the main documents about ethology and animal welfare located in the library of the Universidad de La Salle.

The prevalence of Microfilaria spp in 266 human and non human primates of Colombian zoos located between 5 and 2850 meters over sea level (mosl) was of 6.39% (17/266). Most of them were adult males Saguinus leucopus, Saguinus oedipus, Saimiri sciureus and Aotus sp; corresponding to Matecaña, Santa Fe and Santacruz zoos, located between 1.001-2.000 mosl. The microfilarias species observed in this study are morphologically compatible with Dipetalonema perstans and Microfilaria bolivarensis, using direct drop technique, Woo, extended of central blood and capillary dyed with Giemsa and Knott, The most sensible technique was extended of central blood dyed with Giemsa. The statistical program used was Epi info 6.1, to determinate prevalence by sex, age, species, zoo, technique and altitude, with a significance level of (P = 0.05). The Saguinus leucopus showed high quantities of microfilaremias with sickness signs, so they were considered reservoirs and / or porter of the microfilarias.

Hemivertebra is a congenital malformation, that affects small and brachicephalic breeds particularly those with short and twisted tail. Its origin is hereditary. It becomes from an inappropriate or incomplete embryo development of a vertebrae or due to its vascularization or ossification. Hemivertebras are cuneiform vertebrae and its vertex may be lead dorsally, ventrally or medianly through the mean line. It happens mostly in thoracic vertebras. Symptomatology is varied; the most important is pain, showed by young animals, three or four months of age with weakness of posterior limbs. It could be found pain at back when palpations near the hemivertebra. In puppies with those symptoms, the paralysis in posterior limbs gets worse; they can show muscular atrophy, and no control of bladder and intestines. Final diagnostic of hemivertebra must be done with radiological studies of spinal column and the treatment consists in decompress the vertebral body involved and a stabilization of the spinal column. This study presents the case of a male Bulldog, six months old, which is taken to the clinic because of pain, and neurological symptomatology and after many clinical exams a hemivertebra was confirmed. The patient had a surgery for its treatment and all steps of the surgical process are shown.

The characteristics of a stem cell are determined by being undifferentiated, auto renewable, and because of having the capacity of generating cells for multiple cellular lineages, with the capacity to proliferate indefinitely in cultures. The origin of the stem cells can be embryonic (blastomers and cells of the internal mass of the blastocyst) or somatic (pluripotential cells from adult tissues). The source of the somatic stem cells is the bone marrow, in which the hematopoietic stem cells and the mesenchymals (MSCs) are found. Diverse studies in animal models have demonstrated that MSCs constitute a potential tool for the establishment of regenerative therapies in injured tissues. This article reviews the properties of the stem cells, their potentials, their advantages and limitations in several animal models.

Everyday decisions should be made either by the manager, the owner, or the professional advisor of the livestock business. The problem is not if decisions are made or not, but “how these decisions are made”, under what lens the problem was analyzed and what criteria and recommendations were generated for decision making. At the moment to face a problem, there are two possibilities, or the problem is tackled under a reductionism point of view (Classic) or under an integrationist point of view (General Systems Theory). In the first one, knowledge would be generated through the analysis of the parts in an isolated way and in the second one; knowledge would be generated through analysis of the interaction among parts. In this article reference is made on how to tackle the problems under the second point of view, as explains the General Systems Theory, exploring livestock in its complexity and multiple factors seen as a production system, focusing the analysis to the nutrition and reproduction subsystems and their interactions.

Pulmonary Abscess is the consequence of an inflammatory process delimitation on the lung, this illness is more common in young horses. On February 25 of 2006, was received at Large Animal Clinic of the National University of Colombia, a male horse, who was 5 years old, with the following symptoms: chronic cough, epistaxis, weight loss, jaundice and inflammation of limbs. The clinic exam found that the patient had a Pulmonary Abscess; for that reason it was started with antibiotic therapy (Rifampicina and Sulfa Trimetoprim) and AINES (Flunixin Meglumine). During that period of time the patient showed different alterations in other systems (Diarrhea, Laminitis and Phlebitis) which were treated and solved, before the patient leave de clinic.

This research was performed in four milking farms located at la Sabana de Bogotá. 78 animals were studied and divided in three age groups: cows, heifers and calves. The leptospira spp was diagnosed by the microagglutination – Lisis (MAT) method. A serological follow up was done for a year with nine samplings and L. hardjo, L. icterohaemorrhagiae, L. pomona, L. canicola y L. grippotyphosa, were evaluated with hepatic tests such as: Alanino amino transferasa (ALAT), Aspartato amino transferasa (ASAT); and renal tests such as: Ureic Nitrogen in Blood (BUN) and CREATININE. There were compared to records of productive variables like milk production and reproductive variables like the period of time between deliveries, open days and conception services. Prevalence of Leptospira spp found in bovines of four farms at Sabana de Bogotá was 31.74%. The highest prevalence during the study was 12.7% for serovar L. hardjo (90/711), regarding the farms the serovar with the highest prevalence was L. icterohaemorrhagiae in the farm with 29% (24/85). The age group number two (heifers) reported the highest prevalence to serovar L. icterohaemorrhagiae with 16.5% (20/127). There were no physilogical changes in age groups and farms in the following variables: ALAT with 20.452 U/L in average and CREATININE 1.2769 mg/dl in average, but there was a slightly decrease in BUN 12.934 mg/dl. There were some alterations in variable values: ASAT 108.96 U/L, 238.64 open days, Interval between deliveries 522.78 days, conception Services 2.56 and with the milk production, there is no a statistical relation during the samplings between serovares and milk production variable.