We isolated 41 lactic acid bacterial strain from the feces of 6 Japanese brown calves and 6 Japanese black calves that were raised by nursing and mother/child separation techniques, respectively. Of the 41 lactic acid bacterial strains 28 were isolated from the Japanese black calves and 16 from the Japanese brown calves. The Lactobacillus strains were identified and compared on the basis of their biochemical characteristics, and the homology of the 500bp 16S rDNA sequence with that in the Lactobacillus strains was assessed using the International Nucleotide Sequence Database. Accordingly, 5 strains of Lactobacillus (L. fermentum,, L. reuteri,, L. salivarius, L. saerimneri, and L. amylovorus), and 2 Pediococcus strains (Pediococcus acidilactici, and P. pentosaceus) were isolated from the calves raised by nursing. In contrast, 4 Lactobacillus strains (L. salivarius, L. mucosae, L. reuteri, and L. oris strains) were isolated from calves raised by mother-child separation. The L. fermentum, L. saerimneri, L. amylovorus, P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus strains, were isolated only from the calves raised by nursing, therefore, their mothers were thought to play an important role in the transmission of these strains. This was possible because of the high chances of contact between the mother and calf. Jong et al., (1999) reported that the L. amylovorus IMC-1 strain, isolated by Mutsu, et al., had antibiotic properties. The r-8 culture (L. amylovorus kumamoto [=JCM14931]) isolated from calves raised by nursing was centrifuged, and the supernatant was observed to significantly suppress the proliferation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (P<0.01). These results indicated that the r-8 strain could be a lactic acid bacterial strain that prevents bacterial infection in the intestinal tract of calves. We assume that the administration of the r-8 strain can prevent pathogenic entero bacterial infection in calves.

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Recently, the number of collisions between large mammals and trains has increased in Japan. It is therefore important to identify factors that might influence the likelihood of collisions and to develop possible remedial measures. Here, we have analyzed data on collisions involving trains and three species of large mammal, namely, Sika deer, Japanese serow and Asian black bear, in the North Tohoku region. These data were collected by the administrators of the East Japan Railway Morioka between 1999 and 2003. Approximately 90% of the accidents involved serow (about 40〜70%) and deer (about 30〜50%); collisions with bears accounted for less than 10% of the accidents. Collisions with deer peaked in June and October, those with serow showed a single peak in July, and those with bears increased from early summer to September and then decreased. The number of collisions appeared to correlate with population distributions and densities of the various species. Many of the collisions occurred just before sunrize and after sunset. From the results of our analyses, it is clear that effective measures to prevent accidents are required at daybreak and in the evening from May to November.

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