Thirty-two of 3, 213 (0.996%) female Japanese Black calves from the same sire were found to have congenital ventral hernia. They were born in 1987 to 1991 in Miyagi Prefecture. The cases were considered to be due to recessive inheritance from their coefficient of inbreeding and chromosomal analysis. The hernia sacks were as large as a human head containing the intestines and were reducible in all cases. The defect of the ventral muscles from the umbilicus to the udder was triangular in form. Twenty-nine of 32 calves were surgically treated and 26 (90%) were successfully recovered. The remaining 3 cases were subjected to another surgical operation for the final recovery.

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Several weanling piglets reared in a piggery of Kagawa Prefecture showed bloody and watery diarrhea. Pathological examination on 3 of the piglets revealed fibrinous and hemorrhagic ceco-colitis with intramural infestation of many amoebic trophozoites measuring 13-18μm in diameter. The amoebas were stained positively with PAS, Heidenhein's iron hematoxylin, and immunostaining (PAP method) using specific antibody against Entamoeba histolytica. Ultrastructurally, the trophozoites contained many and large cytoplasmic vacuoles and numerous ribosomes in the absence of mitochondria and Golgi apparatus. Feces of sows and feeder pigs raised in the farm frequently contained many amoebic cysts, which multiplied and were serially passaged on Tanabe-Chiba medium. Some of the cysts had two or four nuclei. Indirect hemoagglutination reaction of sera from 39 sows and 16 feeder pigs of the farm demonstrated positive antibody titers (<160) in 3 sows (7.7%) and 6 feeder pigs (37.5%).

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The number of splenic antibody-forming cells was evaluated in mice given ascitic fluid from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) cases using the Jerne's plaque formation technique. In mice injected with normal feline serum and those with FIP ascitic fluid, the mean values of the response index (RI) were 92.2±26.6% and 49.9±21.1%, respectively. When an RI of 49.9% or less was considered as a positive, 10 of 13 (76.9%) samples from FIP cases and 1 of 12 (8.3%) samples of normal feline serum had positive effect. The suppressing factor in the FIP ascites was precipitated with 30%-saturation of ammonium sulfate, and its molecular weight was supposed to be smaller than 10, 000 Da.

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The skin, subcutaneous adipose tissue, tonsils and medial iliac lymph nodes of 305 apparently healthy slaughter pigs were examined for Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae. E, rhusiopathiae was isolated from 94 of 1, 220 (7.7%) tissue samples, from 74 of 305 (24.3%) pigs. The isolation rates from the skin, tonsils, medial iliac lymph nodes and subcutaneous adipose tissue were 14.1%, 7.9%, 6.6%, and 2.3%, respectively.

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Ninety-four isolates of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae from the skin, subcutaneous adipose tissue, tonsils and medial iliac lymph nodes of 74 Apparently Healthy slaughter pigs were examined for serotypes and susceptibility to antibiotics. Twenty-six (27.7%) and 24 (25.5%) isolates belonged to serotypes 2 and 5, respectively while 9 (9.6%) to serotype 6 and 5 (5.3%) to serotype 8. Four (4.3%) isolates each were grouped into serotype 1b and 17, and 3 (3.2%) each into serotype 3, 12 and 19. Two (2.1%) isolates were of serotype 9 or 11, and 1 (1.1%) each was of serotype 1a, 4 or 15. Six (6.4%) isolates were untypable. Of the 94 isolates 44 (46.8%) were resistant to tetracycline and 17 (18.1%) to streptomycin. Twelve isolates (12.8%) were resistant to both antibiotics.

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[in Japanese]

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