This study describes an outbreak of Toxoplasma gondii abortions in a sheep herd in January/February 2010. An aborted fetus was submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for post mortem evaluation. Tissue samples were collected and processed by routine histological methods, stained by hematoxylin-eosin and by immunohistochemistry using anti-T. gondii and Neospora caninum specific antibod...

In pregnant sheep, maternal:fetal exchange occurs across placentomes composed of placental cotyledonary and uterine caruncular tissues. Recently, we reported that fetal weights of obese (OB) ewes [fed a diet of 150% of National Research Council (NRC) recommendations] were approximately 30% greater than those of control (C) ewes (fed a diet 100% of NRC recommendations) at midgestation (MG), but ...

In two experiments, 64 crossbred ewes that had lambed in September or January and had their lambs removed within 24 h after birth were assigned to four groups and given the following treatments: group 1 (16 ewes)-1 ml saline, im or iv on d 10 postpartum; group 2 (24 ewes)-150 microgram/gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) in 1 ml saline, im or iv on d 10 postpartum; group 3 (16 ewes)-150 micro...

1. The influence of maternal hypo- or hypermagnesaemia of foetal plasma magnesium levels was studied in pregnant ewes between the 120th and the 145th day of gestation using a permanent catheter inserted in utero into the left aorta of the foetus on the 115th day of gestation. 2. In seven ewes, carrying eleven foetuses, the injection of 1 alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol induced a hypomagnesaemia wh...

Ten non pregnant, non lactating Corriedale ewes ate an average of 148 g fuzzy whole cotton seed per sheep per day and their mean weight fell from 40.3 to 32.2 kg over an eight week period. Two of the sheep died. A similar group of ewes, offered a mixture of 227 g of cottonseed and 227 g of wheat per sheep per day, usually ate all the ration. At the end of an 18 week period, there were no signif...

A trial with 200 ewes and 127 lambs showed that vaccination of lambs with 2 doses of Oncosphere Secretory Antigen (OSA) 4 weeks apart, at either 4-8 and 8-12 weeks or at 12-16 and 16-20 weeks of age, was equally effective in protecting them against infestation with the larval stage of Taenia multiceps. In this trial, the lambs of ewes, vaccinated with OSA when they were 90 and again 120 days pr...