W. J. Hartley

Toxoplasmosis as a cause of ovine perinatal mortality

Abstract Extract An earlier paper by Hartley et al, (1954) described a hitherto unrecognized disease affecting ovine foetal membranes which was given the interim name of New Zealand Type II Abortion. The multiple small necrotic foci in the foetal cotyledons that characterized this condition were invariably associated in tissue sections with clumps of organisms that were indistinguishable from Toxoplasma. The early efforts to culture the presumed Toxoplasma in mice proved unsuccessful, and transmission to pregnant ewes was inconclusive. The present paper records the successful transmission of this disease and the isolation of Toxoplasma.

A focal symmetrical encephalomalacia of lambs

Abstract Extract This paper was prompted by the observation of a wide variety of neurological signs in a number of young lambs, the brains of which showed a similar distribution of malacie lesions.

Perinatal disease conditions of sheep in New Zealand

Abstract Extract A previous paper (Hartley and Boyes, 1964) reports investigations carried out in New Zealand to ascertain the incidence of the major causes of ovine perinatal mortality. The present paper describes the disease entities encountered in the several thousand lambs autopsied at Wallaceville in the period 1951–1962. Some of these conditions have been reported before and will be reviewed, others are recorded here for the first time.

Muscular dystrophy in New Zealand livestock

Abstract Extract Muscular dystrophy can be briefly described as a non-inflammatory degeneration or necrosis of skeletal musculature, cardiac musculature, or of both. This type of lesion is characteristically seen in several species of animals kept on diets deficient in Vitamin E and, for this reason, field outbreaks of muscular dystrophy in livestock are widely considered to be associated with Vitamin E deficiency.

A specific suppurative epididymitis of rams

Abstract Extract There are very few reports in the literature of suppurative lesions of the scrotal contents of rams; in fact, we have seen only one reference (Jamieson and Soltys, 1947) in which a suppurative epididymo-orchitis caused by Pasteurella pseudotuberculosis is described. It is therefore of interest to record our preliminary observations on a specific suppurative disease of the epididymis and adjacent structures of ram hoggets.

Some observations on natural transmission of ovine brucellosis.

Abstract Extract The observations of Crawford (1949) in the Gisborne district of N.Z. have shown that pathological lesions of the testes and epididymes were encountered in 10 per cent. of a large number of rams examined by scrotal palpation. From rams forwarded to Wallaceville, McFarlane et al. (1952b) isolated the causal organism both from affected genitalia and from semen. A morphologically similar organism was demonstrated in diseased foetal membranes of ewes by McFarlane et al. (1952a). Buddie and Boyes (1953) were able to establish the identity of the organism from rams and ewes as a possible mutant of Brucella melitensis.

Selenium and animal health

Abstract Extract Unthriftiness in both weaned and unweaned lambs is probably the most important cause of economic loss in the New Zealand sheep industry. Although some of this unthriftiness is directly associated with under-feeding, most of it occurs in lambs grazing on abundant pasture which is presumed to be highly nutritious. Known causes of unthriftiness in lambs on this kind of pasture are cobalt deficiency and internal parasitism. However, it is commonly accepted that these account for only a part of the unthriftiness experienced.

The artificial infection of sheep with a brucella-like organism: Part I: the artificial infection of ewes part II: the artificial infection of rams

Abstract Extract A previous paper by McFarlane et al. (1952a ) has recorded the presence in New Zealand of a type of abortion in sheep due to infection by a weakly acid-fast Gram-negative bacillus, and characterized pathologically by widespread lesions in the foetal membranes. It was later shown (McFarlane et al., 1952b ) that a morphologically similar organism is associated with lesions in the genitalia of the ram. Successful experimental transmission has been reported from ram to ram and from ram to ewe using suspensions of organisms obtained from naturally occurring cases of the epididymitis complex in rams (N..Z Dept. Agric., 1951–52, and McFarlane et al., 1952b ). The detailed bacteriology of this organism has been studied by Buddle and Boyes (1953), who showed that the organism obtained from infected ram genitalia is identical with that obtained from infected foetal membranes.Extract A previous paper by McFarlane et al. (1952a ) has recorded the presence in New Zealand of a type of abortion in sheep due to infection by a weakly acid-fast Gram-negative bacillus, and characterized pathologically by widespread lesions in the foetal membranes. It was later shown (McFarlane et al., 1952b ) that a morphologically similar organism is associated with lesions in the genitalia of the ram. Successful experimental transmission has been reported from ram to ram and from ram to ewe using suspensions of organisms obtained from naturally occurring cases of the epididymitis complex in rams (N..Z Dept. Agric., 1951–52, and McFarlane et al., 1952b ). The detailed bacteriology of this organism has been studied by Buddle and Boyes (1953), who showed that the organism obtained from infected ram genitalia is identical with that obtained from infected foetal membranes.

Nutritional siderosis in the bovine.

Abstract Extract Since 1955, a specific entity characterized by siderosis and osteoporosis has been recognized in beef cattle at slaughter from one property. This paperdescribes the preliminary observations.

Pathology of brucellosis in rams in New Zealand

Abstract Extract Epididymitis as a clinical entity has been reported in this country by Crawford (1948, 1949). He showed, by scrotal palpation, that many of the 10 per cent of rams he classified as probable poor breeders were affected with this condition.