Prevalences of feline leukaemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus infections in cats in Sydney.

OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalences of feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections in 'healthy' cats that, through acute misadventure or other circumstance, were presented to veterinary practitioners. Prevalences of FeLV and FIV in this population were compared to those in a population of predominantly sick cats. DESIGN AND PROCEDURES: Serum specimens were obtained over a 2-year period from 200 cats older than 1 year of age presented to veterinary clinics for routine procedures, including cat fight injuries or abscesses, vehicular trauma, neutering, dental scaling, vaccination, grooming or boarding. An additional 894 sera were obtained over approximately the same period from specimens submitted by veterinarians to a private clinical pathology laboratory, mainly from sick cars suspected of having immune dysfunction, but including some sera from healthy cats being screened prior to FeLV vaccination. FIV antibody and FeLV antigen were detected in samples using commercial enzyme immunoassays. RESULTS: Amongst 200 'healthy' cats, the prevalence of FeLV infection was 0 to 2%, and the prevalence of FIV was 6.5 to 7.5%, depending on the stringency of the criteria used to define positivity. FIV infection was significantly more prevalent in cats which resided in an inner city environment (P = 0.013). Of the 894 serum specimens submitted to the laboratory by practitioners, 11/761 (1.4%) were FeLV positive, while 148/711 (20.8%) were FIV positive. The prevalence of FIV was significantly higher in these predominantly 'sick' cats than in cats seen for routine veterinary procedures (P < 0.00001), while there was no difference in the prevalence of FeLV (P = 0.75) CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of FeLV and FIV in healthy cats may have been substantially overestimated in some previous Australian surveys. FeLV infection would appear to be a rare cause of disease in Australian cats. The higher prevalence of FIV positivity in sick as opposed to healthy cats infers that FIV infection contributes to the development of disease.

Use of predator odors to protect chick-peas from predation by laboratory and wild mice.

Synthetic stoat odor (3-propyl-1,2-dithiolane and 2-propylthietane) and fox fecal odor (2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline) at various concentrations were applied to chick-peas (Cicer arietinum) at sowing in an investigation aimed at reducing damage caused by house mice (Mus musculus). Stoat odor at 10% concentration exerted a measure of protection, as did 1% fox odor against predation by laboratory mice. Wild mice were less affected by synthetic predator odor and appeared to have a shorter memory for it. Laboratory mice cannot be regarded as surrogate wild mice, when used in experimental situations such as those employed here.

The relation of ego development to sex-stereotyping in caretakers' expectations for adolescents.

The investigators tested the hypothesis that the direction of the relationship between the level of ego development of adult caretakers and the degree of sex-stereotyping in their expectations for adolescents would vary as a function of the adolescents' level of ego maturity. Two groups of caretakers (counselors of an "immature group" of disturbed adolescents and parents of a "mature group" of undergraduates) participated in the study. In comparison to their conformist counterparts, the postconformist counselors were expected to make more sex-stereotyped goals for the disturbed adolescents; postconformist parents were expected to make less sex-stereotyped goals for the undergraduates. Hypotheses were confirmed for the counselors, but not for the parents. Both groups of caretakers seemed to consider developmental or life task factors in formulating goals for adolescents.