Subject(s)
Abnormalities, Drug-Induced/etiology , Organothiophosphorus Compounds/toxicity , Animals , Bone and Bones/abnormalities , Brain/abnormalities , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Female , Heart Defects, Congenital/chemically induced , Organothiophosphorus Compounds/administration & dosage , Pregnancy , RabbitsABSTRACT
Pregnant Belted Dutch rabbits were administered lynestrenol 17-alpha-ethynyl-oestr-4-en-17-beta-ol) orally on days 6-18 of gestation at doses of 0.1, 0.5, and 2.5 mg/kg/day. On day 29 of gestation the does were killed and autopsied and the fetuses were examined for external, visceral and skeletal abnormalities. Lynestrenol administration produced a statistically significant increase in the number of post-implantation loss (p = 0.05) and in the average per cent of abnormal fetuses per dose group (63%, 66%, and 87% for the medicated group, versus 12% for the placebo group, p = 0.05). None of the doses tested was lethal to the does, but the average weight gain was decreased for the medium and the high dose groups. Abnormalities of the central nervous system and skeletal variants were the most frequent findings in the fetuses.
Subject(s)
Lynestrenol/toxicity , Teratogens , Animals , Body Weight/drug effects , Female , Fetus/drug effects , Pregnancy , Rabbits , Reproduction/drug effectsABSTRACT
Screening of a rabbit breeding colony by the India-ink immunoreaction test revealed that 73% of the animals had antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi. The study also indicated the passive transmission of antibodies from infected dams to their offspring. Ninety-five percent of the rabbits born to seropositive dams had maternal antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi up to the age of 4 weeks with titers ranging from 1:25 to 1:800. After elimination of maternally transferred antibodies, about 50% of the young rabbits seroconverted; and from the age of 8--10 weeks, serum antibody titers over 1:800 were detectable. When these animals were tested again at 14 weeks, most of them had titers of 1:1600 or higher.
Subject(s)
Antibodies/analysis , Apicomplexa/immunology , Rabbits/immunology , AnimalsABSTRACT
The blood was collected on filter paper, dried, put into an envelope and posted to the laboratory. One drop of blood extracted with 1 ml PBS was satisfactory for detecting natural cases of encephalitozoonosis by the india-ink immunoreaction.
