Volatiles from Merino fleece evoke antennal and behavioural responses in the Australian sheep blow fly Lucilia cuprina.

To identify flystrike-related volatile compounds in wool from Merino sheep, the attractiveness of wool to Lucilia cuprina Wiedmann (Diptera: Calliphoridae) was examined. First, a selection of wool samples guided by previous knowledge of sheep lines, predicted to be more susceptible or more resistant to flystrike, was tested. The attractiveness of the 10 samples selected was not associated with field susceptibility: two samples from the more resistant line were identified as most attractive and two samples from the more susceptible line were identified as least attractive, based on the behavioural assays with gravid flies. Comparison of the headspace volatiles of these samples, using solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-electroantennographic detection, revealed octanal and nonanal to be present in the attractive wool samples that elicited responses from the fly antenna. Furthermore, the two compounds were not present in wool that was least attractive to L. cuprina. In laboratory bioassays, octanal and nonanal evoked antennal and behavioural responses in gravid L. cuprina, thus confirming their potential role as semiochemicals responsible for attracting L. cuprina to Merino sheep.

Water requirements for livestock production: a global perspective.

Water is a vital but poorly studied component of livestock production. It is estimated that livestock industries consume 8% of the global water supply, with most of that water being used for intensive, feed-based production. This study takes a broad perspective of livestock production as a component of the human food chain, and considers the efficiency of its water use. Global models are in the early stages of development and do not distinguish between developing and developed countries, or the production systems within them. However, preliminary indications are that, when protein production is adjusted for biological value in the human diet, no plant protein is significantly more efficient at using water than protein produced from eggs, and only soybean is more water efficient than milk and goat and chicken meat. In some regions, especially developing countries, animals are not used solely for food production but also provide draught power, fibre and fertiliser for crops. In addition, animals make use of crop by-products that would otherwise go to waste. The livestock sector is the fastest-growing agricultural sector, which has led to increasing industrialisation and, in some cases, reduced environmental constraints. In emerging economies, increasing involvement in livestock is related to improving rural wealth and increasing consumption of animal protein. Water usage for livestock production should be considered an integral part of agricultural water resource management, taking into account the type of production system (e.g. grain-fed or mixed crop-livestock) and scale (intensive or extensive), the species and breeds of livestock, and the social and cultural aspects of livestock farming in various countries.

Mitotic activity in cells of the wool follicle bulb.

Mitotic activity in the cells of the germinative region of wool follicle bulbs was quantified by using small (0.1-0.5 ml) intradermal doses of colchicine and selective staining of the metaphase-blocked nuclei using either crystal violet, iodine and eosin or haematoxylin and eosin. The number of metaphase nuclei present 3 h after colchicine administration increased with colchicine dose from 0 to 1 microgram and thereafter remained relatively constant up to 200 micrograms colchicine. The accumulation of metaphase nuclei was linear for up to 6 h after intradermal colchicine. The metaphase-blocking effect of intradermal colchicine was confined to a radius of less than 5 cm from the injection site, allowing a number of estimates of mitotic rates to be made over a small area of skin. Such estimates revealed little variation in mitotic activity over the midside region of the sheep, although there were substantial differences in follicle activity at different sites over the body. The technique is simple, allows serial or concurrent estimates of mitotic activity to be made in the same animal, and eliminates problems associated with intravenous colchicine administration. It was used to derive the relationship between follicle activity and fibre production after nutritional changes, and to define the time course of mitotic events after administration of the antimitotic defleecing agent cyclophosphamide.