Dear Editor, The percentage of multiple births has increased over the past 3 decades, primarily as a result of advanced maternal age, the greater use and success of assisted reproductive technologies. The incidence of foetal malformations is higher in multifoetal pregnancies compared to singletons.1 In dizygotic (DZ) twins, there is essentially more than twice the risk per pregnancy (independen...

Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus are parasitic, flagellated protists that inhabit the urogenital tract of humans and bovines, respectively. T. vaginalis causes the most prevalent non-viral sexually transmitted disease worldwide and has been associated with an increased risk for human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection in humans. Infections by T. foetus cause significant losses to...

Genetic studies in the Lepidoptera Many of you will know that my interest in human genetics derived from breeding butterflies, and it was the phenomenon of mimicry in these insects which caused my colleague P. M. Sheppard and myself to become interested in the Rhesus blood groups, and through them in the general subject of blood group incompatibility between mother and foetus. Because the conne...

The association between maternal rubella infection in the first trimester ofpregnancy and congenital malformations of the infant is well recognized. In the case of other virus infections of early pregnancy, the relation is less certain, and though suspicion has been attached to certain viruses, particularly mumps (Ylinen and Jarvinen, 1953) and influenza (Coffey and Jessop, 1959, 1963), some se...

BACKGROUND Pregnancy testing in cattle is commonly invasive requiring manual rectal palpation of the reproductive tract that presents risks to the operator and pregnancy. Alternative non-invasive tests have been developed but have not gained popularity due to poor specificity, sensitivity and the inconvenience of sample handling. Our aim is to present the pilot study and proof of concept of a n...

An aborted female Holstein foetus with marked generalized anasarca was referred to the Excellence Centre for Ruminant Abortion and Neonatal Mortality, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. On postmortem examination, red-tinged ascites, pale and firm liver with extreme irregularity and numerous round to oval slightly raised foci on the capsular surface were seen. Histological examination revealed wide...

Retrospective data from Sebele Dairy Farm were analysed for reproductive performance of Friesian/Holstein cows. Three hundred records from 1989 to 1995 were used. The herd was zero grazed and the data was analysed for age at first calving (AFC), calf birth weights (BW), calving interval (CI), days open (DO), calving rate (CR), reproductive wastage (RW) and calving difficulty (CD); dystocia, aft...

In Chapter 4 of The Ethics of Killing, ‘Beginnings’, Jeff McMahan provides an extraordinarily rich and illuminating account of the complex interplay of interests in abortion. My interest is in seeing whether his account can shed light on one of the more vexing problems about abortion in moral philosophy and public policy; one that divides proponents of a woman’s right to choose. Most who suppor...