Wheeze is one of the most prevalent symptoms in preschool children with huge impacts on children and their families, on healthcare utilisation and hence costs [1]. While most children will become asymptomatic by 5–6 years of age, some will develop asthma or, even more importantly, severe problematic asthma and/or will experience an accelerated decline in lung function. Several studies have show...

It is difficult to be taken seriously when writing in the academic press about ‘love’ in relation to academic work. In response to a chapter entitled Intellectual love and the link between teaching and research (Rowland 2005), a reviewer commented ‘Rowland... highlights the role of ‘intellectual love’ (I kid you not) as the motivator for academic inquiry’ (Tight 2006 italics added). Why might a...

A newly developed technique for trans-cervical deep uterine insemination of goats is described. An experiment was conducted to compare this transcervical method with the laparoscopic intrauterine insemination using frozen-thawed semen. Of the 46 primiparous and 21 multiparous estrus-synchronized Boer goat does inseminated transcervically, 71% (22/31) kidded compared with 53% (19/36) of does ins...

A total of 65 Nubian dairy goats were selected to represent a combination of age and physiological status. Changes in some plasma concentrations underlying different physiological states were monitored. There were young and adult animals, pregnant animals, all with more than 50 days after kidding, divided into subgroups according to gestation, first, second or third pregnancy. Lactating animals...

Lactation curves are a graphical representation of the milk production profile of a doe from parturition to drying up. Their shape provides information about the productivity of the doe and offers a means of explaining features of the milk production patterns of each animal. A total of 2732 daily morning milk records from 610 does of the Kenyan Alpine dairy goats’ genetic groups (50% Alpine, 75...