Survey for hydatidosis in cattle bred in the northern region of the Northern Territory of Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether hydatidosis occurs in cattle bred in the northern region of the Northern Territory. DESIGN: A survey utilising two stage sampling was designed to provide 95% confidence of detecting hydatids in cattle with a herd prevalence of 10% and animal prevalence of 10%. PROCEDURE: For a 1 year abattoir killing season, lesions from the liver and/or lung were collected from 4348 cattle being slaughtered at a Northern Territory abattoir and examined for hydatid cysts. The origin of cattle was established through identification of the brand. RESULTS: Sample sizes of 41 or more Northern Territory bred cattle were achieved for each of 29 properties. No hydatid cysts were found in cattle bred in the northern region of the Northern Territory. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that a cycle of hydatid transmission does not occur in the northern region of the Northern Territory.

Electrical stimulation of post-mortem glycolysis in the Semitendinosus muscle of sheep.

Changes in pH and phosphorylase a content in control and electrically stimulated Semitendinosus muscles of sheep were studied. The results provided evidence of acceleration of glycolysis during slaughter and sampling. In muscle electrically stimulated soon after slaughter there was a transient increase in phosphorylase a during stimulation. The magnitude of this increase and of the fall in pH during stimulation both depended on the pH of the muscle at the time of stimulation and reduced to zero when this pH was about 6·3. There was little or no phosphorylase a in samples of muscle taken about 35 min post mortem or, at any time, in muscle electrically stimulated about 35 min post mortem. Possible reasons for the transient nature of the increase in phosphorylase a content during stimulation are discussed.