Dolphin morbilliviral infection from the Mediterranean Sea did not spread into the Adriatic Sea.

In July of 1990, a mass mortality of striped dolphins due to morbillivirus infection had begun in the western Mediterranean. By 1992, the infection had spread to the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Other dolphin species in the Mediterranean were not found to have died due to this infection, although it is possible for many species of marine mammals to be infected. In 1994, it was published that morbillivirus infection had caused Atlantic bottlenose dolphin mortality in the USA. Although striped dolphins are not residents of the Adriatic Sea, it was hypothesised that the infection could have spread from them to Adriatic bottlenose dolphins. From October 1990 through April 1997, 16 dolphin carcasses found along the Croatian Adriatic coast were examined. Tissues were examined by light microscopy for syncytia and inclusion bodies, histopathologic lesions characteristic of dolphin morbillivirus infection, and by detection of morbilliviral RNA by a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). No signs of morbillivirus infection were found in the examined animals. It was concluded that this infection had not spread to dolphins of the Adriatic Sea up until that date.

Histological and histochemical characteristics of the bovine notochord.

In 20 bovine embryos and fetuses 6-65 mm long (crown-rump length) and 23 to 60-70 days old, the structure and localization of acid and neutral mucopolysaccharides and glycogen in their notochord were investigated. Also, the localization in the notochord was examined of the activity of alkaline and acid phosphatases, alpha-glycerophosphate-, glucose-6-phosphate-, isocitrate-, glutamate-, lactate- and succinic- dehydrogenases, and nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide- and nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide-phosphate- diaphorases. It was found that the bovine notochord begins decomposing at the end of embryonal and the beginning of fetal development (45-50 days old) and that in the fetus aged 55-65 days it no longer represents an unbroken cord of notochordal cells. Secretory activity of notochordal cells which produce the notochordal sheath starts very early (in 10 mm-long embryos), and interruptedly increases up to the end of the embryonal developmental period when regression appears at the beginning of the fetal period. These findings agree with findings in the human embryo where, however, they relate to earlier developmental periods.

[Calcium hydroxide cements in an in vivo study]. / Kalcij-hidroksidni cement u pokusu in vivo.

Great caution is required when choosing materials coming into direct contact with pulpal tissue. The aim of this study was to assess the connective tissue tolerance to Cap-cap and Cinacal, clinically used for pulp capping, in experimental animals. On the basis of tissue reactions around implanted material specimens at intervals of 2, 14 and 28 days after application, the two materials were found to belong to a group of biocompatible materials. Marked infiltration with inflammatory cells around Cap-cap specimens during the first few days after injection pointed to irritative feature of the material as compared to Cinacal, possibly attributable to eugenol, a Cap-cap constitutive component.