Articles: animals.
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The distinction between venomous, potentially dangerous snakes and snakes considered to be harmless to humans is not always clear. A man was bitten by an assumed harmless pet snake, Rhabdophis subminatus (the red neck keelback), that had been obtained from a pet store. The patient experienced a severe coagulopathy with life-threatening hemorrhage unresponsive to transfusion. Since this snake frequently is sold legally in the United States, we wish to alert the medical community to its potential danger and to discuss the pathophysiological mechanism by which the coagulopathy was produced.
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Efficacy of cefotaxime and latamoxef for Escherichia coli bacteremia and meningitis in newborn rats.
We have evaluated the efficacy of cefotaxime and latamoxef against a Kl Escherichia coli strain in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were close to the minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) for both antibiotics (less than or equal to 2 dilutions). ⋯ However, even with cefotaxime or latamoxef treatment, the mortality was significantly greater (p less than 0.001) in rats whose bacterial counts before therapy were greater than or equal to 10(6) CFU/ml of blood. These findings suggest that the effects of cefotaxime and latamoxef may be directly correlated with the size of the bacterial population exposed to these agents and that this variable may be an important factor to influence the therapeutic outcome.
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Extensive use of nonhuman primates for biomedical research has contributed to periodic acute shortages of these animals. As a result, various resources have been developed to assist investigators in maintaining healthy colonies and conserving stocks. A wide range of expertise is available at the national and international levels to investigators working with nonhuman primates.