The first paper this issue outlines the important discovery of the deleterious mutation for Pompe's E7 in tropical herds outside of the Brahman breed, in which E7 is already recognised and tested for routinely.1 According to the lead author, Russell Lyons, the discovery was made unexpectedly as part of genomic studies for fertility traits in Brahman, Santa Gertrudis and Droughtmaster cattle. “Once discovered, we felt the need to inform the project's collaborating breeders as well as the Breed Society, but feel also that the veterinary community and associated animal biosecurity institutions should be aware of the presence of the disease in these herds”, Dr Lyons said. “The mutation has accumulated to concerning levels in one collaborator herd as not previously tested for, and is now leading to welfare issues and loss of calves as identified in the paper. We expect that the problem is not limited to the properties in the project and have recommended surveillance testing to the Breed Society, who are currently considering their position. To the credit of the breeder most affected by this finding, with the knowledge that an issue is present, he is proactively working to reduce the issue within his herd using diagnostic testing of sire, dams and progeny to (a) reduce carrier frequency within his herd, (b) prevent matings that can lead to affected progeny and (c) removing carrier bulls from breeding programs of his own and buyer's herds. “As explained in the text, Pompe's disease can easily be misdiagnosed as any number of other illnesses and so making the veterinary community aware that this disease should be a consideration for ill-thrift in Brahman-infused calves at or before weaning. Diagnostic testing protocols are well established at EMAI and UQAGL to allow rapid confirmation or elimination of Pompe's as the cause of the illness. While this is intuitive to many, and Peter Healy and colleagues clearly indicated the risk in these breeds in earlier cited papers, this manuscript is irrefutable proof that the problem exists and is causing disease in these composite breeds. “The aim of our paper is to rapidly communicate the issues to the veterinary and livestock community, and expect that the paper will be applicable not only in Australia but anywhere Brahman-infused breeds are common,” he said. A production animal paper describes the application of a quantitative PCR assay, previously developed by the authors, to identify and quantify three zoonotic pathogens in sheep. This assay was used to assess levels of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. in sheep faeces and effluent at abattoirs.2 If sheep carry these pathogens in their faeces, there is a chance that hides and meat products may become contaminated, while effluent from abattoirs may be a public health risk and should be adequately treated. The article finds a wide variation in the point prevalence of the three pathogens and more studies are needed to look at the risk factors for shedding of pathogens in the pre-slaughter period. Canine lymphoma has been researched extensively because of its similarity to human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in human patients. An epidemiological study from The University of Sydney analyses an extensive retrospective collection of cases of lymphoma (134 unique cases from 13,575 dogs seen over an 8-year period) and gives occurrence and prognosis by breed, age and treatment.3 The analysis uses standard methods, and many of the trends identified in this population have been reported previously. The evaluation of breed associations is novel, given the geographical source of the cases and the comparisons to other studies, and adds to our knowledge of prevalence and outcomes for the disease. The authors found that Australian Cattle Dog, Doberman and Rottweiler breeds had significantly higher odds of lymphoma compared with crossbred dogs. Males, neutered animals and those over 7 years of age also had higher odds. Toy breeds were significantly less affected. The data add to the evidence that a genetic difference may exist for canine lymphoma irrespective of geographic location. A case report describes a neutered male cat that was presented with weight loss, lethargy and hyporexia for several months.4 Haematology on days 1, 3 and 9 after presentation showed progressive non-regenerative anaemia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, and bone marrow hypoplasia was seen on biopsy. Serum cobalamin and folate were shown to be markedly low and supplementation was started; the cat's appetite and activity increased within 10 days of treatment. The authors recommend that measuring serum cobalamin is important in cats with pancytopenia and no obvious cause, and that rapid treatment of cats with confirmed hypocobalinaemia is essential. The next paper demonstrates a new and potentially useful technique of using TrueLok Rapid Quick Adjust struts for reduction in challenging Salter-Harris fractures.5 The case report documents a recently described method of circular external fixation. The struts have lockable hinges, with adjustable struts that can be finger tightened and then tightened further using a wrench, to lock the universal joints into a position to hold together two metal rings, in a similar way to a glorified Meccano set. The technique was used for a fracture through the proximal tibial physis extending through the metaphysis with complete overriding of the fracture segments. After unsuccessfully attempting several methods of alignment, the authors give a detailed description of the final method, with clear images of the apparatus. They suggest this method can be modified for any complex shape and may be of use for similar fractures in other locations. A preliminary study serves as a first dataset to give some encouragement to the use of direct injection of collagen cross-linker genipin in avascular tendon.6 The authors injected high doses of genipin to tendons (n = 3) and dermis (n = 3) of clinically normal yearling horses. All tendon-injected horses became lame in the first 24 hours of treatment and there was swelling of the injection site in the dermis, which the authors considered was well-tolerated. There was no systemic inflammation or liver or kidney damage, and tendon samples were taken post-mortem. This therapy had local toxic effects, but the tissue seemed to recover well, hinting that the inevitable acute ‘collateral’ local damage wrought by using genipin to stabilise a tendon lesion may not preclude its clinical use. The authors do note that the treatment needs to be restricted to the tendon and not the vascular dermis, and the presence of needle tracks in the tendon suggested finer needles should be used. They report a qualitative histological increase in linear collagen. The final case report describes cystic calculi removal in a mare.7 The authors present a technique that may be adapted by practitioners to reduce morbidity associated with more invasive surgical options. The mare urethral sphincter is distensible, so manual methods can be used, but may result in trauma to the bladder neck and sphincter. The technique described in this paper used a laparoscopic specimen pouch to enclose the calculus. The hand does not need to be in the urethra while the urolith is removed, and the bag give some protection to the bladder wall. The authors used topical local anaesthetic to increased dilation. They suggest that videoendoscopy could also be used to visualise the field if needed. I have received a letter from the author of one of our papers in the January/February issue, Dr Antony Moore, who takes me to task for my wording in my editorial, and asks for a retraction.8, 9 “Your comment about the lack of power in our study, and the caution of interpreting medians in small studies is warranted, but to then try to convince readers that there is another factor that is of additional significance when there was none statistically, and based on the same small numbers, is not acceptable in your role as Editor. You cannot have it both ways; warning of over-interpretation, and then over-interpreting the data without using statistics at all.” In my editorial, I was trying to make a point about the problematic differences I see between statistical and clinical significance, something I obviously failed to do. I contacted two members of our Editorial Advisory Board, who are more au fait with statistical analysis than I am, for their comments and they both agreed that the author had a point about how I worded my editorial. To make matters worse, however, after some discussions about statistical methodology and power calculations, I realised to my horror that I had misquoted the figures in the original paper anyway. When looking at all the data, the median survival was 77 days (range 39–465) with dogs that had post-operative macroscopic disease remaining, and 215 days (range 80–1638) for those that had only microscopic disease, not the 1638 days as I said in my editorial. I apologise profusely to the authors, both for my careless error in reporting their results, and also if my comments were read as specific criticisms of their paper, which it was not meant to do. In the first line of the University of Sydney study, on the use of Ovsynch in cattle,10 we attributed the trademark for Ovsynch incorrectly, to Reprogen Animal Health, NSW, Aust. This was not ReproGen - Animal Bioscience Group from University of Sydney, but should have referred to Reprogen Animal Health, LLC, Shawano, Wisconsin, USA.