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To: John Stichnoth who wrote (43)	4/29/1999 9:42:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 4441

O.T. - possible answer to recent increase in frog leg deformities. April 29, 1999 Worm May Cause Frog Deformity Filed at 5:43 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- A mysterious ailment that causes frogs to grow extra, deformed legs and touched off environmental concerns may be the result of a tiny worm parasite, not ozone depletion or pesticides, new studies say. Two studies to be published Friday in the journal Science conclude that defects found in frogs throughout in the Western United States may be caused by a trematode, simple parasitic flatworm with a complex life cycle that includes infecting the developing legs of tadpoles. The worm infection, says Stanley K. Sessions of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., causes the tadpoles to grow multiple hind legs, a severe malformation that dooms the animal when it grows to a mature frog. ''Every single frog I have looked at with extra legs, and I have looked at hundreds, all have these cysts around the deformity,'' said Sessions, who co-authored one of the Science studies. Pieter T.J. Johnson, a recent graduate of Stanford University now doing research at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, carried Sessions' early work one step further by collecting trematodes from snails in four ponds where deformed frogs were found. Laboratory tadpoles were then infected with the worms. Johnson found that the more the trematode infections the tadpoles acquired, the more the legs of the adult frog were deformed, multiplied or missing. And he also showed that the deformities developed in the laboratory experiments were the same as those seen in the four ponds in Northern California. Andrew Blaustein, an Oregon State University ecologist who conducted experiments to determine if ultraviolet radiation was causing the widespread problem, called Johnson's work ''the best experimental evidence showing a cause for the limb deformation in amphibians.'' Researchers worldwide have noted for years that many species of frogs are in decline, particularly in the Northern and Western United States, Central America and Australia. Scientists have suspected pesticides, chemical pollution -- particularly retinoic acid, and excess UV radiation caused by a thinning of the atmosphere's ozone layer. A great deal of research has been devoted to the issue because the sudden demise of frogs were considered a possible warning about an unknown environmental problem. But the studies by Johnson and Sessions show that at least some of the frog problems are caused by Mother Nature herself. Johnson said the increased deformities caused by the parasite could be part of a natural biological cycle. However, he said it is too early to hold humans blameless, saying fertilizer runoff may have caused an increase in a water snail that is a key host of the parasite. The trematode has a life cycle that includes snails, tadpoles and frogs, and birds. A just-hatched form of the parasite is consumed or absorbed by a snail. The worm develops into a larvae that is deposited in a pond. The worm swims until it hooks onto a tadpole and then forms cysts in the leg buds of the developing amphibian. When the frog matures, its hind legs are either missing, multiplied or deformed. This makes the frog an easy prey for birds, which become the next host of the parasite. Digestive juices of the bird release trematodes from their cysts in the frog and the worms reproduce. Trematode eggs in the bird feces are then deposited in a pond and the cycle starts anew. Johnson said even though trematodes are found throughout North America, the parasite probably is not the single cause for a worldwide decline in frogs and other amphibians first noticed two decades ago. ''It is far too early to say that this is the final answer for the amphibian decline,'' he said. ''Something different may also be going on.'' Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

To: John Stichnoth who wrote (43)	4/30/1999 12:15:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4441

Here is something on John Deere. April 29, 1999 Deere Reduces Sales Forecast Filed at 9:25 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press MOLINE, Ill. (AP) -- Dogged by a sagging farm economy and weak demand for agricultural equipment, Deere & Co. expects second-quarter sales to drop 20 percent from the same period last year. Deere initially projected a 13 percent agriculture equipment sales reduction for the second quarter. The Moline-based company also said Thursday that it anticipates sales volume for 1999 will decline by approximately 18 to 20 percent from 1998 levels, compared with its previous estimate of 13 to 15 percent Deere officials attributed the revised forecasts to the continuation of depressed agricultural commodity prices. The market was the weakest for large-size, high-margin agricultural equipment parts, one of Deere's strongest areas, officials said. In response to the less-than-rosy projections, the maker of tractors and combines said it would reduce farm-machinery production in the coming months. Deere announced earlier this year that it would be extending annual summer plant shutdowns by up to five weeks. First-quarter earnings for Deere plunged 75 percent. For the three months that ended Jan. 1, the company's net income fell to $49.7 million, or 21 cents a share, from $203 million, or 81 cents a share, a year ago. Quarterly sales fell 14 percent to $2.46 billion from $2.85 billion as sales of both agricultural and construction equipment tumbled 23 percent. Sales of commercial and consumer equipment rose 8 percent. Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company