Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) are a highly valued aquaculture species, and, as obligate carnivores, they have a demonstrated preference for dietary protein over lipid or starch to fuel energetic growth demands. In order to investigate how carnivorous fish regulate nutritional cues, we examined the metabolic effects of feeding two isoenergetic diets that contained different proportions of digestible protein or starch energy. Fish fed a high proportion of dietary starch energy had a higher proportion of liver SFA, but showed no change in plasma glucose levels, and few changes in the expression of genes regulating key hepatic metabolic pathways. Decreased activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin growth signalling cascade was consistent with decreased growth performance values. The fractional synthetic rate (lipogenesis), measured by TAG 2H-enrichment using 2H NMR, was significantly higher in barramundi fed with the starch diet compared with the protein diet (0·6 (se 0·1) v. 0·4 (se 0·1) % per d, respectively). Hepatic TAG-bound glycerol synthetic rates were much higher than other closely related fish such as sea bass, but were not significantly different (starch, 2·8 (se 0·3) v. protein, 3·4 (se 0·3) % per d), highlighting the role of glycerol as a metabolic intermediary and high TAG-FA cycling in barramundi. Overall, dietary starch significantly increased hepatic TAG through increased lipogenesis. Compared with other fish, barramundi possess a unique mechanism to metabolise dietary carbohydrates and this knowledge may define ways to improve performance of advanced formulated feeds.

Three-week old piglets were subjected to two levels of moderate, chronic cold stress immediately post-weaning and inoculated orally or by aerosol with an enterotoxigenic strain of Escherichia coli. Oral challenge, as well as both piglet-produced and artificial aerosols of E. coli were capable of inducing infection. In infected animals, live-weight gain and food conversion efficiency were significantly worse at 15°C than at 20° or 30°C. The incidence and severity of diarrhoea was greatest at 15°C and least at 30°C, but only in those piglets fed ad libitum. Piglets fed at a restricted level kept at 15°C did not become infected or suffer a check in growth after inoculation.

In the absence of other risk factors, piglets kept at thermoneutrality are unlikely to suffer post-weaning diarrhoea even in the presence of an enterotoxigenic strain of E. coli. Diarrhoeic piglets did not exhibit the normal rise in food intake at temperatures below their thermoneutral zone. Traditionally, the design specification and control of the thermal environment in a piggery has been based on the performance of predominantly healthy pigs but the results of this study imply that the additional criterion of health can now be used.

In attempting to formulate the principles of law regulating transfrontier pollution, it is helpful to recall the experience of states in dealing with this kind of pollution. I propose, therefore, to say something about the Canadian and United States experience in this matter, concentrating on three problems relating to water resources, namely pollution of the Great Lakes, pollution of waters caused by acid rain, and the damage threatened in Canadian waters by the Garrison Diversion project in the United States.

When States Disagree about the way in which the waters of an international drainage basin should be utilized, they should try first to resolve their differences by consultation and negotiation. This is what they usually do and, for the most part, do successfully. Sometimes, however, their negotiations do not lead to agreement. They then face the question whether or not they should involve the aid of third-parties in resolving their problem. In the words of Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations, must they “seek a solution by … mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice”?

It is proposed to examine here the obligation of states to resort to mediation, conciliation and adjudication when they cannot otherwise settle a dispute about the development of an international drainage basin that they share.

The Development of an International River Seldom proceeds at the same pace in the states through which it flows. The River Nile affords a good illustration of this: Egypt has for a long time substantially utilized its waters for irrigation; the Sudan has so far made moderate use of them, but is now embarking on a programme of agricultural expansion; and the states farther upstream, such as Ethiopia, Tanganyika, and Uganda, which supply the waters for the river, have scarcely begun to make use of them. The same story can be told of many other rivers.

This unequal development of a river can cause great political, economic, and legal difficulties. Sooner or later, the state which has been slow to develop the portion of the river in its territory will need more and more water for domestic and sanitary purposes, for agriculture, for hydro-electric power, for industry, and so forth. As long as it can satisfy its needs without making claims on the water on which other co-riparian states depend, there will be no quarrel; but it will be otherwise when it can no longer do so. Competition for the limited supply of water will then lead to conflict. The future economic growth of one state at the expense of others will often be involved; perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment, as in the case of the Columbia River, or millions of lives, as in the case of the Indus, may be put in jeopardy.