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Brucellosis, botflies, and brainworms: the impact of edge habitats on pathogen transmission and species extinction.

Ecological interactions between species that prefer different habitat types but come into contact in edge regions at the interfaces between habitat types are modeled via reaction-diffusion systems. The primary sort of interaction described by the models is competition mediated by pathogen transmission. The models are somewhat novel because the spatial domains for the variables describing the population densities of the interacting species overlap but do not coincide. Conditions implying coexistence of the two species or the extinction of one species are derived. The conditions involve the principal eigenvalues of elliptic operators arising from linearizations of the model system around equilibria with only one species present. The conditions for persistence or extinction are made explicit in terms of the parameters of the system and the geometry of the underlying spatial domains via estimates of the principal eigenvalues. The implications of the models with respect to conservation and refuge design are discussed.

Animals↗

Status of bovine tuberculosis in North America.

The eradication of bovine tuberculosis from North America is in the advanced stages as Canada and the United States struggle to remove the last vestiges of the disease from the domestic livestock population. Canada realistically anticipates total eradication from the national cattle herd within the next few years. The United States must yet effectively deal with the increased tuberculosis exposure potential from imported steers and from bovine tuberculosis newly discovered in its captive cervid industry. This paper reviews the history and development of tuberculosis eradication programs in North America. The basic evolution is described from area testing to slaughter surveillance with follow-up epidemiological investigations as the program foundation. The current status of both countries is described and recognized deterrents to final eradication are discussed.

Abattoirs↗

The epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis infections.

Mycobacterium bovis has an exceptionally wide host range, but until recent years there was little concern about infection in species other than cattle and man. Diversification of farming enterprises has led to cognizance of the need for control in other domestic animals, notably deer. There has also been recognition that self-maintaining infection is present in wildlife hosts in some countries--notably the European badger in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Australian brush-tailed possum in New Zealand, and various species of ungulates in limited areas of a number of countries. Although transmission of M. bovis can occur by a number of different routes, control measures imposed on cattle and to a lesser extent on other species have reduced a number of the routes to insignificance. Hence the vast preponderance of transmission within host species is now by the airborne route, and predominantly between species as well. Transmission of infection from badgers to cattle may be an exception, with evidence remaining equivocal about the relative importance of pasture contamination by excretion in badger urine and airborne transmission. In general, contamination of feed and pasture appears to be unimportant in transmission of the disease, because survival times of infective doses of organisms on fomites are relatively short under realistic conditions and because animals are not commonly exposed to a dose high enough to be infective by the alimentary route. Infection through the oro-pharyngeal mucous membrane may be significant, although the infective dose for this route is not known. While many species of animals can become infected with M. bovis, only a few act as maintenance hosts and the rest are spillover hosts in which infection is not self-maintaining. With the exception of cattle and deer, other species have become maintenance hosts only within part of their ecological range. For both badgers and possums, maintenance of infection within a local population is due to pseudo-vertical transmission from mother to young, and horizontal transmission linked to breeding activity. Transmission from possums to domestic animals appears to occur mainly during atypical behavioural interactions between the species, and this may well be important for badgers as well. Difficulties in controlling the disease adequately in domestic animals generally result from administrative problems since the necessary technical procedures are available and have been shown to be effective. Where there is interplay between infection in wildlife and domestic animals, eradication of the disease becomes impractical.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

www.tnt-radiology.de: Teach and be taught radiology: implementation of a web-based training program based on user preferences as determined by survery.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To create a Web-based training program addressing the needs of a large, heterogeneous audience of users. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We defined our target group as consisting of medical professionals who teach radiology, or who, by their own perception, would benefit from improving their radiologic image interpretation skills. We interviewed 483 members of this group, eliciting their preferences with regard to layout, interactivity, contents, and other categories (11 in total). Considering majority preferences as recommendations and using the help of a special interest group of medical students, we assembled 500 teaching cases over a 1-year period into an interactive training program and made it available on the World Wide Web. RESULTS: Important preferences expressed by majorities of interviewees were: high levels of interactivity, clear layout, intuitive usability, short page load times, permissibility of saving content locally, cost-free access, consideration of user input in the site development. To our knowledge, our web program TNT-Radiology, accessible at , is the first to implement all of these recommendations simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS: We have created a Web-based program usable for teaching and learning radiologic image interpretation that meets the needs of a heterogeneous target audience to an unprecedented extent.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗

Antiphospholipid antibody ELISAs: survey on the performance of clinical laboratories assessed by using lyophilized affinity-purified IgG with anticardiolipin and anti-beta2-Glycoprotein I activity.

Lupus anticoagulant (LA) and anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies are the classical tests used to diagnose the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Unfortunately, since these are nonspecific and standardization is lacking, the results of laboratory work-ups upon which diagnosis are made are often misleading. The performance of clinical laboratories in detecting LA using lyophilised affinity purified immunoglobulin has been previously reported. The same material was used to investigate the inter-laboratory variability of aCL and anti-beta(2)-Glycoprotein I (beta(2)-GPI) antibody measurements. Laboratories were asked to test normal plasma spiked with purified IgG or distilled water in order to obtain 3 samples positive for aCL and anti-beta(2)-GPI at different antibody concentration (A, B and C) and 3 samples of normal plasma. Thirty-five laboratories participated and interpreted their test results. All performed an ELISA for IgG aCL antibodies, while 17 also tested samples using IgG anti-beta(2)-GPI antibody ELISA. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated on the basis of the responses provided by each laboratory. Overall, 99/105 samples were correctly interpreted as positive and 97/101 as negative for the presence of IgG aCL, corresponding to a sensitivity and specificity of 94% and 96%, respectively. Likewise, 46/51 samples were correctly defined as positive and 50/51 as negative for the presence of IgG anti-beta(2)-GPI corresponding to a sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 98%, respectively. A wide variability in results pertaining to the positive samples was found for aCL-ELISA (coefficient of variation of 79%, 59%, and 53% for samples A, B, and C, respectively) as well as for abeta(2)-GPI-ELISA (coefficient of variation of 85%, 95%, and 50% for samples A, B, and C, respectively). This was confirmed when the analysis was restricted to those centres using the same commercial kit. Median antibody concentrations reported by centres for positive samples were consistent with the prolongation of coagulation tests assessing lupus anticoagulant (LA). Among these, dRVVT showed a good sensitivity and linear correlation with aCL antibody concentration. In conclusion, on the whole this survey found correct interpretation of positive and negative samples by both ELISAs. Nonetheless the high variability of reported data remains a major problem that only a consensus on the part of laboratories and manufacturers to utilize standard, uniform materials and procedures can hope to overcome.

Antibodies, Anticardiolipin↗

REP-PCR analysis of Pasteurella multocida isolates that cause haemorrhagic septicaemia.

Amplification of multiple P multocida genomic DNA fragments by outwardly-directed primers based on the repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) consensus sequence, generated complex profiles in a PCR-based fingerprinting method known as REP-PCR. Polymorphisms within REP-PCR profiles were used to characterise 38 isolates of P multocida. The high degree of homogeneity observed among haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) strains of serotype B and E provided evidence of a disease-associated REP profile that may serve as a novel method for the identification of HS strains regardless of serotype. REP-PCR profiles of other P multocida serotypes were highly variable, illustrating the potential of this technique for the molecular fingerprinting of fowl cholera or atrophic rhinitis isolates. A specific amplified REP fragment was isolated and used to probe membrane-bound digested P multocida genomic DNA. Hybridisation patterns not only distinguished HS-causing isolates from non-HS P multocida, but also demonstrated a degree of relatedness between HS and HS-like strains.

Animals↗

Economical and ecological importance of indigenous livestock and the application of assisted reroduction to their preservation.

Among the many mammalian species that are threatened as the result of habitat destruction are numerous species of rare or little-known native livestock that possess features that render them ideally adapted to their environment. Because of the vital and valuable role many of these species play both to the ecology and economy of their native countries, attention is being directed towards initiating breeding programs that might insure their continued survival. This review introduces and highlights the importance of some of these indigenous species and outlines efforts currently underway to apply assisted reproductive technologies to their conservation.

Animals↗

Bovine hemoglobin alpha-globin chain polymorphism: primary structure determination of two new genetic variants by mass spectrometry and amino acid sequencing.

The present work describes the biochemical procedures used to identify the cause of a quantitative and qualitative hemoglobin polymorphism found in Podolian cattle. First, to analyze the different phenotypes, isoelectric focusing (IEF) of hemoglobins and RP-HPLC of globin chains was carried out; secondly, to determine accurately the globin molecular masses, electrospray mass spectrometry was performed and finally to check the entire amino acid sequences of the proteins, several enzymatic digests were analyzed by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS) and Edman degradation procedure. As to the qualitative polymorphism, the results of RP-HPLC show the presence of two alpha-globin variants to which the extensive mass spectrometric analysis attributed a molecular mass of 15,026.47 +/- 0.44 Da and 15,079.86 +/- 0.66 Da and whose respective primary structure differed from that of the common alpha-globin chain in the amino acid substitution Asn-->Ser at position 131 and the other in the replacement of the histidine residue at position 89 with tyrosine. As to the quantitative polymorphism, on the basis of the expression gradient found out in the duplicated alpha genes of several mammals, we conceive that the alpha 89 His-->Tyr is an allelic form of the I alpha gene while the alpha 131Asn-->Ser is an allelic form of the II alpha gene.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Analysis of haemorrhagic septicaemia-causing isolates of Pasteurella multocida by ribotyping and field alternation gel electrophoresis (FAGE).

Ribotyping and field alternation gel electrophoresis (FAGE) were used to examine 19 Pasteurella multocida isolates, and to assess the ability of these techniques to differentiate P. multocida strains that cause haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS). Reproducible patterns were obtained from both methods, with FAGE demonstrating greater discriminatory power than ribotyping. FAGE analysis was particularly useful in distinguishing North American cultures originating from the 1922 Yellowstone National Park Buffalo 'B' strain, demonstrating the ability to detect genetic alterations induced by repeated subculture. A remarkable homogeneity was observed among Asian HS strains following ribotyping and FAGE analysis, with a clear distinction observed between virulent and avirulent HS isolates. This study has illustrated the value of genomic fingerprinting methods in distinguishing strains of similar serotype, and the capability of these methods to produce detailed characterisation of P. multocida isolates.

Animals↗

Physicochemical, molecular and immunological characterization of camel calf rennet: a comparison with buffalo rennet.

Camel calf rennet (CCR) and buffalo calf rennet (BCR) were prepared from dried abomasa to study their physicochemical properties and electrophoretic behaviour and to carry out an immunological characterization of the rennet proteins. CCR was more thermostable than BCR. The milk clotting activity of both rennets increased as pH decreased. The optimum temperatures for CCR and BCR were 50 and 45 degrees C respectively. CCR was more sensitive to increased CaCl2 in milk than BCR. Addition of NaCl to milk in the range 0-100 g/l resulted in a marked decrease in the clotting activity of both rennets. When the rennets were treated with acetone, the activity of BCR was completely destroyed, but that of CCR was unaffected. The proteolytic activity of CCR was higher than that of BCR and pepsin towards both camel and cows' milk caseins at pH 6.0. SDS-PAGE electrophoretic patterns of CCR and BCR proteins gave two major bands with molecular masses estimated as 52 and 39 kDa for CCR and 50 and 35 kDa for BCR. Immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis using anti-CCR serum demonstrated immunological cross reactivity between CCR and BCR.

Abomasum↗