Análise multigênica de rotavírus do grupo A em suínos

Os rotavírus do grupo A (RVA) são importantes causadores de diarreias virais em crianças e animais jovens de diferentes espécies, com impactos na saúde pública e animal. Visando contribuir para o entendimento e prevenção das rotaviroses assim como suas possíveis relações zoonóticas, caracterizou-se os 11 segmentos de dsRNA de rotavírus codificadores das proteínas estruturais e não estruturais presentes em amostras fecais positivas de suínos coletadas nos anos de 2012-2013, em 2 estados brasileiros. Mediante o emprego de RT-PCR, sequenciamento nucleotídico e análises filogenéticas, todos os segmentos genéticos oriundos de 12 amostras de RVA detectados em suínos foram analisados e comparados com os de outras amostras descritas previamente. As sequências obtidas para os genes codificadores das proteínas NSP2, NSP3 e VP6 contemplaram a open reading frame (ORF) completa do gene, enquanto que a ORF parcial foi determinada para os genes codificadores das proteínas VP1, VP2, VP3, VP4, VP7, NSP1, NSP4, NSP5 e NSP6. Os genotipos de rotavírus suíno provenientes das regiões amostradas concordam com os mais frequentemente descritos nesta espécie animal, apresentando, assim, uma matriz genética suína com a maioria dos segmentos pertencentes à constelação genotípica 1, com exceção dos genes codificadores das proteínas VP6 e NSP1, os quais foram os genotipos I5 e A8, respectivamente. Apesar de predominar o genotipo 1 (Wa-like) nas sequências deste estudo, a análise genômica sugere a existência de uma variação intragenotípica no genoma do rotavírus do grupo A atualmente circulante nas populações suína amostradas dos estados de São Paulo e Mato Grosso. Adicionalmente, buscou-se identificar os aminoácidos relacionados com a adaptação dos rotavírus no hospedeiro e assinaturas genéticas que distinguissem RVA suíno e humano. Para isso, as sequências obtidas neste estudo foram comparadas com outras cepas de RVA detectadas nestas duas espécies e pertencentes ao genotipo 1 (Wa-like) disponíveis no Genbank. Como resultados foram encontrados mais de 75 sítios de mudanças deaminoácidos que diferenciam RVA suíno e humano além de sítios de substituiçãopresentes em algumas proteínas virais que frequentemente covariaram entre elas. Estes resultados proporcionam um maior entendimento da diversidade viral circulante em unidades de produção suína e uma melhor compreensão dos animaiscomo reservatórios genéticos de cepas de rotavírus emergentes em humanos.

Avaliação de indicadores biológicos na validação de processos de esterilização de isoladores por peróxido de hidrogênio

A resistência de cinco microrganismos presentes na microbiota da área de produção estéril (Cristalização Estéril), frente a ação do gás de peróxido de hidrogênio foi determinada e o valor O obtido para cada microrganismo foi comparado ao valor D do Bacillus stearothermophilus ATCC 12980 exposto ao mesmo agente. Os microrganismos testados foram Bacillus sp, M. luteus, Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus sp e Penicillium sp. Este teste tinha a finalidade de comprovar que a resistência do Bacillus stearothermophilus é maior quando da exposição ao peróxido de hidrogênio se comparada a outros microrganismos presentes na área produtiva. A metodologia consistiu da inoculação de 0,01 mL da suspensão de cada microrganismo na contagem de 102UFC/0,01 mL em cupons de aço inoxidável, previamente esterilizados por calor seco e posterior exposição ao gás de peróxido de hidrogênio. O experimento demonstrou que o valor D obtido para o Bacillus stearothermophilus ésuperior aos obtidos para os outros microrganismos em teste comprovando que a escolha deste microrganismo para o desafio contra o peróxido de hidrogênio é apropriada. Também executou-se o teste que visava garantir que o aço inoxidável é o material de suporte mais recomendado para este fim, utilizando-se suportes de diversos materiais normalmente encontrados no interior dos isoladores (PVC, aço inoxidável, CKC, teflon, polipropileno, látex, silicone, Hypalon, vidro, nylon, saco de alumínio) com 0,01 mL de inóculo de Bacillus stearothermophilus na contagem de 102UFC/O,01 mL, o que foi devidamente comprovado.

Impact of maternally derived immunity on piglets’ immune response and protection against porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) after vaccination against PCV2 at different age

BACKGROUND: This study was aimed at evaluating the clinical protection, the level of Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) viremia and the immune response (antibodies and IFN-γ secreting cells (SC)) in piglets derived from PCV2 vaccinated sows and themselves vaccinated against PCV2 at different age, namely at 4, 6 and 8 weeks. The cohort study has been carried out over three subsequent production cycles (replicates). At the start/enrolment, 46 gilts were considered at first mating, bled and vaccinated. At the first, second and third farrowing, dams were bled and re-vaccinated at the subsequent mating after weaning piglets. Overall 400 piglets at each farrowing (first, second and third) were randomly allocated in three different groups (100 piglets/group) based on the timing of vaccination (4, 6 or 8 weeks of age). A fourth group was kept non-vaccinated (controls). Piglets were vaccinated intramuscularly with one dose (2 mL) of a commercial PCV2a-based subunit vaccine (Porcilis® PCV). Twenty animals per group were bled at weaning and from vaccination to slaughter every 4 weeks for the detection of PCV2 viremia, humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Clinical signs and individual treatments (morbidity), mortality, and body weight of all piglets were recorded. RESULTS: All vaccination schemes (4, 6 and 8 weeks of age) were able to induce an antibody response and IFN-γ SC. The highest clinical and virological protection sustained by immune reactivity was observed in pigs vaccinated at 6 weeks of age. Overall, repeated PCV2 vaccination in sows at mating and the subsequent higher levels of maternally derived antibodies did not significantly interfere with the induction of both humoral and cell-mediated immunity in their piglets after vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of vaccination in sows at mating and in piglets at 6 weeks of age was more effective for controlling PCV2 natural infection, than other vaccination schemas, thus sustaining that some interference of MDA with the induction of an efficient immune response could be considered. In conclusion, optimal vaccination strategy needs to balance the levels of passive immunity, the management practices and timing of infection.

Becoming a therapist: Challenging the role of training - An interview with Ernesto Spinelli

Research appears to indicate that the personal qualities of the therapist really count in effective therapy. Brian Sullivan from the University of Queensland asks Professor Ernesto Spinelli for his opinion on the vexing questions that arise when this knowledge is considered in the effective training of therapists. What are the significant personal qualities and how do we identify them? Are good therapists born with the raw material to start with, or can anyone be trained to become a therapist? Is personal development an essential component of any professional therapeutic training? If so, how do you incorporate it into a training program? What are the essential criteria in a successful selection process of trainees? (editor abstract)

Emerging henipaviruses and flying foxes - Conservation and management perspectives

Wildlife populations are affected by a series of emerging diseases, some of which pose a significant threat to their conservation. They can also be reservoirs of pathogens that threaten domestic animal and human health. In this paper, we review the ecology of two viruses that have caused significant disease in domestic animals and humans and are carried by wild fruit bats in Asia and Australia. The first, Hendra virus, has caused disease in horses and/or humans in Australia every five years since it first emerged in 1994. Nipah virus has caused a major outbreak of disease in pigs and humans in Malaysia in the late 1990s and has also caused human mortalities in Bangladesh annually since 2001. Increased knowledge of fruit bat population dynamics and disease ecology will help improve our understanding of processes driving the emergence of diseases from bats. For this, a transdisciplinary approach is required to develop appropriate host management strategies that both maximise the conservation of bat populations as well as minimise the risk of disease outbreaks in domestic animals and humans. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emerging viral diseases of South-East Asia and the Western Pacific: A brief review

Over the past 6 years, a number of zoonotic and vectorborne viral diseases have emerged in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Vectorborne disease agents discussed in this article include Japanese encephalitis, Barmah Forest, Ross River, and Chikungunya viruses. However, most emerging viruses have been zoonotic, with fruit bats, including flying fox species as the probable wildlife hosts, and these will be discussed as well. The first of these disease agents to emerge was Hendra virus, formerly called equine morbillivirus. This was followed by outbreaks caused by a rabies-related virus, Australian bat lyssavirus, and a virus associated with porcine stillbirths and malformations, Menangle virus. Nipah virus caused an outbreak of fatal pneumonia in pigs and encephalitis in humans in the Malay Peninsula. Most recently, Tioman virus has been isolated from flying foxes, but it has not yet been associated with animal or human disease. Of nonzoonotic viruses, the most important regionally have been enterovirus 71 and HIV.

Crump-Mode-Jagers Branching Process: Modelling and Application for Human Population

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 60J85, 92D25.

Parasitos de importância para a caprinocultura e a ovinocultura potiguar

The goat and sheep industry shows up as an agricultural activity of great importance for the semiarid Northeast. However, the sheep and goats production is made with various difficulties. Among them, parasitic infections, particularly helminth infections of the gastrointestinal tract, the eimeriosis and toxoplasmosis; this one related to problems in reproduction. For this reason, the aim of this study is to to make a survey of the occurrence and some determinants of parasitic diseases that affect small ruminant flocks of the microregions Natal, Macaíba, Litoral Sul, Angicos, Vale do Açu and Borborema Potiguar. Thereunto, epidemiological tools were applied with producers, keepers or guardians of herds and also held collections of blood and feces of animals in eight properties located in seven municipalities of these microregions. The parasite load of the animals was determined through eggs and oocysts counting per gram of feces EPG and OPG, respectively. In addition, the recovery of infective larvae was made. Blood samples were used to measure the globular cell volume and the search for anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG in sheep serum, by Enzyme Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA). For categorical variables, the statistical analysis was performed using Poisson regression, with significance level of 0.05. The analysis of the instruments showed that ivermectin is the anthelmintic used in 85,71% of properties. From the total of feces samples of the sheep (n = 179), 53,07% were positive for helminth eggs and 48,04% were positive for oocysts of Eimeria. From the samples of faeces of goats (n = 133), 72,18% were positive for helminth eggs and 96,99% for oocysts of Eimeria. The lowest EPG and OPG count was observed in the micro region of Angicos. Most of the EPG count was found in the micro region Litoral Sul and the OPG count in the micro-region Borborema Potiguar. Both cases the difference was statistically significant(p- value0,000)The most prevalent helminth genus found was Haemonchus, present in 49,87% of the sheep and 80,42% of goats. The average of hematocrit ranged from 22,91 to 33,25 in sheep and from 22,62 to 28,25 in goats. The prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG ranged from 63,33% to 100,00%. The goats showed to be more susceptible to infections by parasites of the gastrointestinal tract than the sheep. In all the properties was observed high prevalence of infection by T. gondii, with the lowest percentages recorded in the micro regions Angicos and Borborema Potiguar.

Perfil sorológico contra Rickettsia spp e Leptospira spp e infestação de carrapatos em suínos mantidos sob diferentes sistemas de criação

The various types of pig farming, intensive and extensive, expose them to pig parasites but also to those from the environment of the breeding site. In this work was evaluated the exposure of bigs bred in technified farms, SISCAL (intensive breeding system in pens) and not technified (backyard) to leptospira, ticks and rickettsiae. Blood sera were analyzed to determine titers of antibodies anti-Leptospira by SAM technique and antibodies anti-rickettsial by IFA, pigs were inspected for ticks and in their breeding environment and surrounding areas (pastures and riparian vegetation), ticks were collected by the flannel dragging technique. In the farms of pigs 10.4% had anti-Leptospira antibodies, followed by SISCAL (8%) and backyard animals (2.5%). The serovars found were Bratislava, Pomona, serovar, Canicola and Icterohaemorrhagiae. Higher percentage of properties with pigs raised outdoors (SISCAL) had tick infested animals (20%) than those raised in backyard (6.7%), while commercial farms had no infested pigs nor infested breeding place. In both SISCAL and backyard pig breeding properties ticks were observed at the breeding site environment. Tick infestations were detected in areas surrounding pig breeding site in all three husbandry suystems. Ticks found were all Amblyomma scultpum nymphs or adults with the exception of one of Amblyomma parvum adult. In relation to anti-rickettsia serology to five Rickettsia species, 55.2% of pigs from commercial farms reacted to al least one species, backyard pigs reacted to 89.7% and all pigs of SISCAL showed anti-rickettsia titers. Consecutive tick sampling (June 2014 to February 2016) in SISCAL FAZU in Uberaba, showed the establishment A. sculptum ticks maintained by domestic pigs. These observations demonstrate the ability the pigs to maintain populations of A. sculptum at a favorable environment and may indicate a new trend in environmental infestations by this species of tick. Exposure to Leptospira and Rickettsia demonstrated the potential pigs exposure and transmission of important diseases in public health.

Tooth Mobility, Periodontal Ligament Space, and the Alveolus During Periodontal Health, Disease, and Disuse

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-07

Atividade antimicrobiana de ácidos orgânicos e compostos clorados sobre micro-organismos patogênicos em carne de frango

The current scenario of the Brazilian poultry production is defined by high productivity motivated by exports to markets with elevated levels of sanitary requirement. The work aimed to evaluate the efficacy of chlorinated compounds (chlorine dioxide, dichloro and trichloro) and organic acids (citric, lactic and peracetic acids) in reducing the contamination of poultry by Salmonella spp., mesophiles and enterobacteriaceae. Were isolated 102 strains Salmonella spp. poultry carcass from June to September 2014. Strains were identified by PCR. Was determined the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antimicrobial compounds for the standard strains of S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis and S. Heidelberg. MIC of lactic acid and peracetic acid (20 to 10 g/L) was applied in strains of Salmonella spp. isolated from the slaughter. The MIC of the compounds lactic acid and sodium dichloro was applied in contaminated chiller water with Salmonella (109 CFU/mL) and this was determined Salmonella count in water. Thighs and drumsticks poultry were contaminated with S. Heidelberg (109 UFC/mL) and were applied dichloro (60 mg/L), lactic acid (20 g/L) and sodium hypochlorite (5,0 and 0,5 mg/L) compounds. In the identification by PCR, 93,1% of the strains were identified as Salmonella. For sodium dichloro the MIC was 60 mg/L for 15 minutes to S. Heidelberg and 60 mg/L for 20 minutes for S. Enteritidis. Lactic acid presented MIC of the 5 g/L for 10 minutes to S. Enteritidis 10 g/L for 15 minutes to S. Typhimurium and 20 g/L for 20 minutes to S. Heidelberg. For peracetic acid, MICs were 10 g/L for 10 minutes to S. Typhimurium and S. Heidelberg and 10 g/L for 20 minutes to S. Enteritidis. To citric acid, MICs were 10 g/L for 10 minutes to S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis and 25 g/L for 20 minutes to S. Heidelberg. In the isolated Salmonella strains, lactic acid inhibited 97,89% of the strains and peracetic inhibited 100% of the strains. In contaminated chiller water, the compounds reduced the growth of standards strains. When applied to contaminated poultry meat, there was a reduction of Salmonella spp. 1,06 log10 CFU/g relative to the positive control with the use of sodium hypochlorite at 5,0 mg/L, 0,97 log10 CFU/g with dichloro and 0,56 log10 CFU/g with sodium hypochlorite 0,5 mg/L. For mesophiles reduction observed was 0,90 log10 CFU/g relative to the positive control with the use of sodium hypochlorite at 5,0 mg/L, 0,83 log10 CFU/g with dichloro and there isn´t reduction with hypochlorite with sodium 0,5 mg/L. For enterobacteriaceae reduction was 1,0 log10 CFU/g relative to the positive control with the use of sodium hypochlorite at 5,0 mg/L, 0,79 log10 CFU/g with dichloro and 0,22 log10 CFU/g with sodium hypochlorite at 0,5 mg/L. Lactic acid inhibit growth of the microorganisms tested. The data supports the discussions to regulate the use of the technology coadjuvants in the slaughter of poultry.

Influência das etapas do processo de abate de suínos na prevalência de patógenos e níveis de microrganismos indicadores de qualidade e higiene

The pig slaughter process involve different steps that can influence the microbiological quality of carcasses. At this, the understanding of the slaughter process on the microbiological aspects is necessary for the implementation and evaluation of critical control points. The microbiological control of the slaughter process should involve the evaluation of pathogens prevalence and levels of quality and hygiene indicator microorganisms. This study aimed at investigating the influence of steps slaughter process on the microbiological levels of pig carcasses, and evaluate if there is correlation between pathogens (Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes) and indicators (aerobic mesophilic counts, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae) microorganisms. A high Salmonella soroprevalence in pigs were founded before the slaughter (57.49 %). While the Salmonella prevalence in carcasses at the initial stage of the slaughter was 26.67 % and in the final stage 1.11 %, L. monocytogenes was detected only in the final washing and cooling steps, with a prevalence of 21.11 and 8.89 %, respectively. The aerobic mesophilic counts, Enterobacteriaceae, total coliforms and E. coli levels in initial steps of slaughter process were 4.25 ± 0.37; 1.25 ± 0.38; 1.10 ± 0.35 and 0.86 ± 0.36, respectively. At the end of slaughter process the results were lower (ranging from 0.16 at 2.70 log CFU/cm2). The step that most reduced microbiological levels was the scalding. The dehairing was a critical step that led to a significant increase of microorganisms levels in the process (p < 0.05). The evisceration not proved to be a critical step on the increase of microbial levels, differently of the final washing, which showed significant increases (p < 0.05) over the levels of aerobic counts, total coliforms, E. coli and enterobacterias (0.30; 0.36; 0.27 and 0.42 log respectively) and Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes. The chilling contributes significantly to the reduction of microbiological levels of carcasses, bringing them to levels below the all process stages, with the exception of scalding. No correlation between the hygiene indicator microorganisms used and presence of Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes were obtained (p < 0.05). The results show that steps in the process are critical to the sanitary profile, which implies the need to implement actions in the process to reducing the microbiological levels.

Efeitos da vacina contra a circovirose suína sobre os parâmetros reprodutivos e produtivos em porcas reprodutoras e o seu impacto económico

Dissertação de mestrado apresentada na área Produção e Tecnologia Animal, na Escola Superior Agrária de Santarém, do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém.

Efeitos da vacina contra a circovirose suína sobre os parâmetros reprodutivos e produtivos em porcas reprodutoras e o seu impacto económico

Dissertação de mestrado apresentada na área Produção e Tecnologia Animal, na Escola Superior Agrária de Santarém, do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém.

Garbage collection optimization for non uniform memory access architectures

Cache-coherent non uniform memory access (ccNUMA) architecture is a standard design pattern for contemporary multicore processors, and future generations of architectures are likely to be NUMA. NUMA architectures create new challenges for managed runtime systems. Memory-intensive applications use the system’s distributed memory banks to allocate data, and the automatic memory manager collects garbage left in these memory banks. The garbage collector may need to access remote memory banks, which entails access latency overhead and potential bandwidth saturation for the interconnection between memory banks. This dissertation makes five significant contributions to garbage collection on NUMA systems, with a case study implementation using the Hotspot Java Virtual Machine. It empirically studies data locality for a Stop-The-World garbage collector when tracing connected objects in NUMA heaps. First, it identifies a locality richness which exists naturally in connected objects that contain a root object and its reachable set— ‘rooted sub-graphs’. Second, this dissertation leverages the locality characteristic of rooted sub-graphs to develop a new NUMA-aware garbage collection mechanism. A garbage collector thread processes a local root and its reachable set, which is likely to have a large number of objects in the same NUMA node. Third, a garbage collector thread steals references from sibling threads that run on the same NUMA node to improve data locality. This research evaluates the new NUMA-aware garbage collector using seven benchmarks of an established real-world DaCapo benchmark suite. In addition, evaluation involves a widely used SPECjbb benchmark and Neo4J graph database Java benchmark, as well as an artificial benchmark. The results of the NUMA-aware garbage collector on a multi-hop NUMA architecture show an average of 15% performance improvement. Furthermore, this performance gain is shown to be as a result of an improved NUMA memory access in a ccNUMA system. Fourth, the existing Hotspot JVM adaptive policy for configuring the number of garbage collection threads is shown to be suboptimal for current NUMA machines. The policy uses outdated assumptions and it generates a constant thread count. In fact, the Hotspot JVM still uses this policy in the production version. This research shows that the optimal number of garbage collection threads is application-specific and configuring the optimal number of garbage collection threads yields better collection throughput than the default policy. Fifth, this dissertation designs and implements a runtime technique, which involves heuristics from dynamic collection behavior to calculate an optimal number of garbage collector threads for each collection cycle. The results show an average of 21% improvements to the garbage collection performance for DaCapo benchmarks.