Estudo retrospectivo de 19 casos de polioencefalomalácia, em bovinos, responsivos ao tratamento com tiamina

Nineteen bovines of both sexes aging from 5 month-old to 5 year-old, were referred to a veterinary hospital. Clinical signs were observed from 6 hours to 10 days before. Thirteen animals were found in permanent lateral recumbency, five showed motor incoordination, 15 were exclusively fed on grass pasture, three showed partial loss of visual acuity, 14 were blindness, 16 showed presence of normal pupillary reflex, 16 decreased ruminal motility, 14 decreased sensorium (depression, semicoma or coma) and eight showed opisthotonos. Dehydration and dried feces were directly related to the time of evolution of the process. All the animals were administrated vitamin B1 and showed a marked improvement of the clinical status within 4 to 48 hours after treatment. The longer the time between the onset of the clinical signs and treatment, the greater the delay for the restoration of the vision. The treatment was very effective for a rapid response of the animal.

Descripción inmunohistoquímica de la encefalitis en bovinos brasileños naturalmente infectados con el herpesvirus bovino tipo 5 (HVB-5)

Twelve cases of viral meningoencephalitis in Brazilian cattle were submitted to immunohistochemical analysis for inflammatory response description. All the cases showed severe neurological signs followed by death. Mild to moderate histological inflammatory changes in the brain and cerebellum characterized the neurological infection showing meningitis, mononuclear perivascular cuffing, gliosis, haemorrhage, and macrophages (gitter cells) accompanying great areas of malacia. None of the cases showed intranuclear inclusion bodies. However, in five of them it was possible to isolate the BoHV-5. In order to collect data to allow the description of the inflammatory response in these cases, brain samples from all of the cases were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using polyclonal antibodies against CD3 to detect T cells, and against GFAP to detect astrocytes. On the other hand, monoclonal antibodies were used against BLA to detect B cells and, against MAC 387 to detect macrophages. The results indicate different degrees of prominent astrocytic response, and at the same time, T lymphocytes constituted a high percentage of the mononuclear cells which characterized the inflammatory response.

Detection of bovine herpesvirus 5 (BoHV-5) in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded bovine brain by nested PCR in Colombian cattle

Fifteen cases of viral meningoencephalitis in Colombian cattle were tested by nested PCR analysis for the detection of bovine herpesvirus 5 (BoHV-5). All fatal cases had shown severe neurological signs and had occurred following natural outbreaks of the disease. The neurological infection was histologically characterized by mild to moderate inflammatory changes in the brain and cerebellum, including meningitis, mononuclear perivascular cuffing, gliosis, haemorrhage, and the presence of Gitter cells (macrophages) accompanying large areas of malacia. No intranuclear inclusion bodies were seen in any of the cases. Results from BoHV-5 molecular extraction analyses showed there were five positive cases thus confirming the presence of the virus in Colombia.

A cluster-randomised intervention trial against Schistosoma japonicum in the Peoples' Republic of China: bovine and human transmission

Background Zoonotic schistosomiasis japonica is a major public health problem in China. Bovines, particularly water buffaloes, are thought to play a major role in the transmission of schistosomiasis to humans in China. Preliminary results (1998–2003) of a praziquantel (PZQ)-based pilot intervention study we undertook provided proof of principle that water buffaloes are major reservoir hosts for S. japonicum in the Poyang Lake region, Jiangxi Province. Methods and Findings Here we present the results of a cluster-randomised intervention trial (2004–2007) undertaken in Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces, with increased power and more general applicability to the lake and marshlands regions of southern China. The trial involved four matched pairs of villages with one village within each pair randomly selected as a control (human PZQ treatment only), leaving the other as the intervention (human and bovine PZQ treatment). A sentinel cohort of people to be monitored for new infections for the duration of the study was selected from each village. Results showed that combined human and bovine chemotherapy with PZQ had a greater effect on human incidence than human PZQ treatment alone. Conclusions The results from this study, supported by previous experimental evidence, confirms that bovines are the major reservoir host of human schistosomiasis in the lake and marshland regions of southern China, and reinforce the rationale for the development and deployment of a transmission blocking anti-S. japonicum vaccine targeting bovines.

Spectrometric and voltammetric studies of the interaction between quercetin and bovine serum albumin using warfarin as site marker with the aid of chemometrics

The interaction of quercetin, which is a bioflavonoid, with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated under pseudo-physiological conditions by the application of UV–vis spectrometry, spectrofluorimetry and cyclic voltammetry (CV). These studies indicated a cooperative interaction between the quercetin–BSA complex and warfarin, which produced a ternary complex, quercetin–BSA–warfarin. It was found that both quercetin and warfarin were located in site I. However, the spectra of these three components overlapped and the chemometrics method – multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) was applied to resolve the spectra. The resolved spectra of quercetin–BSA and warfarin agreed well with their measured spectra, and importantly, the spectrum of the quercetin–BSA–warfarin complex was extracted. These results allowed the rationalization of the behaviour of the overlapping spectra. At lower concentrations ([warfarin] < 1 × 10−5 mol L−1), most of the site marker reacted with the quercetin–BSA, but free warfarin was present at higher concentrations. Interestingly, the ratio between quercetin–BSA and warfarin was found to be 1:2, suggesting a quercetin–BSA–(warfarin)2 complex, and the estimated equilibrium constant was 1.4 × 1011 M−2. The results suggest that at low concentrations, warfarin binds at the high-affinity sites (HAS), while low-affinity binding sites (LAS) are occupied at higher concentrations.

Fluorescence spectrometric study on the interactions of isoprocarb and sodium 2-isopropylphenate with bovine serum albumin

The binding interaction of the pesticide Isoprocarb and its degradation product, sodium 2-isopropylphenate, with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied by spectrofluorimetry under simulated physiological conditions. Both Isoprocarb and sodium 2-isopropylphenate quenched the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA. This quenching proceeded via a static mechanism. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG°) obtained from the fluorescence data measured at two different temperatures showed that the binding of Isoprocarb to BSA involved hydrogen bonds and that of sodium 2-isopropylphenate to BSA involved hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy of the interaction of BSA with either Isoprocarb or sodium 2-isopropylphenate showed that the molecular structure of the BSA was changed significantly, which is consistent with the known toxicity of the pesticide, i.e., the protein is denatured. The sodium 2-isopropylphenate, was estimated to be about 4–5 times more toxic than its parent, Isoprocarb. Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy and the resolution of the three-way excitation–emission fluorescence spectra by the PARAFAC method extracted the relative concentration profiles of BSA, Isoprocab and sodium 2-isopropylphenate as a function of the added sodium 2-isopropylphenate. These profiles showed that the degradation product, sodium 2-isopropylphenate, displaced the pesticide in a competitive reaction with the BSA protein.

Human and bovine adenoviruses for the detection of source-specific fecal pollution in coastal waters in Australia

In this study, the host-specificity and -sensitivity of human- and bovine-specific adenoviruses (HS-AVs and BS-AVs) were evaluated by testing wastewater/fecal samples from various animal species in Southeast, Queensland, Australia. The overall specificity and sensitivity of the HS-AVs marker were 1.0 and 0.78, respectively. These figures for the BS-AVs were 1.0 and 0.73, respectively. Twenty environmental water samples were colleted during wet conditions and 20 samples were colleted during dry conditions from the Maroochy Coastal River and tested for the presence of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), host-specific viral markers, zoonotic bacterial and protozoan pathogens using PCR/qPCR. The concentrations of FIB in water samples collected after wet conditions were generally higher compared to dry conditions. HS-AVs was detected in 20% water samples colleted during wet conditions and whereas BS-AVs was detected in both wet (i.e., 10%) and dry (i.e., 10%) conditions. Both, C. jejuni mapA and Salmonella invA genes were detected in 10% and 10% of samples, respectively collected during dry conditions. The concentrations of Salmonella invA ranged between 3.5 × 102 to 4.3 × 102 genomic copies per 500 ml of water G. lamblia β-giardin gene was detected only in one sample (5%) collected during the dry conditions. Weak or significant correlations were observed between FIB with viral markers and zoonotic pathogens. However, during dry conditions, no significant correlations were observed between FIB concentrations with viral markers and zoonotic pathogens. The prevalence of HS-AVs in samples collected from the study river suggests that the quality of water is affected by human fecal pollution and as well as bovine fecal pollution. The results suggest that HS-AVs and BS-AVs detection using PCR could be a useful tool for the identification of human sourced fecal pollution in coastal waters.

Pet food from bovine origin drying by green heat pump technology and fluidization

Bovine intestine was dried in a heat pump fluid bed combination. Minimum fluidisation velocity was calculated by Ergun Equation and some relations were established.