Quantitative Outcomes of a One Health Approach to Investigate the First Outbreak of African Swine Fever in the Republic of Sierra Leone

African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks have been reported in Sub-Saharan countries, including West Africa states, but has never been notified in the Republic of Sierra Leone. This is the first report describing field epidemiological and laboratory investigations into the outbreak of fatal pig disease in western rural and urban districts, Freetown. A preliminary finding indicated that pigs exhibited clinical and necropsy signs suggestive of ASF. Serological (ELISA) and molecular (qRT-PCR) methods used to confirm and investigate the outbreak yielded three positive results for the ASF antibody and all negative for Swine flu; thus, confirming ASF as the etiology agent

Butterfly communities in miombo woodland: biodiversity declines with increaing woodland utilisation

Deforestation and degradation is threatening forests and woodlands globally. The deciduous miombo woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa are no exception, yet little is known about the flora and fauna they contain and the implications of their loss. Butterflies are recognised as indicators of environmental change; however the responses of butterflies in miombo woodlands have received little attention. This paper describes butterfly assemblages and their response to woodland utilisation in an understudied area of miombo woodland in south-west Tanzania. This is an area representative of miombo woodlands throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where woodland is utilised by local communities for a range of products, and is being rapidly converted to agriculture. Baited canopy traps and sweep nets were used to sample frugivorous and nectarivorous butterfly communities at different vertical stratifications in nine different study sites. 104 species were recorded, of which 16 are miombo specialists that have been recorded in Tanzania to the west of the country only. Indicator species were identified for three different levels of utilisation, with species from the sub-family Satyrinae indicating moderate utilisation. Generalised linear mixed effects models showed that butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance all decreased in response to increasing agriculture and anthropogenic utilisation. The loss of miombo woodlands is likely to result in declines in butterfly diversity. However, there was evidence of an intermediate disturbance effect for butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance with one utilisation variable, suggesting that a miombo woodland management plan that allows moderate sustainable utilisation in a heterogeneous landscape of mature miombo woodland and agriculture will simultaneously maintain butterfly communities and enable agricultural production

Serum response factor is required for sprouting angiogenesis and vascular integrity

Serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor that controls the expression of cytoskeletal proteins and immediate early genes in different cell types. Here, we found that SRF expression is restricted to endothelial cells (ECs) of small vessels such as capillaries in the mouse embryo. EC-specific Srf deletion led to aneurysms and hemorrhages from 11.5 days of mouse development (E11.5) and lethality at E14.5. Mutant embryos presented a reduced capillary density and defects in EC migration, with fewer numbers of filopodia in tip cells and ECs showing defects in actin polymerization and intercellular junctions. We show that SRF is essential for the expression of VE-cadherin and beta-actin in ECs both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, knockdown of SRF in ECs impaired VEGF- and FGF-induced in vitro angiogenesis. Taken together, our results demonstrate that SRF plays an important role in sprouting angiogenesis and small vessel integrity in the mouse embryo