Detection of hepatitis e virus (HEV) antibiodies in swine herds in Québec, Canada

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has a zoonotic potential and pork products have been identified as possible human infection sources. Swine HEV infection in pigs have now been reported in pigs in many countries and generally occurs at about 2-3 months of age. Data from USA indicated that about 80-100% of pigs in commercial farms are infected. The objective of this study was to estimate prevalence of HEV in selected Canadian herds by serology using the PrioCHECK HEV Ab porcine-ELISA kit

Porcine Hepatitis E

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic agent that can be transmitted from pigs to humans via consumption of pork and products derived of it. Recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a scientific opinion urging for measures to prevent Hepatitis E virus (HEV) from entering the food chain

Case study: Tuberculination, serology and bacteriology of sows at a farrowing unit suspected of an infection with Mycobacterium avium

Mycobacterium avium (MA) is considered a zoonotic hazard in pork. Herds delivered at slaughter showing gross lesions indicative of a mycobacterial infection, eg. specific abcesses in lymphoreticular tissue, were bacteriologically positive for MA. A risk factor analysis revealing different possible sources of primary infection was carried out at farms supplying these pigs. Also the common farrowing farm supplying the piglets to these farms was taken into account as a possible source of infection. Intradermal tuberculin testing, serology and tissue sampling was carried out on the sows and finishing pigs

Media response to colon cancer campaigns in Switzerland 2005-2007: regional newspapers are the most reliable among the printed media

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health campaigns are frequently covered by printed media, but coverage is not homogeneous across different types of newspapers. Switzerland as a multilinguistic country with many newspapers offers a good field for study. A better understanding of how printed media report on national campaigns against colon cancer in the three main linguistic regions may help to improve future public health interventions. Therefore, we analyzed articles published between 2005 and 2007 during the campaigns "<it>Darmkrebs-nie</it>?" and "<it>Self-Care</it>" in the German, French and Italian regions of Switzerland.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Some 65% of articles reporting on colon cancer were in German, 23% and 12% were in French and Italian respectively. During the campaign, topics linked to colon cancer were increasingly covered by the media. Regional newspapers (66%) reported significantly more about colon cancer and produced the most detailed articles.</p> <p>Both gain- and loss-framed messages have been used by journalists, whereas the campaigns used merely gain-framed messages. Latin (French and Italian) newspapers mixed gain- and loss-framed messages in the same articles, while German articles mainly used a single frame throughout.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Swiss-German papers reported more about the topic and the reporting was quantitatively and qualitatively more prominent in regional papers. The press followed the campaigns closely only during the period of campaigning, with high coverage. We propose to consider the regional press as an important vehicle of health information. Moreover, slight differences in framing can be observed between German and Latin articles.</p

Proposed Role for COUP-TFII in Regulating Fetal Leydig Cell Steroidogenesis, Perturbation of Which Leads to Masculinization Disorders in Rodents

Reproductive disorders that are common/increasing in prevalence in human males may arise because of deficient androgen production/action during a fetal ‘masculinization programming window’. We identify a potentially important role for Chicken Ovalbumin Upstream Promoter-Transcription Factor II (COUP-TFII) in Leydig cell (LC) steroidogenesis that may partly explain this. In rats, fetal LC size and intratesticular testosterone (ITT) increased ∼3-fold between e15.5-e21.5 which associated with a progressive decrease in the percentage of LC expressing COUP-TFII. Exposure of fetuses to dibutyl phthalate (DBP), which induces masculinization disorders, dose-dependently prevented the age-related decrease in LC COUP-TFII expression and the normal increases in LC size and ITT. We show that nuclear COUP-TFII expression in fetal rat LC relates inversely to LC expression of steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1)-dependent genes (StAR, Cyp11a1, Cyp17a1) with overlapping binding sites for SF-1 and COUP-TFII in their promoter regions, but does not affect an SF-1 dependent LC gene (3β-HSD) without overlapping sites. We also show that once COUP-TFII expression in LC has switched off, it is re-induced by DBP exposure, coincident with suppression of ITT. Furthermore, other treatments that reduce fetal ITT in rats (dexamethasone, diethylstilbestrol (DES)) also maintain/induce LC nuclear expression of COUP-TFII. In contrast to rats, in mice DBP neither causes persistence of fetal LC COUP-TFII nor reduces ITT, whereas DES-exposure of mice maintains COUP-TFII expression in fetal LC and decreases ITT, as in rats. These findings suggest that lifting of repression by COUP-TFII may be an important mechanism that promotes increased testosterone production by fetal LC to drive masculinization. As we also show an age-related decline in expression of COUP-TFII in human fetal LC, this mechanism may also be functional in humans, and its susceptibility to disruption by environmental chemicals, stress and pregnancy hormones could explain the origin of some human male reproductive disorders

Extreme disorder in an ultrahigh-affinity protein complex

Molecular communication in biology is mediated by protein interactions. According to the current paradigm, the specificity and affinity required for these interactions are encoded in the precise complementarity of binding interfaces. Even proteins that are disordered under physiological conditions or that contain large unstructured regions commonly interact with well-structured binding sites on other biomolecules. Here we demonstrate the existence of an unexpected interaction mechanism: the two intrinsically disordered human proteins histone H1 and its nuclear chaperone prothymosin-α associate in a complex with picomolar affinity, but fully retain their structural disorder, long-range flexibility and highly dynamic character. On the basis of closely integrated experiments and molecular simulations, we show that the interaction can be explained by the large opposite net charge of the two proteins, without requiring defined binding sites or interactions between specific individual residues. Proteome-wide sequence analysis suggests that this interaction mechanism may be abundant in eukaryotes

Detection of hepatitis e virus (HEV) antibiodies in swine herds in Québec, Canada

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has a zoonotic potential and pork products have been identified as possible human infection sources. Swine HEV infection in pigs have now been reported in pigs in many countries and generally occurs at about 2-3 months of age. Data from USA indicated that about 80-100% of pigs in commercial farms are infected. The objective of this study was to estimate prevalence of HEV in selected Canadian herds by serology using the PrioCHECK HEV Ab porcine-ELISA kit.</p

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in swine herds in Québec, Canada

Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In human being, foodborne contamination is mostly associated to consumption and manipulation of raw or undercooked meat, unwashed vegetables and fruit or drinking water contaminated by oocystes. In Canada, very few recent prevalence studies are available to evaluate the human exposure to T. gondii by meat products.</p

Detection of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in swine herds in Québec, Canada

Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In human being, foodborne contamination is mostly associated to consumption and manipulation of raw or undercooked meat, unwashed vegetables and fruit or drinking water contaminated by oocystes. In Canada, very few recent prevalence studies are available to evaluate the human exposure to T. gondii by meat products

Porcine Hepatitis E

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic agent that can be transmitted from pigs to humans via consumption of pork and products derived of it. Recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a scientific opinion urging for measures to prevent Hepatitis E virus (HEV) from entering the food chain.</p