First report of a norovirus outbreak associated with the variant Sydney 2012 in Portugal

Introduction: This study describes the investigation of a gastroenteritis outbreak in a group of students, associated with a dinner reunion in February 2013 in Porto, Portugal. Methodology: An anonymous structured questionnaire was developed and sent to 34 students who attended the dinner reunion. Eighteen students completed the questionnaire and thirteen met the case definition (attack rate of 72%). Stools from two students were screened for norovirus by RT-PCR using primer pairs that target the highly conserved polymerase gene and the capsid gene. Results: Norovirus genotyping confirmed the variant Sydney 2012 as the probable cause of the outbreak. Conclusion: This is the first report of an outbreak associated with the new variant Sydney 2012 in Portugal.The study was supported by FEDER funds through Programa Operacional Factores de Competividade (COMPETE), by national funding through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (project PTDC/CVT/113218/2009), and by grant SFRH/BD/45407/2008, and by project Ovislab ICT-2013-05-004-5314 ID-64757

Percentual of body weight loss of horses submitted to endurance exercise in West Center of Brazil

Objetivou-se com esse estudo avaliar o percentual de perdas de peso sofridas por cavalos submetidos a provas de enduro de 20, 40, 80 e 160 km de distância sob clima tropical na região central do Brasil (Brasília-DF). Os animais foram pesados antes, durante e após as provas com a utilização de uma balança portátil. Observou-se percentuais de perdas de peso de 3,47±1,86%, 5,93±4,35%; 4,69±2,01% e 4,53±2,11%, nas provas de 20, 40, 80 e 160 Km, respectivamente. Tais valores foram significativamente maiores ao final da primeira etapa das provas quando comparados com o peso antes das provas, no repouso revelando importante redução de perdas na continuidade das provas, provavelmente devido ao melhor condicionamento dos animais além do livre acesso a água e feno durante os períodos obrigatórios de descanso. A utilização de balanças portáteis deve ser estimulada em provas equestres de longa duração, como uma ferramenta de monitoramento de perdas de peso imperceptíveis por veterinários durante as competições. Os resultados obtidos revelaram que mesmo animais treinados e condicionados a beber água e se alimentar durante esforços prolongados estão sujeitos a importantes perdas de peso. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the percentage of body weight loss suffered from horses submitted to endurance rides of 20, 40, 80 and 160 Km distance under tropical climate in West Center of Brazil (Brasilia-DF). Horses were weighted before, during and after the competition, with a portable scale. It was noticed percentual body weight losses of 3,47±1,86%, 5,93±4,35%; 4,69±2,01% and 4,53±2,11%, in 20, 40, 80 and 160 Km rides, respectively. These values were higher in the first weighting point, compared to basal values, with an important reduction throughout subsequent rings of rides, probably due to a better animal condition and free intake of water and forage, during the mandatory rest periods. The use of portable scales should be used for prolonged rides as a tool for veterinarians to monitor insensible body weight losses of horses in this kind of exercise. Data also revealed that even trained horses are susceptible to important body weight losses

Herança da resistência à mancha-foliar de feosféria em milho.

A mancha-foliar de feosféria tem causado expressiva redução no rendimento de grãos de milho, no Brasil, principalmente, em decorrência da crescente amplitude da data de semeadura, conjugada com o uso de áreas irrigadas e de plantio direto. É importante o desenvolvimento de genótipos resistentes a essa moléstia; porém a realização de uma seleção eficiente depende do entendimento da va-riabilidade genética e da herança da resistência. Com o objetivo de determinar a capacidade combinatória e o modo de herança do caráter, foram cruzadas sete linhagens de milho, para a realização das análises dialélica e média de gerações. Os experimentos foram conduzidos no Município de Xanxerê, SC, sendo avaliada a porcentagem de tecido foliar afetado pela moléstia 30 dias após o florescimento. Os genótipos apresentaram amplitude de 4,3% a 67,0% de área foliar afetada pela moléstia, na qual a linhagem LA06 e seus híbridos demonstraram elevada resistência. Os resultados indicaram que a seleção de genótipos resistentes à feosféria pode ser realizada com sucesso em programas de melhoramento do milho, visto que a manifestação do caráter é controlada por, pelo menos, dois genes independentes e com uma efetiva participação de efeitos aditivos.Título em inglês: Inheritance of the resistance to phaeosphaeria leaf spot in maize

Development of an RP-UHPLC-PDA method for quantification of free gossypol in cottonseed cake and fungal-treated cottonseed cake.

Abstract: Cottonseed cake biomass, which is a residue of oil extraction, is potentially appropriate for use as animal feed, given the high mineral, fibre and protein content. The presence of free gossypol, however, a toxic pigment in the glands of the cotton plant, limits use of this biomass for monogastric livestock. A promising method to detoxify cottonseed cake relies on fermentation by fungi, which can eliminate up to 100% of gossypol. In order to quantify trace levels of free gossypol in different cotton materials, including cottonseed cake treated with macrofungi, a simple and rapid chromatographic detection method was developed and validated. Under optimized conditions, extraction was performed using 70% acetone. The extract was then analysed by Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC), with gradient elution on a C18 reverse phase column KINETEX® (100 x 2.10 mm, 2.6 um). Methanol-0.1% TFA aqueous solution was employed as mobile phase and PDA detection conducted at 254 nm. The optimized method was validated by analysis of specificity, linearity and range, limit of detection, limit of quantification, precision and accuracy. Detection and quantification limits were observed at 0.2 and 0.5 ug/mL, respectively. With good reproducibility, with precision (RSD)<10% and recovery greater than 94%, the developed assay was appropriate for quantification of low quantities of free gossypol. The validated method was successfully applied to determine trace levels of free gossypol cottonseed treated with a macrofungus

Trichoderma spp. no controle biológico da podridão basal da palma de óleo.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi selecionar isolados de Trichoderma spp. no controle da podridão basal

Potencial de isolados de Bacillus spp. para o controle de Thielaviopsis ethacetica.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o potencial de controle de Thielaviopsis ethacetica por Bacillus spp

Assembléias de Formicidae da serapilheira como bioindicadores da conservação de remanescentes de Mata Atlântica no extremo sul do Estado da Bahia

In the extreme south of Bahia State, the Atlantic rainforest has been strongly affected by anthropogenic actions for a long time. Ants are seen as good biological indicators because of their abundance and sensitivity to changes of environmental conditions, thus allowing the evaluation of environmental impacts. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental quality in four Atlantic Forest remnants through the study of Formicidae assemblages. Four reserves sampled during the experiment were: the school of agriculture EMARC (CEPLAC) in Teixeira de Freitas; Vista Alegre Farm in Alcobaça; FIBRASA Farm in Itamarajú; and Riacho das Pedras Farm in Prado. In each area, 50 units of one square meter of litter were sampled at intervals of 50m and 100m of the border using “Winkler” traps. The most frequent ants in EMARC reserve were: Wasmannia auropunctata (60%) and Solenopsis sp.1 (58%); in FIBRASA farm: W. auropunctata (64%) and Solenopsis sp.1 (46%); in Riacho das Pedras farm: Pyramica eggersi (80%) and Solenopsis sp.1 (64%); in Vista Alegre farm: Pheidole sp.1 (34%), Hypoponera sp.8 (32%) and Pyramica denticulata (24%). The highest value of diversity index (Shannon-Weaver) was observed in FIBRASA farm (3.41), followed by Riacho das Pedras farm (3.31), Vista Alegre farm (3.00), and EMARC reserve (2.33). The largest number of species was observed in FIBRASA and in Riacho das Pedras farms (55 species), followed by Vista Alegre (33) and EMARC (22). The area with the highest estimated diversity is the FIBRASA farm, while the reserve of EMARC had the lowest estimate. There were correlations between the level of human impact, the species found and generic richness, as well as with other ecological variables. All the studied areas had a high occurrence of species typical of degraded lands, showing that urgent conservation measures are needed to the increasingly more rare remnants of forest in the extreme South Bahia State.No extremo sul do Estado da Bahia, a Mata Atlântica tem sido fortemente afetada pelas atividades humanas. As formigas são vistas como indicadores biológicos confiáveis por serem sensíveis às mudanças das condições do ambiente, permitindo uma avaliação do impacto ambiental. O objetivo do presente estudo foi de avaliar a qualidade ambiental em quatro remanescentes de Mata Atlântica através de uma análise da estrutura das assembléias de Formicidae. As quatro reservas estudadas, todas situadas naquela região, foram: reserva da escola agrícola EMARC, Município de Teixeira de Freitas; Fazenda Vista Alegre, Alcobaça; Fazenda FIBRASA, Itamarajú e Fazenda Riacho das Pedras, Prado. Em cada área, foram amostrados 50 pontos de um metro quadrado de serapilheira, com o auxílio de armadilhas de tipo “Winkler”. O maior número de espécies observado foi na Fazenda FIBRASA (55 espécies) e na Fazenda Riacho das Pedras, seguidas pela Fazenda Vista Alegre (33) e a reserva da EMARC (22). A área de maior diversidade de espécies esperada (estimador Chao2) é também a da Fazenda FIBRASA, enquanto a área da EMARC foi também a de menor diversidade esperada. As espécies mais freqüentes na reserva da EMARC foram Wasmannia auropunctata (60% das amostras) e Solenopsis sp1 (58%); na Fazenda FIBRASA, W. auropunctata (64%) e Solenopsis sp.1 (46%); na Fazenda Riacho das Pedras, Pyramica eggersi (80%) e Solenopsis sp.1 (64%); na Fazenda Vista Alegre, Pheidole sp.1 (34%), Hypoponera sp.8 (32%) e Pyramica denticulata (24%). Existem correlações entre o nível de impacto humano e as riquezas específica e genérica, assim como com outras variáveis ecológicas, nas áreas estudadas. Todas essas apresentaram uma ocorrência elevada de espécies típicas de ambientes degradados, como é o caso de W. auropunctata, mostrando a urgência que existe numa política de conservação mais efetiva dos cada vez mais raros remanescentes do extremo sul do Estado da Bahia

Understanding the flux of nitrous oxide from the eucalypt soil in monoculture and Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest systems.

The Brazilian agricultural sector is largely responsible for nitrous oxide (N2O) soil emissions, mainly due to beef cattle and the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, Brazil is looking for measures, such as integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF), to increase productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this sector. The forest component within this system plays a positive role in the context of climate change, soil conservation, carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, and biodiversity protection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of management and rainfall on N2O emissions in eucalypt monoculture soils and eucalypt soils in ICLF systems. Manual static chambers were used to collect gas samples, from November 2013 to October 2014, in four treatments, i.e., one eucalypt monoculture (F) and three modalities of ICLF (livestock-forest [LF], livestock-crop-forest [LCF], and integrated crop-livestock-forest [ICLF]). A gas chromatograph with an electron capture detector was used to measure the N2O concentrations. The results showed that rainfall considerably affected N2O fluxes across all the treatments, indicating that rainfall is the main factor in increasing emissions. During the wet season, the N2O levels ranged from 0.158 to 0.482 kg N-N2O ha-1 across all treatments. During the dry season, all treatments behaved like sinks of N2O. Moreover, N2O flux did not differ between the soils in the eucalypt monoculture and ICLF systems. This indicates that the forestry component in the ICLF systems did not affect N2O soil fluxes