Coronavirus–associated enteritis in a quail farm

An enteric syndrome observed in semi-intensively reared quails is described. The affected birds showed depression, severe diarrhoea and dehydration. The mortality occurred particularly in young birds. At necropsy, the prominent lesion was catarrhal enteritis. Laboratory investigations demonstrated the presence of coronavirus in the gut of dead animals. No additional pathogens were detected. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for the presence of CoVs in quail with enteritis

Role of Thyroglobulin, Neck Ultrasound, Thyroglobulin Antibodies Trend and Diagnostic Whole Body Scan in the Management of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients with Persistent Thyroglobulin Antibodies

Background: During the follow-up of differentiated thyroid cancer patients, the presence of thyroglobulin antibodies makes thyroglobulin measurements unreliable. For this reason, thyroglobulin antibodies measurement and the evaluation of their titer trend are also recommended. Objective: We aimed to identify the best method among stimulated thyroglobulin, thyroglobulin antibodies titer trend, neck ultrasound and diagnostic whole body scan for detecting the presence of disease in a group of differentiated thyroid cancer patients with thyroglobulin antibodies. Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of 212 consecutive differentiated thyroid cancer patients with thyroglobulin antibodies referred to us between 2005 and 2007 for performing a diagnostic whole body scan. All patients were evaluated during the first two years after the initial treatment. Results: Diagnostic whole body scan sensitivity and specificity in detecting persistent diseases were 70% and 72%, respectively. Diagnostic whole body scan alone had the best positive and negative predictive values (93% and 32%, respectively). A low sensitivity and specificity (56% and 10%, respectively) for increasing or stable thyroglobulin antibodies titer trends were also identified. A good compromise between sensitivity and specificity was obtained when diagnostic whole body scan, stimulated thyroglobulin and neck ultrasound were combined without considering thyroglobulin antibodies trend evaluations (82% and 45%, respectively). Conclusions: Diagnostic whole body scan plays an important role in detecting persistent disease in differentiated thyroid cancer patients with thyroglobulin antibodies, both alone and in association with other methods. However, its low negative predictive value suggests that when a suspicious persistent disease is present, the use of other imaging methods, such as computed tomography scan or FDG-positron emission computed tomography, is recommended. Finally, from this study, it appears that the thyroglobulin antibodies titer trend does not add any useful information about the disease status in the first two years after initial treatment

No difference in the outcome of metastatic thyroid cancer patients when using recombinant or endogenous TSH

Objective: At the present, recombinant TSH cannot be used for the treatment of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer patients. Aim of this study was to evaluate if the type of TSH stimulation, recombinant or endogenous, had an impact on the outcome of these patients. Design and methods: We compared the outcome of two propensity score-matched groups of metastatic patients, stimulated by either only recombinant TSH (n=43) or only endogenous TSH (n=34). Results: As expected from the matching procedure, the clinical-pathological features and the cumulative 131I-activities administered of the two groups were very similar. After 4 years of follow-up 4% of patients were cured, 3% had biochemical disease and 93% had structural disease. However, 91% of patients obtained a clinical benefit from this therapy in terms of stabilization of the disease or complete remission or partial response. When considering the two groups separately we did not find any difference in their outcome. When considering the response to 131-I therapy of the single type of metastases, 8% of lymph node metastases and 8% of lung metastases disappeared but none of bone metastases. The response to 131-I therapy of the single type of metastases was similar when we looked at the two groups separately. Conclusions: this study shows a) an overall clinical benefit of the 131-I therapy since the majority of patients remained affected but with a stable disease b) the preparation with either recombinant or endogenous TSH has no impact on the 131-I therapy efficacy and the outcome of our two groups of patients

Norovirus in Captive Lion Cub (Panthera leo)

African lions (Panthera leo) are susceptible to viral diseases of domestic carnivores, including feline calicivirus infection. We report the identification of a novel enteric calicivirus, genetically related to human noroviruses of genogroup IV, in a lion cub that died of severe hemorrhagic enteritis

Detection and Molecular Characterization of a Canine Norovirus

We identified a novel calicivirus in a pup with enteritis. The isolate was related genetically (90.1% aa identity in the capsid protein) to a lion norovirus strain

Long‐term persistence of neutralizing SARS‐CoV‐2 antibodies in pets

We monitored the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 antibody response in seven dogs and two cats by using two multispecies ELISA tests, plaque reduction neutralisation test and virus neutralization. SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in pets persisted up to 10 months since the first positive testing, thus replicating observations in COVID-19 human patients

Active surveillance in differentiated thyroid cancer: a strategy applicable to all treatment categories response

Currently, the differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) management is shifted toward a tailored approach based on the estimated risks of recurrence and disease-specific mortality. While the current recommendations on the management of metastatic and progressive DTC are clear and unambiguous, the management of slowly progressive or indeterminate disease varies according to different centers and different physicians. In this context, active surveillance (AS) becomes the main tool for clinicians, allowing them to plan a personalized therapeutic strategy, based on the risk of an unfavorable prognosis, and to avoid unnecessary treatment. This review analyzes the main possible scenarios in treated DTC patients who could take advantage of AS

Relationships among porcine and human P[6] rotaviruses: Evidence that the different human P[6] lineages have originated from multiple interspecies transmission events

AbstractPorcine rotavirus strains (PoRVs) bearing human-like VP4 P[6] gene alleles were identified. Genetic characterization with either PCR genotyping or sequence analysis allowed to determine the VP7 specificity of the PoRVs as G3, G4, G5 and G9, and the VP6 as genogroup I, that is predictive of a subgroup I specificity. Sequence analysis of the VP8* trypsin-cleavage product of VP4 allowed PoRVs to be characterized further into genetic lineages within the P[6] genotype. Unexpectedly, the strains displayed significantly higher similarity (up to 94.6% and 92.5% at aa and nt level, respectively) to human M37-like P[6] strains (lineage I), serologically classifiable as P2A, or to the atypical Hungarian P[6] human strains (HRVs), designated as lineage V (up to 97.0% aa and 96.1% nt), than to the porcine P[6] strain Gottfried, lineage II (<85.1% aa and 82.2 nt), which is serologically classified as P2B. Interestingly, no P[6] PoRV resembling the original prototype porcine strain, Gottfried, was detected, while Japanase P[6] PoRV clustered with the atypical Japanase G1 human strain AU19. By analysis of the 10th and 11th genome segments, all the strains revealed a NSP4B genogroup (Wa-like) and a NSP5/6 gene of porcine origin. These findings strongly suggest interspecies transmission of rotavirus strains and/or genes, and may indicate the occurrence of at least 3 separate rotavirus transmission events between pigs and humans, providing convincing evidence that evolution of human rotaviruses is tightly intermingled with the evolution of animal rotaviruses

Serum Albumin Is Inversely Associated With Portal Vein Thrombosis in Cirrhosis

We analyzed whether serum albumin is independently associated with portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in liver cirrhosis (LC) and if a biologic plausibility exists. This study was divided into three parts. In part 1 (retrospective analysis), 753 consecutive patients with LC with ultrasound-detected PVT were retrospectively analyzed. In part 2, 112 patients with LC and 56 matched controls were entered in the cross-sectional study. In part 3, 5 patients with cirrhosis were entered in the in vivo study and 4 healthy subjects (HSs) were entered in the in vitro study to explore if albumin may affect platelet activation by modulating oxidative stress. In the 753 patients with LC, the prevalence of PVT was 16.7%; logistic analysis showed that only age (odds ratio [OR], 1.024; P = 0.012) and serum albumin (OR, -0.422; P = 0.0001) significantly predicted patients with PVT. Analyzing the 112 patients with LC and controls, soluble clusters of differentiation (CD)40-ligand (P = 0.0238), soluble Nox2-derived peptide (sNox2-dp; P &lt; 0.0001), and urinary excretion of isoprostanes (P = 0.0078) were higher in patients with LC. In LC, albumin was correlated with sCD4OL (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient [r(s)], -0.33; P &lt; 0.001), sNox2-dp (r(s), -0.57; P &lt; 0.0001), and urinary excretion of isoprostanes (r(s), -0.48; P &lt; 0.0001) levels. The in vivo study showed a progressive decrease in platelet aggregation, sNox2-dp, and urinary 8-iso prostaglandin F2 alpha-III formation 2 hours and 3 days after albumin infusion. Finally, platelet aggregation, sNox2-dp, and isoprostane formation significantly decreased in platelets from HSs incubated with scalar concentrations of albumin. Conclusion: Low serum albumin in LC is associated with PVT, suggesting that albumin could be a modulator of the hemostatic system through interference with mechanisms regulating platelet activation