Isolation of Pasteurella haemolytica from the Spleen of Chickens

Pasteurella haemolytica was isolated from eight spleens of chickens with white focal lesions. A pathogenicity study in chickens did not reveal any significant findings

Analysis of Drought Index in Sub-Urban Area Using Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)

The climate change interference and increase of surface temperature have contributed to the changes at the atmosphere that give a significant effect to the availability of water. Malaysia is one of the countries which effected with this event and had been suffered series of drought events in 1997, 1998, and 2014. These problems contribute to the disruption of country’s economic development and quality of life. The using of drought indices for analytical is important and it can estimate the drought affect hat are being experienced accurately. The Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is one of the methods in determination of drought indices. Thus, the objective of this paper is to determine the drought index using the Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) for sub-urban river basin which is Pahang River basin. The rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET) data were obtained from Malaysian Meteorological Department (Met Malaysia) starting from 1988 until 2018 in determining the SPEI value for sub-urban river basin. RStudio software are being used to determine the value of SPEI for different timescale, which is 3, and 12-month. The significant value of SPEI for the river basin are influence by the population, topography, rainfall, and land use. Findings from this study are believed to the mitigation can be proposed to the related organization to take an action in designing, planning, and managing the water supply and to prevent the serious impact on the agricultural and country economic development as well

Analysis of Drought Index in Sub-Urban Area Using Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)

The climate change interference and increase of surface temperature have contributed to the changes at the atmosphere that give a significant effect to the availability of water. Malaysia is one of the countries which effected with this event and had been suffered series of drought events in 1997, 1998, and 2014. These problems contribute to the disruption of country’s economic development and quality of life. The using of drought indices for analytical is important and it can estimate the drought affect hat are being experienced accurately. The Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is one of the methods in determination of drought indices. Thus, the objective of this paper is to determine the drought index using the Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) for sub-urban river basin which is Pahang River basin. The rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET) data were obtained from Malaysian Meteorological Department (Met Malaysia) starting from 1988 until 2018 in determining the SPEI value for sub-urban river basin. RStudio software are being used to determine the value of SPEI for different timescale, which is 3, and 12-month. The significant value of SPEI for the river basin are influence by the population, topography, rainfall, and land use. Findings from this study are believed to the mitigation can be proposed to the related organization to take an action in designing, planning, and managing the water supply and to prevent the serious impact on the agricultural and country economic development as well

Undrained shear strength of soft clay mixed with different percentages of lime and silica fume

Soil stabilisation, as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method, is used in the building of systems like roads, dams, canals and river levels. Chemical stabilisation of soil is carried out by adding binder or by-products like lime and silica fume to the soil thereby modifying the geotechnical performance of the soil. Various researchers have carried out research on the properties of soil, such as its compaction, compressibility, hydraulic conductivity, and strength characteristics. The focus of the study was the determination of the physical properties of the soft clay used and the strength of soft clay (kaolin) mixed with 6 % of silica fume and various percentages (3 %, 5 %, 7 % and 9 %) of lime. Unconfined compression test was carried out on the soft clay and the mixtures of soft clay-lime-silica fume to investigate the effect of lime stabilisation with silica fume additives on the unconfined compressive strength of the mixtures. Based on the results obtained, all soil samples were indicated as soils with medium plasticity. From 0 % to 9 % of lime with 6 % of silica fume, the decreased in the maximum dry density was by 5.92 % and the increased in the optimum moisture content was by 23.5 %. Decreased in the coefficient of permeability of the mixtures occurred when compared to the coefficient of permeability of the soft clay itself. The improvement in shear strength of soft clay mixed with 6 % silica fume and 5 % lime was 29.83 % compared to the shear strength of the soft clay sample. The optimal percentage of lime-silica fume combination was attained at 5.0 % of lime and 6.0 % of silica fume in order to improve the shear strength of soft clay. It can be concluded that lime-silica fume additives improved the unconfined compressive strength of the soft clay

Sequence analysis and expression of VP3 gene of chicken anaemia virus

Chicken anaemia virus (CAV) isolate BL-5 VP3 gene was amplified, sequenced and expressed in E. coli as a fusion protein together with a six-histidine tag. The deduced amino acid sequence of VP3 was identical to other CAV isolates Cux-1, A2 and CIA-1 except for a single amino acid substitution at position 12. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis indicated that the expressed protein is insoluble and was found primarily from the cell lysate fraction. Expression of the protein was detected as early as 1 h, with maximum expression (~12% of the total protein) at 6 h post induction with IPTG. This study indicates that VP3 protein is highly expressed in insoluble form in E. coli. However, the biological function of the protein remains to be studie

Edible bird's nest (EBN) is a potential natural product against influenza virus infection

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is an emergent industry in Malaysia. In 2016, EBN worth RM 1.2 billion with the total production of 228-tonne metrics. EBN is salivary secretion of swiftlets (Aerodramus spp.) that contained various nutritive values. Back in Tang Dynasty, it had been recognized as a natural product with broad medicinal effects. Recently, various scientific studies have been done to elucidate the medicinal properties of this precious food. For the past 10 years, antiviral effects of EBN had been explained via in-vitro and in-vivo well-designed researches, in which generally EBN is exerting a good alternative food for prophylactic and therapeutic agent against Influenza A virus infection in the laboratory setting. The limited study had been done to identify the bioactive ingredient of EBN that have antiviral properties. Nevertheless, based on the previous nutritional studies, some contents of EBN have been hypothesised to serve as an antiviral agent, and comprehensive study is required to explicate those claimed. The aim of this paper is to review on the recent discovery pertaining to the potential antiviral effect of EBN in the cell culture and animal model studies

Molecular characterization of fowl adenoviruses isolated from inclusion body hepatitis outbreaks in commercial broiler chickens in Malaysia

Fowl adenoviruses (FAdVs), belonging to the Aviadenovirus genus of the family Adenoviridae, have been classified into five species (A to E) and further divided into 12 serotypes. The objective of this study was to identify the serotype classification of five Malaysian FAdV isolates obtained from field outbreaks of IBH in commercial broiler chickens. Hexon-based polymerase chain reactions (PCR), combined with restriction enzyme analysis (REA), were applied. Viral DNA reacted positively with H1/H2 and H3/ H4 primer pairs which hybridised to highly conserved regions of the hexon genes. The restriction enzyme profiles of the H1/H2 fragment digested with HaeII and the H3/H4 fragment digested with HpaII revealed that all five isolates shared identical patterns and are characterised as being FAdV-8b, species E. Meanwhile, sequence analysis of the L1 loop region of the hexon gene revealed 98.1% identity with FAdV-8b strain 764. High bootstrap values in phylogenetic analysis supported the clustering of the Malaysian FAdV isolates into FAdV species E. The present study has provided a very useful reference for further studies of FAdVs in Malaysia. Vaccination strategies should be developed against FAdVs infection in commercial broiler chickens to prevent IBH outbreaks in the country

Survey of campylobacter, salmonella and mycoplasmas in house crows (Corvus splendens) in Malaysia

House crows (Corvus splendens) in Selangor, Malaysia were examined for the presence of Campylobacter species, Salmonella species, Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae by serology, culture and pcr. For the detection of Campylobacter and Salmonella species swabs were taken either from the intestine or cloaca. For the detection of mycoplasmas, swabs were taken either from the choanal cleft or trachea for culture and pcr and serum samples were tested by the rapid serum agglutination (rsa) and monoclonal antibody-blocking elisa (mbelisa) for antibodies to M gallisepticum and M synoviae. For campylobacter, 25·3 per cent of the crows were positive by culture, and the species identified were Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. No Salmonella species were isolated. Four of 24 swabs were positive for M gallisepticum dna but none gave positive results for M synoviae dna. No M gallisepticum or M synoviae antibodies were detected by rsa but 60 per cent of the sera gave positive reactions for M gallisepticum and 13 per cent gave positive reactions for M synoviae by mbelisa

Performance of Phytogreen Zone for BOD5 and SS Removal for Refurbishment Conventional Oxidation Pond in an Integrated Phytogreen System

In this study, the effectiveness of an integrated aquatic plants in phytogreen zone was studied and statistical analysis for the promotional integrated phytogreen system approached was discussed. It was found that's the effectiveness of using aquatic plant such as Typha angustifolia sp., Lepironia articulata sp., Limnocharis flava sp., Monochoria vaginalis sp., Pistia stratiotes sp., and Eichhornia crassipes sp., in the conventional oxidation pond process in order to comply the standard A according to Malaysia Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127); Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulation 2009 for effluent discharge into inland water near the residential area was successfully shown. It was concluded that the integrated phtogreen system developed in this study has great potential for refurbishment wastewater in conventional oxidation pond

Cytolytic effects and apoptosis induction of newcastle disease virus strain AF2240 on anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumor cell line.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a member of genus Avulavirus within the family Paramyxoviridae. Interest of using NDV as an anticancer agent has arisen from its ability to kill tumor cells with limited toxicity to normal cells. In this investigation, the cytotolytic properties of NDV strain AF2240 were evaluated on brain tumor cell line, anaplastic astrocytoma (U-87MG), by using MTT assay. Cytological observations were studied using fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy to show the apoptogenic features of NDV on U-87MG. DNA laddering in agarose gel electrophoresis and terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP-X nick end-labeling staining assay confirmed that the mode of cell death was by apoptosis. However, analysis of the cellular DNA content by flowcytometery showed that there was a loss of treated U-87MG cells in all cell cycle phases (G1, S and G2/M) accompanied with increasing in sub-G1 region (apoptosis peak). Early apoptosis was observed 6 h post-inoculation by annexin-V flow-cytometry method. It could be concluded that NDV strain AF2240 is a potent antitumor agent that induce apoptosis and its cytotoxicity increasing while increasing of time and virus titer