Evaluación cuantitativa del riesgo de entrada del virus de la gripe aviar altamente patógeno en la comunidad valenciana por importación de aves vivas

The Region of Valencia has had many imports of live poultry from different countries that have had several outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Bird flu during their history. The aim of this paper is to do a quantitative assessment of the risk of entry of HPAI in the Region of Valencia and its provinces due to the importation of live poultry, and identify the countries which entail a higher risk. The results indicate that Alicante is the province with more risk and Italy is the country that represents the greatest proportion of risk due to his imports. The probability to introduce the HPAI virus to the Region of Valencia due to life poultry imports is low.En la Comunidad Valenciana (CV) se importa cantidades altas de aves vivas desde países que han sufrido algún brote de influenza aviar altamente patógena (HPAI) a lo largo de su historia. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una evaluación cuantitativa del riesgo que hay de que el virus HPAI entre en la CV y sus provincias por importación de aves vivas, e identificar los países desde los que es más probable introducirlo. Los resultados obtenidos muestran a Alicante como la provincia con más probabilidad de sufrir la entrada del virus y a Italia, el país desde donde hay más probabilidad que entre. La probabilidad de introducir el virus HPAI en la CV mediante importaciones de aves vivas es baja

Urinary Biomarkers for Kidney Disease in ATTR Amyloidosis

Aim: The detection and prognosis of nephropathy in transthyretin amyloidosis depends on albuminuria and renal function. Knowing that urinary levels of alpha-1 microglobulin and beta-2 microglobulin reflect tubular dysfunction while urinary alpha-2 macroglobulin implies glomerular damage, we decide investigate the diagnostic value of these markers in the patients with transthyretin amyloidosis. Methods: Serum and urinary samples collected from 30 patients and 11 asymptomatic carriers were tested for alpha-1 microglobulin, beta-2 microglobulin, alpha-2 macroglobulin, albumin, creatinine and cystatin C. Results: Pathological urinary alpha-1 microglobulin was detected in 17 patients, beta-2 microglobulin in 6 and alpha-2 macroglobulin in 5; 5 patients had albuminuria (mg/g creatinine) 30-300 and in 20 patients values >300 were present. Asymptomatic carriers did not present pathological excretion of these biomarkers and albuminuria was >30 in 1 individual. The excretion rates of alpha-1 microglobulin and beta-2 microglobulin were positively correlated with albuminuria (P<0.001), serum creatinine (P<0.05) and cystatin C (P<0.001). Urinary alpha-2 macroglobulin was almost exclusively found in the presence of albuminuria, although their levels do not correlate. Conclusion: Urinary biomarkers emerge as a potential approach to detect renal disease but unexpectedly, urinary alpha-2 macroglobulin was not a marker of the severity of albuminuria

Identifying spanish areas at more risk of monthly BTV transmission with a basic reproduction number approach

Bluetongue virus (BTV) causes a disease that is endemic in Spain and its two major biological vector species, C. imicola and the Obsoletus complex species, differ greatly in their ecology and distribution. Understanding the seasonality of BTV transmission in risk areas is key to improving surveillance and control programs, as well as to better understand the pathogen transmission networks between wildlife and livestock. Here, monthly risk transmission maps were generated using risk categories based on well-known BTV R0 equations and predicted abundances of the two most relevant vectors in Spain. Previously, Culicoides spp. predicted abundances in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands were obtained using remote sensing data and random forest machine learning algorithm. Risk transmission maps were externally assessed with the estimated date of infection of BTV-1 and BTV-4 historical outbreaks. Our results highlight the differences in risk transmission during April-October, June-August being the period with higher R0 values. Likewise, a natural barrier has been identified between northern and central-southern areas at risk that may hamper BTV spread between them. Our results can be relevant to implement risk-based interventions for the prevention, control and surveillance of BTV and other diseases shared between livestock and wildlife host populations

Using fuzzy sets to analyse personal preferences on groupware tools

When stakeholders are geographically distributed communication presents new challenges for software engineering community. In order to improve communication between stakeholders, we have previously proposed to apply learning style models to characterise the way people interact. In this work we enhance that model, using fuzzy reasoning, to find a set of rules that tell us which groupware tools are more suitable according to stakeholders classification.Eje: I - Workshop de Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Bluetongue virus serotypes 1 and 4 in red deer, Spain

We studied the potential of red deer as bluetongue maintenance hosts and sentinels. Deer maintained detectable bluetongue virus (BTV) serotype 4 RNA for 1 year after the virus was cleared from livestock. However, the virus was not transmitted to yearlings. BTV serotype 1 RNA was detected in red deer immediately after its first detection in cattle.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Natural, Rural and Marine Environment (RASVE 274/2007, and an agreement between Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (OAPN), Dirección General de Recursos Agricolas y Ganaderos (DGRAG), and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC). F.R.-F. is supported by a postdoctoral contract of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Spanish government.Peer Reviewe