Isolation of two strains of West Nile virus during an outbreak in southern Russia, 1999.

From July to September 1999, a widespread outbreak of meningoencephalitis associated with West Nile virus (Flavivirus, Flaviviridae) occurred in southern Russia, with hundreds of cases and dozens of deaths. Two strains of West Nile virus isolated from patient serum and brain-tissue samples reacted in hemagglutination-inhibition and neutralization tests with patients' convalescent-phase sera and immune ascites fluid from other strains of West Nile virus

Provision of Epidemiological Welfare on Plague under Aggravation of Epizootic Situation in the Pre-Caspian Sandy Natural Plague Focus in 2014

Reviewed are the lessons learned from cooperation between Rospotrebnadzor institutions in the provision of epidemiological welfare on plague under aggravation of epizootic situation in the territory of the Pre-Caspian sandy natural plague focus in 2014. Plague control measures combined epizootiological and epidemiological monitoring, specific and non-specific prophylaxis, training activities for medical and veterinary officers, instructional advice for medical facilities on matters of infection prevention, and sensitization campaign. Furthermore, vaccinated against plague were 4460 people, field disinsection over 50.5 km2 area was performed, as well as field deratization - 89.4 km2, township disinsection - 257.3 thous. m2, and township deratization - 329.1 thous. m2. Financial expenses on prophylactic (anti-epidemic) activities amounted to 23265.8 thousand rubles. Outlined was viability of preventive planning and prophylactic measures in the territories with forecasted aggravation of epizootic situation in natural plague foci of the Russian Federation

Improvement of harvesting technology of sorghum

The last years have seen a wide application of grain crop stripping technology. All harvesting combines are now equipped with stripper heads. Due to the decrease of number of stems in the stripped grain mass the load on the threshing unit also decreases on 75-80%. It increases productivity of grain harvester in 1.5-1.7 times. Because of a small share of the lands under sorghum, participating in crop rotations, the implementation of sorghum harvesting by stripping technology is paid little attention. At the same time when sorghum is harvested by the traditional method of threshing, plant stems are compressed and rubbed. As a result moisture of the stems falls on grain, it is absorbed by grain and it increases grain humidity. The stripping harvesting does no deform the stems that allow harvesting grain with the same moisture as before stripping. Thus the article considers the possibility to adapt harvesting stripping technology for sorghum, though it has been predominantly designed for grain crops. The experiments showed that the share of non-grain part after stripping of the grain sorghum variety ‘Zernogradskoe 53’ was 17.3%, that was similar to the stripped grain mass of grain crops and in 1.77 times less than after stripping of sweet sorghum. The data about losses of grain obtained during the study greatly vary. The grain losses after stripping of sweet sorghum were 7.6%, that was in 2.64 times more than after stripping of grain sorghum variety ‘Zernogradskoe 53’. Thus, the grain sorghum variety ‘Zernogradskoe 53’ and other varieties of the similar morphology can be harvested with crop stripping technology, using constantly manufactured stripper headers. But the present stripper headers are not suitable for harvesting of sweet sorghum and other varieties of similar morphology and they require large modernization

CONJUGACY OF SORGHUM GREEN MASS PRODUCTIVITY WITH ORIGIN AND QUANTITATIVE TRAITS

Development of a new variety with the highest level of productivity is one of the important purposes of all farmers. It is known that varieties developed in definite soil and climatic conditions are most adapted specifically to these conditions. The change of the cultivation zone has a different effect on the intensity of individual traits, including productivity, which justifies their ecological study. Thus, productivity reflects all the biological characteristics of the samples and its relation to growing conditions. Therefore, the study of this trait in collection samples is an important stage in the development of new highly productive sorghum varieties and hybrids. The study was carried out at the FSBSI Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” (Zernograd, Rostov Region) in 2016–2018. The object of the study was a collection nursery, which includes the varieties and lines developed at the FSBSI Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”, and other scientific institutions, as well as the samples sent by the FRC ARIGRR named after N. I. Vavilov. The total number is 335 samples. The sweet sorghum collection has been represented by the samples of various ecological and geographical origin. However, 48.1% (161 samples) have been represented by the samples from Russia. Green mass productivity of the collection samples varied from 980 to 5968 g/m2 . At the same time, 24.5% (82 pcs.) of the collection samples had yields within the standard 3200-5200 g/m2 . The collection samples ‘BB-442’, ‘K-533’, ‘K-668/1’, ‘K-1073’, ‘K-1437/2’, ‘K-1202/1’, ‘K-1802’, ‘K-1654/1’ (2.4% of all) significantly exceeded the standard (4200 g/m2 ). The samples from Palestine, Bulgaria and Brazil possessed the highest values of green mass productivity in the middle group (median). The samples from the Russian Federation had a group average of 2000 g/m2 , with a range of variation from 600 to 4300 g/m2 . Length of a growing season (r = 0.46 ± 0.00004), leaf length (r = 0.48 ± 0.00001), leaf width (r = 0.62 ± 0.0002), and a number of leaves (r = 0.42 ± 0.00001) have shown the largest effect on green mass productivity