Discovery of a polyomavirus in European badgers (Meles meles) and the evolution of host range in the family Polyomaviridae.

Polyomaviruses infect a diverse range of mammalian and avian hosts, and are associated with a variety of symptoms. However, it is unknown whether the viruses are found in all mammalian families and the evolutionary history of the polyomaviruses is still unclear. Here, we report the discovery of a novel polyomavirus in the European badger (Meles meles), which to our knowledge represents the first polyomavirus to be characterized in the family Mustelidae, and within a European carnivoran. Although the virus was discovered serendipitously in the supernatant of a cell culture inoculated with badger material, we subsequently confirmed its presence in wild badgers. The European badger polyomavirus was tentatively named Meles meles polyomavirus 1 (MmelPyV1). The genome is 5187 bp long and encodes proteins typical of polyomaviruses. Phylogenetic analyses including all known polyomavirus genomes consistently group MmelPyV1 with California sea lion polyomavirus 1 across all regions of the genome. Further evolutionary analyses revealed phylogenetic discordance amongst polyomavirus genome regions, possibly arising from evolutionary rate heterogeneity, and a complex association between polyomavirus phylogeny and host taxonomic groups

Simulating partial vaccine protection: BCG in badgers

8 páginas, 4 figuras, 2 tablas. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.In wildlife disease management there are few diseases for which vaccination is a viable option. The human vaccine BCG has been used for the control of bovine tuberculosis in badgers since 2010 and is expected to increase. Understanding the long-term effects of repeated vaccination campaigns on disease prevalence is vital, but modelling thus far has generally assumed that a vaccine provides perfect protection to a proportion of the population, and that animals exposed to a repeated vaccination have a second independent chance of becoming protected. We held a workshop with experts in the field to obtain consensus over the main pathways for partial protection in the badger, and then simulated these using an established model. The available data supported the possibility that some individuals receive no benefit from the BCG vaccine, others may result in a delayed disease progression and in the remaining animals, vaccine protected the individual from any onward transmission. Simulating these pathways using different levels of overall efficacy demonstrated that partial protection leads to a reduced effect of vaccination, but in all of the identified scenarios it was still possible to eradicate disease in an isolated population with no disease introduction. We also identify those potential vaccination failures that require further investigation to determine which of our proposed pathways is the more likely.This work was funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra), UK [project SE3325].Peer reviewe

Protection against Tuberculosis in Eurasian Wild Boar Vaccinated with Heat-Inactivated Mycobacterium bovis

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis and closely related members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex continues to affect humans and animals worldwide and its control requires vaccination of wildlife reservoir species such as Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa). Vaccination efforts for TB control in wildlife have been based primarily on oral live BCG formulations. However, this is the first report of the use of oral inactivated vaccines for controlling TB in wildlife. In this study, four groups of 5 wild boar each were vaccinated with inactivated M. bovis by the oral and intramuscular routes, vaccinated with oral BCG or left unvaccinated as controls. All groups were later challenged with a field strain of M. bovis. The results of the IFN-gamma response, serum antibody levels, M. bovis culture, TB lesion scores, and the expression of C3 and MUT genes were compared between these four groups. The results suggested that vaccination with heat-inactivated M. bovis or BCG protect wild boar from TB. These results also encouraged testing combinations of BCG and inactivated M. bovis to vaccinate wild boar against TB. Vaccine formulations using heat-inactivated M. bovis for TB control in wildlife would have the advantage of being environmentally safe and more stable under field conditions when compared to live BCG vaccines. The antibody response and MUT expression levels can help differentiating between vaccinated and infected wild boar and as correlates of protective response in vaccinated animals. These results suggest that vaccine studies in free-living wild boar are now possible to reveal the full potential of protecting against TB using oral M. bovis inactivated and BCG vaccines

Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)

Usually, elution gradient high performance liquid chromatography using polymeric octadecyl bonded phases is chosen for this kind of separation. Due to the properties of carbon dioxide, low viscosity, high eluting power, separations obtained by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) are generally faster than by liquid solvents.
This paper reports the study of the PAH separation by SFC. The effects of the nature and percentage of modifiers, pressure, temperature and the choice of the stationary phase (mono or polyfunctional, high or low bonded density) are discussed. Results show that coupling two different columns is needed to reach the complete separation of the 16 PAHs requires by the standard of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 610). The separation is achieved in 25 minutes with a linear acetonitrile/CO$_2$ mobile phase gradient. 
Applied to the analysis of soil extracts, this analytical technique is enable to separate numerous other compounds than standard PAHs

Extraction and analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by solid phase micro-extraction/supercritical fluid chromatography (SPME/SFC)

Solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) is a clean and simple pre-concentration method. Previously used for trace analysis of volatil compounds, the use of SPME was extended to non volatil molecules with the development of an SPME /HPLC interface. This new interface allows the extraction and the analyses of high molecular weight compounds found in aqueous samples. Since supercritical fluid chromatography is particularly well suited for analysis of complex mixtures containing non volatil compounds, the faisability of coupling SPME and SFC has been investigated and applied to PAHs.
Several points have been studied: i/ behavior of interface and of fiber to supercritical fluid and high pressure required by the analytical method; ii/ kind of the compounds transfer from the fiber to the analytical column; iii/ relation between the nature of the fibers and the quantity of extracted compounds; iiii/ effect of salt addition.
The results show that the SPME/SFC technic may be used for extraction and analysis of PAHs, since the quantity of extracted compounds reachs 30%

Classification of special octadecyl-bonded phases by the carotenoid test

Abstract Amongst the numerous base-deactivated ODS phases obtained by increasing the bonding density or/and by efficient endcapping treatments, some particular stationary phases have been developped, to limit the additional interactions of basic compounds with residual silanols, to work at extreme pH or with rich water mobile phases. Horizontal polymeric phases, sterically protected ones, hybrid silicas, propylene bridge, are particularly used for this purpose. Octadecyl chains with embedded polar groups and hydrophilic endcapping are also used in this goal. The properties of these phases were studied with a simple test consisting in the injection of carotenoid pigments in Subcritical Fluid Chromatography. The molecules used and the nature of the mobile phase allow the determination of hydrophobicity, polar site accessibility and type or/and bonding density of the stationary phases. Whatever the type of the phases, the particular stationary phases do not show any remarkable property, in comparison to other basedeactivated C18-bonded phases. On the other hand, embedded and polar-endcapped phases display a specific behaviour in regard of hydrophilic interactions, which are highlighted by the absence of water in the subcritical fluid. Additional properties of these phases are described, such as steric recognition and retention performances. As expected, polar-embedded phases are less retentive than classical ODS ones, but are sometimes able to provide greater steric recognition. On the other hand, the polar-endcapped phases display greater hydrophobicity than polar-embedded ones. From a simple classification diagram based on chromatographic properties, differences can be noticed between the polar-embedded groups (amide, carbamate, ether, sulfonamide) and between embedded and endcapped phases. Surprising behaviours are also noticed for some on the tested phases