Abbreviated identification scheme for Eschericia coli in swine feces

Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of Escherichia coli (EC) are often used to monitor the effect of antimicrobial use regimens on the antimicrobial resistance (AR) reservoir in animal species. Epidemiological studies of AR may involve the identification of thousands of bacterial isolates, so complete biochemical identification of EC can be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. In this study an abbreviated biochemical scheme using colony phenotype and the indole test results in a sensitivity and specificity of 91.7% and 100% respectively for identification of EC as compared to a commercial biochemical identification kit. This abbreviated scheme results in over US$500 savings per 100 candidate EC isolates identified. These savings have significant benefits to the economics of conducting epidemiologic investigations of AR

Prevalence of Yersinia enterocolitica across phases of swine production

The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of Yersinia enterocolitica (YE) in different swine production phases. In this cross-sectional study, individual pigs on eight farrow-to-finish farms were sampled for YE by collection of both feces and oral-pharyngeal swab

Effect of cleaning and subtherapeutic chlortetracycline on Salmonella

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of stringent cleaning and subtherapeutic chlortetracycline (CTC) on Salmonella enterica (SE) prevalence in market age swine

Quantifying tetracycline resistance

This study’s goal was to evaluate the impact of sub-therapeutic feeding of chlortetracycline (CTC) on the fecal concentration of tet(C), a gene that confers tetracycline resistance via an efflux mechanism. We developed a real-time quantitative PCR assay to measure the quantity of tet(C) in whole fecal DNA samples. The vast proportion of variability in tet(C) (91%) was associated with differences in concentration between the individual pigs, and there was no significant difference in the copy number of tet(C)/mg of feces between the treatment and control pigs (p\u3e0.05, linear regression, SPSS 11.0.5)

Effect of chlortetracycline on Salmonella and the fecal flora of swine

The goals of this study were to determine the impact of sub-therapeutic chlortetracycline in market swine diets on 1) the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica 2) antimicrobial resistance of the aerobic Gram negative fecal flora. There was no significant difference in the prevalence or antimicrobial resistance of S. enterica isolates. For the gram-negative fecal flora, there was a statistically significant difference (p\u3c0.05) between treatment groups for the frequency of antimicrobial resistance in the gram negative flora with pigs receiving chlortetracycline having a greater frequency of isolates resistant tetracycline, gentamicin, and ceftriaxone, and a lesser proportion of isolates resistant to ampicillin

Effect of group size and chlortetracycline on Salmonella in swine

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of stocking density and subtherapeutic chlortetracycline (CTC) on Salmonella prevalence in swine

Feigned Consensus: Usurping the Law in Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma Prosecutions

Few medico-legal matters have generated as much controversy--both in the medical literature and in the courtroom--as Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), now known more broadly as Abusive Head Trauma (AHT). The controversies are of enormous significance in the law because child abuse pediatricians claim, on the basis of a few non-specific medical findings supported by a weak and methodologically flawed research base, to be able to “diagnose” child abuse, and thereby to provide all of the evidence necessary to satisfy all of the legal elements for criminal prosecution (or removal of children from their parents). It is a matter, therefore, in which medical opinion claims to fully occupy the legal field. As controversies flare up increasingly in the legal arena, child abuse pediatricians and prosecutors now respond by claiming both that there is actually no real controversy about SBS/AHT, and that it is a purely medical “diagnosis” and not a legal conclusion, so testimony in support of the SBS hypothesis should not be challenged in court. This article, coauthored by four law professors, two physicians, and a physicist, demonstrates that there is very much a live controversy about the SBS/AHT hypothesis and maintains that, under traditional principles of evidence law, physicians should not be permitted to “diagnose” abuse in court (as opposed to identifying specific symptoms or medical findings)

Pericyte degeneration causes white matter dysfunction in the mouse central nervous system

Diffuse white-matter disease associated with small-vessel disease and dementia is prevalent in the elderly. The biological mechanisms, however, remain elusive. Using pericyte-deficient mice, magnetic resonance imaging, viral-based tract-tracing, and behavior and tissue analysis, we found that pericyte degeneration disrupted white-matter microcirculation, resulting in an accumulation of toxic blood-derived fibrin(ogen) deposits and blood-flow reductions, which triggered a loss of myelin, axons and oligodendrocytes. This disrupted brain circuits, leading to white-matter functional deficits before neuronal loss occurs. Fibrinogen and fibrin fibrils initiated autophagy-dependent cell death in oligodendrocyte and pericyte cultures, whereas pharmacological and genetic manipulations of systemic fibrinogen levels in pericyte-deficient, but not control mice, influenced the degree of white-matter fibrin(ogen) deposition, pericyte degeneration, vascular pathology and white-matter changes. Thus, our data indicate that pericytes control white-matter structure and function, which has implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of human white-matter disease associated with small-vessel disease