Estandarización y aplicación de la técnica de pcr – anidado para la detección de mycoplasma hyopneumoniae

El Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae es el agente causal de la Neumonía enzoótica porcina, una de las enfermedades más importantes en la industria porcina. En la actualidad, el proceso de diagnóstico ante-mortem es una de las principales diicultades, dadas la poca sensibilidad y especiicidad de las técnicas que se utilizan. El propósito de esta investigación fue estandarizar la técnica de Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa (PCR) anidada para la detección de Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, utilizando diferentes métodos de extracción del ADN, tanto comerciales como convencionales. Para determinar la sensibilidad de la técnica se realizaron diluciones seriadas al cultivo de Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, cepa J, mantenida en medio Friis. También se evaluaron algunas modiicaciones hechas a la mezcla de la reacción de PCR tradicional reportadas en la literatura y, una vez ajustada, la técnica fue aplicada en muestras clínicas como hisopados nasales y lavados traqueobronquiales. Los mejores resultados fueron obtenidos cuando el ADN se extrajo de la bacteria por calor y se trató con proteinasa K para luego ser utilizado en una reacción de PCR - anidado que no contenía estabilizadores de la Taq-polimerasa, como el glicerol o la seroalbúmina bovina. Bajo estas condiciones, se logró detectar M. hyopneumoniae hasta la dilución de 10-5 de un cultivo puro de la cepa J de referencia y también a partir de algunas muestras clínicas

Prevalencia serológica del síndrome reproductivo y respiratorio porcino (prrs) en cerdos de explotaciones extensivas de colombia

El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo actualizar en el país la situación de la infección por el virus del Síndrome reproductivo y respiratorio porcino (PRRS). Los departamentos incluidos en el estudio fueron aquellos donde se manejan producciones extensivas o de traspatio. Las muestras fueron tomadas de forma aleatoria en los mataderos de cada departamento, analizándose un total de 1.658 sueros, los cuales fueron clasiicados, hasta donde fue posible, de acuerdo a las categorías productivas (cerdos de descarte y cerdos de ceba). Las muestras obtenidas se analizaron a través de una prueba de ELISA, usando el kit comercial HerdChek PRRS 2XR (Laboratorios IDEXX). Al inal se obtuvo un total de 71 sueros reactores, lo que se traduce en una prevalencia del 4,3 ± 1,0% (p≤0,05). Los departamentos con mayor prevalencia fueron Norte de Santander y Arauca, mientras que los departamentos de La Guajira, Magdalena y Sucre mantuvieron su condición de no reactividad serológica en estos sistemas de producción

Detección de la leptospirosis renal porcina (LRP) mediante la técnica de inmuno peroxidasa (IP).

Con el propósito de estandarizar el valor diagnóstico de la técnica de inmunoperoxidasa indirecta (IP) y establecer niveles de anticuerpos anti-pomona y anti-bratislava, se recolectaron 200 muestras de riñones y sangre de 200 cerdos sacrificados en el frigorífico Guadalupe de Bogotá. En 64 (32 por ciento) riñones se observaron lesiones macroscópicas (riñón moteado blanco) y lesiones microscópicas compatibles con nefritis intersticial no supurativa en 100 tejidos renales. A todas las muestras se les aplicó la IP, para lo cual se utilizó suero policlonal de conejo contra el serovar L. pomona, resultando 62 (31 por ciento) muestras positivas. Analizados los sueros por microaglutinación (MA), se detectaron títulos entre 1:50 y 1:3200 para L. pomona en el 82.5 por ciento de los casos y para L. bratislava en el 90.5 por ciento de los mismos. Se establecieron asociaciones estadísticas mediante chi cuadrado (X2) y su fuerza se midió utilizando tasas de productos cruzados (OR), cuyos resultados fueron significativos (p igual 0.003 y OR igual 2.32) tanto para la relación entre análisis microscópico y diagnóstico por IP, como para la relación entre análisis macroscópico y diagnóstico por IP (p igual 0.001), la OR fue de 2.58. En cambio, para la relación entre los diagnósticos de IP y el serológico estas pruebas no resultaron significativa

An exploration of social determinants of health amongst internally displaced persons in northern Uganda

Social determinants of health describe the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age and their influence on health. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. Armed conflict and forced displacement are important influences on the social determinants of health. There is limited evidence on the social determinants of health of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been forced from their homes due to armed conflict but remain within the borders of their country. The aim of this study was to explore the social determinants of overall physical and mental health of IDPs, including the response strategies used by IDPs to support their health needs. Northern Uganda was chosen as a case-study, and 21 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with IDPs were conducted in fifteen IDP camps between November and December 2006

Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition

The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions and abundances of 85 woody species domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples. Domesticated species are five times more likely to be hyperdominant than non-domesticated species. Across the basin the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species increases in forests on and around archaeological sites. In southwestern and eastern Amazonia distance to archaeological sites strongly influences the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species. Our analyses indicate that modern tree communities in Amazonia are structured to an important extent by a long history of plant domestication by Amazonian peoples

Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics

Within the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation. Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water-stress on the physiological processes of most tree species. This process implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by their ability to occur under dry conditions, and thus in terms of species distributions it predicts a nested pattern of taxa distribution from wet to dry areas. However, this ‘dry-tolerance’ hypothesis has yet to be adequately tested at large spatial and taxonomic scales. Here, using a dataset of 531 inventory plots of closed canopy forest distributed across the Western Neotropics we investigated how precipitation, evaluated both as mean annual precipitation and as the maximum climatological water deficit, influences the distribution of tropical tree species, genera and families. We find that the distributions of tree taxa are indeed nested along precipitation gradients in the western Neotropics. Taxa tolerant to seasonal drought are disproportionally widespread across the precipitation gradient, with most reaching even the wettest climates sampled; however, most taxa analysed are restricted to wet areas. Our results suggest that the ‘dry tolerance’ hypothesis has broad applicability in the world's most species-rich forests. In addition, the large number of species restricted to wetter conditions strongly indicates that an increased frequency of drought could severely threaten biodiversity in this region. Overall, this study establishes a baseline for exploring how tropical forest tree composition may change in response to current and future environmental changes in this region

Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics

AcceptedArticle in Press© 2016 Nordic Society Oikos.Within the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation. Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water-stress on the physiological processes of most tree species. This implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by their ability to occur under dry conditions, and thus in terms of species distributions predicts a nested pattern of taxa distribution from wet to dry areas. However, this 'dry-tolerance' hypothesis has yet to be adequately tested at large spatial and taxonomic scales. Here, using a dataset of 531 inventory plots of closed canopy forest distributed across the western Neotropics we investigated how precipitation, evaluated both as mean annual precipitation and as the maximum climatological water deficit, influences the distribution of tropical tree species, genera and families. We find that the distributions of tree taxa are indeed nested along precipitation gradients in the western Neotropics. Taxa tolerant to seasonal drought are disproportionally widespread across the precipitation gradient, with most reaching even the wettest climates sampled; however, most taxa analysed are restricted to wet areas. Our results suggest that the 'dry tolerance' hypothesis has broad applicability in the world's most species-rich forests. In addition, the large number of species restricted to wetter conditions strongly indicates that an increased frequency of drought could severely threaten biodiversity in this region. Overall, this study establishes a baseline for exploring how tropical forest tree composition may change in response to current and future environmental changes in this region.This paper is a product of the RAINFOR and ATDN networks and of ForestPlots.net researchers (http://www.forestplots.net). RAINFOR and ForestPlots have been supported by a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (283080, ‘GEOCARBON’; 282664, ‘AMAZALERT’); European Research Council (ERC) grant ‘Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System’ (T-FORCES), and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency Grant and NERC Consortium Grants ‘AMAZONICA’ (NE/F005806/1) and ‘TROBIT’ (NE/D005590/1). Additional funding for fieldwork was provided by Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network, a collaboration among Conservation International, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. A.E.M. receives a PhD scholarship from the T-FORCES ERC grant. O.L.P. is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. We thank Jon J. Lloyd, Chronis Tzedakis, David Galbraith, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and Dylan Young for helping with the analyses. This study would not be possible without the extensive contributions of numerous field assistants and rural communities in the Neotropical forests. Alfredo Alarcón, Patricia Alvarez Loayza, Plínio Barbosa Camargo, Juan Carlos Licona, Alvaro Cogollo, Massiel Corrales Medina, Jose Daniel Soto, Gloria Gutierrez, Nestor Jaramillo Jarama, Laura Jessica Viscarra, Irina Mendoza Polo, Alexander Parada Gutierrez, Guido Pardo, Lourens Poorter, Adriana Prieto, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Agustín Rudas, Rebeca Sibler and Javier Silva Espejo additionally contributed data to this study though their RAINFOR participations. We further thank those colleagues no longer with us, Jean Pierre Veillon, Samuel Almeida, Sandra Patiño and Raimundo Saraiva. Many data come from Alwyn Gentry, whose example has inspired new generations to investigate the diversity of the Neotropics

Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora

Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come

Mitigating risk of exceeding environmental limits requires ambitious food system interventions

Transforming the global food system is necessary to avoid exceeding planetary boundaries. A robust evidence base is crucial to assess the scale and combination of interventions required for a sustainable transformation. We developed a risk assessment framework, underpinned by a meta-regression of 60 global food system modeling studies, to quantify the potential of individual and combined interventions to mitigate the risk of exceeding the boundaries for land-system change, freshwater use, climate change, and biogeochemical flows by 2050. Limiting the risk of exceedance across four key planetary boundaries requires a high but plausible level of ambition in all demand-side (diet, population, waste) and most supply-side interventions. Attaining the required level of ambition for all interventions relies on embracing synergistic actions across the food system