Biological Characterization of Pasteurella multocida present in the Saiga Population

This study provides biochemical and molecular genetic characteristics of P. multocida isolated from dead saigas in 1988, 2010–2015 on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Mass Die-Off of Saiga Antelopes, Kazakhstan, 2015

In 2015, a mass die-off of ≈200,000 saiga antelope in central Kazakhstan was caused by hemorrhagic septicemia attributable to the bacterium Pasteurella multocida serotype B. Previous analyses have indicated that environmental triggers associated with weather conditions, specifically air moisture and temperature in the region of the saiga antelope calving during the 10-day period running up to the event, were critical to the proliferation of latent bacteria and were comparable to conditions accompanying historically similar die-offs in the same areas. We investigated whether additional viral or bacterial pathogens could be detected in samples from affected animals using 3 different high-throughput sequencing approaches. We did not identify pathogens associated with commensal bacterial opportunisms in blood, kidney, or lung samples and thus concluded that P. multocida serotype B was the primary cause of the disease

The First Case of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Caused by O/ME-SA/IND-2001 Virus in Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks were recorded in 2011–2013 in the southern and eastern regions where FMD vaccination is in place. In January 2022, in Kiikty village of the Shetsky district, Karaganda Region, Republic of Kazakhstan, cases among cattle clinically similar to foot-and-mouth disease were reported. The aim of the research was to establish the cause of the disease and to perform the typing of the pathogen. Materials and methods. Samples from sick animals were tested using PCR, sequenced and typed in compliance with the protocol developed by the International Office for Epizootic Diseases (OIE). Results and discussion. A cytopathogenic agent has been isolated from the BHK-21 cell culture, identified through real-time RT-PCR and electron microscopically as FMD virus. Molecular genetic studies have revealed that the infection of cattle in the Karaganda Region was caused by the FMD virus circulating in the territory of the countries bordering Kazakhstan (China, Russia, Mongolia) and belonging to type O, topotype ME-SA, genetic line Ind-2001. FMD virus isolated in Kazakhstan is genetically related to the FMD line from Asia and is a new FMDV genotype for Kazakhstan, assigned to the ME-SA topotype of the Ind-2001 genetic line. This study once again proves the need for continuous genetic typing of FMD viruses to improve the effectiveness of preventive measures

Substantiation of Parameters for the Inertial Mixer in A Biodiesel Production Reactor

This paper reports results of the theoretical and experimental studies into the processes of transesterification of oils with methyl alcohol, which determined the material balance and established the molecular weight of the components involved in the process of transesterification as input and output products. The theoretical and experimental studies were carried out to calculate the indicators of the process of transesterification of fat-containing wastes depending on a change in the reaction duration and diameter of the inertial mixer of the reactor to accelerate the process of transesterification of oils with methyl alcohol. The process of transesterification is one of the basic methods for modifying the molecular composition of fat raw materials. With transesterification, the composition of fat fatty acids does not change, their statistical redistribution occurs in a mixture of triacylglycerols, which leads to a change in the physicochemical properties of fat mixtures as a result of changes in molecular composition. Transesterification of high-melting animal and vegetable fats with methyl alcohol improves the conversion of oils for the production of biodiesel from fat-containing waste. The results of the theoretical and experimental studies have helped determine the value of the flow rate of the reaction mixture, as well as the values of the geometric dimensions of the reactor, were determined (the diameter of the mixer, d=100÷500 mm; the length of the reactor is 1.5÷2.0 m). Processing of the reaction mixture made it possible to obtain a high degree of homogeneity in the concentration of components with large diameters of the inertial mixer ‒ 300...500 mm at average rotational speeds. The oil conversion has been improved, as well as productivity, by using equipment to produce biodiesel from fat-containing waste. Optimal pump performance is also ensured with minimal power consumption and reactor operatio

Discovery and Characterization of Novel Bat Coronavirus Lineages from Kazakhstan

Coronaviruses are positive-stranded RNA viruses that infect a variety of hosts, resulting in a range of symptoms from gastrointestinal illness to respiratory distress. Bats are reservoirs for a high diversity of coronaviruses, and focused surveillance detected several strains genetically similar to MERS-coronavirus, SARS-coronavirus, and the human coronaviruses 229E and NL63. The bat fauna of central Asia, which link China to eastern Europe, are relatively less studied than other regions of the world. Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth largest country; however, little is understood about the prevalence and diversity of bat-borne viruses. In this study, bat guano was collected from bat caves in three different sites of southern Kazakhstan that tested positive for coronaviruses. Our phylogenetic reconstruction indicates these are novel bat coronaviruses that belong to the genus Alphacoronavirus. In addition, two distinct lineages of Kazakhstan bat coronaviruses were detected. Both lineages are closely related to bat coronaviruses from China, France, Spain, and South Africa, suggesting that co-circulation of coronaviruses is common in multiple bat species with overlapping geographical distributions. Our study highlights the need for collaborative efforts in understudied countries to increase integrated surveillance capabilities toward better monitoring and detection of infectious diseases

Comparative Evaluation of Effectiveness of IAVchip DNA Microarray in Influenza A Diagnosis

The paper describes comparative evaluation of IAVchip DNA microarray, reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), and real-time RT-PCR versus virus isolation in chicken embryos and shows their diagnostic effectiveness in detection and subtyping of influenza A virus. The tests were evaluated with use of 185 specimens from humans, animals, and birds. IAVchip DNA microarray demonstrates higher diagnostic effectiveness (99.45%) in early influenza A diagnosis as compared to the real-time PCR (98.38%) and RT-PCR (96.22%), thus showing its clear superiority. Diagnostic sensitivity of IAVchip DNA microarray (100%) exceeds the same of RT-PCR (95.95%) and real-time RT-PCR (97.96%) in the range of estimated confidence intervals. IAVchip DNA microarray and real-time RT-PCR displayed equal diagnostic specificity (98.85%), while diagnostic specificity of RT-PCR was 96.40%. IAVchip DNA microarray has an advantage over the other tests for influenza A diagnosis and virus identification as a more rapid method that allows performing simultaneous detection and subtyping of about tens of specimens within one experiment during 8–10 hours. The developed IAVchip DNA microarray is a general test tool that enables identifying simultaneously 16 hemagglutinin (HA) and 9 neuraminidase (NA) subtypes of influenza A virus and also to screen the influenza A viruses from humans, animals, and birds by M and NP genes

Out-door testing and long-term stability of plastic solar cells

In spite of the high potential of polymer photovoltaic (PV) cells, considerable improvement of their stability under operational conditions needs to be achieved. The few published data on the stability of such cells are devoted to accelerated indoor testing at elevated temperatures. The acceleration factor is undoubtedly dependent on the PV materials, the cell architecture and may vary with the degradation. We report preliminary results of long-term evaluation of PV performance of polymer cells under real sun operational conditions. The studied devices include three types of encapsulated polymer/fullerene cells which differed by the configuration and content of the photoactive layer: (1) bulk heterojunction of MEH-PPV:PCBM; (2) bulk heterojunction of P3HT:PCBM; (3) bilayer heterojunction P3CT-C60. The MEHPPV-PCBM cell exhibited the fastest degradation. The degradation of PV performance of the P3HT-PCBM cell was much slower while the P3CT-C60 device was found to be the most stable. Effect of restoration of Isc and Voc was found when the P3HT-PCBM and P3CT-C60 cells were kept in the dark overnight. The first Isc and Voc measurements every morning yielded the highest values compared to those during the rest of a day. While Isc recovered only partly and exhibited significant degradation during a month, Voc values recovered completely every night and showed almost no reduction on a long-term time scale