Molecular detection and characterization of cpb2 gene in Clostridium perfringens isolates from healthy and diseased chickens

Clostridium perfringens is an important pathogen in both human and veterinary medicine. Necrotic enteritis (NE) is the most clinically dramatic bacterial enteric disease of poultry induced by C. perfringens. The pathogenicity of this bacterium is associated with the production of extracellular toxins produced by some of its strains, such as beta2 toxin. The exact role of beta2 toxin in NE pathogenesis is still controversial. In the present study, C. perfringens isolates from healthy and diseased poultry flocks from different parts of Iran were analyzed by PCR assay to determine the presence of all variants of the beta2 toxin gene (cpb2). The products of two positive cpb2 PCR reactions were sequenced, compared to each other and to the cpb2 sequences published in GenBank (by multiple alignment and phylogenetic analysis). The current work represents the first study of cpb2 in poultry C. perfringens isolates in Asia, and reports the highest percentage of cpb2-positive isolates in both apparently healthy chickens (97.7%) and those afflicted with NE (94.4 %). The sequenced isolates were classified as atypical. This study did not show a direct correlation between NE occurrence and cpb2 presence

A forgotten diagnosis in right heart failure: A case report and literature review

Carcinoid heart disease is a well-known complication of carcinoid syndrome that affects morbidity and mortality. Carcinoid heart disease may be asymptomatic in the early stages; therefore, patients with carcinoid syndrome should be screened to prevent misdiagnosis. © 2021 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Electrodeposited Co93.2P6.8 nanowire arrays with core-shell microstructure and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

We demonstrate the formation of an unusual core-shell microstructure in Co93.2P6.8 nanowires electrodeposited by alternating current (ac) in an alumina template. By means of transmission electron microscopy, it is shown that the coaxial-like nanowires contain amorphous and crystalline phases. Analysis of the magnetization data for Co-P alloy nanowires indicates that a ferromagnetic core is surrounded by a weakly ferromagnetic or non-magnetic phase, depending on the phosphor content. The nanowire arrays exhibit an easy axis of magnetization parallel to the wire axis. For this peculiar composition and structure, the coercivity values are 2380 ± 50 and 1260 ± 35 Oe, parallel and perpendicular to the plane directions of magnetization, respectively. This effect is attributed to the core-shell structure making the properties and applications of these nanowires similar to pure cobalt nanowires with an improved perpendicular anisotropy. <br/

Place branding of seaports in the Middle East

This paper analyses seaports’ brand personalities as a means of understanding similarities and differences of these important locations and their relationship with their host place image. Drawing upon Aaker’s (J Mark Res 34:347–356, 1997) brand personality construct, the study presents lexical analysis from the websites of nine seaports in the Middle East. Each seaport’s website is content analysed, and the brand personality is measured using Aaker’s (1997) framework and Opoku’s (Licentiate Thesis, Lulea University of Technology, ISSN, 1402-1757, 2005) dictionary of synonyms. Findings show that seaports have developed a level of isomorphism upon particular dimensions of brand image; however, the findings also show the most distinctive seaports were linking their seaport to their place brand. In particular, the findings show only the Port of Jebel Ali has a clear and distinctive brand personality and to a lesser extent the Ports of Sohar, Shahid Rajee and Khor Fakkan. The research has important management implications of branding for public diplomacy and demonstrates seaport brand positioning in relation to place branding, used to inform public communication and marketing

Spleen transcriptome response to infection with avian pathogenic Escherichia coli in broiler chickens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Avian pathogenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>(APEC) is detrimental to poultry health and its zoonotic potential is a food safety concern. Regulation of antimicrobials in food-production animals has put greater focus on enhancing host resistance to bacterial infections through genetics. To better define effective mechanism of host resistance, global gene expression in the spleen of chickens, harvested at two times post-infection (PI) with APEC, was measured using microarray technology, in a design that will enable investigation of effects of vaccination, challenge, and pathology level.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 1,101 genes significantly differentially expressed between severely infected and non-infected groups on day 1 PI and 1,723 on day 5 PI. Very little difference was seen between mildly infected and non-infected groups on either time point. Between birds exhibiting mild and severe pathology, there were 2 significantly differentially expressed genes on day 1 PI and 799 on day 5 PI. Groups with greater pathology had more genes with increased expression than decreased expression levels. Several predominate immune pathways, Toll-like receptor, Jak-STAT, and cytokine signaling, were represented between challenged and non-challenged groups. Vaccination had, surprisingly, no detectible effect on gene expression, although it significantly protected the birds from observable gross lesions. Functional characterization of significantly expressed genes revealed unique gene ontology classifications during each time point, with many unique to a particular treatment or class contrast.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>More severe pathology caused by APEC infection was associated with a high level of gene expression differences and increase in gene expression levels. Many of the significantly differentially expressed genes were unique to a particular treatment, pathology level or time point. The present study not only investigates the transcriptomic regulations of APEC infection, but also the degree of pathology associated with that infection. This study will allow for greater discovery into host mechanisms for disease resistance, providing targets for marker assisted selection and advanced drug development.</p

Determining drug resistance patterns of Clostridium perfringens isolates from acute necrotic enteritis (NE) outbreaks

In this study, after separating 40 Clostridium perfringens isolates from affected broiler flocks, the antibacterial susceptibility test revealed 39 drug resistance patterns in which 95% of the isolates were distributed into 38 different patterns (one isolate in each pattern) and only 5% of the isolates were placed in a single pattern (two isolates in a pattern). All 40 Clostridium perfringens isolates demonstrated resistance to chloramphenicol, vancomycin and sulfamethoxazole+trimethoprime, ranging from 0 to 17.5% while tetracycline, lincomycin and neomycin sulfate had a high level of resistance from 80 to 87.5%. Also an isolate demonstrated multiple resistance to more than 14 antibacterial compounds

Characterization of reoviruses isolated from some broiler breeder flocks in Iran

ABSTRACT Avian reoviruses (ARVs) are considered as an important cause of several diseases in poultry, particularly arthritis and tenosynovitis. Tenosynovitis and arthritis, which are among the causes of chronic lameness in breeder flocks, can result in reduced egg production and culling of breeder hens. In this study, the molecular characteristics of ARVs in some broiler breeder flocks were investigated in Iran. After RNA extraction of the field samples, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to amplify two regions of ARVs for S1 and S4 genes. The positive samples were further analyzed by five restriction enzymes in restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for determining the strains. The phylogenetic analysis of S1 and S4 genes from the isolates indicated divergence into five and four major lineages, respectively. The sequence analysis of S1 and S4 genes of ARVs revealed that most of the positive samples were closely related to tenosynovitis-inducing ARVs (with less than 2% nucleotide divergence). Also, these samples were most homologous to S1133 strain, with 99.90% nucleotide and amino acid affinity. Keywords: Molecular characteristics, Avian reoviruses, Tenosynovitis, Breeder flocks, Iran Caractérisation des réovirus isolés à partir de poules pondeusesen Iran Résumé: Les réovirus aviaires (ARVs) sont considérés comme une cause importante de maladies chez les volailles, particulièrement d&apos;arthrite et de ténosynovite. Ces deux maladies sont à l&apos;origine de boiteries chroniques chez les poules pondeuses,pouvant engendrer une réduction de la ponte et l&apos;abattage des poules reproductrices. L&apos;objectif de cette étude était la caractérisation moléculaire des ARVs affectant les poules pondeuses en Iran.Après l&apos;extraction des ARN à partir des échantillons de terrain, une amplification en chaîne par polymérasetranscriptase inverse (RT-PCR) a été menée sur deux régions des ARVs, incluant les gènes S1 et S4. Les échantillons positifs ont été ensuite soumis à une analyse plus approfondie du polymorphisme de taille des fragments de restriction (PTFR) par 5 enzymes,afin de déterminer les souches impliquées. L&apos;analyse phylogénétique des gènes S1 et S4 des isolats montre une divergence dans cinq et quatre grandes lignées, respectivement. L&apos;analyse des séquences des gènes S1 et S4 a démontré que la majorité des échantillons positifs étaient étroitement liés aux ARVs induisant des ténosynovites (avec moins de 2% de divergence au niveau des nucléotides). De plus, ces échantillons étaient fortement homologues à la souche S1133, montrant une similitude nucléotidique et d&apos;acides aminés de 99,90%

QTL analysis of forage quality traits in barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.)

Despite the importance of barley as an animal feed, its forage quality has usually been neglected in breeding programs. In order to map the genomic regions, which modify barley forage quality, a population of 72 F 1 -derived doubled haploid lines (DH) from the cross “Steptoe/Morex” and their two parents were sown in Karaj and Zabol provinces of Iran, in each under a randomized complete block arrangement with two replications. Forage samples were oven-dried and ground and dry matter digestibility (DMD), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), crude fiber (CF), crude protein (CP), water-soluble carbohydrates and ash content were measured by NIRS. Analysis of variance showed that genotype, environment and genotype-environment interaction have significant effects on almost all studied traits. Several QTLs were resolved for each studied trait in both environments. Highest LOD scores were obtained for CF, ADF and DMD on chromosome 2H and for ash and CP on chromosomes 3H and 5H, respectively. QTLs for NDF were present on all chromosomes except 4H and 7H. QTL × environment interaction and the specificity of the QTLs are discussed

Incremental values of cardiac mechanics in systolic and diastolic heart failure in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: The early diagnosis of heart failure in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) remains a challenge. In this study, we sought to evaluate cardiac mechanics in patients with HCM. Methods: Sixty patients (60 men, mean age = 45.8 ± 17 y) with documented HCM were identified from an ongoing clinical registry. Results: The values of maximal left ventricular (LV) wall thickness, the ejection fraction (EF), global the longitudinal strain (GLS), and the global circumferential strain (GCS) were 2.2 ± 0.5 cm, 54.1 ± 6.5, �15.3 ± 4.5, and �26.9 ± 7.5, consecutively. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) data on 34 patients were included in the analysis. Nearly half of the patients had obstructive HCM; and in comparison with nonobstructive HCM, there were no significant differences in terms of GLS, GCS, EF, and the New York Heart Association Functional Class (NYHA FC). EF was similar between the 2 NYHA FC groups (I and II vs III and IV). GLS had a meaningful difference between the NYHA FC groups. In patients with a late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) value of equal to or greater than 15, EF, GLS, and GCS were correlated and reduced. Additionally, in those with an LGE value of between 5 and 15, EF was preserved with a reduced GLS. GLS was worse in patients with an E/average E� ratio of equal to or greater than 14. Conclusions: Our study showed that an increased LV wall thickness and/or a reduced LV enddiastolic volume, with better GCS, maintained a normal EF despite a reduced GLS. GLS had a better correlation with NYHA FC and LGE in CMR than EF alone. © 2020, Iranian Heart Association. All rights reserved