Widespread distribution of kiwifruit bacterial canker caused by the European Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae genotype in the main production areas of Portugal

In Portugal, in 2010, after the first recorded occurrence of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) in a few kiwifruit orchards, and following subsequent records of suspected symptoms at the beginning of 2011, an extensive survey concerning Psa was carried out. One hundred and sixty-two samples (trunks, twigs, leaves, flowers, buds) presenting symptoms were collected from the main Portuguese kiwifruit areas and submitted to phyto-bacteriological analyses to verify possible relationships between the symptoms/damage observed and the presence of Psa in kiwifruit orchards. The results confirmed the widespread presence of the pathogen in the main production areas of Portugal, where different Actinidia spp. cultivars are grown. Genetic investigations revealed that all the Psa strains detected belong to the European genotype. Preliminary considerations concerning pathogen dissemination are made

Dermatome mapping test in the analysis of anatomo-clinical correlations after inguinal hernia repair

Abstract Background: Nerve identification is recommended in inguinal hernia repair to reduce or avoid postoperative pain. The aim of this prospective observational study was to identify nerve prevalence and find a correlation between neuroanatomy and chronic neuropathic postoperative inguinal pain (CPIP) after 6 months. Material: A total of 115 patients, who underwent inguinal hernia mesh repair (Lichtenstein tension-free mesh repair) between July 2018 and January 2019, were included in this prospective observational study. The mean age and BMI respectively resulted 64 years and 25.8 with minimal inverse distribution of BMI with respect to age. Most of the hernias were direct (59.1%) and of medium dimension (47.8%). Furthermore, these patients were undergoing Dermatome Mapping Test in preoperatively and postoperatively 6 months evaluation. Results: Identification rates of the iliohypogastric (IH), ilioinguinal (II) and genitofemoral (GF) nerves were 72.2%, 82.6% and 48.7% respectively. In the analysis of nerve prevalence according to BMI, the IH was statistically significant higher in patients with BMI < 25 than BMI ≥ 25 P (< 0.05). After inguinal hernia mesh repair, 8 patients (6.9%) had chronic postoperative neuropathic inguinal pain after 6 months. The CPIP prevailed at II/GF dermatome. The relation between the identification/neurectomy of the II nerve and chronic postoperative inguinal pain after 6 months was not significant (P = 0.542). Conclusion: The anatomy of inguinal nerve is very heterogeneous and for this reason an accurate knowledge of these variations is needed during the open mesh repair of inguinal hernias. The new results of our analysis is the statistically significant higher IH nerve prevalence in patients with BMI < 25; probably the identification of inguinal nerve is more complex in obese patients. In the chronic postoperative inguinal pain, the II nerve may have a predominant role in determining postoperative long-term symptoms. Dermatome Mapping Test in an easy and safe method for preoperative and postoperative 6 months evaluation of groin pain. The most important evidence of our analysis is that the prevalence of chronic pain is higher when the nerves were not identified. Keywords: Inguinal hernia, Inguinal nerves, Nerve identification, Pain, Follow-up © Th

Comparison and utilization of different PCR-based approaches for molecular typing of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae strains from Italy

Over the last few years, a severe bacterial disease affecting kiwifruit has been reported in Italy. Its causal agent was identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae. For epidemiological purposes, we evaluated the discriminatory power of various PCR-based fingerprinting approaches. Profiles were generated by rep-PCR ((GTG)5-PCR), IS50-PCR and RAPD, from a wide collection of Italian, Korean and Japanese strains. The genetic relationships between strains of pv. actinidiae and strains from related pathovars were investigated. No differences between Italian strains were identified. However, some differences were identified between Italian strains and strains from Japan and Korea. The other pathovars clustered separately, and pv. theae was always more closely related to pv. actinidiae than the others. In general, the results obtained with the different methods were in good agreement, with RAPD showing the highest values of divergence between groups