Transmission of bovine viral diarrhea virus among white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Cattle persistently infected (PI) with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), a pestivirus in the family Flaviviridae, are an important source of viral transmission to susceptible hosts. Persistent BVDV infections have been identified in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the most abundant free-ranging ruminant in North America. As PI deer shed BVDV similarly to PI cattle, maintenance of BVDV within white-tailed deer populations may be possible. To date, intraspecific transmission of BVDV in white-tailed deer has not been evaluated, which prompted this study. Six pregnant white-tailed deer were captured in the first trimester of pregnancy and cohabitated with a PI white-tailed deer. Cohabitation with the PI deer resulted in BVDV infection in all does, as indicated by seroconversion. All does gave birth to live fawns and no reproductive losses were observed. At birth, evidence of BVDV infection was identified in two singlet fawns, of which one was determined to be PI by repeated serum reverse transcription nested PCR, whole blood virus isolation and immunohistochemistry. This study demonstrates for the first time that BVDV transmission may occur among white-tailed deer. The birth of a PI fawn through contact to a PI white-tailed deer indicates that under appropriate circumstances, BVDV may be maintained in white-tailed deer by congenital infection

Properties of odd nuclei and the impact of time-odd mean fields: A systematic Skyrme-Hartree-Fock analysis

We present a systematic analysis of the description of odd nuclei by the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach augmented with pairing in BCS approximation and blocking of the odd nucleon. Current and spin densities in the Skyrme functional produce time-odd mean fields (TOMF) for odd nuclei. Their effect on basic properties (binding energies, odd-even staggering, separation energies and spectra) is investigated for the three Skyrme parameterizations SkI3, SLy6, and SV-bas. About 1300 spherical and axially-deformed odd nuclei with 16 < Z < 92 are considered. The calculations demonstrate that the TOMF effect is generally small, although not fully negligible. The influence of the Skyrme parameterization and the consistency of the calculations are much more important. With a proper choice of the parameterization, a good description of binding energies and their differences is obtained, comparable to that for even nuclei. The description of low-energy excitation spectra of odd nuclei is of varying quality depending on the nucleus

Detection of a novel gammaherpesvirus (genus Rhadinovirus) in wild muntjac deer in Northern Ireland

This study represents the initial part of an investigation into the potential for non-native, wild, free-living muntjac deer (Muntiacus reevesi) to carry viruses that could be a threat to livestock. A degenerate PCR assay was used to screen a range of tissues from muntjac deer culled in Northern Ireland for the presence of herpesviral nucleic acids. This was followed by sequencing of PCR amplicons and phylogenetic analysis. We report the detection of a novel gammaherpesvirus most closely related to a type 2 ruminant rhadinovirus from mule deer. It remains to be determined if this new virus is pathogenic to deer or presents a risk to food security through the susceptibility of domestic livestock

eine Analyse von über 1600 präparierten Nerven

Einleitung: Eine Strategie zur Veringerung von pemanenten Paresen des N. laryngeus recurrens (RLNP) in der Schildrüsenchirurgie ist die obligate Nervenpräparation. Der Effekt des intraoperativen Neuromonitorings (IONM) des N. laryngeus reccurrens (RLN) ist noch immer unklar.Methoden: Es wurden 913 Patienten mit Hemithyroidectomie oder totaler Thyroidektomie mit 1602 gefährdeten Nerven (NAR) mittels Laryngoskopie und Videostroboskopie prea- und postoperativ prospektiv untersucht. In jedem Fall wurde eine langstreckige Präparation des RLN vorgenommen. Dabei wurde kein IONM eingesetzt. Benigne (BT) (1014 NAR) und maligne Schilddrüsenerkrankungen (MT) (578 NAR) wurden getrennt analysiert. Eine RLNP wurde nicht vor 2 Jahren ihres Bestehens als permanent bezeichnet.Ergebnisse: Es wurden 2,6% und 4,5% temporäre RLNPs je Nerv in der BT bzw. MT Gruppe identifiziert, und nur 0,3% und 0,9% an permanenten RLNPs in den jeweiligen Gruppen.Schlussfolgerungen: In den meisten Studien mit Nervenpräparation war die Rate an RLNPs (temporär und permanent) niedriger als in solchen ohne Durchführung einer Nervenpräparation. Hingegen zeigten Studien mit IONM keine Verbesserung der Rate. Eine obligate Nervenpräparation verringert also die Anzahl permanenter RLNP wirksam. Neben der indirekten Laryngoskopie sollte bei allen Patienten mit nicht eindeutig normaler beidseitiger Larynxfunktion und Stimmqualität unbedingt eine Videostroboskopie durchgeführt werden, um Fehldiagnosen zu vermeiden

Changes introduced in the open reading frame of bovine viral diarrhea virus during serial infection of pregnant swine

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is one of the most economically important viruses of cattle, but this pathogen is also able to infect pigs, camelids, and a wide range of domestic and wild ruminants. BVDV isolates circulating in animal populations are genetically and antigenically highly diverse. Acute BVDV infections in cattle cause the introduction of many substitutions in the viral genome. Serial infection of pregnant sheep with a BVDV-1b isolate of bovine origin was also associated with great numbers of substitutions. To our knowledge, genomic changes arising during BVDV infections in swine have not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes occurring in the open reading frame (ORF) of BVDV during serial infection of pregnant swine with a BVDV isolate of bovine origin. The BVDV-1b isolate AU526 was serially passaged in six pregnant gilts, two of which gave birth to live piglets congenitally infected with BVDV. The complete ORF sequences of 14 BVDV isolates obtained from pregnant gilts and their piglets were determined. Their analysis revealed that serial transmission of AU526 in pregnant swine resulted in many genomic changes. All isolates of porcine origin shared 32 nucleotide and 12 amino acid differences with the virus inoculum AU526. These changes were detected after a single passage in pregnant swine and were conserved during the subsequent five passages. Amino acid changes occurred primarily in genomic regions encoding the BVDV structural proteins E2 and E rns . These results suggest that BVDV infections in pregnant swine may contribute significantly to the genetic variability of BVDV and lead to the appearance of adaptive changes