Vaccination of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) against phocid distemper with two different inactivated canine distemper virus (CDV) vaccines.

Two inactivated canine distemper virus (CDV) vaccines--an adjuvanted whole inactivated virus and a subunit ISCOM preparation--were tested for their ability to induce protective immunity in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) against phocid distemper, a disease that recently killed greater than 17,000 harbour seals in the North and Baltic seas, and was shown to be caused by infection with a newly discovered morbillivirus, which is antigenically closely related to CDV. Four CDV seronegative harbour seals were vaccinated three times with the whole-virus vaccine, two with the ISCOM subunit vaccine and two were sham-vaccinated with an antigen-free preparation. Ten days after the last vaccination, when all six vaccinated animals had developed CDV neutralizing antibody titres ranging from 300 to 3000, all eight animals were challenged by the oculonasal and the peritoneal routes, with an organ suspension from dead seals. None of the six vaccinated animals developed clinical signs. The two sham-vaccinated seals died on days 14 and 18, respectively, after having shown a body temperature rise, respiratory symptoms and weight loss. In organs from both dead animals morbillivirus antigen was demonstrated with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an immunofluorescence assay. One of these two animals had developed a low titre of CDV-specific antibodies just before death. These data clearly indicate that seals can be protected from fatal challenge with the phocid distemper virus (PDV), by vaccination with certain inactivated CDV vaccines. They also reconfirm that infection with PDV should be considered the primary cause of the recent epizootic in seals

[A farewell to Van Gijn]

Contains fulltext : 69357.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Prof. Dr. J. van Gijn has stepped down as editor-in-chief of the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Medicine), a position he has held for twelve years (1996-2007). The journal has greatly benefited from his scientific expertise and medical authority. In his detailed scrutiny of every submitted article, he adopted the position of a 'general clinical reader', wishing to look over the fence of his or her specialty and to learn about the developments in other medical areas. An editor of several major neurological journals, he introduced new sections, e.g. 'Diagnostic image' and 'Dutch research in foreign journals'. An important decision was to strengthen the didactic qualities of the journal, among other things by enhancing the journal's illustrations. His amiable way of dealing with authors, peer reviewers, his coeditors and the editorial staff, as well as his sense of humour, have left a lasting impression

The Re-Interpretation of the Maccabean Mother and her Sons by Frater Magdalius Iacobus Gaudensis in the Framework of the Cult of the Maccabees in Cologne

This article offers a transcription, a translation and an interpretation of two poems devoted to the pre-Christian Jewish Maccabean martyrs, which were published by Erasmus in 1517. They are contained in an anthology composed by the priest Helias Mertz, intended to promote the devotion of these martyrs in early sixteenth-century Cologne. The author of the poems was a certain Frater Magdalius Iacobus Gaudensis, a Dominican and humanist scholar. Magdalius explains his admiration for the Maccabean martyrs in an accompanying letter. The martyrdom concerns seven boys and their mother who were brutally tortured to death in the second century BC by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, because they refused to transgress the Jewish dietary laws. The story is told in Second Maccabees 7 and Fourth Maccabees 8-18. In his letter and the two poems, Magdalius erects a literary monument for the Maccabean martyrs and their mother as proto-Christian martyrs. In the mother, Solomona, Magdalius recognises a prefiguration of Mary, the mother of Christ. His occupation with these Jewish martyrs leads Magdalius to the conviction that they rightfully obtained a place in the church calendar of saints (under 1 August). However, he fails to put their achievements into a paraenetic perspective, in contrast to Erasmus, who in his introductory letter to the anthology, directed at Mertz, states that one should not stop at venerating the Maccabean martyrs, but should aim at following in their footsteps and imitating their ‘immutability of an unbroken spirit’ (animi infracti constantia)