Clinical and haematological alterations in foot and mouth disease virus naturally-infected domestic water buffaloes in Vietnam

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) has been one of the most important epizootic diseases in several cloven-hoofed animals including buffaloes, causing severe economic losses in Vietnam. This study aimed at observing clinical indicators, physiological parameters, haematological and blood chemistry values of 30 buffaloes naturally infected with FMD virus (FMDV). The study was undertaken from January 2015 to February 2016 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Results show that buffaloes infected with FMDV displayed significantly higher fever, increased respiratory rate and increased heart frequency compared to healthy animals. Moreover, FMDV-infected animals always showed high fever and vesicular stomatitis, often showed edging nail congestive inflammation and, sometimes only, blisters on the nipple. Haematological indicators showed that FMDV-infected buffaloes were dehydrated (increased total protein). Besides, infected animals also underwent anaemia as mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentrations were plummeted. Total white blood cell count plummeted too, especially the number and proportion of neutrophils. Meanwhile, the number and proportion of lymphocytes sharply increased compared to healthy animals. Infected buffaloes also displayed signs of liver and heart damages as judged by an increase in concentration of AST and ALT, while there was not renal damage since creatinine concentration remained stabl

Monoclonal Antibodies Specific to Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Myxovirus Resistance Protein_1

Recombinant bubaline (Bubalus bubalis) myxovirus resistance protein 1 (bbMx1) was successfully expressed by an Escherichia coli expression system. After immunization and cell fusion, a set of ten mouse hybridomas producing mAbs to bbMx1 was established. The ten corresponding mAbs were further characterized using indirect ELISA, western blot analysis and immunocytofluorescent staining. Eight mAbs, designated 11C7, RD5, NF3, 9D1, FD4, PE6, 11A7 and 10F5, displayed binding abilities and specificity in the three formats. Moreover, combining NF3 (for capture) with RD5 (for detection), 9D1 with RD5, FD4 with 11C7 or PE6 with 11C7 generated a strong signal in a prototype sandwich-ELISA. The results suggest that the mAbs developed and characterized here provide an excellent starting point for developing diagnostic tools aimed at detecting viral infections in the water buffalo, whatever using immunoblotting, immunocytostaining or sandwich-ELISA