Ovine Catarrhal fever (bluetongue): Analysis of Culicoides species in seropositive farms

Bluetongue (BT) is an orbiviral disease of wild and domestic ruminants, mainly sheep. In Sicily, the first Bluetongue outbreak occurred in October 2000; there have been 76 recorded outbreaks so far. The National Surveillance Plan, based on European Union Commission Decision 138/2001/CE, establishes serological and entomological surveys. This plan consists of controls of seronegative cattle, called 'sentry' as indicators for the presence and circulation of virus in defined areas. To check the seroconversions, the regional territory has been subdivided in 400 km2 areas including 58 seronegative cattle, periodically checked by serological tests. All positive sera have been tested to detect the specific serotype by the National Reference Centre for Exotic Diseases (CESME) at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Abruzzo e Molise in Teramo (IZS Teramo). Moreover, entomological surveillance has been implemented in seropositive herds, to investigate the presence of insect vectors belonging to Culicoides genus. The goal of the present communication is to report on the different species of Culicoides found in the farms with Bluetongue virus and to investigate on the probable role of new competent vectors. This paper concerns data analysis of 581 light-trap catches collected in 321 farms from 2003 to 2008. We observed that 82% of checked farms were positive for Culicoides spp., and only 10% of the farms were positive for Culicoides imicola. © 2010 Blackwell Verlag GmbH

Functional assessment of cancer therapy questionnaire for breast cancer (FACT-B+4): Italian version validation

BACKGROUND: Improvements in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment led to an increased incidence of survivors' rate. The healthcare system has to face new problems related not only to the treatment of the disease, but also to the management of the quality of life after the diagnosis. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Breast (FACT-B+4) questionnaire and to evaluate its reliability. METHODS: The questionnaire was administered twice, with an interval of three days between each administration, to a cohort of women of the Breast Surgical Unit, PoliclincoUmberto I. Cronbach's alpha was used as a measure of the internal consistency of the Italian version. RESULTS: The Italian version of the tool was administered to 55 subjects. The Cronbach's alpha for most scores registered values >0.7, both at baseline and at the follow-up analysis, therefore the subscale showed good internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of FACT-B+4 demonstrated acceptable reliability properties in the Breast Unit patients. The use of this questionnaire seemed to be effective and in line with the results derived from the English and Spanishversions. Internal consistency and validity had similar performance results

Fire patterns in central semiarid Argentina.

Wildfires can cause severe impacts on the terrestrial ecosystems depending on their frequency and behavior. We studied the environmental factors influencing the spatial and temporal distribution of fires, their size and duration in the central semiarid Argentina. We identified fires using MODIS satellite data and we analyzed their association with climate and land cover/use patterns. Spatial and temporal fire patterns varied between eastern, central and western regions according to the presence of agriculture, shrublands and water deficits, respectively. The frequency and behavior of fires also varied temporally with water conditions. Years with low effective precipitations were characterized by an important hotspot density and fire number, as well as the months preceded by two months with low effective precipitation (r 2: 0.42; p < 0.0001). We observed a spatial delay of fires in a northeast-southwest sense, related to the delay of the spring beginning (r 2: 0.7594; p < 0.0001). The mean fire sizes and duration varied significantly among vegetation types (F: 10.76, p < 0.0001 and F: 3.703, p < 0.01). Fires were bigger in shrublands and longer in shrublands or forests regarding agricultural areas or degraded areas (F: 16.0, p < 0.0001). The results obtained would be useful to prevent/control fires and to preserve natural resources and human communities.Fil: Fischer, M. A.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Clima y Agua; ArgentinaFil: Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Jobbágy, Esteban Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de San Luis; Argentin

Risultati di un test RFLP su ceppi vaccinali di Canine Distemper Virus in Italia

Canine Distemper (CD) is a highly contagious and multisystemic viral disease of domestic and wild carnivores. A published Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) test, based on the presence of a PsiI cleavage site on hemagglutinin (H) gene, allows a rapid differentiation of all currently used vaccine strains by virulent field strains. The present study describes the results of this test carried out on different CD vaccines available in Italy in 2010. RFLP has also revealed that the CD strain present in the Vanguard (Pfizer Animal Health) vaccine reacts as a wild-type strain. Moreover, genetic analysis of H gene sequence has showed that Vanguard vaccine strain does not cluster in the group of vaccine strains (America-1), as expected based on the product description provided by the manufacturer, but it is more closely related to wild-type strains of the America-2 group. However, this protocol shows significant advantages to identify CD wild-type strains

Quality controls for cell cultures: identification of interspecies cross-contamination by PCR-RFLP analysis of the cytochrome b gene

Cross-contaminations of a cell line with cells of different species represent a potential risk in laboratories handling human and animal cells. Therefore, it is necessary to control such contaminations. Tests based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are used in forensic analysis, phylogenetic studies and in food authentication. However, the use of mtDNA in quality controls of cell cultures is recent. Mitochondrial sequence differences of closely related animal species are five- to tenfold higher than those of nuclear genes. On the contrary, intraspecies variation in mitochondrial sequences is low in most animal species. Moreover, each cell contains 100–10.000 mitochondrial genomes. The amount of mtDNA is greater than nuclear DNA, so that mtDNA can be analyzed also from small or partially degraded samples. In the present study, a method based on a PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was used (2). This gene has some stable sequences which are recognized from universal primers and some variable sequences used for animal species identification by PCR-RFLP method

Canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells from visceral and subcutaneuous adipose tissue for cell-based therapy

This study compared some characteristics of canine Adipose tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cAD-MSCs) from subcutaneous and visceral fat. These findings were directed to obtain high quantity and quality cAD-MSCs for clinical cell-based therapy

An innovative method for the detection of contaminant viral genome in cell cultures

The use of cell cultures involves different fields of biology, from diagnosis to research. Moreover, technologies based on animal cells represent a useful tool to the development of biological products for the prophylaxis and therapy in humans and animals. Therefore, it is necessary to perform quality controls, including virological tests. Several tests performed in research laboratories are able to discriminate one or more viral species, but it is not possible to demonstrate the presence of contaminant viral genome with one non-specific method. The aim of this work consisted on the realization of a biomolecular method able to detect and to identify by sequencing extraneous viral genome in cell cultures of animal and human origin in the absence of any specific information about the virus

Use of drugs for attrv amyloidosis in the real world: How therapy is changing survival in a non-endemic area

Background: Over the past decade, three new drugs have been approved for the treatment of hereditary amyloid transthyretin (ATTRv) polyneuropathy. The aim of this work was to analyze whether current therapies prolong survival for patients affected by ATTRv amyloidosis. Methods: The study was conducted retrospectively, analyzing the medical records of 105 patients with genetic diagnoses of familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy followed at the two referral centers for the disease in Sicily, Italy. Of these, 71 received disease-modifying therapy, while 34 received only symptomatic treatment or no therapy. Results: The most used treatment in our patient cohort was tafamidis, followed by liver transplantation, patisiran, inotersen, and diflunisal. The median survival was significantly longer for treated vs. untreated patients (12 years vs. 8 years). In the 71 patients who received disease-modifying treatment, the presence of cardiac involvement, weight loss, or autonomic dysfunction at diagnosis was not related to survival. Conversely, patients diagnosed in the early stage of the disease (PND 1) had significantly longer survival than those diagnosed in the late stage (PND 2–4)