Toxoplasma infection and abortion in dairy goats

Summary Serological investigation by the indirect haemagglutination test forToxoplasma antibodies was carried out in a flock of dairy goats. Antibody titres ranging from 1:4 to 1:1,024 were found in 34% of 371 apparently healthy animals. High antibody titres of 1:256 suggestive of recent infection were noted in 18 (4.9%) animals including 13 nannies. The occurrence of a number of non-brucella abortions associated with high serological titres and the isolation of the parasite from the brain tissues of an aborted foetus suggestedToxoplasma as a probable aetiologic factor. Sera having significant levels of haemagglutinating antibodies (1:128) were also found positive to the card agglutination test. Epidemiological aspects and the public health potential of subclinical toxoplasmosis in dairy goats are discussed.

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Infecciones Y Abortos En Cabras Lecheras Debido AToxoplasma

Resumen Se realizaron investigaciones serológicas de toxoplasmosis mediante la prueba indirecta de hemaglutinación en un rebaño de cabras lecheras. Se encontraron títulos de 1:4 a 1:1024 en 34% de 371 animales aparentemente sanos. Títulos de 1:256 sugestivos de infecciones recientes, se encontraron en 18 (4.9%) animales, incluyendo 13 hembras paridas. La ocurrencia de un significativo número de abortos no asociados con brucela, títulos serológicos altos de toxoplasmosis y el aislamiento del parásito del cerebro de fetos abortados, sugiere que eltoxoplasma es el factor etiológico más importante. Se discuten aspectos epidemiológicos de importantcia para la salud pública, relacionados con el potencial de la toxoplasmosis (subclínica) en cabras lecheras.

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Toxoplasmose Et Avortement Chez Les Chevres Latiteres

Résumé Des investigations sérologiques par la méthode de l'agglutination indirecte pour rechercher des anticorps toxoplasmiques ont été faites sur un troupeau de chèvres laitières. Des anticorps ont été mis en évidence chez 34 p.100 des 371 animaux apparemment sains à des titres allant de 1:4 à 1:1024. Des titres élevés d'anticorps atteignant 1:256 ont été relevés chez 18 (soit 4,9 p.100) des animaux comprenant 13 chèvres, ce qui fait penser à une infection récente.L'existence de nombre d'avortements non-brucelliques associés avec des titres sérologiques élevés et l'isolement du parasite des tittus cérébraux d'un foetus avorté suggerent que les Toxoplasmes en ont probablement été le facteur étiologique. Des sérums ayant des taux significativement élevés d'anticorps agglutinants (1:128) ont également été reconnus comme positifs par le test d'agglutination en EAT. Les aspects épidémiologiques et le danger potentiel pour l'homme de ces cas subcliniques de toxoplasmose chez les chèvres laitières sont discutés.

     

Prevalence of Salmonella antibodies among goats slaughtered for chevon in Bareilly (Northern India)

We screened serum samples of 1024 goats slaughtered for chevon in Bareilly in Northern India for Salmonella antibodies with indirect ELISA, MAT-H (microagglutination test using flagellar antigens e, n, x and 1, 5) and MAT-O (microagglutination test using somatic antigens 4, 12 and 3, 10, 15). Salmonella antibodies were detected in 48, 8 and 40%, goats using Salmonella-cytotoxi-I ELISA, MAT 'H' and MAT 'O', respectively. After adjusting for test accuracy, the seroprevalence were highest for Salmonella-cytotoxi-I ELISA (46%) followed by agglutinins against 'O' 3, 10, 15 (15%) and negligible for other agglutinins. With all 5 tests, prevalence of Salmonella antibodies was significantly higher in females than in males. No significant difference was evident in prevalence of Salmonella antibodies to different antigens in different age groups of male goats except for e, n, x agglutinins that were significantly more prevalent in young adult (<6-18 months) males than in adult (>18 months of age) or young (< or =6 months of age) goats. On the other hand, in females, prevalence of Salmonella-cytotoxin-I antibodies and e, n, x agglutinins differed significantly among three age groups, being the most prevalent in adult goats. As expected, the results of different tests had little or no correlation because the different tests targeted antibodies to different antigens.     

Resistance to early blight of tomato with respect to various parameters of disease epidemics

Resistance to early blight in the tomato was assessed by examining various parameters of the progress of the disease. Artificial inoculation and the scoring technique were standardized. Test plants were inoculated with 125cfu/ml of a 12-day-old culture of a pathogenic isolate of Alternaria solani. Screening under artificial conditions was more informative than that under natural epidemic conditions. Tomato cultivars CLN-2071-C, CLN-2070-A, BSS-174, and DTH-7 with resistance expressed as slow blighting against four pathogenic isolates of A. solani, were selected for cultivation in disease-prone areas. Disease intensity increased with the age of plants under the same inoculum load. The area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) was positively correlated with the percentage disease index and negatively with resistance. Calculation of the apparent infection rate (r) was more informative for natural epidemics than for artificial conditions. The sequential apparent infection rate between observation periods was better correlated with disease progress than was the total apparent infection rate between the first and last observations. A double sigmoidal disease progress curve during the same cropping season was characteristic of some varieties when fungal infection took place during the vegetative phase of crop growth.     

Ecological and anthropogenic niches of sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. f.) forest and prospects for multiple-product forest management - a review

Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. f.) forests cover over 11 millionha in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, and these forests are conventionallymanaged for timber. Recently, interest in producing multipleproducts from sal forests has increased; accordingly, a silviculturalregime for managing sal forest for multiple products is a centralconcern. Forest managers need a comprehensive scientific understandingof natural stand development processes and anthropogenic factorsaffecting sal forest when designing silvicultural regimes formultiple-product management. We review ecology and productivityplus anthropogenic niches of sal forests. Information on edaphicfactors, phenology and stand development processes (regeneration,growth characteristics, soil nutrient requirement, growth allocation,nutrient cycling, stand structure and successional stages) isimportant for designing scientific forest management of salforest; likewise, knowledge of anthropogenic factors associatedwith use of sal forest is also required for effective implementationof the recently paradigmed management efforts. Sal forest silviculturehas been evolving since the beginning of the twentieth centurymainly concentrating on timber production, though the sal forestshave always been used also for grazing and collection of fodder,fuelwood, litter and many other products. Instead of integratingthese products in sal forest management, governments have attemptedto control these additional uses through enforcing forest legislation.These attempts resulted in the persistent conflicts betweenthe interests of local people and the government, and the deterioratingcondition of sal forests. Community-based forestry in this regionemerged in response to the severe degradation of forest resources,and local people initiated protection practices and demonstratedthe success of sal forest from coppice. The coppice systemsallow managing forests with intermittent products (non-timberforest products, including fodder and litter) while producingtimber in the long term. Accordingly, a policy has been developedto manage coppice sal forest for multiple products. Managingthe sal forest for multiple products is, however, a relativelyrecent development and scientific investigations on variousaspects of multiple-product forest management need to be initiated.Ecological processes indicate good prospects of managing salforest for multiple products. The review indicates that theecological processes and anthropogenic factors form sound basisfor developing multiple-product management.     

Increasing Returns to Scale in Affluent Knowledge‐Rich Economies

This paper departs from the existing growth literature in not assuming a priori a specific production technology and offering instead a theory of production technology that captures the effects of changes in the level, composition, and forces of accumulation of capital on the productivity of an economy. The theory of production technology shows that an affluent knowledge‐rich economy violates the Inada second condition because of its high level of knowledge, human, and social capital. Substitution of knowledge capital for physical capital and the self‐reinforcing nature of the process of accumulation of knowledge, human, and social capital are the engines of growth in such economies. Poor economies, on the other hand, may exhibit neoclassical production technology of diminishing returns to capital and get trapped into a low‐level steady state owing to their ever‐growing need for physical capital and also to unfavorable supply conditions for knowledge capital, lower levels of knowledge, human, and social capital in these economies being inadequate to trigger the self‐reinforcing dynamics. The mechanics of endogenous growth are essentially different in rich and poor economies because the production possibility surface is non‐convex in the former, and this difference explains the sustained divergence of their growth rates.     

Role of brain insulin receptor in control of body weight and reproduction

Insulin receptors (IRs) and insulin signaling proteins are widely distributed throughout the central nervous system (CNS). To study the physiological role of insulin signaling in the brain, we created mice with a neuron-specific disruption of the IR gene (NIRKO mice). Inactivation of the IR had no impact on brain development or neuronal survival. However, female NIRKO mice showed increased food intake, and both male and female mice developed diet-sensitive obesity with increases in body fat and plasma leptin levels, mild insulin resistance, elevated plasma insulin levels, and hypertriglyceridemia. NIRKO mice also exhibited impaired spermatogenesis and ovarian follicle maturation because of hypothalamic dysregulation of luteinizing hormone. Thus, IR signaling in the CNS plays an important role in regulation of energy disposal, fuel metabolism, and reproduction.     

Comparative genomics of trypanosomatid parasitic protozoa

A comparison of gene content and genome architecture of Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Leishmania major, three related pathogens with different life cycles and disease pathology, revealed a conserved core proteome of about 6200 genes in large syntenic polycistronic gene clusters. Many species-specific genes, especially large surface antigen families, occur at nonsyntenic chromosome-internal and subtelomeric regions. Retroelements, structural RNAs, and gene family expansion are often associated with syntenic discontinuities that-along with gene divergence, acquisition and loss, and rearrangement within the syntenic regions-have shaped the genomes of each parasite. Contrary to recent reports, our analyses reveal no evidence that these species are descended from an ancestor that contained a photosynthetic endosymbiont.     

Immunization of neonatal bovines against Theileria annulata by an infection and treatment method

Sixty three cross-bred (Bos taurus X Bos indicus) 4-5-day-old calves were divided into 16 groups (A-P). Each calf in Groups A and B was given ground-up-tick supernate prepared from Theileria annulata-infected or non-infected Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum (GUTS) equivalent to 5 ticks (50 infected acini). Groups D and E received infected GUTS equivalent to 2 ticks (20 infected acini) and Groups G and H were given infected GUTS equivalent to 1 tick (10 infected acini). Each calf in Groups J, K and L received infected GUTS equivalent to 5 infected acini (0.035 tick), and Group O was inoculated with non-infected GUTS equivalent to 5 ticks. Each calf in Groups A, D, G, J, K and O was also given a single intramuscular injection of long acting oxytetracycline, 20 mg kg-1 body weight just after inoculation of GUTS. Severe reactions resulted in the death of five of eight, three of eight, five of six, one of five and one of five calves in Groups A, D, G, J and K respectively and all of the calves in Groups B, E, H, and L. The surviving calves of Groups A, D, G, J, K and O were challenged on Day 45 post-immunization along with freshly introduced susceptible control calves of Groups C, F, I, M, N and P. All the calves of Groups A, G, J and K withstood the challenge dose; in Group D four of five and in Groups C, F, I, M, N, O, and P all the calves died of theileriosis. It is concluded that though the infection and treatment method of immunization may be used for neonatal bovines, the dose of immunogen should be based on actual counts of infected salivary acini of ticks instead of the number of ticks.