Endocarditis in chickens caused by subclinical infection of Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus

Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes endocarditis in humans and acute septicemia in domestic birds. We describe here the infective endocarditis caused by the bacterium found among clinically healthy broilers at two abattoirs in Japan. The chickens were thought to be healthy because of the lack of clinical symptoms and normal levels of mortality before slaughtering. At the time of inspection, some chickens were condemned because of organ disorders characterized by vegetative valvular endocarditis as well as focal necrosis in heart, liver, and spleen. Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus was isolated from the organs as a pure culture, indicating that the bacterium probably was the causative agent of the disorders. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of the isolates collected at the abattoirs from chickens grown in nine different farms indicated that the isolates were different variants of the same clonal lineage and may have been derived from the same ancestor. These results suggest that S. gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes infectious endocarditis in chickens and that healthy chickens may possess the bacterium in their normal flora as an opportunistic pathogen.     

Thermal tolerance of a rainbow trout <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oncorhynchus mykiss</Emphasis> strain selected by high-temperature breeding

ABSTRACT:   Thermal tolerance was studied in a rainbow trout strain successively selected through high temperature breeding at 20–27°C since 1966 in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. The hatching rate and fry mortality at high temperatures were examined in the selected strain along with normal strains cultured at water temperature of 9–17°C. The hatching rate of embryos fertilized at either 10 or 14°C and subsequently subjected to high temperatures in the blastula or neurula stage of the selected strain, was marginally higher than that of the normal strain counterparts. The upper 50% lethal temperatures (LT₅₀) for embryos in the early segmentation, blastula and neurula stages of the selected strain were also higher than those of the normal strain counterparts. Death temperatures and LT₅₀ of fries acclimated to 20°C of the selected strain were significantly higher than those of the normal strains. However, no difference in the critical thermal maximum was detected between the different strains. These results suggest that the selected strain of rainbow trout established by selecting successively for many generations at high temperatures acquired a degree of thermal tolerance.     

Curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) suppress an increase in blood glucose level in type 2 diabetic KK-Ay mice

Turmeric, the rhizome of Curcuma longa L., has a wide range of effects on human health. The chemistry includes curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids as components, which are known to have antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, and antiinflammatory activities. In this study, we investigated the effects of three turmeric extracts on blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetic KK-A(y) mice (6 weeks old, n = 5/group). These turmeric extracts were obtained by ethanol extraction (E-ext) to yield both curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids, hexane extraction (H-ext) to yield sesquiterpenoids, and ethanol extraction from hexane-extraction residue (HE-ext) to yield curcuminoids. The control group was fed a basal diet, while the other groups were fed a diet containing 0.1 or 0.5 g of H-ext or HE-ext/100 g of diet or 0.2 or 1.0 g of E-ext/100 g of diet for 4 weeks. Although blood glucose levels in the control group significantly increased (P < 0.01) after 4 weeks, feeding of 0.2 or 1.0 g of E-ext, 0.5 g of H-ext, and 0.5 g of HE-ext/100 g of diet suppressed the significant increase in blood glucose levels. Furthermore, E-ext stimulated human adipocyte differentiation, and these turmeric extracts had human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) ligand-binding activity in a GAL4-PPAR-gamma chimera assay. Also, curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, and ar-turmerone had PPAR-gamma ligand-binding activity. These results indicate that both curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in turmeric exhibit hypoglycemic effects via PPAR-gamma activation as one of the mechanisms, and suggest that E-ext including curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids has the additive or synergistic effects of both components.     

Simultaneous Determination of Gas and Particle Dry Deposition onto Conditioned Surrogate Surfaces

Aerodynamically designed surrogate surfaces were used to determine the relative importance of gaseous (SO₂, HNO₃, NH₃) and particulate species (SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^?, NH₄ ⁺, Ca²⁺) in the dry deposition flux. For 11 sampling periods, we measured the deposition fluxes, ambient gaseous concentrations, size distributions of atmospheric aerosols and some meteorological parameters in Uji. The dry deposition of the gas to a nearly perfect sink was calculated by subtracting the greased surface flux from the total deposition flux to both the greased and reagent impregnated (or water) surface. It was found that the gas phase deposition contributed significantly more (60–93%) than the particulate phase to overall deposition of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. The dry deposition velocities of the species were also calculated using the deposition fluxes and the measured ambient concentrations. Comparisons were made between the measured and modeled particulate deposition flux.