Vaccination of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) against Mycobacterium bovis infection with bacille Calmette-Guérin: the response to multiple doses.

In New Zealand, the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is the principal wildlife vector of bovine tuberculosis. Control of infected possum populations contributes to the control of tuberculosis in domestic livestock. Vaccination is potentially a complementary strategy to population control, but to be cost-effective, administration of the vaccine to possums would need to be from an appropriately designed automatic vaccinator. Possums themselves would activate the vaccinator so that it would deliver an aerosol spray of vaccine. There would be no direct way to prevent possums receiving multiple doses of vaccine. This study examined the effect on protective immunity of repeated vaccination. Captive possums were vaccinated with BCG strain pasteur 1173P2 either 12 times at weekly intervals, twice at 6-weekly intervals, or once. Vaccination was by a combination of intranasal aerosol and conjunctival instillation. Eight weeks after the last dose of vaccine, all possums were challenged intratracheally with Mycobacterium bovis strain 83/6235. Vaccination induced a significant immune response as measured by the lymphocyte proliferation assay (LPA). A significant level of protection, as measured by the response to challenge, developed in all the vaccinated possum groups, but protection was greatest in the group vaccinated 12 times. It was concluded that protection would be enhanced if vaccinations were repeated at short intervals (weekly), but no benefit or detriment resulted from revaccination after longer intervals (1-2 months).     

Evaluation of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for diagnosis of trichinellosis in swine.

Experimental and field trials were conducted to evaluate an ELISA for its ability to detect Trichinella-infected domestic swine and to compare ELISA results with muscle-digestion test results. The ELISA used was a commercial double-antibody kit, containing an excretory-secretory antigen, and was evaluated principally for epidemiologic use. Experimentally induced infection in swine (4 groups of 3 pigs each; inoculated with 0, 50, 500 or 5,000 larvae) was detected as early as postinoculation week 4, with seroconversion of all inoculated swine by postinoculation week 8. The rate of seroconversion appeared to be affected by initial larval dose, time after inoculation, and immunocompetence of the individual host. Determination of antibody kinetics generally revealed rapidly increasing antibody titer, followed by its steady decrease in most pigs. Once seropositive, however, all pigs remained seropositive for the duration of the 10-week study. Presence of muscle larvae was confirmed in all infected pigs at termination of the study. We recognize that the experimental conditions may not be truly representative of those under which natural infection develops in pigs; however, the ELISA detected an infected pig with muscle larval density of 0.87 larvae/g of tissue. Results of a field trial (n = 310) indicated no muscle digestion test-positive pigs (35 g of diaphragm muscle digested/pig), but 3 samples tested positive by ELISA for specificity of 99.0%.     

Effect of dietary protein content on episodic growth hormone secretion and on heat production of male broiler chickens.

1. The effect of the crude protein content (200 and 150 g/kg) of isoenergetic diets on episodic growth hormone (GH) release and on heat production was investigated in male broiler chickens. 2. Decreasing the crude protein content of isoenergetic diets from 200 g/kg (HP diet) to 150 g/kg (LP diet) resulted in depressed body weight gain, impaired food conversion efficiency and increased abdominal fat deposition. 3. The pattern of growth hormone secretion was markedly affected by dietary treatment. Broiler chickens fed on the LP diet had higher overall mean, amplitude, baseline and peak frequency than the HP chickens. 4. The LP chickens produced more heat per unit of metabolic body weight than the HP chickens. 5. The hypothesis relating the pattern of GH secretion to protein conversion efficiency was corroborated.     

Distribution of ASFV antigens in pig tissues experimentally infected with two different Spanish virus isolates.

Lymph nodes, spleen, liver, lung and kidney obtained from pigs experimentally infected with two African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) isolates of differing virulence were fixed by perfusion with glutaraldehyde and embedded in paraffin. An immunoperoxidase technique using a polyclonal anti-ASFV serum was performed on tissue sections in order to detect ASFV antigen. The distribution of ASFV antigen in such infected organs is shown and the differences between both infections compared and discussed. Monocytes, macrophages, hepatocytes, endothelial cells, neutrophils and epithelial cells were found to contain ASFV antigens.     

Pathology of infectious diarrhea of infant rats (IDIR) induced by an antigenically distinct rotavirus

Suckling rats were inoculated with a group B rotavirus to determine the progression of the morphologic changes induced in the intestine by this virus. Several changes were observed by light microscopy 1 day after viral inoculation: shortening of small intestinal villi, villous epithelial necrosis, and villous epithelial syncytia. The lesions were most often present in the distal small intestine, although other small intestinal segments were affected to a lesser degree. By day 3 post-inoculation, epithelial necrosis, and syncytia were no longer present; however, the villous epithelium was disorganized and irregularly vacuolated, and intestinal crypt epithelium was hyperplastic. Alterations in villous height to crypt depth ratios were present in portions of the small intestine for the remainder of the 12-day study period. Epithelial syncytia appeared to form by the breakdown of the lateral interdigitating membranes of the absorptive villous epithelium. Viral particles, abundant in the syncytia, appeared to form from amorphous or reticular arrays of viral precursor material. Group B rotaviral antigens, as detected by indirect immunofluorescence, were present in large amounts in the small intestinal villous epithelium only on the first day after viral inoculation. These studies show that two important diagnostic features of group B rotaviral infections of rats, epithelial syncytia and viral antigen as determined by immunofluorescence, are present only on the first day of disease. These findings should be taken into consideration when attempting to diagnose disease induced by this agent.     

Correlation of DNA ploidy to tumor histologic grade, clinical variables, and survival in dogs with mast cell tumors.

By using flow cytometry, a retrospective analysis of the DNA content of 40 primary canine mast cell tumors and seven lymph nodes that contained metastatic mast cell tumor from 44 dogs of various breed, sex, and age was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples of the tumors and nodes. These samples were chosen according to the following criteria: samples contained sufficient well-preserved tumor tissue in the paraffin block for processing, sufficient patient history data were available, clean and homogeneous cell suspensions were obtained after processing, and interpretable DNA histograms were produced on analysis. The ploidy data obtained were compared with the histopathologic grade, the anatomical site of occurrence, the clinical stage of the tumors, and the survival of the dogs. Over 70% (29/40) of the mast cell tumors were diploid. Three metastatic mast cell tumors in lymph nodes had the same ploidy status as their corresponding primary tumors. In five dogs, mast cell tumors from multiple sites in each dog displayed similar ploidy status. Of 26 dogs evaluated for survival times, 69% (18/26) had diploid tumors and 31% (8/26) had aneuploid tumors. When numbers of diploid versus aneuploid tumors were compared, no significant difference was found between any two grades, clinical stages, or anatomic sites. A significant difference (P = 0.02) was found, however, between aneuploid and diploid tumors when comparing Stage I and non-Stage I disease. The Kaplan-Meier survival plot indicated a tendency towards an increased survival within the first year in dogs with diploid versus aneuploid tumors (P = 0.06).