Oral vaccination of brushtail possums with BCG: Investigation into factors that may influence vaccine efficacy and determination of duration of protection

AIMS: To determine factors that may influence the efficacy of an oral pelleted vaccine containing Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) to induce protection of brushtail possums against tuberculosis. To determine the duration of protective immunity following oral administration of BCG.

METHODS: In Study 1, a group of possums (n=7) was immunised by feeding 10 pellets containing dead Pasteur BCG, followed 15 weeks later with a single pellet of live Pasteur BCG. At that time, four other groups of possums (n=7 per group) were given a single pellet of live Pasteur BCG orally, a single pellet of live Danish BCG orally, 10 pellets of live Pasteur BCG orally, or a subcutaneous injection of live Pasteur BCG. For the oral pelleted vaccines, BCG was formulated into a lipid matrix, and each pellet contained approximately 10⁷ colony forming units (cfu) of BCG, while the vaccine injected subcutaneously contained 10⁶ cfu of BCG. A sixth, non-vaccinated, group (n=7) served as a control. All possums were challenged by the aerosol route with a low dose of virulent M. bovis 7 weeks after vaccination, and killed 7–8 weeks after challenge. Protection against challenge with M. bovis was assessed from pathological and bacteriological findings.

In Study 2, lipid-formulated live Danish BCG was administered orally to three groups of possums (10–11 per group), and these possums were challenged with virulent M. bovis 8, 29 or 54 weeks later. The possums were killed 7 weeks after challenge, to assess protection in comparison to a non-vaccinated group.

RESULTS: The results from Study 1 showed that vaccine efficacy was not adversely affected by feeding dead BCG prior to live BCG. Feeding 10 vaccine pellets induced a level of protection similar to feeding a single pellet. Protection was similar when feeding possums a single pellet containing the Pasteur or Danish strains of BCG. All vaccinated groups had significantly reduced pathological changes or bacterial counts when compared to the non-vaccinated group. In Study 2, oral administration of Danish BCG induced protection against challenge with M. bovis, which persisted for at least 54 weeks after vaccination. Some protection was observed in possums challenged 54 weeks after vaccination, but this protection was significantly less than that observed in groups vaccinated 29 or 8 weeks prior to challenge. There was a strong relationship between the proportion of animals producing positive lymphocyte proliferation responses to M. bovis antigens and protection against challenge with M. bovis.

CONCLUSIONS: Factors considered potentially capable of interfering with vaccination, including feeding dead BCG to possums prior to feeding live BCG, feeding multiple doses of BCG at one time, and changing strains of BCG, were shown not to interfere with the acquisition of protective immune responses in possums. Protection against tuberculosis was undiminished up to 29 weeks after vaccination with BCG administered orally. It is concluded that vaccination of possums by feeding pellets containing BCG is a robust and efficient approach to enhance the resistance of these animals to tuberculosis.     

土壤结构性质和磷脂剖面的联合保存: 三种干燥技术的比较

There is a need to simultaneously preserve evidence of interactions between the biological community and soil structural properties of a soil in as near an intact （natural） state as possible. Three dehydration techniques were implemented and assessed for their ability to minimise disruption of both biological and physical properties of the same arable soil sample. Dehydration techniques applied until samples were at constant weight were i） air-drying at 20℃ （AD）; ii） -80 ℃ freeze for 24 h, followed by freeze-drying （-80FD）; and iii） liquid nitrogen snap freeze, followed by freeze-drying （LNPD） and were compared to a moist control. Physical structure was determined and quantified in three dimensions using X-ray computed tomography and microbial phenotypic community composition was assessed using phospholipid fatty acid （PLPA） profiling. This study confirms that any form of dehydration, when preparing soil for simultaneous biological and physical analysis, will alter the soil physical properties, and cause some change in apparent community structure. Freeze-drying （both the LNFD and -80FD treatments） was found to minimise disruption （when compared to the moist control soil） to both the soil physical properties and the community structure and is a preferable technique to air-drying which markedly alters the size and character of the pore network, as well as the phenotypic profile. The LNFD was the preferred treatment over the -80FD treatment as samples show low variability between replicates and a fast turn-around time between samples. Therefore snap freezing in liquid nitrogen, followed by freeze drying is the most appropriate form of dehydration when two sets of data, both physical and biological, need to be preserved simultaneously from a soil core.     

In search of the first flower: A jurassic angiosperm, archaefructus, from northeast china

Angiosperm fruiting axes were discovered from the Upper Jurassic of China. Angiosperms are defined by carpels enclosing ovules, a character demonstrated in this fossil. This feature is lacking in other fossils reported to be earliest angiosperms. The fruits are small follicles formed from conduplicate carpels helically arranged. Adaxial elongate stigmatic crests are conspicuous on each carpel. The basal one-third of the axes bore deciduous organs of uncertain affinities. No scars of subtending floral organs are present to define the individual fertile parts as floral units, but the leaf-like structures subtending each axis define them as flowers. These fruiting axes have primitive characters and characters not considered primitive.     

Forest fires: An example of self-organized critical behavior

Despite the many complexities concerning their initiation and propagation, forest fires exhibit power-law frequency-area statistics over many orders of magnitude. A simple forest fire model, which is an example of self-organized criticality, exhibits similar behavior. One practical implication of this result is that the frequency-area distribution of small and medium fires can be used to quantify the risk of large fires, as is routinely done for earthquakes.     

Compensation of horizontal temperature and salinity gradients in the ocean mixed layer

Establishment of the temperature-salinity relationship in the ocean has concerned oceanographers for decades because of its importance for understanding ocean circulation. High-resolution measurements in the ocean mixed layer are used to show that temperature and salinity gradients on horizontal scales of 20 meters to 10 kilometers tend to compensate in their effect on density. These observations support the notion of a horizontal mixing in the mixed layer that depends on density gradient.     

The effects of seed mix and management on the abundance of desirable and pernicious unsown species in arable buffer strip communities

Buffer strips are refuges for a variety of plants providing resources, such as pollen, nectar and seeds, for higher trophic levels, including invertebrates, mammals and birds. Margins can also harbour plant species that are potentially injurious to the adjacent arable crop (undesirable species). Sowing perennial species in non‐cropped buffer strips can reduce weed incidence, but limits the abundance of annuals with the potential to support wider biodiversity (desirable species). We investigated the responses of unsown plant species present in buffer strips established with three different seed mixes managed annually with three contrasting management regimes (cutting, sward scarification and selective graminicide). Sward scarification had the strongest influence on the unsown desirable (e.g. Sonchus spp.) and unsown pernicious (e.g. Elytrigia repens) species, and was generally associated with higher cover values of these species. However, abundances of several desirable weed species, in particular Poa annua, were not promoted by scarification. The treatments of cutting and graminicide tended to have negative impacts on the unsown species, except for Cirsium vulgare, which increased with graminicide application. Differences in unsown species cover between seed mixes were minimal, although the grass‐only mix was more susceptible to establishment by C. vulgare and Galium aparine than the two grass and forb mixes. Annual scarification can enable desirable annuals and sown perennials to co‐exist, however, this practice can also promote pernicious species, and so is unlikely to be widely adopted as a management tool in its current form.     

Photoemission evidence for a remnant fermi surface and a d-wave-like dispersion in insulating Ca2CuO2Cl2

An angle-resolved photoemission study is reported on Ca2CuO2Cl2, a parent compound of high-Tc superconductors. Analysis of the electron occupation probability, n(k), from the spectra shows a steep drop in spectral intensity across a contour that is close to the Fermi surface predicted by the band calculation. This analysis reveals a Fermi surface remnant, even though Ca2CuO2Cl2 is a Mott insulator. The lowest energy peak exhibits a dispersion with approximately the &cjs3539;coskxa - coskya&cjs3539; form along this remnant Fermi surface. Together with the data from Dy-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta, these results suggest that this d-wave-like dispersion of the insulator is the underlying reason for the pseudo gap in the underdoped regime.     

Factors associated with low vitamin D status of Australian alpacas

Objective To investigate factors associated with low vitamin D status of alpacas at pasture in southern Australia. Design A 2‐year survey of alpacas from two farms in South Australia and three in Victoria. Blood samples were collected from 20 to 30 alpacas on each farm on five occasions each year. Breed, gender, age and fleece colour of animals were recorded. Method Blood samples were assayed for plasma 2.5‐hydroxycholecalciferol (25‐OH D₃) and plasma inorganic phosphorus (Pi). Data sets from 802 animal samples were analysed by multiple regression to determine variables associated with low vitamin D status of alpacas. The relationship between plasma 25‐OH D₃ and plasma Pi was also investigated. Results Vitamin D status was significantly affected by month of sampling, with low values in late winter and high values in summer. Plasma vitamin D concentrations increased with age, were higher in alpacas with light fleeces than in those with dark fleeces and were also higher in the Suri than in the Huacaya breed. Plasma Pi concentrations were generally lower in alpacas with plasma 25‐OH D₃ values < 25 nmol/L. Conclusions Young alpacas with dark fleeces are most at risk from vitamin D insufficiency in late winter in southern Australia. The present study indicates that plasma Pi values are not a reliable indicator of vitamin D status of alpacas as assessed by plasma 25‐OH D₃ concentrations.