Monitoring for antibiotic resistance in enterococci consequent upon feeding growth promoters active against Gram-positive bacteria

Commercial chicken and pig farms, using different growth promoters, were monitored for enterococci resistant to a range of antibacterial agents. Due to inconsistent findings attributed to uncontrollable factors, chickens kept under experimental conditions were also studied. A total of 4216 isolates from all the surveys were examined. Resistant isolates were often encountered, even in control groups, suggesting complex population changes not necessarily solely connected with the influence of the growth promoters. It was concluded that comprehensive methods for differentiating strains are necessary to unravel this problem.     

Validation of a polymerase chain reaction assay for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of diminazene aceturate in trypanosome-infected sheep

The diagnostic performance of a polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) for monitoring the effectiveness of aceturate diminazene treatment was compared with those of an antibody-detection ELISA test and the buffy-coat technique using sheep experimentally infected with either savannah-type or forest-type Trypanosoma congolense or T. vivax. Within the period of infection, the PCR using specific savannah-type T. congolense primers showed a significant higher diagnostic sensitivity (p<0.05) than the buffy-coat technique. Both techniques gave closed results for detecting forest-type T. congolense or T. vivax infections. Following trypanocidal treatment, the PCR showed that specific product disappeared definitively 1 or 2 days later in animals in which a decrease of the antibody level and a significant improvement of the red packed cell volume were observed. The occurrence of relapse infection was detected by the PCR in one animal infected by T. vivax on day 19 post-treatment and confirmed by the persistence and increasing antibody level whereas the buffy-coat technique detected parasites 42 days later. Then, the PCR signals remained positive on several occasions while parasitaemia was detected only two times.The application of PCR combined with the antibody detection appeared to provide a useful tool as compared to the buffy-coat technique for monitoring the effectiveness of trypanocidal treatment.     

Effects of Dietary Ampitheoe sp. Powder on Growth and Lipid Contents of Litopenaeus vannamei北大核心CSCD

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary Ampitheoe sp. powder on the growth and the contents of astaxanthin, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TCHO) and fatty acids of Litopenaeus vannamei. A total of approximately 6 777 L. vannamei with an initial body weight of (1. 80 ± 0.72) g were randomly divided into 3 groups, and there were 3 replicates (753 shrimp per replicate) in each group. Those shrimp fed diets containing 0 (D0 group), 8. 25% (D8. 25 group) and 33% (D33. 00 group) Ampitheoe sp. powder, respectively. The feeding trial lasted for 40 days. The results showed as follows: 1) the final body weight, weight gain rate, specific growth rate, yield and survival rate in D33.00 group were significantly higher than those in D0 group (P <0.05), whereas the feed conversion ratio was significantly lower than that in D0 group (P <0.05) . However, there was no significant difference between D33.00 group and the D8. 25 group in those indexes (P >0.05) . 2) The astaxanthin content in carapace, hepatopancreas and muscle of L. vannamei in D8.25 and D33. 00 groups was significantly higher than that in D0 group (P < 0. 05); that in D33.00 group was significantly higher than that in D8. 25 group (P < 0. 05) . 3) TG content in haemolymph, hepatopancreas and muscle in D8. 25 and D33. 00 groups was significantly lower than that in D0 group (P < 0.05); the TCHO content in hepatopancreas in D8. 25 group was significantly higher than that in D0 and D33.00 groups (P <0.05); TCHO content in muscle in D33.00 group was significantly higher than that in D0 group (P <0.05) . 4) The contents of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (AA) in hepatopancreas in D33.00 group were significantly higher than those in D0 group (P <0.05) . The EPA content in muscle in D33.00 group was significantly higher than that in D0 group (P < 0. 05) . In conclusion, adding Ampitheoe sp. powder into the diet can improve the growth performance, the contents of astaxanthin, EPA and AA in L. vannamei, and affect the accumulation of TG and TCHO, which can be used as a functional diet in aquaculture. Considering the cost, the supplementation level of 8. 25% Ampitheoe sp. powder is more appropriate. © 2023 Chinese Journal of Pediatric Surgery. All rights reserved.     

Comparative pathogenicity of three genetically distinct types of Trypanosoma congolense in cattle: clinical observations and haematological changes

The pathology of African bovine trypanosomosis was compared in Zebu cattle subcutaneously inoculated with three clones of trypanosomes corresponding to the three genetically distinct types of Trypanosoma congolense; savannah-type, west African riverine/forest-type and kilifi-type. All inoculated animals became parasitaemic between 7 and 11 days post-infection (dpi). The savannah-type showed consistently higher levels of parasitaemia and lower packed red cell volume percentages and leukocyte counts than the other two types. The syndrome was also more severe in the savannah-type and led inexorably to death between 29 and 54 dpi while animals with the forest or the kilifi-types recovered from earlier symptoms and haematological alterations after 3 months of infection. By the end of the experiment, the animals self-cured from the forest-type infection and the kilifi-type passed under control. The results of the present study indicated clear difference in pathogenicity between the three types of T. congolense; the savannah-type was virulent while the forest-type was of low pathogenicity and the kilifi-type was non-pathogenic.     

A novel screening method for rice allelopathic potential: the inhibitory‐circle method

Screening crop accessions for allelopathic activity is of paramount importance for crop allelopathy research. Previous bioassays often did not use a mixed culture of donor and target plants, did not use soil and were not conducted under natural conditions. In this study, we designed an inhibitory‐circle method in which a rice accession (donor plant) and Echinochloa crus‐galli (target plant) were cultured together in paddy soil under natural conditions. First, we determined that the highest allelopathic activity of allelopathic rice accession PI312777 was at the 5‐leaf stage, and the suitable distance of rice seedlings and E. crus‐galli was 12 cm apart. This method was then validated by a field test. A further 40 rice accessions were evaluated for allelopathic activity to E. crus‐galli using this method. Two rice accessions, PI312777 and Taichung Native 1, had highly allelopathic activity to E. crus‐galli (inhibitory rate > 50%), while another accession, Lemont, had non‐allelopathic activity. These experimental results were in accordance with previous studies using direct field experiments. The inhibitory‐circle method integrated three necessary conditions, that is donor and target plants grown together, with soil as the medium and under natural conditions for reliable results. The ‘inhibitory‐circle method’, which combined donor and target plants, soil medium and field conditions, can give reliable results in one step, compared with laboratory screening methods. Also, the ‘inhibitory‐circle method’ gave results in 30‐35 days, thereby substantially reducing the requirements for time, labour and cost.     

Three-dimensional orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope

Over the past decade, efforts have been made to develop nondestructive techniques for three-dimensional (3D) grain-orientation mapping in crystalline materials. 3D x-ray diffraction microscopy and differential-aperture x-ray microscopy can now be used to generate 3D orientation maps with a spatial resolution of 200 nanometers (nm). We describe here a nondestructive technique that enables 3D orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope of mono- and multiphase nanocrystalline materials with a spatial resolution reaching 1 nm. We demonstrate the technique by an experimental study of a nanocrystalline aluminum sample and use simulations to validate the principles involved.