The first detection of influenza in the Finnish pig population: a retrospective study

Background

Swine influenza is an infectious acute respiratory disease of pigs caused by influenza A virus. We investigated the time of entry of swine influenza into the Finnish pig population. We also describe the molecular detection of two types of influenza A (H1N1) viruses in porcine samples submitted in 2009 and 2010.This retrospective study was based on three categories of samples: blood samples collected for disease monitoring from pigs at major slaughterhouses from 2007 to 2009; blood samples from pigs in farms with a special health status taken in 2008 and 2009; and diagnostic blood samples from pigs in farms with clinical signs of respiratory disease in 2008 and 2009. The blood samples were tested for influenza A antibodies with an antibody ELISA. Positive samples were further analyzed for H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2 antibodies with a hemagglutination inhibition test. Diagnostic samples for virus detection were subjected to influenza A M-gene-specific real-time RT-PCR and to pandemic influenza A H1N1-specific real-time RT-PCR. Positive samples were further analyzed with RT-PCRs designed for this purpose, and the PCR products were sequenced and sequences analyzed phylogenetically.

Results

In the blood samples from pigs in special health class farms producing replacement animals and in diagnostic blood samples, the first serologically positive samples originated from the period July–August 2008. In samples collected for disease monitoring, < 0.1%, 0% and 16% were positive for antibodies against influenza A H1N1 in the HI test in 2007, 2008, and 2009, respectively. Swine influenza A virus of avian-like H1N1 was first detected in diagnostic samples in February 2009. In 2009 and 2010, the avian-like H1N1 virus was detected on 12 and two farms, respectively. The pandemic H1N1 virus (A(H1N1)pdm09) was detected on one pig farm in 2009 and on two farms in 2010.

Conclusions

Based on our study, swine influenza of avian-like H1N1 virus was introduced into the Finnish pig population in 2008 and A(H1N1)pdm09 virus in 2009. The source of avian-like H1N1 infection could not be determined. Cases of pandemic H1N1 in pigs coincided with the period when the A(H1N1)pdm09 virus was spread in humans in Finland.     

Assessment of the retardation of selected herbicides onto Danube sediment based on small column tests

Journal of Soils and Sediments - This study utilizes column tests to investigate the retardation of certain herbicides with different hydrophobicities (atrazine, alachlor and trifluralin) during...     

Re-creation of heathland on improved pasture using top soil removal and sulphur amendments: Edaphic drivers and impacts on ericoid mycorrhizas

Understanding the factors that drive successful re-creation and restoration of lowland heaths is crucially important for achieving the long-term conservation of this threatened habitat type. In this study we investigated the changes in soil chemistry, plant community and interactions between Calluna vulgaris and symbiotic ericoid mycorrhizas (ERM) that occurred when improved pasture was subjected to one of three treatments (i) acidification with elemental sulphur (ii) acidification with ferrous sulphur (iii) removal of the topsoil. We found that the soil stripping treatment produced the greatest reduction in available phosphate but did not decrease soil pH. Conversely, acidification with elemental sulphur decreased pH but increased availability of phosphate and potentially toxic cations. The elemental sulphur treatment produced plant communities that most closely resembled those on surrounding heaths and acid grasslands. The most important driver was low pH and concomitant increased availability of potentially toxic cations. Plant community development was found to be little related to levels of available soil phosphate, particularly at low pH. The elemental sulphur treatment also produced the best germination and growth of C. vulgaris over 4-5 years. However, this treatment was found to inhibit the development of symbiotic relationships between C. vulgaris and ERM. This may affect the long-term persistence of re-created vegetation and its interactions with other components of heathland communities.     

Inheritance of cataracts and primary lens luxation in Jack Russell Terriers

OBJECTIVE: To characterize heritability and mode of inheritance of cataracts and primary lens luxation in Jack Russell Terriers. ANIMALS: 872 Jack Russell Terriers from which buccal epithelial cells were collected and phenotypes for cataracts and lens luxation were determined and an additional 1,898 Jack Russell Terriers without phenotypic information used to complete pedigree relationships and that were included in the analyses. PROCEDURES: Narrow-sense heritabilities and genetic correlation for cataracts and lens luxation were modeled by use of threshold analysis, whereas complex segregation analysis was used to characterize mode of inheritance. For the analyses, dogs < 6 years old, unless confirmed as having cataracts or lens luxation, were classified as an unknown phenotype. The possible involvement of an HSF4 mutation in cataracts was determined by DNA sequencing. RESULTS: Cataracts and primary lens luxation were highly heritable and genetically correlated, and neither was controlled by a single gene. Cataracts were not associated with an HSF4 mutation. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Analysis of the data indicated that concerted selection against both cataracts and primary lens luxation when choosing breeding animals can be used to improve ocular health in Jack Russell Terriers.     

Temperature responses,flowering and fruit yield of the June-bearing strawberry cultivars Florence,Frida and Korona

The effect of night temperature on short day (SD) floral induction has been studied in three June-bearing strawberry cultivars of different geographic origin and compared with yield performance in the cool Nordic environment. At the optimum day temperature of 18 °C, the SD flowering response of the cultivars ‘Florence’ and ‘Korona’ increased significantly with increasing night temperature from 9 to 18 °C, while an optimum was reached at 15 °C in the cultivar ‘Frida’ that is selected under cool-environment conditions in Norway. Also, while saturated flowering response was obtained with 3 weeks of SD treatment at all temperatures in ‘Frida’, several plants of ‘Florence’ and ‘Korona’ failed to initiate flowers at 9 °C night temperature even with 5 weeks of SD. The effect of extended SD period was particularly pronounced in ‘Florence’. The slow SD floral induction response of ‘Florence’ was associated with a 2 week delay of anthesis in subsequent long day (LD) conditions at 21 °C. Yield performance of the same cultivars during 2 years under field conditions at Nes Hedmark and in North Norway also demonstrated that the yield potential of ‘Florence’ was not realized under the climatic conditions prevailing at these locations. In both years the yields varied significantly among the cultivars, ‘Frida’ having the highest yields followed by ‘Korona’, with ‘Florence’ far below. It is concluded that, in the Nordic environment, autumn (September) night temperatures are obviously sub-optimal for yield performance of some June-bearing strawberry cultivars, and that this effect is mediated by autumn temperature effects on flower initiation responses.     

Monitoring of Phytotoxicity of Lead and Mercury from Germination and Early Seedling Growth Indices in Two Rice Cultivars

Treatment of seeds of two rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars (Ratna and IR36) separately with 10^-5and 10^-4M PbCl²and HgCl²decreased germination percentage, germination index (GI), shoot and root length, tolerance index (TI), vigour index (VI) and dry mass of shoot and root but increased percentage difference from control (% DFC) of germination and percentage phytotoxicity in both the cultivars. It was observed from these indices that the phytotoxic effect of mercury was greater than lead at identical concentrations and that IR36 appeared more tolerant than Ratna to these metals. Among the monitoring indices examined, TI, VI, and % phytotoxicity seemed to serve as good biological monitoring methods for evaluating the relative toxicity of lead and mercury to rice cultivars.

     

Laboratory and on‐farm evaluation of low‐cost salt mixtures for use during salinity acclimation and the nursery phase of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

The current study evaluates the efficacy of a low‐cost salt mixture (LCSM) to replace expensive reconstituted sea salt (RSS) in the salinity acclimation and nursery phase of Pacific white shrimp under laboratory and farm conditions. LCSM was formulated to yield sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium concentrations closely comparable to that of diluted seawater. Laboratory‐based nursery trials were conducted at 2, 6 and 15 g/L salinities, incrementally replacing RSS with LCSM (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) at four replicates per treatment. Thirty postlarvae were reared for 7 days in 24‐L aquaria during the 2 and 6 g/L trials, while the nursery trial for 15 g/L salinity was conducted for 21 days with 400 postlarvae stocked in 150‐L tanks. On‐farm evaluation of LCSM was carried out in two tank‐based systems installed on levees adjacent to shrimp production ponds. RSS was incrementally replaced with LCSM (0%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and 100 postlarvae stocked into each 800‐L tank. Salinity acclimation was done from 30 g/L to 6 or 1.5 g/L within 2–3 days by pumping water from adjacent shrimp production ponds. Following salinity acclimation, the S4 system maintained flow‐through at 1.5 g/L, while N10 system was maintained static at 6 g/L salinity. At the conclusion, no significant differences were observed for either survival or growth of shrimp postlarvae between RSS and LCSM treatments at all salinities examined. Results reflect the potential use of LCSM to replace RSS, which could be an excellent solution to bring down the cost of production in inland shrimp aquaculture.     

Fecundity and egg dimension of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium assamense peninsulare (Tiwari, 1958) from Rawasan stream of Garhwal,Central Himalaya,India

The population of the freshwater animal was declined day by day due to the degradation of habitat and use of illegal fishing methods, which cause a great threat to these aquatic animals. The main purpose of this study was to scrutinize the wild population and fecundity of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium assamense peninsulare in Rawasan stream to assess the health status of prawn. Fecundity was estimated by a random sampling of prawn from five selected sites of Rawasan stream. A wild collection of a total of 35 ovigerous females was collected for an interval of 2 years (August 2013–July 2015) from May to September month, that is breeding session. The maximum number of eggs was 102 eggs in an individual having 52 mm total length and 2.66 g body weight. It was concluded that fecundity of Macrobrachium assamense peninsulare was low, and egg dimension was larger than other closely related species of freshwater prawn. Fecundity of Macrobrachium assamense peninsulare showed a positive relationship with a total weight (R² = .71) and moderate with the total length (R² = .38). A strong correlation exists between egg mass and total weight, and between egg mass and total length of female (R² = .849 and R² = .77 at p < .05) respectively. The numbers of eggs, that is fecundity, in a female were increased with the body growth of an individual, which results in a linear graph.