Listeriosis in sheep. Listeria monocytogenes excretion and immunological state in sheep in flocks with clinical listeriosis.

The excretion of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in the faeces and milk, and humoral immunity against Lm, were examined in a sheep flock with outbreaks of listeric encephalitis and in a flock with outbreaks of listeric abortion. The encephalitis flock consisted of 86 ewes and 20 hoggs, the abortion flock of 45 ewes and 3 hoggs, all of them pregnant. Faecal excretion rate in the encephalitis flock varied from about 25 % in the first part of the indoor season to nearly zero 1 month later, to about 30 % 1 month before lambing and about 15 % at lambing. About 15 % of the animals also excreted Lm in the milk. Lm 4 was the dominating serotype.In the abortion flock about 2/3 of the animals excreted Lm in the faeces and 1/3 in the milk at lambing. All the isolates belonged to serotype 1, which also was isolated from grass silage and strawbedding samples.In the encephalitis flock ewes with ≥ 3 foetuses had a higher excretion rate than the remainder, while no such differences were found in the abortion flock.Antibody titres against Lm in sera and whey in the encephalitis flock were of the same order as in the healthy flock described in an earlier publication (Grønstøl 1979), except that the highest titres were found in the hoggs. Serum titres from the abortion flock after lambing were significantly higher than in the encephalitis flock, while whey titres were of the same order.Treatment with 2-mercapto-ethanol reduced the titres substantially in sera from the abortion flock, indicating that the antibodies belonged to the IgM-fraction, while only a slight reduction was seen after similar treatment of the whey.     

Einige Bemerkungen zur Frage der Anwendung der Gaschromatographie in der Weinindustrie

Zusammenfassung Zur Beurteilung der Güte von Nahrungsmitteln sind die organoleptischen, mit mathematisch-statistischen Methoden verbesserten Analysenverfahren noch nicht durch gaschromatographische ersetzt. Die Ursachen hierfür werden erläutert. Interessante Gebiete für die Anwendung der Gaschromatographie sind die qualitative und quantitative Identifizierung der Aromastoffe, relative Vergleichsuntersuchungen von Aromastoffen, Nachweis von Verunreinigungen und Verfälschungen, ferner Serienuntersuchungen in verschiedenen Industriezweigen.

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Summary In the evaluation of the quality of foods, the procedures of organoleptic analyses, improved nowadays by mathematical and statistical methods, have not yet been replaced by methods based on gas chromatography. Interesting fields for the application of gas chromatographic analyses are the qualitative and quantitative determination of aromas, identification of contaminations and adulterations, and serial tests in different branches of industry.

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Résumé Pour juger la qualité des aliments, les procédés d'analyse organoleptique, améliorés aujourd'hui par des méthodes mathématiques et statistiques, ne sont pas encore remplacés par des méthodes de chromatographie en phase gazeuse. L'auteur en explique les raisons. Les domaines intéressants pour l'application des analyses par chromatographie en phase gazeuse sont l'identification qualitative et quantitative des arômes, les études comparatives des arômes, l'identification de pollutions et de falsifications, puis des essais de série dans différentes branches industrielles.

     

Foot-and-mouth disease virus: a long known virus, but a current threat

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) was the first animal virus identified. Since then, FMDV has become a model system in animal virology and a considerable amount of information on its structure, biology and vaccinology has been obtained. However, the disease that this virus produces (FMD) still constitutes one of the main animal health concerns. In this review, we have attempted to summarise the state of the knowledge in different basic and applied areas of FMDV research, with emphasis on those aspects relevant to the control of the disease.     

Distemper vaccination of farmed fur animals in Finland

The most important farmed fur animal species in Finland are the American mink (Mustela vison), blue fox (Alopex lagopus), silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) and raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides); all are susceptible to canine distemper. The only distemper vaccines currently available are for mink, although they also have been used for fox and raccoon dogs in emergency situations. The efficacy in eliciting neutralizing antibodies and the safety of three mink-distemper vaccines were studied under field conditions with mink and silver fox. Two of the vaccines were also studied with raccoon dogs and blue fox. All three vaccines elicited a satisfactory antibody response in mink, whereas the response varied in the other species. No side effects were observed in any species tested. One of the vaccines was safe and immunogenic in all four species.