Since the ban on growth-promoting antibiotics in animal feed in the European Union, necrotic enteritis has become a major cause of mortality in broiler chickens. Despite the importance of the disease, the pathogenesis is still not completely understood. In the current study, Clostridium perfringens strains isolated from healthy flocks and isolates from outbreaks of necrotic enteritis were evaluated for the ability to cause gut necrosis in an intestinal loop model in laying hens and in an experimental infection model in broilers. High, intermediate and low alpha toxin producing strains were chosen from each isolation source. Only the isolates from field outbreaks induced necrotic gut lesions, independent of the amount of alpha toxin produced in vitro. It was also shown that alpha toxin producing isolates from calf hemorrhagic enteritis cases were not able to induce necrotic enteritis in poultry. These results suggest the presence of host specific virulence factors in C. perfringens strains, isolated from chickens with intestinal necrotic enteritis lesions. 相似文献
Three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, males were implanted with Silastic capsules filled with different aromatase
inhibitors; 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione or the non-steroidal CGS16949 A, 4-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydrimidazol [1,5-a]pyridin-5-yl)
benzonitrile monohydrochloride or empty capsules. The fish were then exposed to long or short photoperiod. Under the long
photoperiod most fish in all treatments displayed a hypertrophied kidney (a secondary sexual character in sticklebacks) and
completed, quiescent spermatogenesis, similar as in the natural spawning period. Under the short photoperiod the controls
had unstimulated kidneys and an active spermatogenesis, whereas the males implanted with both aromatase inhibitors had stimulated
kidneys, though not to the extent as in the long photoperiod, and completed, quiescent spermatogenesis. These findings suggest
that aromatization is of importance for the inhibitory effects of short photoperiod on reproduction in the stickleback.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. 相似文献