Prevalence of Salmonella antibodies among goats slaughtered for chevon in Bareilly (Northern India)

We screened serum samples of 1024 goats slaughtered for chevon in Bareilly in Northern India for Salmonella antibodies with indirect ELISA, MAT-H (microagglutination test using flagellar antigens e, n, x and 1, 5) and MAT-O (microagglutination test using somatic antigens 4, 12 and 3, 10, 15). Salmonella antibodies were detected in 48, 8 and 40%, goats using Salmonella-cytotoxi-I ELISA, MAT 'H' and MAT 'O', respectively. After adjusting for test accuracy, the seroprevalence were highest for Salmonella-cytotoxi-I ELISA (46%) followed by agglutinins against 'O' 3, 10, 15 (15%) and negligible for other agglutinins. With all 5 tests, prevalence of Salmonella antibodies was significantly higher in females than in males. No significant difference was evident in prevalence of Salmonella antibodies to different antigens in different age groups of male goats except for e, n, x agglutinins that were significantly more prevalent in young adult (<6-18 months) males than in adult (>18 months of age) or young (< or =6 months of age) goats. On the other hand, in females, prevalence of Salmonella-cytotoxin-I antibodies and e, n, x agglutinins differed significantly among three age groups, being the most prevalent in adult goats. As expected, the results of different tests had little or no correlation because the different tests targeted antibodies to different antigens.     

Effect of dietary Curcuma longa on enzymatic and immunological profiles of rohu,Labeo rohita (Ham.), infected with Aeromonas hydrophila

The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary dosages of turmeric that enhance immune response and disease resistance against the opportunistic pathogens Aeromonas hydrophila in Labeo rohita fingerlings. Hence, four different dosages of turmeric at 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 5.0 g kg^?1 feed were given to the fingerlings of L. rohita for 60 days at 4% body weight. At every 20‐day interval, different biochemical, haematological, enzymatic and immunological parameters of fish were evaluated. After 60 days, fish were challenged with A. hydrophila. The mortality (%) was recorded on the tenth day post challenge. Most of the immune parameters including lysozyme activity, superoxide anion production and serum bactericidal activity were significantly (P<0.05) higher on 60 days of feeding of 1.0 g of turmeric per kg of feed. Challenge study indicated 100% and 89% survivability in the group of fish fed with 5.0 and 1.0 g of turmeric per kg of feed respectively. Feeding of turmeric might have maintained long‐term protection in fish by elevating the nonspecific immune system such as Nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), lysozyme and serum bactericidal activity. The result showed that turmeric at a dose of 1.0 g kg^?1 feed for 60 days provided the greatest protection to pathogen challenge.     

不同增氧滴灌方式对蔬菜生长生理指标的影响

为了研究不同增氧方式对盆栽小白菜生长生理指标的影响,以小白菜为供试作物,采用盆栽地下滴灌的方式,以普通地下滴灌作为对照(CK),设置循环曝气(MAI)、双氧水(H₂O₂)、纯氧扩散器曝气(OC)及射流振荡器曝气(FO)4个增氧灌溉处理.结果表明,增氧地下滴灌显著提高了土壤呼吸速率,处理MAI,OC和FO较对照处理分别增大了65.87%,66.79%和111.62%.增氧地下滴灌促进了小白菜的根系生长、光合作用、蒸腾速率和气孔导度,进而提高了小白菜的物质量积累和产量.与对照相比,处理MAI的地下部鲜质量增大了42.03%,地下部干质量增大了79.85%;处理MAI,H₂O₂,OC和FO的光合速率分别增大了868.62%,794.14%,778.67%和650.19%;处理MAI,H₂O₂和OC的气孔导度较CK增大了157.14%,128.57%和85.71%,蒸腾速率增大了55.61%,32.38%和19.58%;处理MAI和H₂O₂的产量分别增大了56.36%和38.72%.综上,增氧地下滴灌可增强小白菜根区的土壤呼吸作用,改善光合作用、蒸腾速率和气孔导度,提高了产量及水分利用效率.其中,循环曝气处理的改善效果最为显著.     

Classification of Dutch and German avian reoviruses by sequencing the sigma C protein

We have amplified, cloned and sequenced (part of) the open reading frame of the S1 segment encoding the sigma C protein of avian reoviruses isolated from chickens with different disease conditions in Germany and The Netherlands during 1980 up to 2000. These avian reoviruses were analysed phylogenetically and compared with sequences of avian reoviruses in the Genbank database. The avian reoviruses could be grouped in 5 different genotyping clusters and this classification was identical when the sequences were compared of the 5' end, the 3' end or the whole open reading frame of the sigma C protein. Therefore sequencing of either part of the gene encoding the sigma C protein seems to be reliable for classification. We were unable to identify a correlation between sigma C sequences of the avian reoviruses and the disease condition they were isolated from. The sequences found in The Netherlands and in Germany are, like those in Taiwan, more dispersed than the known avian reovirus sigma C sequences in the USA and Australia. We did not establish temporal or geographic differences in the avian reoviruses studied.     

Resistance to early blight of tomato with respect to various parameters of disease epidemics

Resistance to early blight in the tomato was assessed by examining various parameters of the progress of the disease. Artificial inoculation and the scoring technique were standardized. Test plants were inoculated with 125cfu/ml of a 12-day-old culture of a pathogenic isolate of Alternaria solani. Screening under artificial conditions was more informative than that under natural epidemic conditions. Tomato cultivars CLN-2071-C, CLN-2070-A, BSS-174, and DTH-7 with resistance expressed as slow blighting against four pathogenic isolates of A. solani, were selected for cultivation in disease-prone areas. Disease intensity increased with the age of plants under the same inoculum load. The area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) was positively correlated with the percentage disease index and negatively with resistance. Calculation of the apparent infection rate (r) was more informative for natural epidemics than for artificial conditions. The sequential apparent infection rate between observation periods was better correlated with disease progress than was the total apparent infection rate between the first and last observations. A double sigmoidal disease progress curve during the same cropping season was characteristic of some varieties when fungal infection took place during the vegetative phase of crop growth.     

Studies on the pathogenesis of chicken infectious anaemia virus infection in six-week-old SPF chickens

The pathogenesis of chicken infectious anaemia virus (CAV) infection was studied in 6-week-old and one-day-old SPF chickens inoculated intramuscularly with graded doses of Cux-1 strain (10(6)-10(2) TCID50/chicken). Viraemia, virus shedding, development of virus neutralizing (VN) antibodies and CAV distribution in the thymus were studied by virus isolation, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunocytochemistry (IP) and in situ hybridization until postinfection day (PID) 28. In 6-week-old chickens infected with high doses of CAV, viraemia and VN antibodies could be detected 4 PID and onward without virus shedding or contact transmission to sentinel birds. However, virus shedding and contact transmission were demonstrated in one-day-old infected chickens. In the 6-week-old groups infected with lower doses, VN antibodies developed by PID 14, transient viraemia and virus shedding were detected. The thymus cortex of all 1-day-old inoculated chickens stained with VP3-specific mAb. Cells with positive in situ hybridization signal were fewer and scattered throughout the thymus tissue of the one-day-old inoculated chickens as compared to IP-positive cells. These results suggest that early immune response induced by high doses of CAV in 6-week-old chickens curtails viral replication and prevents virus shedding.     

Seed germination and seedling development in the mango (Mangifera indica L.)

Mango (Mangifera indica L., cv Ruby) seeds taken from ripe fruit showed no dormancy. They germinated at temperatures between 5 and 40 degrees C, but germination was most rapid near the upper end of this range (25-40 degrees C). The fresh seeds had a high moisture content (85%, dry weight basis) and quickly died on dehydration. The optimal temperature for growth of the seedlings was close to 30 degrees C. High temperatures (40 degrees C) and temperatures below 15 degrees C were lethal. Growth of the stem occurred in successive flushes separated by rest periods. When the leaves of the preceding flush finished growing, the axis lengthened beneath the apical bud.     

Winter × spring wheat hybridization - a promising avenue for yield enhancement

Introgression of the winter gene pool into spring wheat is being considered as one of the strategies to break through the yield plateau. However, little information is available on the combining ability of these two important but distinct groups of wheats in Indian conditions. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to determine the combining ability and gene action of yield and yield attributes in winter × spring wheat crosses. Seventy F₁ progenies developed by 14 winter and five spring wheat lines using a line × tester design were evaluated, along with their parents, for yield and yield attributes in a randomized complete block design under field conditions. The mean squares for all the characters studied showed highly significant differences. The mean squares due to female × male interactions were significant for all the characters studied except for grains per ear and grain weight per ear. Additive genetic effects were found to play a key role in controlling the expression of days to heading, plant height and spikelets per ear.‘MV 19’ and ‘Stepniak’/‘Karvuna’ among winter and ‘PBW 65’ among spring wheats were good general combiners for most of the yield attributes studied. The estimates for specific combining ability effects suggested that, although general combining ability (GCA) effects of most winter wheats are either average or poor, their combination can give desirable genotypes with spring wheat parents possessing a high GCA.     

Variation in diosgenin levels among 10 accessions of fenugreek seeds produced in western Canada

A collection of 10 accessions of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), an annual legume, was grown during two summers at three plot locations in western Canada to assess whether genetic (accession) and environmental factors (site and year of production) influenced levels of diosgenin, a steroidal sapogenin. The 60 harvested seed samples, each analyzed by single determinations on three subsamples of defatted and dried seed material, were hydrolyzed by a microscale procedure in water containing 2-propanol (70%) and sulfuric acid (1 M). The extracts were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography with 6-methyldiosgenin as internal standard. Diosgenin levels from mature seeds ranged from 0.28 to 0.92% (28-92 microg/10 mg). Analysis of variance on combined diosgenin levels from the three sites and two years revealed that accession, accession x year, and site x year effects were significant for diosgenin content, whereas site, year, and site x accession effects were not. Four accessions, CN 19062, CN 19067, CN 19070, and CN 19071, were identified with high levels of diosgenin on the basis of the 2-year data set. In these accessions, mean levels of diosgenin plus yamogenin from seven site years were estimated at 0.70, 0.98, 0.84, and 0.87%, respectively.     

Assessment of genetic relationships between <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhus</Emphasis> L. species using RAPD markers

Genetic diversity of seven Rhus L. species was assessed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPDs) markers. Initially, 90 primers were screened, of which 25 produced reproducible amplification products. These primers generated a total of 296 bands, with an average of 11.8 bands per primer. Out of 296 bands scored, 236 (80%) were polymorphic and 62 (20%) were monomorphic. Primers OPC-05 and OPD-05 generated 100% polymorphic bands. The resolving power of primers ranged from 9.4 to 26.8. Similarity matrix values ranged from 0.45 to 0.63. The dendrogram generated using Unweighted Pair Group Method using Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA) grouped all the species of Rhus in one major group with two sister groups, whilst R. pyroides Burch. and R. dentata Thunb. were outliers. R. gerrardii (Harv. ex Engl.) Diels, R. glauca Thunb. and R. pentheri Zahlbr. constituted one sister group, while R. natalensis Bernh. ex C. Krauss and R. gueinzii Sond. were included in the other. The degree of genetic diversity observed between seven species of Rhus with RAPD markers suggest that this approach could be used for studying the phylogeny of the genus.