C-reactive protein measurement in canine saliva.

An established time-resolved immunofluorometric assay designed for measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP) in canine blood was evaluated and validated for use in canine saliva. C-reactive protein was measured in saliva specimens from 5 healthy dogs before and after the injection of casein and in 37 dogs with different disease conditions. The analytical and functional limits of detection were 0.000053 microg/ml and 0.0091 microg/ml, respectively, and intra- and interassay coefficients of variation ranged between 6.7-9.9% and 8.5-16.5%, respectively. A recovery experiment showed no significant disagreement between detected values and expected ones, and saliva CRP concentration was measured in a linear and proportional manner. A positive correlation was found between CRP levels obtained in saliva and serum samples in the experimental (R2 = 0.76) and clinical studies (R2 = 0.70). The assay was able to detect significant differences between salivary CRP levels in healthy dogs and dogs with inflammatory processes. These results suggest that saliva can be used for CRP measurement in dogs. The use of saliva presents the advantage of an easier and less stressful sampling method for the animals, which might be performed outside of hospital environments.     

Adherence of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 1 to swine buccal epithelial cells involves fibronectin

The swine pathogen Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 1 was investigated for its ability to adhere to swine, rat, and human buccal epithelial cells (BEC). The highest number of bacteria adhered was to swine BEC. This binding ability was affected by heating, extreme pH, treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate, ethylenediamine tetraacetate, or periodate, and proteolysis, suggesting that cell-surface glycoproteins participate in adherence and that adherence is based mostly on ionic interactions. Mannose and swine fibronectin may play a direct role in this interaction. Convalescent-phase serum from naturally infected pigs inhibited the adhesion. There was a correlation between bacterial pathogenicity as well as host specificity and the capacity for adherence to swine BEC. Adhesion to swine BEC provides a convenient method to study in vitro the adherence of A. pleuropneumoniae and other pathogens of the pig respiratory tract.     

Identification and Characterisation of Bacteria Causing Soft-rot in Agave tequilana

Agave tequilana is the raw material for the production of the alcoholic beverage tequila. A bacterial disease has affected the A. tequilana crop in recent years. Previous reports based on colony and cell morphology, Gram stain and potato rot indicated that Erwinia sp. is the main pathogen. We isolated a several bacterial isolates capable of producing soft-rot symptoms in greenhouse pathogenicity assays. An extensive characterisation involving pathogenicity tests, fatty acid profile, metabolic and physiological properties, ribosomal DNA sequence and intergenic transcribed spacer amplification (ITS-PCR) and restriction banding pattern (ITS-RFLP) was made of each isolate. Three different species: Erwinia cacticida, Pantoea agglomerans and Pseudomonas sp. were identified. Fatty acid and metabolic profiles gave low similarity values of identification but 16S rDNA sequence, ITS-PCR and ITS-RFLP confirmed the identification of E. cacticida. In the phylogenetic tree, E. cacticida from blue agave was grouped neither with E. cacticida type strains nor with Erwinia carotovora. This is the first report that associates E. cacticida with A. tequilana soft-rot symptoms.     

Comparative Characterization of Enzymatic Digestion from Fish and Soybean Meal from Simulated Digestive Process of Pacific Bluefin Tuna,Thunnus orientalis

The digestive process of the Pacific bluefin tuna (PBT), Thunnus orientalis, was simulated through two phases of in vitro digestion: acidic digestion with porcine pepsin, followed by alkaline digestion with pancreatic crude extract (PCE) obtained from the PBT to hydrolyze fish meal (FM) and soybean meal (SBM) as protein substrates. The crude protein from FM resulted in a lower degree of hydrolysis (73.3%) compared with SBM (79.2%). However, the resulting digested products showed that FM contained 35% more small peptides, with sizes <6.5 kDa than those from the starting material (>150 kDa). The SBM had an increase of only 1.3% in the similar peptide cut‐offs found after hydrolysis. These results suggested that FM appeared to be a better source of protein according to the amount of low‐molecular weight peptides. In addition, the proteolytic activity of PCE showed that 88.9% of its alkaline proteolytic activity corresponded to trypsin and 2.9% corresponded to chymotrypsin activity. The results shown here demonstrate that peptide sizes are important in identifying suitable protein sources for aquafeed production to reinforce the primary results obtained from the in vitro digestibility using the pH‐Stat system. These results also contribute to a better understanding of the digestibility process in aquatic organisms.     

Survival and Growth Improvement of Palm Ruff,Seriolella violacea,Larvae Fed Artemia Nauplii Enriched with an Experimental Emulsion

The palm ruff, Seriolella violacea (Cojinoba), is a potential new species for Chilean aquaculture. To approach Cojinoba larviculture, an experimental Artemia enrichment emulsion, containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)/eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) = 2.5, supplemented with vitamin E, astaxanthin, and β‐glucan, was evaluated in both Artemia and Cojinoba larvae, 30–50 d.a.h. This study tested an experimental enrichment emulsion versus a commercial emulsion, with an integral approach of multicompound emulsions. After 23 h enrichment, experimental emulsion (EE)‐enriched nauplii reached DHA and EPA concentrations of 23.8 and 18.7 mg/g dry weight (dwt), respectively, while in Cojinoba larvae they were 18.4 and 19.7 mg/g dwt. Control emulsion (CE)‐enriched nauplii exhibited lower DHA and EPA (6.1 and 7.7 mg/g dwt), while only DHA decreased in the control larvae (12.6 mg/g dwt). Vitamin E was higher in EE‐enriched nauplii (29.2 mg/100 g dwt) than in the control (8.4 mg/100 g dwt). Larvae fed EE‐enriched Artemia exhibited 8% increase in survival and 19% in growth compared with the control. Astaxanthin was detected only in larvae fed EE‐enriched nauplii. The tumor necrosis factor‐α concentration was not significantly different between larvae fed EE‐ and CE‐enriched nauplii. EE looks promising as an Artemia enrichment and experimental diet to assess palm ruff larval requirements, and has a positive impact on fish larvae performance.     

Association between weight change during initial chemotherapy and clinical outcome in dogs with multicentric lymphoma

The majority of the known prognostic factors in dogs with lymphoma have been evaluated before treatment commences or at the time of diagnosis. Prognostic factors evaluated during the initial phase of treatment are less described but may provide important clinical information. In this retrospective study, 82 canine lymphoma patients were categorized according to the weight change between diagnosis and after 5 weeks of chemotherapy. Dogs that gained greater than 5% or lost greater than 5% of initial body weight were categorized as increased‐ or decreased‐weight groups, respectively. Those in which weight changed less than 5% were categorized as the maintained‐weight group. The median progression‐free survival (PFS) in the increased‐weight group, maintained‐weight group and decreased‐weight group was 226, 256 and 129 days, respectively. The decreased‐weight group had significantly shorter PFS than the increased and maintained groups (P = .023, P = .003, respectively). The median survival time (ST) in the increased‐weight group, maintained‐weight group and decreased‐weight group was 320, 339 and 222 days, respectively. There was no significant difference in ST among the three groups (P = .128). In Cox‐regression results, weight change group and initial body weight were significant risk factors associated to PFS (P = .007, P = .001, respectively) while only patient's initial body weight was a significant risk factor to ST (P = .013). In conclusion, evaluation of initial body weight and weight changes over time can provide valuable information regarding PFS and ST in dogs with multicentric lymphoma.