Vaccination experiments on pregnant mice with E. coli vaccines prepared from septicaemic and enteropathogenic strains of E. coli

Experiments have been carried out with vaccination of pregnant mice against E. coli, followed by i.p. challenge of the offspring at one week of age.With a septicaemic strain the results were highly significant, and the method is therefore recommendable for testing of vaccines against such strains of E. coli.Results were less clear-cut with enteropathogenic strains of E. coli. However, with mortality rates of 40 to 45 % in baby mice born by non-vaccinated mothers and less than 15 % in baby mice born by vaccinated mothers, the difference in percentage mortality seems sufficient to warrant the use of the method also in the control of vaccines against enteropathogenic E. coli strains.     

家禽屠体的堆肥

加拿大安达略省家禽生产者对死禽处理通常有以下几种方法:选择经认证的死畜禽处理公司,坑埋,焚烧,堆肥.本文描述了使用堆肥法成功堆肥家禽屠体的一些关键因素. 堆肥是一个狭长的可被生物降解的有机物质堆,有很大的表面积以便氧气良好地渗透.堆肥通过需氧微生物分解生物有机物质制成一个稳定的、类似土壤的物质,称为腐殖质.为了刺激微生物快速降解,有必要给这些生长增殖的微生物提供最理想的环境.     

Bioindication and modelling of atmospheric deposition in forests enable exposure and effect monitoring at high spatial density across scales

Key message

Moss surveys provide spatially dense data on environmental concentrations of heavy metals and nitrogen which, together with other biomonitoring and modelling data, can be used for indicating deposition to terrestrial ecosystems and related effects across time and areas of different spatial extension.

Context

For enhancing the spatial resolution of measuring and mapping atmospheric deposition by technical devices and by modelling, moss is used complementarily as bio-monitor.

Aims

This paper investigated whether nitrogen and heavy metal concentrations derived by biomonitoring of atmospheric deposition are statistically meaningful in terms of compliance with minimum sample size across several spatial levels (objective 1), whether this is also true in terms of geostatistical criteria such as spatial auto-correlation and, by this, estimated values for unsampled locations (objective 2) and whether moss indicates atmospheric deposition in a similar way as modelled deposition, tree foliage and natural surface soil at the European and country level, and whether they indicate site-specific variance due to canopy drip (objective 3).

Methods

Data from modelling and biomonitoring atmospheric deposition were statistically analysed by means of minimum sample size calculation, by geostatistics as well as by bivariate correlation analyses and by multivariate correlation analyses using the Classification and Regression Tree approach and the Random Forests method.

Results

It was found that the compliance of measurements with the minimum sample size varies by spatial scale and element measured. For unsampled locations, estimation could be derived. Statistically significant correlations between concentrations of heavy metals and nitrogen in moss and modelled atmospheric deposition, and concentrations in leaves, needles and soil were found. Significant influence of canopy drip on nitrogen concentration in moss was proven.

Conclusion

Moss surveys should complement modelled atmospheric deposition data as well as other biomonitoring approaches and offer a great potential for various terrestrial monitoring programmes dealing with exposure and effects.

     

Determination of the genetic variation in the effect of temperature and daylength on bolting of Brassica campestris L.

Summary Effects of temperature and daylength on the bolting of a number of B. campestris accessions were investigated both in the open and in the IVT phytotron. From the results it was concluded that low temperature and genotype are the predominant factors with respect to bolting. Daylength has rather limited influence. One cultivar bolted more than 12 weeks earlier at 10 and 14°C than at 18°C. On the other hand some cultivars did not require vernalization at all.At 14°C and short daylength, depending on genotype, the period of time between sowing and 50% bolting ranged from 8 to 30 weeks. At this temperature the stimulating effect of long day (24 h), depending again on the genotype, ranged from 0 to 4 weeks. The genotypes most resistant to bolting appeared to be the stubble turnips (B. campestris ssp. rapa).In terms of seed(ling) vernalization at 5°C the cold requirement ranged from 0 to more than 3 weeks, depending on the genotype. The required vernalization periods at 5°C can be used as a criterion in screening for resistance to bolting.     

A thermally re-mendable cross-linked polymeric material

We have developed a transparent organic polymeric material that can repeatedly mend or "re-mend" itself under mild conditions. The material is a tough solid at room temperature and below with mechanical properties equaling those of commercial epoxy resins. At temperatures above 120 degrees C, approximately 30% (as determined by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) of "intermonomer" linkages disconnect but then reconnect upon cooling, This process is fully reversible and can be used to restore a fractured part of the polymer multiple times, and it does not require additional ingredients such as a catalyst, additional monomer, or special surface treatment of the fractured interface.     

Preliminary experiments on vaccination and serum treatment in the prophylaxis of E. coli O149:H10 infections in newborn piglets

In a preliminary experiment two sows were vaccinated, respectively a fortnight and seven weeks before expected farrowing, with a vaccine consisting of equal parts of a suspension of E. coli strain A₁ serotype O149:K91:H10 and Freund’s incomplete adjuvant, final concentration 5×10⁹ organisms/ml, dose 4 ml, administered subcutaneously behind the ear. The vaccine gave rise to an immediate local reaction and left a fibrous nodule of walnut-size, but no systemic reaction was noticed. This agrees with experience from experimental work with vaccination of cows (Dam 1968) with a vaccine of the same composition, but representing the calf-pathogenic types of E. coli, and with experiences from the widespread use of vaccine of the same strength, but with the complete Freund adjuvant, in the prophylaxis of bovine colibacillosis in Belgium (Schoenaers & Kaeckenbeeck 1963). In none of these studies were systemic reactions ever observed.     

Vitamin and trace mineral content in feed of breeders and their progeny: effects of growth, feed conversion and severity of malabsorption syndrome of broilers

1. A study was conducted to investigate the effects of several vitamins and trace elements chickens and in chickens experimentally infected with malabsorption syndrome (MAS). 2. Vitamins and trace minerals in feed were varied. Breeders received either a basal amount of vitamins and trace minerals (low mix) or an increased amount (high mix). Their progeny also received either a low mix or a high mix. Effects of different breeder and broiler mix combinations on broiler performance, heamatology, spleen weight and humoral response were examined in control chickens. The effects of the different feeds and breeder, broiler combinations at the severity and recovery of MAS infection were also studied. 3. In general, the immune system can be stimulated by addition of vitamins and trace minerals, without affecting the growth potential of the controls. The number of leukocytes increased on d 1 in the broilers descended from breeders receiving high mix. The response to Newcastle disease virus boost was affected by the different amount of vitamins. 4. When breeders received a high mix the number of infiltrating polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the intestine was higher compared with breeders receiving basal amounts of minerals and vitamins. Also the recovery rate of intestinal lesions, cystic crypts of Lieberkühn and villus atrophy, as observed by histopathology, was faster in the groups where the breeders received high mix.     

Transplacental transmission of field and rescued strains of BTV-2 and BTV-8 in experimentally infected sheep

Transplacental transmission of bluetongue virus has been shown previously for the North European strain of serotype 8 (BTV-8) and for tissue culture or chicken egg-adapted vaccine strains but not for field strains of other serotypes. In this study, pregnant ewes (6 per group) were inoculated with either field or rescued strains of BTV-2 and BTV-8 in order to determine the ability of these viruses to cross the placental barrier. The field BTV-2 and BTV-8 strains was passaged once in Culicoides KC cells and once in mammalian cells. All virus inoculated sheep became infected and seroconverted against the different BTV strains used in this study. BTV RNA was detectable in the blood of all but two ewes for over 28 days but infectious virus could only be detected in the blood for a much shorter period. Interestingly, transplacental transmission of BTV-2 (both field and rescued strains) was demonstrated at high efficiency (6 out of 13 lambs born to BTV-2 infected ewes) while only 1 lamb of 12 born to BTV-8 infected ewes showed evidence of in utero infection. In addition, evidence for horizontal transmission of BTV-2 between ewes was observed. As expected, the parental BTV-2 and BTV-8 viruses and the viruses rescued by reverse genetics showed very similar properties to each other. This study showed, for the first time, that transplacental transmission of BTV-2, which had been minimally passaged in cell culture, can occur; hence such transmission might be more frequent than previously thought.