Prevalence of avian influenza (H9N2) in commercial quail,partridge, and turkey farms in Iran, 2014–2015

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Avian influenza virus (AIV) H9N2 subtype is endemic in Iran and causes substantial economic loss to the growing poultry industry within the country. In this...     

Improvement of Seed Quality of Wheat (Triticum aestivum) as Affected by Brassinolide under Different Irrigation Regimes

Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology - Irrigation interruption owing to time of incidence is affecting the seed quality. The aim of this research was to determine whether the brassinolide and...     

Response of wheat genotypes to foliar spray of ZnO and Fe2O3 nanoparticles under salt stress

This study evaluated the effects of iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) and zinc oxide (ZnO) on two wheat genotypes (Kavir and Tajan) at three levels (0, 75, and 150 mM sodium chloride (NaCl)) of salinity. Spray treatments included two forms of normal and nanoparticles of Fe₂O₃ and ZnO, a mixture of nanoparticles of Fe₂O₃ and ZnO (2 g L^?1) and a non-spray treatment. The pot experiment was arranged as factorial in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Two forms of Fe₂O₃ and ZnO significantly accelerated plant height, leaf area, shoot dry weight, and the concentration of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) in comparison with non-spray treatment. The highest plant height and leaf Fe concentration belonged to Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles; however, it seems that the spray of nanoparticles may not be superior compared with normal forms in alleviation of salinity impacts.     

A comparative study of carbofuran metabolism in treated and untreated soils

Soils which have been pretreated with carbofuran can degrade the insecticide more rapidly than untreated soils, with a consequent loss of efficacy. In laboratory studies, soils pretreated with carbofuran were found to degrade the chemical more rapidly than soils which were not so pretreated. When pretreated soils were sterilised, the rate of carbofuran degradation was much reduced, indicating that most of it was due to microbial action. Incubation of pretreated soil with [phenyl-U-¹⁴C]carbofuran led to the rapid disappearance of the parent compound (3 % left after seven days). Most of the ¹⁴C was accounted for as bound residue after seven days, whilst smaller amounts were recovered as carbon dioxide, 3-hydroxycarbofuran, 3-ketocarbofuran, and an unknown metabolite. Incubation of pretreated soil with [carbonyl-¹⁴C]carbofuran led to rapid loss of the parent compound and the recovery of 73% of ¹⁴C as carbon dioxide by five days. Most of the bound ¹⁴C (>90%) arising from [phenyl-U-¹⁴C]carbofuran treatment of pretreated soil was extracted by 1 M sodium hydroxide and about half of the extracted ¹⁴C was precipitated with ‘humic acids’ after acidification. These and other results suggest that the major metabolic route for carbofuran in pretreated soils involves hydrolysis of the ester bond leading to (1) release of carbofuran phenol which rapidly binds to soil organic matter and, (2) release of the carbonyl moiety which quickly degrades to generate carbon dioxide.     

Age estimation of Arabian mares by incisors morphometry and dentition changes

Veterinary Research Communications - Accurate estimation of a horse's age based on the condition of the tooth status is necessary as a scientific and artistic technique, which has not been...     

Parasitoid complex (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) of Aphis craccivora Koch (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) in Iran

The parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) of the cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora Koch, were investigated throughout two far distant provinces, Tehran and Sistan-Baluchestan. Colonies of the cowpea aphid were collected from different host plants and reared under laboratory conditions until the parasitoids emerged. The aphids were parasitized by an expected range of parasitoids. The species were Aphidius colemani Viereck, Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall), Lysiphlebus confusus Tremblay and Eady, Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson), Binodoxys acalephae (Marshall), Binodoxys angelicae (Haliday), Praon volucre (Haliday) and Ephedrus persicae Froggatt. L. testaceipes is reported here for the first time in Iran. The most common species was L. fabarum followed by B. acalephae and L. confusus. A key is provided for identification and host plant associations are considered.     

Effect of different levels of dietary sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) peel extract on humoral immune system responses in broiler chickens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) peel extract (SOPE) on humoral immune system responses in broiler chickens. Three hundred 1‐day broilers (Ross‐308) were randomly allocated to treatments varying in supplemental SOPE added in the drinking water. The experimental groups consisted of three treatments fed for 42 days as follows: a control treatment without feed extract, a treatment containing 1000 ppm of SOPE and a treatment containing 1250 ppm of SOPE. All treatments were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Broilers were vaccinated with Newcastle disease virus (NDV), avian influenza (AI), infectious bursal disease (IBD) and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) vaccines. Antibody titer response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) was higher in the group fed 1250 ppm of SOPE (P < 0.05) as well as for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM. Similarly, antibody titer responses to all vaccines were constantly elevated (P < 0.05) by SOPE enrichment in a dose‐dependent manner. Relative weights of spleen and bursa of Fabricius were unaffected by treatments. Dietary SOPE supplementation may improve the immune response and diseases resistance, indicating that it can constitute a useful additive in broiler feeding. Thus, supplying SOPE in rations may help to improve relative immune response in broiler chickens.     

Designing E1 deleted adenoviral vector by homologous recombination

BACKGROUND: Adenoviruses are used extensively to deliver genes into mammalian cells, particularly where there is a requirement for high-level expression of transgene products in cultured cells, or for use as recombinant viral vaccines or in gene therapy. In spite of their usefulness, the construction of adenoviral vectors (AdV) is a cumbersome and lengthy process that is not readily amenable to the generation of large collection of clones. METHODS: In this project, to delete E1 gene in adenovirus, an adenoviral plasmid containing lateral sites of E1 region of adenovirus was made and recombination in the 293A cells between the homologous region of this linearized plasmid and the adenovirus genome resulted in the formation of the complete adenoviral recombinant. RESULTS: This recombination resulted in loss of E1 region and we constructed a recombinant adenovirus type 5 vector that E1 gene was deleted by homologous recombination. CONCLUSION: Homologous recombination is more easy and fast technique in the production of AdV.     

Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis CTL epitopes restricted by HLA-A*0201 in HHD mice

BACKGROUND: CD8 T cells are thought to play an important role in protective immunity to tuberculosis. The major histocompatibility complex class I subtype HLA-A*0201 is one of the most prevalent class I alleles, with a frequency of over 30% in most populations. HLA-A*0201 transgenic, H-2D(b)/mouse beta2-microglobulin double-knockout mice (HHD) which express human HLA-A*0201 but no mouse class 1, was shown to provide a powerful model for studying induction of HLA-A*0201-restricted immune responses in vivo. METHODS: HHD mice were immunized with plasmid DNA encoding MPB51 by using a gene gun, and IFN-gamma production from the immune spleen cells was analyzed in response to a synthetic overlapping peptide library covering the mature MPB51 sequence. catatonic T lymphocytes (CTL) activity was measured using cytotoxicity assay and the three-color flowcytometry was used to reveal IFN-gamma-producing immune spleen cells. RESULTS: Our findings were shown that only one peptide, p51-70, appeared to stimulate the immune splenocytes to produce IFN-gamma. Flow cytometric analysis with intracellular IFN-gamma and the T-cell phenotype revealed that the p51-70 peptide contains an immunodominant CD8+ T-cell epitope. Further analysis with computer-assisted algorithms permitted identification of a T-cell nona mer epitope, p54-62. Finally, we proved that the p54-62/HLA-A*0201 complex is strongly recognized by HLA class I-restricted CD8+ MPB5 1-specific CTL cells. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that vaccination with MPB51 gene elicited MPB51-specific CTL. In addition, the P54-62 epitope thus represent potential subunit component for the design of vaccines against tuberculosis.