Serum samples of 1,175 pigs from 148 Korean swine farms not using Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo) vaccines were collected for seroepidemiological study of M. hyo infection by indirect ELISA method. Informations of each farm were provided about province where the farm was located and season when blood samples were collected. Then, the selected farms were divided into farm units which had 5 serum samples according to production stages : sow, suckling piglet (less than 30 days old), nursery pig (30-70 days old), and growing pig (greater than 70 days old).

African swine fever (ASF) is an infectious disease of domestic and wild pigs for which there is no vaccine in the world. A proper surveillance of viral activity and a timely response to ASF outbreaks depend upon the rapid diagnosis of ASF viral infection. Internationally prescribed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a fast, sensitive test routinely used in the diagnosis of the ASF. However, inactivated whole ASF virus antigen used in this test is a tedious to prepare and has a risk of outside exposure of infectious virus by laboratory accident during the preparation.

Pseudomonas aerusinosa infection was diagnosed in broiler chicks, and was submitted to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service in Korea. The total mortality rate was about 1,500 birds out of 22,000 broilers. Clinically, affected birds showed clinical signs including depression and anorexia with lameness and trembling of the leg. At necropsy, the dead broilers appeared to have omphalitis, yolk sac infection, fibrinous epicarditis, and fibrinous exudates in liver with swollen hock joint. Microscopically, there were multiple necrotic foci in the liver, fibrinous exudates in the heart, and infiltration of heterophils into the joint spaces of the hock joint.

The present study was carried out to produce the hematological and blood chemical findings after hypophysectomy in rats. Hypophysectomy was performed by the parapharyngeal method and the sham surgery was performed for the control group. Two weeks after the operation, the body weight of the hypophysectomized and control rats was measured daily for 5 days. We deleted the rats the weight gain of which is less than 5 g during 5 days from the hypophysectomy group. The successful operation rate was approximately 40%. In the hypophysectomized and control rats, their blood samples were collected from posterior vena cava after celiotomy under generally anesthesia with ether.

The objective of present study was to ascertain sex determination for individual identification, parentage control, and sex chromosome anomalies in horse. PCR amplification products of the equine sex determining region of the Y chromosome gene (SRY) and amelogenin gene (AMEL) were detected by using agarose gel electrophoresis. A normal sire and foal Ⅱ showed 1 SRY band (430 bp) and 3 AMEL (AMELX, AMELY, and AMELX/Y) band, 175 bp, 160 bp, 190 bp, respectively, and a normal dam and foal Ⅰ showed a single AMELX band (175 bp). These results enables a quick diagnosis for sex determination prior to cytogenetic analysis.

We developed the one-step strip based on an immunochromatographic (IC) assay for the rapid detection of Listeria spp. Genus-specific monoclonal antibody to flagella of L. monocytogenes was conjugated with 40 nm colloidal gold particles which were prepared in our laboratory. The specificity of the IC strip was tested with pure cultured bacteria. All strains of the genus of Listeria spp. yielded positive reactions and 12 strains of non-Listeria were negative, resulting in a specificity of 100%. L. monocytogenes was artificially inoculated in raw pork macerated with listeria enrichment broth.

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the causative agent of a porcine contagious pleuropneumonia. Among several virulence factors including exotoxin (Apx toxins), LPS, transferrin-binding proteins, OMPs, and some proteases, Apx toxins have been major targets for the protection study. In this study, cloning and expression of A. pleuropneumoniae Apx I and Apx Ⅱ toxin, which are produced by all highly virulent strains, were performed by Escherichia coli expression system. Genes coding Apx I and Ⅱ toxin were amplified from the A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 5 genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction and cloned to a prokaryotic expression vector, pRSET.

DNA fingerprint patterns of 8 Brucella reference strains and 15 B. abortus field isolates were characterized by repetitive element sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) using BOX- and ERIC-primers in this study. AMOS PCR differentiated all Brucella field isolates from B. abortus RB51, a vaccine strain by producing a B. abortus-specific 498 bp band. Rep-PCR using BOX-primer produced 13 to 18 bands with sizes of between 230 and 3,300 bp, and discriminated Brucella strains to the species level except B. canis and B. suis. PCR products amplified with ERIC primers were, however, not appropriate for differentiating the Brucella isolates.

The nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) of rotavirus encoded by gene 10, plays an important role in rotavirus pathogenicity. In this study, NSP4 gene of avian rotavirus (AvRV-1, AvRV-2) was analyzed and expressed using baculovirus expression system. The sequence data indicated that the NSP4 gene of AvRV-1 and AvRV-2 were 727 bases in length, encoded one open reading frame of 169 amino acids beginning at base 41 and terminating at base 550, and had two glycosylation sites. Nucleotide sequences of NSP4 gene of AvRV-1 and AvRV-2 exhibited a high degree of homology (88.1±7.6%) with avian rotaviruses, namely Ty1, Ty3 and PO-13.

A quantitative risk assessment tool was used to provide estimates of the probability that footand-mouth (FMD) virus-contaminated, smuggled animal products are fed to susceptible swine in Korea. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to attempt to distinguish between parameter uncertainty and variability, using different assumptions on the effect of cooking at home, the effect of the fresh meat, and the effect of heat treatment at garbage processing facility. The median risk estimate was about 20.1% with a mean value of 27.4%. In a scenario regarding all beef and pork were considered as fresh meat the estimated median risk was 3.4%.