The objective of this project was to develop and implement an active surveillance program for the early and rapid detection of equine influenza viruses in Ontario. For this purpose, from October 2003 to October 2005, nasopharyngeal swabs and acute and convalescent serum samples were collected from 115 client-owned horses in 23 outbreaks of respiratory disease in Ontario. Sera were paired and tested for antibody to equine influenza 1 (AE1-H7N7), equine influenza 2 (AE2-H3N8), equine herpesvirus 1 and 4 (EHV1 and EHV4), and equine rhinitis A and B (ERAV and ERBV). Overall, the cause-specific morbidity rate of equine influenza virus in the respiratory outbreaks was 56.5% as determined by the single radial hemolysis (SRH) test. The AE2-H3N8 was isolated from 15 horses in 5 outbreaks. A 4-fold increase in antibody levels or the presence of a high titer against ERAV or ERBV was observed in 10 out of 13 outbreaks in which AE2-H3N8 was diagnosed as the primary cause of disease. In conclusion, AE2-H3N8 was found to be an important contributor to equine respiratory viral disease. Equine rhinitis A and B (ERAV and ERBV) represented an important component in the equine respiratory disease of performing horses.

The objective of this study was to determine the association between space allowance and in-transit loss of finishing pigs going to select abattoirs in Ontario during summer weather conditions. The study included data from 2- or 3-tiered trailers transporting >or= 130 pigs in June, July, and August 2003 to 3 packers that processed 76% of Ontario market pigs. Daily in-transit loss data were merged with packer data to determine the number of pigs on each trailer. Space allowance (in square meters per pig) was estimated from the percentage of each trailer’s capacity that was filled by the load size. Actual pig weights were not available. Hourly temperature and relative humidity were obtained from 2 local Ontario weather stations. In-transit loss increased with environmental temperature, by 6.6 times at temperatures between 28°C and 34.2°C compared with < 17°C. At space allowances between 0.44 and 0.43 m2/pig compared with >or= 0.515 m2/pig, in-transit losses increased 2.12 times when environmental temperatures were < 21°C. Temperature is likely a more important determinant of in-transit loss than space allowance. However, in-transit losses in hot weather are likely to be reduced by increasing space allowance or by adding a cooling device.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of Rocky Mountain elk in North America. Recent studies suggest that tissue and blood mineral levels may be valuable in assessing TSE infection in sheep and cattle. The objectives of this study were to examine baseline levels of copper, manganese, magnesium, zinc, selenium, and molybdenum in the brains of Rocky Mountain elk with differing prion genotypes and to assess the association of mineral levels with CWD infection. Elk with leucine at prion position 132 had significantly lower magnesium levels than elk with 2 copies of methionine. Chronic wasting disease-positive elk had significantly lower magnesium than control elk. The incorporation of manganese levels in addition to magnesium significantly refined explanatory ability, even though manganese alone was not significantly associated with CWD. This study demonstrated that mineral analysis may provide an additional disease correlate for assessing CWD risk, particularly in conjunction with genotype.

Chlamydophila abortus (C. abortus) is one of the most important causative agents of enzootic abortion which has been caused a serious economic problem in domesticated and wild ruminants world wide. This study was aimed to diagnose C. abortus infection in aborted goats in Ras Suder Research Station (South Sinai) - Desert Research Center from 2004-2006. Twenty aborted cases from 130 pregnant nannies were recorded and examined serologically using complement fixation test (CFT). Eighty percent (16/20) of the aborted cases were serologically positive and 20% (4/20) randomly collected from apparently healthy pregnant nannies were also had antibodies against C. abortus. Pathological lesions were detected. Ten aborted fetal samples from serologically positive aborted nannies were subjected to diagnosis using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) showed positive results at 119 bp. According to this result, PCR proved to be feasible, reliable, specific and sensitive diagnostic tool in diagnosis of C. abortus infection.

A cerebrovascular accident or stroke is a rare condition in dogs, but previous studies suggest that it is now increasingly being recognised. Platelets and fibrin networks are involved in haemostasis,which is disrupted during a thrombotic event. In this study we investigate the ultrastructure of the fibrin networks of a dog that had suffered ischaemic stroke, following suspected thromboembolism from clots that became dislodged during catheter maintenance (flushing with heparinised saline) 2 days after carotid artery catheter insertion. Fibrin networks of blood samples that were collected immediately after the stroke, 15 min after treatment with streptokinase and 24 h after treatment, were studied. The results were compared to those of two control dogs. During a stroke, fibrin morphology changes to form a thick, matted layer.Post-treatment ultrastructure shows that the fibrin morphology returns to that comparable to controls. Our results show that during thrombotic risk, fibrin network morphology changes visibly and reduces the fibrinolytic activity of the coagulation system.

The effect of diethyl aminoethyl (DEAE) dextran on the infectivity titre of sheep pox virus (SPV) was studied with different concentrations (25, 50, 75, 100 μg/ml) of DEAE-dextran on Vero cell culture. It was found that 25 and 50μg/ml were not toxic. The same concentrations were used with sheep pox virus inoculum showing that the best virus titre (106.3 TCID50/ml) reached with the use of 25μg/ml DEAE-dextran after 10 passages. The enhanced viral fluid was tested in-vivo, by vaccination of susceptible lambs and challenge of them with the virulent sheep pox virus. These lambs showed complete protection against the disease. The SP neutralizing antibody indices (NI) were estimated in the collected serum samples post vaccination and challenge; confirmed that 25μg of DEAE-dextran/ml virus-inoculum induced an increase in neutralizing antibodies in comparison with those induced by currently used sheep pox vaccine.

Female Oreochromis niloticus were exposed to 1/10 LC50 (0.21ppm) of butachlor herbicide for 6 weeks. Weekly specimens were taken for fecundity estimation. Also hormonal and enzymatic levels were determined in addition histopathological alterations in ovaries and liver were detected. Butachlor exerted drastic effects on absolute and relative fecundity. Sex hormones (testosterone "T" and estradiol "E2") dropped significantly. The high significantly decline in Total Ripen Egg Number was assisted by the coagulative necrosis and oocytic atrasia in ovaries. In addition, thrombus formation and hepatoadenocarcinoma were pronounced in the liver and resulted in the significant drop in ALT and total protein levels. So, it is recommended to apply the biological control of pests in substitution to herbicids in rice fields.

Four groups of one-day-old SPF chicks were inoculated with the four IBV variants at 1 day old to study the virulence of these isolates. The results at 2 weeks post infection (PI) revealed that all isolates were able to induce serological resposne postinfection, respiratory distress and depression. 20% and 100% mortalities were recorded with isolates 4 and 23; respectively. Assessment of pathogenicity index and pathotyping (at the end of observation period “2wk-PI”), categorized the 4 tested isoaltes (4, 16,18, 23) into three isoaltes of high virulence (4, 18 and 23), and one isolate of intermediate virulence (16). About 50% reduction in body weight was recorded with the four IBV isolates 2 wk PI. Kidney lesions were nephritis-nephrosis with urate deposition in ureters, while microscopic lesions were associated with increase in the amount of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). Tracheal lesions recorded as increase the amount of mucin, while microscopic lesions were edema of mucosa and inflammatory cells in the lamina propria. The regime of administering the infectious bronchitis (IB) live commercial H120 vaccine at 1 day old SPF chicks, and the heterologous challenge with four variants (serotypes) at 4 weeks of age, was found to be poorly effective in protecting the respiratory tract of SPF chickens with protection percentages of 8.1%, 55%, 10.5% and 12.6% corresponding to field isolates of IBV 4, 16, 18 and 23; respectively. Protection was measured by assessing ciliary activity of the tracheal epithelium following challenge. It is suggested that the use of the live IB-H120 vaccine will not always broaden the protection against challenge with IB multiple serotypes isolated from Egypt. Therefore it is necessary to develop a new IB vaccines, either locally prepared or imported to overcome any new IB serotype that were emerged, through modifying vaccination strategies to make them appropriate to the field situation.

A study was conducted to investigate the antibacterial activities of allicin, one of the major essential oils of garlic, against some fish pathogenic bacteria as well as the toxic effect of allicin on monosex Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Allicin 10% v/v solution in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used in this study. The bacterial species investigated were Aeromonas hydrophila, A. caviae, A. sobria, A. veronii, and Streptococcus iniae. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of allicin in DMSO against Aeromonas hydrophila was found to be 125 μg/mL, while ranged between 250–500 μg/mL for each of A. caviae, A. sobria, A. veronii. Interestingly, the MIC for Streptococcus iniae was 63 μg/mL. On contrary, allicin exists no bactericidal activity against any of the investigated bacteria. Allicin had high toxic effect on tilapia fingerlings while adult tilapia could tolerate it.

Existence of Campylobacter species that colonize broiler chickens intestinal tract raised and slaughtered in El-Minia Governorate as a source of animal protein origin for human consumption were studied. Samples were collected from 381 broiler chickens from different private farms distributed in six cities related to El-Minia Governorate and examined for the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. Percentage of Campylobacter jejuni isolation was 19.5% , 14.8% , 18.3% , 14.7% , 12.3% and 12.1% from Maggagha, Beni-Mazar, Samalout, Abou-Curcas, Mallawey and Deer-Mouase, respectively. While Campylobacter coli was 4.8% , 6.2% , 4.3% , 6.7% , 3.5 % and 0.0% respectively . Higher rate of isolation of Campylobacter jejuni 18.0% and Campylobacter coli 5.1% were obtained from 216 freshly dead broiler chickens carcasses than 165 diseased and slaughter birds which revealed 13.3% and 4.2% , respectively . Overall , Campylobacter spp. showed a higher tissue affinity for caecum (11.3%) Campylobacter jejuni and (2.6%) Campylobacter coli than for jejunum (4.2%) C. jejuni and (1.6%) C. coli and liver (1.6%) C.jejuni and (1.6%) C. coli. Susceptibilities of the recovered Campylobacter jejuni and C.coli, isolates to fifteen antibiotic discs clarified that gentamycin, neomycin, chloramphenicol and nalidixic acid in addition most of the strain were resistant to penicillin , ampicillin, tetracycline , sulfa methoxazole , trimethoprim, cephalothin and enerofloxacin . Public health hazard of enteropathogenic campylobacter was discussed and suggestive measures for reduction of campylobacter in broiler chicken farms were explained.