BACKGROUND: Cadmium is a heavy metal harmful to animals and humans. Exposure to it causes inflammation, apoptosis, or necrosis in numerous tissues, including the adrenal.OBJECTIVES: The present research investigates the effect of cadmium toxicity on the expression of genes involved in inflammation and fibrosis. Inflammation increases the rate of parenchymal cell death, and fibrosis will only fill the place of dead cells without being able to perform the function of the primary parenchyma.METHODS: In this research, cadmium chloride with a concentration of 20 mg/kg was added to the diet of ten mice in two groups of five. On the 30th day of the study, the adrenal glands were quickly sent to the laboratory. The expression of NF-kB/MAPK, hematoxylin, eosin tissue staining, and immunohistochemistry (CD163) were performed.RESULTS: The inflammation mentioned in others’ research can also be associated with the activation of the nuclear factor kappa (NF-kB) pathway. NF-κB gene products initiate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and p38 pathways. Previous studies indicate that MAPK induces necrosis or apoptosis in tissues. In histopathology, dense and possibly pyknosis nuclei are more common in the cadmium group. The higher expression of the CD163 molecule in the cadmium group reveals the beginning of the fibrosis process after chronic inflammation.CONCLUSIONS: This report provides more basic data to investigate the mechanism of adrenal damage in cadmium poisoning. Cadmium causes the death of cells by affecting the inflammatory pathways. Additionally, the stimulation of the fibrosis process causes greater irreparable damage to the damaged tissue of the adrenal gland.

BACKGROUND: Excretory urography is a method of imaging the kidneys, ureters, and urinary bladder which uses contrast medium containing the iodine compounds.OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the anatomical structures of urinary tract in the nephrogram, pilogram, and cystogram phases, and determine the exact standard for the size of kidneys, ureters and urinary bladder in guinea pigs to be used to interpret the results, and clinical decisions.METHODS: This study was carried out on 10 guinea pigs with a mean age of 12±1.33 months and average weight of 1.12±0.18 kg. Before to the administration of contrast medium, each guinea pig was fast and Dimethicone 20 mg/kg was given orally. At the time of administration of contrast agent, each animal was sedated by using Ketamine 30 mg/kg and diazepam 5 mg/kg cocktail, and then 1500 mgI/kg of meglumine compound 60 % was injected subcutaneously over the shoulder area. Ventrodorsales and lateral abdominal X-rays were taken, thereafter every 5 minutes up to 60 minutes to complete the pylogram phase. In lateral radiographs of each guinea pig, the length of the body of the second lumbar vertebra was measured to be used as an indicator in determining the standard size of the kidneys.RESULTS: Based on the results of this study, the average length, width, and thickness of the right kidney compared to the length of the second lumbar vertebra were 2.19, 1.64, and 1.33 cm, and in the left kidney of 2.09, 1.53, and 1.41 cm and this average in right and left ureter was 6.41 and 6.22 cm, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: The exact standards can be used in the interpretation of results, and clinical decisions to determine the normal and abnormal size of kidneys, ureters and bladder in the guinea pigs.

BACKGROUND: The protozoan Haemoproteus belongs to the Phylum Apicomplexa, Class Sporozoa, and Order Haemosporina. Avian haemosporidian are protozoan parasites that use birds as hosts around the world. Many species of wild and domestic doves are natural hosts of different species of Haemoproteus. Blood-sucking arthropods are the main vectors of these blood parasites.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was the microscopic and molecular investigation of the protozoan Haemoproteus columbae in the blood of infected pigeons in Torkaman County, Iran.METHODS: Blood samples and tubes containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) anticoagulant were collected from 96 domestic pigeons randomly from 14 pigeon lofts and different parts of Torkaman County.Pigeons were also inspected for infection with the host-vector Pseudolynchia canariensis. In the next step, blood smears were stained with Giemsa and examined microscopically. Also, blood tubes containing EDTA were tested by PCR method on the cytochrome b gene.RESULTS: Microscopic and molecular examination of peripheral blood showed that 62 (64.58 %) and 73 (76.04 %) of the investigated pigeons were contaminated, respectively. Of the 62 infected pigeons infected with the Haemoproteus, 28 pigeons (66.66 %) were male, and 34 (62.96 %) were female. Also, the infestation with Pseudolynchia canariensis was observed in 4 (28.57 %) pigeon lofts.CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary investigation shows the high rate of Haemoproteus infection in pigeons in Torkaman County. Further studies to determine the prevalence and accurate identification of the species infecting pigeons in this region require PCR testing and sequencing of infected blood samples.

BACKGROUND: Protection from reproductive damage is essential in chemotherapy medicines for cancer patients.OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine the effect of curcumin on the structure of the ovary of mice after treatment with goserelin and cyclophosphamide.METHODS: One hundred and ten BALB/C mice with 3 regular consecutive periods of the estrous cycle were divided into 11 groups of 10 each. No medicine was used in the control group. The treatment groups were as follows: 1) cyclophosphamide, 2 to 5) cyclophosphamide with curcumin with a dose of 100, 200, 300, and 400 mg/kg, respectively, 6) goserelin, 7 to 10) goserelin together with curcumin with a dose 100, 200, 300, 400 mg/kg, respectively. The luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) of serums were evaluated using ELISA. Morphologic and morphometric of ovaries were assessed.RESULTS: The total number of follicles, primary, secondary, periantral, and antral follicles, in the goserelin and cyclophosphamide group, was significantly reduced compared with the control group (P<0.05). Cyclophosphamide and goserelin with different doses of curcumin showed a significant increase in the total number of follicles, primary, periantral, and antral follicles compared to the group treated with cyclophosphamide and goserelin alone (P<0.05). Curcumin (200, 300, and 400 mg/kg) and cyclophosphamide, compared to the cyclophosphamide group, significantly increased the quality of zona pellucida (P<0.05). Cyclophosphamide and goserelin caused a significant decrease in FSH and LH (P<0.05). Cyclophosphamide with different doses of curcumin showed a significant increase in LH compared to the group treated with cyclophosphamide alone (P<0.05). Goserelin with a 400 mg/kg curcumin dose significantly increased LH compared to goserelin alone (P<0.05). The amount of FSH in the cyclophosphamide groups with curcumin increased compared considerably to cyclophosphamide alone (P<0.05). The groups of goserelin with curcumin showed a significant increase in FSH compared to those of goserelin alone (P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS: Curcumin can protect the reproductive system of mice from the damage caused by the administration of cyclophosphamide and goserelin.

BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is an anaerobic Gram-positive bacillus with spores, whose biotype A is responsible for a variety of diseases, including intestinal inflammation, bloody diarrhea, and gas gangrene, and hemorrhagic bowel syndrome. Genetic variety can explain the bacteria’s phenotypic diversity, geographic distribution, host specificity, pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance, and virulence. A molecular method using the pattern of DNA bands classifies bacteria based on the size of fragments produced by enzymatic digestion of the genome.OBJECTIVES: This study aims to standardize the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method in identifying the genetic diversity of C. perfringens biotype A isolates.METHODS: The genomic DNA of the investigated strains was extracted, and the complete sequence of the alpha toxin gene locus was synthesized using specific primers designed by PCR technique. Enzymatic cleavage of the synthesized amplicons was performed with the Mse l restriction enzyme, and the resulting fragments were separated by electrophoresis and analyzed by ImageJ and NTSYSPC software.RESULTS: The findings showed that the alpha toxin gene locus sequence may change and is not conserved. In this research, 4 different patterns were identified based on enzymatic cleavage. Mutations in this locus can lead to diversity in C. perfringens biotype A and the creation of new strains.CONCLUSIONS: The results of this research showed that the alpha toxin gene locus could be considered a DNA molecular marker in C. perfringens, and the PCR-RFLP technique can be used as a tool for typing this bacterium and estimating the phylogenetic relationships through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences.

BACKGROUND: Horses are economically and emotionally valuable animals in various activities, especially sports. Thus, paying attention to their limb's health and conformation is vital. One of the most common diseases in the limbs of horses is laminitis. Horses with this condition suffer from lameness because it affects laminar tissue. In addition to clinical signs, radiographic criteria are essential for identifying this disease.OBJECTIVES: It is predicted that examining the effectiveness of quantitative radiographic criteria of the hoof can be helpful in the diagnosis of laminitis. Therefore, in this study, five quantitatively effective factors were investigated before and after hoof trimming to determine the changes in the radiographic diagnosis of laminitis.METHODS: A total of 11 clinically healthy horses were used in the current study. Using Marco DICOM Viewer software, lateral and dorsopalmar radiographs from the hoofs of both forelimbs were evaluated for the diagnosis of laminitis using effective quantitative criteria. Using SPSS version 24, paired T-tests were used to analyze quantitative data. P≤0.05 was considered significant.RESULTS: According to the results of this study, there were no significant differences between the right and left forelimbs after hoof trimming. On the other hand, significant differences were observed in the four following criteria: dorsal thickness between the dorsal surface of the third phalanx and the dorsal surface of the hoof, the angle between the dorsal surface of the third phalanx and the dorsal surface of the hoof, sole thickness, and the ratio of the third phalanx dorsal surface thickness to its maximum length in each forelimb before and after hoof trimming.CONCLUSIONS: During the radiographic examination, the hoof should be positioned in a standard way to diagnose laminitis accurately. However, if the hoof is not trimmed or not trimmed properly, it can interfere with laminitis diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Coronaviruses, which mainly cause gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, have been identified in various species. Among the extensive genomic data of disease-causing Coronaviruses in humans and animals, some similarities can be analyzed by in-silico methods.   OBJECTIVES: In the present study, comparative genome analysis of medical and veterinary medicine Coronaviruses was performed to obtain more accurate information about the genetic similarities and differences of different members of this family.METHODS: The genomic sequences were retrieved from NCBI and Virus Pathogen Resource databases. Using the NCBI database blast algorithm, all sequences were aligned with the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence, and similarity was obtained. Amino acid sequences of structural and non-structural proteins associated with coding regions (CDS) were aligned separately with the SARS-CoV-2, and their similarities were calculated. The 3D structure from each protein was compared with the corresponding protein in SARS-CoV-2, and Template Modeling Scores (TM-Score) were obtained. A phylogenetic tree of different species of the Coronaviridae family was drawn based on nucleotide and amino acid sequence data.RESULTS: Nonstructural coding gene sequences detected the highest interspecies similarities in nucleotide, amino acid sequence, and 3D structure (nsp12, nsp13, nsp14, and nsp16). The ORF1ab, encoding non-structural proteins, carries essential functions for viral replication.CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the transcription complex is highly conserved among human and animal Coronaviruses. A comparison and analysis of the Coronaviridae transcription complex can be considered a key target for diagnosing, developing antiviral therapies, and designing vaccines.

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases and microbial antibiotic resistance are the major problems of fish farming industry annually causing remarkable losses. Apart from the economic losses caused by these infections, some of these agents are zoonotic and may be transmitted to humans.OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to identify the common causative agents of infections in rainbow trout farms and to determine their antibiotic resistance toward some common antibiotics.METHODS: Sampling was performed during a nine-month period between March and December 2021 by visiting and inspecting rainbow trout farms and the affected fish with disease symptoms were obtained from the farmed fish in Mazandaran, Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and Zanjan provinces. Bacterial culture was undertaken from anterior kidney or spleen organs and the isolated bacterial strains were identified by phenotyping, biochemical and molecular assays. Antibiotic resistance pattern was evaluated by disk diffusion method (DDM) and minimum inhibition concentration against erythromycin, oxytetracycline, florfenicol, enrofloxacin and nitrofurantoin.RESULTS: Seventy-four bacterial isolates of Gram-positive cocci or Gram-negative coccobacilli were isolated. In phenotyping, biochemical and molecular (PCR) assays Lactococcus garvieae (12 isolates, 16.2 %), Aeromonas hydrophila (9 isolates, 12.2 %), Streptococcus iniae (17 isolates, 23 %), Streptococcus agalactiae (20 isolates, 27 %), and Yersinia ruckeri (16 isolates, 21.7 %) were identified. The majority of these isolates were obtained from the fish farms in Mazandaran province. Erythromycin and oxytetracycline with 87.8 % resistance were antibiotics with the highest resistance, while enrofloxacin with 24.3 % resistance revealed the lowest level of resistance. Antibiotic resistance rates for florfenicol and nitrofurantoin were also 43.2 % and 44.4 %, respectively. The highest antibiotic resistance was detected in the bacterial isolates of Lactococcus garvieae, Aeromonas hydrophila, Streptococcus iniae, Streptococcus agalactiae and Yersinia ruckeri, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the spread of streptococcosis, lactococcosis, yersiniasis and Aeromonas septicemia and their frequent treatments has led to an increase in antibiotic resistance, especially against commonly used drugs such as erythromycin and oxytetracycline.

BACKGROUND: Respiratory pathogenic beta-hemolytic streptococci in horses, including Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, the causative agent of strangles disease, Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus is an important cause of respiratory disease and Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis has been isolated from nasal swabs taken from horses with a history of respiratory disease.OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to determine the frequency and risk factors of respiratory tract infections originating from beta-hemolytic streptococci in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, and Ardabil.METHODS: During this study, 121 horses with clinical respiratory symptoms were sampled. After performing clinical examinations and recording clinical signs in special worksheets, sampling of the upper part of the respiratory tract was performed using nasopharyngeal swabs. The samples were sent to the laboratory in a standard transfer medium with cold chain.RESULTS: In this study, out of 121 samples collected from horse breeding clubs from 10 different regions of northwestern Iran, 51 were negative for beta-hemolytic streptococci while the results were positive for the other 70 samples (P<0.001). Regarding the positive samples for beta-hemolytic streptococci, the results of differential cultures were as follows: eight cases of Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, 57 cases of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus, and five cases of Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis. There was no significant relationship between the frequency of beta-hemolytic infections with variables of gender, race, and geographical area (P>0.05). Meanwhile, the statistical test showed a significant relationship between the frequency of infection with these bacteria and the variable of clinical symptoms (P<0.001). Moreover, the frequency of beta-hemolytic streptococcal infections was significantly associated with age (P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS: The results herein suggested that the bacterial cause of the majority of respiratory infections in infected and sampled horses in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, and Ardabil at the time of sampling was Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus and that this organism is a potential pathogen for respiratory diseases in horses in these provinces.

BACKGROUND: Toxocara canis C-type lectin (T. canis-CTL) is the main protein part of the secretory-excretory product secreted by Toxocara canis infective larvae. T. canis-CTL can stimulate immune response-mediated regulatory T lymphocytes, increase the FOXP3+ cells population, and reduce severe inflammatory responses. T. canis-CTL is a promising candidate for immune modulation in some autoimmune diseases, deserving further investigation.OBJECTIVES: The current research aimed to purify the recombinant T. canis-CTL under denaturation and native condition to increase exploration and maintain biological activity.METHODS: The expression vector, pET32a was constructed with the partial sequence 660bp of T. canis-CTL and expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). T. canis-CTL protein expression was induced by IPTG (1 mM) at 37°C after 6 h. In this study, different buffers were used for cell explosion and recombinant protein solubilization, including lysis buffer with urea (8 M, pH=8) and lysozyme enzyme as well as lysis buffer with Imidazole (0.01 M) and lysozyme enzyme, and previous buffers in addition to sonication. The effect of these buffers was evaluated in bacterial cells explosion, using Gram-staining and microscopic examination. Recombinant T. canis-CTL protein was extracted and purified under denaturation and native condition using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography by agarose and sepharose resin. A New Zealand male rabbit was immunized with the recombinant protein to evaluate the bioactivity of the protein. RESULTS: Lysis buffer with urea (8 M, pH=8) and lysozyme enzyme, in addition to sonication, provided acceptable results, and an additional amount of recombinant T. canis-CTL protein was secreted in the buffer. Protein purification under denaturation conditions with Ni-NTA agarose affinity chromatography also provides further recombinant protein. Most of the induction of recombinant T. canis-CTL with 41 KDa molecular weight was collected 6 h after induction at 37°C. Dot-blot results illustrate the brown dot, which showed a 1:500 titer of specific IgG polyclonal antibody has developed in the sera of rabbits immunized with T. canis-CTL recombinant protein.CONCLUSIONS: The denaturation condition did not affect the biological activity of the T. canis-CTL recombinant protein and can recover a further amount of recombinant proteins.