Objective—To compare composition and colony formation of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) harvested from dogs by means of a new perfusion method and the conventional aspiration method. Animals—7 healthy adult Beagles. Procedures—BMMCs were collected from the humeri and femurs of Beagles via perfusion and aspiration methods. Flow cytometric analysis was performed to quantify the presence of contaminant cells from the peripheral blood and the percentage of CD34+ progenitor cells in the BMMCs. A CFU assay was conducted to determine the number of progenitor cells in the BMMCs. Results—The perfusion method was safely performed in all 7 dogs. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the percentages of contaminant CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, and CD21 + lymphocytes in BMMCs obtained via perfusion were significantly lower than percentages obtained via aspiration. The percentage of CD34+ cells obtained via perfusion was significantly higher than that obtained via aspiration. In addition, perfusion yielded a significantly higher CFU count than did aspiration. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—The perfusion method used in this study can minimize the contamination of bone marrow samples with peripheral blood and was a more efficient means for collecting canine bone marrow progenitor cells than the conventional aspiration method. Therefore, the perfusion method can be more suitable than aspiration for harvesting bone marrow cells for transplantation in dogs.

The dairy industry is a large and important business in Saudi Arabia. Although farms are administered to high international standards, some reproduction problems, of uncertain aetiology, are encountered. The most frequently seen are conception failures, abortions, stillbirths and the birth of weak or malformed calves. These conditions are suggestive of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection. Unfortunately, very little published information is available regarding the impact of this disease on cattle populations in Saudi Arabia. As a consequence, the present study was carried out and is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. The aim of the study was to elucidate the role of in utero BVDV infection leading to the birth of weak or malformed calves on a large dairy farm in Saudi Arabia. The study was divided into two parts. Firstly, apparently healthy neonatal calves were sampled for the detection of pre-colostral serum antibodies to BVDV. The presence of these antibodies indicates exposure of the foetus to BVDV during the last two trimesters of gestation. Secondly, tissue samples from malformed neonatal calves were examined for the presence of BVDV antigens. Detection of such antigens confirms exposure of the foetus to the virus during the first trimester of gestation. The results of the investigation indicated that 36.1% of the neonatal calves were exposed to BVDV infection in utero. This is higher than what has been reported in the literature and suggests that dairy farmers in the Arabian Peninsula need to be made aware of the dangers of BVDV infections in their herds. The epidemiological significance of the results is discussed.

Sixteen steers were used to investigate the efficacy of the sustained-release implant of bovine somatotropin (bST) in improving growth and feed:gain ratio during 12 weeks. Administration of the 400 mg bST implant resulted in a 16.1% increase in growth rate, and this increase was significant (p less than .05). The use of the sustained-release implant did not alter (p greater than .05) feed intake and feed:gain ratio. Thirty-four cows were used to investigate the efficacy of the sustained-release implant of bST in milk production during 4 weeks. Administration of the 200 mg bST implant resulted in an 8.7% increase in milk production, and this increase was significant (p less than .05). Twenty-four barrows were used to investigate the efficacy of the sustained-release implant of porcine somatotropin (pST) in improving growth, feed:gain ratio and backfat thickness during 6 weeks. Administration of the 120 mg pST implant resulted in a 11.4% increase in feed:gain ratio and a 60% decrease in backfat thickness, and these results were significant (p less than .05). But the use of the sustained-release implant did not alter (p greater than .05) growth rate and feed intake.

This study was focused on the genotyping and quantification of Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) in thirty PCV2-positive pigs with different clinical symptoms (PCV2-infected without wasting, PCV2-infected with wasting, PCV2-infected with wasting and lymphoid depletion). The quantity of PCV2 DNA in diverse tissues was significantly differed among these groups. (One-way ANOVA test, p less than 0.001) Interestingly, PCV2-DNA load in tissues of PCV2-infected pigs without wasting and PCV2-infected pigs with wasting and lymphoid depletion were not significantly differed (p = 0.38), while they were all significantly higher when compared with PCV2-infected pigs with wasting-only. PCV2 DNA quantity in tissues was significantly higher in PCV2a and 2b co-infected pigs compared to the PCV2b only-infected pigs (Wilcoxon test, p = 0.039). The PCV2a and 2b co-infected pigs had increased wasting and lymphoid depletion rate but it was not statistically significant. Therefore, this cross-sectional study suggested that PCV2 DNA load in tissues was diverse by clinical and histological findings. Furthermore, co-infection of PCV2a and 2b affected to the PCV2 DNA load in tissues with increased rate of wasting and lymphoid depletion.

Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) has been a major causative agent of food-borne human disease due to consumption of contaminated eggs and poultry meat. To prevent SE infection in poultry, and therefore minimize human infections, vaccination with either killed or live SE vaccine is suggested. We evaluated a newly developed killed bacterin using a representative SE isolate in Korea. Among pool of SE isolates, two highly virulent isolates (the one isolate from chicken, the other from human) were selected by measuring mortality in mouse and chickens administered. The chickens were injected intramuscularly with killed vaccine and were challenged with highly virulent SE strain 3 week after vaccination. The recovered colony count (cfu/g) of spleen and cecal content in the vaccinated groups was reduced compared with those of the unvaccinated control group. The antibody level in the vaccinated groups was higher at 3 week post vaccination. These results indicate that vaccination with killed vaccine was effective in preventing the infection of virulent SE. Further study for a large number of layers should be needed for the effect of egg production, SE shedding in feces, persistence of antibody level.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is a member of the Avibirnavirus genus of the Birnaviridae family which genome consists of two segments (A and B) of double stranded RNA. Segment A gene of KNU08010 isolate, which was isolated from a 15-day-old chicken flock in 2008, was sequenced and compared with other IBDV isolates including SH/92 strain, the first Korean very virulent (vv) IBDV isolate. The amino acid sequences of segment A gene showed that KNU08010 had 99.2% homology with SH92 strain. KNU08010 isolate had specific amino acids A222, I242, I256, I294 and S299 which are highly conserved among vvIBDV strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on the nucleotide sequences of variable region of the VP2 gene of 18 IBDV strains revealed that KNU08010 was grouped with vvIBDVs and was closely related to Korean vvIBDVs isolated from wild birds.

Two 4-day-old Thoroughbred foals with acute clinical signs of depression, elevated pulse and respiratory rates, anemia, and jaundice were referred to the equine hospital of Korea Racing Authority. The foals were seemingly normal at birth, but showed clinical signs such as abnormal behavior, jaundice and anemia suddenly after ingestion of the mare's colostrum, followed by death at 4 days after birth. According to the results of the hematology, serum chemistry analysis, jaundice foal agglutination test, and blood groups test, the foals were diagnosed as neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) caused by the mare's antibodies. These results suggested that the pregnant mares have a potential for NI.

Theileria (T.) buffeli (formerly T. sergenti/T. orientalis) is the major hemo-protozoan distributed in the Far East Asian countries such as Korea, China and Japan. It is responsible for the clinical symptoms of anorexia, ateliosis, anemia, fever and icterus. It also causes abortion and sudden death under severe cases, resulting in economic losses for many livestock farms. The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity of the major surface protein (Msp) gene in T. buffeli in Holstein in Korea, and we characterized the association of the diversification of the Msp gene and its relationship with the pathogenicity of Theileria. For this, complete blood counts and Theileria PCR sequence analysis were performed from 57 Holstein in Jeju Island. A total of 26 PCR positive Holstein (16 anemic and 10 non-anemic) were then randomly selected based on 18s rRNA sequence typing of the Theileria Msp gene. The DNA sequence of the T. buffeli Msp gene in Holstein showed 99.0%, 99.2%, 99.9%, 99.5%, 98.7%, 98.4% and 98.4% homology with T. sergenti, Theileria spp., T. sergenti, Theileria spp., Theileria spp., Theileria spp. and Theileria spp., respectively. The result showed a genetic variation of 57.7% (type Ⅰ), 3.8% (type Ⅱ), 15.4% (type Ⅲ), 7.7% (type Ⅳ), 13.5% (type Ⅴ) and 1.9% (type Ⅵ). Type Ⅰ is the most frequent type in both anemic and non-anemic Holstein while type Ⅱ was found in only non-anemic Holstein. This results of our study help confirm the diversity of Msp gene types and demonstrate that the gene type distribution of Msp genes varies among Theileria-infected Holstein in Jeju Island.

Salmonella spp. is an important pathogen to both public and swine industry. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of Salmonella serovar and antibiotics susceptibility of the isolates from Korean swine producing systems. A total of 63 (5.28%) Salmonella spp. was isolated from 1,194 samples (977 fecal materials and 67 organ samples). The predominant Salmonella (S.) enterica serotype and serovar was group B (69.8%) and S. Typhimurium (47.6%), S. Derby (20.6%) and S. Heidelberg (1.6%). But S. Cholerasuis which is characterized host specific by septicemia and enteritis to pigs was not isolated. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates varies as follows: Norfloxacine (75%), Ciprofloxacin (67.5%), Amikacin (60%), Colistin (60%), Enrofloxacin (55%). All of isolates were resistant to Erythromycin, Penicillin, Tetracycline and Lincomycin. The results of this study provided useful information regarding antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance patterns to treat salmonellosis and to prevent emergence of multidrug resistance Salmonella.

Swine diseases could be caused by unrecognized or minor pathogens. In this study, two unknown cytopathogenic agents were isolated from swine, through cell culture. In order to identify these two cytopathogenic agent (designated CP129 and No.2045-7), a particle associated nucleic acids PCR (PAN-PCR) from previous paper was used with simple modification. The cloning procedure was more specified in this study by adding cell control system. According to the modified PAN-PCR, two and four agents-specific DNA sequences were obtained from CP129 and No.2045-7, respectively, and they were identified as Mycoplasma (M.) hyorhinis and Mammalian orthoreovirus by nucleotide BLAST. Since M. hyorhinis (CP129) was filterable and non-visible by microscope, this unusual virus-like nature of M. hyorhinis (CP129) was discussed. Especially, the reovirus (No.2045-7) was a serotype 3 and a triple reassortant among three serotypes of reoviruses. It was grouped with recently reported reoviruses from disease cases (swine, human and feline), based on the genetic analysis of L1 and S1 partial sequences. In conclusion, two unknown cytopathogenic agents were successfully identified using modified PAN-PCR with cell control system and they were characterized in this study.