Veterinary Research & Biological Products
Year:2010 | Volume:22 | Issue:4 (85)|Papers Count:10

Anthrax is one of the important zoonose disease between human and cattle. Bacillus anthracis is a gram- positive bacterium which its tripartite protein toxin contains protective antigen (PA), edema factor (EF) and lethal factor (LF) and a poly D- glutamic acid capsule. A recent resurgence of interest in B.anthracis resulted in improved methods for production, separation and purification of the known toxin components. This in turn has lead to development of much more sensitive toxin-detection systems. Further understanding of toxin activity, the role of individual components in protection against the disease and the production of antigens for use in diagnostic requires high-degree of purity. In this study after cultivation of bacteria and separaing the supernatant the solution was passed through different membrane of ultra filter system with 30000, 50000 and 100000 Dalton molecular weight cut off respectively. The final solution was treated with ammonium sulphate and the antigens prepared which after dialysis have passed through gel chromatography of HPLC for separating of B.anthracis toxins. Finaly three toxin antigens EF, LF and PA with 86, 87 and 85 K dalton molecular weight of high purity were obtained.

The aim of this study was identification of important factors and their effects on mortality of Lori-Bakhtiari lambs from birth to weaning. The data set used for statistical analysis were collected from 4991 lambs born between 1370 and 1384 in flock at Lori-Bakhtiari sheep breeding station. Data was modeled using logistic regression. Mortality variable as dependent and ewe weight at mating, ewe age, lamb birth weight, lamb sex, year of birth and decade of birth as independent variables interred to the model. Odds ratios in addition to regression coefficients were derived for continued variables and each level of non-continued variable with respect to first level of that variable. According to results, year of birth, decade of birth and birth weight had very significant effects on lamb mortality. Mortality probability of lambs born in the initial month of parturition period was lower than mortality likelihood of lambs born in the end month of parturition and spring born lambs. Male lambs’ mortality likelihood was 1.5 times higher than mortality likelihood of female lambs. Furthermore, mortality likelihood of lambs of 5-year-old ewes was lower than mortality likelihood of lambs born in younger and older ewes. Mortality probability from birth to weaning decreased due to each unit increase in lamb birth weight but by each unit increase in ewe weight at mating, mortality rate of lambs partially increase.

There are various methods to diagnosis of hydatic cyst. Serological methods based on tracing special antigens have high sensitivity, but the first need to design the kits based on serological methods is having enough amount of appropriate antibody against hydatic cyst antigens. Hydatic cyst antigens and parasite protoscolexes prepared from sheep liver samples were injected to rabbits to obtain polyclonal antibodies. Injections were done five times both subcutaneously and intracutanously. We designed a double immunodiffusion test to compare antigenicity of two antigen groups as well as measurement of generated antibody levels. The least level obtained in both groups was from the first (dilution 1/1), and the highest level was from the last prepared sample after injection (dilution 1/16). Furthermore, mean generated antibody level in all examinations obtained 11/20 for the first group and 9/20 for the second group. By comparing the results of the studied groups, it could be concluded that antigenicity of protoscolexes are more than hydatic cyst fluid. So the antibodies against parasite protoscolexes could be used in investigations including molecular studies, and after purification and conjugation with appropriate enzyme, it also could be used to design rapid diagnostic ELISA kits.

More than 20 viruses have been reported as pathogens to shrimp.WSSV has been found to be highly pathogenic not only to penaeid shrimp, but also to a wide host range which include marine crabs and copepods, freshwater crabs and prawns.This survey carried out to detect the WSV in wild P.indicus population on the costal waters of Hormozgan Province.The samples were collected from three area include: costal waters of Qeshm island, Hormoz island and Jask.We examined 1080 P.indicus (gill organs) by PCR and histopathology methods.A diagnostic kit for this survey have been applicated from Malaysia, named”Single-Tube Nested PCR for WSSV”. The analysis results revealed that the samples of P.indicus had examined from these area were free from WSV.The PCR tests were negative for all samples and no observed any damages of histology due to WSSV on gills.

The parasites of genus sarcocystis are among the most commonly found parasites in domestic ruminants and some species of sarcocystis can generate important economic loss when causing clinical and subclinical diseases. Sarcocystis hominis, one of the three species of sarcocystis that cause muscular cysts in cattle, can infect the human intestinal tract. There is high infection rate of sarcocyst in cattle in the world including Iran but there is not any study about Sarcocystis species identification in Iran. This work aimed to survey existence of S. hominis. In this study, esophagus and diaphragm muscles of 100 cattle were collected from Fesaran abattoir of Isfahan and examined for the presence of S. hominis based on histopathological and ultrastructural characteristics. Histopathological examinations revealed thin and thick walled cysts. S. hominis cysts were observed in 10% of the examined cattle. The cysts had thick, radially striated walls, and were 30-137.5 × 20-70 mm in size and their walls were 2.5 to 6 mm thick. S. hominis cyst walls appeared radially striated in the histopathological sections because of the presence of palisade-like villar protrusions. Ultrastructural features of the protrusions by TEM, were broad-based, blunt distal end, cylindrical, contained microtubules, and oriented nearly perpendicularly to the sarcocyst surface. Based on histopathological and ultrastructural features of the cysts, we identified them as S. hominis.

In this study, the morphology and organization of pituitary was investigated prior to hatching and at larval, juvenile and adult stages of the Rutilus frisii kutum. The eggs were kept in aquaria to study the stages before hatching. Fingerling reaching 1 gr of weight were maintained in laboratory condition for 5 month. Specimens larger than 1 gr up to adult stage were obtain either from fish culture center. In small specimens the whole head was processed that for larger once whole brain bearing hypophysis along with a small part of skull were after decalcification. All specimens were studied by histological methods. It was noticed that a day prior to hatching the hypophysis could be identifiable as a separate entity as comprised a part of ventral diencephalons. Adeno and Neurohypophysis could not be differentiated. Hypophysis was found to be partly separated and attached to the floor of diancephalon about seven days after hatching. An unbranched neurohypophysis was identified, pituitary gland was almost entirely unattached after 40 days and was seen to be stalked after 70 days. It was observed that the specimens of 25 gr as older had immense similarity with adult in structure and organization of hypophysis. The juvenile of later on (5 gram onwards) had the neurohypophysis. Penetrating in to adenohypophysis, particularly in to intermedia forming neurohypophysis lobe.

Cryptosporidiosis is a widespread cause of diarreheal diseases of humans, young calves, and many mammals caused by infection of intestinal epithelial cells with the protozoal agent Cryptosporidium. This study that was conducted in Shahriar county of Tehran in 2006, altogether 573 stools of calves and 867 stools from diarreheal humans refer to hospitals of county were collected and concentrated by Scheather’s method and stained with Ziehl-Neelsen dye method. Altogether, criptosporidiosis were detected from 69 (12.04%) of calves and 24 (2.7%) from human stools. In this study a correlation was observed between cryptosporidial infection with age, nutrition and the mode of breeding of calves.

To compare the effect of coccidiostate drugs (salinomycin and maduramicin) on the oocyst sheding and performance of coccidi-infected broiler chicken, 180 Ross 308 Broiler chicken were randomly assigned to four treatments. Each treatment contains 3 replacements of 15 chickens. Treatment 1 and 2 fed diets supplemented with maduramicin and salinomycin until three days before experiment period, respectively. Treatment 3 and 4 were designated as positive and negative control receives no coccidiostates. Chicken in treatment 1, 2 and 3 were inoculated with a 0.5 ml suspension containing four prevalent eimeria species in Iran (E. tenella, E. necatrix, E. acervulina and E. maxima) on 26 days of age. Frequency of excreted oocyst of feces sample from 7-16 day post-challenged was carried out. Body weight (BW), body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and mortality rate were determined and registered in special tables weakly. The result revealed that coccidiostate dugs decreased oocysts per gram of feces (OPG) significantly in 7-16 days post inoculation (majorly maduramicin) (p<0.05). At the end of study effect of maduramicin on increase of body weight and feed consumption comparing to salinomycin was considerable (P<0.05). Effect of two drugs on decrease of mortality were similar (p>0.05). The lowest FCR was belonged to negative control followed by chickens treated with maduramicin. According to the results of this experimental trail, maduramicin could decrease the OPG significantly and improve production performance in coccidio-infected broiler chickens.

Infection by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is widespread in humans and many other species of warmblooded animals. It can cause significant morbidity and mortality in the developing fetus and in immunocompromised individuals, including humans with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - AIDS or submitted to cancer chemotherapy. Among livestock, sheep and goat are more widely infected with T. gondii. This parasite is a major cause of abortion, with significant economic losses to sheep and goat breeders. We applied the polymerase chain reaction for detection of the pathogenic protozoan T. gondii based on its B1 gene. The B1 gene is present and conserved in all six T. gondii strains identified to date. For this purpose blood samples were collected from a total of 372 animals (144 dog, 7 cat, 126 horse, 50 cattle and 45 sheep) from Urmia region. In this study, PCR was performed using the previously described primers (Fuentes et al., 1996) (10), which were designed to detect the B1 gene of T. gondii. The targeted B1 gene is highly conserved in all T. gondii strains and is multiple copy genes within the T. gondii genome. The method used for the characterization of T. gondii strains implied digestion with SacI restriction enzyme of the fragments amplified. The results indicated 3 positive samples (2 horse and 1 sheep samples). The 194 bp fragment was generated in all positive samples tested and one RFLP patterns were obtained. The results indicated that the same strain of T. gondii has been infected sheep and horse in the study region.

Liver samples from golden jackal (Canis aureus) were collected from Noor in the central coastline Mazandaran province. The samples of this study were killed in road accidents. Levels of persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDTs and metabolites, hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and metabolites, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), aldrin and dieldrin were measured in liver tissue samples by gas chromatography using electron capture detection (GC-ECD). The compound found at the highest concentration was PCBs (58.13 ±41.51 ng/g), followed by the contaminants HCHs (10.58 ±10.88 ng/g), DDTs (4.62 ±6.17 ng/g), HCB (0.60 ±0.81 ng/g), Aldrin (0.54 ±0.78 ng/g) and Dieldrin (0.13 ±0.18 ng/g). There were no significant differences between sexes. Also no significant differences (0.095<P<0.904) were found between POPs levels in liver with weight and length of body. POPs levels were generally low; and do not approach levels that are known to potentially cause adverse effects in animals.