Taenia crassiceps organic acids detected in cysticerci

Taenia crassiceps cysticerci is used as an experimental model to cysticercosis studies; however there are subcutaneous cases of cysticercosis caused by these cysticerci. It remains unclear in the literature the energetic and fatty acid metabolism in cestodes. Its metabolic study may provide knowledge of pathways that may serve as potential anti-helminthic drugs sites of action. In this work we studied the citric acid cycle organic acids and the fatty acid oxidation in cysticerci removed from mice with 21 and 42 days of infection in two different evolutive stages: growing and final. The organic acids were extracted using perchloric acid and analyzed by HPLC methodology. We found significant statistically differences in oxalate, malate, lactate, and beta-hydroxybutirate concentrations between cysticerci. These results indicate the aerobic metabolism in vivo in spite of the low oxygen concentration of its habitat, and also indicate the presence of fatty acid oxidation as an alternative energetic source.     

Pig acute-phase protein levels after stress induced by changes in the pattern of food administration

A total of 240 pigs, 74 days old, half boars and half females, were included in a trial designed to assess the effect of the stress caused by changes in the pattern of food administration on the concentration of acute phase proteins (APP) and productive performance parameters. Half of the animals (pigs fed ad libitum, AL group) had free access to feed, while the rest were fed following a disorderly pattern (DIS group), in which animals had alternating periods of free access to feed and periods of no feeding, when food was removed from the feeder. The periods of free access to feed (two daily periods of 2-h duration) were randomly assigned, and varied from day to day. Total feed supplied per day was identical in both groups, and exceeded the minimal amount required for animals of these ages. Pen feed intake, individual body weights and the main positive pig APP pig major acute phase protein (Pig-MAP), haptoglobin, serum amyloid A (SAA), C-reactive protein (CRP), and the negative APP apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I) and transtherytin were determined every 2 weeks during the period 76 to 116 days of age. Animals fed ad libitum had better average daily gain (ADG) than DIS animals in the whole experimental period (P < 0.01) but the differences in ADG were only produced in the two first experimental sub-periods (60 to 74 and 74 to 116 days of age), suggesting that the stress diminished when the animals get used to the DIS feeding. Interestingly differences in ADG between DIS and AL pigs were due to males, whereas no differences were observed between females. The same differences observed for ADG were found for APP. DIS males had higher Pig-MAP concentration than AL males at 74 and 116 days of age, lower ApoA-I concentration at 74 days of age and higher haptoglobin and CRP concentration at 116 days of age (P < 0.05). The results obtained in this trial show an inverse relationship between weight gain and APP levels, and suggest that APP may be biomarkers for the evaluation of distress and welfare in pigs.     

An easy‐to‐run method for routine analysis of eumelanin and pheomelanin in pigmented tissues

A procedure for analysis of melanin‐pigmented tissues based on alkaline hydrogen peroxide degradation coupled with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) ultraviolet determination of pyrrole‐2,3,5‐tricarboxylic acid (PTCA) for eumelanin and 6‐(2‐amino‐2‐carboxyethyl)‐2‐carboxy‐4‐hydroxybenzothiazole (BTCA) and 1,3‐thiazole‐2,4,5‐tricarboxylic acid for pheomelanin was recently developed. Despite advantages related to the degradation conditions and sample handling, a decrease of the reproducibility and resolution was observed after several chromatographic runs. We report herein an improved chromatographic methodology for simultaneous determination of PTCA and BTCA as representative markers of eumelanin and pheomelanin, respectively, based on the use of an octadecylsilane column with polar end‐capping with 1% formic acid (pH 2.8)/methanol as the eluant. The method requires conventional HPLC equipments and gives very good peak shapes and resolution, without need of ion pair reagents or high salt concentrations in the mobile phase. The intra‐assay precision of the analytical runs was satisfactory with CV values ≤4.0% (n = 5) for the two markers which did not exceed 8% after 50 consecutive injections on the column over 1 week. The peak area ratios at 254 and 280 nm (A₂₈₀/A₂₅₄: PTCA = 1.1, BTCA = 0.6) proved a valuable parameter for reliable identification of the structural markers even in the most complex degradation mixtures. The method can be applied to various eumelanin and pheomelanin pigmented tissues, including mammalian hair, skin and irides, and is amenable to be employed in population screening studies.     

假苍耳喂饲幼兔试验研究

将入侵植物假苍耳（Iva xanthifolia）粉碎后与常规预混原料按照比例（以质量百分比计）：假苍耳草粉50%、玉米粉11%、豆饼粉20%、麦麸9%、鱼粉3%、骨粉5%、酵母粉1%、食盐1%混合制备成颗粒饲料,分别以相当于假苍耳含70、60、50、40 g等4个实验组和对照组喂饲常规饲料,每天喂饲幼兔。室内单笼60 d饲养后,分别进行血清学检验、血常规检验、解剖实验及增重效果评价,探讨假苍耳对幼兔适口性和毒性的影响,以及不同假苍耳含量的配合饲料对幼兔生长性能的影响。实验结果表明,假苍耳适口性良好、无毒性症状,各项测定数据无显著差异,从饲用价值角度来说,假苍耳代替部分幼兔饲料是可行的。     

Production,application, and field performance of Abietiv™, the balsam fir sawfly nucleopolyhedrovirus

Beginning in the early 1990s, the balsam fir sawfly (Neodiprion abietis) became a significant defoliating insect of precommercially thinned balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) stands in western Newfoundland, Canada. In 1997, a nucleopolyhedrovirus (NeabNPV) was isolated from the balsam fir sawfly and, as no control measures were then available, NeabNPV was developed for the biological control of balsam fir sawfly. In order to register NeabNPV for operational use under the Canadian Pest Control Products Act, research was carried out in a number of areas including NeabNPV field efficacy, non-target organism toxicology, balsam fir sawfly ecology and impact on balsam fir trees, and NeabNPV genome sequencing and analysis. As part of the field efficacy trials, approximately 22 500 hectares of balsam fir sawfly-infested forest were aerially treated with NeabNPV between 2000 and 2005. NeabNPV was found to be safe, efficacious, and economical for the suppression of balsam fir sawfly outbreak populations. Conditional registration for the NeabNPV-based product, Abietiv™, was received from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (Health Canada) in April 2006. In July 2006, Abietiv was applied by spray airplanes to 15 000 ha of balsam fir sawfly-infested forest in western Newfoundland in an operational control program.      

饲料脂肪水平对长养殖周期异育银鲫“中科3号”生长和脂代谢的影响

实验以初重为(11.33±0.03) g的异育银鲫(Carassius auratus gibelio)为研究对象,分别投喂脂肪水平为4%(L4)、8%(L8)、12% (L12)、16% (L16)和20% (L20)的5种等氮饲料进行为期340d的长养殖周期实验,以探究饲料脂肪水平对长养殖周期异育银鲫生长性能、消化酶活性和脂代谢的影响。期间共取样5次,生长阶段分为63d(D63,幼鱼期)、110d(D110,养成前期)、223d(D223,越冬期)、275d(D275,越冬后)和340d(D340,养成中后期)。实验结果显示,以增重率为评价指标,幼鱼期D63的异育银鲫适宜脂肪水平为8%,养成前期D110的异育银鲫适宜脂肪水平为12%,而其他生长阶段饲料脂水平对增重率无显著影响。饲料脂肪水平对幼鱼期异育银鲫肠道消化酶活性有显著影响,脂肪酶活性随脂肪水平的升高呈现先降低后升高的趋势,幼鱼期(D63)异育银鲫肠道胰蛋白酶和淀粉酶活性高于越冬期和养成中后期的异育银鲫,表明幼鱼期的异育银鲫对脂肪的利用较低。幼鱼期(D63)异育银鲫脂肪合成相关基因pparγ和fas的表达量饲料脂肪水平升高呈先升高后下降的趋势,且在L8组表达量最高,而脂解基因lpl和cpt1a的表达量在低脂组L4显著低于其他各组。pparγ和cpt1a在越冬后期(D275)的表达量随饲料脂肪水平的升高呈现先上升后下降,而fas表达量在L4组显著高于其他组,表明不同生长阶段异育银鲫对饲料脂肪摄入的响应策略不一致,摄入过高或过低均会导致代谢紊乱。适宜的脂水平(8%—12%)可促进幼鱼期和养成前期异育银鲫的生长,增强脂肪利用率和脂代谢能力,而较大规格的异育银鲫对脂肪的变化不敏感。     

Alterations to plasma membrane lipid contents affect the biophysical properties of erythrocytes from individuals with hypertension

Genetic and environmental factors may contribute to high blood pressure, which is termed essential hypertension. Hypertension is a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke and renal failure; thus, elucidation of the etiopathology of hypertension merits further research. We recently reported that the platelets and neutrophils of patients with hypertension exhibit altered biophysical characteristics. In the present study, we assessed whether the major structural elements of erythrocyte plasma membranes are altered in individuals with hypertension. We compared the phospholipid (phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, sphingosine) and cholesterol contents of erythrocytes from individuals with hypertension (HTN) and healthy individuals (HI) using LC/MS-MS. HTN erythrocytes contained higher phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine contents and a lower cholesterol content than HI erythrocytes. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy revealed important morphological changes in HTN erythrocytes, which reflected the increased membrane fragility and fluidity and higher levels of oxidative stress observed in HTN erythrocytes using spectrophotofluorometry, flow cytometry and spectrometry. This study reveals that alterations to the lipid contents of erythrocyte plasma membranes occur in hypertension, and these alterations in lipid composition result in morphological and physiological abnormalities that modify the dynamic properties of erythrocytes and contribute to the pathophysiology of hypertension.     

Multi‐year stigmatic pollen‐load sampling reveals temporal stability in interspecific pollination of flowers in a subalpine meadow

Co‐flowering plants may commonly experience interspecific pollination. It remains unknown, however, whether interspecific pollination is a largely stochastic process or consistent enough over years to exert selection for traits that can reduce interspecific pollination or ameliorate its deleterious effects on reproduction. To assess the likelihood of this precondition being met, stigmatic pollen loads on 17–34 insect‐pollinated plant species over three consecutive years were scored in a subalpine meadow in southwestern China. Plant species varied significantly in the amount and proportion of heterospecific pollen (HP) on stigmas. Both the number of HP species and the proportion of the pollen load that was HP for each recipient species correlated positively between years (reflected in pairwise correlations for all year‐by‐year combinations). Although inter‐annual variation was smaller for conspecific pollen (CP) than for HP loads, species tended to experience either consistently high or consistently low HP proportions across years. We found that species with higher stigmatic HP proportions generally experienced lower proportional variation in stigmatic HP, an unexpected result if high HP loads are the result of rare stochastic events. The novel finding of between‐year consistency in stigmatic loads of heterospecific pollen suggests that adaption to stigmatic loads of HP is possible, and two divergent strategies may have evolved: HP avoidance and HP tolerance. The observation of temporally consistent differences among species in levels of HP supports the idea that natural selection may be operating either to increase tolerance or to minimize arrival of heterospecific pollen on stigmas in co‐flowering plants. Such adaptations may be important for the maintenance of high levels of local plant diversity in biodiversity hotspots such as our study area.     

Growth response of African catfish,Clarias gariepinus (B.), larvae and fingerlings fed protease‐incorporated diets

African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (B.), is one of the promising freshwater fish species in African aquaculture but the expansion of its farming needs more production of its larvae. The use of live food organisms at first feeding for larvae is still obligatory. That increases the cost of larvae production. Hence, the incorporating of exogenous enzymes especially protease in artificial microdiets may provide affordable alternatives for enhancing the larvae performance. The present study was carried out to evaluate the growth and survival of larvae or fingerlings of African catfish fed artificial diets incorporated with different protease levels. Four artificial diets were formulated and enriched with protease enzyme at levels of 0.0, 750, 1,000, and 1,250 unit/kg diet; after that diets were made into crumbles (100–200 µm diameter). After absorption of the yolk sac, diets were offered to fish larvae (3.6 ± 0.2 mg) in triplicates as a starter feed up to apparent satiation every two hours for 30 days. In another treatment, fish larvae were fed on newly hatched Artemia nauplii (2,500 Artemia/L) as a starter food. In another experiment, African catfish fingerlings (10.1 ± 1.6 g) were fed on the same diets up to satiation twice a day for 2 months. It was noticed that the dietary protease improved larval growth and survival but not as Artemia nauplii did where fish larvae fed on Artemia nauplii showed highest growth and survival followed by those fed a diet enriched with 1,250 unit/kg diet of protease. The mortality of larvae fed protease‐enriched diets as well as the control diet was occurred mostly at the first week reaching its maximum at the third week. The poor growth was observed with fish larvae fed the control diet. Meanwhile, catfish fingerlings fed protease‐enriched diets showed higher growth over those fed the control diet. The larvae survival (11.0%–41.7%) was enhanced by increasing protease levels and it was lower than that of fingerlings (95.6%–100.0%). Furthermore, protein retention and digestibility were significantly improved with protease supplementation over the control diet especially at a level of 1,000 unit/kg diet. As compared with the previous studies, live food should be used in larvae rearing for the first week after that a starter diet enriched with protease at levels of 1,250 unit/kg diet should be used. In case of fish fingerlings, the dry diets should be enriched with 1,100 unit/kg diet to improve diet digestibility and subsequently enhance their growth.