scholarly journals Pestivirus K (Atypical Porcine Pestivirus): Update on the Virus, Viral Infection, and the Association with Congenital Tremor in Newborn Piglets

Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alais M. Dall Agnol ◽  
Alice F. Alfieri ◽  
Amauri A. Alfieri

The atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) belongs to the species Pestivirus K of the genus Pestivirus and the family Flaviviridae, and it has been associated with congenital tremor (CT) type A-II in newborn piglets. Although APPV was discovered in 2015, evidence shows that APPV has circulated in pig herds for many years, at least since 1986. Due to the frequently reported outbreaks of CT on different continents, the importance of this virus for global pig production is notable. Since 2015, several studies have been conducted to clarify the association between APPV and CT. However, some findings regarding APPV infection and the measures taken to control and prevent the spread of this virus need to be contextualized to understand the infection better. This review attempts to highlight advances in the understanding of APPV associated with type A-II CT, such as etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and control and prevention measures, and also describes the pathophysiology of the infection and its consequences for pig production. Further research still needs to be conducted to elucidate the host’s immune response to APPV infection, the control and prevention of this infection, and the possible development of vaccines.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hedvig Stenberg ◽  
Magdalena Jacobson ◽  
Maja Malmberg

Abstract Background Congenital tremor (CT) type A-II is a neurological disorder characterized by tremor of the head and body of newborn piglets. The suggested causative agent of the disease is the recently found atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV). The virus has been detected in piglets suffering from congenital tremor in central Europe, South and North America and in China but no studies has so far been performed in the Nordic countries. The overarching goal of this study was to investigate if APPV is present in the brain tissue of Swedish piglets suffering from congenital tremor. From June 2017 – June 2018, 15 piglets from four Swedish farms with ongoing outbreaks of congenital tremor and 13 piglets with splay leg originating from four different farms, were investigated for presence of APPV RNA in brain tissue. Matched healthy control piglets (n=8) were also investigated. Two APPV-specific RT-qPCR methods targeting the NS3 and NS5B region, respectively, were used. A retrospective study was performed on material from Swedish piglets with congenital tremor sampled in 2004 (n = 11) and 2011/2012 (n = 3) using the described APPV-specific RT-qPCR methods. The total number of piglets with signs of CT in this study was 29. Results Atypical porcine pestivirus-RNA was detected in 93% (27/29) of the piglets suffering from congenital tremor. All piglets with congenital tremor from 2004 (n = 11) and 2012 (n = 3) were PCR-positive with respect to APPV, whereas, all of the healthy controls (n = 11) were negative. The piglets with congenital tremor sampled 2017-2018 had an odds ratio of 91,8 (95% CI 3.9128 to 2153.7842, z = 2.807, P = 0.0050) to test positive for APPV by qRT-PCR compared to the healthy piglets (Fishers exact test p < 0.0001). These findings make it interesting to continue investigating APPV in the Swedish pig population. Conclusion This is the first description of atypical porcine pestivirus in piglets suffering from congenital tremor type A-II in Sweden and the Nordic countries. The virus has been present in the Swedish pig population since at least 2004.


Author(s):  
Lilla Dénes ◽  
Inés Ruedas-Torres ◽  
Anna Szilasi ◽  
Gyula Balka

Atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) belongs to the genus Pestivirus within the family Flaviviridae. Recently, APPV has been identified as the causative agent of congenital tremor (CT) type AII. The disease is a neurological disorder that affects newborn piglets and is characterized by mostly generalized trembling of the animals and often splay legs. CT is well known worldwide, and the virus seems to be highly prevalent in major swine producing areas. However, little is known about the epidemiology of the infection, the transmission and spread of the virus between herds. Here, we show the high prevalence of APPV in processing fluid samples collected from Hungarian pig herds which led us to investigate the cellular targets of the virus in the testicles of newborn piglets affected by CT. By the development of an RNA in situ hybridization assay and the use of immunohistochemistry on consecutive slides, we identified the target cells of APPV in the testicle: interstitial Leydig cells, peritubular myoid cells and endothelial cells of medium-sized arteries. Previous studies have shown that APPV can be found in the semen of sexually mature boars suggesting the role of infected boars and their semen in the transmission of the virus similar to many other members of the Flaviviridae family. As in our case, the virus has not been identified in cells beyond the blood-testis barrier, further studies on infected adult boars’ testicles are needed to analyze the possible changes in the cell tropism that enable the virus to be excreted by the semen.


2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Virginia Villegas ◽  
Alan I. Hartstein

AbstractThis review of Acinetobacter outbreaks summarizes factors related to the presence and recognition of organism transmission and describes the implementation of control and prevention measures directed at limiting spread. Exogenous transmission of Acinetobacter should be considered when infections are endemic and when case rates increase. Increasing or new antimicrobial resistances in a collection of isolates also suggest transmission, and transmission can be definitively confirmed when isolates are found to be indistinguishable from or related to one another by a discriminatory genotyping test. An investigation for a common source should be conducted. When a common source cannot be found and eliminated, or once an endemically transmitted organism is established, containment or prevention efforts may require aggressive interventions, complex interventions, or both. Colonization at multiple sites, the relative ease of induction of antibiotic resistance in the organism following patient exposure to multiple drugs, and long-term environmental survival provide enhanced opportunities for the transmission of Acinetobacter between and among patients. New approaches and interventional trials are needed to define effective measures for the prevention and control of Acinetobacter infections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilian Gonçalves Mariano ◽  
Acácio Geraldo de Carvalho ◽  
Henrique Trevisan ◽  
Maria do Carmo Araújo Fernandes

ABSTRACT: Wood is rich in organic compounds; thus, it is susceptible to attacks by several deteriorating agents because they acknowledge such attacks as a necessary energy supply. Fungi stand out among these agents since they can attack the wood in trees (before felling) and in several post-felling stages. Fungi are biological agents that use organic compounds as food sources, and that is the reason why they degrade most chemical components found in wood. Wood attacked by fungi suffers significant value loss, since these degrading agents affect their mechanical and aesthetic properties. Fungi — which are classified as staining, molding and rotting — are one of the main responsible for the biggest losses in the timber industry. Wood can be virtually used in a whole range of environments, a fact that makes it susceptible to attacks by different fungal species, since the ideal conditions for fungal development change from species to species. In other words, the fact that one or more fungal species are capable of deteriorating wood is directly related to conditions wood is subjected to. Thus, it is essential knowing how to evaluate fungal attacks, symptoms to be taken into consideration at the time to identify the type of attacking organism and the attack stage, as well as the control and prevention measures to be applied to these organisms.


Viruses ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ad de Groof ◽  
Martin Deijs ◽  
Lars Guelen ◽  
Lotte van Grinsven ◽  
Laura van Os‐Galdos ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Andrea Haekyung Haselbeck ◽  
Sylvie Rietmann ◽  
Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse ◽  
Kerstin Kling ◽  
Maria Elena Kaschubat-Dieudonné ◽  
...  

Nearly 59,000 human deaths worldwide are attributable to rabies annually, of which more than a third occur in Africa. In recent years, progress has been made in both action and collaboration including implementation of surveillance and prevention measures. In this review we assess the scale of surveillance, preventive, and control efforts of canine-transmitted human rabies in African countries. We reviewed literature published from 2014 to 2018, retrieved from electronic databases including MEDLINE, Global Index Medicus, BIOSIS, Science Citation Index, and EMBASE. WHO reports, national disease control program reports, and conference proceedings were also reviewed. The database search was conducted using keywords including rabies, control, and prevention. In forty countries (40/54), some level of rabies control and prevention strategy was available while in fourteen (14/54) countries, no specific national control and prevention strategy for human rabies could be retrieved. Thirty-four (34/54) countries utilized the Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination (SARE) tool to monitor the national rabies control efforts—five of these countries were at the lowest tier (0/5) of the SARE scoring system while no country had achieved the highest score (5/5). High burden countries need to step up the implementation of context specific national rabies control, prevention, and monitoring strategies. As a zoonosis, rabies control and elimination require coordination between human and veterinarian health sectors under the “One Health” umbrella and with national master plans on the prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases ending in 2020, the time to act is now.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Dingyong Sun ◽  
Xiying Wang

UNSTRUCTURED The HIV epidemic imposes a heavy burden on societal development. Presently, the protection of susceptible populations is the most feasible method for eliminating the spread of HIV. Governments and other relevant industries are actively attempting to solve the problem. In view of the unavailability of biological vaccines, the best measures that can currently be applied are identification of HIV-infected persons and provision of treatment and behavioral intervention. This paper proposes a HIV digital vaccine strategy based on blockchain technology. In the proposed strategy, a decentralized surveillance network is jointly constructed using HIV high-risk individuals as application nodes and accredited testing agencies as authentication nodes. Following testing at the authentication nodes, the results are uploaded to the blockchain, which results in HIV high-risk individuals being able to determine the HIV infection status of each other in a convenient, anonymous, and credible manner. This reduces the occurrence of high-risk sexual behavior and effectively protects susceptible populations. The proposed strategy is a promising solution to prevent the spread of HIV. The performance of the decentralized surveillance network may lead to the restructuring of current government-funded infectious disease prevention and control modes that are centered on centers for disease control and prevention and hospitals to introduce revolutionary changes in public health systems globally.


Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai

Custody refers to the physical care and control of a minor whereas guardianship is a wider term and includes rights and duties with respect to the care and control of minor’s person and property, and includes the right to make decisions relating to the minor. The present legal regime relating to guardianship and custody of children is discussed, including the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, the personal and matrimonial laws, and relevant provisions in the Family Courts Act and Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The emerging concepts of shared parenting, joint custody, and the interparental child removal or abduction of child is included. There is review and analysis of some major reported judicial decisions. A comparative survey of international laws and trends has been done. Suggestions for law reform in the best interest of the child have been given.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110165
Author(s):  
Mohammadhiwa Abdekhoda ◽  
Fatemeh Ranjbaran ◽  
Asghar Sattari

This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the role of information and information resources in the awareness, control, and prevention of COVID-19. This study was a descriptive-analytical survey in which 450 participants were selected for the study. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data through SPSS. The findings show that a wide range of mass media has become well known as information resources for COVID-19. Other findings indicate a significant statistical difference in the rate of using information resources during COVID-19 based on age and gender; however, this difference is not significant regarding the reliability of information resources with regard to age and gender. Health information has an undisputable role in the prevention and control of pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. Providing accurate, reliable, and evidence-based information in a timely manner for the use of resources and information channels related to COVID-19 can be a fast and low-cost strategic approach in confronting this disease.


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