Atypical Brucella sp in captive Australian green tree frogs (Litoria caerulea): clinical features, pathology, culture and molecular characterization.

Background: Brucella spp. are globally important zoonotic bacteria, which have historically been considered pathogens of warm-blooded species. More recently, new strains of Brucella have been cultured from a broader range of animals including terrestrial and marine mammals and amphibians.

Assessment of weight gain during pregnancy: an Italian practical approach.

Aim: Weight increase during pregnancy is an extremely useful parameter since adequate weight gain is associated with better outcomes for the health of both the mother and the baby. On the other hand, if there is an inappropriate change in weight, either too much or too little, both mother and fetus are more greatly exposed to numerous complications with different degrees of seriousness. Therefore it is necessary to rely on appropriate guidelines that provide medical and obstetric personnel with clear directions regarding correct weight gain.

Giardia intestinalis: molecular characterization of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase.

The flagellated protozoan Giardia intestinalis is one of the most prevalent human-infective parasites with a worldwide distribution. This parasite must encyst to complete the life cycle and N-acetylgalactosamine is produced from endogenous glucose for cyst wall synthesis during the transformation. UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase in G.

Quantification of the copy number of nor-1, a gene of the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway by real-time PCR, and its correlation to the cfu of Aspergillus flavus in foods.

A real-time PCR system directed against the nor-1 gene of the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway as a target sequence has been applied to detect an aflatoxinogenic A. flavus strain in plant-type foods like maize, pepper and paprika. The system is based on the TaqMan fluorescent probe technology.

Differentiation of aflatoxin-producing and non-producing strains of Aspergillus flavus group.

Aims: Three conventional methods and a multiplex PCR procedure with a set of four primers (Quadruplex-PCR) were used to differentiate between aflatoxin-producing and non-producing strains of the Aspergillus flavus group.

Methods And Results: By combining sets of primers for aflR, nor-1, ver-1 and omt-A genes of the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, Quadruplex-PCR showed that aflatoxinogenic strains gave a quadruplet pattern, indicating the presence of all the genes involved in the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway which encode for functional products. Non-aflatoxinogenic strains gave varying results with one, two, three or four banding patterns.