Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus tick in vitro feeding methods for functional (dsRNA) and vaccine candidate (antibody) screening.

Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks cause economic losses for cattle industries throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world estimated at $US2.5 billion annually. Lack of access to efficacious long-lasting vaccination regimes and increases in tick acaricide resistance have led to the investigation of targets for the development of novel tick vaccines and treatments.

Evidence of a tick RNAi pathway by comparative genomics and reverse genetics screen of targets with known loss-of-function phenotypes in Drosophila.

Background: The Arthropods are a diverse group of organisms including Chelicerata (ticks, mites, spiders), Crustacea (crabs, shrimps), and Insecta (flies, mosquitoes, beetles, silkworm). The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, is an economically significant ectoparasite of cattle affecting cattle industries world wide. With the availability of sequence reads from the first Chelicerate genome project (the Ixodes scapularis tick) and extensive R.

Determination of dihydroergosine in sorghum ergot using an immunoassay.

Dihydroergosine (DHES) is the principal toxic alkaloid produced by sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana). It has recently been shown that DHES levels as low as 1 mg/kg in animal feed can cause significant production losses. Quantitative immunoassays for detecting the related rye ergot alkaloid, ergotamine, are described in the literature, but those assays are relatively insensitive for DHES.

Identification of antigenic differences that discriminate between cattle vaccinated with Anaplasma centrale and cattle naturally infected with Anaplasma marginale.

Monoclonal antibodies were raised against the vaccine strain of Anaplasma centrale used in Australia. A monoclonal antibody that reacted with an 80 kDa antigen was used to develop an A. centrale-specific fluorescent antibody test that will be useful for confirming species identity in patent infections.

Development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of antibodies to Babesia bigemina in cattle.

Monoclonal antibodies, directed against a 58-kDa Babesia bigemina merozoite antigen that reacted strongly with immune sera from experimentally and naturally infected cattle in Western blots, were used to develop a competitive-inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). As based on the testing of 70 antibody-positive sera from experimentally infected cattle and 166 antibody-negative sera collected in non-endemic areas of Australia, the sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA were 95.7% and 97.