Unexpected thermal stability of two enveloped megaviruses, Emiliania huxleyi virus and African swine fever virus, as measured by viability PCR.

Background: The particle structure of Emiliania huxleyi virus (EhV), an algal infecting member of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs), contains an outer lipid membrane envelope similar to that found in animal viruses such as African swine fever virus (ASFV). Despite both being enveloped NCLDVs, EhV and ASFV are known for their stability outside their host environment.

Method: Here we report for the first time, the application of a viability qPCR (V-qPCR) method to describe the unprecedented and similar virion thermal stability of both EhV and ASFV.

Survival of a surrogate African swine fever virus-like algal virus in feed matrices using a 23-day commercial United States truck transport model.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a member of the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) and is stable in a variety of environments, including animal feed ingredients as shown in previous laboratory experiments and simulations. virus (EhV) is another member of the NCLDVs, which has a restricted host range limited to a species of marine algae called . This algal NCLDV has many similar morphological and physical characteristics to ASFV thereby making it a safe surrogate, with results that are applicable to ASFV and suitable for use in real-world experiments.

New perspectives for evaluating relative risks of African swine fever virus contamination in global feed ingredient supply chains.

There are no published reports indicating that the African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been detected in feed ingredients or complete feed. This is primarily because there are only a few laboratories in the world that have the biosecurity and analytical capabilities of detecting ASFV in feed. Several in vitro studies have been conducted to evaluate ASFV concentration, viability and inactivation when ASFV was added to various feed ingredients and complete feed.

Determination of in vitro dry matter, protein, and fiber digestibility and fermentability of novel corn coproducts for swine and ruminants.

New processes are being used in some dry-grind ethanol plants in the United States and Brazil to improve ethanol yield and efficiency of production while also providing nutritionally enhanced corn coproducts compared with conventional corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). The objectives of this study were to determine the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of 5 conventional corn DDGS sources and 10 emerging novel corn coproducts for swine and ruminants, and compare coproducts produced using similar processes in the United States and Brazil. Chemical composition, on a dry matter (DM) basis, among the 15 coproducts ranged from 18.

Evolutionary conservation of DNA methylation in CpG sites within ultraconserved noncoding elements.

Ultraconserved noncoding elements (UCNEs) constitute less than 1 Mb of vertebrate genomes and are impervious to accumulating mutations. About 4000 UCNEs exist in vertebrate genomes, each at least 200 nucleotides in length, sharing greater than 95% sequence identity between human and chicken. Despite extreme sequence conservation over 400 million years of vertebrate evolution, we show both ordered interspecies and within-species interindividual variation in DNA methylation in these regions.