Early immune response to lineage III isolates of different virulence phenotype.

Introduction: is an intracellular parasite of importance to human and veterinary health. The structure and diversity of the genotype population of varies considerably with respect to geography, but three lineages, type I, II and III, are distributed globally. Lineage III genotypes are the least well characterized in terms of biology, host immunity and virulence.

A Pork Industry in the Backyard: An Analysis of Infection in Serbia's Pigs.

As pork is an important source for infection, we have analyzed genotypes and toxoplasmosis prevalence in pigs in Serbia in the context of production statistics and economics to assess the specific risk to public health. Genotyping was performed using MnPCR-RFLP; -specific IgG antibodies were detected using a modified agglutination test (MAT); and statistical data were extracted from official records and provided by government authorities. The results indicate that, from 2006 to 2021, the median number of annually slaughtered pigs was 5.

Effectiveness of Vaccination in Preventing COVID-19: A Community Study Comparing Four Vaccines.

The course of the COVID-19 pandemic has been critically altered by the availability of vaccines. To assess the risk of COVID-19 in the vaccinated, as compared to the unvaccinated population, as well as the comparative effectiveness of the BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm), BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech), Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) and ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca) vaccines in the prevention of clinical infection, we carried out a retrospective study of the incidence of clinical COVID-19 in the Belgrade city municipality of Voždovac among both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals during a 4-month period between 1 July and 31 October 2021. The study included all individuals with a symptomatic infection confirmed by a positive PCR and/or antigen test.

Three Outbreaks of COVID-19 in a Single Nursing Home over Two Years of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

Older people in nursing homes (NH) have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a retrospective study of three outbreaks of COVID-19, occurring during the waves of the initial pre-Alpha, Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants, in one NH in suburban Belgrade, Serbia. All staff and 95% residents were vaccinated in February 2021, mostly with BBIBP-CorV, and two thirds were boosted with a third dose in August 2021.

Seroprevalence, Direct Detection and Risk Factors for Infection in Pigs in Serbia, and Influence of Biosecurity Measures.

Consumption of contaminated pork is a major risk factor for human infection. We thus conducted a cross-sectional survey on the seroprevalence of infection in a representative sample of slaughter pigs from throughout Serbia and examined the influence of farm biosecurity-related risk factors on infection. In addition, direct detection of the parasite (by mouse bioassay) or its DNA was performed in the hearts of a subset of seropositive sows.