The organisation of Ebola virus reveals a capacity for extensive, modular polyploidy.

Background: Filoviruses, including Ebola virus, are unusual in being filamentous animal viruses. Structural data on the arrangement, stoichiometry and organisation of the component molecules of filoviruses has until now been lacking, partially due to the need to work under level 4 biological containment. The present study provides unique insights into the structure of this deadly pathogen.

Assessment of a vesicular stomatitis virus-based vaccine by use of the mouse model of Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever.

Background: In humans and nonhuman primates, Ebola virus causes a virulent viral hemorrhagic fever for which no licensed vaccines or therapeutic drugs exist. In the present study, we used the mouse model for Ebola hemorrhagic fever to assess the safety and efficacy of a vaccine based on a live attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus expressing the Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV) glycoprotein.

Methods: Healthy mice were given the vaccine in various doses, decreasing from 2 x 10(4) to 2 plaque-forming units (pfu), with both systemic and mucosal vaccination routes used.

Identification of Campylobacter spp. and discrimination from Helicobacter and Arcobacter spp. by direct sequencing of PCR-amplified cpn60 sequences and comparison to cpnDB, a chaperonin reference sequence database.

A robust method for the identification of Campylobacter spp. based on direct sequencing of PCR-amplified partial cpn60 sequences and comparison of these to a reference database of cpn60 sequences is reported. A total of 53 Campylobacter isolates, representing 15 species, were identified and distinguished from phenotypically similar Helicobacter and Arcobacter strains.

Characterization of waterborne outbreak-associated Campylobacter jejuni, Walkerton, Ontario.

The Walkerton, Canada, waterborne outbreak of 2000 resulted from entry of O157:H7 and spp. from neighboring farms into the town water supply. Isolates of and obtained from outbreak investigations were characterized by phenotypic and genotypic methods, including heat-stable and heat-labile serotyping, phage typing, biotyping, fla–restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.