Tannin as a natural rumen modifier to control methanogenesis in beef cattle in tropical systems: Friend or foe to biogas energy production?

The grazing of Zebu cattle in poor-quality tropical pastures during the dry season has an increased environmental impact and cost of production. The use of condensed tannins (CT) as a natural feed additive to modulate ruminal archaea can mitigate the methane emissions from cattle in tropical systems. We investigated the effects of CT on in vivo methane emissions and rumen microbiota ecology in beef cattle.

[Pulmonary and cardiovascular syndrome due to hantavirus: clinical aspects of an emerging disease in southeastern Brazil].

Pulmonary and cardiovascular syndrome due to hantavirus is a disease caused by inhalation of aerosols from the excreta of wild rodents contaminated by viruses of the Bunyaviridae family. We studied the clinical and laboratory manifestations of 70 cases that occurred in the region of Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil, between 1998 and 2007. The frequency of symptoms was as follows: dyspnea (87%), fever (81%), coughing (44%), headache (34%), tachycardia (81%), low arterial blood pressure (56%), metabolic acidosis (57%), lymphocytopenia (51%), hematocrit > 45% (70%), leukocytosis with left deviation (67%), creatinine (51%) and urea (42%).

Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome: immune response and pathogenesis.

Hantaviruses are emerging viruses in the Americas that cause cardiopulmonary syndrome with high lethality. The intense cellular immune response to hantavirus alters normal endothelial cell barrier functions and seems to be harmful to the host. On the other hand, the humoral immune response seems to be essential for recovery from infection.