Report of outbreaks of classical scrapie in Dorper sheep and associated prion protein gene polymorphisms in affected flocks.

Scrapie is an infectious neurodegenerative disease affecting sheep and goats, related with conformational alteration of an isoform of the prion protein that leads to deposition and aggregation in the host's central nervous system. Occurrence of the natural disease can be influenced by host genetic factors, such as a single nucleotide polymorphism of the prion protein gene. This study reports three scrapie-affected Dorper flocks located on three different farms in Brazil.

The PII superfamily revised: a novel group and evolutionary insights.

The PII proteins compose a superfamily of signal transducers with fundamental roles in the nitrogen metabolism of prokaryotic organisms. They act at different cellular targets, such as ammonia transporters, enzymes, and transcriptional factors. These proteins are small, highly conserved, and well distributed among prokaryotes.

Evaluation of PCR based on gene apxIVA associated with 16S rDNA sequencing for the identification of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and related species.

The pleuropneumonia caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) is one the most important swine respiratory diseases. Biochemical and serological tests are widely applied for App diagnosis and characterization. However, in some isolates, conflicting results are found.

Detection of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae by PCR on field strains from healthy and diseased pigs.

We investigated whether primers able to specifically amplify a 0.7-kb DNA fragment from the conserved cpx genes could be applied to analyze A. pleuropneumoniae field isolates.