Evaluation of an in-house indirect immunoperoxidase test for detection of antibodies against African swine fever virus.

African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary animal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). Given that vaccines are not widely available, ASFV detection, including by molecular and serologic assays, is paramount to efficacious control and mitigation of ASF. ASFV-specific antibodies can be detected as early as 7-10 d postinfection in infected animals and may persist for several months or longer.

Validation of a binary ethylenimine (BEI) inactivation procedure for biosafety treatment of foot-and-mouth disease viruses (FMDV), vesicular stomatitis viruses (VSV), and swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV).

Binary ethylenimine (BEI) has been widely used as a virucide to inactivate viruses. For regulatory exclusion of a select agent, the United States Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) requires an inactivation procedure that renders a select agent non-viable but allows the select agent to retain antigenic characteristics for future use must be validated, and the inactivated agent must be confirmed by a viability testing. In this curve-based validation study, we examined impacts of BEI concentration, treatment temperature, and time on our in-house inactivation procedures of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV), Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV), and Swine Vesicular Disease Virus (SVDV).

Antigenic regions of African swine fever virus phosphoprotein P30.

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most complex and lethally haemorrhagic viral diseases of swine, affecting all breeds and ages of pigs. In the absence of ASF vaccines, reliable laboratory diagnosis and restricted biosecurity are critical for disease prevention and control. A detection of ASF-specific antibodies in an unvaccinated pig is a good marker for the diagnosis of ASF.

The VP1 G-H loop hypervariable epitope contributes to protective immunity against Foot and Mouth Disease Virus in swine.

Foot and Mouth Disease is a highly contagious and economically important disease of livestock. While vaccination is often effective at controlling viral spread, failures can occur due to strain mismatch or viral mutation. Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) possesses a hypervariable region within the G-H Loop of VP1, a capsid protein commonly associated with virus neutralization.

Alkaline hydrolysis to remove potentially infectious viral RNA contaminants from DNA.

Background: Diagnostics and research of high-consequence animal disease agents is often limited to laboratories with a high level of biosecurity that restrict the transport of biological material. Often, sharing of DNA with external partners is needed to support diagnostics, forensics, or research. Even in the absence of virus, RNA from positive-sense single stranded RNA (+ssRNA) viruses that may contaminate otherwise purified DNA preparations continues to pose a threat due to its potential to be infectious via direct translation to yield viral proteins.

Developmentally restricted genetic determinants of human arsenic metabolism: association between urinary methylated arsenic and CYT19 polymorphisms in children.

We report the results of a screen for genetic association with urinary arsenic metabolite levels in three arsenic metabolism candidate genes, PNP, GSTO, and CYT19, in 135 arsenic-exposed subjects from the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico, who were exposed to drinking water concentrations ranging from 5.5 to 43.3 ppb.