Insights into the role of PGF2α in canine periparturient myometrium.

Parturition in dogs is subjected to complex hormonal regulation, with the involvement of prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) still not fully understood. To investigate uterine inertia (UI), the most prevalent maternal reason for dystocia in the bitch, a better understanding of undisturbed uterine, especially myometrial function, is crucial. Our aim was to gain deeper insights into the role of PGF2α in the canine parturient myometrium.

The Canine Vaginal Flora: A Large-Cohort Retrospective Study.

Microbiological examinations are frequently performed as part of breeding management examinations in the bitch, but also in case of (suspected) reproductive tract problems. As most bacteria are opportunistic pathogens, evaluation of bacterial findings is challenging for veterinarians. Besides, breeders might request antimicrobial treatment in breeding bitches, fearing conception failure-even without medical indication.

Characterization of young and aged ferrets as animal models for SARS-CoV-2 infection with focus on neutrophil extracellular traps.

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are net-like structures released by activated neutrophils upon infection [e.g., severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)] as part of the innate immune response that have protective effects by pathogen entrapment and immobilization or result in detrimental consequences for the host due to the massive release of NETs and their impaired degradation by nucleases like DNase-1.

Chagas Disease: Medical and ECG Related Findings in an Indigenous Population in Colombia.

Chagas Disease (CD) is highly prevalent among the indigenous populations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Villages examined show prevalence rates ranging from 43.6% up to 67.

Assessing and improving the validity of COVID-19 autopsy studies - A multicentre approach to establish essential standards for immunohistochemical and ultrastructural analyses.

Background: Autopsy studies have provided valuable insights into the pathophysiology of COVID-19. Controversies remain about whether the clinical presentation is due to direct organ damage by SARS-CoV-2 or secondary effects, such as overshooting immune response. SARS-CoV-2 detection in tissues by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) or electron microscopy (EM) can help answer these questions, but a comprehensive evaluation of these applications is missing.

Diagnosis and Prevalence of Chagas Disease in an Indigenous Population of Colombia.

Chagas disease (CD) is one of the leading neglected tropical diseases. In the Americas, CD is endemic in about 21 countries, but only less than 1% of the patients have access to medical treatment. Indigenous populations are particularly affected because they live in socio-economic and climate conditions that favor CD infections.

Microgliosis and neuronal proteinopathy in brain persist beyond viral clearance in SARS-CoV-2 hamster model.

Background: Neurological symptoms such as cognitive decline and depression contribute substantially to post-COVID-19 syndrome, defined as lasting symptoms several weeks after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. The pathogenesis is still elusive, which hampers appropriate treatment. Neuroinflammatory responses and neurodegenerative processes may occur in absence of overt neuroinvasion.

An intercomparison study of ELISAs for the detection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus - evaluating six conditionally dependent tests.

Latent class analysis is a widely used statistical method for evaluating diagnostic tests without any gold standard. It requires the results of at least two tests applied to the same individuals. Based on the resulting response patterns, the method estimates the test accuracy and the unknown disease status for all individuals in the sample.

A Combination of Deworming and Prime-Boost Vaccination Regimen Restores Efficacy of Vaccination Against Influenza in Helminth-Infected Mice.

Helminths still infect a quarter of the human population. They manage to establish chronic infections by downmodulating the immune system of their hosts. Consequently, the immune response of helminth-infected individuals to vaccinations may be impaired as well.

High estradiol and low testosterone levels are associated with critical illness in male but not in female COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study.

Male sex was repeatedly identified as a risk factor for death and intensive care admission. However, it is yet unclear whether sex hormones are associated with disease severity in COVID-19 patients. In this study, we analysed sex hormone levels (estradiol and testosterone) of male and female COVID-19 patients ( = 50) admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in comparison to control non-COVID-19 patients at the ICU ( = 42), non-COVID-19 patients with the most prevalent comorbidity (coronary heart diseases) present within the COVID-19 cohort ( = 39) and healthy individuals ( = 50).

Offspring born to influenza A virus infected pregnant mice have increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections in early life.

Influenza during pregnancy can affect the health of offspring in later life, among which neurocognitive disorders are among the best described. Here, we investigate whether maternal influenza infection has adverse effects on immune responses in offspring. We establish a two-hit mouse model to study the effect of maternal influenza A virus infection (first hit) on vulnerability of offspring to heterologous infections (second hit) in later life.

Vascular Inflammation Is Associated with Loss of Aquaporin 1 Expression on Endothelial Cells and Increased Fluid Leakage in SARS-CoV-2 Infected Golden Syrian Hamsters.

Vascular changes represent a characteristic feature of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection leading to a breakdown of the vascular barrier and subsequent edema formation. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed characterization of the vascular alterations during SARS-CoV-2 infection and to evaluate the impaired vascular integrity. Groups of ten golden Syrian hamsters were infected intranasally with SARS-CoV-2 or phosphate-buffered saline (mock infection).

Vasculitis and Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in Lungs of Golden Syrian Hamsters With SARS-CoV-2.

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been identified as one pathogenetic trigger in severe COVID-19 cases and therefore well-described animal models to understand the influence of NETs in COVID-19 pathogenesis are needed. SARS-CoV-2 infection causes infection and interstitial pneumonia of varying severity in humans and COVID-19 models. Pulmonary as well as peripheral vascular lesions represent a severe, sometimes fatal, disease complication of unknown pathogenesis in COVID-19 patients.

An Iterative, Frequentist Approach for Latent Class Analysis to Evaluate Conditionally Dependent Diagnostic Tests.

Latent class analysis is a well-established method in human and veterinary medicine for evaluating the accuracy of diagnostic tests without a gold standard. An important assumption of this procedure is the conditional independence of the tests. If tests with the same biological principle are used, this assumption is no longer met.

Standardization of Therapeutic Measures in Antibiotic Consumption Monitoring to Compare Different Livestock Populations.

Using sales data, information on antimicrobial consumption in animals is collected cumulatively across the European Union and member countries of the European Economic Area, which is documented and reported by every country and published within annual reports by the European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC). These serve to perform cross-border comparisons of antimicrobial consumption, despite their ambiguity due to the different units and key figures used. To improve comparability, the European Medicines Agency has introduced the population correction unit (PCU), which represents the biomass of a livestock population and is related to antibiotic consumption.

C-Type Lectins in Veterinary Species: Recent Advancements and Applications.

C-type lectins (CTLs), a superfamily of glycan-binding receptors, play a pivotal role in the host defense against pathogens and the maintenance of immune homeostasis of higher animals and humans. CTLs in innate immunity serve as pattern recognition receptors and often bind to glycan structures in damage- and pathogen-associated molecular patterns. While CTLs are found throughout the whole animal kingdom, their ligand specificities and downstream signaling have mainly been studied in humans and in model organisms such as mice.

Antimicrobial Usage in Horses: The Use of Electronic Data, Data Curation, and First Results.

The usage of antimicrobial drugs (AMs) leads to an increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Although different antimicrobial usage (AMU) monitoring programs exist for livestock animals in Germany, there is no such system for horses. However, with the increasing usage of electronic practice management software (EPMS), it is possible to analyze electronic field data generated for routine purposes.

Ovine C-type lectin receptor hFc-fusion protein library - A novel platform to screen for host-pathogen interactions.

C-type lectin receptors (CTLRs) are pattern recognition receptors which are important constituents of the innate immunity. However, their role has mostly been studied in humans and in mouse models. To bridge the knowledge gap concerning CTLRs of veterinary relevant species, a novel ovine CTLR hFc-fusion protein library which allows in vitro ligand identification and pathogen binding studies has been established.

Health scores for farmed animals: Screening pig health with register data from public and private databases.

There are growing demands to ensure animal health and, from a broader perspective, animal welfare, especially for farmed animals. In addition to the newly developed welfare assessment protocols, which provide a harmonised method to measure animal health during farm visits, the question has been raised whether data from existing data collections can be used for an assessment without a prior farm visit. Here, we explore the possibilities of developing animal health scores for fattening pig herds using a) official meat inspection results, b) data on antibiotic usage and c) data from the QS (QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH) Salmonella monitoring programme in Germany.

Membrane Binding, Cellular Cholesterol Content and Resealing Capacity Contribute to Epithelial Cell Damage Induced by Suilysin of .

() is a major cause of economic losses in the pig industry worldwide and is an emerging zoonotic pathogen. One important virulence-associated factor is suilysin (SLY), a toxin that belongs to the family of cholesterol-dependent pore-forming cytolysins (CDC). However, the precise role of SLY in host-pathogen interactions is still unclear.

Triple (GGTA1, CMAH, B2M) modified pigs expressing an SLA class I phenotype-Effects on immune status and susceptibility to human immune responses.

Porcine xenografts lacking swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) class I are thought to be protected from human T cell responses. We have previously shown that SLA class I deficiency can be achieved in pigs by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of β -microglobulin (B2M). Here, we characterized another line of genetically modified pigs in which targeting of the B2M locus did not result in complete absence of B2M and SLA class I but rather in significantly reduced expression levels of both molecules.

Development and evaluation of a broth macrodilution method to determine the biocide susceptibility of bacteria.

In comparison to biocide efficacy testing, biocide susceptibility testing of bacteria so far lacks standardized methods for routine use. The aims of the present study were to develop a broth macrodilution method to test bacterial pathogens for their biocide susceptibility and to evaluate this method in an interlaboratory trial. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538 was tested for its susceptibility to benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine and isopropanol comparing test strain suspension preparations, test volumes and incubation times.

Seminal plasma modulates the immune-cytokine network in the porcine uterine tissue and pre-ovulatory follicles.

Evidence is emerging that the interaction between male seminal fluid and female tissues promotes fertility, pregnancy, and health of offspring. This includes the acceleration of ovulation in a species known as a spontaneous ovulator, the domestic pig. Earlier studies revealed that seminal plasma acts by a local mechanism in the female pig.

Factors associated with the bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) status in cattle herds in Northwest Germany.

In Germany, all calves are tested for the presence of bovine viral diarrhoea/mucosal disease virus (BVDV) virus since January 1, 2011. The basis for this compulsory investigation is the BVDV Federal Regulation (BVDVV), which demands testing of calves before the age of six months and according to the new regulation of June 2016 within four weeks or before entering another stock. In 2012, a questionnaire was sent to 7250 Lower Saxony cattle farmers to identify potential factors associated with the presence of BVDV.