Search Results (1,904)

Parasitic diseases pose significant challenges to the success of mariculture. The health management strategies used in sea-cage aquaculture are not completely effective at preventing parasites from entering through interactions with wild fish. This study monitored the health status of greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili, Risso 1810) over a two-month period following their introduction to the farm in the Middle Eastern Adriatic Sea in July 2019. Zeuxapta seriolae was detected on the gills after 722 degree days (DD), with a 28% prevalence, a mean abundance of 1.00 parasite per fish (four examined arches), and a mean intensity of 3.57 parasites per infected fish. From 985 DD, prevalence was 100%; the parasite burden continued to rise, and by the final sampling at 1535 DD, the mean abundance reached 212.68 parasites per fish (53.17 per gill arch). At that point, fish express a sudden loss of appetite; no external symptoms were observed, except for mortality. This is the first report of Z. seriolae in cultured greater amberjack in the Adriatic Sea, and the study emphasises the difficulties in applying effective biosecurity measures in floating net cages. Full article

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) poses a serious threat to the swine industry in China. As a major pig-producing province, Shandong requires continuous epidemiological monitoring of PRRSV. To elucidate the molecular epidemiology of the virus, 1621 clinical samples were collected from suspected cases across different regions of Shandong Province between 2023 and 2025, primarily from Tai’an, Linyi, Jining, and Liaocheng. RT-qPCR detection showed that the positive rate for PRRSV-2 was 20.05% (325/1621). Genetic analysis based on ORF5 and NSP2 genes indicated that Sublineage L1C (NADC30-like) was the dominant strain for 38.38% of ORF5 gene and 72.73% of NSP2 sequencing results. This was followed by Sublineage L8E and L1A and L5A strains. Key virulence-related mutations were identified at residues R13 and R151 in the GP5 protein, which are associated with enhanced pathogenicity. Additionally, variations in neutralizing epitope and the number of N-glycosylation sites (ranging from 2 to 5 per strain) suggested potential immune evasion. Notably, 26.79% (15/56) of sequenced samples showed discordant ORF5 and NSP2 genotyping results, indicating widespread recombination among PRRSV strains in Shandong Province. These finding demonstrated that the genetic diversity, high recombination frequency, and key amino acid variations in circulating PRRSV strains collectively undermine vaccine effectiveness. This study highlights the need to optimize vaccination strategies, enhance biosecurity measures, and implement effective disease control and elimination programs to reduce the impact of PRRSV in Shandong Province. Full article

Background/Objectives: Biosecurity and stamping out are key control measures against H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks. Vaccination in poultry is an additional tool to reduce disease risk and facilitate timely containment. This study aimed to establish a candidate vaccine strain against H5 HPAI in Asia and validate its protective efficacy. Methods: Based on genetic and antigenic analyses, a representative HPAI virus, A/duck/Vietnam/HU16-DD3/2023 (H5N1), collected in northern Vietnam, was selected to generate a candidate vaccine strain, rgPR8/VN23HA∆KRRK-NA (rgPR8/VN23; H5N1), using reverse genetics, followed by formulation of an inactivated oil-adjuvanted vaccine. Vaccine efficacy was evaluated by measuring humoral antibody responses after intramuscular vaccination and by assessing mortality and virus recovery following intranasal challenge with a clade 2.3.4.4b virus, A/Ezo red fox/Hokkaido/1/2022 (H5N1). Results were compared with those obtained using an antigenically homologous vaccine to the challenge strain and a Japanese stockpiled vaccine. Results: All vaccinated juvenile chickens developed sufficient immunity to survive the challenge at 21 days post-vaccination. The rgPR8/VN23 (H5N1) and homologous vaccines markedly reduced virus recovery, suggesting near-sterile protection, whereas low-titer viruses were transiently detected in chickens vaccinated with the stockpiled vaccine. The rgPR8/VN23 (H5N1) vaccine conferred clinical protection in juvenile chickens as early as 8 days post-vaccination. A single dose of the rgPR8/VN23 (H5N1) vaccine provided incomplete protection in laying hens, whereas a double-volume regimen improved protective efficacy. Conclusions: The rgPR8/VN23 (H5N1) vaccine conferred strong immunity to juvenile chickens; however, a refined vaccination strategy may be required to achieve complete protection in laying hens. Full article

Bacterial resistance on farms can be driven by antimicrobial use. Less is known about inter-farm transfer of resistance genes and their persistence under low antimicrobial pressure. Over two years and nine visits, we examined the shedding of resistant indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli) on one lower- and one higher-antimicrobial-usage pig farm. There was a unidirectional transfer of some less healthy pigs from the former to the latter. Faecal pools (180) were cultured on Chromagar ECC, with and without added cefotaxime or ciprofloxacin. Presumptive E. coli were phenotyped, and many ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates were whole-genome sequenced. Comparing farms, there was more (p < 0.0001) phenotypic resistance to the antimicrobial panel from the higher-usage unit, and markedly more (about ten-fold) multi-resistance. Significantly elevated individual drug resistances on this unit correlated with recently used antimicrobials. Ciprofloxacin and/or cefotaxime-resistant isolates were often present, although in low proportions. Neither of these antimicrobial classes had been administered recently, except for one fluoroquinolone course late in the study. AMR genes were more diverse from the higher-usage farm, but some resistant and multi-resistant isolates were closely related between farms. Thus, we demonstrated the maintenance of resistance genes in strains present on farms, even where selective pressure was low. Full article

African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease that causes severe economic losses in the global swine industry. Since its introduction to Vietnam in 2019, ASFV has evolved rapidly, with genotype II strains dominating initially and recombinant I/II variants emerging by 2023. Live attenuated vaccines (LAVs) have been developed and commercialized in Vietnam, including ASFV-G-ΔI177L, ASFV-G-ΔI177L/ΔLVR, and ASFV-G-ΔMGF, which confer homologous immune protection. Despite this, LAVs face challenges related to genetic stability, impossible protection against emerging recombinant strains, potential reversion to virulence, viral shedding, and safety in pregnant sows. ASFV’s ongoing evolution underscores the need for continuous genomic surveillance, evaluation of cross-protective efficacy, and implementation of biosecurity and DIVA strategies focused more on evaluating vaccine efficacy than safety. This review summarizes the current molecular epidemiology of ASFV in Vietnam after vaccines were licensed for use, the development and performance of commercial LAVs, and the practical challenges of their application in endemic settings, and provides insights for informed vaccine deployment and integrated ASF control strategies in rapidly evolving viral landscapes. Full article

African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious and lethal viral disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), poses a severe threat to the global swine industry. Recent outbreaks across Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean are exacerbating the challenge. Current control measures rely mainly on early detection, culling and strict biosecurity practices, underscoring the urgent need for a safe and effective vaccine. Since the mid-1960s, diverse vaccine strategies, including inactivated, subunit, DNA/mRNA, vectored, and live attenuated virus (LAV) vaccines, have been explored. Inactivated vaccines have consistently failed to confer protection due to insufficient functional antigen presentation and weak cellular immune activation. Subunit vaccines targeting single or multiple ASFV antigens have also shown limited success, often failing to induce sterile or long-lasting immunity. Among these approaches, LAV vaccines have demonstrated the greatest promise in eliciting robust and durable immune responses. However, major knowledge gaps remain regarding ASFV biology, ASFV–host interactions, ASFV immune evasion mechanisms, protective and cross-protective immunity, stable cell lines for LAV production, virulence reversion of LAVs, and the lack of harmonized standards for evaluating vaccine safety and efficacy, all of which impede the development of safe and broadly effective ASF vaccines. This narrative review summarizes recent advances in ASF vaccine research and highlights the critical obstacles that must be overcome to achieve successful ASF vaccine development. Full article

Zeugodacus tau, an economically important fruit fly species, exhibits a preference for infesting the fruits of cucurbitaceae, but it has also been reared from the fruits of several other plant families. Phytosanitary treatments are needed to ship the fruit from some of these host plants out of areas where populations of the fruit fly exist. Based on the guidelines for the development of cold disinfestation treatments for fruit fly host commodities, proposed by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), the cold disinfestation trials were carried out with Z. tau infesting oranges through artificial infestation. The results showed that the third instar of Z. tau was the most tolerant stage among all developmental stages. No survivors were found among 106,204, 96,168, and 9180 individuals of Z. tau in oranges treated at 1.75 °C for 23 d, 2.34 °C for 25 d, and 1.8 °C for 22 d, respectively. These results support for the application of the 22-day treatment at ≤1.67 °C as an additional safety measure. Such a measure mitigates the risk of introduction and establishment of Z. tau through imported citrus. However, for other susceptible hosts of Z. tau, the cold treatment schedules against Z. tau required to achieve quarantine security with larval endpoint would need to be 23 d at 1.75 °C or 25 d at 2.34 °C. These results also indicated that Z. tau exhibits the highest cold tolerance among the other tephritid species for which cold treatment have been reported. Full article

The accelerating frequency of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in livestock poses a significant threat to global food security, as well as to animal and public health. While wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) has advanced significantly for human health surveillance, its application to livestock production systems remains fragmented and lacks standardization. This review synthesizes current evidence on livestock wastewater-based surveillance (L-WBS) as an early-warning sentinel for emerging viral pathogens, evaluating their dynamics, economic impacts, biosecurity measures, and One Health implications. Existing studies demonstrate that L-WBS effectively detects emerging viral pathogens in agricultural effluent, swine manure, and municipal wastewater systems serving livestock regions, frequently preceding clinical outbreak recognition. We further conceptualized a multifactorial framework linking environmental drivers such as climate and ecological disruption and agricultural intensification to pathogen emergence dynamics. Economic assessments show substantial direct losses (approximately US$ 950 per H5N1-infected dairy cow and US$ 25.9 billion in African swine fever virus (ASFV)-related damages across China) alongside indirect costs from biosecurity implementation, workforce disruption, and supply-chain instability. We recommend prioritizing methodological standardization through unified sampling and extraction protocols, integration of next-generation sequencing for genomic surveillance, and cross-sectoral policy frameworks to operationalize L-WBS as a global early-warning infrastructure for mitigating zoonotic spillover and livestock-dependent community resilience. Full article

The overuse of chemical insecticides highlights the urgent need for novel vector control strategies. Insect-specific viruses (ISVs), such as the cell-fusing agent virus (CFAV), have shown potential to block arbovirus transmission by inhibiting viral replication in mosquitoes. However, the effects of CFAV beyond its natural host, Aedes aegypti, remain largely unexplored. In this study, we established a CFAV infection model in Aedes albopictus, a major vector for Zika virus (ZIKV), via intrathoracic injection. Stable infection was achieved, with viral loads reaching up to 10⁷ copies per mosquito by day 10 post-injection. Nevertheless, high post-injection mortality (median survival: 3 days) was observed, which we attribute primarily to mechanical injury. No evidence of vertical transmission of CFAV was detected in Ae. albopictus. Co-injection of CFAV and ZIKV did not significantly affect ZIKV replication in this species. In contrast, in Ae. aegypti pre-infected with CFAV followed by oral ZIKV challenge, CFAV significantly reduced ZIKV infection rates in the ovaries at day 4 and viral loads in salivary glands at day 10. These findings demonstrate that while CFAV can productively infect Ae. albopictus, it does not undergo vertical transmission in this species, and has no inhibitory effect on ZIKV under the co-infection conditions tested. This study underscores challenges associated with using single ISVs such as CFAV for arbovirus control and highlights the complex, bidirectional role of multiple ISV co-infections. While exploring multi-ISV combinations may offer a potential strategy to enhance antiviral efficacy, their net effect—whether suppression or enhancement of arboviruses—warrants careful investigation. Full article

Background: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) has become an increasing public health threat in China, with Yantai City representing a major endemic focus. A fine-scale, long-term epidemiological analysis integrating human case data with vector surveillance is essential for understanding local transmission dynamics. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis using 12-year (2013–2024) county-level SFTS surveillance data from Yantai City. Temporal trends were analyzed by Joinpoint regression. Concurrent field surveillance of Haemaphysalis longicornis (2019–2024) was used to quantify local SFTSV infection rates in ticks. Associations between SFTS incidence and environmental/livestock factors were evaluated using Spearman’s correlation and multivariable negative binomial regression. Results: A total of 1964 SFTS cases were reported. The annual incidence rate increased from 0.65 to 5.12 per 100,000 population, with an average annual percentage change (AAPC) of 13.56% 2013–2024, showing the most substantial rise among the elderly. Marked spatial heterogeneity was observed, with county-level mean incidence ranging from 0.30 to 5.23 per 100,000. The SFTSV infection rate in ticks surged from 0.54% in 2019 to 3.24% in 2024, and showed a strong positive correlation with human incidence both seasonally (ρ = 0.998) and across counties (ρ = 0.79), a pattern likely driven by shared environmental factors. Multivariable analysis identified grassland coverage (adjusted IRR [aIRR] = 1.21), woodland coverage (aIRR = 2.31), goat density (aIRR = 1.49), and tick infection rate (aIRR = 1.65) as independent risk factors, while urban land was protective (aIRR = 0.83). The overall case fatality rate was 8.86%, showing a declining trend, but was significantly higher in males (10.90%) than in females (7.04%), particularly among the elderly. Conclusions: SFTS incidence in Yantai increased significantly over the past decade, characterized by a heightened burden on the elderly and strong spatiotemporal clustering. Risk is independently mediated by ecological interfaces, notably woodland/grassland habitats and goat rearing. These findings delineate high-risk areas and populations, offering crucial insights for developing targeted public health strategies. Full article

Early detection is critical for improving outcomes in gastric cancer, yet lesion recognition in capsule endoscopy is challenged by interference from different gastric anatomical sites, patient posture changes, and gastric peristalsis. This study aims to prompt a robust deep learning model to address these challenges. A dual-network model, named DuDeM (DualNet Detection Model), was developed by integrating a ResNet50-based convolutional branch with a CapsuleNet branch incorporating dynamic routing. The convolutional branch extracts local lesion features that are transmitted to primary capsules, while dynamic routing enables adaptive matching between capsule layers to establish local–global feature associations. An attention-weighted strategy is applied for feature fusion. The model was trained using capsule endoscopy images from nine hospitals in China and public datasets, and its performance was compared with eight representative models, with ablation analyses validating key components. Results showed that DuDeM achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.981 and an F1-score of 0.979, with sensitivity, specificity, and precision all exceeding 97%, and performance degradation limited to within 3% under mild image perturbations. These findings suggest that DuDeM enables reliable early gastric cancer (EGC) recognition and may support large-scale capsule endoscopy screening in clinical practice. Full article

Influenza A virus (IAV) remains a major global health threat, and host-directed antivirals may help overcome rapid viral mutation and drug resistance. Here, we performed a genome-wide siRNA screen in A549 cells using cell viability as an integrated endpoint to identify host determinants of IAV (PR8/H1N1) infection. Using plate-normalized viability ratios, we identified 2134 genes with >40% viability change after infection (2048 UP and 86 DOWN; two-tailed t-test, n = 3; p < 0.05, FDR < 0.1). MetaCore pathway analysis showed enrichment of programs linked to host response and tissue injury control, including RAS-related signaling and multiple metabolic pathways such as estradiol, ubiquinone/mitochondrial redox, and benzo[a]pyrene/xenobiotic metabolism. DAVID Gene Ontology analysis further highlighted biological processes relevant to infection, including endocytosis, transcription, and translation, consistent with host pathways supporting viral replication. Benchmarking against meta-analyzed RNAi and CRISPR resources revealed that shared hits were enriched for translation, nucleocytoplasmic transport, and ER-Golgi trafficking, supporting external validity, whereas the large unique UP fraction was dominated by hormone metabolism, detoxification, and mitochondrial redox/CoQ pathways, consistent with viability-specific, tolerance-associated host response programs. Integrating the screen with DrugBank identified 174 druggable host genes corresponding to 345 candidate compounds. Together, these findings provide a systematic resource of host factors influencing H1N1 infection, improve understanding of influenza virus–host interactions, and offer a foundation for future development of host-directed antiviral strategies and drug repurposing efforts. Full article

The morphological identification of lepidopteran pest pupae has long been a difficult task. To explore automated solutions, this study established a standardized, multi-angle image dataset of pupae from 11 economically important lepidopteran pests. We then systematically evaluated six deep learning models, including both convolutional neural networks and Transformer architectures. The results show that all models successfully learned to distinguish the vast majority of species, with Vit-Small achieving the highest accuracy (98.71 ± 0.16%) and the highest F1-score (98.69 ± 0.20%). This confirms that pupal morphology provides sufficient discriminative visual information to support highly accurate automated identification. However, all models exhibited consistent, minor confusion among Helicoverpa armigera, Mythimna separata and Spodoptera exigua. Analysis revealed these errors originated from specific viewing angles of a limited number of specimens, underscoring the value of the multi-angle imaging protocol used in this study. This study transforms pupal identification from a traditional taxonomic difficulty into a solvable computer vision task, providing a dataset, methodological benchmarks, and a feasibility validation for developing image-based tools for pupal-stage pest surveillance. Full article

Water buffaloes in northern Australia occupy tropical wetlands where conditions favour the proliferation of arthropod vectors and the transmission of vector-borne livestock diseases. However, their role in maintaining economically important arboviruses such as Akabane virus (AKAV), bluetongue virus (BTV), and bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) remains poorly understood. These three viruses cause significant production losses in cattle and pose ongoing surveillance challenges in remote areas. To assess exposure to these viruses, a convenience sample of feral water buffaloes from the Northern Territory, Australia, was collected. Commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used to detect antibodies against AKAV, BTV, and BEFV in 119 samples stored as dried blood on filter paper. Seroprevalence was 18.5% for AKAV, 66.4% for BTV, and 15.1% for BEFV. These results are consistent with previous serological studies in northern Australian cattle, confirming the circulation of these pathogens in the region. Our findings demonstrate that water buffaloes are exposed to these economically important arboviruses and may contribute to their maintenance, highlighting the need to consider feral buffalo populations in regional arbovirus surveillance strategies and livestock disease management. Full article

Cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (CNGC) genes play key regulatory roles in plant immunity and abiotic stress responses. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide identification and analysis of the CNGC gene family in Suaeda glauca. A total of 44 SgCNGC genes were identified. Through phylogenetic analysis, gene structure analysis, chromosome distribution, conserved motif analysis, collinearity analysis, cis-acting element analysis, subcellular localization, and gene overexpression analysis, we systematically characterized the evolutionary relationships, structural features, and potential functions of this gene family. The results indicate that the SgCNGC gene family is evolutionarily highly conserved but exhibits functional divergence in structure and expression. Furthermore, functional assays revealed that overexpression of SgCNGC13 in Arabidopsis thaliana led to increased salt sensitivity, indicating a negative regulatory role for this gene under salt stress. These findings provide a foundation for understanding the role of the CNGC gene family in the growth, development, and stress response of S. glauca and contribute to the remediation of saline–alkali land. Full article