Search Results (5)

Background: Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is genetically categorized into three genotypes. A live-attenuated vaccine strain GPE⁻, currently used in Japan, belongs to genotype 1 and is genetically distinct from the field strains circulating in Japan, which belong to genotype 2. This study aimed to understand the antigenicity of recent field isolates in Japan and develop new vaccine candidates that antigenically match field strains. Methods: The serum samples of 20 pigs vaccinated with GPE⁻ were subjected to a serum neutralizing test (SNT) using one of the field strains, CSFV/wb/Jpn-Mie/P96/2019 (Mie/2019). For the antigenic matching, vGPE⁻/HiBiT/Mie E2 was generated by replacing the viral glycoprotein E2, the main target of the neutralizing antibody, with that of Mie/2019. Additionally, vGPE⁻/HiBiT/Mie E2/PAPeV E^rns was generated by further substituting glycoprotein E^rns with that of pronghorn antelope pestivirus (PAPeV) since E^rns is not important as a vaccine immunogen and can be replaced by that of other pestiviruses to provide an immunological marker. The efficacy of vGPE⁻/HiBiT/Mie E2/PAPeV E^rns was further evaluated by the challenge experiments in pigs. Results: The SNT titers of serum sample against Mie/2019 were 6.1-fold lower than that against vGPE⁻. The generated recombinant viruses showed closer antigenicity to Mie/2019 than vGPE⁻. The challenge study confirmed that vGPE⁻/HiBiT/Mie E2/PAPeV E^rns provided clinical and virological protection against a field CSFV equivalent to vGPE⁻. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that swapping the E2 encoding region with the prevalent field CSFVs is a promising strategy to achieve antigenic matching between the vaccine and field strains. Full article

Monitoring vital rates allows managers to estimate trends in growth rates of ungulate populations. However, connecting the influence of nutrition on ungulate demography is challenging. Noninvasive sampling offers a low-cost, low-effort alternative for measuring nutritional indices, allowing for an increased understanding of the mechanistic relationships between environmental factors, nutrition, and specific population vital rates. We examined the temporal influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) fawn recruitment. We collected fresh fecal samples from adult female pronghorn in five subpopulations spanning three sampling periods associated with critical maternal life-history stages (late gestation, early lactation, breeding season) for 2 years to investigate both intra- and interannual influences. Intrinsic factors were fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs), nutritional indices (fecal nitrogen (FN) and 2,6-diaminopimelic acid (DAPA)), and dietary composition (protein intake of forbs, graminoids, legumes, other, shrubs), while the extrinsic factor was vegetative greenness (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)). We found variations in DAPA, protein intake of forbs, variation in forb protein intake, and protein intake of legumes during late gestation positively influenced fawn recruitment. Fecal nitrogen during early lactation showed the strongest positive influence on the recruitment of any measured parameter. Finally, breeding season NDVI and the variation in DAPA values positively influenced the subsequent year’s fawn recruitment. Our longitudinal study enabled us to investigate which parameter was most important to specific periods of fawn development and recruitment. We combined the results across five subpopulations, but interpretation and subsequent management decisions should be made at the subpopulation level such that pronghorn subpopulations with low recruitment can be positively influenced by increasing nitrogen on the landscape available to adult females during the early lactation period. As the use of noninvasive monitoring methods continues to expand, we believe our methodologies and results can be broadly applied to other ungulate monitoring programs. Full article

A previous study proved that vGPE⁻ mainly maintains the properties of classical swine fever (CSF) virus, which is comparable to the GPE⁻ vaccine seed and is a potentially valuable backbone for developing a CSF marker vaccine. Chimeric viruses were constructed based on an infectious cDNA clone derived from the live attenuated GPE⁻ vaccine strain as novel CSF vaccine candidates that potentially meet the concept of differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) by substituting the glycoprotein E^rns of the GPE⁻ vaccine strain with the corresponding region of non-CSF pestiviruses, either pronghorn antelope pestivirus (PAPeV) or Phocoena pestivirus (PhoPeV). High viral growth and genetic stability after serial passages of the chimeric viruses, namely vGPE⁻/PAPeV E^rns and vGPE⁻/PhoPeV E^rns, were confirmed in vitro. In vivo investigation revealed that two chimeric viruses had comparable immunogenicity and safety profiles to the vGPE⁻ vaccine strain. Vaccination at a dose of 10^4.0 TCID₅₀ with either vGPE⁻/PAPeV E^rns or vGPE⁻/PhoPeV E^rns conferred complete protection for pigs against the CSF virus challenge in the early stage of immunization. In conclusion, the characteristics of vGPE⁻/PAPeV E^rns and vGPE⁻/PhoPeV E^rns affirmed their properties, as the vGPE⁻ vaccine strain, positioning them as ideal candidates for future development of a CSF marker vaccine. Full article

The interdigital gland is a specialized skin gland located between the digits of Artiodactyla (i.e., even-toed ungulates). Its secretion participates in semiochemical communication, and protects from ultraviolet radiation as well as fungal and bacterial infections of the feet. The present study aimed at finding if there are male-female differences in the anatomy, morphology, and volatile compounds of the interdigital gland of the South Indian breed of Vembur sheep. A total of 24 sheep (12 each of male and female) were spotted at the slaughterhouse and the interdigital gland was removed for examination. The anatomical examination revealed it to resemble a tobacco pipe and to consist of a body, flexure, and excretory duct with an external orifice located at the cleft of the digits. Morphometrically, the interdigital glands differed between males and females. The gland possesses a distinct fibrous capsule, epidermis, and dermis. The fibrous capsule contains several parallel bundles of collagen fibers, nerve fibers, and blood vessels, etc. The epidermis consists of keratinized squamous epithelium formed of stratum basale, stratum granulosum and stratum spinosum. The dermis consists of hair follicles, nerve plexuses, arrector pili muscles, and apocrine and sebaceous glandular lobules. The latter, lined by a simple cuboidal epithelium, are arranged in clusters of acini in the upper portion of the dermis. The apocrine secretory lobules, made up of parenchymal cells, are found in the lower portion of the dermis. The density and diameter of the apocrine and sebaceous secretory lobules were significantly higher in the males than females. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis confirmed the apocrine and sebaceous secretory components. Twenty-three major compounds were identified in the interdigital gland postings of male and female sheep, among which butanoic acid, 2-methylpropanoic acid, 1-heptanol and octadecanoic acid were present only in the male glandular post, whereas octane, 7-hexyl-tridecane, tetradecane, heptadecane and decanoic acid were present only in the female glandular post. Tetradecanol, tetradecanoic acid and hexadecanol peaks, reportedly antibacterial compounds in pronghorn antelopes, were highly prominent in both male and female sheep. Thus, the interdigital gland of Vembur sheep has two major secretory lobules, namely, sebaceous and apocrine, larger in males than females, which secrete a variety chemical compounds that may serve as chemical communication systems and protect the sheep from foot-borne diseases. Full article

The phenomenon of a remarkable conservation of the X chromosome in eutherian mammals has been first described by Susumu Ohno in 1964. A notable exception is the cetartiodactyl X chromosome, which varies widely in morphology and G-banding pattern between species. It is hypothesized that this sex chromosome has undergone multiple rearrangements that changed the centromere position and the order of syntenic segments over the last 80 million years of Cetartiodactyla speciation. To investigate its evolution we have selected 26 evolutionarily conserved bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones from the cattle CHORI-240 library evenly distributed along the cattle X chromosome. High-resolution BAC maps of the X chromosome on a representative range of cetartiodactyl species from different branches: pig (Suidae), alpaca (Camelidae), gray whale (Cetacea), hippopotamus (Hippopotamidae), Java mouse-deer (Tragulidae), pronghorn (Antilocapridae), Siberian musk deer (Moschidae), and giraffe (Giraffidae) were obtained by fluorescent in situ hybridization. To trace the X chromosome evolution during fast radiation in specious families, we performed mapping in several cervids (moose, Siberian roe deer, fallow deer, and Pere David’s deer) and bovid (muskox, goat, sheep, sable antelope, and cattle) species. We have identified three major conserved synteny blocks and rearrangements in different cetartiodactyl lineages and found that the recently described phenomenon of the evolutionary new centromere emergence has taken place in the X chromosome evolution of Cetartiodactyla at least five times. We propose the structure of the putative ancestral cetartiodactyl X chromosome by reconstructing the order of syntenic segments and centromere position for key groups. Full article