Experimental Infection Studies Research Articles

Griseofulvin impairs intraerythrocytic growth of Plasmodium falciparum through ferrochelatase inhibition but lacks activity in an experimental human infection study

Griseofulvin, an orally active antifungal drug used to treat dermatophyte infections, has a secondary effect of inducing cytochrome P450-mediated production of N-methyl protoporphyrin IX (N-MPP). N-MPP is a potent competitive inhibitor of the heme biosynthetic-enzyme ferrochelatase, and inhibits the growth of cultured erythrocyte stage Plasmodium falciparum. Novel drugs against Plasmodium are needed to achieve malaria elimination. Thus, we investigated whether griseofulvin shows anti-plasmodial activity. We observed that the intraerythrocytic growth of P. falciparum is inhibited in red blood cells pretreated with griseofulvin in vitro. Treatment with 100 μM griseofulvin was sufficient to prevent parasite growth and induce the production of N-MPP. Inclusion of the ferrochelatase substrate PPIX blocked the inhibitory activity of griseofulvin, suggesting that griseofulvin exerts its activity through the N-MPP-dependent inhibition of ferrochelatase. In an ex-vivo study, red blood cells from griseofulvin-treated subjects were refractory to the growth of cultured P. falciparum. However, in a clinical trial griseofulvin failed to show either therapeutic or prophylactic effect in subjects infected with blood stage P. falciparum. Although the development of griseofulvin as an antimalarial is not warranted, it represents a novel inhibitor of P. falciparum growth and acts via the N-MPP-dependent inhibition of ferrochelatase.

A double-antibody sandwich ELISA based on the porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) propagated in cell culture for antibody detection

ABSTRACT: Few studies have described enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the detection of antibodies against porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) based on antigens produced in cell culture. Furthermore, few articles have described viral purification techniques for members of the family Circoviridae. This occurs because circoviruses are difficult to isolate, noncytopathogenic, and produce low viral titres in cell culture. Thus, for overcoming these difficulties in the cultivation of PCV2, this study aimed to develop a double-antibody sandwich ELISA based on the cell culture antigen PCV2b for the quantification of anti-PCV2 antibodies. A 20% and 50% discontinuous sucrose cushion was used for viral purification, which enabled the separation of cell culture proteins in the 20% sucrose cushion and a greater viral concentration in the 50% sucrose cushion. Following isopycnic centrifugation, PCV2 was concentrated in the band with density values from 1.330 to 1.395g/cm3. Viral purification was assessed using SDS-PAGE, indirect ELISA and electron microscopy. The standardised ELISA revealed a strong linear correlation (r= 0.826, p<0.001) when compared with a commercial ELISA kit. The assay exhibited low variability (inter-assay coefficient of variation of 4.24% and intra-assay of 1.80%) and excellent analytical specificity conferred by the capture antibody produced in rabbit. Thus, this ELISA is a rapid, specific and convenient method for the detection of antibodies against PCV2 in studies of experimental and natural infection, and in monitoring the response to vaccination on commercial farms.

Virulence of Serovar C-1 Strains of Avibacterium paragallinarum.

The bacterium Avibacterium paragallinarum is the etiologic agent of infectious coryza of chickens. There are nine serovars of A. paragallinarum , and serovar C-1 has emerged in outbreaks of infectious coryza in layer hens in the Americas, with all isolates having been obtained from infectious coryza-vaccinated chickens. In the current study, the clinical and histopathologic outcomes of experimental infections in chickens with A. paragallinarum of serovar C-1 were investigated. The Japanese serovar reference strain, H-18, and a Mexican isolate, ESV-135, were included in the study. No differences in clinical sign scores or morbidity were observed between the two strains. The two bacterial strains caused microscopic lesions of lymphoplasmacytic inflammation in the mucosa of the nasal cavity, infraorbital sinus, and trachea. Similar severe lesions were observed in birds inoculated with both H-18 and ESV-135 strains. The lesions were present 48 hr after inoculation and persisted until day 10 after inoculation. Slight to severe, extensive hemorrhages were observed in the lumen, mucous membranes, and lamina propria of the nasal cavity and infraorbital sinus in most of the chickens inoculated with either the reference strain H-18 or the ESV-135 isolate. Hemorrhages in the upper respiratory tract of chickens experimentally infected with A. paragallinarum are reported here for the first time. The results have confirmed the high virulence of the reference strain H-18 as previously reported and have shown that the Mexican isolate was as virulent as the reference strain. The virulence of A. paragallinarum isolates may play a role in explaining why severe infectious coryza outbreaks are being seen in both vaccinated and nonvaccinated chicken flocks.

Cattle are a potential reservoir of bubaline herpesvirus 1 (BuHV1)

In the present work, controlled experimental infection and transmission studies in domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) were carried out to study the in vivo behaviour of...

Evaluation of Galleria mellonella larvae for studying the virulence of Streptococcus suis.

Background Streptococcus suis is an encapsulated Gram-positive bacterium and the leading cause of sepsis and meningitis in young pigs, resulting in considerable economic losses in the porcine industry. S. suis is considered an emerging zoonotic agent with increasing numbers of human cases over the last years. In the environment, both avirulent and virulent strains occur in pigs, with no evidence for consistent adapatation of virulent strains to the human host. Currently, there is an urgent need for a convenient, reliable and standardised animal model to rapidly assess S. suis virulence. Wax moth (Galleria mellonella) larvae have successfully been used in human and animal infectious disease studies. Here, we developed G. mellonella larvae as a model to assess virulence of S. suis strains.ResultsFourteen isolates of S. suis belonging to different serotypes killed G. mellonella larvae in a dose-dependent manner. Larvae infected with the virulent serotype 2 strain, S. suis S3881/S10, were rescued by antibiotic therapy. Crucially, the observed virulence of the different serotypes and mutants was in agreement with virulence observed in piglets (Sus scrofa) and the zebrafish larval infection model. Infection with heat-inactivated bacteria or bacteria-free culture supernatants showed that in most cases live bacteria are needed to cause mortality in G. mellonella.ConclusionsThe G. mellonella model is simple, cost-efficient, and raises less ethical issues than experiments on vertebrates and reduces infrastructure requirements. Furthermore, it allows experiments to be performed at the host temperature (37 °C). The results reported here, indicate that the G. mellonella model may aid our understanding of veterinary microbial pathogens such as the emerging zoonotic pathogen S. suis and generate hypotheses for testing in the target animal host. Ultimately, this might lead to the timely introduction of new effective remedies for infectious diseases. Last but not least, use of the G. mellonella infection model to study S. suis virulence adheres to the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement (3Rs) and can potentially reduce the number of vertebrates used for experimental infection studies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-016-0905-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Controlled human infection with RSV: The opportunities of experimental challenge

Despite the recent explosion in RSV vaccine development, there remain substantial hurdles to overcome before licensing of effective vaccines will allow widespread use, particularly in high-risk populations. Incomplete understanding of mechanisms and correlates of protection against RSV mean that, for the time being, successful RSV vaccines must directly demonstrate efficacy, which necessitates large and costly clinical trials in naturally infected patients. To mitigate the risks inherent in progressing to these late-stage trials, experimental human RSV infection studies have recently been re-established, representing the interface between pre-clinical models and observational studies of patients. Not only can they be used for early proof-of-concept clinical trials to test vaccine efficacy, but human challenge studies also offer the potential to better understand protective immunity against RSV infection to improve vaccine design and delivery. In the past, controlled human infection studies with RSV have been instrumental in elucidating the influence of factors such as route of infection and type of inoculum on the course of disease. Recently, efficacy trials of novel RSV antiviral drugs have also been successfully undertaken. Now, with advances in technology, detailed investigations of human mucosal immunity in the RSV-infected airway are possible. These have indicated defects in RSV-induced humoral and CD8+ T cell immunity that may contribute to the recurrent symptomatic infection that occurs throughout life and should be circumvented by optimal vaccines. Here, we discuss the insights derived from RSV human challenge models; the major impediments to their more widespread uptake; and their potential benefit in accelerating vaccine development, including future directions to further enhance the relevance of these models to at-risk patient populations.

Development of real-time PCR assays for evaluation of immune response and parasite load in golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) infected by Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis.

BackgroundCutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from small cutaneous nodules to severe mucosal tissue destruction. Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis is the main species attributed to CL in the Americas. However, studies of experimental infection are limited in the murine model due to the self-resolutive pattern of the disease. Previously, our group demonstrated that the hamster model reproduces many of the clinical and histopathological features observed in humans. Herein, we standardized a RT-qPCR gene expression assay to evaluate a panel of immunological markers and a qPCR assay in order to quantify with high sensitivity and reproducibility the parasite load in skin lesions.MethodsHamsters were intradermally infected in the footpad with 105 promastigotes of L. (V.) braziliensis and 110 days post-infection skin lesions and popliteal lymph nodes were removed for RNA and DNA extraction, both from the same tissue fragment. Gene expression of IFN-ɣ, IL-10, TGF-β TNF, IL-4, IL-6, iNOS and arginase were measured using non-infected animal tissue as a calibrator. Parasite load was quantified from DNA extracted from lesions by qPCR targeting Leishmania kDNA and normalized by hamster GAPDH, using a SYBR Green-based absolute quantification methodology.ResultsA relative quantification RT-qPCR assay was standardized for the evaluation of mRNA levels from skin and lymph node samples of golden hamsters, with PCR efficiencies ranging from 92.3 to 116.4 %. In uninfected animals, higher basal mRNA levels in lymph nodes were observed for IFN-ɣ, TGF-β, TNF and IL-4 (111.4 ± 92.2; 5.6 ± 1.2; 5.3 ± 1.7; and 60.3 ± 26.8, respectively) in comparison to skin. In golden hamsters infected with L. (V.) braziliensis, an increase in the expression of all immunological markers evaluated was observed, ranging from 2.7 ± 0.2 for TGF-β to 1018.5 ± 809.0 for iNOS in skin lesions, and 2.4 ± 1.6 for TGF-β to 600.2 ± 666.4 for iNOS in popliteal lymph nodes. Interestingly, significantly higher levels of IFN-ɣ, TNF and IL-10 mRNA were observed in skin in comparison to lymph nodes, while a lower significant level of arginase mRNA was observed in skin. In parallel, parasite loads were quantified by qPCR from the skin lesions of infected animals, ranging from 27.0 to 6647.0, with a median of 553.4 (416.7–1504.0) parasites/mg skin equivalents, whereas lesion size varied from 0.3 to 3.1 mm. Despite the tendency of larger lesions to present higher parasite load, the correlation observed was not statistically significant.ConclusionsIn this study, we describe for the first time a sensitive, reproducible and cheaper molecular assay to quantify from the same tissue fragment the gene expression of immunological markers and the parasite load in skin lesions, observing a mixed profile of immune response in the hamster model infected by L. (V.) braziliensis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1647-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Nonlinear hierarchical modeling of experimental infection data

In this paper, we propose a nonlinear hierarchical model (NLHM) for analyzing longitudinal experimental infection (EI) data. The NLHM offers several improvements over commonly used alternatives such as repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and the linear mixed model (LMM). It enables comparison of relevant biological properties of the course of infection including peak intensity, duration and time to peak, rather than simply comparing mean responses at each observation time. We illustrate the practical benefits of this model and the insights it yields using data from experimental infection studies on equine arteritis virus. Finally, we demonstrate via simulation studies that the NLHM substantially reduces bias and improves the power to detect differences in relevant features of the infection response between two populations. For example, to detect a 20% difference in response duration between two groups (n=15) in which the peak time and peak intensity were identical, the RM-ANOVA test had a power of just 11%, and LMM a power of just 12%. By comparison, the nonlinear model we propose had a power of 58% in the same scenario, while controlling the Type I error rate better than the other two methods.

Concentrating white spot syndrome virus by alum for field detection using a monoclonal antibody based flow-through assay.

A simple and easy method of concentrating white spot syndrome virus by employing aluminium sulphate, alum as a flocculant was developed and evaluated for field detection. The concentrated virus was detected by a monoclonal antibody based flow-through assay, RapiDot and compared its performance with polymerase chain reaction. The semi-purified virus that was flocculated by 15 and 30 ppm alum in a 50 ml cylinder can be detected successfully by both RapiDot and I step PCR. In addition, alum could also flocculate the virus that is detectable by II step PCR and the concentration of virus was similar to the one observed in water from an infected pond. Furthermore, experimental infection studies validated the successful concentration of virus by alum flocculation followed by rapid detection of virus using monoclonal antibody based RapiDot. Overall, the results obtained in this study indicate that the white spot syndrome virus in water could be easily flocculated by alum for sensitive field detection by monoclonal antibody based RapiDot.

An acute gastroenteritis outbreak caused by GII.17 norovirus in Jiangsu Province, China.

Noroviruses are a common cause of acute gastroenteritis around the world; however, reports of outbreaks caused by GII.17 norovirus are rare. An outbreak caused by GII.17 norovirus in a senior high school in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China is reported here. An epidemiological investigation, pathogen detection, and case-control study were performed. Epidemiological data combined with the epidemic curve indicated that this outbreak was a point source type initially, followed by secondary transmission. The first case was identified as most likely the source of the outbreak. Risk analysis showed exposure to patients and sharing a communal water cooler to be associated with the spread of infection. Sequence analysis of GII-positive samples confirmed that the norovirus GII.17 variant was the etiological agent of this outbreak.

Modulation of Innate Immune Mechanisms to Enhance Leishmania Vaccine-Induced Immunity: Role of Coinhibitory Molecules.

No licensed human vaccines are currently available against any parasitic disease including leishmaniasis. Several antileishmanial vaccine formulations have been tested in various animal models, including genetically modified live-attenuated parasite vaccines. Experimental infection studies have shown that Leishmania parasites utilize a broad range of strategies to undermine effector properties of host phagocytic cells, i.e., dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages (MΦ). Furthermore, Leishmania parasites have evolved strategies to actively inhibit TH1 polarizing functions of DCs and to condition the infected MΦ toward anti-inflammatory/alternative/M2 phenotype. The altered phenotype of phagocytic cells is characterized by decreased production of antimicrobial reactive oxygen, nitrogen molecules, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IFN-γ, IL-12, and TNF-α. These early events limit the activation of TH1-effector cells and set the stage for pathogenesis. Furthermore, this early control of innate immunity by the virulent parasites results in substantial alteration in the adaptive immunity characterized by reduced proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and TH2-biased immunity that results in production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as TGF-β, and IL-10. More recent studies have also documented the induction of coinhibitory ligands, such as CTLA-4, PD-L1, CD200, and Tim-3, that induce exhaustion and/or non-proliferation in antigen-experienced T cells. Most of these studies focus on viral infections in chronic phase, thus limiting the direct application of these results to parasitic infections and much less to parasitic vaccines. However, these studies suggest that vaccine-induced protective immunity can be modulated using strategies that enhance the costimulation that might reduce the threshold necessary for T cell activation and conversely by strategies that reduce or block inhibitory molecules, such as PD-L1 and CD200. In this review, we will focus on the polarization of antigen-presenting cells and subsequent role of costimulatory and coinhibitory molecules in mediating vaccine-induced immunity using live-attenuated Leishmania parasites as specific examples.

Detection of goldfish haematopoietic necrosis herpes virus (Cyprinid herpesvirus-2) with multi-drug resistant Aeromonas hydrophila infection in goldfish: First evidence of any viral disease outbreak in ornamental freshwater aquaculture farms in India

This outbreak report details of a mortality event where Cyprinid herpes virus-2 (CyHV-2) was detected in association with multidrug-resistant Aeromonas hydrophila infection in goldfish, Carassius auratus, from commercial farms. The goldfish exhibited large scale haemorrhages on the body, fins and gills, lepidorthosis, necrosed gills, protruded anus and shrunken eyes. White nodular necrotic foci in spleen and kidneys were noticed, along with necrosis and fusion of gill lamellae. Transmission electron microscopy of affected tissues revealed the presence of mature virus particles. Involvement of CyHV-2 was confirmed by PCR, sequencing and observed cytopathic effect in koi carp fin cell line along with experimental infection study. A bacterium isolated from the internal organs of affected fish was found to be pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila having resistance to more than 10 classes of antibiotics. We postulate that CyHV-2 was the primary etiological agent responsible for this outbreak with secondary infection by A. hydrophila. The experimental infection trials in Labeo rohita and koi carp by intraperitoneal challenge with CyHV-2 tissue homogenates failed to reproduce the disease in those co-cultured fish species. This is the first report of a viral disease outbreak in organised earthen ornamental fish farms in India and bears further investigation.

Correlates of Protection against Norovirus Infection and Disease-Where Are We Now, Where Do We Go?

Human noroviruses (NoV) are the leading cause of foodborne gastroenteritis and endemic diarrheal disease across all ages in the United States, cause nearly 50% of all gastroenteritis outbreaks worldwide, and are rapidly replacing rotavirus as the predominant gastrointestinal pathogen in pediatric populations [1]. Modelling studies show that vaccination can offer significant healthcare and economic benefits, depending on vaccine cost, protective efficacy, and protection duration [2]. We stand at the threshold of exciting progress in NoV vaccine evaluation, with several vaccine candidates in development. Furthest along are virus-like particles (VLPs), composed of the NoV major capsid protein and produced in a recombinant baculovirus expression system. VLP vaccines are safe, immunogenic, and were efficacious in a proof-of-principle human experimental infection study [3]. As development transitions from small preclinical and clinical studies to larger clinical trials—and eventually to applications for licensure—it is important to review the current knowledge on correlates of protection (CoPs) against NoV infection and disease (Table 1), as well as to identify and address the remaining challenges (Table 2). This is critical to understand the basis of vaccine efficacy and to provide direction for the design and implementation of future NoV vaccine studies. Table 1 Correlates of protection. Table 2 Questions for future NoV vaccine studies.

Regional Comparison of Mosquito Bloodmeals in South Australia: Implications for Ross River Virus Ecology.

Ross River virus (RRV) is responsible for the most notifications of human arboviral infection in Australia. Seroprevalence and experimental infection studies have implicated macropods (e.g., kangaroos) as the major reservoir hosts. However, transmission ecology varies spatially, and infections in urban areas have prompted the question of what animals serve as reservoirs in regions where macropods are scarce. In South Australia (SA), human infection rates for RRV vary greatly by region as do vector and reservoir abundance. We hypothesized that mosquito abundance and feeding patterns would vary among ecoregions of SA and could help explain divergent human case rates. To test our hypothesis, we amplified and sequenced a 457 base pair region of the cytochrome B segment of mitochondrial DNA from blood fed mosquitoes collected in three main ecoregions of SA and identified sequences using a BLAST search in NCBI. Domestic livestock made up the vast majority of bloodmeals from the region with the highest human infection rate. Livestock are generally not considered to be important reservoir hosts for RRV, but our results suggest they may have a role in transmission ecology in some places. Surprisingly, none of the 199 bloodmeal samples were identified as macropod in origin. In the context of these findings, we consider the possible RRV vectors and reservoir hosts in these regions and propose that diverse spatial and temporal transmission ecologies occur in SA, depending on vector and reservoir availability.

The Helicobacter heilmannii hofE and hofF Genes are Essential for Colonization of the Gastric Mucosa and Play a Role in IL-1β-Induced Gastric MUC13 Expression.

Helicobacter heilmannii is a zoonotic bacterium associated with gastric disease in humans. We recently showed that H. heilmannii binds to human gastric mucins and epithelial cells and highlighted a potential role for the murine Muc13 mucin in gastric Helicobacter colonization. The aims of this study were to investigate the role of the H. heilmannii hof gene locus encoding HofH/F/E/G/C/D in adhesion to the gastric mucosa and induction of increased gastric Muc13 expression. Bacterial hof gene and host gene expression experiments, Helicobacter binding assays and experimental infection studies in mice were performed. H. pylori and its ΔhofF mutant were included for comparison. Helicobacter heilmannii strains lacking HofE or HofF showed a clear decrease in binding to gastric mucins and epithelial cells as well as a lower gastric colonization level in the stomach of Balb/c mice at 4 and 9 weeks post-infection compared to the H. heilmannii wildtype strain. Interestingly, H. heilmannii ΔhofE and ΔhofF and H. pylori ΔhofF did not induce an increased expression of MUC13 in human gastric epithelial cells and of Muc13 in the stomach of mice. Finally, we demonstrated that IL-1β is induced in the stomach as a response to Helicobacter colonization which on its turn is involved in the expression of MUC13/Muc13 in the gastric epithelium. These novel results in Helicobacter research identified H. heilmannii HofE and HofF as adhesins and suggest an important role of H. heilmannii HofE and HofF and H. pylori HofF in IL-1β-induced gastric MUC13/Muc13 expression.

Essential oils of Nigella sativa protects Artemia from the pathogenic effect of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Dahv2

The anti-Vibrio activity of essential oils (EOs) of nine medicinal plants was tested against 28 Vibrio spp. isolated from diseased Fenneropenaeus indicus. EO of Nigella sativa exhibited anti-Vibrio activity against all Vibrio spp. and greater inhibition was noted for the isolate V2 which was identified as Vibrio parahaemolyticus Dahv2. Further, EO of N. sativa effectively inhibited V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 with an inhibition zone of 23.9mm at 101.2μgml−1. Moreover, EO of N. sativa revealed anti-biofilm activity at 101.2μgml−1 against V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 and inhibited the growth of V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 at 100μgml−1.In vivo experimental infection studies showed that the survival of Artemia spp. infected with V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 at 1×103cfuml−1 was only 40%. However, the survival of Artemia spp. was significantly increased after challenge with 100μgml−1 of EO of N. sativa. EO of N. sativa showed higher anti-oxidant potential and total phenol content than other EOs tested. The anti-oxidant activity of EO of N. sativa was highly correlated to their total phenolic contents (r=0.836, P<0.05). This observation suggests that EO of N. sativa protected the Artemia spp. after experimental infection of V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2.

Characterization of hepatitis E virus infection in tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis).

BackgroundHepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major cause of hepatitis in developing countries and poses a threat to public health worldwide. Tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) is a useful animal model in studies on hepatitis viruses, such as hepatitis B and C viruses. However, the use of this animal model for HEV research is yet to be developed.MethodsTree shrews were intravenously (IV) injected with swine genotype 4 HEV or infected by contact-exposure to IV infected tree shrews. RT-nPCR was performed to detect HEV RNA in the feces, tissues, and blood. HEV capsid protein in the different tissues was detected by Western blot and estimated by quantitative RT-PCR. Anti-HEV antibodies were determined by ELISA. Liver damages were evaluated by histopathologic examination and analysis of liver-specific enzymes activities.ResultsBoth negative and positive strands of HEV RNA were detected in the feces of the HEV-infected or contact-exposed tree shrews 3–4 days post-inoculation. HEV RNA was detectable in the liver, spleen, kidneys, and bile. Virusemia developed in all the HEV-infected tree shrews. HEV capsid protein was expressed in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. The histological examination and analysis of liver-specific enzymes activities showed that HEV caused acute liver lesions in the tree shrews. Meanwhile, the infected tree shrews showed positive IgG and IgM antibodies.ConclusionsTree shrews are susceptible to HEV and may be useful animal models for HEV experimental infection studies on pathogenesis or preclinical drug development.

Parasite infection in a central sensory organ of fish does not affect host personality

Among the ecological factors acting on the evolution and expression of animal personalities and behavioral syndromes, parasitism has received comparatively little attention. However, infection and host behavior are often strongly intertwined, because host behavior can predict the risk of infection and can also be changed by an infection. We conducted a controlled experimental infection study to explore the effects of infection on host boldness, exploration and activity using rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and its trematode parasite Diplostomum pseudospathaceum, which infects a central sensory organ of the fish, the eye lens. Contrary to our expectation, infection did not change the within-individual consistency of the personality traits or the relationships between the traits, but infected individuals were less bold than uninfected control individuals. We also found no relationship between personality in uninfected fish and resistance against parasite infection, suggesting that behaviors which increase parasite encounter do not select for improved resistance. Thus, we found only weak support for parasite-mediated effects on animal personalities.

Study of Tree-sparrow (Passer montanus) as Natural Spreader of H5N1 Virus

To understand sparrow‘s ability in spreading H5N1 avian influenza virus, especially compared to backyard chicken, we performed an experimental infection study. Nine sparrows and backyard chickens were inoculated with H5N1 viruses isolated from sparrow and chicken. We observed the incubation period, clinical signs, and time of death after the exposure. We also carried out pathological anatomy and examined any histopathologyical changes. The results indicate that sparrows are more resistant to the H5N1 virus infection than chicken. The striking organ changes of sparrows died because of the virus infection were lungs and brains haemorrhage. Lung damage seemed to be the main cause of the chicken's death. Neuronal necrosis and gliosis seemed to cause the torticollis of sparrow. The H5N1 virus isolated from sparrow that was more virulent against sparrow than the virus isolated from chicken indicate the occurrence of sparrow's adaptation with the sparrow virus. Based on the longer incubation period and later time of death of sparrows after the virus infection than of chickens, and their ability to fly, we concluded that ability of sparrow to spread H5N1 virus was higher than that of backyard chicken.

Experimental and Natural Infections of Goats with Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus: Evidence for Ticks as Viral Vector.

BackgroundSevere fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), the causative agent for the fatal life-threatening infectious disease, severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), was first identified in the central and eastern regions of China. Although the viral RNA was detected in free-living and parasitic ticks, the vector for SFTSV remains unsettled.Methodology/Principal FindingsFirstly, an experimental infection study in goats was conducted in a bio-safety level-2 (BSL-2) facility to investigate virus transmission between animals. The results showed that infected animals did not shed virus to the outside through respiratory or digestive tract route, and the control animals did not get infected. Then, a natural infection study was carried out in the SFTSV endemic region. A cohort of naïve goats was used as sentinel animals in the study site. A variety of daily samples including goat sera, ticks and mosquitoes were collected for viral RNA and antibody (from serum only) detection, and virus isolation. We detected viral RNA from free-living and parasitic ticks rather than mosquitoes, and from goats after ticks’ infestation. We also observed sero-conversion in all members of the animal cohort subsequently. The S segment sequences of the two recovered viral isolates from one infected goat and its parasitic ticks showed a 100% homology at the nucleic acid level.Conclusions/SignificanceIn our natural infection study, close contact between goats does not appear to transmit SFTSV, however, the naïve animals were infected after ticks’ infestation and two viral isolates derived from an infected goat and its parasitic ticks shared 100% of sequence identity. These data demonstrate that the etiologic agent for goat cohort’s natural infection comes from environmental factors. Of these, ticks, especially the predominant species Haemaphysalis longicornis, probably act as vector for this pathogen. The findings in this study may help local health authorities formulate and focus preventive measures to contain this infection.