scholarly journals Detection of Two Species of the Genus Parapoxvirus (Bovine Papular Stomatitis Virus and Pseudocowpox Virus) in Ticks Infesting Cattle in Burkina Faso

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 644
Author(s):  
Achille Ouedraogo ◽  
Léa Luciani ◽  
Olivier Zannou ◽  
Abel Biguezoton ◽  
Laura Pezzi ◽  
...  

The molecular identification of arboviruses in West Africa is of particular interest, due to their zoonotic potential in a population living in close contact with livestock, and in a region where the livestock migration across borders raises the risk of diseases infection and dissemination. The aim of the study was the screening of potential circulating arboviruses and the assessment of their zoonotic implications. Therefore, ticks were collected on cattle located in three provinces of eastern Burkina Faso. Tick pools were tested using a panel of genus-specific real-time assays targeting conserved regions of parapoxvirus, orthopoxvirus, flavivirus and phlebovirus. On the 26 farms visited, a total of 663 ticks were collected. Four genera and six tick species were morphologically identified, with Amblyomma variegatum and Hyalomma spp. being the most represented species. No arboviruses were found. However, this study highlights the presence of pseudocowpox virus (8.2%) and bovine papular stomatitis virus (5.8%) among the positive tick pools. BPSV positive ticks were found in herds sharing water and pastures resources and with a history of seasonal transhumance. Therefore, common grazing and the seasonal transhumance are likely to support the transmission of the virus. This could have important health and economic impacts, especially regarding transboundary cattle movements.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. vii-xxviii
Author(s):  
Marie-Christin Gabriel ◽  
Carola Lentz

AbstractThe Department of Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz hosts a comprehensive archive on African Independence Day celebrations. Created in 2010, the archive is one of the outcomes of a large comparative research project on African national days directed by Carola Lentz. It offers unique insights into practices of as well as debates on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa. The archive holds more than 28,000 images, including photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and objects from twelve African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It primarily consists of an online photo and newspaper archive (https://bildarchiv.uni-mainz.de/AUJ/; https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/departmental-archives/online-archive-african-independence-days/); some of the material is also stored in the physical archive on African Independence Days at ifeas as well as in the department's ethnographic collection (https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/ethnographic-collection/). Most of the material concerns recent celebrations, but the collection has been complemented by some documentation of earlier festivities. Archives hold many stories while they also have a story to tell in their own right. This article discusses both aspects. It first traces the history of the Online Archive African Independence Days at ifeas. It then provides an overview of the different categories of material stored in the archive and tells a few of the many stories that the photos, texts and objects contain. We hope to demonstrate that the archive holds a wealth of sources that can be mined for studies on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa, and, more generally, on practices and processes of nation-building and state-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Achille S. Ouedraogo ◽  
Olivier M. Zannou ◽  
Abel S. Biguezoton ◽  
Kouassi Yao Patrick ◽  
Adrien M. G. Belem ◽  
...  

AbstractSince 2011, period of the livestock invasion by the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus in Burkina Faso (BF), tick-control problems were exacerbated. Based on farmer’s reports, most commonly used commercial acaricides were found to be ineffective in Western South part of the country. To investigate the occurrence and extent of such acaricidal ineffectiveness, we performed the standardized larval packet test (LPT) with commercial deltamethrin (vectocid) and cypermethrin (cypertop), on two cattle tick species, the native Amblyomma variegatum and the invasive R. microplus. The resistance ratios (RR) were computed with susceptible Hounde strain of Rhipicephalus geigyi as reference. The R. microplus population showed resistance to the two acaricides tested with the highest lethal concentration (LC) values, and different resistance ratios higher than 4 (deltamethrin: RR50 = 28.18 and RR90 = 32.41; cypermethrin: RR50 = 8.79 and RR90 = 23.15). In the contrary, A. variegatum population was found to be highly susceptible to acaricides tested with low lethal concentrations and resistance ratio values (deltamethrin: RR50 = 0.5 and RR90 = 0.48; cypermethrin: RR50 = 0.68 and RR90 = 0.79). These data demonstrate high synthetic pyrethroid resistance in R. microplus strain, leading to conclude that the acaricide ineffectiveness in tick populations control remains a concern in BF.


2021 ◽  
pp. 112067212110248
Author(s):  
Ankush Kawali ◽  
Sanjay Srinivasan ◽  
Padmamalini Mahendradas ◽  
Rohit Shetty

Introduction: Treating chronic macular edema (CME) post endophthalmitis is a challenge. Use of steroids may reactivate the infection and repeated intravitreal therapy with anti-vascular growth factor inhibitors (Anti-VEGF) puts the patient again at the risk of exacerbation of inflammation or endophthalmitis. We describe a case of CME post traumatic endophthalmitis successfully treated with topical interferon therapy. Case description: A 34-year-old Asian Indian lady with a history of cat bite to her right eye and treated elsewhere as traumatic endophthalmitis with recurrent macular edema, presented to us 1 year after the injury. She had received anti-VEGF injection for same. Her medical history was non-contributory except for close contact with her cat. Therapeutic trials with oral doxycycline followed by oral albendazole with steroids, as well as repeated anti-VEGF therapy failed to prevent recurrence of CME. Patient’s steroid responsiveness and reluctance for injections, made us to opt for a novel topical Interferon therapy. Macular edema resolved in 2 months. Interruption of interferon therapy due to COVID-lock down resulted in recurrence of the CME, which again responded well to interferon monotherapy. Conclusion: Topical interferon may have a role in the treatment of inflammatory macular edema and can serve as a, safer, economical and non-invasive treatment option compared to intravitreal steroids and anti-VEGFs.


Neurology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (1 Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. S23.1-S23
Author(s):  
Carlos Pinheiro ◽  
Francisca Taciane Nascimento Sousa

ObjectiveTo evaluate the self-reported history of concussion in athletes of both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai.BackgroundCombat sports are widely practiced around the world. They include modalities that involves punches or kicks directed at the opponent's head (Striking sports) or that consists of grabbing an opponent and taking him to the ground (Grappling sports). Due to the objectives and close contact in combat sports, the risk of concussion is significant.Design/MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study involving a Brazilian sample of BJJ athletes (n-18) and Muay Thai athletes (n-22). The sample was consisted of both professional and amateur athletes (Women constituted 20% of sample). Through individual interviews with a researcher the following data were collected: self-report of concussion and the moment of the injury (whether in practice or in the fight). The Post-Concussion Symptoms Scale (PCSS) was also applied. In the present study, a concussion was considered as a direct impact on the head followed by symptoms. This study was approved by a local Ethics Committee.ResultsAmong BJJ athletes, 61% reported a history of concussion, while among Muay Thai athletes the percentage was more higher (86%). The main mechanisms of head impact were the throw/takedown and elbow-hits to the head in BJJ and punches and knee-hits to the head in Muay Thai. There was no difference in the symptom score between BJJ and Muay Thai concussed athletes (average of 11 vs 10.7, respectively). The most common symptoms were dizziness, headache and nausea in BJJ athletes, and headache, nausea, drowsiness and brain fogginess in Muay Thai ones.ConclusionsThe results presented herein suggest that concussions in Muay Thai and BJJ occur through different mechanisms. The clinical profile of post-concussion symptoms appears to be different between BJJ and Muay Thai athletes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-IT) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Tanga ◽  
Giacomo Gelati ◽  
Marco Casazza

6Contemporary science and culture show more and more extended and meaningful signs about the increasing explaining power of evolutionary paradigm. This power overcomes the field of the history of living species. We consider “On the Origin of Species” of 1859 by Charles Darwin as the establishment of this paradigm, but this original and fruitful idea has received the several and different contributions from near and (seemingly) far scientific fields. This process happened according distinguishable waves and leaded the evolutionary theory very far from its starting point, making it something wider and different. The current knowledge of this theory involves many kinds of scholars: biologists, zoologists, botanists, development biologists, genetics/genomics scholars and also scholars of many other disciplines, as statistics, mathematics, ecology, environmental sciences, physics, chemistry, linguistics, sociology, neuro-sciences, epidemiology, informatics, immunology. During the end of XX Century, the study of complexity, of self-organization and of emerging properties has been a decisive factor to extend evolution until beyond the boundaries of Biology. These phenomena, or properties, or features, that are shown by “living” and “not-living” systems (so called basing ourselves on traditional definitions), have deeply modified even the “properly” biologic evolution itself and besides this has demonstrated that, mutatis mutandis, evolutionary processes or phenomena happen also out of biologic dominion, referring “biologic” to “wet-ware world”. This is to say the class of evolutionary phenomena is more widely and more inclusively extended than our opinion. We can mean this as a revolution (according to Kuhn’s definition) that imposes us to restructure the definition of evolution itself and even to redraw the boundaries and the map of Biology itself. Aiming to establish a name of this field of study we propose “PanEvolutionary Theory” (PanEvo Theory). No doubt Prigogine offered an important contribution to this area. The thinking and the work of Enzo Tiezzi can be placed seen in the same perspective. Disregarding direct connections and contacts with the Nobel Prize Prigogine, however the studies of Enzo Tiezzi are neither a fully unexpected work nor a theory lacking of important potentialities: it is not a strange or eccentric academic exercise. Except the close contact and the dense exchanges with Prigogine, we collocate Enzo Tiezzi in the same context of Gregory Chaitin, of Rachel Carson, of John Harte and Robert H. Socolow, of James Paul Wesley, of Sertorio, of Oort and Peixoto, just to cite the most strictly related. Our Academy had the privilege and the honor of having Enzo Tiezzi in its ranks. We think that merits and developments of the thinking of this scholar have to produce important and lasting fruits in the future.


Author(s):  
Mingyong Tao ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Feng Ling ◽  
Rong Zhang ◽  
Xuguang Shi ◽  
...  

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease worldwide. It can be transmitted from person to person, and the fatality rate is very high. During this study, three SFTS clusters including 12 associated cases were identified in three counties in Zhejiang Province from 2018 to 2020. The median age of the three index patients was 70 years, and that of secondary case patients was 59 years. Of note, the mortality rate of the index patients was 100%. The mortality rate of secondary case patients was 11%. The total secondary attack rate (SAR) was 30% (9/30). The SARs of cluster A, cluster B, and cluster C were 38% (3/8), 21% (3/14), and 38% (3/8), respectively. Additionally, the interval from onset to diagnosis was 4 days. The intervals from disease onset to confirmation of the index cases and secondary cases were 7 days and 4 days, respectively. All secondary case patients had a history of close contact with blood or body fluids of the index patients. These results indicate that SFTS patients should not be discharged until recovery. When SFTS patients die, the corpses should be transferred directly from the hospital to the crematorium for cremation by persons wearing proper protective equipment to prevent virus transmission.


Author(s):  
Zdeněk Laštůvka ◽  
Aleš Laštůvka

Synanthedon mesiaeformis (Herrich-Schäffer, 1846) has been found in the Czech Republic and in Spain for the first time. The species was found in the south-easternmost part of the Czech Republic, near the town of Břeclav (faunistic quadrat 7267) in May 2008. The holes and pupae were found only in one, solitary growing group of trees about 20 years old. This finding place lies at a distance of more than 250 km from the localities in SW Hungary and about 550 km from the localities in eastern Poland. In June 2008, the species was found also in alders growing in the flat river alluvium on gravel sands between La Jonquera and Figueres in northern Catalonia. This locality is in a close contact with the fin­ding places near Perpignan and Beziers in southern France. The diagnostic morphological characters and bionomics of this species are briefly summarized and figured. The history of its distribution research is recapitulated and the causes of its disjunct range are discussed as follows. The present disjunct range represents a residual of the former distribution over the warmer and moister postglacial period; landscape modifications and elimination of solitary alder trees as „weeds“ from the 18th up to the mid-20th century in large areas of Europe; narrow and partly unknown habitat requirements and specific population ethology; an insufficient level of faunistic investigations in several parts of sou­thern and eastern Europe.


2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 1235-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Boerlin ◽  
Hans H. Siegrist ◽  
André P. Burnens ◽  
Peter Kuhnert ◽  
Purita Mendez ◽  
...  

We report a case of Pasteurella multocida meningitis in a 1-month-old baby exposed to close contact with two dogs and a cat but without any known history of injury by these animals. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the isolate from the baby allowed identification at the subspecies level and pointed to the cat as a possible source of infection. Molecular typing of Pasteurella isolates from the animals, from the baby, and from unrelated animals clearly confirmed that the cat harbored the same P. multocidasubsp. septica strain on its tonsils as the one isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of the baby. This case stresses the necessity of informing susceptible hosts at risk of contracting zoonotic agents about some basic hygiene rules when keeping pets. In addition, this study illustrates the usefulness of molecular methods for identification and epidemiological tracing ofPasteurella isolates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Cannon ◽  
M. Abouzeid ◽  
N. de Klerk ◽  
C. Dibben ◽  
J. R. Carapetis ◽  
...  

AbstractAcute rheumatic fever (ARF), an auto-immune response to a group AStreptococcusinfection and precursor to rheumatic heart disease (RHD), remains endemic in many socio-economically disadvantaged settings. A Global Resolution on ARF and RHD was recently adopted at the 71st World Health Assembly where governments committed to improving efforts to prevent and control ARF and RHD. To inform these efforts, the objectives of this study were to examine associations between childhood ARF in the UK between 1958 and 1969 and a range of environmental and social factors. Of 17 416 children from the nationally representative birth cohort of the National Child Development Study, ARF was reported in 23 children during early childhood (between birth and the 7-year follow-up) and in 29 additional children during middle childhood (between the 7- and 11-year follow-ups). Risk factors associated with ARF in both early and middle childhood were: a large family size; attendance at a private nursery or class; a history of nephritis, kidney or urinary tract infections; and a history of throat or ear infections. Risk factors for ARF in early childhood alone were families with fathers in a professional or semi-professional occupation and families who moved out of their local neighbourhood. Risk factors in late childhood alone included overcrowding and free school meals. These data suggest that prevention strategies in ARF endemic settings may be enhanced by targeting, for example, new members entering a community and children in environments of close contact, such as a nursery or shared bedrooms.


Author(s):  
Louise Cilliers ◽  
Francois P. Retief

In this article the views of the ancient Greeks and Romans on the etiology of infectious diseases are assessed. It appeared that these views were remarkably correct in many respects: Hippocrates for instance believed that an imbalance in the humours preceded disease, while we know today that a malnourished body predisposes a patient to epidemic disease. Further acute observations were recorded during the plague which afflicted Athenians in the 5th century BC, when it was noted that the disease (probably smallpox) was spread by close contact with patients and that the same person never contracted the disease twice – the first description in Western history of acquired immunity. The ancients’ theories of miasmata and ‘seeds of disease’ in the air were the forerunners of what is today identified as pathological micro-organisms causing disease. Little progress in the study of the etiology of infectious diseases was made since Graeco-Roman times, in fact, in the 19th century it was still believed in London that infection was the result of ‘bad air’. The problem was eventually solved when in the 19th century Robert Koch, with the help of the microscope, discovered the pathogenic organisms causing infectious diseases. In many respects the scientific discoveries during the last two centuries merely confirmed the observations of the ancient Greeks and Romans made more than 2000 years ago.


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