The purpose of this study was to survey infections with Salmonella spp. in poultry flocks in the vicinity of Tehran and to determine the most frequent serogroups and serotypes implicated. Twenty-eight samples of pullet, layer, and broiler flocks were randomly collected (n=1463), including freshly dropped feces from live birds or visceral organs from dead birds. In most flocks, 60 samples were t...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a ubiquitous human fungal pathogen that causes meningoencephalitis in predominantly immunocompromised hosts. The fungus is typically haploid, and sexual reproduction involves two individuals with opposite mating types/sexes, alpha and a. However, the overwhelming predominance of mating type (MAT) alpha over a in C. neoformans populations limits alpha-a mating in natur...

Interspecific and intervarietal hybridization may contribute to the biological diversity of fungal populations. Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic yeast and the most common fungal cause of meningitis in patients with AIDS. Most patients are infected with either of the two varieties of C. neoformans, designated as serotype A (C. neoformans var. grubii) or serotype D (C. neoformans var. neof...

Interspecific and intervarietal hybridization may contribute to the biological diversity of fungal populations. Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic yeast and the most common fungal cause of meningitis in patients with AIDS. Most patients are infected with either of the two varieties of C. neoformans, designated as serotype A (C. neoformans var. grubii) or serotype D (C. neoformans var. neof...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a major, global cause of meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients. Despite advances in the molecular epidemiology of C. neoformans, its population structure and mode of reproduction are not well understood. In the environment, it is associated with avian guano or vegetation. We collected nearly 800 environmental isolates from three locations in the United Sta...

Real-time PCR (qPCR) is the principal technique for the quantification of pathogen biomass in host tissue, yet no generic methods exist for the determination of the limit of quantification (LOQ) and the limit of detection (LOD) in qPCR. We suggest using the Youden index in the context of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for this purpose. The LOQ was defined as the amou...

Avian pneumovirus (APV) was first isolated from turkeys in the west-central US following emergence of turkey rhinotracheitis (TRT) during 1996. Subsequently, several APV isolates were obtained from the north-central US. Matrix (M) and fusion (F) protein genes of these isolates were examined for sequence heterogeneity and compared with European APV subtypes A and B. Among US isolates the M gene ...

Social behavior can shape the local population genetic structure of mammals. Group living can increase pairwise genetic relatedness of mammals at a local level but differentiate the genetic structure at a population level through offspring philopatry and nonrandom mating. Our study aimed to test the hypothesis that social groups of Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) would consist of gene...

The purpose of this study was to survey infections with Salmonella spp. in poultry flocks in the vicinity of Tehran and to determine the most frequent serogroups and serotypes implicated. Twenty-eight samples of pullet, layer, and broiler flocks were randomly collected (n=1463), including freshly dropped feces from live birds or visceral organs from dead birds. In most flocks, 60 samples were t...

the aim of this study was to design the base breeding plan in sistani cattle by using of stochastic simulation. for this purpose, three population size (500, 1000, 2000 heads), three levels of herd number (5, 10, 20), two levels of selection intensity (high and low) and two levels of mating method (random and minimum co-ancestry) were combined together and in total 36 scenarios were compared fo...