Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is a significant disease in livestock and humans. Because of medical and veterinary importance it is essential to study the prevalence of T. gondii infection among human and animals in various parts of the word. In this study, 4033 cattle from eight provinces of Northern Poland (belonging to 190 herds) were tested for IgG antibodies against T. gondii ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To compare the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and microbiological data, and the hospital course and outcome of HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative adults with bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia. DESIGN Retrospective observation study conducted over a 2-year period. SETTING Academic teaching hospital attached to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South A...

An immunoblot assay using four recombinant proteins corresponding to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and type 2 (HIV-2) gene products was developed to confirm the presence of antibodies to HIV-1 and 2 in sera reactive in screening ELISAs. Serum samples for testing were obtained from healthy seronegative blood donors and from different categories of HIV-infected individuals (asymptom...

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) infects members of the Felidae family with results ranging from seroconversion with no disease to fatal feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Infection of non-domestic felids with FCoV is of concern, particularly in endangered populations such as cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). In this investigation, we tested 342 animals in the Republic of South Africa and Namibia, includ...

Background Brucellosis is widespread in Ethiopia with variable reported prevalence depending on the geographical area, husbandry practices and animal species. However, there limited information disease amongst pastoral communities, whose life intricately linked their livestock. Methodology We conducted an integrated human-animal brucellosis sero-surveillance study two adjacent regions, Afar Som...

BACKGROUND Although serological tests are useful for identifying celiac disease, it is well established that a minority of celiacs are seronegative. AIM To define the prevalence and features of seronegative compared to seropositive celiac disease, and to establish whether celiac disease is a common cause of seronegative villous atrophy. METHODS Starting from 810 celiac disease diagnoses, se...

The study of rabies virus infection in bats can be challenging due to quarantine requirements, husbandry concerns, genetic differences among animals, and lack of medical history. To date, all rabies virus (RABV) studies in bats have been performed in wild caught animals. Determining the RABV exposure history of a wild caught bat based on the presence or absence of viral neutralizing antibodies ...

Fifty-five dogs with suspected tickborne disease were tested by immunofluorescence assay and PCR for Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection. Thirty (54.5 per cent) of the dogs were seropositive and five of them fulfilled the serological criteria for an active infection, with either seroconversion or a fourfold increase in antibody titres. Fragments of DNA of the expected size were detected by PCR ...