Prion transmission can occur by blood transfusion in human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in experimental animal models, including sheep. Screening of blood and its derivatives for the presence of prions became therefore a major public health issue. As infectious titer in blood is reportedly low, highly sensitive and robust methods are required to detect prions in blood and blood derived...

PURPOSE Preservative treatments are necessary for disinfection and long term storage when dealing with biological tissue. Freezing is a gold standard but infectious risk can only be eliminated by using chemical fluids that may alter the mechanical properties, depending on their composition. Therefore, we experimentally evaluated the influence of freezing and of two commonly used preservative fl...

Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is the causative agent of ovine pulmonary carcinoma, a unique animal model for human bronchioalveolar carcinoma. We previously isolated a JSRV proviral clone and showed that it was both infectious and oncogenic. Thus JSRV is necessary and sufficient for the development of ovine pulmonary carcinoma, but no data are available on the mechanisms of transformation....

This report is of a patient with isolated tuberculous epididymitis presenting with a scrotal tumor. A 65-year-old man presented with a rapidly growing, painless mass over his right testicle. A non-tender indurated tumor was identified in the right hemi-scrotum. Digital rectal examination detected a moderately enlarged, elastic prostate that was consistent with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Urin...

A 53-year-old Taiwanese male had several episodes of left epididymitis with hydrocele refractory to antibiotic treatment. Partial epididymectomy plus preventive vasectomy were planned, and, incidentally, an ill-defined nodule was found lying on the tunica vaginalis near the epididymal head. The pathological diagnosis was malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis. Radical orchiectomy...

Acute scrotal pain makes up approximately 0.5% of all complaints presenting to an emergency department. Some of the most com-mon diagnoses for this complaint are testicular torsion and epididymitis. Misdiagnosing testicular torsion can lead to organ loss,cosmetic deformity, and compromised fertility. Modem ultrasound examination of the scrotum is the test of choice for acute scrotal pathology a...

The in vivo efficacy of ofloxacin was compared with those of cefotaxime and doxycycline in a rat model of epididymitis due to Escherichia coli. Treatment was started 24 h after infection and was continued for 7 days. Ofloxacin reduced the numbers of E. coli organisms in the epididymides significantly more than the other therapeutic regimens and cured the infection more frequently. Histopatholog...

The diagnosis of torsion of the testis is notoriously difficult, and many cases are missed at the early stage when treatment may save the organ. Diagnostic errors are made simply because practitioners and surgeons are not familiar with the condition or do not bear in mind this possibility. 'There is no doubt that many cases of testicular torsion are misdiagnosed as acute epididymitis and time i...

To date, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human counterpart, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have been associated with a single prion strain. This strain is characterised by a unique and remarkably stable biochemical profile of abnormal protease-resistant prion protein (PrP(res)) isolated from brains of affected animals or humans. However, alternate PrP(res) signatures in cattl...

As large animal models continue to play an important role in translating lung-directed therapeutic strategies from laboratory animals to humans, there is an increasing interest in the analysis of endogenous regulators of inflammation at both a genomic and a therapeutic level. To this end, we have sought to characterize the ovine ortholog of elafin, an important regulator of inflammation in huma...