background and objectives: varicella–zoster virus (vzv) is a human herpes virus that usually attacks young children and commonly causes chicken pox (varicella). following primary infection, a lifelong latent infection is established. the virus often reactivates during adulthood or senesces to cause shingles (zoster). little is known regarding the genotypes of varicella in kuwait. the aim of thi...

Since the 1997 H5N1 influenza virus outbreak in humans and poultry in Hong Kong, the emergence of closely related viruses in poultry has raised concerns that additional zoonotic transmissions of influenza viruses from poultry to humans may occur. In May 2001, an avian H5N1 influenza A virus was isolated from duck meat that had been imported to South Korea from China. Phylogenetic analysis of th...

To assess the prevalence and risk factors of anaemia in pregnancy and recommend a cut-off value for antenatal women in developing countries, a cross sectional study was carried in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, a 523 bed tertiary health care institution in Nigeria. 1371 apparently healthy asymptomatic pregnant women visiting the antenatal clinic for the first ...

Background and Aims: Influenza virus is a major pathogen involved in respiratory illnesses during winter seasons. A variety of diagnostic methods have been developed to identify influenza viruses in clinical specimen. Methods: Nasal and pharyngeal samples taken from patients were inoculated into Madin-Darby canine kidney (MOCK) cells and embryonated chicken eggs (ECEs). The culture media was a...

Duck beak atrophy and dwarfism syndrome (BADS) is a newly emerged disease in China since 2015. In October 2017, an unidentified disease occurred in Cherry Valley ducks, Chongqing municipality, the southwest of China. The affected birds showed short beak and growth retardation clinical signs. The disease caused approximately 20.00% morbidity and serious weight loss due to retarded growth. In ord...

Xenotropic mouse leukemia viruses (X-MLVs) are broadly infectious for mammals except most of the classical strains of laboratory mice. These gammaretroviruses rely on the XPR1 receptor for entry, and the unique resistance of laboratory mice is due to two mutations in different putative XPR1 extracellular loops. Cells from avian species differ in susceptibility to X-MLVs, and 2 replacement mutat...

Wild-type rabbitpox virus (RPV) produces red hemorrhagic pocks on the chorioallantoic membranes (CAMs) of embryonated chicken eggs. Like the crmA (SPI-2) gene of cowpox virus, disruption of the RPV ps/hr gene results in a mutant which produces white pocks on the CAMs. An examination of the properties of the RPV(ps/hr) mutant in cell culture also reveals a significantly reduced host range, defin...

geophagia characterized by, severe, anaemia, dwarfism, hypogonadism • and hepatosplenomegaly is sometimes seen in young patients (and children) in iran. 2) haematological aspects of the syndrome are those of, severe, iron defi-crency anaemia3) gastric biopsies and histological findings revealed superfi cial or atrophic gastritis showing some resemblance to those seen in pernicious anaemia. 4) h...

A simple objective method to quantify embryo dwarfism induced by infectious bronchitis virus in embryonated chicken eggs has been used to determine endpoints in virus titration and neutralization assays. The eggs and the respective embryos were weighed and embryo:egg weight (EE) ratios were calculated. The EE ratios were compared with the uninoculated control eggs and endpoints could be calcula...

Influenza virus is a negative segmented RNA virus without DNA intermediate. This makes it safer as a vaccine delivery vector than most DNA viruses that have potential to integrate their genetic elements into host genomes. In this study, we developed a universal influenza viral vector, expressing the receptor binding subdomain of botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A). We tested the growth characters o...