W hen Aetna recently agreed to stop bundling problem-oriented services with preventive services provided on the same date, the AAFP contacted 40 other health plans and asked that they follow Aetna’s lead. To date, none have agreed to change their policies, although a few did respond that they already allow payment for both services on the same date (see “Aetna’s decision” at right for more i...

Neospora caninum causes economical impact in cattle-raising farms since it is implicated as the major cause of bovine abortions. Although infection by the parasite has been widely described in mammals, the role of birds in its life-cycle is still obscure. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the infection by N. caninum in different chicken models. Experimental infections were conducted in 7-d...

| Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an infectious viral disease of cattle that results in serious economic and international trade consequences. Recently, hard ticks have been incriminated in lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) transmission. The present study attempted to investigate the role of Rhipicephalus annulatus ticks, collected from naturally infected animals, in the transmission of LSDV. A total...

The ability to isolate and propagate influenza virus is an essential tool for the yearly surveillance of circulating virus strains and to ensure accurate clinical diagnosis for appropriate treatment. The suitability of MDCK-SIAT1 cells, engineered to express increased levels of alpha-2,6-linked sialic acid receptors, as an alternative to conventional MDCK cells for isolation of circulating infl...

The SD0 mutant of influenza virus A/WSN/33 (WSN), characterized by a 24-amino-acid deletion in the neuraminidase (NA) stalk, does not grow in embryonated chicken eggs because of defective NA function. Continuous passage of SD0 in eggs yielded 10 independent clones that replicated efficiently. Characterization of these egg-adapted viruses showed that five of the viruses contained insertions in t...

Chicken egg lysozyme (cLY) is an enzyme with 129 amino acid (AA) residue enzyme. This enzyme is present not only in chicken egg white but also in mucosal secretions such as saliva and tears. The antibacterial properties of egg white can be attributed to the presence of lysozyme, which is used as an anti-cancer drug and for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In this s...

Vaccination is an efficient approach to preventing influenza virus infections. Recently, we developed A and B vaccine backbones that increased the yield of several viruses in Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) African green monkey (Vero) cells. These also viral replication embryonated chicken eggs, which are most frequently used platform for manufacturing. In this study, further increase titers i...

A real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RRT-PCR) assay based on the avian influenza virus matrix gene was developed for the rapid detection of type A influenza virus. Additionally, H5 and H7 hemagglutinin subtype-specific probe sets were developed based on North American avian influenza virus sequences. The RRT-PCR assay utilizes a one-step RT-PCR protocol and fluorogenic hydrolysis type probes....

Whole-virus vaccines, including inactivated or live-attenuated influenza vaccines, have been conventionally developed and supported as a prophylaxis. These currently available virus-based influenza vaccines are widely used in the clinic, but the vaccine production takes a long time and a huge number of embryonated chicken eggs. To overcome the imperfection of egg-based influenza vaccines, epito...