A portable reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification assay for rapid detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a trans-boundary viral disease of livestock, which causes huge economic losses and constitutes a serious infectious threat for livestock farming worldwide. Early diagnosis of FMD helps to diminish its impact by adequate outbreak management. In this study, we describe the development of a real-time reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) assay for the detection of FMD virus (FMDV). The FMDV RT-RPA design targeted the 3D gene of FMDV and a 260 nt molecular RNA standard was used for assay validation. The RT-RPA assay was fast (4-10 minutes) and the analytical sensitivity was determined at 1436 RNA molecules detected by probit regression analysis. The FMDV RT-RPA assay detected RNA prepared from all seven FMDV serotypes but did not detect classical swine fever virus or swine vesicular disease virus. The FMDV RT-RPA assay was used in the field during the recent FMD outbreak in Egypt. In clinical samples, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and RT-RPA showed a diagnostic sensitivity of 100% and 98%, respectively. In conclusion, FMDV RT-RPA was quicker and much easier to handle in the field than real-time RT-PCR. Thus RT-RPA could be easily implemented to perform diagnostics at quarantine stations or farms for rapid spot-of-infection detection

Use of oral glucocorticoids and risk of skin cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a population-based case–control study

In North Jutland County, Denmark, we investigated whether use of oral glucocorticoids was associated with an increased risk of developing basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), malignant melanoma (MM), and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). From the Danish Cancer Registry we identified 5422 BCC, 935 SCC, 983 MM, and 481 NHL cases during 1989–2003. Using risk-set sampling we selected four age- and gender-matched population controls for each case from the Civil Registration System. Prescriptions for oral glucocorticoids before diagnosis were obtained from the Prescription Database of North Jutland County on the basis of National Health Service data. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs), adjusting for chronic medical diseases (information about these were obtained from the National Patient Registry) and use of other immunosuppressants. We found slightly elevated risk estimates for BCC (IRR, 1.15 (95% CI: 1.07–1.25)), SCC (IRR, 1.14 (95% CI: 0.94–1.39)), MM (IRR, 1.15 (95% CI: 0.94–1.41), and NHL (IRR, 1.11 (95% CI: 0.85–1.46)) among users of oral glucocorticoids. Our study supports an overall association between glucocorticoid use and risk of BCC that cannot be explained by the presence of chronic diseases or concomitant use of other immunosuppressants

Combined effects of precipitation and nitrogen deposition on native and invasive winter annual production in California deserts

Primary production in deserts is limited by soil moisture and N availability, and thus is likely to be influenced by both anthropogenic N deposition and precipitation regimes altered as a consequence of climate change. Invasive annual grasses are particularly responsive to increases in N and water availabilities, which may result in competition with native forb communities. Additionally, conditions favoring increased invasive grass production in arid and semi-arid regions can increase fire risk, negatively impacting woody vegetation that is not adapted to fire. We conducted a seeded garden experiment and a 5-year field fertilization experiment to investigate how winter annual production is altered by increasing N supply under a range of water availabilities. The greatest production of invasive grasses and native forbs in the garden experiment occurred under the highest soil N (inorganic N after fertilization = 2.99 g m−2) and highest watering regime, indicating these species are limited by both water and N. A classification and regression tree (CART) analysis on the multi-year field fertilization study showed that winter annual biomass was primarily limited by November–December precipitation. Biomass exceeded the threshold capable of carrying fire when inorganic soil N availability was at least 3.2 g m−2 in piñon-juniper woodland. Due to water limitation in creosote bush scrub, biomass exceeded the fire threshold only under very wet conditions regardless of soil N status. The CART analyses also revealed that percent cover of invasive grasses and native forbs is primarily dependent on the timing and amount of precipitation and secondarily dependent on soil N and site-specific characteristics. In total, our results indicate that areas of high N deposition will be susceptible to grass invasion, particularly in wet years, potentially reducing native species cover and increasing the risk of fire

Competitive Interactions between Invasive Nile Tilapia and Native Fish: The Potential for Altered Trophic Exchange and Modification of Food Webs

Recent studies have highlighted both the positive and negative impacts of species invasions. Most of these studies have been conducted on either immobile invasive plants or sessile fauna found at the base of food webs. Fewer studies have examined the impacts of vagile invasive consumers on native competitors. This is an issue of some importance given the controlling influence that consumers have on lower order plants and animals. Here, we present results of laboratory experiments designed to assess the impacts of unintended aquaculture releases of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), in estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico, on the functionally similar redspotted sunfish (Lepomis miniatus). Laboratory choice tests showed that tilapia prefer the same structured habitat that native sunfish prefer. In subsequent interspecific competition experiments, agonistic tilapia displaced sunfish from their preferred structured habitats. When a piscivore (largemouth bass) was present in the tank with both species, the survival of sunfish decreased. Based on these findings, if left unchecked, we predict that the proliferation of tilapia (and perhaps other aggressive aquaculture fishes) will have important detrimental effects on the structure of native food webs in shallow, structured coastal habitats. While it is likely that the impacts of higher trophic level invasive competitors will vary among species, these results show that consequences of unintended releases of invasive higher order consumers can be important

Nutrition Adequacy Therapeutic Enhancement in the Critically Ill: A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Motilin Receptor Agonist Camicinal (GSK962040): The NUTRIATE Study

BACKGROUND: Camicinal is a novel, nonmacrolide, motilin receptor agonist that accelerates gastric emptying in critically ill patients with established feed intolerance. The primary question was whether the preemptive administration of camicinal increased the provision of enteral nutrition (EN) to critically ill patients with risk factors that predisposed to feed intolerance. METHODS: This was an international, multicenter, parallel-group, blinded, randomized controlled trial. Patients at risk for feed intolerance, defined as receiving moderate to high doses of vasopressors or opiates, or admitted because of multiple traumatic injuries or with brain injury, received either enteral camicinal 50 mg or placebo daily for a maximum of 7 days, along with EN administered according to a standardized feeding protocol. The primary outcome was the daily adequacy of enteral feed delivered, as assessed by percentage of goal volume (delivered/prescribed × 100) before development of intolerance. RESULTS: Eighty-four patients participated. The administration of camicinal did not result in a statistically significant clinical difference in the daily average percentage goal volume delivered (camicinal vs placebo: 77% [95% confidence interval: 71, 83] vs 68% (58, 78); mean difference 9% [-5, 23]; P = 0.21). Similarly, there were no differences in the percentage goal calories (76% [65, 88] vs 68% [60, 77]) and protein (76% [66, 86] vs 70% [61, 80]) administered, or the incidence of feed intolerance (15% vs 14%). CONCLUSION: The incidence of feed intolerance was low in both groups. In this cohort the preemptive administration of enteral camicinal did not significantly augment the provision of goal EN

Nutrition adequacy therapeutic enhancement in the critically ill: a randomized double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial of the motilin receptor agonist camicinal (GSK962040): the NUTRIATE study

Camicinal is a novel, nonmacrolide, motilin receptor agonist that accelerates gastric emptying in critically ill patients with established feed intolerance. The primary question was whether the preemptive administration of camicinal increased the provision of enteral nutrition (EN) to critically ill patients with risk factors that predisposed to feed intolerance.This was an international, multicenter, parallel-group, blinded, randomized controlled trial. Patients at risk for feed intolerance, defined as receiving moderate to high doses of vasopressors or opiates, or admitted because of multiple traumatic injuries or with brain injury, received either enteral camicinal 50 mg or placebo daily for a maximum of 7 days, along with EN administered according to a standardized feeding protocol. The primary outcome was the daily adequacy of enteral feed delivered, as assessed by percentage of goal volume (delivered/prescribed × 100) before development of intolerance.Eighty-four patients participated. The administration of camicinal did not result in a statistically significant clinical difference in the daily average percentage goal volume delivered (camicinal vs placebo: 77% [95% confidence interval: 71, 83] vs 68% (58, 78); mean difference 9% [-5, 23]; P = 0.21). Similarly, there were no differences in the percentage goal calories (76% [65, 88] vs 68% [60, 77]) and protein (76% [66, 86] vs 70% [61, 80]) administered, or the incidence of feed intolerance (15% vs 14%).The incidence of feed intolerance was low in both groups. In this cohort the preemptive administration of enteral camicinal did not significantly augment the provision of goal EN.Adam M. Deane, Francois Lamontagne, George E. Dukes, David Neil, Lakshmi Vasist ... Marianne J. Chapman ... et al