Collection of Oral Fluids Using Cotton Ropes as a Sampling Method to Detect Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Infection in Pigs.

In high-density farming practices, it is important to constantly monitor for infectious diseases, especially diseases that have the potential to spread rapidly between holdings. Pigs are known to amplify foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) by excreting large amounts of virus, and it is therefore important to detect the virus quickly and accurately to minimize the spread of disease. Ropes were used to collect oral fluid samples from pigs, and each sample was compared to saliva samples collected from individual animals by detecting FMD virus RNA using real-time PCR. Two different experiments are described where groups of pigs were infected with different serotypes of FMD virus, either with or without vaccination, and unvaccinated pigs were kept in aerosol contact. The sensitivity of the rope sampling varied between 0.67 and 0.92, and the statistical agreement between this method and individual sampling ranged from substantial to moderate for the two different serotypes. The ease of collecting oral fluids using ropes together with the high sensitivity of subsequent FMD detection through PCR indicates that this could be a useful method to monitor pig populations for FMD virus infection. With further validation of the sensitivity of detection of FMD virus RNA, this can be a cost-effective, non-invasive diagnostic tool.

Molecular-clinical correlations in males with an expanded FMR1 mutation.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by an expansion of a CGG repeat in the FMR1 gene. The CGG repeat number of the FMR1 mutation and the percentage of cells with methylation of the gene were studied in 218 male patients. Physical and cognitive measurements were also performed. Patients were divided into three groups; those with full mutation and complete methylation (n = 160), those with full mutation and partial methylation (n = 12), and those with a mosaic pattern (n = 46). Statistical comparisons were made between males with the fully methylated full mutation and those with a mosaic pattern. Males having full mutation with complete methylation had the lowest IQ scores and greatest physical involvement. These significant differences were seen only in ages after puberty. CGG repeat length did not correlate with IQ or the physical index score in any group. These findings suggest that a partial production of FMR1 protein may predict milder clinical involvement in some males with fragile X syndrome.