Morphometry and Molecular Identification of Haemonchus Cobb, 1898 (Trichostrongylidae: Nematoda) Isolates from Small Ruminants in Tanzania Based on Mitochondrial cox 1 and rRNA-ITS genes.

The genus Haemonchus is the major abomasal parasite of ruminants responsible for substantial economic losses in tropical and temperate regions. This study was conducted to clarify the morphometry and molecular characterisation of Haemonchus species isolated from sheep in Babati district, Tanzania. A total of 486 trichostrongylid nematodes were recovered from five sheep. Of the total worms, 106 nematodes were distinguished by 37 males and 69 females. The asymmetrical length of dorsal ray and the distance of bulb at the apex of spicules were used for identification of males. In females, the linguiform vulvar flap was the most predominant with 33 out of 69 (48%) compared with knobbed morph type which was 25/69 (36%) and smooth morph type with 11/69 (16%). Partial cox1 sequence fragments of Haemonchus contortus isolates showed 98.8%, 99.3%, 99.7%, 99.5%, 99.3%, and 98.4% in male, smooth, knobbed, linguiform A, linguiform B, and linguiform C, respectively; with the average nucleotide divergence ranged from 1.03 to 2.35%. The amplified fragments of ITS-2 genes in knobbed, linguiform A, and smooth morphotypes revealed 99.4%, 98.5%, and 98.3%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis was evaluated by employing Bayesian inference and maximum-likelihood, and the tree was distinctly separated into three clusters focusing on H. contortus in cluster I within the family Haemonchidae. Genetic drifting, mutation, and modification of the morphological features of the Haemonchus species described to have an impact on the development of drug resistance. Species identification is necessary to understand which species infect animal host. We recommend more studies on the parasites intensity and the strategies for controlling Haemonchus species in Tanzania.

Feasibility and accessibility of electronic patient-reported outcome measures using a smartphone during routine chemotherapy: a pilot study.

PURPOSE: There is growing interest in integrating electronic patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures into routine oncology practice for symptom monitoring. Here, we evaluated the feasibility and accessibility of electronic PRO measures using a smartphone (PRO-SMART) for cancer patients receiving routine chemotherapy. METHODS: The proposed PRO-SMART application obtains daily personal health record (PHR) data from cancer patients via a smartphone. An analysis report of cumulative PHR data is provided to the clinician in a format suitable for upload to electronic medical records (EMRs). Cancer outpatients who had received at least two cycles of chemotherapy and who were scheduled for two more cycles were enrolled. RESULTS: Between February 2015 and December 2016, 111 patients were screened and 101 of these were included. One-hundred patients used PRO-SMART at least once and were included in the final analysis (90.1% overall accessibility among all screened patients). The number of symptomatic adverse events (AEs) related to chemotherapy recorded in EMRs (mean ± standard deviation [SD]) increased from 0.92 ± 0.80 to 2.26 ± 1.80 (P < 0.001), and grading of AEs increased from 0.81 ± 0.69 to 1.00 ± 0.62 (P = 0.029). After using PRO-SMART, the numeric rating scale for pain (mean ± SD) increased from 0.20 ± 0.72 to 0.99 ± 1.55 (P < 0.001). A patient-reported questionnaire revealed that 64.2% of patients found it useful and 83% found it easy to use. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that the proposed PRO-SMART is feasible and accessible for assessment of symptomatic AEs in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy for a prospective randomized trial.

Genome-wide association study of carcass weight in commercial Hanwoo cattle.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to validate genes and genomic regions associated with carcass weight using a low-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Chip in Hanwoo cattle breed. METHODS: Commercial Hanwoo steers (n = 220) were genotyped with 20K GeneSeek genomic profiler BeadChip. After applying the quality control of criteria of a call rate ≥90% and minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥0.01, a total of 15,235 autosomal SNPs were left for genome-wide association (GWA) analysis. The GWA tests were performed using single-locus mixed linear model. Age at slaughter was fitted as fixed effect and sire included as a covariate. The level of genome-wide significance was set at 3.28×10-6 (0.05/15,235), corresponding to Bonferroni correction for 15,235 multiple independent tests. RESULTS: By employing EMMAX approach which is based on a mixed linear model and accounts for population stratification and relatedness, we identified 17 and 16 loci significantly (p<0.001) associated with carcass weight for the additive and dominant models, respectively. The second most significant (p = 0.000049) SNP (ARS-BFGL-NGS-28234) on bovine chromosome 4 (BTA4) at 21 Mb had an allele substitution effect of 43.45 kg. Some of the identified regions on BTA2, 6, 14, 22, and 24 were previously reported to be associated with quantitative trait loci for carcass weight in several beef cattle breeds. CONCLUSION: This is the first genome-wide association study using SNP chips on commercial Hanwoo steers, and some of the loci newly identified in this study may help to better DNA markers that determine increased beef production in commercial Hanwoo cattle. Further studies using a larger sample size will allow confirmation of the candidates identified in this study.