Pathogenic Escherichia coli and enteric viruses in biosolids and related top soil improvers in Italy.

AIMS: To investigate the presence of genomic traits associated with a set of enteric viruses as well as pathogenic Escherichia coli in top soil improvers (TSI) from Italy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-four TSI samples originating from municipal sewage sludges, pig manure, green and household wastes were analysed by real time PCR for the presence of hepatitis E virus (HEV), porcine and human adenovirus (HuAdV), norovirus, rotavirus and diarrhoeagenic E. coli. None of the samples was found positive for HEV or rotavirus. Four samples were positive for the presence of nucleic acids from human norovirus, two of them being also positive for HuAdV. Real time PCR screening gave positive results for many of the virulence genes characteristic of diarrhoeagenic E. coli in 21 samples. These included the verocytotoxin-coding genes, in some cases associated with intimin-coding gene, and markers of enteroaggregative, enterotoxigenic and enteroinvasive E. coli. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence that enteric viruses and pathogenic E. coli may be released into the environment through the use of sludge-derived TSI. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The results highlight that the TSI-related environmental risk for the food chain should be more deeply assessed.

Identification of metabolites associated with water stress responses in Solanum tuberosum L. clones.

Water deficiency has become a major issue for modern agriculture as its effects on crop yields and tuber quality have become more pronounced. Potato genotypes more tolerant to water shortages have been identified through assessment of yield and dry matter. In the present study, a combination of metabolite profiling and physiological/agronomical measurements has been used to explore complex system level responses to non-lethal water restriction. The metabolites identified were associated with physiological responses in three different plant tissues (leaf, root and tuber) of five different potato genotypes varying in susceptibility/tolerance to drought. This approach explored the potential of metabolite profiling as a tool to unravel sectors of metabolism that react to stress conditions and could mirror the changes in the plant physiology. The metabolite results showed different responses of the three plant tissues to the water deficit, resulting either in different levels of the metabolites detected or different metabolites expressed. The leaf material displayed the most changes to drought as reported in literature. The results highlighted genotype-specific signatures to water restriction over all three plant tissues suggesting that the genetics can predominate over the environmental conditions. This will have important implications for future breeding approaches.

Canine coronavirus induces apoptosis in cultured cells.

Canine coronavirus (CCoV) is widespread in dogs in several countries and causes mild enteric illness evolving to severe enteritis in young pups. In in vitro cultures canine coronaviruses generally induce extensive cell death, however nature of the events leading to cell death remains largely unknown. We analysed the induction of cytopathic effect by CCoV in a canine fibrosarcoma cell line (A-72) in order to characterize the apoptotic effect in homologous cell system. Following CCoV infection A-72 cell line, which is permissive to CCoV, showed reduced growth rate, as detected by MTT assay, a standard colorimetric assay for measuring cellular proliferation, and underwent to apoptotic death. Starting from 24h after CCoV infection, cells morphology appeared dramatically changed, with cells rounding and detachment from culture surface. Morphologic and biochemical features of apoptosis, such as blebbing of the plasma membrane, translocation of phosphatidilserine to cell surface and annexin V positive staining, nuclear fragmentation, apoptotic bodies formation and DNA laddering, were detected in CCoV-infected cells. Propidium iodide staining of infected culture indicated the appearance of hypodiploid DNA peak corresponding to apoptotic cell population. Commonly to other animal coronavirus infection caspase-3 is likely to contribute to the execution phase of apoptosis induced by CCoV in A-72 cells since we found activation of enzymatic activity as well as procaspase-3 activating cleavage. Apoptotic death of infected cells is detrimental as it causes cell and tissue destruction as well as inflammatory responses. Therefore in the case of CCoV associated gastroenteritis, apoptosis of epithelial mucosa cells may be responsible for pathology induced by CCoV infection.

Molecular characterization of low pathogenicity H7N3 avian influenza viruses isolated in Italy.

The complete coding regions of the surface glycoproteins, nucleoprotein (NP), polymerase 2 (PB2), and matrix (M) of A/turkey/214845/02 and A/turkey/220158/99 (H7N3) low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) viruses isolated in October 2002 in Italy were amplified and sequenced to determine the epidemiologic relationships with an A/turkey/Italy/4603/99 (H7N1/4603/99) LPAI virus isolated during the 1999-2001 epizootic in Italy. The hemagglutinin (HA) of H7N3 viruses showed 97.8% nucleotide similarity with A/turkey/Italy/4603/99 (H7N1), and NP, M, and PB2 gene similarities were 93.6%, 98.2%, and 96.2%, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses of HA, PB2, and M genes showed that H7N3 and H7N1 viruses were closely related. Sequence analysis revealed a 23 amino acid deletion in the stalk of the neuraminidase of H7N3 viruses and a unique deletion of amino acid glycine in position 17 in the NP gene of H7N1 virus.

Comparative evaluation of in vitro and in vivo assays for the detection of avian infectious bronchitis virus as a contaminant of live poultry vaccines.

A reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR( assay specific for identifying avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in poultry vaccines, and the serological response to IBV induced by the inoculation of chicks with a Newcastle disease vaccine spiked with the Massachusetts strain of IBV, were compared for their ability to detect IBV as a contaminant of avian vaccines. The sensitivity of the IBV-RT-PCR assay provided results which were at least equivalent to the biological effect produced by the inoculation of chicks, allowing this assay to be considered a valid alternative to animal testing in the quality control of avian immunologicals. This procedure can easily be adapted to detect a number of contaminants for which the in vivo test still represents the only available method of detection.

Serological responses in calves to vaccines against bovine respiratory syncytial, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea and parainfluenza-3 viruses.

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Italy, is in charge of assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of veterinary vaccines before and after licensing. To evaluate the relative potency of several vaccines against bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (IBRV), bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and parainfluenza-3 virus (PI3V), the serological responses in vaccinated calves were studied. Vaccination with any of the vaccines under study induced specific antibody titres against the different viral antigens. The differences of the mean antibody titres within and among the test group vaccines were statistically significant. The results confirm and support those obtained by other authors in similar studies, suggesting that serological responses in vaccinated calves can be used as a helpful means of assessing the relative potency of vaccines against viral respiratory diseases of cattle. The criteria allowing such an evaluation are discussed.