Trichinella infection in Serbia from 2011 to 2020: a success story in the field of One Health.

In Serbia, modern pork production systems with implemented control measures, including the detection of Trichinella larvae in meat (ISO18743), have eliminated farmed pork from pigs slaughtered at abattoirs as a source of trichinellosis. Epidemiological data from 2011 to 2020 indicate that the number of human cases and the number of infected domestic pigs has decreased significantly. Over the years, pork was the most frequent source of human infection. Cases generally occurred in small family outbreaks, and the infection was linked to consumption of raw or undercooked pork from backyard pigs. In most of the outbreaks, T. spiralis was the aetiological agent of infection, but in 2016, a large outbreak was caused by consumption of uninspected wild boar meat containing T. britovi larvae. To achieve safe pork, it is important that consumers of pork from animals raised in backyard smallholdings and of wild game meat are properly educated about the risks associated with consumption of untested meat. Laboratories conducting Trichinella testing should have a functional quality assurance system to ensure competency of analysts and that accurate and repeatable results are achieved. Regular participation in proficiency testing is needed.

When linearity prevails over hierarchy in syntax.

Hierarchical structure has been cherished as a grammatical universal. We use experimental methods to show where linear order is also a relevant syntactic relation. An identical methodology and design were used across six research sites on South Slavic languages. Experimental results show that in certain configurations, grammatical production can in fact favor linear order over hierarchical structure. However, these findings are limited to coordinate structures and distinct from the kind of production errors found with comparable configurations such as "attraction" errors. The results demonstrate that agreement morphology may be computed in a series of steps, one of which is partly independent from syntactic hierarchy.

Trichinellosis in Serbia has become a rare event - one outbreak with pulmonary complications.

An outbreak of trichinellosis occurred in Stari Banovci, a settlement in the municipality of Stara Pazova, Srem, Republic of Serbia, in March-April 2019. A total of 28 persons were exposed and trichinellosis was confirmed in 24 of them. This outbreak involved members of eight families, their relatives and friends. The infection, due to Trichinella spiralis (Owen, 1835), was associated with consumption of pork sausages procured in a local butcher's shop. The trace-back study revealed that the meat originated from swine that was raised on a small farm belonging to the owner of the shop, who did not have permission from the Veterinary Directorate for slaughtering animals and who put on the market sausages prepared from uninspected meat. Trichinellosis was accompanied by typical clinical symptoms. However, the unusual occurrence of high percentage of pulmonary complications was noticed. The description of this outbreak indicates that medical practitioners should initiate treatment immediately in cases of high suspicion of trichinellosis, even if the serology is negative, to prevent the complications of the disease. In spite of significant achievements in the control of Trichinella infection among domestic pigs and humans in the last 10 years, it is obvious that such cases of breeding animals under inappropriate conditions, slaughtering them without approval and placing uninspected pork on the market represent a source of sporadic outbreaks in Serbia.

Immunomodulatory components of Trichinella spiralis excretory-secretory products with lactose-binding specificity.

The immunomodulatory potential of Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae excretory-secretory products (ES L1) has been well documented in vitro on dendritic cells (DCs) and in animal models of autoimmune diseases. ES L1 products possess the potential to induce tolerogenic DCs and consequently trigger regulatory mechanisms that maintain immune homeostasis. The use of ES L1 as a potential treatment for various inflammatory disorders proved to be beneficial in animal models, although the precise immunomodulatory factors have not yet been identified. This study aimed at the isolation and characterization of ES L1 components that possess galectin family member properties. Galectin-1-like proteins (TsGal-1-like) were isolated from ES L1 based on the assumption of the existence of a lactose-specific carbohydrate-recognition domain and were recognized by anti-galectin-1 antibodies in Western blot. This TsGal-1-like isolate, similar to galectin-1, induced DCs with tolerogenic properties and hence, the capacity to polarize T cell response towards a regulatory type. This was reflected by a significantly increased percentage of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells and significantly increased expression of IL-10 and TGF-ß within this cell population. Proteomic analysis of TsGal-1-like isolate by mass spectrometry identified nineteen proteins, seven with annotated function after blast analysis against a database for T. spiralis and the UniProt database. To our surprise, none of the identified proteins possesses homology with known galectin family members. Nevertheless, the isolated components of ES L1 possess certain galectin-1 properties, such as specific lactose binding and the potential to elicit a regulatory immune response, so it would be worth further investigating the structure of sugar binding within isolated proteins and its biological significance.

Antibodies in sera from multiple sclerosis patients recognize Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae excretory-secretory antigens.

Helminths, as complex pathogens, possess a large number of different epitopes, some of which may be similar to the epitopes of the host. Besides being the cause for the activation of self-reactive immune cells, molecular mimicry may also be the cause for the expansion of regulatory T cells, crucial for the host tolerance of self-antigens. Amelioration of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), caused by Trichinella spiralis infection or application of its muscle larvae excretory-secretory products (ES L1), was achieved through activation of Th2 and regulatory responses. The present study aimed to reveal whether the cause of observed immunomodulation could be the existence of shared epitopes between ES L1 antigens and auto-antigens. Serum samples from 92 MS patients were tested in Western blot for the reactivity toward components of ES L1. Immunoglobulins from the sera of MS patients recognized several ES L1 components, but 45, 49 and 58 kDa proteins dominated others by the frequency of interaction. According to the logistic regression analysis, these interactions were statistically significantly associated with MS, regardless of the disease phenotype or severity. Selected molecules might share homology with self-antigens and as such are worthy of further investigation in terms of potential immunomodulatory capacity and involvement in the parasite's provoked amelioration of EAE.

Plural Conjuncts and Syncretism Facilitate Gender Agreement in Serbo-Croatian:Experimental Evidence.

The literature on agreement in South Slavic generalizes that conjunct agreement in gender is only possible when all conjuncts are plural (e.g., Boskovic, 2009). Marusic et al. (2015) and Arsenijevic and Mitic (2016a,b) attest a significant level of patterns contradicting this claim in elicited production experiments. They weaken the earlier generalization to a facilitating role of plural number for conjunct agreement in gender. However, the stimuli in the two respective experiments involve syncretism between the members of conjunction. The syncretism removes the possibility - at Phonological Form at least - that by agreeing with one conjunct, the verb disagrees with the other. It is hence expected to result in a similar surface effect as the facilitation by plurals, which makes it a potential confound variable. We report and discuss the results of an experiment aimed to test both the effect of syncretism and the reality of the facilitating effects of plural number. The results of the experiment yield positive answers to both questions: syncretism is a facilitating factor, but plural number nevertheless has its facilitating effect too - as confirmed by the stimuli without syncretism. Since syncretism is a phenomenon in which phonological information plays a central role, our findings support syntactic models of agreement which extend to the interface with phonology. Moreover, our results reveal a double similarity of conjunct agreement with agreement attraction, in both showing a (stronger) attraction effect of plural number compared to singular, and in being sensitive to syncretism (cf. Badecker and Kuminiak, 2007; Malko and Slioussar, 2013; i.e., Bader and Meng, 2002; Hartsuiker et al., 2003; Slioussar, 2018).