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Characteristics of antimicrobial residues in manure composts from swine farms : Residual patterns, removal efficiencies, and relation to purchased quantities and composting methods in Japan
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Molecular characterization of feline immune checkpoint molecules and establishment of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry for feline tumors
Get PDFjournal articleSpontaneous tumors are a major cause of death in cats. Treatment of human tumors has progressed dramatically in the past decade, partly due to the success of immunotherapies using immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) and anti-PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies. However, little is known about the PD-1 pathway and its association with tumor disease in cats. This study investigated the applicability of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in feline tumors. We first determined the complete coding sequence of feline PD-L1 and PD-L2, and found that the deduced amino acid sequences of feline PD-L1/PD-L2 share high sequence identities (66–83%) with orthologs in other mammalian species. We prepared recombinant feline PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 proteins and confirmed receptor–ligand binding between PD-1 and PD-L1/PD-L2 using flow cytometry. Next, we established an anti-feline PD-L1 monoclonal antibody (clone CL1Mab-7) to analyze the expression of PD-L1. Flow cytometry using CL1Mab-7 revealed the cell surface expression of PD-L1 in a feline macrophage (Fcwf-4) and five mammary adenocarcinoma cell lines (FKNp, FMCm, FYMp, FONp, and FONm), and showed that PD-L1 expression was upregulated by interferon-γ stimulation. Finally, immunohistochemistry using CL1Mab-7 also showed PD-L1 expression in feline squamous cell carcinoma (5/5, 100%), mammary adenocarcinoma (4/5, 80%), fibrosarcoma (5/5, 100%), and renal cell carcinoma (2/2, 100%) tissues. Our results strongly encourage further investigations of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway as a potential therapeutic target for feline tumors.journal articl
Applicability of vital data collected from a non-contact sensor for estimating an individual cow’s methane emission with a laser methane detector
Get PDFjournal articleThis paper explores the applicability of estimating methane emission from cows using non-contact sensors and deep learning techniques. The study was conducted on a Holstein cow housed in a tie-stall barn at Rakuno Gakuen University in Ebetsu-shi, Hokkaido, Japan. Methane concentration in the cow's breath and vital data, including heart rate, respiratory rate, and body movements, were measured using a laser methane detector (LMD) and a non-contact sensor, respectively. The LMD data was preprocessed to “extracted Mini-peaks”, which represent exhalation events, to be used as the target variable dataset. In addition, the vital data was used as the explanatory variable dataset. The Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model was implemented to estimate methane concentration in a cow’s breath, and the performance of the model was evaluated based on the root mean square error (RMSE) value. The results showed that the LSTM model trained with the “extracted Mini-peaks” data outperformed the model trained with the “raw LMD” data, indicating that the Mini-peaks were more closely related to vital data. Furthermore, the LSTM model trained with the “extracted Mini-peaks” data exhibited a relative error ranging from 1.9% to 11.6% in estimating daily methane emissions, compared to that calculated from observed methane concentration. The study demonstrated the applicability of estimating methane emissions from cows using non-contact sensors and the LSTM model with achieving estimation accuracy that is comparable to the LMD method. This approach could provide a cost-effective and efficient method for monitoring methane emissions from cows, contributing to the development of sustainable livestock farming practices.journal articl
Complement biomarkers reflect the pathological status of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders
Get PDFjournal articleComplement is involved in the pathogenesis of neuroimmune disease, but the detailed pathological roles of the complement pathway remain incompletely understood. Recently, eculizumab, a humanized anti-C5 monoclonal antibody, has been clinically applied against neuroimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). Clinical application of eculizumab is also being investigated for another neuroimmune disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). However, while the effectiveness of eculizumab for NMOSD is extremely high in many cases, there are some cases of myasthenia gravis and GBS in which eculizumab has little or no efficacy. Development of effective biomarkers that reflect complement activation in these diseases is therefore important. To identify biomarkers that could predict disease status, we retrospectively analyzed serum levels of complement factors in 21 patients with NMOSD and 25 patients with GBS. Ba, an activation marker of the alternative complement pathway, was elevated in the acute phases of both NMOSD and GBS. Meanwhile, sC5b-9, an activation marker generated by the terminal complement pathway, was elevated in NMOSD but not in GBS. Complement factor H (CFH), a complement regulatory factor, was decreased in the acute phase as well as in the remission phase of NMOSD, but not in any phases of GBS. Together, these findings suggest that complement biomarkers, such as Ba, sC5b-9 and CFH in peripheral blood, have potential utility in understanding the pathological status of NMOSD.journal articl
Development of Method for Rapidly Identifying Mastitis-Causing Bacteria and Media for Estimating Antimicrobial Susceptibility for the Appropriate Use of Antimicrobials
Get PDFjournal article乳房炎の治療は，おもに抗菌薬投与により行われるが，抗菌薬選択のため，簡易に分離／同定，薬剤感受性を明らかにすることが必要である．そこで，コロニーの色を含む性状を基に原因菌の推定ができるCHROMagarTM Mastitis培地の性能を評価した．さらに，ペニシリン含有培地を用いたペニシリン感受性及び同じ培地に抗菌薬含有ディスクを置くことによる薬剤感受性の推定を実施することの有用性を評価した．乳房炎乳汁135サンプルを集め試験に供した．結果，乳房炎の主要な原因菌（大腸菌，クレブシエラ属菌，黄色ブドウ球菌，Streptococcus uberis）をそれぞれ100，100，87，42％の一致率で判定し，抗菌薬に対する感受性も推定することができた．この方法により，抗菌薬の適切な選択を促進することが期待される．Dairy cows suffering from mastitis are mainly treated by administering antimicrobials. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of CHROMagarTM Mastitis, which can estimate the causative pathogenic bacteria based on the color of the colonies. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of performing the estimation of antimicrobial susceptibility using penicillin-containing agar and placing antimicrobial-containing discs on the same agar in order to simply estimate antimicrobial susceptibility. One hundred thirty-five samples of mastitis milk were collected and tested. The results for Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus uberis, which are considered the major causative bacteria of mastitis, were in agreement with the identification of 100, 100, 87, and 42%, respectively. Penicillin-containing agar made it possible to estimate susceptibility to penicillin, and by combining the antimicrobial susceptibility discs, susceptibility to other antimicrobials could also be estimated. The present method is expected to facilitate the appropriate choice of antimicrobials by providing simple estimates of mastitis-causing bacteria and antimicrobial susceptibility.journal articl
Seven Epithemia taxa (Bacillariophyta) from Lake Akan (Japan) and their salinity tolerances
Get PDFjournal articleThe ecologies (salinity tolerance) of many diatoms are largely unknown, despite their potential to contribute to more detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This study therefore aimed to investigate the relationship between diatom species and salinity. We cultured seven cosmopolitan benthic diatom species obtained from Lake Akan, a freshwater inland lake in Japan: Epithemia adnata, E. frickei, E. gibba, E. operculata, E. sorex, E. sp. and E. turgida. Each species was cultured at eleven salinities between 0‰ and 50‰. Epithemia adnata, E. frickei and E. sorex had the highest growth rate at a salinity of 3‰, with no further increase observed above 25‰. However, E. gibba had the highest growth rate at a salinity of 5‰, with no increase at salinities ≥ 30‰. These results suggest that E. adnata, E. frickei, E. gibba, and E. sorex grow in freshwater to brackish-water environments. Epithemia operculata and E. sp. proliferated at all salinities, indicating that they can adapt to hypersaline environments. However, E. turgida did not survive in salinities >10‰, making it the species with the narrowest salinity tolerance range. These results provide new knowledge that improves the understanding of the ecology of these species in modern environments and offer insights into paleoenvironmental reconstructions through diatom analysis.journal articl
Death-and-culling rates of calves and associated economic losses in the first month of life on dairy farms in eastern Hokkaido, Japan
Get PDFjournal articleThe objective of this study was to analyze death and culling (DC) of calves during the first month of life and associated economic losses on dairy farms in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. The DC in the first month of life of 4411 Holstein and Wagyu crossbred calves born in the year 2019–2020 on 39 dairy farms milking Holsteins was investigated. Based on a target DC rate of 6.75%, farms were classified into two groups, those with high DC rates (HDC, 11.68%, n = 18) and those with low DC rates (LDC, 2.67%, n = 21), and analyzed for DC factors (breed, sex, parity of dams, and housing type of dams) and diseases causing DC, their loss estimates, and replenishment of DC calves (birth rate, purchase of heifers, and housing type of dams). Comparisons between groups were made using the Kaplan-Meier method, the Mann-Whitney U test, and chi-square test. The DC rate of Holsteins was significantly higher (P < 0.001) for HDC farms than for LDC ones. But, the DC rate of Wagyu crossbreds was not different between the groups, which suggested hybrid vigor. The DC rates for digestive diseases were significantly higher (P < 0.01) in the HDC farms, except for congenital diseases and deaths of unknown cause. The overall loss estimates of DC per calf-month for all farms was 8892, JPY/calf-months, 14,726 for HDC farms, and 4065 for LDC farms. The loss estimates of items with significant differences in DC rates were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the HDC farms, with higher loss estimates for Holsteins and digestive diseases being the most common characteristics of HDC farms. In binomial logistic regression analysis with ”HDC farms or not” as the response variable and replenishment of DC calves as the explanatory variable, HDC was significantly more likely (OR: 1.10, P < 0.05) on farms with a higher birth proportion of Holsteins, and HDC farms supplemented the DC calves by increasing the birth proportion of Holsteins.journal articl