• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm) infections affect domestic dogs, cats, and various wild mammals with increasing incidence in temperate and tropical areas. More sensitive antibody detection methodologies are required to diagnose asymptomatic dirofilariasis with low worm burdens. Applying current transcriptomic technologies would be useful to discover potential diagnostic markers for D. immitis infection. A filarial homologue of the mammalian translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) was initially identified by screening the assembled transcriptome of D. immitis (DiTCTP). A BLAST analysis suggested that the DiTCTP gene shared the highest similarity with TCTP from Loa loa at protein level (97%). A histidine-tagged recombinant DiTCTP protein (rDiTCTP) of 40 kDa expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) showed immunoreactivity with serum from a dog experimentally infected with heartworms. Localization studies illustrated the ubiquitous presence of rDiTCTP protein in the lateral hypodermal chords, dorsal hypodermal chord, muscle, intestine, and uterus in female adult worms. Further studies on D. immitis-derived TCTP are warranted to assess whether this filarial protein could be used for a diagnostic purpose.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.897-904
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• 1995

Two giant pandas, which come from China have been roared in Yong-in Farmland zoo since 1994. One of them, which is female and 2 years old showed anorexia, mucous diarrhea and severe abdominal pain. It revealed neutrophilia and hypokalemia which suggested inflammation and loss of electrolytes by diarrhea. The mucous material contained intestinal mucoid epithelim which was infected Gram negative bacilli and infiltrated with neutrophils. The antibacterial therapy with nafcillin and ampicillin was not successful. Yersinia entrocolitica was implicated as a causative organism in the occurrence of bacterial enteritis. This organism had resistance to ampicillin, chlorampenicol, cefalothin, tetracycline, trimetoprim-sul-famethoxazole, erythromycin, gentamicin, kanamycin, carbanicillin and danofloxacin. It responded to the simultaneous administration of cefopherazone, flunixin-meglumine, physiological saline, Lactate Rainger's solution, sodium bicarbonate, KCL and vitamins and recovered after a period of 30days.