Potential risk of zoonotic transmission from young swine to human: seroepidemiological and genetic characterization of hepatitis E virus in human and various animals in Beijing, China

The aim of this study was to further investigate the prevalence of infection and genotype of hepatitis E virus (HEV) among different species of animals, people whose works are related to pigs and the general population in the suburb of Beijing, China. Serum and faecal samples were collected from 10 animal species and humans. Anti-HEV was detected by enzyme immunoassays (EIA); HEV RNA was amplified by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) method. PCR products were cloned and sequenced. The isolated swine HEV sequences were analysed phylogenetically. The positive rates of serum anti-HEV in swine, cattle, milk cow, horse, sheep, donkey, dog, duck, chicken, pig farm workers and slaughterhouse workers, and general population were 81.17% (802/988), 25.29% (66/261), 14.87% (40/269), 14.29% (40/280), 9.30% (53/514), 0 (0/25), 0 (0/20), 2.53% (8/316), 3.03% (7/231), 58.73% (37/63), 35.87% (66/184) and 20.06% (538/2682), respectively. The anti-HEV prevalence in adult swine (≥ 6 months) and younger swine (≤ 3 months) was 91.49% (591/646) and 61.7% (211/342), respectively. The positive rate of HEV RNA in young swine faeces was 47.94% (93/194). All 93 isolates from the younger swine shared 87.8-100% nucleotide homology with each other and had identities of 75.6-78.9%, 73.9-76.1%, 76.4-80.6% and 83.1-95.0% with the corresponding regions of genotypes 1-4 HEV, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all HEV isolates belong to genotype 4, subgenotype 4d. These results suggest a potential risk of zoonotic transmission of HEV from younger swine to farmers who rear pigs.

First evidence of the role of zonal flows for the L-H transition at marginal input power in the EAST tokamak

A quasiperiodic Er oscillation at a frequency of <4 kHz, much lower than the geodesic-acoustic-mode frequency, with a modulation in edge turbulence preceding and following the low-to-high (L-H) confinement mode transition, has been observed for the first time in the EAST tokamak, using two toroidally separated reciprocating probes. Just prior to the L-H transition, the Er oscillation often evolves into intermittent negative Er spikes. The low-frequency Er oscillation, as well as the Er spikes, is strongly correlated with the turbulence-driven Reynolds stress, thus providing first evidence of the role of the zonal flows in the L-H transition at marginal input power. These new findings not only shed light on the underlying physics mechanism for the L-H transition, but also have significant implications for ITER operations close to the L-H transition threshold power.

Toxicity of cyanuric acid to broilers on hepatic and renal health with and without melamine

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the toxicity potential of cyanuric acid (CYA) and a combination of melamine (MEL) and CYA in broilers. A total of 1200 male COBB 500 broilers were randomly allocated into 1 of 10 treatment groups by a 5 × 2 factorial design in a 42-d experiment. The dietary treatments were as follows: T1 to T5: basal diets with 0, 10, 20, 33.3, and 50 mg CYA per kg diet; T6 to T10: basal diet with CYA regimens similar to T1 to T5 but with 100 mg MEL per kg diet. There were 6 replication pens with 20 chicks per pen. No differences were observed in alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities. But on d 22, uric acid (UA) and creatinine (Crea) concentrations were significantly greater when birds were fed CYA at 33.3 mg/kg with MEL 100 mg/kg, and Crea concentration was also higher when birds were fed CYA at 50 mg/kg. No crystals were found in kidneys but dilated renal tubules and small blood vessel expansion were found in kidneys of birds fed CYA at 50 mg/kg and CYA at 33.3 mg/kg with MEL 100 mg/kg. The apoptosis rate (AR) of kidneys of all birds fed CYA and MEL contaminated diets were higher than the control group. These results indicated that the dietary addition of CYA and MEL could induce kidney damage, and the effects were harmful when the ratio of CYA/MEL was 1:3.