Effects of challenge with a virulent genotype II strain of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus on piglets vaccinated with an attenuated genotype I strain vaccine

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is endemic in most parts of Asia, where genotype I and II strains of diverse virulence may coexist. This study evaluated the outcome of infection with a highly virulent Asian genotype II PRRSV isolate in piglets vaccinated with a genotype I vaccine. Twenty-one 3-week-old piglets were divided in three groups: Pigs in group V (n=8) were vaccinated with an attenuated genotype I commercial PRRSV vaccine, while pigs in group U (n=8) and a control group (group C; n=5) were unvaccinated; 6 weeks later, pigs in groups V and U were challenged intranasally with a highly virulent strain of genotype II PRRSV (1×10(5) 50% tissue culture infectious doses/mL), while pigs in group C received a placebo. Over a period of 21 days after challenge, vaccinated pigs had significantly lower mortality (0/8 versus 2/8), fewer days of fever, a lower frequency of catarrhal bronchopneumonia, higher weight gains (13.4 versus 6.6 kg) and lower levels of viraemia compared to unvaccinated challenged pigs. Immunisation with a genotype I attenuated PRRSV vaccine provided partial protection against challenge with a highly virulent genotype II strain.

The role of the headspace in hydrogen sulfide removal during microaerobic digestion of sludge

The role of the headspace (HS) in the microaerobic removal of hydrogen sulfide from biogas produced during sludge digestion was studied. Research was carried out in a pilot reactor with a total volume of 265 L, under mesophilic conditions. Biogas was successfully desulfurized (99%) by introducing pure oxygen (0.46 NL/L(fed)) into the recirculation stream when the HS volume was both 50.0 and 9.5 L. The removal efficacy dropped sharply to ≈15% when the HS was reduced to 1.5 L. The system responded quickly to the operational changes imposed: micro-oxygenation stops and variations in supply, as well as HS volume reductions and increases. As the final result, the microaerobic process required a minimum surface into the gas space to occur, which along with the elemental sulfur deposition in this area indicated that the oxidation took place there. Additionally, the pattern of sulfur accumulation suggested that the removal occurred preferentially on certain materials, and pointed to a significant biological contribution.

Robustness of the microaerobic removal of hydrogen sulfide from biogas

Several disturbances presented in full-scale digesters can potentially affect the efficiency of the microaerobic removal process. This study evaluates the variation of the sulfur load and the performance of the system in situations of oxygen lack or excess and after normal rates are recovered. The process was shown to recover from oxygen lack or excess within 28 h when the original conditions were restored in a pilot-plant digester of 200 L treating sewage sludge with HRT of 20 days. The decrease of the sulfur load to the digester did not affect the biogas composition in the short-term and when oxygen rate was reduced to adjust to the lower hydrogen sulfide production, the removal proceeded normally with a lower unemployed oxygen amount. The digester opening to remove accumulated sulfur in the headspace did not alter process performance once the microaerobic removal was restarted.

Effect of microaerobic conditions on the degradation kinetics of cellulose

Limited oxygen supply to sludge digesters has shown to be an effective method to eliminate hydrogen sulfide from the biogas produced during anaerobic digestion but uneven results have been found in terms of the effect on the degradation of complex organic matter. In this study, the effect that the limited oxygen supply provoked on the "anaerobic" degradation of cellulose was evaluated in batch-tests. The microaerobic assays showed to reach a similar maximum production of methane than the anaerobic ones after 19 d and a similar hydrolytic activity (considering a first order rate constant); however, the microaerobic assays presented a shorter lag-phase time than the anaerobic test resulting in faster production of methane during the first steps of the degradation; specifically, the maximum methane production found in the anaerobic test in 19 d was found in the microaerobic test before the day 15.

Effect of an elevated monounsaturated fat diet on pork carcass and meat quality traits and tissue fatty acid composition from York-crossed barrows and gilts

Fifty-seven York-crossed barrows and gilts were fed either a grain and soy diet (CONTROL with 28% C18:1) or a similar diet enriched with oleic acid (HO with 43% C18:1, Greedy-Grass OLIVA®). There were no interactions between dietary treatment and gender and there were no differences in intramuscular and subcutaneous fatty acid composition between sexes (P>0.05). Similar primal cut yields, composition of major primal cuts, and carcass and meat quality characteristics were found for HO and CONTROL fed pigs. Apart from a few significant but small differences for some fatty acids, intramuscular fatty acid composition was similar for both dietary treatments. Subcutaneous fat from HO fed pigs had a 6.9% increase in total monounsaturated fatty acids and a 9.3% reduction in total polyunsaturated fatty acids (P<0.05) compared with CONTROL fed animals, without adversely affecting carcass quality and producing suitable hams for processing by the meat industry.

Effect of oxygen dosing point and mixing on the microaerobic removal of hydrogen sulphide in sludge digesters

Limited oxygen supply to anaerobic sludge digesters to remove hydrogen sulphide from biogas was studied. Micro-oxygenation showed competitive performance to reduce considerably the additional equipment necessary to perform biogas desulphurization. Two pilot-plant digesters with an HRT of ∼ 20 d were micro-oxygenated at a rate of 0.25 NL per L of feed sludge with a removal efficiency higher than 98%. The way of mixing (sludge or biogas recirculation) and the point of oxygen supply (headspace or liquid phase) played an important role on hydrogen sulphide oxidation. While micro-oxygenation with sludge recirculation removed only hydrogen sulphide from the biogas, dissolved sulphide was removed if micro-oxygenation was performed with biogas recirculation. Dosage in the headspace resulted in a more stable operation. The result of the hydrogen sulphide oxidation was mostly elemental sulphur, partially accumulated in the headspace of the digester, where different sulphide-oxidising bacteria were found.

Determination of the optimal rate for the microaerobic treatment of several H2S concentrations in biogas from sludge digesters

The treatment of H2S in the biogas produced during anaerobic digestion has to be carried out to ensure the efficient long-lasting use of its energetic potential. The microaerobic removal of H2S was studied to determine the treatment capacity at low and high H2S concentrations in the biogas (0.33 and 3.38% v/v) and to determine the optimal O2 rate that achieved a concentration of H2S of 150 mg/Nm3 or lower. Research was performed in pilot-plant scale digesters of sewage sludge, with 200 L of working volume, in mesophilic conditions with a hydraulic retention time of 20 d. O2 was supplied at different rates to the headspace of the digester to create the microaerobic conditions. The treatment successfully removed H2S from the biogas with efficacies of 97% for the low concentration and 99% for the highest, in both cases achieving a concentration below 150 mg/Nm3. An optimal O2 rate of 6.4 NLO2/Nm3 of biogas when treating the biogas was found with 0.33% (v/v) of H2S and 118 NLO2/ Nm3 of biogas for the 3.38% (v/v) concentration. This relation may be employed to control the H2S content in the biogas while optimising the O2 supply.

Performance evaluation of oxygen, air and nitrate for the microaerobic removal of hydrogen sulphide in biogas from sludge digestion

The removal performance of hydrogen sulphide in severely polluted biogas produced during the anaerobic digestion of sludge was studied by employing pure oxygen, air and nitrate as oxidant reactives supplied to the biodigester. Research was performed in a 200-L digester with an hydraulic retention time (HRT) of ∼20 days under mesophilic conditions. The oxygen supply (0.25 N m³/m³ feed) to the bioreactor successfully reduced the hydrogen sulphide content from 15,811 mg/N m³ to less than 400 mg/N m³. The introduction of air (1.27 N m³/m³ feed) removed more than 99% of the hydrogen sulphide content, with a final concentration of ∼55 mg/N m³. COD removal, VS reduction and methane yield were not affected under microaerobic conditions; however, methane concentration in the biogas decreased when air was employed as a result of nitrogen dilution. The nitrate addition was not effective for hydrogen sulphide removal in the biogas.

Characterization of periodic and non-periodic breathing pattern in chronic heart failure patients

Periodic breathing (PB) has a high prevalence in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients with mild to moderate symptoms and poor ventricular function. This work proposes the analysis and characterization of the respiratory pattern to identify periodic breathing pattern (PB) and non-periodic breathing pattern (nPB) through the respiratory flow signal. The respiratory pattern analysis is based on the extraction and the study of the flow envelope signal. The flow envelope signal is modelled by an autoregressive model (AR) whose coefficients would characterize the respiratory pattern of each group. The goodness of the characterization is evaluated through a linear and non linear classifier applied to the AR coefficients. An adaptive feature selection is used before the linear and non linear classification, employing leave-one-out cross validation technique. With linear classification the percentage of well classified patients (8 PB and 18 nPB patients) is 84.6% using the statistically significant coefficients whereas with non linear classification, the percentage of well classified patients increase to more than 92% applying the best subset of coefficients extracted by a forward selection algorithm.

Hydrogen sulphide removal in the anaerobic digestion of sludge by micro-aerobic processes: pilot plant experience

H(2)S removal from biogas produced in anaerobic digestion of sludge through the introduction of oxygen under micro-aerobic conditions is studied. Research was carried out in two pilot plant reactors (working volume, 200 L each) treating sludge from WWTP with HRT of 20 days. Mixing was provided via sludge or biogas recirculation. Introduction of very low oxygen flow (0.013-0.024 L/L(reactor) d) successfully removed H(2)S content in biogas with an efficiency above 99%. Reactor performance during micro-aerobic operation in terms of biogas production, methane yield and COD removal were not affected by the amount of oxygen supplied, remaining stable and similar to the anaerobic behaviour. Sludge recirculation ( approximately 50 L/h) and biogas recirculation ( approximately 3.5 L/min) as mixing methods were found not significant in H(2)S removal from biogas while biogas recirculation reduced by 10 times dissolved sulphide concentration compared to sludge recirculation.

Increasing the amount of n-3 fatty acid in meat from young Holstein bulls through nutrition1

Fifty-four Holstein bulls were blocked by initial BW (301 +/- 7.4 kg) and randomly assigned to 6 treatments following a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement, with 3 concentrate lipid levels (5, 8, and 11% of DM) and 2 lipid sources (whole canola seed and whole linseed), with the objective of evaluating the possibility of increasing the content of n-3 fatty acids in meat. Concentrates (mostly corn meal) were isonitrogenous and isocaloric. Concentrate and straw were both fed ad libitum. Animal BW was recorded every 2 wk, and feed consumption was recorded weekly. Ruminal pH and VFA concentrations were determined monthly. Bulls were transported to the slaughterhouse when they achieved the target slaughter weight of 443 kg (after 105 +/- 4 d of fattening). After slaughter, a sample of LM from the sixth to the eighth ribs was dissected and analyzed for intramuscular fat content and fatty acid profile. Dietary lipid source did not affect overall animal performance, rumen fermentation, or carcass quality. Rumen pH was >6.0 despite consumption by the bulls of large amounts of concentrate. In bulls fed linseed, the percentage of n-3 fatty acids in LM increased linearly with lipid level, whereas in bulls fed canola seed it remained constant. The ratio of n-6:n-3 fatty acids was lower (P < 0.01) in the LM of bulls fed linseed (10.0) than in those fed canola seed (26.0). The content of cis-9, trans-11-CLA in the LM tended (P = 0.06) to be greater in the bulls fed linseed than in those fed canola seed (62.9 vs. 49.2 mg/kg of LM, respectively). Concentration of n-3 fatty acids in meat of bulls fed high-concentrate diets can be enhanced by whole linseed supplementation without affecting animal performance, ruminal fermentation, or carcass quality.

Different European-type vaccines against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus have different immunological properties and confer different protection to pigs

Immunization of piglets with two different European-type modified live vaccines against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus produced different outcomes. After vaccination, pigs became viremic (42 days), neutralizing antibodies did not develop, and frequencies of virus-specific gamma-interferon-secreting cells (IFN-gamma-SC) were low. Levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10) produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) seemed to inversely correlate with interferon-gamma responses. After a challenge with a virulent Spanish strain, one vaccine (V3) protected piglets against viremia while the other (V1) did not. The vaccine V3 induced the highest IFN-gamma-SC frequencies. IL-2, IL-4 or transforming growth factor-beta responses were not detected at any time for neither of the vaccines. In contrast, haptoglobin rose in sera of viremic pigs after the challenge. These results indicated a strong involvement of IFN-gamma, and maybe IL-10, in the development of immunity against PRRS virus.

Evolution of ORF5 of Spanish porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus strains from 1991 to 2005

ORF5 sequences of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were analysed to determine genetic diversity, codon usage, positive and negative selection sites and potential changes in the predicted glycoprotein 5 (GP5). A hypothetical GP5 containing all selected sites was constructed to determine its characteristics. These sequences corresponded to isolates obtained 10 years apart (1991–1995, 18 strains) and a second set (n = 46) from 2000 to 2005. Similarity to Lelystad virus (LV) decreased from 95.5% in 1991–1995 to 89.5% in 2000–2005. Three highly variable regions were found in ORF5. Codon usage was different in both sets for leucine, glutamine, serine and proline. Thus, 2000–2005 sequences used codons more similar to those present in highly expressed pig genes compared to the 1991–1995 set. Twenty four sites of positive selection and 20 sites of negative selection were found in GP5, most of them in transmembrane regions. Additional glycosylation in N37 of GP5 was common in 2000–2005 but some sequences lack a glycosylation site in N46. The hypothetical GP5 was only 88.1% similar to LV and was less hydrophobic. Taking together these results suggest that PRRSV is still adapting to pig cells.