Presence of ascites in bullfrog breeders reared and kept on a frog farm

ABSTRACT Ascites is a pathology characterized by the extravasation of fluid from blood vessels and its accumulation in the abdominal cavity, caused by several associated factors. In this paper, we report the occurrence of this syndrome in breeding male and female Bullfrogs fed a commercial fish feed with 40% crude protein. Liver malformation was already observed due to lack of protein deposition in adult animals from the same spawning. The culture of ascitic fluid showed absence of bacterial growth. Kidney histopathology showed, in both sexes, a large number of tubular structures with strongly eosinophilic hyaline material suggesting colloid growth in both the cortical region and spinal cord. The analysis also revealed granulomas in various stages of development, many showing central necrotic material. The kidneys, glomerular, were mostly hypoplastic, with enlarged Bowman space, and many were hyalinized or hemorrhagic; the parenchyma showed dystrophic calcification, and many tubules containing fibrinoid material. The liver displayed a large amount of melanomacrophages in the parenchyma and foci of mono-lymphocytic hepatitis and marked cytoplasmic rarefaction, as well as several hepatocytes with pyknotic nuclei and necrotic cells and dissociation of the hepatic trabeculae. Ascites may be caused by the lesions observed in these organs.

Vitamin C supplementation has no effect on American bullfrog's immune response

American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is the only species raised in Brazilian commercial frog farms, and the intensive culture of these animals has gained great popularity in Brazil over the past several years. Stress is one of the major obstacles in frog culture. To minimise this problem, the aim of the present study was to investigate the role of added vitamin C in the diet of American bullfrogs as an antistress factor through the assessment of plasma corticosterone, leucocyte levels and macrophage activation in animals raised in confinement. The experimental design was entirely randomised, with six treatments (supplementation of 0, 250, 500, 750, 1000 and 2000 mg of vitamin C/kg of feed) and four replications. The plasma corticosterone level, leucocyte level and macrophage activation were evaluated. It was concluded that vitamin C had no influence on the evaluated parameters due to the possible adaptation of the animals to life in captivity (domestication). The results of this research indicate that farmers should not increase the levels of vitamin C in commercial feeds because this would only enhance production costs.

Tracking viral particles in the intestinal contents of the American bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus, by Transmission Electron Microscopy

Feces are an important viral agent elimination route for infected carrier animals and in aquatic organisms these pathogenic agents can very rapidly propagate due to the habitation environment. The objective of this work is to track viral particles in the intestinal contents of bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) from five commercial frog farms in the region of Vale do Paraíba, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, using negative contrast transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The Coronaviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Parvoviridae and Herpesviridae families were observed and photographed in specimens. This work emphasizes the importance of adopting sanitary measures in commercial farms and confirms that observing feces by TEM is an efficient and rapid diagnostic tool for detecting viral agents.

Enrichment of cis-regulatory gene expression SNPs and methylation quantitative trait loci among bipolar disorder susceptibility variants

We conducted a systematic study of top susceptibility variants from a genome-wide association (GWA) study of bipolar disorder to gain insight into the functional consequences of genetic variation influencing disease risk. We report here the results of experiments to explore the effects of these susceptibility variants on DNA methylation and mRNA expression in human cerebellum samples. Among the top susceptibility variants, we identified an enrichment of cis regulatory loci on mRNA expression (eQTLs), and a significant excess of quantitative trait loci for DNA CpG methylation, hereafter referred to as methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTLs). Bipolar disorder susceptibility variants that cis regulate both cerebellar expression and methylation of the same gene are a very small proportion of bipolar disorder susceptibility variants. This finding suggests that mQTLs and eQTLs provide orthogonal ways of functionally annotating genetic variation within the context of studies of pathophysiology in brain. No lymphocyte mQTL enrichment was found, suggesting that mQTL enrichment was specific to the cerebellum, in contrast to eQTLs. Separately, we found that using mQTL information to restrict the number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms studied enhances our ability to detect a significant association. With this restriction a priori informed by the observed functional enrichment, we identified a significant association (rs12618769, P(bonferroni)<0.05) from two other GWA studies (TGen+GAIN; 2191 cases and 1434 controls) of bipolar disorder, which we replicated in an independent GWA study (WTCCC). Collectively, our findings highlight the importance of integrating functional annotation of genetic variants for gene expression and DNA methylation to advance the biological understanding of bipolar disorder.

[Bovine botulism: laboratory confirmation of clinical diagnosis in 1986-1989]

Five hundred and seventeen specimens relating to a total of 235 clinical cases of bovine botulism occurring over period of four years (1986-1989) were studied. These samples came from the States of S. Paulo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Bahia, Pará, Maranhão, Distrito Federal and Roraima. Laboratorial tests were performed on these samples with a view to toxin detection. Toxin types C and D were detected being found in the liver and in gastric and intestinal contents. The small number of confirmed cases led to the supposition of the participation of other diseases in these deaths reported, even if false negative cases are taken into account.