quarta-feira, 31 de outubro de 2012

Doenças, agravos e eventos em saúde pública de notificação compulsória imediata




A Medicina Veterinária tem papel fundamental na Saúde Pública. Exemplo disto é a recente inserção do Médico Veterinário no NASF (Núcleo de Apoio à Saúde da Família), bem como o esforço contínuo da própria Organização Mundial de Saúde em incluir esse profissional na participação, planejamento e avaliação das medidas preventivas e de controle adotadas por suas equipes de saúde pública. Nota-se, portanto, a importância do Médico Veterinário nas linhas de ação que compõem os serviços de vigilância em saúde em nível mundial. Neste contexto, a comunicação das doenças, agravos e eventos em saúde pública às autoridades é uma das mais importantes ferramentas que o Médico Veterinário tem à disposição para exercer suas funções, esteja este profissional inserido no setor público ou privado.
Assim, a Secretaria de Estado da Saúde do Paraná disponibiliza em seu website www.sesa.pr.gov.br o link “NOTIFIQUE AQUI” para notificação online e imediata da ocorrência de casos/eventos de notificação compulsória imediata, segundo o Anexo II da portaria nº104 de 25 de janeiro de 2011 do Ministério da Saúde. Essa notificação deve ser feita por qualquer profissional de saúde (técnicos de enfermagem, enfermeiros, médicos, médicos veterinários, etc.), que atuem em esfera pública ou particular, e não somente os profissionais das vigilâncias em saúde de municípios/estados.
A motivação e a lista de doenças de notificação compulsória imediata encontram-se no arquivo "Portaria104(25-01-2011)". Além do link "NOTIFIQUE AQUI", a SESA-PR funciona com plantão 24h para atender as demandas de eventos de notificação compulsória/desastres/eventos inusitados/emergências em saúde pública por meio do setor CIEVS (Centro de Informações Estratégicas e Respostas em Vigilância em Saúde). Os telefones para contato são: (41) 3330-4416/4492/4493 e 0800 643 8484 e 0800 645 4900.

Méd. Vet. Thaila F. Corona
Comissão de Saúde Pública Veterinária
CIEVS/SESA-PR

terça-feira, 30 de outubro de 2012

El CReSA tras las huellas de la peste porcina clásica


Seis artículos publicados en revistas de impacto en dos años respaldan la línea de investigación


La trayectoria investigadora del CReSA en peste porcina clásica durante los últimos cuatro años ha resultado en nuevos conocimientos sobre la respuesta protectiva frente al virus y sobre la evolución vírica en infecciones endémicas de interés para el desarrollo de nuevas técnicas de diagnóstico y nuevas vacunas.
La peste porcina clásica (PPC) es una enfermedad vírica altamente contagiosa que afecta a cerdos domésticos y salvajes. La enfermedad es endémica en algunos países de Centroamérica y el Caribe, Suramérica, Sureste Asiático y Europa del Este. La Unión Europea se considera zona de alto riesgo de reemergencia de la enfermedad debido a la alta densidad en la población porcina, a la política de no vacunación seguida actualmente y a su cercanía con países de Europa del Este.
La investigación en el virus de la PPC en el CReSA (VPPC) se centra en estudios de patogenia y evolución vírica con el fin de desarrollar nuevos métodos de diagnóstico y vacunación.
La doctora Llilianne Ganges, investigadora principal en PPC en el CReSA, nos resume brevemente cuáles han sido los principales resultados obtenidos a lo largo de estos cuatro años: “Hemos realizado estudios de presión de selección positiva del VPPC en una zona endémica sometida al control por vacunación con la vacuna viva atenuada. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren una posible asociación entre variantes de escape viral y las alteraciones observadas en la virulencia y patogenia del virus tras 20 años de circulación”.
Además, Ganges añade: “Se han desarrollado nuevas vacunas recombinantes basadas en péptidos dendriméricos, nuevos adyuvantes moleculares y nuevas técnicas de diagnóstico para la cuantificación y detección rápida del ácido nucleico vírico. Otros estudios desarrollados en el proyecto demuestran la capacidad de la glicoproteína E2 de inducir una fuerte respuesta celular asociada al interferón gamma que correlaciona con  la protección frente al virus antes de la inducción de anticuerpos neutralizantes”.
Por otra parte, puntualiza: “Los estudios realizados han demostrado la capacidad que tienen las cepas virulentas de inducir una fuerte respuesta de interferón de tipo I que correlaciona con una alta replicación vírica en los cerdos a tiempos cortos post infección. Además, se han identificado nuevos antígenos implicados en protección vírica y que pueden ser de gran interés para el desarrollo de nuevas técnicas de diagnóstico serológico más eficaces que las existentes”.
Este proyecto fue financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Nuevas estrategias vacunales frente al virus de la peste porcina clásica. Estudio de mecanismos implicados en la inmunopatogenicidad viral. BIO2008-04487-C03-03). Durante el desarrollo el proyecto, se ha colaborado con otras instituciones, como la Universitat de Lleida (UdL, Lleida), el Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO, Madrid), la Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona) y el Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (CENSA, La Habana, Cuba).
Artículos resultantes del proyecto
  • Interferon-gamma induction correlates with protection by DNA vaccine expressing E2 glycoprotein against classical swine fever virus infection in domestic pigs. Tarradas J, Argilaguet JM, Rosell R, Nofrarías M, Crisci E, Córdoba L, Pérez-Martín E, Díaz I, Rodríguez F, Domingo M, Montoya M, Ganges L. Vet Microbiol. 2010 Apr 21;142(1-2):51-8.
  • Immunomodulatory effect of swine CCL20 chemokine in DNA vaccination against CSFV. Tarradas J, Álvarez B, Fraile L, Rosell R, Muñoz M, Galindo-Cardiel I, Domingo M, Dominguez J, Ezquerra A, Sobrino F, Ganges L. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2011 Aug 15;142(3-4):243-51.
  • Development and validation of a novel SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay for the detection of classical swine fever virus evaluated on different real-time PCR platforms. Pérez LJ, Díaz de Arce H, Tarradas J, Rosell R, Perera CL, Muñoz M, Frías MT, Nuñez JI, Ganges L. J Virol Methods. 2011 Jun;174(1-2):53-9.
  • Partial protection against classical swine fever virus elicited by dendrimeric vaccine-candidate peptides in domestic pigs.Tarradas J, Monsó M, Muñoz M, Rosell R, Fraile L, Frías MT, Domingo M, Andreu D, Sobrino F, Ganges L. Vaccine. 2011 Jun 10;29(26):4422-9.
  • Positive selection pressure on the B/C domains of the E2-gene of classical swine fever virus in endemic areas under C-strain vaccination. Pérez LJ, Díaz de Arce H, Perera CL, Rosell R, Frías MT, Percedo MI, Tarradas J, Dominguez P, Núñez JI, Ganges L. Infect Genet Evol. 2012, 7: 1405-12.
  • A T-cell epitope on NS3 non-structural protein enhances the B and T cell responses elicited by dendrimeric constructions against CSFV in domestic pigs.Tarradas J, Monsó M, Fraile L, de la Torre BG, Muñoz M, Rosell R, Riquelme C, Pérez LJ, Nofrarías M, Domingo M, Sobrino F, Andreu D, Ganges L. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2012 Aug 17. [Epub ahead of print].

Changes in select agent rules concern public health labs


Robert Roos * News Editor

Oct 10, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revised its list of potentially dangerous biological agents and toxins and the regulations covering them, and some of the changes have public health laboratories concerned.
The CDC has dropped 23 items from the official list of "select agents and toxins" and has added three viruses to the list: the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus and two hemorrhagic fever viruses: Lujo, from Africa, and Chapare, from South America.
"At the end of the day the list is shorter. We think it's more focused on the agents of highest concern to public health," said Rob Weyant, PhD, director of the CDC's Division of Select Agents and Toxins.
In addition, the agency has designated a new category of agents, called Tier 1, for those deemed to pose the biggest risk of deliberate misuse with potential for high casualties and economic and social disruption. Labs that handle these agents will be subject to new security requirements, including a "personal reliability" program to ensure that personnel with access to the agents are trustworthy.
It's the Tier 1 requirements that concern the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), according to Chris N. Mangal, MPH, the APHL's director of public health preparedness and response. She said the association is worried that the new security requirements will prove too burdensome and may prompt labs to give up their registration with the federal Select Agent Program. And that in turn could impair their ability to respond to infectious disease threats, she said.
The Tier 1 list includes Ebola virus, Francisella tularensis (the cause of tularemia), Marburg virus, variola major and minor viruses (smallpox), Yersinia pestis (plague), Clostridium botulinum and botulinum toxin (botulism), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Burkholderia mallei (glanders), and Burkholderia pseudomallei (melioidosis).
The CDC detailed the select agent changes in an Oct 5 Federal Register notice. They follow the agency's biennial review of the program, which included a round of public comments. Some of the new rules take effect Dec 4, while others become effective on Apr 3, 2013, according to the notice.
There are 312 labs that participate in the CDC Select Agent Program covering human pathogens and toxins, according to CDC spokesman Jason McDonald. Another 50 labs are in involved in the animal and plant Select Agent Program under the US Department of Agriculture's supervision.
Personnel screening, physical barriers
Weyant said the personal reliability program required for labs that handle Tier 1 agents has two parts: a formal pre-access screening program and ongoing monitoring. The latter is intended to provide reporting avenues for staff members who have concerns about suspicious behavior by other lab workers, he told CIDRAP News in an interview.

Increased physical security will also be required for labs working with Tier 1 agents, Weyant said. For example, "A Tier 1 entity needs to have three demonstrable barriers between the public and regulated material. We've established a good guidance document about that."
In addition, he said, "We require that at least one barrier have an intrusion detection system, something that would tell a security function that an unauthorized person is trying to get in."
Mangal said the APHL likes some of the select agent changes. "We're definitely pleased that they've taken off Coccidioides and the Shiga toxins" from the list, she said. "These were things we had previously commented on and asked them to remove."
Coccidioides are fungi that cause respiratory disease. Mangal said a variety of treatments are available for Coccidioides infections, so it didn't make sense to keep them on the list. Shiga toxins are very difficult to aerosolize for weapon use, and Escherichia coli strains that produce Shiga toxins are not on the list, so it also made sense to drop the toxins, she added.
"Where I'm concerned is that they've retained a lot of the agents that state and local public health labs test for," Mangal said. "B anthracis is in the Tier 1 category, which means that a lot if not all of our state public health labs will be impacted by the new requirements that come along with Tier 1."
APHL sought exemptions
The APHL had formally asked the CDC to exempt Laboratory Response Network (LRN) reference labs from the Tier 1 requirements. "We based that on the existing practices in the labs, and also the fact that they possess very limited quantities of select agents," Mangal said.

The LRN is a network of about 165 labs, including 100 public health labs, designated by the CDC and APHL to help respond to potential bioterrorism events and other infectious disease threats.
The APHL also had asked the CDC to drop the nonpathogenic Pasteur strain of B anthracis, botulinum toxin, and toxin-producing strains of C botulinum from the Tier 1 list, Mangal reported. Public health labs in the LRN keep small amounts of these agents and toxins for quality-control purposes, using them to help confirm the presence of a threat agent, she explained.
The CDC turned down the APHL requests. In the Federal Register notice, the CDC said the LRN labs could use attenuated strains of select agents, which are excluded from Tier 1, for their quality-control testing purposes.
Weyant commented, "We have been working with the leadership of the LRN to identify excluded strains of select agents that can be maintained by laboratories without meeting the Tier 1 requirements. The Pasteur and Sterne strains of Bacillus anthracis are examples of these strains."
As for dropping B anthracis Pasteur strain from Tier 1, in the Federal Register the agency agreed that the strain by itself does not meet the Tier 1 criteria, but said that dropping it from the list could pose a risk of creating virulent strains through the combination of the Pasteur strain with the Sterne strain, an attenuated strain that is not in Tier 1. The CDC promised to continue evaluating exclusion requests as new information becomes available.
Mangal agreed that labs could use attenuated strains of Tier 1 agents for quality-control testing, but she said that practice raises more questions. For example, if a lab not registered with the Select Agent Program were to identify B anthracis or some other Tier 1 agent in a sample, it would be required to either destroy it or send it to another lab within 7 days, she said.
"From a scientific perspective, you may not want the lab to destroy the agent until they've had an opportunity to further characterize it and get more genetic details," she said. "We don't want to promote [the practice] that once you've identified an agent you destroy it within 7 days."
As for the new requirements for labs that handle Tier 1 agents, the APHL is mainly concerned about the personal reliability assessments, Mangal said.
"The main added requirement on this is the entity is now required to perform a pre-access suitability assessment," she said. "They [staff] already go through a background check with the Department of Justice. This is more of an entity-specific assessment. "
"The CDC has provided a guidance document, and we'll be reviewing that to gain some insights on how to perform [the assessments] and what it means to the labs in the LRNA," she said.
The bottom line is that public health labs will probably be pondering whether to continue participating in the Select Agent Program, according to Mangal.
"In coming months I anticipate significant discussion within the public health lab community as to whether to maintain their select agent registration," she said. "There's obviously value in maintaining it—there are security standards that come with that that help prevent access to select agents—but what the labs will have to look at is what are the costs to meet the new Tier 1 requirements, and what are the ongoing costs."
Adding SARS to the list
Weyant cited no specific reason for designating the SARS coronavirus a select agent, beyond comments the CDC received from experts and the public. He said the step has been considered during every biennial review of the program since the SARS epidemic in 2003.

The virus sickened more than 8,000 people and killed 916 in about 30 countries that year. The SARS virus is a coronavirus, and the emergence of another novel coronavirus in September has focused some renewed attention on SARS.
During the latest review, Weyant said, "The input we got from experts and the public really reinforced the public concern over the potential dangers of the virus. Also, we considered that there were lab-acquired infections in China and Singapore" in the aftermath of the 2003 epidemic.
CDC data suggest that more than 120 labs possessed the SARS virus at some point, and the majority of those are registered with the CDC to handle select agents, Weyant said.
"Currently it looks like a dozen or less" have the virus, he added. "Now that the [revised] rule has been published, we'll be seeking any additional labs that may have the virus."
With SARS designated a select agent, labs that possess samples will have to register with the program or else destroy the samples or ship them to another lab.
Registration is a sizable task. Labs are required to develop security, biosafety, and incident response plans, along with training programs and drills, Weyant explained.
"Anyone in these entities who would have access to regulated materials must go through a screening done on our behest by the FBI," he said. "Typically we'll do a site visit prior to providing the certificate of registration, and we'll review their physical security, biosafety, inventory control, and training programs.
"It's a fairly extensive process, and that's why we provide 180 days to come into compliance."
See also:
USDA Federal Register notice on changes in animal and plant select agent program
Jun 15, 2011, CIDRAP News story about paring select agent list

How Bacteria Communicate Using Quorum Sensing: Could Bacteria Be Manipulated to Control Infections?


ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) — The relatively new field in microbiology that focuses on quorum sensing has been making strides in understanding how bacteria communicate and cooperate. Quorum sensing describes the bacterial communication between cells that allows them to recognize and react to the size of their surrounding cell population. While a cell's output of extracellular products, or "public goods," is dependent on the size of its surrounding population, scientists have discovered that quorum sensing, a type of bacterial communication, controls when cells release these public goods into their environments.

In Pseudomonas aeruginosa these cheaters are quorum sensing mutants that don't make public goods in response to increasing population density. When the researchers manipulated the environment so that the cost of cell cooperation was high (so that the bacterial group had to produce a lot of public goods to survive), the cheater cells overtook the cooperating producer cells, the cooperators then became too rare, and the population collapsed. From this sequence of events, the researchers induced destabilization of cooperation. They also manipulated environmental conditions to restrict cheaters and stabilize cooperation. Scientists recognize this fundamental research as taking them steps closer to a different antibiotic-independent way to manage infections.In a study appearing in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Science, University of Washington researchers examine the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which colonizes in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. While most cells "cooperate" with each other by producing and sharing public goods when there are enough of their "friends" around, researchers have found that certain individual cells, known as "cheater cells," share in the use of these extracellular products without releasing any of these products themselves.

"Perhaps, one day, we'll be able to manipulate infections so that bacterial cooperation is destabilized and infections are resolved, "said Dr. Peter Greenberg, UW professor of microbiology and one of the three authors of the study.
"Biologists think of social interactions as being the push and pull between cooperation and conflict," he explained. "This is true of man and bacteria. Not so many years ago, people didn't think bacteria socialized at all. Now we are beginning to think we might manipulate bacterial social activity for the benefit of human health."
In the future, Greenberg said, this research may enable scientists to manipulate bacterial conditions in order to cause cell populations of dangerous pathogens to collapse.
"By learning about the fundamentals of quorum sensing control of cell cooperation, we are beginning to have a glimmer of insight into how to control and manipulate infecting populations of P. aeruginosa and other dangerous pathogens with similar systems," Greenberg said. "We've also gained new insights into how cell cooperation can be stably maintained in biology. It is much more straightforward to study sociality in bacteria than in animals. The payoffs may be in understanding what drives cooperation and conflict in general, and in developing strategies for infection control. "

Antibiotic Contamination a Threat to Humans and the Environment


ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) — More than 10,000 tonnes of antibiotics are consumed in Europe each year, and 30-60% pass through animals and humans completely unchanged. The different substances then reach the ocean via hospitals, municipal sewage, fish farms and run-off from agriculture and landfills.

"Our aim is to document the sea's natural microbial structure and function as well as resistance patterns, so that we can determine if and in what way things change as a result of human activity," says Maria Granberg.The research group from the University of Gothenburg are focusing on the potential effects of accumulating antibiotics in the seabed.

Greenland is home not only to areas of very clean water, the like of which just does not exist in Sweden, but also highly polluted water. As such, it is an excellent location for studying environmental impacts.
"Greenland has no sewage treatment whatsoever, which means that waste water from inhabited areas is discharged straight into the sea," says Maria Granberg. "So Greenland is home to both very clean and very polluted waters, which is great for comparing environmentally pristine areas with polluted ones"
The soft sediments on the seabed act as a reservoir for hard-to-break-down substances that are released into the environment. Even substances that are not discharged directly into the sea gradually find their way there from the land and air via rainwater. This means that antibiotics can affect marine sediment ecosystems over a long period, with detrimental effects on natural marine communities of bacteria, among other things.
"The presence of antibiotics in the marine environment is worrying as it can result in widespread resistance to antibiotics in marine bacteria with unknown consequences for the spread of resistance genes to bacteria that can reach humans through the consumption of seafood and fish."
The marine sediment bacteria being studied are also important from a global perspective as they metabolise both nitrogen and carbon, which are linked to both eutrophication and climate problems. A key aspect is also that resistance genes can be transferred between bacteria.
"We know very little about how antibiotics affect natural systems and how antibiotic resistance develops and spreads in these systems," says Maria Granberg. "This knowledge is, however, vital if we are to identify the sources of, and understand, the mechanisms behind the development of antibiotic resistance, which constitutes a threat to both the functioning of ecosystems and human health."
This year's research trip was a collaboration between the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences and the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy, the Department of Arctic Technology at the Technical University of Denmark and the Research Station Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil in Switzerland.

Ebola Antibody Treatment, Produced in Plants, Protects Monkeys from Lethal Disease



ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) — A new Ebola virus study resulting from a widespread scientific collaboration has shown promising preliminary results, preventing disease in infected nonhuman primates using monoclonal antibodies.
Ebola virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever with human case fatality rates as high as 90 percent, has been responsible for numerous deaths in central Africa over the past several months. In addition to being a global health concern, the virus also is considered a potential biological threat agent. Currently there are no available vaccines or treatments approved for use in humans.In this week's online edition of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research team describes a proof-of-concept for using a "cocktail" of monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, to prevent lethal disease in rhesus macaques. When administered one hour after infection, all animals survived. Two-thirds of the animals were protected even when the treatment, known as MB-003, was administered 48 hours after infection.
The work is the culmination of more than a decade of effort between government and industry partners. According to lead investigator Gene Olinger, Ph.D., a virologist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), this consortium of investigators has taken very distinct technologies and combined them to develop a cutting-edge medical countermeasure against a lethal viral disease.
"It is rare that an antiviral compound prevents Ebola virus infection with limited to no morbidity in treated animals at any point of treatment following infection by this lethal virus," said Olinger. "Until recently, attempts to utilize antibodies to provide protection against Ebola virus have been met with failure. The level of protection against disease that we saw with MB-003 was impressive."
In addition, the production method used in this study offers the potential to make an economical and effective medical countermeasure, according to the authors. Initially developed as a monoclonal antibody cocktail in the mouse model, MB-003 was successfully humanized and then produced in the tobacco plant-based production system.
"We were pleased to see how well the humanized mAbs of MB-003 performed," said Larry Zeitlin, Ph.D., president of Mapp Biopharmaceutical and senior author on the study. "We also were pleasantly surprised by the superiority of the plant-derived mAbs compared to the same mAbs produced in traditional mammalian cell culture."
Further improvement in antibody efficacy was developed at Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP). Using a fully automated production system that operates in accordance with good manufacturing practices (GMP), antibody is produced in a tobacco plant system. This new development process significantly decreases the amount of time required for production, increases the quantity of antibody produced, and slashes the cost of manufacturing, according to Barry Bratcher, chief operating officer of KBP and co-author on thePNAS study.
"Our GMP facility can generate a new antibody lot in two weeks to rapidly address new threats and new outbreaks," said Bratcher.
Olinger said efforts are underway to advance MB-003 to clinical safety testing as his team at USAMRIID continues to determine the true therapeutic capability of the cocktail.

ANTHRAX, BOVINE - ARGENTINA (06): (BUENOS AIRES)


A ProMED-mail post http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases 
http://www.isid.org

Date: Sat 20 Oct 2012
From: Ramon Noseda  [edited]

A cattle breeding estancia [ranch] of 450 mixed breed head in the General Alvear partido [2nd level administrative division], suffered the sudden death of a cow on 16 Oct 2012, with extravasation of blood from her natural openings. The herd had been vaccinated for anthrax but the date for the last vaccination is not known.

The attending veterinarian submitted a metacarpal bone [the standard protocol in Argentina]. _Bacillus anthracis_ was cultured and found to be sensitive to penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, gentamycin, florfenicol, and ciprofloxacin; and resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. A general alert was issued.

The carcass and area around the carcass were soaked with 5 percent formaldehyde, and then covered with a thick plastic tarpaulin, weighted around its perimeter to stop foxes accessing the carcass, [standard 'tapado controlado' protocol] for incineration at a later date.

The General Alvear partido has had 4 anthrax outbreaks since 2006.

--
Ramon Noseda
CEO/Laboratorio Azul Diagnostico SA
Av 25 de Mayo 479
(B 7300 FXE) Azul Bs As
Argentina

[In many ways the province of Buenos Aires is very like North Dakota... it has a chernozem steppe soil(black, rich in carbonates and humus), which is perfect for spore survival, and the constant problem is to get the ranchers/estancieros to routinely vaccinate their stock each spring, which is now in Argentina. The good news is that the incidence these days is a fraction of what it was. Our thanks to Ramon for this report. - Mod.MHJ]

[For the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map showing the location of Partido General Alvear, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, see http://healthmap.org/r/3MRl. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]


Migratory Birds’ Ticks Can Spread Viral Haemorrhagic Fever



ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) — A type of haemorrhagic fever (Crimean-Congo) that is prevalent in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans has begun to spread to new areas in southern Europe. Now Swedish researchers have shown that migratory birds carrying ticks are the possible source of contagion.

The discovery is being published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever is a serious disease that begins with influenza-like symptoms but can develop into a very serious condition with high mortality (30%). The disease occurs in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans but it has recently started to spread to new areas in southern Europe. It is caused by a virus that is spread by tick bites and common host animals are various small mammals and ungulates. Humans are infected by tick bites or close contact with contagious mammals.
Researchers have now studied the dissemination mechanisms of this potentially fatal disease. The study is multidisciplinary, with bird experts, tick experts, molecular biologists, virologists, and infectious disease physicians from Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital in collaboration with colleagues from the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, Kalmar and Linköping. Ornithologists and volunteers also helped gather birds.
During two spring seasons in 2009-2010, a total of 14 824 birds were captured at the two ornithological stations Capri (Italy) and Anticythera (Greece), on their way from Africa to Europe. A total of 747 ticks were gathered and analysed for the virus.
Some 30 different bird species were examined, and one species, the woodchat shrike, which winters in southern Africa and nests in Central Europe, proved to be a carrier of virus-infected ticks.
"This is the first time ticks infected with this virus have been found on migratory birds. This provides us with an entirely new explanation of how this disease, as well as other tick-borne diseases, has spread to new areas, where new mammal populations can be infected by the infected ticks," says Erik Salaneck, one of the authors of the study.
The Hyalomma tick, which spreads the disease, does not thrive in northern Europe, preferring warmer latitudes. But with a warmer climate, the boundary for both the tick species and the disease could move northward with the help of migratory birds.

US: Legislation to be Introduced to Monitor Antibiotic Use in Animals



19 October 2012
US - The Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman has announced plans to introduce legislation to increase information on the amount and use of antibiotics in animals raised for human consumption.
The bill, the “Delivering Antibiotic Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act”, will provide critical information to the FDA about the amounts and types of antibiotics being fed to livestock. Republican Waxman made the announcement at a press conference in Santa Monica where he was joined by Chef Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill Restaurant, Chef Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza, Dr Brad Spellberg of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Jean Halloran of Consumers Union.

“We need reliable information about the use of antibiotics in agricultural operations,” said Mr Waxman. “The more we learn, the graver the threat becomes from overuse of antibiotics by industrial-scale farms. We need this information so scientists and Congress can stop the spread of drug-resistant infections from farm animals to humans.”

The bill will require drug manufacturers to provide comprehensive information to FDA on how their drugs are used on farms. The legislation will also require reporting by feed mills for the first time. Virtually all antibiotic consumption on farms comes through feeds mixed with antibiotics. The bill will require feed mills to submit data to FDA on the types, purposes, and quantities of antibiotics being given to animals through feed.
TheCattleSite News Desk

EFSA RECOMMENDS REDUCTION IN BSE TESTING


A new report from The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended that the testing of healthy livestock for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is unnecessary in eight EU member states.

segunda-feira, 29 de outubro de 2012

Chicken Vaccines Combine to Produce Deadly Virus


on 12 July 2012, 2:00 PM | 24 Comments

sn-poultry.jpg
At risk. Farmed chickens are dying from a recombined vaccine.
Credit: NRCS/USDA
Vaccines aren't supposed to cause disease. But that appears to be what's happening on Australian farms. Scientists have found that two virus strains used to vaccinate chickens there may have recombined to form a virus that is sickening and killing the animals. "This shows that recombination of such strains can happen and people need to think about it," says Glenn Browning, a veterinary microbiologist at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, in Australia and one of the co-authors on the paper.
Chickens worldwide are susceptible to a group of herpesviruses called ILTV, which target their upper respiratory tract. The resulting disease, known as infectious laryngotracheitis (ILTV), reduces egg production and can kill up to one-fifth of those infected. "The birds effectively choke to death on blood and mucus," says Browning. The disease is not known to infect any other animals other than chicken and chicken-like birds.
To combat ILTV, farmers vaccinate their chickens with attenuated herpesviruses that can still infect and replicate but do not lead to disease. Australia has used two vaccines, which are produced by Pfizer and called SA2 and A20. In 2006, however, the country purchased a new vaccine from European company Intervet called Serva. Two years later, new strains of ILTV, called class 8 and 9, appeared. They are just as deadly as other strains. "But they seem to be dominating over the strains that were reported prior to 2007," says Browning.

Because the new strains appeared shortly after the European vaccine was introduced, scientists thought that the new vaccine strain might have reverted back to a disease-causing form. But when the researchers sequenced the genomes of the two new strains and the three vaccine strains, they found that the new viruses were actually stitched together from the European and Australian vaccines. Although it is not clear what mutations keep the vaccine strains from causing disease in the first place, they were probably lost when the viruses recombined, says Browning, whose team reports its findings online today in Science.
"This is quite possible but a bit surprising since it would imply that both vaccines have gone into the same animal, which would be required for recombination to occur," Paul Farrell, a virologist at Imperial College London, wrote in a statement released by the Science Media Centre. Farmers do not deliberately vaccinate with both vaccines, Browning agrees. But the SA2 strain might have spread into an unvaccinated population that was later vaccinated with the Serva strain, he suggests.
The data for the recombination is "convincing," says Walter Fuchs, who heads the National Reference Laboratory for Infectious Laryngotracheitis of Poultry on the island of Riems in Germany. The combination of vaccine strains to form a new virus is "a problem that needs to be taken seriously," adds Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health also on Riems. Only well-characterized live vaccines, rendered harmless by mutations in the same or overlapping regions, should be used in order to minimize the risk of recombination to a new virulent strain, he argues.
Live-attenuated vaccines are also used in humans, but a lot less than in poultry, and their sequence is usually known. "This is not a panic-button on vaccines," says Browning. And Farrell stresses vaccines have been one of the great success stories of medicine. "The type of important technicality raised in this article should not be allowed to detract from the enormous health benefit generally provided by vaccines," he wrote
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/07/chicken-vaccines-combine-to-prod.html
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Mecanismo de defesa antioxidante de bactérias é desvendado


Descoberta feita por pesquisadores da USP abre caminho para o desenvolvimento de antibióticos contra alguns gêneros de bactérias, entre os quaisStreptococcus e Pseudomonas
Especiais

29/10/2012

Por Karina Toledo
Agência FAPESP – Quando bactérias patogênicas invadem o corpo humano ou de outros mamíferos, as células hospedeiras liberam substâncias tóxicas para tentar se livrar da presença indesejada. Uma nova pesquisa, feita na Universidade de São Paulo (USP), desvendou um dos mecanismos pelos quais certos tipos de bactérias se defendem desse ataque.
Os resultados, publicados este mês na PLoS One, abrem caminho para a descoberta de moléculas capazes de inibir o sistema de defesa bacteriano e dificultar o avanço da infecção.
A pesquisa, apoiada pela FAPESP, foi feita com a Chromobacterium violaceum, microrganismo que afeta principalmente o fígado e a pele de indivíduos com o sistema imunológico comprometido.
“A C. violaceum é uma bactéria oportunista. Pretendemos explorá-la como modelo para estudar patogenicidade porque ela já teve seu genoma sequenciado e é relativamente fácil manipulá-la geneticamente”, explicou Luis Eduardo Soares Netto, supervisor do estudo de pós-doutoradode José Freire da Silva Neto, que deu origem ao artigo.
Os cientistas investigaram o mecanismo de produção de uma enzima usada pela bactéria para decompor o peróxido orgânico, substância oxidante liberada pelas células hospedeiras após a invasão.
“O peróxido orgânico causa estresse oxidativo na bactéria, o que dificulta sua reprodução e pode levá-la à morte. Para se defender, o patógeno produz uma enzima antioxidante chamada Ohr. A produção dessa enzima, por sua vez, é regulada por outra proteína – que atua como fator de transcrição – chamada OhrR”, contou Netto.
Quando a bactéria está em condição basal, a proteína OhrR fica ligada ao gene responsável pela produção da enzima Ohr. “Dessa forma, impede que o DNA seja transcrito em RNA e que a enzima seja produzida”, disse.
Mas, ao entrar em contato com o peróxido orgânico, a OhrR se oxida e se desliga do DNA, permitindo a produção da enzima antioxidante. “Depois que a Ohr cumpre seu papel de decompor o peróxido orgânico, outra enzima chamada tiorredoxina entra em ação para fazer com que o fator de transcrição OhrR se ligue novamente ao gene e iniba a produção de Ohr”, explicou Netto.
Esse mecanismo de defesa também está presente em outros gêneros de bactérias, comoStreptococcus e Pseudomonas – ambos causadores de doenças respiratórias, infecções cutâneas e sepse em humanos.
Também está presente em fitopatógenos como a Xylella fastidiosa, que causa nas laranjeiras a doença clorose variegada de citros, popularmente conhecida como praga do amarelinho.
Driblando a defesa
“Agora que sabemos como a bactéria se defende, podemos pensar em meios para driblar esse mecanismo. Uma possibilidade seria inibir a produção da enzima Ohr. Outra seria ativar a produção de OhrR, para anular o sistema antioxidante”, disse Netto.
O primeiro passo, segundo o pesquisador, seria demonstrar experimentalmente em camundongos que essas manobras genéticas realmente tornariam mais fácil para o organismo hospedeiro combater a bactéria.
Os testes ainda estão sendo padronizados, mas a ideia é silenciar os genes da Ohr e da OhrR na C. violaceum e avaliar se isso altera sua capacidade de infectar os animais.
“Como não existem homólogos da Ohr e da OhrR em mamíferos ou plantas, se conseguirmos desenhar uma molécula que atue sobre essas proteínas, ela teoricamente teria ação específica sobre a bactéria, sem efeito colateral para o hospedeiro”, afirmou Netto.
Embora ainda em fase preliminar, os estudos abrem caminho para o desenvolvimento de novos medicamentos. “Hoje já se sabe que muitos antibióticos têm como mecanismo de ação a geração de estresse oxidativo nas bactérias. Essa questão está ganhando força”, disse.
O estudo de pós-doutorado está vinculado ao Projeto Temático “Aspectos biológicos de tióis: estrutura proteica, defesa antioxidante, sinalização e estados redox” , coordenado por Netto. Também está ligado ao Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia (INCT) de Processos Redox em Biomedicina (Redoxoma).

Novo estudo: evidências aumentam chances de agrotóxicos acabarem com abelhas


O caso do sumiço de abelhas em algumas regiões do País, inclusive no Espírito Santo, chama a atenção desde 2003
Flávia Bernardes

É cada vez maior a evidência de que pesticidas comuns podem ser parcialmente responsáveis pelo declínio do número de abelhas. Além de vários impactos ao longo do prazo em colônias de abelhas, um novo estudo apontou que abelhas expostas há mais de um agrotóxico, ficam ainda mais vulneráveis. 
 
O novo estudo feito na Universidade de Londres e divulgado pelo site Mercado Ético, expõe que um tipo de veneno as abelhas, inclusive as rainhas, sofrem forte impacto que podem levar inclusive a um colapso total da colméia. E, sobre o efeito de dois pesticidas diferentes esse impacto pode ser ainda maior. 
 
De acordo com o levantamento dos pesquisadores londrinos, os pesticidas não são pulverizados em um ambiente controlado, e insetos como abelhas podem ficar expostos não apenas a um tipo de pesticida, mas a todo um coquetel deles. Após estudos relacionados ao problema foi  constatado que o número de abelhas reduziu em várias partes do mundo. 
 
Para a pesquisa, os cientistas dividiram 40 colônias de abelhas em quatro grupos. Um grupo foi exposto ao imidacloprida, um pesticida da família dos neonicotinoides; um segundo grupo foi exposto ao gama-cialotrina, um piretroide; um terceiro grupo foi exposto a ambos os químicos; e o último grupo não foi exposto a nenhum. Todas as doses utilizadas, segundo o estudo, são semelhantes às encontradas no campo. 
 
Segundo o resultado, as abelhas expostas a imidacloprida perderam 41% de suas operárias em quatro semanas. No geral a produtividade das operárias também diminuiu significando menos comida para a colméia e menos abelhas se desenvolvendo. 
 
As abelhas expostas apenas ao gama-cialotrina apresentaram um índice de mortalidade de  51% e as abelhas expostas a ambos, 69% das abelhas operárias morreram. 
 
Até o momento, os estudos têm sido convincentes motivando inclusive o banimento do uso de  pesticidas neonicotinoides na França. Já no Brasil, o debate está mais lento. Só em julho deste ano o Instituto Brasileiro de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Naturais Renováveis (Ibama) anunciou uma  reavaliação de agrotóxicos, com o objetivo de proteger as abelhas no País, mas nenhum resultado foi apresentado até o momento. 
 
No Brasil, estão sendo reavaliados os venenos que utilizam Imidacloprido, Tiametoxam, Clotianidina e Fipronil, o Imidacloprido está entre os mais críticos.
 
No Espírito Santo, a iniciativa do Ibama foi comemorada devido à proibição de aplicação por aviões desses agrotóxicos.. Segundo eles, a pulverização aérea diminui consideravelmente a presença de abelhas e até de pássaros nas propriedades rurais. 
 
Ao final do processo de reavaliação, o Ibama poderá manter a decisão de suspensão da aplicação por aviões desses produtos, ou revê-la, podendo adotar outras medidas de restrição ou controle dessas substâncias.
 
O declínio das abelhas é preocupante, dizem eles, sobretudo, porque a abelha é a espécie polinizadora mais importante do mundo, tanto para colheitas agrícolas quanto para plantas selvagens e para os pesquisadores, não há dúvida sobre os impactos dos pesticidas sobre as abelhas. 

http://www.seculodiario.com.br/exibir.php?id=1606

domingo, 28 de outubro de 2012

Quatro estados aderem ao Sisb/POA


Sistema Brasileiro de Inspeção de Produto de Origem Animal(Sisb/POA) já recebeu a adesão de quatro estados: Bahia, Paraná, Minas Gerais e Rio Grande do Sul. Os produtos inspecionados pelo sistema podem ser comercializados em todo território nacional. O Sisb/POA conta ainda ainda com a participação do Distrito Federal e outros 11 estados estão em processo de adesão. O diretor do departamento de inspeção de produtos de origem animal do Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA), Luiz Carlos Oliveira, explicou como funciona o sistema e quais os seus benefícios durante o programa NBR Entrevista. O sistema faz parte do Sistema Unificado de Atenção a Sanidade Agropecuária (SUASA), que padroniza os procedimentos de inspeção de produtos de origem animal para segurança alimentar. 20/10/12 -TV NBR - 15:29


http://www.agrosoft.org.br/agropag/223284.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+agrosoft+%28Jornal+Agrosoft%29

sábado, 27 de outubro de 2012

Febre aftosa: novas regras param fábricas de vacinas


As novas exigências de biossegurança adotadas em março pelo Ministério da Agricultura já provocaram a paralisação de duas das principais fábricas de vacinas contra febre aftosa do país. Às vésperas da realização da segunda etapa de vacinação na maior parte dos Estados brasileiros, a medida não desabastecerá o mercado, que trabalha com excesso de capacidade instalada. Mas afeta as maiores empresas do segmento, que podem levar mais tempo para recompor estoques.

Por determinação dos técnicos do Departamento de Fiscalização de Insumos Pecuários, a unidade da Merial em Paulínia (SP) parou para manutenção entre maio e agosto e só retomou as atividades no início deste mês. Com capacidade para produzir cerca de 120 milhões de doses por ano, a Merial precisou segregar os sistemas de ventilação das áreas de produção, controle e envase do vírus, conforme preconiza a Instrução Normativa nº 5, que atualizou os parâmetros de biossegurança.

Mas o caso mais problemático é o da MSD Saúde Animal, braço veterinário da farmacêutica americana Merck. O Valor apurou a que multinacional cogita até abandonar a produção de vacinas contra aftosa no país. A unidade da companhia em Fortaleza, a maior do gênero no país, com capacidade para produzir 140 milhões de doses por ano, teve as operações suspensas pelo ministério em junho.

"Até agora eles não apresentaram nenhuma medida corretiva ou cronograma de adequação", afirmou Egon Vieira da Silva, chefe da Divisão de Produtos Biológicos do Departamento de Fiscalização de Insumos Pecuários do Ministério da Agricultura.

Segundo ele, a fábrica só poderá voltar a funcionar quando a empresa resolver os problemas da chamada "área biocontida", responsável pelo processo de inativação do vírus - o antígeno é "morto", mas mantém a capacidade imunológica. "Essa planta tem um problema no armazenamento de antígeno e precisamos evitar o risco de contaminação cruzada". Procurada, a MSD informou que a área está suspensa para "se adequar à Instrução Normativa nº 5", e garantiu que não há riscos de vazamento ou contaminação".

Apesar de a MSD ressaltar seu interesse em permanecer no mercado - a aftosa representa cerca de um quinto do faturamento do segmento veterinário no Brasil -, o Valor apurou que a empresa considera que os custos para a adequação da fábrica de Fortaleza são elevados. Caso a MSD decida abandonar a produção própria de vacinas contra aftosa, uma das opções pode ser comprar o produto de terceiros, como faz a multinacional americana Pfizer, que compra as vacinas da Vallée.

Mas a decisão da MSD precisa sair o quanto antes. A empresa só tem estoques para atender à segunda etapa de vacinação deste ano, que acontece principalmente em novembro, e a primeira de 2013. Emílio Salani, diretor de operações do Sindan, entidade que representa as indústrias de saúde animal, disse que as vacinas precisam ser aprovadas pelo Ministério da Agricultura antes de serem vendidas, o que acaba por reduzir o prazo de validade para 14 meses. As vacinas, de modo geral, duram apenas duas etapas de vacinação, segundo o diretor do Sindan. "Se estiver parada, provavelmente o prazo das vacinas da MSD irão caducar em novembro de 2013", disse.

Ao todo, o parque fabril nacional tem capacidade instalada para produzir 580 milhões de doses da vacina contra aftosa. A demanda anual para as duas etapas da campanha é de cerca de 360 milhões de doses, segundo estimativas do Sindan. "A produção líquida gira em torno de 420 milhões e 450 milhões de doses", diz Salani. Nesses cálculos, o dirigente incluiu as 40 milhões de doses do laboratório Biogénesis-Bagó, que importa a vacina da Argentina.

No Brasil, além de Merial e MSD, a brasileira Vallée tem capacidade para 140 milhões de doses em sua unidade de Montes Claros (MG). No caso da Vallée, o ministério ainda deve realizar a primeira inspeção sob as novas regras até o fim de outubro, disse Vieira da Silva, do Departamento de Fiscalização de Insumos.

Já as unidades da Inova Biotecnologia e da Ourofino não devem ter problemas com a inspeção, pois as duas fábricas foram inauguradas nos últimos anos e construídas segundo as novas exigências. O mesmo acontece com a Biovet, que ainda nem iniciou as vendas da vacina.

Fonte: Valor Econômico