著者
Kyle R. TAYLOR Ai TAKANO Satoru KONNAI Michito SHIMOZURU Hiroki KAWABATA Toshio TSUBOTA
出版者
JAPANESE SOCIETY OF VETERINARY SCIENCE
雑誌
Journal of Veterinary Medical Science (ISSN:09167250)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.75, no.6, pp.785-790, 2013 (Released:2013-07-01)
参考文献数
22
被引用文献数
7 7

The ecologies of Lyme disease Borrelia spp. are very specific to location, as they are dependent upon the spirochete species and genotypes, the vectors and the host vertebrates present. In Hokkaido, Japan, where two human pathogenic, Lyme disease Borrelia spp. are present, and human cases are reported annually, the ecologies have been poorly studied. Our goal was to determine whether variation in borrelial infection rates among rodent species sharing an environment, is due to immunological or ecological differences. To this end, we examined the relationships between tick burden and borrelial infection, by including examination of agreement between nested PCR, as a test for infection, and serology, as a test for exposure. We collected 868 rodents, comprised of four species commonly found in Hokkaido, and tested for infection rates with Borrelia spp. using PCR for the borrelial flaB gene, seroprevalence of Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii using ELISA, and attachment of ticks by direct counts. We noted a correlation between differential nymph and larval burdens and the borrelial infection rates found among the four rodent species. Furthermore, there was significant correlation between infection and seroprevalence of B. afzelii and B. garinii (PIxodes persulcatus nymph burden (PI. persulcatus nymph burden (PBorrelia spp. may largely be a direct consequence of differential exposure to vectors.
著者
Hirohisa MEKATA Mari YAMAMOTO Yumi KIRINO Satoshi SEKIGUCHI Satoru KONNAI Yoichiro HORII Junzo NORIMINE
出版者
JAPANESE SOCIETY OF VETERINARY SCIENCE
雑誌
Journal of Veterinary Medical Science (ISSN:09167250)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.80, no.2, pp.316-319, 2018 (Released:2018-02-20)
参考文献数
22
被引用文献数
3 11

The European Community’s (EC) Key, which is also called Bendixen’s Key, is a well-established bovine leukemia virus (BLV) diagnostic method that classifies cattle according to the absolute lymphocyte count and age. The EC Key was originally designed for dairy cattle and is not necessarily suitable for Japanese Black (JB) beef cattle. This study revealed the lymphocyte counts in the BLV-free and -infected JB cattle were significantly lower than those in the Holstein cattle. Therefore, applying the EC Key to JB cattle could result in a large number of undetected BLV-infected cattle. Our proposed hematological key, which was designed for JB cattle, improves the detection of BLV-infected cattle by approximately 20%. We believe that this study could help promote BLV control.
著者
Takuma ARIIZUMI Shiro MURATA Sotaro FUJISAWA Masayoshi ISEZAKI Naoya MAEKAWA Tomohiro OKAGAWA Takumi SATO Eiji OISHI Akira TANENO Satoru KONNAI Kazuhiko OHASHI
出版者
JAPANESE SOCIETY OF VETERINARY SCIENCE
雑誌
Journal of Veterinary Medical Science (ISSN:09167250)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.83, no.4, pp.558-565, 2021 (Released:2021-04-09)
参考文献数
24
被引用文献数
8

Poultry red mites (PRMs, Dermanyssus gallinae) are harmful ectoparasites that affect farmed chickens and cause serious economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. Acaricides are used for PRM control; however, some PRMs have developed acaricide-resistant properties, which have indicated the need for different approaches for PRM control. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate the biological status of PRMs to develop alternative PRM control strategies. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) allows analysis of the biological status at the transcript level. However, reference genes are preferable for accurate comparison of expression level changes given the large variation in the quality of the PRM samples collected in each farm. This study aimed to identify candidate reference genes with stable expression levels in the different blood feeding states and life stages of PRMs. First, we selected candidates based on the following criteria: sufficient expression intensity and no significant expression difference between fed and starved states. We selected and characterized seven candidate reference genes. Among them, we evaluated the gene expression stability between the starved and fed states using RefFinder; moreover, we compared their expression levels in each life-stage and identified two reference genes, Elongation factor 1-alpha (ELF1A)-like and apolipophorins-like. Finally, we evaluated the utility of the candidates as reference genes, and the use of ELF1A-like and apolipophorins-like successfully normalized ATP synthase subunit g -like gene expression. Thus, ELF1A-like and apolipophorins-like could be suitable reference genes in PRMs.
著者
Yusuke MURASE Satoru KONNAI Naftaly GITHAKA Arata HIDANO Kyle TAYLOR Takuya ITO Ai TAKANO Shuji ANDO Hiroki KAWABATA Toshio TSUBOTA Shiro MURATA Kazuhiko OHASHI
出版者
公益社団法人 日本獣医学会
雑誌
Journal of Veterinary Medical Science (ISSN:09167250)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.75, no.2, pp.215-218, 2013 (Released:2013-03-01)
参考文献数
27
被引用文献数
8 17

In this study, the prevalence of Borrelia infections in Ixodes ticks from a site in Hokkaido, Japan, with confirmed cases of Lyme disease was determined by a PCR method capable of detecting and differentiating between strains of pathogenic Borrelia, with particular emphasis on Borrelia garinii (B. garinii) and Borrelia afzelli (B. afzelli), using tick-derived DNA extracts as template. A total of 338 ticks, inclusive of 284 Ixodes persulcatus (I. persulcatus), were collected by flagging vegetation in mid-spring. Ninety-eight (34.5%) of I. persulcatus tested positive for Borrelia species DNA, whereas the overall prevalence of Borrelia species in Ixodes ovatus and Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks was 19.5 and 7.7%, respectively. PCR-RFLP and sequence analysis of Borrelia rrf(5S)-rrl(23S) intergenic spacer DNA amplicons indicated that they originated from three different Borrelia species namely, B. garinii, B. afzelii and B. japonica. Among the I. persulcatus species, which is a known vector of human borreliosis, 86 were mono-infected with B. garinii, 2 ticks were mono-infected with B. afzelii and whereas 12 ticks had dual infections. Most significant, 11 of the I. persulcatus ticks were coinfected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum and B. garinii. The difference between the number of obtained and expected co-infections was significant (χ2=4.32, P=0.038).