Measurements of strong gravitational lensing jointly with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observations have been used to test the validity of the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR), DL(z)/[(1 + z) 2 DA(z)] = η = 1, where DL(z) and DA(z) are the luminosity and the angular diameter distances to a given redshift z, respectively. However, several lensing systems lie in the interval 1.4 ≤ z ≤ 3.6 i.e., beyond the redshift range of current SNe Ia compilations (z ≈ 1.50), which prevents this kind of test to be fully explored. In this paper, we circumvent this problem by testing the CDDR considering observations of strong gravitational lensing along with SNe Ia and a subsample from the latest gamma-ray burst distance modulus data, whose redshift range is 0.033 ≤ z ≤ 9.3. We parameterize their luminosity distances with a second degree polynomial function and search for possible deviations from the CDDR validity by using four different η(z) functions: η(z) = 1 + η0z, η(z) = 1 + η0z/(1 + z), η(z) = (1 + z) η 0 and η(z) = 1 + η0 ln(1 + z). Unlike previous tests done at redshifts lower than 1.50, the likelihood for η0 depends strongly on the η(z) function considered, but we find no significant deviation from the CDDR validity (η0 = 0). However, our analyses also point to the fact that caution is needed when one fits data in higher redshifts to test the CDDR as well as a better understanding of the mass distribution of lenses also is required for more accurate results.

Fifty Brazilian rabies viruses, collected from many different animal species and several regions of the country, were characterized by partial sequencing of the central, variable region of the P gene, a locus useful for sensitive molecular epidemiological studies. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences, which included comparison with other rabies strains recovered from throughout the Americas, identified three main groups of Brazilian viruses, arbitrarily designated BRL-1 to BRL-3. BRL-1 was found in terrestrial carnivores and clusters with other American strains of the cosmopolitan lineage. BRL-2 comprised two distinct isolates, recovered from two species of non-haematophagous bats, that had evolutionary links to insectivorous-bat-derived strains of North America. BRL-3 consisted of isolates from vampire bats and from livestock species probably infected via contact with vampire bats. The terrestrial group was further subdivided into three subtypes: BRL-1a was associated exclusively with dogs and cats, while BRL-1b and BRL-1c were found exclusively in hoary foxes. These observations strongly support the role of the Brazilian hoary fox as a rabies reservoir. Screening of representative Brazilian rabies viruses against a collection of anti-rabies monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) identified a small panel of mAbs that could be used to discriminate between all Brazilian subgroups as defined by genetic classification in this study.

RESUMOInvestigou-se a prevalência de leptospirose em cães da cidade de Campina Grande, PB, e realizou-se um estudo de fatores de risco para a infecção. Foram examinadas 285 amostras de soro sangüíneo de cães colhidas durante a campanha de vacinação anti-rábica animal, conduzida em setembro de 2003. O diagnóstico da leptospirose foi realizado pela técnica de soroaglutinação microscópica, utilizando-se uma coleção de 22 sorovares. Para a caracterização do sorovar mais provável, levou-se em conta a titulação e a freqüência. A prevalência encontrada foi de 21,4% (IC 95% = 16,8%-26,6%), com maior freqüência dos sorovares autumnalis (7,4%), copenhageni (6%) e canicola (2,1%). A análise de regressão logística multivariada mostrou que os fatores de risco para a leptospirose foram: idade superior a um ano (odds ratio = 3,00; P = 0,006), raça não definida (odds ratio = 4,02; P = 0,011) e ocorrência de enchentes (odds ratio = 2,32; P = 0,039).Palavras-chave: cão, prevalência, leptospirose, fator de risco ABSTRACT The prevalence of leptospirosis was investigated in dogs from

Many new strong gravitational lensing (SGL) systems have been discovered in the last two decades with the advent of powerful new space and ground-based telescopes. The effect of the lens mass model (usually the power-law mass model) on cosmological parameters constraints has been performed recently in literature. In this paper, by using SGL systems and Supernovae type Ia observations, we explore if the power-law mass density profile (ρ ∝ r −γ ) is consistent with the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR),by considering different lens mass intervals. It has been obtained that the verification of the CDDR validity is significantly dependent on lens mass interval considered: the sub-sample with σ ap ≥ 300 km/s (where σ ap is the lens apparent stellar velocity dispersion) is in full agreement with the CDDR validity, the sub-sample with intermediate σ ap values (200 ≤ σ ap < 300) km/s is marginally consistent with η = 1 and, finally, the sub-sample with low σ ap values (σ ap < 200 km/s) ruled out the CDDR validity with high statistical confidence. Therefore, if one takes the CDDR as guarantee, our results suggest that using a single density profile is not suitable to describe lens with low σ ap values and it is only an approximate description to lenses with intermediate mass interval.

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