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Eighteen 12-week-old specific pathogen-free cats, blood culture- and serum antibody-negative for Bartonella henselae, were randomly allocated to groups and were intravenously inoculated with 10(10) (group 1), 10(8) (group 2), or 10(6) (group 3) B. henselae or with saline (group 4) or were not inoculated (group 5). Cats were humanely killed at 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 weeks after inoculation. All B. henselae-inoculated cats were bacteremic by 2 weeks after infection. Bacteremia persisted until 32 weeks after infection in 1 cat. Cats in groups 1 and 2 had fever (>39.7 degrees C) and partial anorexia by 2 weeks after infection that lasted 2-7 days. All infected cats had Bartonella-specific IgM and IgG serum antibodies and lymphocyte blastogenic responses. Histopathologic lesions were observed in multiple organs of infected cats through 8 weeks after infection. Cats were readily infected with B. henselae by intravenous inoculation, developed histopathologic lesions that apparently resolved, and developed B and T lymphocyte responses to infection.

Carnitine has antioxidant properties that protect sperm membranes against toxic reactive oxygen species. Carnitine also functions to reduce the availability of lipids for peroxidation by transporting fatty acids into the mitochondria for beta-oxidation to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy. Because the effects of this supplemental amino acid on the reproductive performance of the avian breeder male are unknown, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the antioxidant role of dietary L-carnitine on semen traits and testicular histology in Leghorn breeder roosters. Two experiments were conducted in which birds were fed a control diet or one supplemented with 500 mg of carnitine/kg of diet. For Experiment 1, dietary treatments were fed to older birds (n = 12 birds/treatment) when they were 58 to 62 wk of age. For Experiment 2, younger birds were fed dietary treatments between 32 to 37 wk of age (n = 14 experimental units/treatment with three roosters composing an experimental unit for a total of 84 roosters). Semen traits and lipid peroxidation of sperm, determined by measuring malonaldehyde, were examined weekly. Feeding dietary carnitine to young and aging White Leghorn roosters ad libitum for 5 wk not only improved sperm concentration during the last half of supplementation but also reduced sperm lipid peroxidation. Testicular tissue of birds fed dietary carnitine for 5 wk was preserved as indicated by a reduction in multinucleated giant cells. These results suggest that dietary carnitine has antioxidant properties that may preserve sperm membranes in roosters, thereby extending the life span of sperm.

Paratuberculosis is a chronic granulomatous enteritis of domestic and wild ruminants that is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, a slow-growing intracellular acid-fast bacillus. Animals are usually infected within the first few months of life; however, the chronic wasting and profuse diarrhea that characterize clinical paratuberculosis are usually not observed until 3 or more years after infection (4, 7).M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis enters intestinal tissue through M cells present in the dome epithelium covering the continuous Peyer's patches in the distal ileum of calves and goats (22,32). The discrete Peyer's patches in the intestinal tracts of other mammals and the jejunum of ruminants are secondary lymphoid organs, in which an adaptive immune response can be initiated following exposure to foreign antigens. In contrast, the continuous Peyer's patch in the ruminant ileum is a primary lymphoid organ, wherein B-cell development occurs (36).Fibronectin attachment proteins (FAPs) are a family of fibronectin (FN)-binding proteins present in several species of mycobacteria (25,(28)(29)(30)42). Attachment and internalization of Mycobacterium bovis BCG, M. leprae, and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis by epithelial cells in vitro have been shown to be dependent on the interaction between FAP and FN (18,29,31). ␤1 integrins have been identified as the host cell receptor for FN-opsonized mycobacteria in vitro (3, 18). M cells are unique among cells of the intestinal epithelium in that they display ␤1 integrins on their luminal faces at high density (6). Thus, the interaction between cell surface integrins and FN bound by organisms may explain why M cells are the portals of entry for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. However, adherence and internalization assays with macrophages, monocytes, and epithelial cell lines give only a general picture of the adhesive and invasive potential of mycobacteria. The nature and density of potential host cell receptors vary for each culture system to such an extent that the significance of hostpathogen interactions observed in vitro must be interpreted with caution. Moreover, the distribution of receptors on cells in culture is often markedly different from that on cells in intact tissue, particularly for intestinal epithelial cells (8,15,37). Thus, it is imperative that putative adhesins and invasins be evaluated in in vivo model systems before any degree of significance can accurately be attributed to their expression.The expression of FAP was found to be important for attachment of M. avium subsp. avium to respiratory explants and attachment of M. bovis BCG to murine bladder mucosa in vivo (20,41). However, demonstration of FAP-mediated mycobacterial attachment required exposure of the extracellular matrix. This mechanism is insufficient to explain M-cell targeting by M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Thus, the contribution of the FAP of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis (FAP-P) to the invasive potential of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis for intestinal

The complete nucleotide sequence of polyprotein gene 1 and the assembled full-length genome sequence are presented for turkey coronavirus (TCoV) isolates 540 and ATCC. The TCoV polyprotein gene encoded two open reading frames (ORFs), which are translated into two products, pp1a and pp1ab, the latter being produced via -1 frameshift translation. TCoV polyprotein pp1a and pp1ab were predicted to be processed to 15 non-structure proteins (nsp2-nsp16), with nsp1 missing. ClustalW analysis revealed 88.99% identity and 96.99% similarity for pp1ab between TCoV and avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) at the amino acid level. The whole genome consists of 27,749 nucleotides for 540 and 27,816 nucleotides for ATCC, excluding the poly(A) tail. A total of 13 ORFs were predicted for TCoV. Five subgenomic RNAs were detected from ATCC-infected turkey small intestines by Northern blotting. The whole genome sequence had 86.9% identity between TCoV and IBV, supporting that TCoV is a group 3 coronavirus.