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The prevalence of Chlamydophila felisand feline herpesvirus 1(FHV‐1)infection in cats with conjunctivitis in northern Italy was investigated by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. In cats with conjunctivitis, C felisand FHV‐1 were detected in 14 of 70 (20%) and in 23 of 70 (33%) animals, respectively. None of the 35 control cats were positive for C felis, whereas 7 (20%) of these cats were positive for FHV‐1. Mixed infections were present in 5 of 70 cats (7%). Cats positive for C feliswere significantly younger than control animals (P =.02), whereas no significant age differences were observed between FHV‐1‐positive cats and control cats (P= .41) or between FHV‐1‐positive animals and Cfelispositive animals (P= .16). Cats sampled during acute‐phase conjunctivitis were also investigated for the presence of C felisby conjunctival scrapings. In this acute phase, substantial agreement was found when comparing the results of the 2 methods (K = .80). The association between PCR results and conjunctivitis was evaluated for the 2 pathogens. The presence of C feliswas significantly associated with conjunctivitis (P=.004), whereas the detection of FHV‐1 did not significantly correlate with the clinical sign (P=.25), suggesting that, by itself, PCR is not suitable for the diagnosis of FHV‐1‐related conjunctivitis.

Flax fibers composed mainly of cellulose were subjected to heterogeneous valerylation reaction. The progress of the chemical modification was assessed by transmission FTIR. The heterogeneous esterification reaction followed first-order kinetics, and a plateau was reached already after 30 min. The intensity of the FTIR hydroxyl absorption band (ν = 3400 cm^-1) did not appreciably decrease during the acylation reaction, showing that only a small fraction of the fiber hydroxyls was involved in the reaction. The degree of valerate substitution (DS) at the fiber surface (50 Å thick layer) was evaluated by means of ESCA. Surface valerylation increased with reaction time and leveled off at DS around 1 after 30 min, in agreement with the FTIR data. The chemically modified fibers maintain the Cellulose I crystal structure and the original crystallinity degree up to the longest reaction time investigated (180 min). Dynamic contact angle measurements showed that surface hydrophobicity as indicated by advancing contact angle rapidly increased upon valerylation reaching a plateau after about 10 min. Chemical modification does not appreciably alter fiber thermal stability (by TGA) and morphology (by SEM).