Search

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is an important leguminous plant, in which pests trigger significant damage every year. Important members of this community are insects with piercing‐sucking mouthpart, especially the southern green stinkbug, Nezara viridula L.. This insect with its extraoral digestion causes visible alterations (morphological and color changes) in the seeds. We aimed to obtain precise information about the extent and nature of damage in soybeans caused by N. viridula using nondestructive imaging methods. Two infestation conditions were applied: one with controlled numbers of pests (six insects/15 pods) and another with naturally occurring pests (samples collected from the apical part of the plant and samples from whole plants). An intact control group was also included, resulting in four treatment groups. Seed samples were analyzed by computed tomography (CT) and image color analysis under laboratory conditions. According to our CT findings, the damage caused by N. viridula changed the radiodensity, volume, and shape (Solidity) of the soybean seeds during the pod‐filling and maturing period. Radiodensity was significantly reduced in all three damaged categories compared to the intact sample; the mean radiodensity reduction range was 49–412 HU. The seed volume also decreased significantly (25%–80% decrease), with a threefold reduction for samples exposed to regulated damage compared to natural ones. The samples exposed to natural damage showed significant but minor reduction in solidity, while samples exposed to regulated damage showed a prominent decrease (~12%). Image color analysis showed that the damaged samples were well distinguishable, and the differences were statistically verifiable. The achieved data derived from our external and internal imaging approaches contribute to a better understanding of the internal chemical processes, and CT analysis helps to understand the alteration trends of the hidden structure of seeds caused by a pest. Our results can contribute to the development of a practically applicable system based on image analysis, which can identify lots damaged by insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment studied the effects of egg composition (egg yolk content; Y) of two different chicken genotypes (selected by computed tomography; CT) on hatched chick growth performance, slaughter traits, and meat quality. Three thousand five hundred eggs per genotype were scanned by CT. Then, for each genotype, eggs were selected according to their Y content: low (21.0 ± 0.88 - 350 eggs), medium (24.5 ± 0.15- 350 eggs) and high (28.3 ± 0.98 - 350 eggs). The remaining eggs were excluded from the study. At 11 weeks of age, 15 chickens per group were slaughtered, carcasses were dissected and breast and legs were excised and dedicated to meat quality evaluations. Many parameters were influenced in the meat-type (EE) chickens, including slaughter, breast and leg weights, and abdominal fat content, whereas only the breast incidence on slaughter weight was affected in Tetra-H hybrid. In neither genotype were the meat traits affected by Y content. Two exceptions were represented by leg thawing loss, higher in low Y group compared to medium and high Y group, and by tibia length, longer in high Y content group than in the medium one, both for EE chickens. Similar findings were observed for the meat fatty acid (FA) profile, as only some single FA were influenced by Y content, however, apparently without a specific physiological meaning. The present work demonstrated that the Y content, measured by CT, allowed to select high-quality meat-type animals characterised by the best productive performances in terms of growth rate, live weight, slaughter weight, breast and thigh weights, and with lower abdominal fat content. These findings would bring positive advantages to hatcheries in terms of chick quality and also to farmers in terms of economic revenues: They would rear robust animals that would guarantee a higher probability of survival in the first rearing period and would be characterised by a high slaughter weight at the end of the productive cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Varroa destructor is a significant global honey bee parasite and the primary threat to bee health. Due to its latent lifestyle, detecting the mite in a brood requires invasive techniques. Enhancing detection methods is critical for advanced research on mite population dynamics, spread, selection efforts, and control methodologies. In this study, we employed infrared thermal imaging, a less-explored technique in apicultural studies, to detect parasitism in Apis mellifera broods. Our findings indicate that handheld infrared thermal cameras can generate adequately detailed heat maps of the hive. These maps distinctly separate cells containing honey, pollen, and brood, with stable, reproducible temperature measurements observable in late autumn. Notably, mite parasitism induces a sustained temperature increase in developing honey bee pupae, consistently detected regardless of mite numbers in the cell. This study reveals an advanced thermoregulatory behavior in the honey bee colony, manifesting as a social fever phenomenon. Further research is necessary to explore the health benefits of this behavior for bees and the negative effects on the mite. Our method, combined with the development of AI-based image evaluation software, could provide beekeepers and researchers with a valuable tool for Varroa research and bee biological studies. The Varroa destructor is the most significant bee parasite and the greatest threat to bee health all around the world. Due to its hidden lifestyle, detection within the brood cell is only possible through invasive techniques. Enhancing detection methods is essential for advancing research on population dynamics, spread, selection efforts, and control methodologies against the mite. In our study, we employed infrared imaging to measure the thermal differences in parasite and intact Apis mellifera worker broods. Experiments were conducted over two years at the MATE Kaposvár Campus in Hungary involving five beehives in 2022 and five beehives in 2023. A FLIR E5-XT WIFI handheld infrared camera was used to create a heat map of capped brood frames. Our results indicate that the resolution of these cameras is sufficient to provide detailed IR images of a bee colony, making them suitable to detect temperature differences in intact and Varroa parasitized capped brood cells. Mite parasitism causes a time-dependent and sustained temperature increase in developing bee pupae, observable regardless of mite number. Our work demonstrates two different heating patterns: hotspot heating and heating cells that are responsible for the elevated temperature of the Varroa-infested cells as a social fever response by the worker bees. Based on our results, future research combined with AI-based image evaluation software could offer beekeepers and researchers practical and valuable tools for high-throughput, non-invasive Varroa detection in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnostic imaging techniques provide a new aspect of the ante‐mortem and post‐mortem diagnostics in fish medicine. Ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide more information about the internal organs and pathognomic lesions. The authors used diagnostic imaging techniques to evaluate and describe the neoplastic malformation in a 3‐year‐old female rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The fish was examined with Siemens Somatom Definition AS + CT scanner and Siemens Biograph mMR scanner. The animal was lethargic and showed anorectic signs and muscular dystrophy. During the post‐mortem investigation, histopathology and immunohistochemistry were also performed allowing us to identify the neoplasms. The results showed a large soft tissue mass in the first mid‐intestine segment, which proved to be an adenocarcinoma. This subsequently led to digestion problems and absorption disorders. Immunohistochemically, neoplastic cells of carcinoma revealed E‐cadherin and pancytokeratin positivity. This is the first study to report the use of MRI and CT for studying gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma in rainbow trout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cypress jewel beetle Lamprodila (Palmar) festiva is a wood-boring pest posing a major threat to the phytosanitary conditions of several coniferous trees. Its unprecedented European expansion has triggered serious plant protection concerns in several new habitats. Parts of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana injured by L. festiva were collected and analysed by computed tomography in order to study the dimensions of the cavities caused by L. festiva larvae as well as the larval positions. It is concluded that computer tomography representing a non-invasive approach is a promising tool for the visual depiction of the position and the physical parameters of the cavities formed. According to our experimental data, the penetration into the cypress caused by larvae and, inherently, its depth depends on the diameter of the branch. Additionally, the developing larvae appeared to keep distance from each other, which also depended on the diameter of the attacked branch. Our approach provides new data to the biological traits of the species. The main benefit that our imaging method furnishes is the exact, stress-free measurement method of the hidden developing stages. Its additional advantage is the indirect pest identification, which is based on the predetermined pest-specific damage characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weevils of the Ceutorhynchus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are significant pests, posing a threat to oilseed rape cultivation in Central Europe. Due to their lifestyle, these weevils cause hidden damage within the stems. Our non‐invasive computer tomography‐based study aimed to compare the damage characteristics of three species within this genus: C. pallidactylus (Marsham), C. napi (Gyll.), and C. picitarsis (Gyll.), in oilseed rape stems. During the CT analysis of the plant samples from axial, coronal, and sagittal approaches at different points, we measured the length of the damaging larvae, their number per plant, their distance from each other, the volume of the formed cavity, and the diameter of the damaged plant stems. Additionally, we investigated the closeness of the connections between these forms of damage. Our study found that damage to plant samples during the period of interest was species‐specific. Significant differences were observed in the longitudinal size dimensions of the larvae, the volume of the formed cavities, and the diameters of the stems of the attacked plants among the species causing the damage. The Pearson correlation results confirmed a strong correlation between the volumes of the formed cavities and the values of larval length (l) and stem diameter (⌀), as well as between stem diameter and larval length data for each species (C. pallidactylus: l = 6.903 ± 1.332 mm, ⌀ = 11.43 ± 0.707 mm; C. napi: l = 9.868 ± 0.617 mm, ⌀ = 23.11 ± 2.813 mm; C. picitarsis: l = 3.772 ± 0.967 mm, ⌀ = 11.16 ± 0.365 mm). These results suggest that the damages caused by these hidden lifestyle stem pests of oilseed rape are species‐specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leguminous plant products have great nutritional and economic importance in the European Union, which is reflected by its protein policy. These harvested yields are risked by stored product pests, such as Acanthoscelides obtectus Say, which can cause up to 50-60% loss in stored bean items. The bean weevil causes both quantitative and qualitative damage to seeds. We aimed to map the qualitative damage of this devastating pest, which deteriorates the nutritional content of bean kernels. Furthermore, our purpose was to determine accurately the decrease in the volume and density alteration in beans caused by this important stored product pest using CT-assisted imaging analysis. Our results showed that the nutritional arrangement in damaged beans was caused by A. obtectus. The measured nutrient content increment in damaged samples can be explained by the presence of extraneous organic material which originates from perished specimens of the bruchin pest. This is a negative phenomenon in bean items used as forage, because of the loss of valuable proteins and rancidity in herbal oils. Weight loss triggered by developing larvae was 49.42% in examined bean items. The use of 3D technologies has greatly improved and facilitated the detailed investigation of injured seeds. The density (75,834 HU; 41.93%) and the volume (296.162 mm³; 26.21%) values measured by CT of the examined samples were significantly decreased. The decreasing of tissue density in damaged beans can be accounted for by the consumption of starch present at a high ratio and that of the dense reserve components in the cotyledons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A more complicated pathology was observed in female pigs infected with Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, when the same were exposed to 20 ppm dietary levels of fumonisin B1 (FB1) starting 14 days before infection for a period of 42 days as was assessed by gross pathology and pathomorphological examinations or computed tomography, and also manifested by the strong deterioration of the pneumonic process in two pigs and the subsequent euthanizing of one pig. Typical damages in FB1-fed pigs were a strong oedema in the lung and slight oedema in the other internal organs and mild degenerative changes in the kidneys, whereas the typical pathomorphological changes in M. hyopneumoniae-infected pigs corresponded to the morphologic pattern of a catarrhal bronchointerstitial pneumonia more pronounced in the cranial and middle lobes or in the cranial third of the caudal lobe of the lung. The pigs treated by both pathogens (toxic and infectious) revealed strong oedematous changes in the interstitium of lung in addition to deteriorated and extended bronchointerstitial pneumonic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]