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Owing to the changes in the general ecological situation in Russia, livestock losses from ovine anaplasmosis have rapidly increased in recent years. The development of a vaccine against this disease is therefore all the more relevant. A continuous culture of tick cells could be used as an appropriate substrate for producing biomass of the pathogen of ovine anaplasmosis, Anaplasma ovis, for the purpose of manufacturing a cell-cultural inactivated vaccine. Such a continuous cell line of the tick Dermacentor marginatus, the definitive reservoir host of A. ovis, has been obtained by cultivation of homogenized tick eggs on a modified Leibovitz medium L15. The established cell line DM-77 has an undifferentiated phenotype: the cells are rounded, with large nuclei and well-visible nucleoli. By the end of the study, the cell line was passaged eight times and did not express signs of growth rate decrease. The duplication time was 2.8 ± 0.3 days for cultivation in a medium with 10% fetal serum at 32°C.

Noninvasive stable isotope breath tests allow highly accurate and safe estimation of liver and biliary tract function. The aim of this study was to test 13С-labeled linoleic and linolenic acids intended for diagnostic use for acute and subchronic toxicity. The acids were synthesized using the patented method. A single intragastric administration of the tested compounds to experimental BALB/c mice and Wistar rats in the amounts exceeding clinical doses 500 to 2500-fold did not cause animal death. In the subchronic toxicity test, the rats received 5 to 25 times higher doses than recommended for clinical use in humans. In a 14-day follow-up period, no significant differences were observed between the main and the control groups in terms of weight, blood count (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets), and blood biochemistry (hemoglobin, total protein, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, bilirubin). The studied compounds are safe at doses intended for oral administration and are recommended for further preclinical and clinical trials.

The findings suggest that there are natural foci of hantavirus infection in the Tambov Region. There is evidence that Dobrava/Belgrade hantavirus (DOB-Aa) was a leading etiological agent in the outbreak of the disease in the winter of 2006-2007. Epidemiological analysis showed that the outbreak of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) afflicted the region during November to April, by reaching its peak in January (52.2%). Among the patients with HFRS, rural dwellers were 91%. People were infected with the virus mainly by taking care of domestic animals (97.2%). The reservoir of the virus and the source of its human infection in the outbreak was a field mouse, its western subspecies Apodemus agrarius agrarius, which was absolutely dominated among all the virus carriers.