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Death, poor condition and unsatisfactory breeding performance in a rabbit colony was attributed to infection with Passalurus ambiguus. The trouble disappeared after treatment with 50 ppm fenbendazole in the food for 5 days. In laboratory trials 12.5 ppm for 5 days eliminated more than 99% of adult and most immature pinworms, 25 and 50 ppm eliminated all immature and adult pinworms. These doses were also effective against Obeliscoides cuniculi.

Determination of the DNA sequence of a cluster of repetitive elements located 3' to the rabbit beta-1 globin gene shows that previously identified B, E, and D repeats are linked to form a long repeat. The B and E regions are homologous to the L1 long interspersed repeats of primates and rodents. Thus L1 repeats are widely dispersed in several different mammalian orders. The sequence similarity among L1 repeats from three species is limited to a long segment that contains extensive open reading frames. This conserved region is followed by a highly divergent segment that corresponds to a 3' untranslated region. The conservation of sequences in the open-reading-frame region coupled with the divergence of the untranslated region supports the hypothesis that the L1 repeats are derived from transcripts of a functional gene that encodes a protein.

Three monoclonal antibodies that react with uracil DNA glycosylase of normal human placenta were tested to determine whether one of the antibodies could be used as a negative marker for Bloom syndrome. As defined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, monoclonal antibody 40.10.09, which reacts with normal human glycosylase, neither recognized nor inhibited native uracil DNA glycosylase from any of five separate Bloom syndrome cell strains. Immunoblot analyses demonstrated that the denatured glycosylase protein from all five Bloom syndrome cell strains was immunoreactive with the 40.10.09 antibody. Further, each native enzyme was immunoreactive with two other anti-human placental uracil DNA glycosylase monoclonal antibodies. In contrast, ELISA reactivity was observed with all three monoclonal antibodies in reactions of glycosylases from 5 normal human cell types and 13 abnormal human cell strains. These results experimentally verify the specificity of the aberrant reactivity of the Bloom syndrome uracil DNA glycosylase. The possibility arises that determination of the lack of immunoreactivity with antibody 40.10.09 may have value in the early diagnosis of Bloom syndrome.