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In the present paper, we announce new draft genomes of four Leptospira interrogans strains named Acegua, RCA, Prea, and Capivara. These strains were isolated in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from cattle, dog, Brazilian guinea pig, and capybara, respectively.

The increasing demand of strawberry (Fragaria×ananassa Duch) fruits is associated mainly with their sensorial characteristics and the content of antioxidant compounds. Nevertheless, the strawberry production has been hampered due to its sensitivity to abiotic stresses. Therefore, to understand the molecular mechanisms highlighting stress response is of great importance to enable genetic engineering approaches aiming to improve strawberry tolerance. However, the study of expression of genes in strawberry requires the use of suitable reference genes. In the present study, seven traditional and novel candidate reference genes were evaluated for transcript normalization in fruits of ten strawberry cultivars and two abiotic stresses, using RefFinder, which integrates the four major currently available software programs: geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and the comparative delta-Ct method. The results indicate that the expression stability is dependent on the experimental conditions. The candidate reference gene DBP (DNA binding protein) was considered the most suitable to normalize expression data in samples of strawberry cultivars and under drought stress condition, and the candidate reference gene HISTH4 (histone H4) was the most stable under osmotic stresses and salt stress. The traditional genes GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) and 18S (18S ribosomal RNA) were considered the most unstable genes in all conditions. The expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and 9-cis epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED1) genes were used to further confirm the validated candidate reference genes, showing that the use of an inappropriate reference gene may induce erroneous results. This study is the first survey on the stability of reference genes in strawberry cultivars and osmotic stresses and provides guidelines to obtain more accurate RT-qPCR results for future breeding efforts., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Owing to the unique physiology of birds, most toxicities are life-threatening and require prompt, well-informed action. It is often hard to ascertain which specific toxin or the amount of toxin to which the bird has been exposed. Therefore, the most important action is to treat the bird, not the poison. This article discusses the steps in diagnosing and treating toxicoses, from both natural and man-made toxins, that have been reported in avian species.

A comparative study of the diseases and the physicochemical and bacteriological properties of the atmosphere was performed in 4 nurseries in Paris between September 1976 and June 1977. The importance of nursery-acquired diseases was estimated in each child from the average of the days of non attendance because of illness. They were classified in 3 groups: upper and lower respiratory tract, gastro-intestinal, infection-eruption whose respective rates (80%, 10% and 10%) are not significantly different either from one nursery to another or with age. The children under 2 years of age are ill twice more frequently than the older ones (p less than 0.001). The duration of the absences for illness differs from one nursery to another (p less than 0.001). In the 2 nurseries where the thermohygrometric comfort is satisfying in 30% or more controls (temperature between 19 and 22 degrees C with hygrometry between 40 and 60% of relative humidity), the average of non attendance for ill;ness is 6.0 days; in the 2 nurseries where the comfort is satisfying in 20% of the cases or less, this average becomes 12.6 days in dry and globally contaminated atmosphere and 18.5 days in super-heated atmosphere where pathogen staphylococci predominate.