Search

Abstract Background A Tonsil-Oral-Scrubbing (TOSc) method was developed to sample the sow’s oropharyngeal and tonsillar area without snaring and has shown comparable porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) RNA detection rates with tonsil scraping in infected sows. This study investigated the effect of specific TOSc collection factors on the PRRSV RT-rtPCR results (detection rates and Ct values). Those factors include whether the sow was snared or not snared at TOSc collection (“snared” vs. “not snared”); whether the sow was laying down or standing at collection (“laying down” vs. “standing”); and type of collectors used for TOSc collection (“TOSc prototype” vs. “Spiral-headed AI catheter (SHAC)”). Volume of fluid was compared between “snared” and “not snared” groups, and collection time was compared between “laying down” and “standing” groups as well. Results The effect for each factor was assessed in three independent studies following the same design: TOSc was collected twice from each studied sow, once with the baseline level for a factor (“not snared”, or “standing”, or “TOSc prototype”), and another time followed by the other level of the paired factor (“snared”, “laying down”, or “SHAC”, correspondingly). Results showed that “not snared” TOSc had numerically higher PRRSV RNA detection rate (60.7% vs. 52.5%, p = 0.11), significantly lower median Ct values (31.9 vs. 32.3, p

Abstract Background During the fall of 2020, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) L1C.5 variant emerged and rapidly spread throughout southern Minnesota generating questions regarding possible transmission routes. This study aimed to investigate whether PRRSV could be detected on surfaces inside and outside pig barns housing L1C.5 variant PRRSV-positive pigs to illustrate the potential for indirect transmission of PRRSV. Seven Midwestern U.S. PPRS-positive breeding or growing pig farms and one PRRS-negative farm were conveniently selected. Internal and external barn surfaces were wiped using a PBS moistened cloth and the resulting liquid was submitted to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for PRRSV RT-PCR testing and virus isolation. Results All (n = 26) samples from PRRSV-negative farm tested negative. Nineteen (13%) out of 143 samples from positive farms yielded positive RT-PCR results. Positive samples originated primarily from exhaust fan cones and doorknobs, followed by anteroom floor and mortality carts/sleds. Virus isolation attempted on two samples did not yield positive results. Conclusions PRRSV contamination can occur on surfaces inside and outside pig barns that are in frequent contact with farm personnel. Although virus isolation attempts were negative, our results illustrate the potential for PRRSV to be transmitted indirectly through contaminated materials or farm personnel. The study supports the implementation of biosecurity practices by farm personnel to prevent the introduction of PRRSV into farms and the prevention of PRRSV transmission between farms.

IntroductionCurrent common sample types for sows, such as serum and tonsil scraping, require snaring the animals, which can be labor-intensive and raise concerns regarding animal welfare. Obtaining oral fluids (OF) from individual sows in field conditions presents challenges, as not all sows readily respond to the rope method. The Tonsil-Oral-Scrubbing (TOSc) collector allows for the rapid retrieval of fluids from the sow’s oral and tonsillar areas without the need for snaring. Previous studies have reported comparable detection rates of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) RNA between TOSc and tonsil scraping, with significantly higher positivity observed in TOSc compared to serum in acutely infected sows.MethodsGiven that PRRSV RNA detection rates can vary among different sample types and fluctuate over time, this field study aimed to compare PRRSV real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-rtPCR) positivity and cycle threshold (Ct) values between TOSc, serum, OF, and tonsil scraping at three time points following live-virus inoculation (LVI) in sows. This study was conducted within a breeding herd attempting to eliminate PRRSV following an outbreak. Four sample types were collected from each of the 61 conveniently selected sows at 30, 60, and 90 days post-LVI in the order of OF, TOSc, tonsil scraping, and serum, and subsequently tested for PRRSV RNA.ResultsThe results indicated that TOSc and tonsil scraping exhibited decreased PRRSV RNA detection rates over time, whereas the detection rates for OF and serum remained relatively stable. Moreover, the median Ct values for TOSc and tonsil scraping were numerically lower than those for OF and serum at all sampling points. Specifically, tonsil scraping demonstrated significantly higher PRRSV RNA positivity than the other three sample types. TOSc also exhibited significantly higher PRRSV RNA positivity than OF and serum at both 30 and 60 days post-LVI. By 90 days post-LVI, there was a significant difference in the PRRSV RNA detection rates between TOSc and tonsil scraping. However, no significant difference was observed between TOSc and OF or between TOSc and serum. According to the RT-rtPCR results, most PRRSV RNA-positive sows detected via TOSc and tonsil scraping turned negative by 90 days post-LVI, although a small proportion remained positive. Conversely, a small number of previously negative sows tested positive at 60 and 90 days post-LVI, indicating an intermittent mode of PRRSV RNA detection for both sample types.

Abstract Background Mitochondrial diseases often require multiple years and clinicians to diagnose. We lack knowledge of the stages of this diagnostic odyssey, and factors that affect it. Our goals are to report the results of the 2018 Odyssey2 (OD2) survey of patients with a medical diagnosis of mitochondrial disease; and to propose steps to reduce the odyssey going forward, and procedures to evaluate them. Methods Data are from the NIH-funded NAMDC-RDCRN-UMDF OD2 survey (N = 215). The main outcomes are Time from symptom Onset to mitochondrial disease Diagnosis (TOD) and Number of Doctors Seen during this diagnostic process (NDOCS). Results Expert recoding increased analyzable responses by 34% for final mitochondrial diagnosis and 39% for prior non-mitochondrial diagnosis. Only one of 122 patients who initially saw a primary care physician (PCP) received a mitochondrial diagnosis, compared to 26 of 86 (30%) who initially saw a specialist (p

IntroductionCrohn’s disease (CD), one of the main phenotypes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. It can impact the function of gastrointestinal secretions, as well as increasing the intestinal permeability leading to an aberrant immunological response and subsequent intestinal inflammation. Studies have reported anatomical and functional brain changes in Crohn’s Disease patients (CDs), possibly due to increased inflammatory markers and microglial cells that play key roles in communicating between the brain, gut, and systemic immune system. To date, no studies have demonstrated similarities between morphological brain changes seen in IBD and brain morphometry observed in older healthy controls..MethodsFor the present study, twelve young CDs in remission (M = 26.08 years, SD = 4.9 years, 7 male) were recruited from an IBD Clinic. Data from 12 young age-matched healthy controls (HCs) (24.5 years, SD = 3.6 years, 8 male) and 12 older HCs (59 years, SD = 8 years, 8 male), previously collected for a different study under a similar MR protocol, were analyzed as controls. T1 weighted images and structural image processing techniques were used to extract surface-based brain measures, to test our hypothesis that young CDs have different brain surface morphometry than their age-matched young HCs and furthermore, appear more similar to older HCs. The phonemic verbal fluency (VF) task (the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, COWAT) (Benton, 1976) was administered to test verbal cognitive ability and executive control.Results/DiscussionOn the whole, CDs had more brain regions with differences in brain morphometry measures when compared to the young HCs as compared to the old HCs, suggesting that CD has an effect on the brain that makes it appear more similar to old HCs. Additionally, our study demonstrates this atypical brain morphometry is associated with function on a cognitive task. These results suggest that even younger CDs may be showing some evidence of structural brain changes that demonstrate increased resemblance to older HC brains rather than their similarly aged healthy counterparts.

Primary mitochondrial myopathies (PMM) are rare disorders with diverse and progressive symptom presentations that cause a substantial, detrimental impact on the quality of life of patients and their caregivers. The burden of symptoms is compounded by their visibility and their unpredictable, progressive nature, leading to a sense of social stigmatization, limited autonomy, social isolation, and grief. There is also a lack of awareness and expertise in the medical community, which presents huge obstacles to diagnosis and provision of coordinated multidisciplinary care for these patients, along with a lack of disease-modifying treatments. The present commentary serves to raise awareness of the challenges faced by patients with PMM and their caregivers in their own words, including diagnostic delays, the burden of disease, and the need for further trials to develop disease-modifying treatments and improved understanding of the disease course. We also provide commentary on considerations for clinical practice, including the need for holistic care and multidisciplinary care teams, details of common ‘red flag’ symptoms, proposed diagnostic approaches, and suggested descriptions of multisystemic symptoms for physician-patient dialogue. In addition, we highlight the role patient advocacy and support groups play in supporting patients and providing access to reliable, up-to-date information and educational resources on these rare diseases.

Imaging-based quantitative measures from diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) offer the ability to non-invasively extract microscopic information from human brain tissues. Group-level comparisons of such measures represent an important approach to investigate abnormal brain conditions. These types of analyses are especially useful when the regions of abnormality spatially coincide across subjects. When this is not true, approaches for individualized analyses are necessary. Here we present a framework for single-subject multidimensional analysis based on the Mahalanobis distance. This is conducted along specific white matter pathways represented by tractography-derived streamline bundles. A definition for abnormality was constructed from Wilk's criterion, which accounts for normative sample size, number of features used in the Mahalanobis distance, and multiple comparisons. One example of a condition exhibiting high heterogeneity across subjects is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Using the Mahalanobis distance computed from the three eigenvalues of the diffusion tensor along the cingulum, uncinate, and parcellated corpus callosum tractograms, 8 severe TBI patients were individually compared to a normative sample of 49 healthy controls. For all TBI patients, the analyses showed statistically significant deviations from the normative data at one or multiple locations along the analyzed bundles. The detected anomalies were widespread across the analyzed tracts, consistent with the expected heterogeneity that is hallmark of TBI. Each of the controls subjects was also compared to the remaining 48 subjects in the control group in a leave-one-out fashion. Only two segments were identified as abnormal out of the entire analysis in the control group, thus the method also demonstrated good specificity.

Abstract Primary mitochondrial diseases (PMD) are genetic disorders with extensive clinical and molecular heterogeneity where therapeutic development efforts have faced multiple challenges. Clinical trial design, outcome measure selection, lack of reliable biomarkers, and deficiencies in long‐term natural history data sets remain substantial challenges in the increasingly active PMD therapeutic development space. Developing “FAIR” (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data standards to make data sharable and building a more transparent community data sharing paradigm to access clinical research metadata are the first steps to address these challenges. This collaborative community effort describes the current landscape of PMD clinical research data resources available for sharing, obstacles, and opportunities, including ways to incentivize and encourage data sharing among diverse stakeholders. This work highlights the importance of, and challenges to, developing a unified system that enables clinical research structured data sharing and supports harmonized data deposition standards across clinical consortia and research groups. The goal of these efforts is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of drug development and improve understanding of the natural history of PMD. This initiative aims to maximize the benefit for PMD patients, research, industry, and other stakeholders while acknowledging challenges related to differing needs and international policies on data privacy, security, management, and oversight.

Background: A challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widespread adherence to risk-reducing behaviors. Individuals with mitochondrial disease (MtD) are special population with an increased risk of morbidity associated with infection. Purpose: To measure risk mitigation behaviors (RMBs) in families affected by MtD and identify factors that may influence these behaviors. Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed in April and June 2020. Individuals with MtD or their caregivers completed the survey. Results: We received 529 eligible responses with n = 312 completing all questions for our multivariate regression model. The most common RMBs were increased hand washing (96%), social distancing (94%), and avoiding public gatherings (93%). Higher numbers of recent healthcare visits (b = 0.62, p

Throughout adulthood, the brain undergoes an array of structural and functional changes during the typical aging process. These changes involve decreased brain volume, reduced synaptic density, and alterations in white matter (WM). Although there have been some previous neuroimaging studies that have measured the ability of adult language production and its correlations to brain function, structural gray matter volume, and functional differences between young and old adults, the structural role of WM in adult language production in individuals across the life span remains to be thoroughly elucidated. This study selected 38 young adults and 35 old adults for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and performed the Controlled Oral Word Association Test to assess verbal fluency (VF). Tract-Based Spatial Statistics were employed to evaluate the voxel-based group differences of diffusion metrics for the values of fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD), and local diffusion homogeneity (LDH) in 12 WM regions of interest associated with language production. To investigate group differences on each DTI metric, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) controlling for sex and education level was performed, and the statistical threshold was considered at p < 0.00083 (0.05/60 labels) after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Significant differences in DTI metrics identified in the ANCOVA were used to perform correlation analyses with VF scores. Compared to the old adults, the young adults had significantly (1) increased FA values on the bilateral anterior corona radiata (ACR); (2) decreased MD values on the right ACR, but increased MD on the left uncinate fasciculus (UF); and (3) decreased RD on the bilateral ACR. There were no significant differences between the groups for AD or LDH. Moreover, the old adults had only a significant correlation between the VF score and the MD on the left UF. There were no significant correlations between VF score and DTI metrics in the young adults. This study adds to the growing body of research that WM areas involved in language production are sensitive to aging.

We report an ongoing regional outbreak of an emerging porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV2) variant within Lineage 1C affecting 154 breeding and grow-finishing sites in the Midwestern U.S. Transmission seemed to have occurred in two waves, with the first peak of weekly cases occurring between October and December 2020 and the second starting in April 2021. Most of cases occurred within a 120 km radius. Both orf5 and whole genome sequencing results suggest that this represents the emergence of a new variant within Lineage 1C distinct from what has been previously circulating. A case-control study was conducted with 50 cases (sites affected with the newly emerged variant) and 58 controls (sites affected with other PRRSV variants) between October and December 2020. Sites that had a market vehicle that was not exclusive to the production system had 0.04 times the odds of being a case than a control. A spatial cluster (81.42 km radius) with 1.68 times higher the number of cases than controls was found. The average finishing mortality within the first 4 weeks after detection was higher amongst cases (4.50%) than controls (0.01%). The transmission of a highly similar virus between different farms carrying on trough spring rises concerns for the next high transmission season of PRRS.

This article presents data that examine the patient's perception of health care delivery for mitochondrial disease in the US. It also presents the opinions of mitochondrial disease expert physicians about creating a specialised network of clinics to oversee the care of patients with this disease within the US. Two separate electronic surveys were developed; one for mitochondrial disease patients and their families ascertaining their satisfaction with their current health care and the challenges they face. The other for the physicians group assessing the usefulness, feasibility and readiness to develop specialized care clinics for mitochondrial disease in the US. Survey responses and descriptive analysis are presented here. The data in this article is supplemental, and supports the information presented in the research article “Harmonizing care for rare diseases: How we developed the mitochondrial care network in the United States.” Karaa et al., 2019 Keywords: Mitochondrial disease, Health care delivery, Patients' perception of care, Physicians' opinion on care delivery

Educational activity kits were developed and implemented through a statewide effort for 4-H Youth Development Extension programs serving 5-8 year-old children. The purpose of the kits was to promote life skills in children and assess the learning environment. Data was collected based on the observations of 577 children across 22 counties. Findings indicated life skills of subject matter knowledge, getting along with others, and decision-making were enhanced through activity kits. While contextual elements for positive youth development were present for: positive relationships with caring adults, opportunities for mastery/competence, emotionally and physically safe environment, and opportunities for engagement of learning.

After porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) was detected in the United States in 2013, we tested environmental samples from trailers in which pigs had been transported. PEDV was found in 5.2% of trailers not contaminated at arrival, , suggesting that the transport process is a source of transmission if adequate hygiene measures are not implemented.