Pathogenicity of Five Strains of Toxoplasma gondii from Different Animals to Chickens

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite with a broad range of intermediate hosts. Chickens as important food-producing animals can also serve as intermediate hosts. To date, experimental studies on the pathogenicity of T. gondii in broiler chickens were rarely reported. The objective of the present study was to compare the pathogenicity of 5 different T. gondii strains (RH, CN, JS, CAT2, and CAT3) from various host species origin in 10-day-old chickens. Each group of chickens was infected intraperitoneally with 5 x 10(8), 1 x 10(8), 1 x 10(7), and 1 x 10(6) tachyzoites of the 5 strains, respectively. The negative control group was mockly inoculated with PBS alone. After infection, clinical symptoms and rectal temperatures of all the chickens were checked daily. Dead chickens during acute phage of the infection were checked for T. gondii tachyzoites by microscope, while living cases were checked for T. gondii infection at day 53 post-inoculation (PI) by PCR method. Histopathological sections were used to observe the pathological changes in the dead chickens and the living animals at day 53 PI. No significant differences were found in survival periods, histopathological findings, and clinical symptoms among the chickens infected with the RH, CN, CAT2, and CAT3 strains. Histopathological findings and clinical symptoms of the JS (chicken origin) group were similar to the others. However, average survival times of infected chickens of the JS group inoculated with 5 x 10(8) and 1 x 10(8) tachyzoites were 30.0 and 188.4 hr, respectively, significantly shorter than those of the other 4 mammalian isolates. Chickens exposed to 10(8) of T. gondii tachyzoites and higher showed acute signs of toxoplasmosis, and the lesions were relatively more severe than those exposed to lower doses. The results indicated that the pathogenicity of JS strain was comparatively stronger to the chicken, and the pathogenicity was dose-dependent.

Needle deflection prediction based on projecting beam model / 医用生物力学

Objective To analyze deflection and forces of needle insertion and improve the inserting accuracy. Methods The measuring equipment was constructed with industrial camera, stepping motor and light source. The experiment of needle insertion into soft tissues was conducted with puncture needles having different diameters (1.3, 0.9, 0.6 mm), and the inserting forces at different puncture speeds (5, 10 and 15 mm/s) were measured by the force sensor. The needle deflection was obtained by digital image processing method. Based on the analysis of needle inserting forces, a projecting beam model was structured to predict the needle deflection. Results The deflections of puncture needles with diameters of 1.3 and 0.6 mm at puncture speed of 5 mm/s were predicted by using the projecting beam model. The absolute error was less than 0.5 mm, and the relative error was less than 10%. Conclusions The proposed model can predict the needle deflection effectively, which will provide references for the robot-assisted needle insertion.