ABSTRACT
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194077.].
ABSTRACT
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) has devastated the cattle industry in Sri Lanka many times in the past. Despite its seriousness, limited attempts have been made to understand the disease to ameliorate its effects-current recommendation for vaccines being based solely on immunological assessments rather than on molecular identification. The general belief is that the cattle population in Sri Lanka acquired the FMD virus (FMDV) strains via introductions from India. However, there could be endemic FMDV lineages circulating in Sri Lanka. To infer the phylogenetic relationships of the FMDV strains in the island, we sequenced the VP1 genomic region of the virus isolates collected during the 2014 outbreak together with a few reported cases in 2012 and 1997 and compared them to VP1 sequences from South Asia. The FMDV strains collected in the 2014 outbreak belonged to the lineage, Ind-2001d, of the topotype, ME-SA. The strains collected in 2012 and 1997 belonged to another lineage called 'unnamed' by the World Reference Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease (WRLFMD). Based on the present analysis, we designate the lineage 'unnamed' as Srl-97 which we found endemic to Sri Lanka. The evolutionary rates of Srl-97 and Ind-2001d in Sri Lanka were estimated to be 0.0004 and 0.0046 substitutions/site/year, respectively, suggesting that Srl-97 evolves slowly.
Subject(s)
Capsid Proteins/genetics , Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus/genetics , Foot-and-Mouth Disease/virology , Animals , Cattle , Cattle Diseases/virology , Disease Outbreaks , Foot-and-Mouth Disease/epidemiology , Genomics/methods , Phylogeny , RNA, Viral/genetics , Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods , Serogroup , Sri Lanka/epidemiologyABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Sri Lanka is caused by Leishmania donovani MON 37. Confirmation of diagnosis is done through microscopy, either directly or after in vitro culture. Molecular diagnostic methods are sensitive, but require well established laboratories. Loop mediated isothermal amplification assay (LAMP) is rapid, specific for parasite speciesspecific DNA amplification, and requires only basic laboratory equipment. The aim of the study was to determine the potential utility of LAMP to diagnose leishmaniasis. METHODS: Thirty one patients clinically diagnosed as CL were enrolled in the study. Light microscopy, a widely used and universally accepted method was used as the reference standard for confirmation of diagnosis. RESULTS: LAMP was positive for 19/23 microscopically positive patients, yielding a sensitivity of 82.6%. Specificity of the LAMP assay was 100% and the positive and negative predictive values were 100% and 66% respectively. The average time taken for the LAMP assay was 1 hour and 40 minutes and the cost per sample was about SLR 2 000, which was approximately half the time and cost of a nested PCR (polymerase chain reaction). CONCLUSIONS: LAMP could be considered a potentially useful diagnostic tool for leishmaniasis.
Subject(s)
Leishmania donovani , Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous/diagnosis , Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous/parasitology , Microscopy/methods , Microscopy/statistics & numerical data , Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques/methods , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Polymerase Chain Reaction/statistics & numerical data , Predictive Value of Tests , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Sri LankaABSTRACT
Swine influenza is a highly infectious viral disease of pigs, causing considerable economic impact. The causative agent is known as a type A orthomyxovirus with a segmented RNA genome. Influenza type A virus is a highly contagious pathogen among a limited number of birds and mammals. The objective of this review is to summarize the current knowledge in swine influenza infection in pigs with emphasizing on epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic techniques and control measures.
