Effects of Vaccination against Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 among Japanese Children

lence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among veterinarians: an international study.cillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain ST398 is present in mid-western U.S. swine and swine workers. Presence of a novel DNA methylation enzyme in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus au-reus isolates associated with pig farming leads to uninterpretable results in standard pulsed-fi eld gel electrophoresis analysis. Isolation and characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from Louisiana retail meats.mans JA. Increase in a Dutch hospital of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus related to animal farming. To the Editor: Feline corona-viruses (FCoVs) occur as 2 patho-types, feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) and feline enteric coronavirus (FECV). FECV is common in cats, causing mild transient enteritis in kittens, but is asymptomatic in adult cats. In contrast, FIPV occurs sporadically but is lethal. It replicates in monocytes and macrophages and rapidly disseminates throughout the body causing systemic immunopathologic disease (1–4). The relationship between FECV and FIPV has become a matter of debate. Genetic and animal experimental evidence indicates that FIPV arises by mutation from FECV in the intestinal tract of a persistently infected cat; the virus thereby acquires the monocyte or macrophage tropism that enables it to spread systemically and cause FIP (5–7,8). According to another view, the 2 pathotypes circulate independently in the fi eld. This circulating virulent/avirulent FCoV theory recently was advocated by Brown et al. (9). Their conclusion was based on sequence analyses of parts of the viral genome including the matrix (M) gene, phylogenetic analysis of which revealed reciprocal monophyly of the sequences obtained from FIP cases versus those of asymptomatic FECV-infected animals. In addition, the authors suggested 5 aa residues in the M protein to represent potential diagnostic markers for distinguishing virulent FIPV from avirulent FECV (9). To try to verify the fi ndings of Brown et al. (9), we determined and analyzed M genes from 43 FCoV genomes, 20 of which came from cats in single-cat households, and 23 from cattery animals. The latter group consisted of 10 asymptomatic healthy cats (FECV; test specimens: feces) and 13 dead cats with FIP confi rmed through pathology (FIPV; test specimens: organs, ascites). These animals came from 8 catteries. FECV and FIPV cases were found in 7 (designated A to G); the remaining cattery (H) provided 2 cats with FIP. The genomes from individually living cats were from 15 FIPV-and 5 FECV-infected animals. Using specifi c primers (sense 5′-CGTCTCAATCAAGGCATATAATC CCGACGAAG-3′, antisense 5′-CAG TTGACGCGTTGTCCCTGTG-3′), we amplifi ed the same 575-bp …