The Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) is an endangered species endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. In 2003 and 2004, 195 penguins from 13 colonies on the islands of Isabela and Fernandina in the Galápagos archipelago were examined. Genetic sexing of 157 penguins revealed 62 females and 95 males. Hematology consisted of packed cell volume (n = 134), white blood cell differentials ...

The complete DNA sequence of equine herpesvirus-4 (EHV-4) strain NS80567 was determined. The genome is 145597 bp in size and consists of a long unique region (UL, 112398 bp) flanked by a short inverted repeat (TRL/IRL, 27 bp) linked to a short unique region (Us, 12789 bp) flanked by a substantial inverted repeat (TRs/IRs, 10178 bp). EHV-4 is predicted to contain 76 different genes; three of the...

Background and Aims: In this study we improved the purification of immunoglobulins from equine antiserum raised against the venom of 6 types of scorption species. Caprylic acid (octanoic acid), a fatty acid, was found to have no effect on the activity of the enzymes pepsin, which is used in antivenom purification to digest Fc fragment of immunoglobulins to obtain F(ab´)2. Materials and Methods...

We report here on the isolation and sequencing of the hemagglutinin, neuraminidase and nucleoprotein genes of the Chilean equine influenza virus subtypes H7N7 (A/equi-1/Santiago/77, Sa77) and H3N8 (A/equi-2/Santiago/85, Sa85). The sequences obtained allowed a variability analysis, which indicated significant differences when compared with other isolates. We found that Chilean isolates are more ...

In horses, successful in vitro fertilization procedures are limited by our inability to consistently mature equine oocytes by in vitro methods. Growth hormone (GH) is an important regulator of female reproduction in mammals, playing an important role in ovarian function, follicular growth and steroidogenesis. The objectives of this research were to investigate: the effects of equine growth horm...

The cysteine-rich 8K protein of Potato mop-top virus (PMTV) suppresses host RNA silencing. In this study, evolutionary analysisof 8K sequences of PMTV isolates was studied on the basis of nucleotide and amino acid sequences. Twenty-one positively selected sites were identified in 8K codingregions. Recombination events were found in the 8K of PMTV isolates with a rate of 1.8. Totally 30 haplotyp...

Background: Equine follicle stimulating hormone (eFSH) is a pituitary heterodimeric glycoprotein consists of noncovalently linked of generic alpha subunit and a hormone specific beta subunit. The molecular weights of the subunits are similar and about 16 KD. In general, FSH plays a key role in controlling vertebrate gonadal functions. In female mammals, ovarian maturation and follicular growth ...