Highly virulent community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) with Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is common worldwide. Using antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec typing, exotoxin profiling, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing, we provide evidence that supports the relationship between nasal strains of PVL-positiv...

Cytokine mRNA levels were assessed in Burkholderia pseudomallei-susceptible BALB/c mice and B. pseudomallei-resistant C57BL/6 mice following administration of a sublethal dose of less virulent (LV) B. pseudomallei, a candidate immunogen tested for protection against a highly virulent (HV) challenge. Compared on the basis of the bacterial loads, the cytokine patterns induced by HV and LV B. pseu...

Virulent and avirulent strains of swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV), a picornavirus, have been characterized previously. The major determinants for attenuation have been mapped to specific residues in the 1D-2A-coding region. The properties of the 2A proteases from the virulent and avirulent strains of SVDV have now been examined. Both proteases efficiently cleaved the 1D/2A junction in vitr...

Marek's disease virus (MDV), a herpesvirus that causes a lymphoproliferative disorder in chickens, encodes a number of microRNAs derived primarily from two locations in the MDV genome. One cluster of microRNA genes flanks the meq oncogene, and a second cluster is found within the latency-associated transcript (LAT) region. The sequences of MDV microRNAs from a collection of field and reference ...

OBJECTIVES We compared the reactivity of IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies in mouse sera after infection with virulent RH and low-virulent S273 and Beverley strains of Toxoplasma gondii against RH SAG1 recombinant p30 (rp30) and synthetic SAG1 peptides. METHODS Infected mouse serum samples were collected 9 days after infection, and the level of total IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a against the RH SAG1 rp30 prote...

BACKGROUND Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an important pathogen in pig that causes tremendous economic loss in the global swine industry. PRRSV is divided into the European and North American genotypes, with virulence ranging from apathogenic-moderately virulent to highly pathogenic. The emergence of new highly virulent type 1 strains and coexistence of the two g...

Surface phagocytosis has been shown to play an important rble in the mechanism of recovery in acute bacterial pneumonia (1-5). Operating in the absence of specific antibodies, this form of phagocytosis acts as an immediate defense reaction of the host and causes prompt destruction of fully encapsulated bacteria. Highly virulent strains of type I pneumococci, Friedl'ander's bacilli, group A beta...

M92 is a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonizing strain belonging to ST239-MRSA-III. It frequently shows local nasal colonization in our hospital staff, but has never been associated with infection. We sequenced the complete genome of M92, in order to compare it to highly virulent MRSA strains to gain insight into MRSA virulence factors.

The complete genome sequence was determined for a highly virulent Newcastle disease virus strain from vaccinated chicken farms in Mexico during outbreaks in 2010. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis this strain was classified into genotype V in the class II cluster that was closely related to Mexican strains that appeared in 2004-2006.

A highly virulent strain of Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causing severe diarrhea has recently emerged in Vietnam. Genomic sequences from a novel strain, HUA-14PED96, isolated from a Vietnamese piglet with serious diarrhea show relatively high identity with U.S.-like PEDV strains, and have a 72-nt deletion in the open reading frame 1a (ORF1a) gene.