Rickettsia rickettsii is an obligate intracellular tick-borne bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), the most lethal spotted fever rickettsiosis. When an infected starving tick begins blood feeding from a vertebrate host, R. rickettsii is exposed to a temperature elevation and to components in the blood meal. These two environmental stimuli have been previously associated wi...

Current methods for measuring renal blood flow (RBF) are time consuming and not widely available. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEU) is a safe and noninvasive imaging technique suitable for assessment of tissue blood flow, which has been used clinically to assess myocardial blood flow. We tested the utility of CEU in monitoring changes in RBF in healthy volunteers. We utilized CEU to monitor th...

Malaria sporozoites must invade the salivary glands of mosquitoes for maturation before transmission to vertebrate hosts. The duration of the sporogonic cycle within the mosquitoes ranges from 10 to 21 days depending on the parasite species and temperature. During blood feeding salivary gland proteins are injected into the vertebrate host, along with malaria sporozoites in the case of an infect...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of ileal amino acid digestibility coefficients in dietary formulation for broiler chickens. Two relatively poor quality protein sources, a meat-and-bone meal and a dried blood meal were used. The meals were subjected to the ileal assay and respective mean coefficients of digestibility of 0.58 and 0.67 were found for the first-limiting amino acid...

This study aimed to determine whether postprandial temperature excursions in skeletal muscle are consistent with thermogenesis or altered blood flow. Temperature probes were implanted into the vastus lateralis muscle of ovariectomized ewes, and blood flow was assessed using laser-Doppler flowmetry (tissue flow) and transit-time ultrasound flowmetry (femoral artery flow). The animals were progra...

A 28-day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf meal on the haematological and serum biochemical indices of starter broilers. The Neem leaves used in the experiment were manually harvested, air-dried and milled to become Neem leaf meal. The Neem leaf meal was included in broiler starter diets at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10% levels,...

The chemical composition of spray dried porcine blood by-products is characterised by wide variation in crude protein contents. In spray dried porcine blood plasma (SDBP) it varied between 670-780 g/kg, in spray dried blood cells (SDBC) between 830-930 g/kg, and in bone protein hydrolysate (BPH) in a range of 740-780 g/kg. Compared with fish meal, these feeds are poor in Met and Lys. Moreover, ...

Regulatory functions of glycogen stores and blood glucose on human appetite, particularly relating to exercise, are not fully understood. Ten men (age 20-31 yr) performed glycogen-depleting exercise in an evening, ate a low-carbohydrate dinner, and stayed overnight in the laboratory. The next day, blood glucose was monitored continuously for 517 +/- 23 (SE) min. Subjects had access to high-fat ...

A total of 60 male mule ducks and 60 male Muscovy ducks were allotted into three groups (n = 20) to estimate the effects of overfeeding (two and four meals) versus ad libitum feeding on productive performance traits, foie gras production, internal organs, and blood parameters. The results show that force-feeding four meals significantly increased (P < 0.01) body weight, weight gain, and gain pe...

BACKGROUND Presently the necessity of fasting time for coagulation tests is not standardized. Our hypothesis is that this can harm patient safety. This study is aimed at evaluating whether a light meal (i.e. breakfast) can jeopardize laboratory coagulation tests. MATERIALS AND METHODS A blood sample was firstly collected from 17 fasting volunteers (12 h). Immediately after blood collection, t...