Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are caused by dietary oral exposure to infectious prion proteins (PrPSc); however, the mechanism behind the uptake of PrPSc in the intestines is poorly understood. In addition, epidemiological studies of BSE showed that most cattle are exposed to the agents in the first 6 months of life, during the suckling and weaning periods. In the present stud...

This study investigated the effects of Kudoa septempunctata genotype ST3 spores on ddY suckling mice. Purified Kudoa septempunctata spores were administered into the stomachs of the mice at 5 × 10(6) or 5 × 10(7) spores/mouse, with inactivated Kudoa (5 × 10(6) spores/mouse) or vehicle as controls. No abnormal clinical symptoms were observed and there were no variations in fluid accumulation rat...

To investigate social influences on human suckling behavior, 25 healthy, full term, 7 to 14-week-old infants were each bottle-fed their own formula twice by their mother and once in each of four experimental conditions: (a) held, provided social interaction; (b) held, without interaction; (c) not held, provided interaction; (d) not held, without interaction. Volume intake (VI), Total Sucks, inf...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to characterize the behaviors and the body weight of suckling piglets in different social environments. METHODS Two groups of sows and suckling piglets housed either in individual farrowing crates in separate pens (1.8×2.4 m, the control group) or in groups of three sows with their piglets in farrowing crates in a large common enclosure (5.4×2.2 m, the treat...

Cholera toxin, one of the main virulence factors of Vibrio cholerae, is encoded in the genome of CTXphi, a V. cholerae-specific lysogenic filamentous bacteriophage. Although the genes encoding cholera toxin, ctxAB, are known to have their own promoter, the toxin genes can also be transcribed from an upstream CTXphi promoter, PrstA. The V. cholerae SOS response to DNA damage induces the CTX prop...

Outbred suckling mice (NMRI strain) were used as hosts. They were initially inoculated with oocysts of human origin, and subsequently with parasites recovered from the mouse ileal mucosa. Cryptosporidia were counted in an aliquot of whole-ileum homogenate. Parasite load was expressed as cryptosporidia per centimeter of ileum. Serial passage of C. parvum in NMRI mouse litters led to a gradual am...