Feral swine are well known as environmentally destructive invasive animals in many areas around the world, where they degrade native habitats, harm rare plant and animal species, damage agricultural interests, and spread disease. We provide the first quantification of their potential as agents of disturbance at archaeological sites. Our study was conducted in south-central Florida at Avon Park ...

In this series of papers data will be presented which demonstrate the fact that the swine lungworm serves under natural conditions as a reservoir and intermediate host for the swine influenza virus. The virus can persist in a masked form within its worm host for long periods of time, and months or even years may elapse between its transmission from one swine to the next. The period during which...

African swine fever virus (ASFV) replicates in the cytoplasm of infected cells and contains genes encoding a number of enzymes needed for DNA synthesis, including a thymidine kinase (TK) gene. Recombinant TK gene deletion viruses were produced by using two highly pathogenic isolates of ASFV through homologous recombination with an ASFV p72 promoter-beta-glucuronidase indicator cassette (p72GUS)...

This study investigated the effects of pair housing on diurnal rhythms of heart rate and autonomic nervous activity in miniature swine. For this purpose, six adult Göttingen miniature swine were initially housed individually in an animal cage. Then, two of each swine were housed in a large cage together for 3 weeks. After that swine were separated into individual cages again. During this experi...

Twenty-four growing swine and 24 growing rats were fed high-protein (34%) diets on an ad libitum basis to determine their effects on body weight, carcass characteristics, intestinal microbiological profile and visceral organ weights. High dietary fiber reduced body weight gain and gain:feed ratio in both swine and rats and decreased body fatness in swine; it increased relative kidney weight (pe...

BACKGROUND Malignant hyperthermia susceptibility (MHS) is diagnosed by an invasive in vitro caffeine-halothane contracture test (CHCT) carried out on biopsied skeletal muscle tissue. We are presenting a novel blood test approach for malignant hyperthermia testing in a swine model. Our main aim was to determine whether adenosine production from lymphocytes after 4-chloro-m-cresol (4CmC) stimulat...

As pigs are susceptible to infection with both avian and human influenza A viruses, they have been proposed to be an intermediate host for the generation of pandemic virus through reassortment. The broad susceptibility of pigs to influenza viruses emphasizes the importance of surveillance of swine influenza virus. Thus, A latex agglutination test (LAT) was developed for rapid detection of antib...

Wild swine and peccaries are popular exhibit animals throughout the world, but the anatomy and behaviour of these species make it difficult to construct housing and enclosures which are suitable from an aesthetic and sanitation standpoint. African wild suids may serve as reservoir hosts for African swine fever. Likewise, African suids are susceptible to most of the viral, bacterial and parasiti...

Since April of 2009, the novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) has rapidly spread across the globe. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global pandemic in June. The new S-OIV has a unique genome composition and contains genes derived from avian, human, and swine influenza viruses. It has been reported that the new S-OIV may have emerged from the reassortment of p...

BACKGROUND Ebola viruses cause viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates and are endemic in Africa. Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) has caused several epizootics in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) but is not associated with any human disease. In late 2008, REBOV infections were identified in swine for the first time in the Philippines. METHODS A total of 215 swine sera colle...