A total of 17 samples of Egyptian salted Mugil cephalus fish (fessiekh) were examined sensorial for appearance, juiciness, saltiness, rancidity, flavor and general acceptability; chemically for pH and NaCl content; and bacteriologically for aerobic plate count, halophilic bacterial count and anaerobic bacterial count. The sensory evaluation of the samples revealed that 15 (88.23%) of them were organoleptically accepted, while only 2 (11.77%) were unaccepted. The pH and NaCl content of the examined samples ranged from 6.1 to 8.1 and from 6.13 to 10.11, respectively. The aerobic, halophilic and anaerobic bacterial counts of the examined samples ranged from 2.64 to 6.91, 4.64 to 7.93, and from 3.3 to 6.23 log¬10 cfu/g , respectively. A total of 29, 31 and 36 colonies were picked randomly from aerobic, halophilic and anaerobic plates, respectively. The colonies were purified and being identified using PCR-sequencing technique. The 29 identified aerobic bacteria were 18 strains Staphylococcus equorum srain JH6, 6 strains Staph. sp. L50, 2 strain Bacillus subtilis subspecies subtilis strain BCRC 10255, 2 strains Lactobacillus sp. CWBI/B-659/(E912), and 1 strains Bacillus subtilis. The identified 31 halophilic bacteria included 16 strains Staphylococcus equorum srain JH6, 10 strains Staph. sp. L50, and 5 strains Teratogenococcus halophilus. The 36 identified anaerobes were Clostridium bifermentans strain IBUN 188 (23 strains), Clostridium bifermentans strain IBUN 179 (7 strains), Clostridium sp. Zx5 (3 strains), Clostridium butyricum strain W4 (1 strain), Clostridium cochlearium (1 strain), and Clostridium sp. DF2C1 (1 strain).

Abstract The aim of the present study was to characterize the dynamic changes of the testes and the pelvic genitalia in vivo in male dromedary. Eighty-one clinically healthy male dromedaries aged 1.5 to 12 years were assigned for the present study. Testicular length, breadth, and depth as well as epididymal head and tail were measured using caliper and ultrasonography. The pelvic genitalia, including bulbourethral gland, prostate, and pelvic urethra were examined using ultrasonography. The results revealed that the three dimensions of the testes and epididymal tail and head showed significant increase with age (P
0.01). Concerning the epididymal measurements, differences between the pre- and peri-pubertal groups were not significant. Left testes tended to be larger than the right (not statistically significant) although only the breadth of the left testes in the prepubertal group was significantly larger (P
0.05). The volume of both testes correlated positively with the age (r2  0.91 for left and 1.00 for the right, P
0.01). There were no significant correlations between the values measured using caliper and those by ultrasonography between groups, but the correlation was highly significant (P
0.01) for the total number of the examined animals. There were significant and steady increases of the size of bulbourethral gland in all examined groups (P
0.01). Pars disseminata of the prostate gland and pelvic urethra were significantly higher in sexually mature compared with prepubertal groups (P
0.01). It was concluded that ultrasonography is a useful tool in studying the developmental changes of the testes and accessory glands of the male dromedary. The obtained data could provide a reference values for predicting camel puberty and future fertility. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Male camel; Testes; Epididymis; Caliper; Ultrasonography

The present study was conducted on the period from April 2008 to July 2009 and included at 150 cattle and 35 Egyptian buffalo. The age of these animals ranged from one day to above five years old. The animals belonged to farms and villages of EL-Wady EL-geded, Assiut, ELFayoum, EL- Minia and Sohage Governorates. The results of the present study cleared that the (Tams-1 primer) based PCR assay was the most sensitive test in detection of the infection with tropical theileriosis in all cases (acute, chronic and carriers). The infection rates in blood and lymph samples taken from cattle were 65.6% and 45.3%, respectively. On the other hand the infection rates were 16.7% and 25% in blood and lymph samples taken from buffaloes, respectively. PCR used as golden standard test to evaluate the conventional tests. The sensitivity of this method was 58.3% and 50% in cattle and buffaloes, respectively. While the specificity were 100% in both cattle and buffaloes. We concluded that, Tams-1 target–based PCR is the most sensitive and specific test used for diagnosis of the disease in either acute or chronic cases and also in carrier animals of tropical theileriosis.

The FTA card (Whatman) was assessed for its utility as a molecular epidemiological tool in collecting samples from patients with leishmaniasis in Peru because the card has a variety of merits; it is less invasive for patients and easy to handle for both physicians and other medical personnel for sample collection or diagnosis, in addition to its simplicity and easy countrywide and/or intercountry transportation for analysis. Samples were collected from 132 patients suspected of having leishmaniasis, and Leishmania species were successfully identified in samples from 81 patients in 15 departments of Peru by cytochrome b and mannose phosphate isomerase gene analyses. Of these, 61.7% were identified as Leishmania (Viannia) peruviana, 22.2% as L. (V.) braziliensis, 12.3% as L. (V.) guyanensis, 2.5% as L. (V.) shawi, and 1.2% as L. (V.) lainsoni. The three predominant species, L. (V.) peruviana, L. (V.) braziliensis, and L. (V.) guyanensis, were mainly found in the Andean highlands, in the tropical rainforest, and in northern and central rainforest regions, respectively. This is the first time L. (V.) shawi has been identified outside Brazil. The present study showed that the FTA card will be a useful tool for the ecological study of different forms of leishmaniasis. Furthermore, collecting samples directly from patients’ lesions by using the FTA card eliminates (i) the possibility of contamination of Leishmania isolates during short- and/or long-term passages of culture in vitro in each laboratory and (ii) pain and suffering of patients from taking samples by skin biopsy.

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the serum metabolic profile of idiopathic emaciated buffaloes. A total mnnber of 20 non-pregnant buffaloes were subjected to study. Out of them, 10 buffaloes had poor coat, poor general body condition score which constituted the emaciated group. The remained animals (1 0) were clinically healthy and kept as control group. There were no postmortem pathological affections in the internal organs of animals except loss of fat depot and decrease of skeletal muscle mass. Serum biochemical analysis revealed significant decreases in serum total proteins (p