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Biomedical subjects

Y Braverman

Publications and source records attributed to Y Braverman.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Immunogenicity and allergenicity of Culicoides imicola (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) extracts.

Summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (SSRD) or "sweet itch" is a seasonally occurring allergic dermatitis of horses provoked by biting midges. The allergic skin reactions have been attributed to allergens present in various Culicoides species. C. imicola is the suspected etiological agent of SSRD in Israel. Whole body extracts of this midge induced hypersensitivity reactions upon injection into susceptible horses and in this study attempts were made to define components of C. imicola which have immunogenic and allergenic properties. Immunogenic potency was evaluated by raising antisera to whole body extracts of C. imicola in rabbits and examining their reactivity towards fractionated extracts. Allergenic potency was examined by reacting fractionated extracts with horse sera. Humoral reactivity of susceptible and non susceptible horses was assayed by specific IgE and IgG ELISAs. Although there are many antigenic components in whole body extracts of C.imicola capable of eliciting an immune response, no conclusive evidence was obtained indicating that allergic reactivity was associated with increased IgE levels of defined specificity.

Allergens↗
PubMed1989

Potential of infra-red thermography for the detection of summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (sweet itch) in horses.

The feasibility of using infra-red thermography for early and out of season detection of summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (sweet itch) was tested on 13 sensitive and six insensitive horses in Israel. In summer (June, July and September) six affected mares and two unaffected sensitive mares (one of them a pony) were clearly 'warmer' in the affected zones than three insensitive mares. In winter (February and March) unaffected sensitive horses could be differentiated from insensitive mares by the warm areas detected in the affected zones. Small numbers of Culicoides imicola bites may have been the cause of the local heat reactions of the body that were detected by the infra-red radiometer.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Ventricular myosin of the shrew Crocidura russula, correlation with contractile properties.

The present study demonstrates that in the shrew ventricular muscle the speed of tension development and relaxation, as well as twitch duration, are much shorter than in the guinea-pig. It also shows that ventricular myosin of the shrew has a high Ca2+-activated ATPase activity and that it is composed of alpha-type heavy chains. Namely, the native molecule is a V1 variety of myosin. These findings advance our knowledge on an as yet uncharacterized mammalian heart and further demonstrate the correlation between mechanical properties and myosin type in heart muscle.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Preferred landing sites of Culicoides species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) on a horse in Israel and its relevance to summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (sweet itch).

Six hundred and twenty culicoides of five species were collected from a bait horse at Kannot, Israel, between April and September 1986. Seventy-two per cent of the midges were collected from the belly and 27 per cent from the dorsal aspect of the body, ie, the sweet itch summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (SSRD) zone. Midges were active mainly from half an hour prior to half an hour after sunset. Only Culicoides puncticollis, C imicola and C schultzei group were collected in considerable numbers. While C imicola was present continuously throughout the season, the appearance of the two other species was intermittent. Ninety-five per cent of C schultzei group and approximately 100 per cent of the C puncticollis prefer to land on and most probably bite the belly. Culicoides imicola showed a clear preference for the dorsal ridge which overlaps the (SSRD) itch zone, and 70 per cent of the midges were collected there, while 28 per cent were collected from the belly. A considerably high proportion of the midges of this species were parous, ie, part of the population lived long enough to bite more than once. Skin temperature measurements showed the belly to be the warmest part of the body. Wind speeds of two to three knots reduced the number of midges collected. The findings of this study, together with a previous one (Braverman et al 1983), incriminate C imicola as the likely principal agent of SSRD in Israel.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Bluetongue virus isolation from pools of Culicoides spp in Israel during the years 1981 to 1983.

In 2 permanent suction light trapping stations at Bet-Dagan and Kabri designated to monitor bluetongue virus (BTV) activity, 12 isolations were made during 1981 to 1983 from C. imicola. Isolation attempts from C. obsoletus, which was dominant in Kabri and caught concurrently with C. imicola did not yield BTV, while isolations were made from C. imicola. Negative isolation atempts were also experienced in C. oxystoma, C. puncticollis and C. circumscriptus, while BTV was isolated from C. imicola. So far the following serotypes of BTV were isolated from Culicoides spp. in Israel: 2, 4, 6, 10 and 16.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Laboratory infections of Culicoides debilipalpis and C. stellifer (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) with bluetongue virus.

Six species of field-collected Culicoides females were used in preliminary laboratory tests: C. biguttatus, C. debilipalpis, C. obsoletus, C. stellifer, C. variipennis and C. venustus. Tests were conducted to determine if females would take a blood meal through a membrane, if blood fed females could be maintained in the laboratory for up to 14 days and if they could support replication of bluetongue virus (BTV) serotype 11. One pool of C. stellifer (23 specimens) assayed positive for BTV 7 days following intrathoracic inoculation, which datum suggests that this species might be capable of harboring the virus. One of 52 individually assayed C. debilipalpis females in 2 trials was positive for BTV at 14 days after membrane feeding on a mixture of BTV and sheep blood (infection rate 1.9%), and 1 of 2 pools of C. debilipalpis (26 specimens) was positive 14 days after blood feeding. These data for C. debilipalpis showed that the species can pick up and harbor BTV through replication of the virus.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Epidemiological and immunological studies of sweet itch in horses in Israel.

A survey of sweet itch in horses in Israel based on a questionnaire to owners reported that 158 of 723 horses (21.8 per cent) had sweet itch lesions. The results indicated that the likelihood of a horse acquiring sweet itch decreased with increasing altitude but no definite association with rainfall zones was evident. Variation in the density of the horse population, however, obscured these observations. In the population surveyed, stallions were more sensitive than mares and pale horses appeared to be less sensitive than dark ones, but the sample size of this latter group was much smaller. Intradermal injection of extracts of Culicoides imicola and Stomoxys calcitrans gave immediate reactions in sensitive horses but delayed reactions were observed only with extracts of C imicola. Sensitivity to extracts of C circumscriptus was also evident in allergic horses. Antibodies to extracts of Culicoides species and Stomoxys species were demonstrable in the serum of normal and allergic horses by the ELISA technique.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Infection of Israeli culicoides with African horse sickness, blue tongue and akabane viruses.

Type 9 African horse sickness virus and type 4 bluetongue virus multiplied to a high titre in an Israeli strain of Culicoides puncticollis after intrathoracic inoculation. Akabane virus persisted for at least 10 days in this midge after intrathoracic inoculation but with little evidence of virus multiplication. All 3 viruses failed to multiply in C. puncticollis after ingestion by the oral route and all were inactivated by 4 days post infection. Five other species of Israeli Culicoides supported multiplication of bluetongue virus after intrathoracic inoculation.

African Horse Sickness Virus↗
PubMed1979

Experiments on direct and secondary poisoning by fluoroacetamide (1081) in wildlife and domestic carnivores.

Fluoroacetamide (1081 or F.A.A) is used in Israel for field rodent control. Experiments on direct and secondary, short and long term poisoning caused by 1081 were carried out. Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), hyena (Hyaena hyaena), cats and dogs were susceptible. Barn owls (Tyto alba), buzzards (Buteo buteo) and black kites (Milvus m. migrans) were markedly resistant. Barn owls tolerated total direct poisoning ranging from 6.8 to 10.9, and a final dose ranging from 0.8 to 2.0 mg/kg. In secondary poisoning, total doses ranging from 1.7 to 7.1, and final doses ranging from 0.2 to 1.3 mg/kg were tolerated. Buzzards tolerated total direct poisoning ranging from 6 to 12.0, and final doses ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 mg/kg. In secondary poisoning, doses ranging from 0.8 to 10.3 and final doses ranging from 0.2 to 2.4 mg/kg were tolerated. One black kite tolerated a total direct dose of 6.1 and final dose of 0.7 mg/kg, another survived a total dose of 2.3 and final dose of 0.2 mg/kg in secondary poisoning. A small-scale secondary poisoning experiment on two Palestine vipers (Vipera palestinae), a Syrian black snake (Coluber jugularis) and two Montpellier snakes (Malpolon monspessulanus) indicated that these species were resistant to total doses ranging from 0.1 to 3.2 and final doses of 0.1 to 0.8 mg/kg.

Amides↗
PubMed1978

Rates of infection in, and transmission of, African horse-sickness virus by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Very low infection rates (less than 3%) were obtained when Aedes aegypti mosquitoes ingested blood contained 5.8--6.5 log10 MLD50/0.02 ml African horse sickness virus (AHSV). When A. aegypti mosquitoes were inoculated intrathoracically with virus, however, high infection rates were achieved. Mosquitoes infected by inoculum failed to transmit virus to embryonated hens eggs by bite, and virus could not be detected in membrane or blood when inoculated mosquitoes were allowed to engorge on uninfected blood through a chick skin membrane. It was concluded that the mosquito A. aegypti is unlikely to be an effective vector of AHSV.

Aedes↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reducing waste contamination from animal-processing plants by anaerobic thermophilic fermentation and by flesh fly digestion.

There is currently no market in Israel for the large amounts of waste from fish- and poultry-processing plants. Therefore, this waste is incinerated, as part of the measures to prevent the spread of pathogens. Anaerobic methanogenic thermophilic fermentation (AMTF) of wastes from the cattle-slaughtering industry was examined previously, as an effective system to treat pathogenic bacteria, and in this article, we discuss a combined method of digestion by thermophilic anaerobic bacteria and by flesh flies, as a means of waste treatment. The AMTF process was applied to the wastes on a laboratory scale, and digestion by rearing of flesh fly (Phaenicia sericata) and housefly (Musca domestica) larvae on the untreated raw material was done on a small scale and showed remarkable weight conversion to larvae. The yield from degradation of poultry waste by flesh fly was 22.47% (SD = 3.89) and that from fish waste degradation was 35.34% (SD = 12.42), which is significantly higher than that from rearing houseflies on a regular rearing medium. Bacterial contents before and after thermophilic anaerobic digestion, as well as the changes in the chemical composition of the components during the rearing of larvae, were also examined.

Abattoirs↗