• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.139-143
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• 2006

Jopock (Jpk) has previously been ascertained that induces both bacterial and mammalian cell death. The Escherichia coli cells expressing Glutathion S-transferase (GST) fused Jpk showed elongated phenotype and inhibited cell growth which led eventual cell death. In an attempt to search the genetic suppressor of the lethal protein Jpk in bacterial cells, we constructed a unidirectional protein expression vector inserting tac promoter next to the C-terminus Jpk in pGEX-Jpk. The function of additional tac promoter was confirmed by substituting lac promoter in Plac-TOPO plasmid. The cells harboring plac- TOPO, which regulates $lacZ{\alpha}$ gene expression under lac promoter, formed blue colonies in 5-bromo-4-3 $indolyo-{\beta}-D-galactoside$ (X-gal) plate. When lac promoter was changed to tac promoter, same results were observed. Since the addition of tac promoter did not affect the toxic effect of Jpk, the pGEX-Jpk-ptac could be a useful vector for the screening of suppressor(s) for Jpk, in which GST-Jpk and a putative Jpk-suppressing protein are coexpressing from two unidirectional tac promoters, which response to the same inducer, $isopropyl-{\beta}-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)$.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2005

Before twentieth centuries and during early twentieth centuries, communicable diseases were the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Korea. But reliable data are not available. After 1975, the overall morbidity and mortality from communicable diseases, rapidly declined. Recently many new pathogenic microbes were recognized: L. monocytogenes, Hantaan virus, Y. pseudotuberculosis, P. multocida, L. pneumophilia, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), G. seoi, H. capsulatum, C. burnetii, V. cholerae O139, C. parvum, F. tularensis, E. coli O157:H7, B. burgdorferi, S. Typhimurium DT104, Rotavirus, hepatitis C virus and so on. Since the first HIV infection recognized in 1985, the reported cases of infection and deaths from HIV/AIDS have been steady increased each year. Legionnaire's disease, E. coli O157:H7 colitis, listeriosis and crytosporidiasis have been occurring just sporadically among immunocompromized cases. Many re-emerging communicable diseases were occurred in Korea: leptospirosis, malaria, endemic typhus, cholera, tsutsugamushi disease, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, shigellosis, mumps, measles, acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, brucellosis and so on. Leptospirosis and tsutsugamushi diseases have been noticed as major public health problems since 1980s. The malaria that had been virtually disappeared for a decade has reappeared from 1993 with striking increase of patients in recent 3-4 years. The distributions of salmonella and shigella serotypes have been changed a lot in recent few decades. Furthermore rapid emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains induces more difficult and complex problems in control of communicable diseases. We must recognize on the importance of environment and ecosystem conservation and careful prescription of anti-microbial agent in order to prevent communicable diseases.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2011

Prevalence of major legal communicable diseases in chickens and ducks, which had occurred in Jeonbuk province from year 2004 to 2008. Total 283 farms 1,419,244 chickens and ducks have been affected by avian diseases. Specifically, fowl typhoid (FT) occurred in 92 farms 416,600 chickens, Marek's disease (MD) in 45 farms 145,563, duck virus hepatitis (DVH) in 31 farms 199,200, infectious bursal disease (IBD) in 27 farms 113,220, infectious bronchitis (IB) in 27 farms 280,300, low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) in 26 farms 78,495, avian mycoplasmosis in 16 farms 103,774, Newcastle disease (ND) occurred in 11 farms 61,052, avian encephalomyelitis (AE) in 7 farms 21,000, Pullorum disease (PD) occurred in 1 farm 40. According to total analysis about major legal communicable diseases, 1 species of first-class legal communicable diseases have occurred, 3 species of second-class and 6 species of third-class all adding up to 10 species. In the first-class diseases, Newcastle disease have occurred. Pullorum and fowl typhoid, duck virus hepatitis in the second-class have occurred and as third-class diseases, Marek's disease, Infectious bursal disease, Infectious bronchitis, avian mycoplasmosis, avian encephalomyelitis, low pathogenic avian influenza have occurred.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.129-131
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• 2012

Blood samples were collected from 672 goats in 60 farms from five provinces of Korea between November 2009 and August 2011. The prevalence of antibodies to pestiviruses was investigated. The examination for antibodies was performed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detecting antibodies to the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and border disease virus (BDV). All blood samples were screened using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with primer pairs specific to common pestivirus genome regions. The observed individual seroprevalence was 1.49% and herd seroprevalence was 11.67%. Also, the specific genomes to pestiviruses were detected in 3 out of the 915 clinical samples (0.45%). Based on the nucleotide sequence data, detected pestiviruses were belonged to two BVDV type-1 and one BVDV type-2. The pestivirus infection has been occurred among Korean black goats. However, our results indicate that the prevalence of pestiviruses in black goats was not significantly higher on farms with cattle.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2010

Brucellosis is a serious zoonosis, recognized worldwide. It primarily affects animals, which act as reservoirs for human infection as well as being of economic significance to the agri-food industry. Bangladesh has been reported as an endemic area for brucellosis. So a cross sectional study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and potential risk factors of brucellosis in cattle in Dinajpur and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. A total of 182 cattle were examined by Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) between September 2008 and October 2009. Then Positive, doubtful, and negative samples were further confirmed with slow agglutination test (SAT) and both indirect and competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA and cELISA). A questionnaire was used to collect epidemiological information of the animals. The overall animal-level prevalence was 3.30%. Brucellosis seroprevalence was higher (4.76% by cELISA) in cattle above 48 months than those under 48 months. Female showed higher seroprevalence (10.67%) than male (6.25%). Higher seroprevalence was also found in cattle bred naturally (20.0%) than artificially (8.77%) and cattle that aborted or with previous abortion record (22.22%) showed higher seroprevalence than non-aborted (7.69%). The sensitivity of RBT and SAT was found 100% as compared to cELISA standard test, whereas specificity of RBT (95.35%) was higher than that of SAT (94.32%).

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2010

Brucellosis is a major zoonosis caused by Gram negative facultative intracellular bacterial organisms of the genus Brucella that are pathogenic for a wide variety of animals and human beings. Because of its economic impact on animal health and the risk to the human population,most countries have a brucellosis control program. Brucellosis is also an economically important andprevalent disease in Bangladesh. The accurate and prompt diagnosis is very important in controlling and eradicating of the disease in animals. The present study was undertaken to determine the seroprevalence of brucellosis in cattle in Mymensingh and Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. A total of 120 serum samples were collected from the two districts along with a questionnaire related to the epidemiology of the disease. The sampleswere screened by using slow agglutination test and conformed by indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The overall seroprevalence of brucellosis in cattle was 5% and it was observed that, a higher prevalence of Brucella was found in female than male, through natural breeding than artificial insemination (AI) and animal above 4 years old are highly susceptible than younger ones. Higher prevalence was found in aborted animals in comparison with non aborted animal. Finally, the study revealed that the female animal has more susceptible to brucellosis and healthy semen should be used for AI.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.327-334
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• 2010

The prevalence of major zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis and the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Jeonbuk province was monitored from 2004 to 2008. For tuberculosis, a total of 306 heads from 92 farms were positive during the surveillance period, which 228 heads were from 78 dairy farms and 78 heads from 14 Hanwoo farms. Based on the number of recurrent tuberculosis in 92 positive farms, 28 farms or 43.8% of the positive farms had 1-4 additional outbreaks during the surveillance. Based on brucellosis surveillance of 5,252 dairy cattle and 2,600,829 Hanwoo conducted during the same time period, 4,818 heads from 1,203 farms were positive for brucellosis, which 445 heads were from 111 dairy farms and 4,373 heads from 1,092 Hanwoo farms. Among the 1,203 positive farms, 473 farms or 39.3% of the positive farms had experienced 1-4 recurrent brucellosis during the surveillance. According to nationwide surveillance of HPAI, a total of 45 cases had been reported between 2004 and 2008. Among those outbreaks, 20 cases were reported in Jeonbuk province and 3 cases in 2006 and 17 case in 2008. For the regional distribution of 20 cases in Jeonbuk, 4 cases (48,490 chickens), 4 cases (23,066 chickens 66(1) and ducks 23,000(3)), 11 cases (183,077 chickens 63,077 (10) and quails 120,000 (1)), and 1 case (9,000 ducks) were reported in Iksan, Jeongeup, Gimje and Sunchang, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.493-496
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• 2008

Brucella spp. are small, non-motile Gram-negative coccobacilli known to cause disease in a number of vertebrate species including humans and brucellosis is one of the world's major zoonoses, alongside bovine tuberculosis and rabies. There are about 33.55 million goats and 1.16 million sheep in Bangladesh. The sheep and goats can significantly play an important role in the economic well being of the resource-poor farmer in Bangladesh. Sexually matured 362 female small ruminants(300 goats and 62 sheep) were examined. Approximately 3-5 ml of blood was collected from the jugular vein of each animal and sera samples were prepared. Samples were then tested for brucellosis by using Rose Bengal test(RBT), plate agglutination test(PAT) and tube agglutination test(TAT). Among 362 small ruminants, irrespective of species(sheep or goat), diagnosed highest in TAT, 2.21%(n=8) and lowest both by RBT & PAT, 1.93%(n=7) and it is concluded that TAT is superior than RBT and PAT.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.1 s.141
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• pp.45-54
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• 2007

Although Vietnam has a high risk of fish borne zoonotic trematode(FZT) infections for humans, little information exists on the epidemiology of these infections in the country's fish. Because of the importance of cultured cat-fish and snakehead production in An Giang province, a major production area in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, a survey for FZTs was carried out in randomly selected fish farms between June 2005 and March 2006. For comparison, wild fish from the same area were also surveyed. A total of 852 cultured fish from 4 districts were collected and examined by pepsin digestion to determine their FZT infection status. In Tra catfish, the prevalence of all types of metacercariae was 2.6%, of which the prevalence of Haplorchis pumilio was 0.7%. The overall prevalence of metacercariae in wild fish was 30.6%, of which 10.3% harbored zoonotic species: H. pumilio(2.8%) and Procerovum sp.(5.6%). The prevalence of Opisthorchis metacercariae, which were diagnosed as O. viverrini, was 1.9%. No metacercariae were found in cultured snake head fish, although wild-caught snakehead fish had a FZT prevalence of 10.3%: 5.1% were O. viverrini; 2.6% H. pumilio; and 2.6% were Procerovum sp. These are the first reports of H. pumilio, Procerovum sp., and O. viverrini metacercariae in Vietnamese fish. These results indicate that consumption of improperly prepared fish represents a significant risk of acquiring FZTs in this south Vietnam region.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2008

Fishborne zoonotic metacercariae have not been reported from brackish water and marine fish from Vietnam waters although these parasites are common in the country's freshwater fish. Both wild-caught and cultured grouper (Epinephelus coioides and Epinephelus bleekeri), and mullet (Mugil cephalus) from brackish and marine waters located in Khanh Hoa province in central coastal Vietnam were examined, and found positive for zoonotic trematode metacercariae. From grouper, Heterophyopsis continua and Procerovum varium were recovered. The prevalence of H. continua ranged from 2.0 to 6.0% and that for P. varium ranged from 11.6 to 15.8%. Mullet were infected with Pygidiopsis summa and H. continua; both of these species are new records for Vietnam. The prevalence of P. summa in mullet was generally high, ranging from 17.6 to 75.5%, and was significantly higher than the prevalence of H. continua (2.5 to 32.4%). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of metacercariae between grouper from natural or cultured habitats, indicating that the highest risk of infection occurs in the wild-caught state prior to their placement in culture. Further, there was no difference in metacercarial prevalence between the 2 species of grouper. Infected wild-caught seed were only observed from January to October. Monthly variation in prevalence suggests seasonal variation in mullet infections occurs in this region with the highest transmission taking place from October to December. Basic investigations on the ecology and epidemiology of these intestinal flukes need to be carried out to determine their significance as a public health problem and the aspects of their biology that may be vulnerable to control interventions.