it is a menace that infects their cattle with bovine tuberculosis (TB). The disease, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis,
could cost the government £1  billion (US$1. 6  billion) in control measures and compensation over the next decade.
To control the disease, which can spread to humans through contaminated milk, cattle are screened routinely
but they hope that it will at least help to stabilize infection rates. Boyd insists that the new policy is rooted in the science of the RBCT.
and conservationists concede that badgers are a major reservoir for the disease.""They may not be singing from the same hymn sheet,
Roundup, showed increased incidences of cancer (G.-E. SÃ ralini et al. Food Chem. Toxicol. http://doi. org/jgq;
but industry officials continue to question the source of the contamination. see go. nature. com/xzorhp for more. UK funding boost The UK government will add £200 million (US$321 million to a fund to promote research partnerships between universities and industry,
Dystrophy drug hope The experimental drug eteplirsen may help patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a clinical trial of 12 boys with the condition reported on 3 october.
which is caused by mutations in a gene on the X chromosome and eventually leads to paralysis and death.
One of those animals, a cow, secretes milk that lacks an allergy-inducing protein because researchers accurately blocked its production using the technique of RNA interference1.
For years, researchers tried to remove the allergy-inducing milk protein beta-lactoglobulin from cow's milk
which can cause diarrhea and vomiting in some toddlers. They tried replacing the gene encoding beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form,
LDLS build up and lead to atherosclerosis. Pigs with this condition may be reliable models of human atheroscelerosis in biomedical research.
The TALEN-modified pig is not the first model of human heart disease (see Model pigs face a messy path),
Breast-milk molecule raises risk of HIV transmissiona type of sugar that occurs naturally in breast milk can double the likelihood of a HIV-negative baby acquiring the virus through breast feeding
if the mother has HIV. The molecule, called 3'-sialyllactose (3'-SL), is found in varying concentrations in the milk of different women.
In a study in Zambia, HIV-negative newborns breastfed by HIV-positive mothers are twice as likely to catch the virus during their first month of life
HIV-negative infants who consumed these sugars had a better chance of reaching their second birthday than did HIV-negative babies who drank breast milk lacking those sugars irrespective of their mothers'HIV status. Once a baby had caught HIV, however
And, potentially, those women whose milk is found to contain less favourable biochemical characteristics such as HIV-positive mothers who make lots of 3'-SL might consider giving their infants donor breast milk in place of their own.
whether a HIV-positive woman in Zambia who learns that she produces 3'-SL-rich breast milk should switch to formula feeding,
which would raise the chance of her baby succumbing to other intestinal and respiratory infections.
The often confusing literature on breast feeding's impact on disease will be explained largely by this underestimation.
Newberg was part of a team that reported2 an association between a dangerous gut disease in babies called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)
and to try to create more faithful models of human disease. This week s draft sequence of T. J. s genome (see page 393
or deleted to mimic human diseases.""Making such pigs has got increasingly easier as knowledge of the genome increases,
The NIH launched the NSRRC in 2003 to encourage research in pig disease models. Pigs are more expensive to keep than rodents,
So the pig became the first model for retinitis pigmentosa, a cause of blindness. And four years ago, researchers created a pig model of cystic fibrosis2 that
and then suffer for it to develop models of diabetes. One pig model carries a mutant transgene that limits the effectiveness of incretin,
Mice with the transgene developed unexpectedly severe diabetes, but the pigs have a more subtle pre-diabetic condition that better models the human disease."
"This shows the importance of using an animal with a relevant physiology, says Wolf. Pig models are now being developed for other common conditions,
including Alzheimer s disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy. This work will be enriched by the discovery, reported in the genome paper,
of 112 gene variants that might be involved in human diseases. Knowledge of the genome is also allowing scientists to try to engineer pigs that could be the source of organs,
early knowledge about the pig genome led to the discovery in 1991 of a gene involved in porcine stress syndrome, in
Having the full genome should also help investigators to breed out susceptibility to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS),
a viral disease costing the US pig industry US$600 Â million per year. The PRRS Host Genetics Consortium, a network of US research groups
Fungal meningitis pathogen discovers new appetite for human brainsthe nation's ongoing fungal meningitis outbreak has killed 30
But just how a pathogen typically associated with the great outdoors got into the three lots of injectable steroids prepared inside an admittedly filthy laboratory
and was similarly found growing in unopened vials of the steroid alleged to have caused the outbreak, according to the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
when he heard the identity of the pathogen in the epidemic that originated with the New england Compounding Center pharmacy in Framingham, Mass."
an emeritus professor in the Department of Plant pathology at the University of Minnesota who retired in 2001 from the U s. Department of agriculture's Cereal Disease Lab (then the Cereal Rust Lab). Early in his career,
but only distantly related, fungi with multicellular dark spores that were causing disease in grains such as corn.
and defensive enzymes and proteins typically were sufficient to keep the infection in check, but not strong enough to eliminate it.
I think it's just a general weak pathogen of plants, Leonard says, something that can infect plants
although it was not nearly as common as several more severe corn pathogens. It was an opportunist
and protects human skin seem to be generating more human infections for reasons he does not understand.
in addition to causing soft-tissue infections, has provoked also rarely sinus or eye infections, primarily in immunocompromised patients.
an environment where the immune system has a very difficult time eliminating or even just controlling infection.
Those who suffered the worst infections, he speculates, were probably those in whom the needle accidentally penetrated the dura mater,
held at a field gene bank in Papua new guinea (PNG), is under threat from a disease outbreak close to the gene bank.
The deadly disease, Bogia Coconut Syndrome, is threatening the survival of a gene bank of region's most important tree
the disease appears to be caused by bacteria similar to, but distinct from, the bacteria that cause the better known Lethal Yellowing disease that attacks palm species. Ironically,
PNG was selected as the site for the gene bank in the 1990s because the country was relatively free of coconut pests and diseases.
In an attempt to contain the disease, movement of coconuts and coconut palms, both from the gene bank and for commercial reasons,
out of the affected region has been banned, with roadblocks in place to help enforce this. But these restrictions are preventing the gene bank from fulfilling one of its key roles:
At present, both the pathogen and its epidemiology are understood poorly. We are supporting research to try to identify the Bogia Coconut Syndrome vector
and better understand the host range of this disease. Once we have that information, everyone will be placed better to assess the threat both to coconuts and livelihoods in general
Fungus that controls zombie-ants has own fungal stalkeran article by Scientific American. An unsuspecting worker ant in Brazil's rainforest leaves its nest one morning.
Fossil evidence implies that this zombifying infection might have been happening for at least 48 million years. Recent research also suggests that different species of the fungus might specialize to infect different groups of ants across the globe.
added together, make this parasite one of the most insidious infections or perhaps that honor goes to the parasite that ultimately kills the killer parasite.
Deadly infection This clever Ophiocordyceps fungus depends on ants to reproduce and spread, but it has found an abundant host animal.
displaying convulsions that make them fall down and thus preclude them from returning to the canopy,
Ants that have been dissected at this stage of infection reveal heads already full of fungal cells. Eventually, an affected ant will stop on the underside of one leaf, roughly 25 centimeters from the forest floor,
Scientists have found that the fungus also triggers atrophy in its victim's muscles specifically those around its mandibles.
This atrophy is prompted by metabolites that purge the muscle cells of mitochondria and sarcoplasmic reticulum (which provide energy and signals), according to the BMC Ecology research.
when the infected ant bites onto the leaf vein in it's so-called death grip this atrophy causes it to have lockjaw,
As a deadly infection it could severely damage an ant colony. But, if another parasite renders more than half of its mature spores infertile
'a disease caused by the fungus Chalara fraxinea, but this will not stop the pathogen from killing up to 99%of the ash trees in the country,
say scientists. Diseased trees in nurseries and those that have been planted newly will be identified and destroyed. Mature trees will be left standing,
however, will not eradicate the disease from the United kingdom.""There is absolutely no magic wand we can wave to make this disappear,
and with as many as 90 million ash trees at risk, the disease threatens to irreversibly change the shape of The british countryside.
500 square kilometres of British countryside looking for sites of infection, which as of today number 129.
It is possible that the disease reached the United kingdom via infected ash timber or imported plants,
Because the sites of infection are scattered across the country, the spores were blown probably on the wind from continental Europe,
"If a small number of trees have survived the very intense epidemic in Demark, then there is hope for us here,
Part of the reason it has taken so long to tackle the disease  was confusion in Europe over
But in 2011 a group of mycologists determined that the disease was caused by a different species altogether,
and meanwhile the pathogen moved west across Europe. The latest research indicates that H. pseudoalbidus is native to Japan,
the trees had little ability to cope with the pathogen, and Woodward says that there is little that can be done now."
the worldwide spread of plant pathogens shows little sign of abating in a globalized economy."
Food and Rural affairs. We need to treat plant diseases as seriously as we do said animal diseases, Paterson this morning."
"We need a radical rethink in how we deal with plant diseases, and the word is radical
and was part-funded by the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney diseases,
including higher incidence of tumours and earlier mortality than controls. The review s conclusion that the study was designed"inadequately,
Mess in Texas The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) announced the freezing of an US$11-million commercialization grant to Peloton Therapeutics in Dallas on 29 november,
The finding comes on the heels of months of controversy about an $18-million unreviewed CPRIT grant to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (see Nature 486,169-171;
and BRCA2 gene variants linked to inherited breast and ovarian cancer. See go. nature. com/jbqdxl for more.
HSCICMMR vaccination The immunization of children in England against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) by 24 Â months of age has reached now more than 90,
about safety data from clinical trials of a drug for Alzheimer s disease before the results were made public.
Policy Curesglobal funding for work on neglected diseases totalled US$3. 32 billion in 2011, essentially stable in real terms compared with 2010, according to the G-FINDER investment survey by Policy Cures,
whereas industry funding has grown (mostly owing to investments in trials for dengue vaccines). 7 december Climate negotiators end a fortnight of debate at the United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha. go. nature. com/wnhovv12 December British scientists start 100
The disease has attacked already coffee crops in South and Central america. See go. nature. com/epwshp and page 587 for more.
Global Fund boost Germany has announced a donation of  1  billion (US$1. 3  billion) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS
Tuberculosis and Malaria for the period 2012-16, of which  600  million is new money.
But the long stalemate between growers and the fungus behind the devastating disease has broken with the fungus taking the advantage.
The disease is so universal that it"is not going to be eradicated; or the only way to eradicate the disease in practice is to eradicate all of the coffee,
says Mccook. By 1970, the fungus had been detected in Brazil, and severe outbreaks were seen in Costa rica in 1989
But changes to management practices had brought the disease mostly under control.""Coffee rust was considered a solved problem by most of the coffee growers
"People didn t fear the disease. The outbreak may have taken hold because of patchy use and effectiveness of fungicides.
and to find molecular markers that distinguish between different strains of the pathogen and that could be used to develop tailored strategies for its control.
as well as from Kenya, India, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to screen for resistant coffee plants and to analyse varieties of the pathogen."
"Scientists need to continuously develop resistant varieties in order to keep coffee leaf rust disease at bay, Phiri says."
where it is required to provide local solutions to the epidemics, he says
Obama rekindles climate hopesthroughout his reelection campaign, US President Barack Obama rarely said the words climate change.
with countries claiming that there is new information on harm caused by the crops that is yet to be evaluated.
stance on food-borne illness. One of the two proposed regulations requires food makers to develop plans for preventing contamination;
the other sets safety standards for farms that grow produce, including, for example, permitted levels of microbes in irrigation water.
Boston pathogen lab The US National institutes of health (NIH) will support a plan for a laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts,
to work with some of the world s most dangerous pathogens. On 2 Â January, the NIH announced its final determination that Boston University s National Emerging Infectious diseases Laboratory poses little risk to the surrounding community.
The laboratory, which had been under review at NIH since 2001, must win approvals from state and local authorities before it can upgrade its research to biosafety level 4, the highest level of containment.
It will transfer cell lines, its early clinical programme in spinal-cord injury, and some 400 patents and patent applications to a subsidiary of Biotime, a company in Alameda,
Verinata Health, based in Redwood City, California, markets a test for chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down s syndrome,
and food safety groups are concerned about contamination of food crops with products from a new generation of crops engineered to produce chemicals or pharmaceuticals.
It gave birth to blind, hairless young, one at a time. Its brain was folded highly, and it had three pairs of molars on each jaw."
and the long-term health effects include chronic lung disease. The government has said that it will pay about 36.4 Â billion won (US$33. 4 Â million) in compensation to citizens and local businesses.
But thousands of residents soon complained of nausea, chest pains and rashes, suggesting that the all-clear had been sounded too early.
Eleven days after the accident, the national government designated the area a special disaster zone,
So far more than 12,000 Â people have claimed compensation for their injuries, and Woo Kuck Hyeun,
recreated the trauma, says Kim Sangho, an elementary-school teacher, explaining why he has returned not yet to his home."
Mapping the H7n9 avian flu outbreakssources: Multiple, including WHO and Xinhua News agency. To download map file to view in Google earth,
The first known cases of human infection with H7n9 were reported in China on 31 march, with two cases in Shanghai on the eastern seaboard and one in the neighbouring province of Anhui.
Risk maps developed for human infection by another, well-established avian flu virus H5n1 may help to target H7n9 surveillance and control efforts.
The map shows human cases of H7n9 (blue circles) superimposed on a risk map developed for H5n1,
Marius Gilbert, a co-author of one such study published in PLOS Pathogens in 20111, and an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Free University of Brussels, says that
although the risk factors for H7n9 may be given different the current dearth of information, H5n1 risk maps are probably a good starting point for identifying areas most at risk.
an animal epidemic that has spread abroad, or the international spread of a partially or fully human-adapted virus. Maps presented are for data-visualization purposes only;
and Republican senator Roger Wicker (Mississippi) was charged with threatening injury and death by the Federal bureau of investigation on 18 april.
Lawsuit settlement Cancer researcher Philippe Bois has settled a lawsuit against the US Department of health and human services (DHHS) over scientific misconduct, according to an announcement on 18 Â April.
even though burning them would cause a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. 24-25 april On World Malaria Day (25 april),
scientists review research advances at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. go. nature. com/wfnyw227-30 april Flu pandemics,
the resurgence of measles and antimicrobial resistance are discussed all at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology
and Infectious diseases meeting in Berlin. go. nature. com/jyfhwf
Europe debates risk to beesdebate over neonicotinoids has become fierce. Conservation groups and politicians in the United kingdom and Europe have called for a ban on their use,
but agricultural organizations have said that farmers will face hardship if that happens. Next Monday, European governments will take a crucial vote on
because many of the lab studies that have shown harm may have fed bees unrealistically high doses of neonicotinoids.
Even if neonicotinoids are not directly responsible for colony collapse disorder, they could play a part by making bees more susceptible to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and the parasitic fungus Nosema apis,
HIV in breastmilk spikes at weaningthe amount of HIV in an infected mother s breast milk spikes
and abruptly are no more likely to avoid contracting HIV than do those who continue to breastfeed, a finding from in a randomized clinical trial of 958 HIV-infected women in Lusaka,
The milk from women who then stopped breastfeeding abruptly contained markedly higher levels of HIV than did milk from the women who continued to breastfeed exclusively:
including how much HIV was in the mother s blood. The team also analysed changes within individual women,
HIV levels in milk rose markedly between samples taken just before weaning and those taken two weeks later;
"Weaning leads to increases in HIV concentrations in breast milk. That s the big message of the paper, says Aldrovandi."
adds Lynne Mofenson, head of the Maternal and Pediatric Infectious disease Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland.
if mother-to-child transmission of HIV is to be prevented. The current practice of giving mothers one to two weeks of anti-retroviral therapy after weaning may not be enough,
The authors hypothesize that HIV crosses more easily from blood to milk during weaning because the tight junctions between mammary epithelial cells become leaky,
H7n9 bird flu poised to spreadthe H7n9 avian flu virus greatly expanded its geographical range over the weekend,
Though these can arise by infection from a common source, they can also signal that limited human-to-human transmission has occurred.
That is because reduced virulence can often point to further genetic adaptation of the virus to infection of human beings and thus greater potential to spread.
with 63 infections and 14 deaths reported as of Monday, up from 24 cases barely a week ago.
even if it remains an infection that people catch from animals, says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public health in Boston, Massachusetts.
or control because it does not cause serious illness in poultry and other birds has been reinforced by the new cases in Beijing and Henan province.
interim head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisations's Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) in Rome.
says Marius Gilbert, an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Universitã libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.
such as the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and the herbicide Agent orange, can cause diseases such as cancers, neurological disorders, reproductive dysfunction and birth defects.
Urgent search for flu sourcevirologists know its name: H7n9. What they don t yet know is
whether this novel avian influenza virus first reported in humans in China less than two weeks ago will rapidly fizzle out,
or morph into a virus that can spread easily between people and spark a deadly pandemic.
who heads the University of Minnesota s Center for Infectious disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis. As Nature went to press,
Scientists urgently want to find out which sources are stoking the human infections that result in flu-like symptoms and, in most reported cases, severe pneumonia.
says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong. Sources: WHO/ECDC/Xinhua state mediabut the various bird species found to be infected may not be the original source,
because much cross-infection can occur in live markets. Investigators must now trace which farms
Researchers know that H7 flu viruses mainly infect wild birds such as ducks, geese, waders and gulls,
Kwok-Yung Yuen, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Hong kong, notes the proximity of the reported human cases to the Yangtze river delta
He also co-convenes the Asia-Pacific Working group on Migratory Waterbirds and Avian influenza with the Food and agriculture organization of the united nations (FAO.
creating a reservoir that might lead to continued, sporadic human infections. Health authorities in China are trying to learn to what extent that has happened already.
and several hundred people in Asia and elsewhere since 2003 H7n9 does not cause serious bird disease,
says Vincent Martin, interim head of the FAO s Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) in Rome.
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization s influenza reference
and research centre in Japan. Each time the virus encounters new human hosts, it has fresh opportunities to mutate
and track new cases of suspicious severe pneumonia and their close contacts, and to isolate people if necessary.
Researchers working on the molecular biology of the virus say that it seems to derive from a reassortment of genetic material from at least three known bird-flu groups (see Nature http//doi. org/k4j;
Because flu viruses evolve rapidly, comparing viral sequences from each of the human cases might reveal
says Andrew Rambaut, an expert in the evolution of human viral pathogens at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
it would imply that each person had picked separately up infections from birds. Only four sequences from four human cases are so far available,
and posting them on the GISAID flu database. If human-to-human transmission does start to occur,
Humanity has never been exposed widely to H7 or N9 flu viruses, and so lacks resistance to these subtypes.
If a pandemic were to occur, it would probably have a severe toll. But it is too early to predict how events will unfold;
experts in emerging infectious disease are only just becoming acquainted with the latest villain in their roster
Lack of water makes plants less capable of fending off pathogens and insects. After the 2003 heatwave, caterpillars devastated Mediterranean oak forests near Montpellier in France.
"In others, even significant anomalies seem to cause only little harm. CARBO-Extreme teams have conducted field experiments that simulated drought in different climates and vegetation types, from Atlantic pine forests to alpine meadows.
Bird flu deaths Two men have died after being infected with a type of bird flu never before seen in humans
The nation s support for cheap generic drugs has reduced prices, notably those of anti-HIV medicines.
Monsanto will gain access to some Dupont patents covering disease resistance and maize (corn) defoliation.
Diabetes drug US regulators have given the green light to the first in a new class of drugs to treat diabetes.
last year regulators shot down another such drug, dapagliflozin, citing cancer concerns. Source: US National Snow and Ice Data Centera record low in the extent of sea ice in the Arctic last September has been followed by a record refreezing of uncovered ocean surface,
and"the increasing dominance of first-year ice in the Arctic. 6-10 april Discussions on mapping the epigenomes of cancer take place at the American Association for Cancer Research s annual meeting in WASHINGTON DC. go. nature. com
Novel bird flu kills two in Chinascientists and public-health officials worldwide are on alert after China announced on 31 march that two people had died
and a third was seriously ill from being infected with a new avian influenza virus, H7n9, that has never been seen before in humans.
Emerging preliminary analyses of the genome of the virus point to the possible spectre of a pathogen that might spread silently in poultry without causing serious disease.
regular human infections might then occur providing opportunities for the virus to adapt better to humans,
potentially sparking a pandemic. Scientists stress that it is much too early to do a full risk assessment of the potential pandemic threat.
But the initial analysis of viral sequences is"worrisome because they show several features that are suggestive of adaptation to humans,
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization (WHO) influenza reference
and research centre in Japan. The epidemiological picture is troubling too says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong.
Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans it is a cause for concern,
and with three severe cases of disease over a short period of time, we certainly have to take it seriously,
he says. There's no obvious indication of human-to-human spread, so we should not overreact,
A 27-year-old man in the same city fell ill on 27 february and died on 10 march.
A 35-year-old woman in Chuzhou City in Anhui province, some 350 kilometres west of Shanghai, fell ill on 9 march and remains seriously ill.
All three developed flu-like symptoms before developing severe pneumonia. The cases were announced on 31 march by China's health ministry, the National Health and Family planning Commission,
or tested positive for the virus. Some uncertainty hangs over whether family members related to the first patient who were hospitalized with severe pneumonia just before their elderly father might have passed on the virus to the housebound man
Chinese researchers have moved swiftly to decipher the new virus. THE WHO Chinese National Influenza Center in Beijing has sequenced isolates from each of the three cases,
and published them on the GISAID flu sequence database on 31 march. Researchers around the world have
Flu viruses have eight genes: two that encode the haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins that stud the surface of the virus,
because this protein allows the virus to bind to host cells seems to belong to a Eurasian group of H7 avian flu viruses.
This is in contrast to the 2009 H1n1 pandemic virus, which was a mix of viruses that infect birds, pigs and humans.
Most of the genetic analyses are still being carried out confidentially within THE WHO's global flu-research networks.
A striking feature of the novel virus is that its H protein is structurally similar to that of viruses that don t cause severe sickness in birds,
Flu viruses that don t sicken birds can, however, cause severe disease in humans simply because we lack any immunity to them.
They also may be more lethal in people depending on how the viruses bind to receptors in the human airway.
The virus also contains several other genetic variations that are known from past studies in mice and other animals to cause severe disease.
which would fit with a picture of a virus much like that of the novel coronavirus that emerged in the middle East last year  that can cause severe disease.
The fact that the virus does not seem to cause serious disease in birds has potential epidemiological and public-health implications,
and thus could create a reservoir of infection that would lead to frequent sporadic human infections that crop up without warning.
China has reported not any recent H7 flu infections in birds, perhaps because such infections would not show up as serious disease,
or maybe because of shortcomings in surveillance or reporting. A key requirement now, Peiris says, is to track down which birds
Flu experts say that other urgent requirements include testing any human cases of serious pneumonia for traces of the virus
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011