The epidemic aspects of swine infections caused by Streptococcus suis were studied, focusing mainly on the occurrence of several serotypes. A total of 323 samples of S. suis were isolated from clinically ill animals, serotyped according to the co-agglutination procedure, and analyzed. The serotyping revealed that S. suis was present in several Brazilian states. The largest number was isolated from the states of Minas Gerais (62.5%), São Paulo (10.8%), and Paraná (9.3%). Serotype 2 was the most frequent (61.0%), followed by the serotypes 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8. The largest number of isolations was obtained from the brain (60.1%), followed by the lungs (10.4%). About 9.4% of the cases were due to septicemia. Keywords: pig, Streptococcus suis, serotypes RESUMO Estudaram-se os aspectos epidêmicos das infecções de suínos causadas por Streptococcus

This study was performed to verify the occurrence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in swine raised and slaughtered in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Four hundred sixty five swine blood samples from farms of different cities had been collected and examined. Anti-T. gondii antibodies was detected by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and considered positive all the animals with equal or bigger headings than 1:16. From these, 18.27% (85/465) of total sample were positive for T. gondii, 30.76% (24) in Ilhéus, 18.10% (21/116) in Itabuna and 14.76% (40/271) in Simões Filho. Significant differences were observed regarding animal sex (p = 0.0171), raising system (p = 0.0002) and origin of the animals (p = 0.0278) in the city of Itabuna. The occurrence of anti-T. gondii antibodies shows that swine can be a source of infection for the local human population.

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Neuroinflammation is one of the most frequently studied topics of neurosciences as it is a common feature in almost all neurological disorders. Although the primary function of neuroinflammation is to protect the nervous system from an insult, the complex and sequential response of activated glial cells can lead to neurological damage. Depending on the type of insults and the time post-insult, the inflammatory response can be neuroprotective, neurotoxic, or, depending on the glial cell types, both. There are multiple pathways activated and many bioactive intermediates are released during neuroinflammation. One of the most common one is the kynurenine pathway, catabolizing tryptophan, which is involved in immune regulation, neuroprotection, and neurotoxicity. Different models have been used to study the kynurenine pathway metabolites to understand their involvements in the development and maintenance of the inflammatory processes triggered by infections. Among them, the parasitic infection Neospora caninum could be used as a relevant model to study the role of the kynurenine pathway in the neuroinflammatory response and the subset of cells involved.

dos S osé Lúcio dos S osé Lúcio dos S osé Lúcio dos S osé Lúcio dos San an an an ant t t t tos os os os os 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3 3 3 RESUMONeste trabalho foram estudados aspectos epidemiológicos das infecções causadas por Streptococcus suis, enfocando-se a caracterização de granjas acometidas por este agente no Brasil. Um questionário foi elaborado e enviado para propriedades infectadas que foram identificadas a partir do banco de dados do laboratório Microvet. Houve um retorno de 26,25% dos questionários, onde se observou que em 73,8% das propriedades, a suinocultura é a principal atividade desenvolvida, todas as granjas possuem sistema de criação intensivo convencional, 90,5% produzem no sistema de ciclo completo, 42,9% possuem entre 10 e 20 anos de existência e 38,1% possuem entre 100 e 500 matrizes. Quanto à infecção, a idade mais observada de ocorrência foi o período de creche (35,7%) e os sintomas nervosos foram os mais observados no momento do surto (59,4%). O controle da infecção se fez na maior parte das granjas por penicilina (26,2%) e o uso de vacinas ainda não é prática em todas as granjas. Apesar do reduzido número de questionários recebidos, os dados mostram uma tendência de que as granjas brasileiras, infectadas pelo S. suis, trabalham com o sistema intensivo de produção, sendo a maioria granjas de tamanho médio a grande e com mais de 10 anos de existência. Além disso, há uma tendência de que o surto da doença ocorra, em sua maioria, na fase de creche e o seu controle é feito por antibioticoterapia à base principalmente de penicilina.

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