performed on frozen and on paraffin-embedded tissues (PET), respectively. From the frozen 5 samples a partial sequence of the putative USUV E and NS1 proteins (1229 bp) was 6 determined, whereas partial sequences of the putative NS3 (278 bp) and NS5 (159 bp) 7 proteins were obtained from PET. Additionally, one partial sequence (163 bp) of the putative 8 3'UTR region was determined from all samples. Sequencing of the amplification products 9 revealed 99.8 to 100% nucleotide identity of the Italian USUV strains to those from other 10 central European countries. 11 12

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This review of the use of thermographic technique in equines introduces the principles upon which infrared radiation and thermoregulatory physiology are based and describes the instrumentation used and its practical use. The advantage of this imaging technique is that it is a noninvasive thermographic examination, both from an operational (the animal and the operator) and health (no penetrating radiation is used) standpoint. Advantages and disadvantages of this technique, equine applications, and physiological assessments are discussed.

To investigate sequence diversity of psittacine beak and feather disease virus, samples collected from 31 psittacine species with or without clinical signs were tested for the presence of the viral genome. A real-time polymerase chain reaction was developed amplifying a 202 base pair fragment of the region encoding the capsid protein C1 and detecting 100 to 1000 genome equivalents. The nucleotide sequences of the polymerase chain reaction products showed 84.1 to 100% identity with no consistent pattern with regard to the infected bird species. Amino acid exchanges were concentrated mainly in five of the 42 deduced positions. Sequences obtained from an outbreak of acute beak and feather disease in lories clustered in a separate branch of a phylogenetic tree. Sequences in samples from African grey parrots with feather disorders grouped together, whereas those from the same species with immunosuppression clustered in other branches. These results indicate the possible existence of beak and feather disease virus genotypes.

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