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Four isolants of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) obtained from free-flying Canada geese in the Atlantic flyway were characterized and compared with the B1, LaSota, Roakin, and Texas-GB strains of NDV. The 4 isolants were identified as lentogenic strains on the basis of embryo mean death times of greater than 100 hours and relative lack of pathogenicity for 1-day-old and 3-week-old chickens. The hemagglutinin of 2 of the isolants was stable at 56 C for 15 minutes, 1 for 30 minutes, and the other for at least 2 hours. When held at 4 C for 24 hours, none of the 4 isolants could be eluted from chicken erythrocytes. All 4 of the isolants produced plaques in chicken embryo fibroblast cell cultures without additives, whereas the B1 and LaSota strains did not. The 4 lentogenic NDV isolants from Canada geese differed in many respects from currently used commerical vaccine strains (B1 and LaSota).

Background: The Association of American Medical Colleges instituted a standardized video interview (SVI) forall applicants to emergency medicine (EM). It is unclear how the SVI affects a faculty reviewer's decision on likelihood to invite an applicant (LTI) for an interview.Objectives: The objective was to determine whether the SVI affects the LTI.Methods: Nine Accreditation Council of Graduate Medication Education (ACGME)-accredited EM residency programs participated in this prospective, observational study. LTI was defined on a 5-point Likert scale as follows: 1 = definitely not invite, 2 = likely not invite, 3 = might invite, 4 = probably invite, 5 = definitely invite. LTI was recorded at three instances during each review: 1) after typical screening (blinded to the SVI), 2) after unblinding to the SVI score, and 3) after viewing the SVI video.Results: Seventeen reviewers at nine ACGME-accredited residency programs participated. We reviewed 2,219 applications representing 1,424 unique applicants. After unblinding the SVI score, LTI did not change in 2,065 (93.1%), increased in 85 (3.8%) and decreased in 69 (3.1%; p = 0.22). In subgroup analyses, the effect of the SVI on LTI was unchanged by United States Medical Licensing Examination score. However, when examining subgroups of SVI scores, the percentage of applicants in whom the SVI score changed the LTI was significantly different in those that scored in the lower and upper subgroups (p < 0.0001). The SVI video was viewed in 816 (36.8%) applications. Watching the video did not change the LTI in 631 (77.3%); LTI increased in 106 (13.0%) and decreased in 79 (9.7%) applications (p = 0.04).

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