The aim of this study was to detect illegal adulteration of beef meat products with meat from other species. Samples (n= 120) of industrial and handmade beef products were randomly collected from retail outlets in Assiut city, Egypt: raw beef burger, oriental beef sausage, beef kofta, and beef luncheon (30 samples each). Samples were analysed using agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) and modified AGID (MAGID) assays. Results showed that 17.5% of examined products were adulterated with chicken meat. MAGID detected that 14.1% of samples were adulterated with donkey meat, whereas all AGID results were negative. Human tissue was detected in 8.3%(AGID) and 10%(MAGID) of examined samples. Histological examination was then used to detect foreign tissue, and all categories of products were found to be adulterated, and some of them-contaminated with human blood cells. Polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed that MAGID was more accurate and sensitive than AGID, especially for false negative AGID results. Consumers are advised not to consume too much of the studied meat products to avoid exposure to adulterated or contaminated products that might constitute a health hazard.

Adult cartilage comes in three different types: hyaline cartilage, elastic cartilage, and fibrocartilage. In several forms of cartilage, chondrocytes are described as a one-cell population. Chondrocytes are the manufacturers of the surrounding ECM and collagen type II fibers in hyaline cartilage besides the elastic fibers in elastic cartilage. Whereas the white adipocytes mainly compose the white adipose tissue and they are specialized in production, storage and mobilization of triglycerides. Early studies explored a unique type of chondrocyte in mouse, rat, and rabbit auricular cartilage having morphology similar to white adipocytes and identified it as "adipochondrocyte". The objective of the current study was to explore the differences between chondrocyte, adipocyte and adipochondrocyte morphologies in white New Zealand rabbits and to ascertain if adipochondrocyte is more comparable to chondrocyte or adipocyte morphology. The auricles, articular cartilage of carpal joint, and pre-renal white fat of adult male white rabbits were harvested and processed for histological examination with light and transmission electron microscopy. The adipochondrocytes appeared as hypertrophic white adipocyte-like chondrocytes occupied the auricular cartilage plate of the white New Zealand rabbits, similar to the characteristic "signet ring" appearance of the white adipocytes in pre-renal white fat. The adipochondrocytes were housed in lacunae within an ECM similar to chondrocytes of articular cartilage. The TEM examination had illuminated that the adipochondrocyte cytoplasm contained large lipid globule that flattened the eccentric nucleus and sparse …

Background The liver was identified as a primary target organ for the chemo-radiological effects of uranyl acetate (UA). Although the anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic properties of gallic acid (GA) make it a promising phytochemical to resist its hazards, there is no available data in this area of research.

Methods To address this issue, eighteen rats were randomly and equally divided into three groups. One group was received carboxymethyl cellulose (vehicle of GA) and kept as a control. The UA group was injected intraperitoneally with UA at a single dose of 5 mg/kg body weight. The third group (GA+UA group) was treated with GA orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight for 14 days before UA exposure. UA was injected on the 15th day of the experiment in either the UA group or the GA+UA group. The biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical findings in the GA+UA group were compared to both control and UA groups.

Results The results showed that UA exposure led to a range of adverse effects. These included elevated plasma levels of aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, total protein, globulin, glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and very-low-density lipoprotein and decreased plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The exposure also disrupted the redox balance, evident through decreased plasma total antioxidant capacity and hepatic nitric oxide, superoxide dismutase, reduced glutathione, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione peroxidase and increased hepatic oxidized glutathione and malondialdehyde. Plasma levels of albumin and alanine aminotransferase did not significantly change in all groups. Histopathological analysis revealed damage to liver tissue, characterized by deteriorations in tissue structure, excessive collagen accumulation, and depletion of glycogen. Furthermore, UA exposure up-regulated the immuno-expression of cleaved caspase-3 and down-regulated the immuno-expression of nuclear factor-erythroid-2-related factor 2 in hepatic tissues, indicating an induction of apoptosis and oxidative stress response. However, the pre-treatment with GA proved to be effective in mitigating these negative effects induced by UA exposure, except for the disturbances in the lipid profile.

Background In the livestock industry, Foreign Body Syndrome is a devastating disease condition. Feeding
management, lacking of food discrimination, and eating chopped food increase the risk of swallowing sharp
foreign bodies in bovine species. In addition to the honeycomb cells shape of the reticulum, the contractions of the
reticular wall, gravid uterine pressure, and parturition efforts, foreign bodies can penetrate the reticular wall, causing
cascade of problems including traumatic reticulitis, traumatic reticuloperitonitis, and traumatic pericarditis. The
present study was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic significance of cardiac troponin I rapid test cassette and
other cardiac biomarkers including serum cardiac troponin I (cTn I), creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB), lactate
dehydrogenase (LDH), and aspartate aminotransferase enzyme (AST), in confirmed cases of traumatic pericarditis (TP)
and/or traumatic reticuleoperitonitis (TRP) in cattle and buffaloes.
Methods A total number of 30 animals (22 cattle and 8 buffaloes) with different signs such as anorexia, jugular
distension, brisket edema, and signs of pain (reluctance to move, arching back, and abduction of the forelimbs) were
included in the present study. Based on case history, clinical signs, ferroscopic, pericardiocentesis, radiographic and
ultrasonographic examinations, TP were confirmed in cattle (n = 10) and buffaloes (n = 8) while TRP were confirmed
only in cattle (n = 12). Additionally, 20 clinically healthy animals (n = 10 cattle and 10 buffaloes) were used as a control
group. Blood samples were collected for determination of blood level of Tn-I, and activity of CK-MB, LDH, and AST.
Results The obtained results revealed a highly significant increase in serum cTn I in diseased cattle with TP and TRP
(P = 0.00), while buffaloes with TP showed no significant changes in serum cTn I (P = 0.111). Both diseased cattle and
buffaloes showed increased serum activities of CK-MB, AST, and LDH enzyme. On the other hand, cardiac troponin I
rapid test cassette failed to detect cTn I in diseased animals.
Conclusion The study concluded that the cardiac troponin I rapid test cassette did not have a diagnostic significance
and could not be used as a point-of-care under field condition for diagnosis of TP and TRP in large ruminants.
However, the serum troponin I level is helpful in diagnosis of TP and TRP in cattle. Although cardiac biomarkers have some diagnostic values in TP and TRP, the traditional diagnostic methods (clinical, radiography and ultrasonography
examinations) are crucial for thorough evaluation of TP/TRP cases in bovine.

In this study, a polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment lengthpolymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP)-based method was applied to identify the meat origin of different animal species by using a universal primer cytochrome b (cyt b1 and cyt b2). It is common in to adulterate buffalo’s meat for sale to consumers. Identification of the species of origin for meat and products is important and useful in practice to protect human from adulteration, because it allows the detection offraud in the form of the substitution of a less costly type of meat for one of a higher quality. Meat samples were collected from 4 farm animals' species (cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep) to differentiate each species according to its mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This method was based on mtDNA conserved region sequence variations. The DNA sequence of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene is 359-bp was obtained from gene-bank data base (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Then the PCR product was digested, using restriction endonuclease enzymes and yield species-specific restriction profile. This technique is more sensitive and also specific for meat species identification and differentiation. Therefore, this assay may be suitable test and more rapid than conventional methods. The economic impact of this situation leads to many investigations of potential fraud meat and meat products. The mitochondrialencoded cytb gene was used as a molecular marker for the discrimination of meat and meat products species,
KEY WORDS: Meat, Meat products, PCR, RFLP analysis, mitDNA, Animal species.

In this investigation, some epidemiological studies were run on subclinical mastitis for totally 350 dairy cows of different breeds, ages and distributed in different villages in Assiut governorate, Assiut, Egypt, along a whole year (during the period from June 2006 till July 2007) through field screening surveys by using of the California mastitis test (CMT) for each quarter milk sample followed by bacteriological examination to identify the major causative agents of intramammary infection (IMI). The dairy cows were differed from the breed point of view as 230 Holstein Friesian breed and 120 native breed. Also, they were differed from the age point of view as a group of 95 cows aged from 2 to 4 years old and another group of 255 cow aged from 5 to 8 years old. All dairy cows were apparently healthy with clinically sound udder secreting apparently normal milk. All the cows lived nearly under the same conditions of breeding from the habitat, hygiene and feeding systems. The obtained results revealed that 67 cows (19.14%) had 80 infected quarters (5.71%). It was found that the most frequently major causative agents isolated wereStaphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae and Escherichia coli from the positive CMT samples with prevalence 52.5, 31.25 and 16.25%, respectively. With studying the breed factor, it was found Friesian breed was sensitive towards infection (20.43% at the cow level and 6.09% at the quarter level) than of native breed (16.67% at the cow level and 5% at the quarter level). It was also noticed that the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in hot weather as during summer (9.14% at the cow level and 2.64% at the quarter level) and during spring (4.86% at the cow level and 1.36% at the quarter level) was higher than in cold weather as during winter (2% at the cow level and 0.64% at the quarter level) and during autumn (3.14% at the cow level and 1.07% at the quarter level). In relation to age susceptibility, 5-8 years old cows (15.43% at the cow level and 4.36% at the quarter level) were susceptible than those of 2-4 years (3.71% at the cow level and 1.36% at the quarter level). The degree of quarter attack according to positive CMT was varied from 35 quarters (2.50%) showed degree (+++), to 45 ones (3.22%) showed degree (++), to 120 ones (8.57%) showed degree (+) and the rest (85.71%) showed degree (-). The obtained results threw the light on the epidemiology of subclinical mastitis in Assiut villages and provided an importance of the CMT for diagnosis of subclinical mastitis due to it is a reliable, easy, rapid and cheap tool helping in diagnosis and controlling the disease because it directs attention to individual mammary quarter that is secreting milk of high somatic cell content (SCC). Programs for control of subclinical mastitis may be planned around the routine examination of all lactating cows, and consequently
early treatment can be applied towards positive cases rapidly for preventing their conversion towards clinical form among dairy cows and for protecting the herd health, milk hygiene and consequently the consumer health.
Key words: Epidemiology, Subclinical mastitis, California mastitis test (CMT), Intramammary
infection, Dairy cows.

A polymerase chain reaction with the restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method using universal primers complementary to the conserved region of the cytochrome b gene (cyt b) of the mitochondrion DNA (mtDNA) of vertebrates was applied to the identification of the origin of blood meals in tsetse flies. Blood samples from ten potential tsetse hosts of the family bovidae (cattle, water buffalo, red buffalo, waterbuck, springbok, goat, sheep, sable antelope, oryx and dik-dik) were included in this study. Sites for appropriate restriction endonucleases cuts were chosen by pairwise alignment of the amplified 359 bp fragments.
A flow chart of endonucleases digestion using three restriction enzymes (e.g. TaqI, AluI and HindII) for the unequivocal identification of the respective bovid species was developed. A number of additional nonspecific
DNA fragments attributed to the co-amplification of cytochrome b pseudogenes were observed in some species (e.g. in red buffalo and dik-dik after digestion with AluI) but did not hamper assignment of bovid species. The detection rate of host DNA in tsetse by PCR-RFLP was 100, 80, 60 and 40% at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h after in vitro feeding, respectively. Identification of the last blood meal was possible even when tsetse had previously fed on different hosts.
Keywords Glossina, Blood meal identification, Bovidae, Cytochrome b, PCR-RFLP