Research Lines
Scientific Research lines of VISAVET Centre
Research Projects
Current projects in public calls
Scientific Publications
SCI Scientific Publications of VISAVET Centre
Thesis
PhD Thesis and scientific
dissertations of VISAVET Centre
Research awards
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Last research news
July 10th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Desarrollo y puesta a punto de una técnica de base inmunológica para la detección conjunta de ricina y aglutinina
Presentation by Virginia Colmena García to obtain the Master in Disaster Management
La ricina es una de las toxinas más potentes conocidas, que se encuentra en la semilla del ricino (Ricinus communis). El Centro para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades de Estados Unidos (CDC) la clasifica como posible arma biológica. Existen diferentes métodos para la detección de esta proteína, siendo la técnica inmunológica ELISA, especialmente el ELISA tipo sándwich, la que está considerada como la técnica más robusta para su análisis, ya que es sensible, específica, con límites de detección de picogramos y fácil de realizar. No obstante, el reto está en poder diferenciar la ricina …
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July 5th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Circulation of a novel strain of dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) in stranded cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea
Investigation article published in Scientific reports
Dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) has been responsible for several outbreaks of systemic infection and has resulted in cetacean strandings in the Mediterranean. In August-October 2016, seven striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) stranded on the Sicilian coastline (Italy) tested positive for DMV. Tissue samples from brain, lung, pulmonary lymph nodes, heart, spleen, liver, stomach, intestine, kidneys and urinary bladder, as well as blowhole swabs, were collected during necropsy for molecular diagnostics and pathology studies. Extracted tissue RNA was screened for DMV by real-time reverse transcrip…
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July 4th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Nucleotide sequence variations may be associated with virulence of deformed wing virus
Investigation published in Apidologie
Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) are key players in crop pollination and in the maintenance of global biodiversity. Their viability is threatened by Varroa destructor, which acts as a vector of the deformed wing virus (DWV). Several genetic DWV variants have been reported, but it is unclear whether their virulence differs. We examined the prevalence of V. destructor and DWV as well as bee health in two colonies over 21 months and then characterizing DWV variants from each colony using phylogenetics. Colony H showed no signs of disease or mortality, and DWV sequence from this colony clustere…
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July 3rd, 2019
Vía publiDB
Evaluation of the health status of the main aquaculture species in Papua New Guinea
PhD Thesis defense by Ruth García Gómez at the VISAVET Centre of the Complutense University of Madrid
The aquaculture sector has been strongly promoted y developed in a technically feasible, economically viable y long-term sustainable way in the Pacific Region for more than two decades. Numerous international, intergovernmental, regional agencies y programs have focused their economic y human efforts on the sustainable development of this sub-sector (within the fisheries sector) in the Pacific, with limited results y not many successful stories. The Oceania region remains the world`s least developed region in the world`s aquaculture sector, with some exceptions such as Australia y New Zealy, f…
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June 24th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Host Richness Increases Tuberculosis Disease Risk in Game-Managed Areas
Investigation published in Microorganisms
Current scientific debate addresses whether species richness in animal communities may negatively moderate pathogen transmission and disease outcome (dilution effect), or to the contrary, if disease emergence benefits from more diverse community assemblages (amplification effect). The result may not depend exclusively on patterns of host species biodiversity but may depend on the specific composition of reservoir hosts and vectors, and their ecology. Host–pathogen interactions have shaped variations in parasite virulence, transmissibility and specificity. In the same way the importance of fact…
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June 18th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Weaned piglets: another factor to be considered for the control of Salmonella infection in breeding pig farms
Investigation article published in Veterinary Research
Field studies on Salmonella infection in suckling piglets are scarce due to the intrinsic difficulties of collecting proper samples (i.e. tonsils or mesenteric lymph nodes), and most of them rely on the analysis of rectal swabs that limit their accuracy. We used 495 slaughtered 4-weeks-old male piglets intended for human consumption from 5 Salmonella-seropositive breeding farms to collect gastrointestinal packages and perform a thorough detection of Salmonella on mesenteric lymph nodes and intestinal content. The overall prevalence of both infection and shedding was high (≈ 36%) in…
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June 14th, 2019
Vía publiDB
High Load of Deformed Wing Virus and Varroa destructor Infestation Are Related to Weakness of Honey Bee Colonies in Southern Spain
Frontiers in Microbiology publish this investigation article
Many factors, including pathogens, contribute to the continuing losses of colonies of the honey bee Apis mellifera, which has led to steady population decline. In particular, colony losses have been linked to deformed wing virus (DWV) and the Varroa destructor mite. To clarify the potential role of these two pathogens in honey bee colony weakening and loss, we sampled colonies in southern Spain during a 21-month period and analyzed the samples for loads of four viruses and varroa. Loads of DWV and black queen cell virus as well as varroa infestation negatively correlated with colony vigor as m…
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May 29th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Estimating day range from camera-trap data: the animals’ behaviour as a key parameter
Journal of Zoology publish this investigation article
Day range (DR), the distance travelled by an individual during the day, is an important metric in movement ecology that recently gained interest by its relevance for estimating population density through the random encounter model (REM). Traditionally, DR has been estimated using GPS technology and considering raw straight-line distances between consecutive locations, which is an underestimation of the true path distance. In this work, we tested the accuracy of a new approach based on camera-trap data for the estimation of DR taking into account the animals’ behaviour. For this purpose, we con…
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May 28th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Minigene Splicing Assays Identify 12 Spliceogenic Variants of BRCA2 Exons 14 and 15
Investigation published in Frontiers in genetics
A relevant fraction of BRCA2 variants is associated with splicing alterations and with an increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). In this work, we have carried out a thorough study of variants from BRCA2 exons 14 and 15 reported at mutation databases. A total of 294 variants from exons 14 and 15 and flanking intronic sequences were analyzed with the online splicing tools NNSplice and Human Splicing Finder. Fifty-three out of these 294 variants were selected as candidate splicing variants. All variants but one, were introduced into the minigene MGBR2_ex14-20 (with exons 1…
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May 16th, 2019
Vía publiDB
Comparison of spatiotemporal patterns of historic natural Anthrax outbreaks in Minnesota and Kazakhstan
Investigation published in PLoS ONE
Disease spread in populations is a consequence of the interaction between host, pathogen, and environment, i.e. the epidemiological triad. Yet the influences of each triad component may vary dramatically for different settings. Comparison of environmental, demographic, socio-economic, and historical backgrounds may support tailoring site-specific control measures. Because of the long-term survival of Bacillus anthracis, Anthrax is a suitable example for studying the influence of triad components in different endemic settings. We compared the spatiotemporal patterns of historic animal Anthrax r…
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