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Members' Update 43/09
Dear members,
In this Update:
- CORRECTION
- PROJETO PIABA WINS PRICE
- TURKYS AQUARIUM REOPENS
- KOI HERPES VIRUS ENTERS KOI THROUGH SKIN
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CORRECTION
In the previous Members Update we have announced Aquamazonia to take place in February, however, the event takes place on 26 and 27 January.
PROJETO PIABA WINS PRICE
Projeto Piama, organiser of Aquamazonia 2010 and a sustainable collection project in Barcelos, Brazil, has won a Seed award. In total twenty local initiatives from across the developing world received this yearʼs award. Together, the winners cover a diverse range of promising business models that will tackle poverty and environmental stewardship in areas such as water and waste management, sustainable energy, recycling, and fish farming.
The SEED Award is the flagship programme of the SEED Initiative, a partnership founded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Projeto Piaba was awarded the award for a business plan that deals with sustainable collection by a collectors-collective in Barcelos, Brazil. The business plan can be found in the OFI website.
TURKYS AQUARIUM REOPENS
After four hard and long months, the judge in Brazil decided that Turkys Aquarium is allowed to reopen. The Benzaken family wishes to thank all their customers and friends who supported them through these four months, many of whom sent emails and others that called many times to receive updates and offer their support. Turkys Aquarium will return to work like it did in the past, honoring its 30 years of reputable and decent business practices
KOI HERPES VIRUS ENTERS KOI THROUGH SKIN
Recently an article was published on Koi Herpes Virus. We received a summary, which might be of interest to some:
The major portal of entry of koi herpesvirus in Cyprinus carpio in the skin. Costes, B, Stalin Raj ,V, Michel, B, Fournier, G, Thirion, M, Gillet, L, Mast, J, Lieffrig, F, Bremont, M, Vanderplasschen, A.
Koi herpesvirus (KHV), recently designated in the species Cyprinid Herpesvirus 3, is the causative agent of a lethal disease in koi and common carp. In the present study, we investigated the portal of entry of KHV in carp using bioluminescence imaging. Taking profit of the recent cloning of the KHV genome as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC), we produced a recombinant plasmid encoding a firefly luciferase (LUC) expression cassette inserted in the intergenic region between ORF 136 and ORF 137. Two viral strains were then reconstituted from the modified plasmid: the FL BAC 136 LUC excised strain and the FL BAC 136 LUC TK revertant strain encoding a disrupted and a wild-type thymidine kinase (TK) locus, respectively. In vitro, the two recombinant strains replicated comparably to the parental FL strain. The FL BAC 136 LUC TK revertant strain was shown in vitro to induce a bioluminescent signal allowing the detection of single positive cells as early as 24 hours post-infection; while in vivo, it induced KHV infection in carp that was indistinguishable from that induced by the parental FL strain. To identify the KHV portal of entry, carp were analyzed by bioluminescence imaging at different time post-infection with the FL BAC 136 LUC TK revertant strain. These analyses demonstrated that the skin of the fish, covering the fins and also the body, is the major portal of entry of KHV in carp. Finally, to further demonstrate the role of the skin as the KHV portal of entry, we constructed an original system nicknamed "U-tube" to perform per-cutaneous infection restricted to the posterior part of the fish. All the data obtained in the present study demonstrate that the skin and not the gills is the major portal of entry of KHV in carp.
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With kind regards,
Alex Ploeg & Roberto Hensen
OFI Secretariat
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