We report idiopathic intranuclear inclusion bodies in the renal tubular epithelia of two cases of among the 960 Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) in the course of the acute oral toxicity and dietary toxicity test. Basophilic inclusion bodies were seen only in the nuclei of renal tubular epithelia. We could not classify our case into any adenovirus infection by clinical signs and lesions. The inclusion bodies were only identified as adenovirus-like particles based upon the electronmicroscopical features.
Animals ; *Coturnix ; Epithelial Cells/*ultrastructure ; *Intranuclear Inclusion Bodies ; Kidney Tubules/*ultrastructure

Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating ; Busulfan ; Cell Transplantation ; Chimera ; Coturnix/physiology* ; Female ; Male ; Spermatogonia/transplantation* ; Testicular Diseases/therapy* ; Testis/transplantation*

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of the H5N1 subtype have spread since 2003 in poultry and wild birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. In Korea, the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks took place in 2003/2004, 2006/2007 and 2008. As the 2006/2007 isolates differ phylogenetically from the 2003/2004 isolates, we assessed the clinical responses of chickens, ducks and quails to intranasal inoculation of the 2006/2007 index case virus, A/chicken/Korea/IS/06. All the chickens and quails died on 3 days and 3-6 days post-inoculation (DPI), respectively, whilst the ducks only showed signs of mild depression. The uninoculated chickens and quails placed soon after with the inoculated flock died on 5.3 and 7.5 DPI, respectively. Both oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs were taken for all three species during various time intervals after inoculation. It was found that oropharyngeal swabs showed higher viral titers than in cloacal swabs applicable to all three avian species. The chickens and quails shed the virus until they died (up to 3 to 6 days after inoculation, respectively) whilst the ducks shed the virus on 2-4 DPI. The postmortem tissues collected from the chickens and quails on day 3 and days 4-5 and from clinically normal ducks that were euthanized on day 4 contained the virus. However, the ducks had significantly lower viral titers than the chickens or quails. Thus, the three avian species varied significantly in their clinical signs, mortality, tissue virus titers, and duration of virus shedding. Our observations suggest that duck and quail farms should be monitored particularly closely for the presence of HPAIV so that further virus transmission to other avian or mammalian hosts can be prevented.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Brain/virology ; *Chickens ; *Coturnix ; *Ducks ; Heart/virology ; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype/*pathogenicity ; Influenza in Birds/epidemiology/transmission/*virology ; Kidney/virology ; Korea/epidemiology ; Lung/virology ; Virus Shedding

OBJECTIVETo establish abdominal fat accumulation with hyperuricemia and hypercholesterolemia quail model fed with high fat diet. And then to investigate the pathological characteristics of this quail model.

METHODSThirty Longcheng quails were randomly divided into two groups: control group and model group (n=15). The control group quails were fed with normal diet and model group quails were fed with high fat diet for 14 days. After a 12-hour overnight fast, liver and abdominal fat at euthanasia as well as serum were collected. The levels of serum uric acid, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride, free fatty acid (FFA), and blood glucose were assayed. The activity changes of adenosine deaminase (ADA), xanthine oxidase (XOD), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), hepatic lipase (HL), and fatty acid synthetase (FAS) were analyzed.

RESULTSCompared with control group, the abdominal fat content (0.74+/-0.63 vs. 1.36+/-0.65 g, P<0.05) and abdominal fat index (0.44%+/-0.30% vs. 0.85%+/-0.30%, P<0.01) as well as live lipid index (3.61%+/-0.65% vs. 11.33%+/-2.14%, P<0.01) in model group significantly increased; the levels of serum uric acid (210.61+/-94.76 vs. 304.25+/-141.94 micromol/L, P<0.05), total cholesterol (4.20+/-0.51 vs. 20.10+/-11.25 mmol/L, P<0.01), LDL-C (1.16+/-0.29 vs. 10.78+/-6.48 mmol/L, P<0.01), and FFA (0.39+/-0.14 vs. 0.55+/-0.15 mmol/L, P<0.01) in model group significantly increased; HDL-C (5.85+/-0.95 vs. 4.14+/-2.03 mmol/L, P<0.05) significantly decreased; the levels of triglyceride and blood glucose had no significant changes (P>0.05); the activities of ADA (9.71+/-3.05 vs. 17.19+/-5.10 U/ml, P<0.01) and XOD (10.58+/-6.88 vs. 19.22+/-9.44 U/L, P<0.01) in model group significantly increased; and FAS, LPL, HL had no significant changes (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSHigh fat diet can induce abdominal fat accumulation with hyperuricemia and hypercholesterolemia quail model. The changes of uric acid and lipid metabolic enzyme activities may be the pathological mechanism of abdominal fat accumulation with hyperuricemia and hypercholesterolemia.

Abdominal Fat ; pathology ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Coturnix ; Dietary Fats ; administration & dosage ; Disease Models, Animal ; Hypercholesterolemia ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; Hyperuricemia ; etiology ; metabolism ; pathology ; Lipid Metabolism ; Lipids ; blood ; Liver ; metabolism ; Male ; Uric Acid ; blood

The temporal expression of estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha and ER-beta mRNA was examined in male Japanese quails. Femurs of quails receiving 17beta-estradiol underwent RTPCR and histochemical analysis 1 to 15 days after treatment. Untreated quails were used as controls (day 0). Between days 0 and 5, cells lining the bone endosteal surface differentiated into osteoblasts, which in turn formed medullary bone. Expression of ER-alpha was already observed on day 0 and increased slightly during bone formation whereas ER-beta was hardly detected throughout this process. After osteoclasts appeared on the medullary bone surface, this type of bone disappeared from the bone marrow cavity (days 7~15). ER-alpha expression simultaneously decreased slightly and ER-beta levels remained very low. These results suggest that estrogen activity mediated by ER-alpha not only affects medullary bone formation but also bone resorption.
Animals ; Bone Resorption/genetics ; Bone and Bones/chemistry/cytology/*metabolism ; Cells, Cultured ; Coturnix/*metabolism ; Estradiol/*pharmacology ; Estrogen Receptor alpha/genetics/*metabolism ; Estrogen Receptor beta/genetics/*metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Male ; Osteoblasts/chemistry/cytology/*metabolism ; Osteogenesis/genetics ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction