Porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC) continues to be a significant economic problem to the swine industry. Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MH) are considered to be the most important pathogens that cause PRDC. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of antibodies against PRRSV and MH in the serum of sows and piglets from 89 domestic commercial pig farms by ELISA, and the presence of viral nucleic acids of PRRSV, including North American and European PRRS, and PCV2 was also investigated in the serum of sows and piglets from 89 domestic commercial pig farms by real-time PCR. In case of PRRSV, 78.7% (70/89) of sows were positive for PRRSV antibody, and 96.6% (86/89) of piglets were positive for PRRSV antibody. For MH, 76.4% (68/89) of sows showed positive for MH antibody. In the PRRSV viral nucleic acid detection experiment, 36.0% (32/89) of sows were positive for PRRSV nucleic acids, and virus nucleic acid was detected in 83.1% (74/89) of piglets. In case of virus type, both North American and European types were detected. In case of PCV2, 15.7% (14/89) of sows were positive for PCV2 nucleic acids. Conclusively, PCV2, PRRSV, and MH were widely distributed in pig farms in Korea. These prevalence data related with PRDC provides clinical information for vaccination strategy and development for the control of PRDC.

Despite the increasing use of the rectal balloon in prostate cancer radiotherapy, many issues still remain to be verified objectively including its positional reproducibility and relevance to treatment morbidity. We have developed a custom rectal balloon that has a scale indicating the depth of insertion and dilates symmetrically ensuring positional reproducibility. Fifty patients with prostate cancer treated by definitive 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) or intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with rectal balloon were analyzed. Each of first five patients undergone computed tomography (CT) three times with a rectal balloon. The positional reproducibility was tested by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) from the CT-to-CT fusion images. Planning variables and clinical acute toxicities were compared between when or not applying balloon. An ICC of greater than 0.9 in all directions revealed an excellent reproducibility of the balloon. Rectal balloon improved considerably the mean dose and V(45Gy)-V(65Gy) in plan comparison, and especially in 3D-CRT the rectal volume exposed to more than 60 Gy dropped from 41.3% to 19.5%. Clinically, the balloon lowered acute toxicity, which was lowest when both the balloon and IMRT were applied simultaneously. The rectal balloon carries excellent reproducibility and reduces acute toxicity in 3D-CRT and IMRT for prostate cancer.
Balloon Dilatation/*methods ; Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prostatic Neoplasms/*radiotherapy ; Radiotherapy, Conformal ; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated ; *Rectum ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Treatment Outcome