Estimation of the number of virus particles transmitted by an insect vector

richard submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.pnas.org)

Plant viruses are submitted to narrow population bottlenecks both during infection of their hosts and during horizontal transmission between host individuals. The size of bottlenecks exerted on virus populations during plant invasion has been estimated in a few pathosystems but is not addressed yet for horizontal transmission.

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Bullfrogs May Serve as Hosts for E. coli

gh0706 submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.sciencedaily.com)

For the first time researchers have identified American bullfrogs as potentially suitable hosts for E. coli O157:H7, a common source of food-borne illness. In the study researchers orally inoculated American bullfrog tadpoles and metamorphs with E. coli O157:H7 and tested for infection after 14 days. The result showed that
tadpoles, which were housed in flowthrough aquaria, did not become infected, however 54% of metamorphs tested positive after being housed in stagnant aquaria.

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