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Highly pathogenic Avian influenza (HPAI) is a notifiable viral disease caused by avian influenza type A viruses of the Orthomyxoviridae family. Type A influenza genome consists of eight segments of negative-sense RNA. RNA segment 2 encodes three proteins, PB1, PB1-F2, and N40, which are translated from the same mRNA by ribosomal leaky scanning and reinitiation. Since these proteins are critical for viral replication and pathogenesis, targeting their expression can be one of the approaches to control and resist HPAI. MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs that regulate a variety of biological processes such as cell growth, tissue differentiation, apoptosis, and viral infection. In this study, a set of 300 miRNAs expressed in chicken lungs were screened against the HPAI virus (H5N1) segment 2 with different screening parameter like thermodynamic stability of heteroduplex, seed sequence complementarity, conserved target sequence, and target-site accessibility for identifying miRNAs that can potentially target the transcript of segment 2 of H5N1. Chicken miRNAs gga-mir-133c, gga-mir-1710, and gga-mir-146c* are predicted to target the expression of PB1, PB1-F2, and N40 proteins. This indicates that chicken has genetic potential to resist/tolerate H5N1 infection and these can be suitably exploited in designing strategies for control of avian influenza in chicken.

In spite of increase in milk production, dairy farmers suffer huge economic losses due to mastitis even in very well organized and modern farms. It has been observed that with the increase in the ability of milk production, dairy animals become more susceptible to mastitis. One of the most common causes of mastitis is infection of the mammary gland caused by bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli responsible for invoking sub-clinical and clinical mastitis, respectively. The resistivity or susceptibility of species/breeds towards mastitis depends on mode and intensity of immune response to invading pathogens. Inflammation of the mammary tissue results in the release of several cytokines, among which release of interleukin 10 (IL-10) has been identified as an important cytokine for the control of immune response. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the level of IL-10 expression when Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) isolated from Crossbred cattle, Tharparkar cattle and Murrah buffalo were stimulated by antigens obtained from Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The results demonstrated deviations in the level of IL-10 expression among these breeds and species in response to the stimulation by the same dose of antigens. Abbreviation: CMT (California Mastitis Test); ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay); LPS (Lipopolysaccharide); LTA (Lipoteichoic acid); PBMCs (Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells); PGN (Peptidoglycan); SCC (Somatic Cell Count) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]