Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a highly infectious pathogen that causes upper respiratory tract disease (URTD), with a higher prevalence in group-housed cats compared to those raised individually. In this study, 15 FCV strains were isolated from group-housed cats exhibiting URTD symptoms in Changzhou, China, in 2024. Phylogenetic analysis based on the VP1 sequences revealed that 13 of 15 strains clustered within genogroup I (G I), while none belonged to genogroup II (G II). Notably, the remaining two strains grouped with several recently published Chinese isolates, forming an independent branch distinct from both G I and G II, proposed as genogroup III (G III). The VP1 proteins of the 13 G I strains exhibited specific residues 377N, 539A, and 557G, consistent with the established G I-specific markers (377N/S, 539A/P, and 557G). In contrast, G II strains typically retain 377 K, 539 V, and 557S. Interestingly, the G III strains displayed 377N, 539A (specific to G I) and 557S (specific to G II). Recombinant analysis found that co-circulating G I and G III resulted in a recombinant strain. Furthermore, neutralization tests demonstrated poor cross-neutralization between G I and G III strains. This study provides valuable insights for the development of effective vaccination strategies.

The safety of animal derived food has been at the forefront of societal concerns in recent years. In this paper, we stress major animal derived food issues and challenges including microbial pathogens, food additives and chemical residues. In addition, the countermeasures to animal derived food issues including animal health and welfare, animal identification and traceability, antimicrobial interventions, new processes and technologies in the processing and preservation of animal derived food products, and Risk assessment are discussed.

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin central to sensory neuron biology and pain signaling. NGF and NTRK1 are gnathostome paralogs within the older neurotrophin and Trk families, respectively, whereas NGFR encodes p75NTR, a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. Orthology assessment of NGF, NTRK1, and NGFR across vertebrates is challenging because mature neurotrophins are short, cysteine-rich ligands, NTRK1 has closely related paralogs, and NGFR lies outside the Trk receptor family. We assessed species-level joint genomic recovery of the three genes and compared evolutionary constraint among predefined ligand and receptor regions. The analysis covered 94 chordates and combined graded recovery evidence with family phylogenies, locus and domain evidence, codon models, amino acid conservation, and structural mapping. Sixteen non-gnathostome species were included to provide evolutionary context and were not used to calculate recovery rates for the three focal genes. Among 78 sampled gnathostomes, 52 had high-confidence joint recovery, eight had supported provisional joint recovery, four had component-level evidence consistent with possible co-recovery, and 14 remained incomplete. Mature NGF had a numerically lower estimate of the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rates (dN/dS, ω) than the pro-domain (0.067 versus 0.352). All six scaffold cysteines were invariant; in the residue-class comparison, the cysteine scaffold was the only structural class that differed from the coordinate-resolved background after correction. The dimer-interface, TrkA-contact, and p75NTR-contact classes did not differ significantly from that background after correction. Receptor analyses yielded low ω estimates in Trk kinase domains and p75NTR intracellular regions. Together, these results provide a confidence-graded map of focal-gene recovery and regional purifying constraint while placing non-gnathostome homologs within the older neurotrophin system.