Recently, increasing natural infection cases and experimental animal challenge studies demonstrated domestic cats are susceptible to multiple subtypes influenza A virus (IAV) infections.  Notably, some subtype IAV strains could circulate in domestic cats after cross-species transmission and even infected humans, posing a threat to public health.  Host factors related to viral polymerase activity could determine host range of IAV and acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 (ANP32) is the most important one among them.  However, role of cat-derived ANP32 on viral polymerase activity and host range of IAV is still unknown.  In the present study, a total of 10 feline ANP32 (feANP32) splice variants (including 5 feANP32A, 3 feANP32B, and 2 feANP32E) were obtained from domestic cats by RT-PCR.  Sequence alignment results demonstrated amino acid deletions and/or insertions occurred among feANP32 variants, but all feANP32 proteins were primarily localized to cell nucleus.  Minigenome replication systems for several representative IAV strains were established and the support ability of feANP32 on IAV polymerase activity was estimated.  The results indicated that most feANP32A and feANP32B splice variants were able to support all the tested IAV strains, though the support activity of a single feANP32 protein on polymerase activity varied among different IAV strains.  In addition, the role of feANP32 in supporting H3N2 canine influenza virus was determined by investigating viral replication in vitro.  Collectively, our study systematically investigated the support activity of feANP32 on IAV, providing a clue for further exploring the mechanism of susceptibility of cats to IAV.

In order to establish grading standards of evaluation indices for sour flavor of apples, 10 indices of samples from 106 apple cultivars were tested, including: malic acid (Mal), oxalic acid (Oxa), citric acid (Cit), lactic acid (Lac), succinic acid (Suc), fumaric acid (Fum), total organic acids (ToA, the sum of the six organic acids tested), titratable acid (TiA), acidity value (AcV), and pH value.  For most of the cultivars studied (85.8%), the order of the organic acid contents in apples was Mal>Oxa>Cit>Lac>Suc>Fum.  Mal was the dominant organic acid, on average, accounting for 94.5% of ToA.  Among the 10 indices, the dispersion of pH value was the smallest with a coefficient of variation of only 8.2%, while the coefficients of variation of the other nine indices were larger, ranging between 31 and 66%.  There were significant linear relationships between Mal and two indices (ToA and AcV) as well as between ToA and AcV.  There were significant logarithmic relationships between pH value and four indices: Mal, TiA, ToA, and AcV.  All the equations had very high fitting accuracy and can be used to accurately predict related indices.  According to this study, Mal, ToA, and AcV of apple were normally distributed, TiA was close to normally distributed, whereas pH value had a skewed distribution.  Using the fitted normal distribution curves, the grading standards of Mal, TiA, ToA, and AcV were established.  The grading node values of pH value were obtained using the logarithmic relationship between pH value and Mal.  The grading standards of these five indices can be used to evaluate the sour flavor of apple.  This study provides a scientific basis for evaluating apple flavor and selecting apple cultivars.

The presence of pesticide residues in pears is a serious health concern. This study presents the results from a 2-year investigation (2013–2014) that used gas chromatography, GS/MS and UPLC/MS-MS to measure the levels of 104 pesticides in 310 pear samples. In 93.2% of the samples, 43 pesticides were detected, of which the maximum residue levels (MRLs) were exceeded in 2.6% of the samples. Multiple residues (two to eight compounds) were present in 69.7% of the samples; one sample contained nine pesticides and one sample contained 10. Only 6.8% of the samples did not contain residues. To assess the health risks, the pesticide residue data have been combined with daily pear consumption data for children and adult populations. A deterministic model was used to assess the chronic and acute exposures based on the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) method. A potential acute risk was demonstrated for children in the case of bifenthrin, which was found to be present at 105.36% of the acute reference dose (ARfD) value. The longterm exposure of the Chinese consumer to pesticide residues through the consumption of raw pears was far below the acceptable daily intake (ADI) criterion. Additionally, the matrix ranking scheme was used to classify risk subgroups of pesticides and pear samples. In general, 95.5% of samples were deemed to be safe and nine pesticides were classified as being of a relatively high risk. The findings indicated that the occurrence of pesticide residues in pears should not be considered a serious public health problem. Nevertheless, a more detailed study is required for vulnerable consumer groups, especially children. Continuous monitoring of pesticides in pears and tighter regulation of pesticide residue standards are recommended.

In recent years, the Chinese government has highlighted the importance of adopting hog safety/quality traceability, and a growing amount of research continues to entice firms to adopt traceability systems. In this study, a survey was conducted on a sample of pig slaughtering and processing firms in Zhejiang, China through personal interviews and emails. The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of firm behavior on the implementation of voluntary traceability systems with more stringent standards and controls than those of the mandatory system in China. The results revealed that motivation based on product quality improvement, capital ability and role perception (business type) had significantly positive relationships with a firm’s voluntary traceability. Other incentives, such as operation improvement, recall risk reduction, reduced occurrence of safety issues, and technical strength were not found to be supportive in our study. This study provides an opportunity to better understand the determinants of firm behavior on voluntary traceability, particularly in light of the fact that some Chinese firms are facing the threat of criminal action for the use of illegal additives and the abuse of Clenbuterol. Policy recommendations on encouraging the implementation of pork safety voluntary traceability by hog slaughtering and processing firms are also discussed.