ABSTRACTSarcocystis neurona is the primary agent for Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM), important neurological disease characterized by behavior or muscular changes, that impairs animal performance and husbandry. Sarcocystis cruzi is a pathogen related to myositis in cattle. Although related the life cycles of the parasites are distinct. S. neurona has opossums (Didelphis spp.) and S. cruzi, dogs as definitive hosts. However, S. neurona and S. cruzi may undergo cross-reactivity in serological tests, interfering on results of EPM ante-mortem diagnostic tests. In the present study, serology of 189 mares was performed by indirect immunofluorescence antibody test, using antigens of S. neurona and S. cruzi in order to assess the exposure degree of animals to antigens. Analyzing the results, it was observed that most of the animals (84.13%) reacted with at least one protozoal species and the number of animals which showed antibodies against S. cruzi was greater than S. neurona (80.42% and 33.86%, respectively) and a third of seropositive animals reacted to antigens of both species.

In a previous work of this group, theoretical studies and stability measurements were performed in order to describe the particle coagulation provoked by electrolytes. The work of the current paper concerns the development of mathematical models based on the DLVO theory and on population balance equations (PBE), which involve highly complex integro-differential equations. This model includes particle coagulation, particle nucleation, the polymerization kinetics and monomer partitioning among the many phases of the system. The model ensured a proper description of butyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate emulsion copolymerizations reactions, and related phenomena such as coagulation and particle nucleation in the presence of large seed particles. These latter systems are very important to the multimodal latexes production. Finally, simulation studies were performed in order to test the model ability to follow the competitive growth of polymer particles during semibatch operations.