City Zoo Research Articles

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mademoiselle Odile (review)

Reviewed by: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mademoiselle Odile Karen Coats Reese, James . The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mademoiselle Odile. Roaring Brook, 2012. [368p]. (Shadow Sisters) ISBN 978-1-59643-684-8 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10. Desperate to find a cure for her brother Grel's mysterious progressive disease, Odile seeks help from the books left her by her late mother, a witch. The city of Paris, where they're now living, suffers problems of its own in 1871: under siege by the Prussians, the citizens have been reduced to killing and eating the animals in the city zoo, which is where Odile has gone to test some magicked salts on the monkeys, with horrific results (the treated monkey turns monstrous and kills one of its fellows). She also runs into a young doctor named Jekyll, whose household she and Grel eventually join. Little does she know that Jekyll has been spying on her, so that when she does heal Grel, and in the process transforms him into a powerful, hulking, amoral male, Jekyll is watching. He steals her potions, which cause the famous transformation of Jekyll into Hyde, and she is forced to work with the doctor to discover the secret of the main ingredient. Setting his story against the backdrop of the Commune, a volatile period following France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War, Reese captures the spirit of the period from multiple perspectives, including that of the rich foreigners who, though trapped in the city, experienced few of the devastating shortages that faced the common folk. Odile's increasing desperation and self-recriminations are in keeping with her character, but they become somewhat tedious and overblown, and her excessive pronouncements of despair drag on the pace. Some plot threads are left dangling, but this explanation of the mysterious ingredient that animates Jekyll's transformation is well suited to readers who enjoy period drama laced with a bit of tame horror and not-so-tame blackmail. [End Page 476] Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

A comparison of Mediterranean Gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) populations in two temperate zone urban habitats

Urban ecosystems represent unique habitats that might be more or less suitable than natural systems for many species. The Mediterranean Gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus is a synanthropic species that has successfully colonized many urban and suburban areas outside its natural range. In the United States, H. turcicus has been found predominantly in southern states on exterior surfaces of buildings. We compared population density, demographics, and extent of dispersal of populations of H. turcicus at two anthropogenic sites in a temperate region of the United States. The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) had higher building density and greater cover by anthropogenic surfaces and the Oklahoma City Zoo (ZOO) had lower building density and greater cover by vegetation. Mark and recapture sampling was conducted at UCO from 2006 to 2007 and during 2008 at ZOO. The sizes of the populations at the two sites were estimated using the Schnabel method and population densities were calculated using those estimates. Age class of captured animals, sex of adults, and gravid status of adult females were determined at both sites. We assumed that greater exterior wall surface area of individual buildings at UCO and greater land cover by anthropogenic surfaces might 1) reduce population density and 2) facilitate dispersal there relative to the ZOO. Population sizes and density in animals per ha of land and building cover and demographics were similar at the two sites. Population density per ha of building exterior wall area was higher at ZOO than at UCO. The higher density of animals on buildings, lower proportion of subadults in the population and lower maximum dispersal distance at ZOO suggest that successful diffusion dispersal might be limited at that site relative to UCO.

Salmonella Yoruba infection in white-tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)

The aim of this study was to describe a fatal salmonellosis case in a non-human female primate (Callithrix jacchus), found in the illegal pet trade in Brazil. The marmoset was sent to the quarantine section of the Guarulhos City Zoo and died in the sequence of an episode of profuse diarrhea. Necropsy findings included mucous enteritis, and liver enlargement and necrosis. Feces and liver fragments were collected for bacteriological tests, which indicated the presence of Salmonella sp.; it was subsequently characterized as pertaining to the Yoruba serotype. The susceptibility profile demonstrated resistance to tetracycline only. The strain was positive for genes that encoded the virulence factors investigated (invA, sefC, pefA and spvC). The results indicated the risk of introduction of Salmonella pathogenic serotypes in primates in captivity.

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Wild Birds in Durango, Mexico

There is a lack of information concerning the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in wild birds in Mexico. In the present study, serum samples and tissues from 653 birds from Durango State, Mexico, were evaluated for T. gondii infection. Antibodies to T. gondii (modified agglutination test, titer 1∶25 or higher) were found in 17 (2.6%) of the 653 birds, including 1 of 2 curve-billed thrashers (Toxostoma curvirostre), 2 (1 Anas platyrhynchos, 1 Anas diazi) of 4 ducks, 1 of 2 eagles (Aquila sp.), 5 (27.8%) of 18 great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus), 7 (1.3%) of 521 rock pigeons (Columba livia), and 1 (14.3%) of 7 quail (Coturnix coturnix). The seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in birds captured in a park outside the city zoo (11.6%, 8/69) was significantly higher than that found in birds from other regions (1.5%, 9/584, OR = 8.38; 95% CI: 2.82-24.77; P = 0.0001). Brains and hearts of 23 birds (17 seropositive, 6 seronegative) were bioassayed in mice for the isolation of T. gondii . Viable T. gondii was isolated from 1 of 7 seropositive pigeons. The DNA obtained from the T. gondii isolate from the pigeon was genotyped using the PCR-RFLP typing using 11 markers (B1, SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1, and Apico) and revealed an atypical genotype. This is the first report of T. gondii infection in great-tailed grackles, the Mexican duck, and curved-billed thrashers and the first survey of wild birds in Mexico.

Passing the Gavel

IN 1995, I was so overwhelmed with learning the ins and outs of renal nutrition that I could not imagine that I would one day emerge as a leader in the field. I have many people to thank. Without them, I would have never have spent the last 15 years of my life working with the most amazing people. These are my heroes. Rebekah Mani was the renal dietitian’s dietitian. Early inmy training, shewas consulted by theKansas City Zoo to tailor a renal diet for one of the zoo’s aging primates. I remember looking on in amazement thinking, ‘‘When I grow up, I want to be just like her!’’Trained in India,Rebekahbrought experience from a country in which many could not afford dialysis. She worked with families who had no choice but to see their loved ones spend the remaining years of their lives without life-sustaining dialysis, as it was notwithin their reach.Her perspective on a person’s well-being always outweighed the nutrition guidelines I had been trained to follow. In her mind, restricting life was not a life. The renal lifestyle needed to be molded to fit all lifestyles and personal goals. She taughtme to lookpast theoryand rigid diets to SEE the person behind the patient. She taught me to LISTEN to a patient’s life story to understand the PERSON and not view them as a patient. She taught me VALUE and COMFORT in all the lives that we touched. Drs. Arnold Chonko, Franz Winklehofer, Jerad Grantham,BenjaminCowley, andDennisDiedrich at the University of Kansas Medical Center provided me great medical training in the field of nephrology. Each doctor took his time explaining to me how medical and nutrition interventions intertwined and how each approach could not work without the other. This groupof extraordinary physicians considered the renal dietitian a PARTNER in the care of the renal patient. Each physician challenged me to learn more about the disease process and how to THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX when approaching this field. Each understood that

Basel Zoo and its native biodiversity between the enclosures: a new strategy of cooperation with academic institutions

In many zoos, the area separating the enclosures of zoo animals harbours highly diverse communities of free-living animals and plants. These organisms have received little attention so far. Using an all-taxa-biodiversity-inventory approach, a team of 46 zoologists and botanists carried out a 3 year study to assess the free-living organisms (plants, fungi, animals) occurring in the areas between the enclosures of zoo animals at Basel Zoo. A total of 3110 free-living species could be documented in this relatively small city zoo. However, not all taxonomical groups could be considered, mainly owing to the lack of experts. It was estimated that the actual richness of free-living species in Basel Zoo may exceed 5500. Thus, the number of free-living species is approximately eight to ten times higher than the 646 species of zoo animals maintained at Basel. The findings are important for preserving both the valuable remnants of natural and semi-natural habitats and threatened free-living species at the Zoo. The project combines research and outreach, which can improve the understanding of native biodiversity while simultaneously raising the awareness of the threats to it. The success of sustainable garden management in protecting native biodiversity may motivate the public to aspire to their own ‘wildlife-friendly’ gardening activities.

Exploring Stakeholder Values and Interests in Evaluation

One of the challenges facing program evaluation education is how to bridge the need to train students in theoretical and methodological foundations, and also prepare them for the unpredictability and complex environment outside the classroom. This issue is particularly challenging in terms of understanding stakeholder values and interests. The Bella City Zoo role-play scenario is an effort to integrate traditional lecture material with role-playing to give students the opportunity to learn about stakeholder participation and to put that material into immediate practice.

ConcurrentCapillariaandHeterakisInfections in Zoo Rock Partridges,Alectoris graeca

Two adult rock partridges raised in a city zoo were examined parasitologically and pathologically. Two distinctive eggs resembling those of Capillaria and Heterakis were detected in the feces. At necropsy, a markedly-dilated duodenum with severe catarrhal exudates, containing adult worms of Capillaria sp. and Heterakis sp. in the cecum, was observed. Male Capillaria had the cloacal aperture extended almost terminally with a small bursal lobe and an unsheathed spicule with transverse folds without spines. Female Capillaria had a vulva that was slightly prominent and slightly posterior to the union of the esophagus and intestine. The esophagus of the adult Capillaria was more than a half as long as the body in the male, but was much shorter in the female. Based on these morphological features, the capillarid nematode was identified as Capillaria obsignata. The male adult worms of Heterakis was identifiable by 2 dissimilar spicules, a unique morphological feature where the right spicule was considerably longer than the left, which is also a characteristic feature of Heterakis gallinarum. This is the first report of concurrent infections with C. obsignata and H. gallinarium in rock partridges.

Two Jackson Excursions

Two Jackson Excursions Peggy Whitman Prenshaw Like most writers Eudora Welty has turned to the life around her for the material of her fiction. Unlike many, however, she has shown a remarkable gift for storing indelible impressions, intricately detailed, to be called up years later to furnish a story with a vivid, concrete sense of place. Both her power of recall and her talent for precise selection of details are illustrated in an autobiographical sketch appearing in Esquire in 1975. Miss Welty describes the adventure of going to the “corner store” when she was a child growing up on North Congress Street only a few blocks from the capitol in Jackson. Readers will recognize many details in this sketch and in interviews such as the recent one in Jackson Magazine that closely resemble descriptions of Laura McRaven’s Jackson home in Delta Wedding and Josie’s childhood experiences in “The Winds.” Here and on several other occasions, of course, Miss Welty has commented on specific Jackson memories that have set stories into motion or given them a habitat: The Fondren sisters’ beauty shop (“Petrified Man”), a Fats Waller concert in Jackson’s old City Auditorium (“Powerhouse”), a summer camp for children (“Moon Lake”). As a footnote on Miss Welty’s fictional use of regional details, particularly those of the Jackson area, it may interest readers unfamiliar with Mississippi to know that the Old Ladies Home visited by Marian in “A Visit of Charity” is a familiar Jackson landmark. Still standing on West Capitol Street, though today nearer the center than the outskirts of the city, it once appeared (before being remodeled) exactly as it does in the story: “of whitewashed brick” that “reflected the winter sunlight like a block of ice” (137). Adjacent to the Old Ladies Home is Livingston Park, the site of the city zoo and Livingston Lake, which for many years was open to the public. A small lake built for swimming, it is the setting of the young girl’s shocking encounter with a group of bathers in “A Memory.” The borders of oak trees, the little pavilion, the lake’s sandy beach dotted with several small benches all identify the site, although no place name is mentioned. Both stories explore an early confrontation with the frightening aspect of disorder and mortality. In “A Memory” the child narrator dreams of love as an aura that protects and beautifies the beloved, but she finds love corporeal and vulnerable as soon as she transfers it from her imagination [End Page 7] to the world of flesh and blood. The slightly older narrator of “A Visit of Charity,” by contrast with the child of “A Memory,” turns a corner literally and symbolically when she travels to the Old Ladies Home. Unconcerned with idealized dreams of love, Marian is bent resolutely upon accumulating Campfire Girl “points” for her act of charity. Her awareness of the world is more mature and calculating than that of the child. She well understands the give-and-take balance society imposes, or almost understands, for she takes the equation to be neat and even. Not until the jolt of looking closely at one of the old ladies, seeing her cry, does Marian glimpse the human mystery, the tense balancing of horror and love, and thus complete her visit to the outskirts of the city. In both stories the lone excursions of the youthful narrators, westward excursions in the Jackson setting, bring them knowledge of the world before they return home. Peggy Whitman Prenshaw Millsaps College Acknowledgment This note was previously published in the Eudora Welty Newsletter II.1 (Winter 1978). Works Cited Reid, Jane. “The Town and the Writer: An Interview with Eudora Welty.” Jackson Magazine. 1 (1977): 22–31, 34–35. Rpt. in Conversations with Eudora Welty. Ed. Peggy Whitman Prenshaw. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1984. 200–10. Google Scholar Welty, Eudora. “The Corner Store.” Esquire 84 (1975): 160. Rpt. as “The Little Store” in Stories, Essays, & Memoir. New York: Library of America, 1998. 819–26. Google Scholar ———. “A Visit of Charity.” Stories, Essays, & Memoir. New York: Library of America, 1998. 137–43. [End Page 8] Google Scholar Copyright © 2009 Department of English, Georgia...

SURVEY OF NEOPLASIA IN RED KANGAROOS (MACROPUS RUFUS), 1992–2002, IN A ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION

An increase in the proportion of cases with neoplasia observed in a collection of captive red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) when compared with historical records and the paucity of reported neoplasms in kangaroos in the literature prompted a 10-yr review of all red kangaroo necropsies. Individual necropsy, medical, and inventory records for all kangaroos at the Kansas City Zoo were reviewed for the period 1 January 1992 to 31 December 2002. Two squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity, two mammary gland adenocarcinomas, a multicentric T-cell lymphosarcoma, and one submucosal pyloric lipoma were diagnosed in six of 28 kangaroo deaths. Three neoplasms were diagnosed antemortem. Four of the six neoplasms were considered malignant, and all four had metastasized. The mean age at death was 11 yr. All six animals with neoplasms were female; however, the exhibit population was composed solely of females. Only 11 cases of neoplasia in red kangaroos have been reported in the literature. On the basis of these cases and a review of the literature, the most commonly observed neoplasms in red kangaroos are mammary gland adenocarcinomas and oral squamous cell carcinomas. Common denominators were not identified in these cases, although chronic gingivitis could have been a contributing factor in the development of the oral squamous cell carcinomas.

An off-line filtering ditch–pond system for diffuse pollution control at Wuhan City Zoo

An off-line filtering ditch–pond system was designed and constructed to control the small point and runoff pollution at the Wuhan City Zoo, Hubei Province, China. The quantity and quality of wastewater discharge and runoff from 16 rainfall events were measured to test the effectiveness of the off-line treatment train. The results showed that the water quality was improved and high retention rates for water and pollutants were also achieved by the off-line treatment train. In the outflows, the event mean concentrations (EMCs) of TSS, COD, TN, TDN, TP and TDP were reduced by 75%, 50%, 50%, 57%, 74% and 80% compared to the inflows. In 2005, the annual inflow volume in the catchment was 6783 m 3 and the water retention rate was 80.1%. The retention rates in the annual loads of TSS, COD, TN and TP came to 86.4%, 85.5%, 83.9% and 82.9%, respectively. Therefore, the off-line filtering ditch–pond system was shown to be an effective and economical measure to control diffuse pollution. It would be worthwhile to extend the off-line treatment train to regions with limited land resources, especially in urban areas.

Picobirnavirus (PBV) natural hosts in captivity and virus excretion pattern in infected animals

A picobirnavirus (PBV) analysis was carried out by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of 513 stool samples obtained from 150 animal species collected from the Córdoba city zoo. The purpose of the present study was to determine susceptible species for PBV infection, the viral excretion pattern in infected animals, and the potential association with PBV diarrheic illness. Our findings suggest that PBVs are widespread in animals and could have a similar excretion behavior to that previously detected in infected humans. No disease association with PBV infection could be demonstrated. Thus, infected animals could be persistently infected asymptomatic carriers and could serve as reservoirs of infection.

Two alternative modes for diffuse pollution control in Wuhan City Zoo

Pollution in urban zoos arises from diffuse and small point sources. However, its control has received little attention in past decades. Online and offline modes of ecological engineering technology were designed to control pollution from small point and diffuse sources in Wuhan City Zoo, China. Their characteristics and performances were investigated in sixteen runoff events from 2003 to 2005. The results showed that the two modes both improved runoff water quality and had high retention rates for water and pollutants. In the outflows, the event mean concentrations (EMCs) of total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were reduced by 88%, 59%, 46% and 71% for the online mode, and those were 77%, 42%, 50% and 66% for the offline mode. The annual retention rates of pollutant loads for the online mode were 94.9%-98.5% in the three study years; those for the offline mode were 70.5%-86.4%. Based on calculation, the online mode was able to store the runoff of 66.7 mm rainfall completely, and the offline mode could store that of 31.3 mm rainfall. In addition, the online mode can provide an effective way for rainwater utilization and good habitats for aquatic wildlives, and has an excellent aesthetics value for recreationsal pastimes. The offline mode can save land resources and may be an effective and economical measure for diffuse pollution control in urban areas.

Pollutant loads of surface runoff in Wuhan City Zoo, an urban tourist area

The pollutant loads of surface runoff in an urban tourist area have been investigated for two years in the Wuhan City Zoo China. Eight sampling sites including two woodlands three animal yards two roofs and one road were selected for sampling and study. The results indicate that pollutants ranked in a predictable order of decreasing load (e.g. animal yard>roof>woodland>road) with animal yards acting as the key pollution source in the zoo. Pollutants were transported mainly by particulate form in runoff. Particulate nitrogen and particulate phosphorous accounted on average for 61% 78% of total pollutant respectively over 13 monitored rainfall events. These results indicate the treatment practices should be implemented to improve particulate nutrient removal. Analysis of the M( V) curve indicate that no first flush effect existed in the surface runoff from pervious areas (e.g. woodland animal ground yard) whereas a first flush effect was evident in runoff from impervious surfaces (e.g. animal cement yard roof road).

Don't Be Chicken: Bioethics and Avian Flu

Don't Be Chicken: Bioethics and Avian Flu

TRUDGING TORTOISES

When Darwin made his historic HMS Beagle voyage, one animal in particular caught his eye: the giant Galápagos tortoise, plodding along at a leisurely 0.16 metres per second. Intrigued by the hefty reptile's painfully slow pace, Peter Zani and colleagues at the University of Colorado,Boulder, decided to put giant tortoises through their paces(p. 1489).Zani wondered whether tortoises, just like many other animals, use a mechanism known as the inverted pendulum to conserve mechanical energy as they amble along. He explains that as you walk, the potential energy that is associated with the height of your centre of mass changes into kinetic energy. When your foot touches the ground, lifting your centre of mass, this kinetic energy is converted back to potential energy. `Throughout this energy exchange, your centre of mass rises and falls in the shape of an inverted pendulum,' Zani says. It's an efficient mechanism to recover energy, but do giant Galápagos tortoises use it?According to Zani, `two conditions have to be met to show that the inverted pendulum mechanism is at work.' First, kinetic and potential energy should be out of phase – as kinetic energy rises, potential energy falls. Second,fluctuations in kinetic and potential energy must be of equal magnitude and shape. Since kinetic energy is the energy of motion, and giant tortoises are so slow, they are likely to have very small kinetic energy fluctuations. Teaming up with Rodger Kram, Zani calculated that if tortoises use the inverted pendulum mechanism, their modest kinetic energy should raise their centre of mass vertically by only 0.5 mm. But tortoises sway as they walk, so Zani and Kram suspected that they don't use the inverted pendulum mechanism.To test this, they needed to analyse the mechanical energy patterns of travelling tortoises. Zani widened and strengthened a traditional force plate walkway to cope with the bulk of the giant creatures. If he could convince tortoises to walk across it, he'd be able to convert its force measurements into mechanical energy values. Jinger Gottschall joined Zani and Kram as they loaded the modified walkway into a trailer and drove to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Once there, they were faced with the challenge of luring five giant Galápagos tortoises up a ramp onto the walkway. Zani soon found that`you can't force a 200 kg animal to do what you want!' But tempting the creatures with juicy apples and carrots seemed to do the trick, and the team videotaped them as they lumbered across the walkway to get their treat.Analysing the force plate measurements and video footage with Gottschall,Zani could see that the tortoises didn't meet the two conditions. Their kinetic and potential energies fluctuated randomly – sometimes they were in phase, sometimes they were out of phase. `There was certainly no systematic exchange of energy,' he says.They also saw that a giant tortoise's centre of mass rises about 1.5 cm as it walks, much more than the 0.5 mm predicted if they use the energy-conserving mechanism. As the team had suspected, giant Galápagos tortoises do not use the inverted pendulum mechanism. Yet despite their inefficient pace, Zani notes that giant tortoises don't have to work harder than other animals to travel the same distance.

Epithelioid Leiomyosarcoma in the Visceral Peritoneum of an American Badger (Taxidea Taxus)

A 12-year-old female American badger was presented to the Taipei city zoo veterinary ward with anorexia and weakness. Treatments were ineffective, and the badger died of chronic interstitial nephritis and uremia. At necropsy, numerous firm white nodules, measuring 0.5-2.0 cm, were present on the surface of the liver, stomach, spleen, small intestine, pancreas, and diaphragm. Most nodules were encapsulated and well demarcated from the organs to which they were attached. A poorly demarcated mass, measuring 0.5 cm in diameter, had invaded the hepatic parenchyma and appeared to be the origin of all the nodules derived by transcavitary implantation. Histologically, the nodules contained primarily oval or spindle-shaped cells, typical of smooth muscle cells, forming alternating bundles attached to the surface of the various organs. In some nodules, aggregates of individual polyhedral to round cells with round to oval centrally located nuclei and abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, typical of smooth muscle origin, were noted. Zones of subcapsular necrosis and multifocal necrosis were also observed in some nodules. Tumor cells stained positively for alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin and negatively for desmin, cytokeratin, estrogen, and progesterone receptors. This tumor is similar to but distinguishable from the "disseminated peritoneal leiomyomatosis (DPL)" found in women.

Immunodeficiency associated with multiple concurrent infections in captive Pallas' cats (Otocolobus manul).

Five neonatal Pallas' cats (Otocolobus manul) at the Oklahoma City Zoo died from toxoplasmosis with concurrent herpesvirus infection. These multiple infections suggested underlying immunodeficiency, perhaps caused by concurrent infection with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV); so blood samples were collected for serology, serum protein electrophoresis, lymphocyte proliferation assays, and cytokine analysis by reverse transcriptase-quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (RT-qcPCR). Resulting data were compared with data from FIV-infected and control domestic short-haired cats. In addition, peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures were propagated to detect FIV virus by both RT-qcPCR and detection of reverse transcriptase activity. Serum protein electrophoresis showed that four of six Pallas' cats had increased alpha, globulins. At least two Pallas' cats had decreased lymphoproliferation responses to mitogen. and all three tested animals exhibited defective interleukin-12 gene expression. Although these clinical and laboratory findings suggested an immunodeficiency syndrome, FIV infection could not be confirmed. On the basis of repeated blood test results, it can be concluded that nutritional, metabolic, or other systemic problems probably did not contribute to the disease syndrome. Further investigation of other possible causes of immunodeficiency, including a possible genetic component, in this population is needed.

Recherche épidémiologique de Chlamydia sp. chez les pigeons (Columba livia domestica)

Antibodies toChlamydia sp., using CF test, were found in 435 of 912 (47.70%) pigeons examined from 1988 till 1993. The pigeons originated from two ecosystems, i. e feral pigeons from the city of Zagreb and calf feedlot. Of 834 feral pigeons, antibodies toChlamydia sp. were detected in 49.16% of birds. Feral pigeons were caught in various city areas, e.g., market-places, ZOO park and industry plants. The highest proportion of seropositive feral pigeons originated from the ZOO area (63.38%). Pathological and histhopathological examination revealed organ changes, e.g., spleen enlargement, liver degeneration, enteritis, opacified air sacs, and fibrinous pericarditis, indicative of chlamydiosis. Enlarged spleen was found in the pigeons with antibody titers of 1:32, 1:64 and 1:128. Fibrinous pericarditis was found on dissection in a pigeon with antibody titer of 1:128. Seasonal follow-up of antibody titer revealed that the proportion of seropositive birds is highest in spring (54.88%) and winter (53.51%), and lowest in summer. During spring and winter, elevated antibody titer was also recorded. In ringed pigeons, antibody titer was followed up on two or three occasions, showing titer changes to occur in 14 days at the earliest, and most commonly between day 35 and 92.

Cryptococcus neoformans in bird excreta in the city zoo of Cali, Colombia.

The presence of Cryptococcus neoformans was studied in bird excreta and in the air circulating in and around bird cages in the City Zoo of Cali, Colombia, between August 1994 and April 1995, using a sunflower seed agar culture medium for fungus isolation. A total of 380 samples was studied, 110 from droppings and 270 from Petri dishes placed inside (148) and outside (122) the cages. C. neoformans var neoformans was found in only two cases, one from bird excreta (0.9%) and the other from air inside a cage (0.7%). The former positive sample was collected from the cracks of a dead tree where two crested caracaras (Polyborus plancus) roosted; the feces were dry, accumulated, and with a pH of 6. The other positive sample was found inside the cage of these birds; however, samples taken in a dispersion study at 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 m around this cage were all negative. It appears that this low isolation rate is due to adequate cleaning and disinfection procedures used in the city zoo of Cali.