Dead Carcasses Research Articles

Assessment of predisposing effect of Chicken Anaemia Virus (CAV) in Gangrenous Dermatitis (GD) outbreaks in commercial layer chicken

Gangrenous dermatitis (GD) is an economically important disease in commercial layer chicken and its severity have increased for the past few years despite effective farm management system and suitable antibiotic treatments. This study was designed to explore the immunosuppressive role of Chicken Anaemia Virus (CAV) in gangrenous dermatitis outbreaks in Namakkal region of Tamil Nadu, India. Thirty commercial white leghorn layer flocks were investigated in and around Namakkal District of Tamil Nadu State, India. Detailed farm history was collected. Serum and blood samples were collected to screen the antibody titer and haemogram, respectively. Heart blood, liver samples from dead birds and cutaneous swabs from ailing and dead carcasses were taken to identify the bacterial etiology. Detailed necropsy was conducted and the gross lesions were recorded. Thymus, bone marrow, liver and muscle were collected for screening of CAV by Polymerase chain reaction and histopathological studies. The sera samples showed 100 per cent positivity for CAV and the blood profile showed anaemic picture. The GD affected birds showed anaemia, severe serosanguinous, haemorrhagic and gangrenous lesions in wings, suncutaneous tissue and interdigital space of toes. Necropsy revealed severe gangrene, extravasation of serosanguinous fluid from the skin, hypoplasia of thymus and paleness of bone marrow. Microscopic examination showed hypoplasia / atrophy of thymus and replacement of erythropoietic tissue of bone marrow with fat cells. Cultural examination exhibited the presence of Closrtidium perfringens, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli. The significance of the study was that CAV is the major culprit in GD outbreaks in poultry which invites the diverse etiological agents by its immunosuppressive action.

Natal Origin Identification of Green Turtles in the North Pacific by Genome-Wide Population Analysis With Limited DNA Samples

Although studies using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are growing in non-model species, it is still difficult to prepare sufficient high-quality genomic DNA (gDNA) for population genomic analyses in many wild species. In this study, we first analyzed the population structure of green turtles in the North Pacific; four regions in Japan (the Yaeyama, Okinawa, Amami, and Ogasawara Islands), the Southeast Asia, Taiwan, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic Marshall Islands, and the Central or Eastern Pacific (C/E Pacific) using ≃1 ng of gDNA from green turtle field samples—including ones from dead carcasses—and multiplexed inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) genotyping by sequencing (MIG-seq). In addition, we explored whether the genome-wide SNP data narrowed down the natal origins of foraging turtles that were difficult to identify by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype alone. The overall nesting population structure observed from genome-wide SNPs was consistent with results from mtDNA, and the population isolation of the C/E Pacific and Ogasawara Islands from the other North Pacific populations was highlighted. However, the population boundaries among the Northwestern Pacific, other than those of the Ogasawaras, were not clear. The uniqueness of the Ogasawara population in genome-wide SNP data enabled the identification of turtles that were more likely to have been born on the Ogasawara Islands. Our results show that genome-wide SNP data are more practical in identifying the natal origins of turtles that were difficult determine by the conventional mtDNA-basis mixed stock analysis. This study also showed that MIG-seq can be expected to meet the potential demand to utilize many preserved or fragmented gDNA samples for population genomics in many marine megafaunas for which sample collections are difficult.

A case study of monofilament line entanglement in a common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): entanglement, disentanglement, and subsequent death

BackgroundFree-ranging common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) can become entangled in fishing line and other marine debris. Infrequently, dolphins can be successfully disentangled, released back into the wild, and later examined postmortem to better understand the pathology and long-term effects of these entanglements.Case presentationAn entangled common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calf was observed in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida, USA, with monofilament fishing line wrapped tightly around its maxilla. A multi-agency team successfully disentangled the dolphin for immediate release back into its natural habitat. A year after disentanglement, photos and observations indicated that the now independent calf showed a decline in body condition, characterized by grossly visible ribs and a prominent post-nuchal depression. More than 2 years post-disentanglement, the freshly dead carcass of this juvenile dolphin was recovered with extensive predation wounds. Despite the forestomach being ~ 50% full of ingesta (fish), the dolphin was emaciated. During postmortem examination, we collected and evaluated photographs and measurements of the maxillary damage resulting from the entanglement.ConclusionThe monofilament entanglement caused permanent, bilateral deformation of the maxillary dental arcade, including a 4.0–4.2 cm long, 0.5 cm deep linear groove where the entanglement eroded the lateral edges of the maxilla. There was no evidence of maxillary fracture and the dolphin survived for more than 2 years after disentanglement. External evidence of propeller scars and a fishing hook discovered embedded in the laryngeal mucosa at necropsy indicated repeated human interactions.

Interviews from the Edge: 50 Years of Conversations about Writing and Resistance by Mark Yakich John Biguenet

MLR, .,   Gadamer in relation to Bahktin, is masterly, and mapped onto the contrast between the epic and the novel (pp. –). One of this study’s satisfactions is how many names it foregrounds for analysis: Emiliia Litauer and Medvedev, for instance. Chapter  discusses Nikolai Marr’s analyses of language through ‘semantic paleontology’ (opposing Formalism, in its pursuit of history), and, in the same vein, examines Olʹga Freidenberg, Izrail FrankKameneyskii , and ‘paleontological morphology’, their study of how ‘plot’ emerged. As these, and other names are broached, Tihanov returns to contemplate how many of these modernist names were exiles, émigrés; their attempts to read and historicize culture happens from the margins, but with a mission to rethink, in the face of criticisms. One instance, in the form of fascinating debates contrasting Pushkin’s and Lermontov’s merits, closes the study, but not the reader’s interest. SWPS U W J T Interviews from the Edge:  Years of Conversations about Writing and Resistance. Ed. by M Y and J B. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. . vi+ pp. $. ISBN ––––. Interviews from the Edge comprises conversations with twenty-four writers, drawn from the New Orleans Review, a journal which began, in , ‘at a moment of great anxiety and great vitality but most importantly at a moment of great change’ (p. ). e book’s cover is striking. e title is painted in red and blue capitals on a white cardboard sign, the like of which has been seen at countless protests during the period the book encompasses, and which in the current political climate (also, arguably, a moment of anxiety, vitality, and change) feels potent. e sign itself, however, is positioned above a black background, so that it appears arrested in a void akin to the Sunken Place in Jordan Peele’s Get Out (). e tension between the clamorous placard and the sense of disconnectedness and frustration that arises from its dark surround anticipates the content of many of the ensuing conversations , as writers from Ernest J. Gaines to Sister Helen Prejean, Catharine Stimpson to Viet anh Nguyen, James Baldwin to Sheila Heti, discuss the possibilities and preclusions of writing as resistance. e cover reads like a shout, but the ideas about writing as resistance that the book contains are quietly offered. Mark Twain called the interview form ‘a dead carcass’, devoid of ‘warmth, grace, friendliness and charm’, but this book transcends any cadaverous tendencies the form may risk (e Complete Letters of Mark Twain, ed. by Albert Bigelow Paine (Teddington: Echo Library, ), p. ). roughout, as Avi Braverman writes, ‘everyone is a self and everyone is a character’ (p. ). In their considered intelligence the interviews function like Arthur Miller’s notion of writing as an ‘international signalling service, telling all who can read that wherever that distant blinker is shining live men of a common civilization’ (e Collected Essays of Arthur Miller, ed. by Matthew Roudané (New York: Bloomsbury, ), p. ). Interviews from the Edge goes further—we read the interviews, but we also, almost, hear them (or overhear them), multiple voices engaged in wide-ranging  Reviews conversations about what it means to write, to read, and to resist. Nguyen observes that ‘the simple act of writing about people or events or cultures that are not oen talked about constitutes already a basic kind of activism’ (p. ). So too, Interviews suggests, does talking about them: it is an extended collaborative act of call and response , not just between the various interviewers and interviewees, but between the interviews themselves, as discursive filaments connect to reveal shared concerns, ideas, and influences, like ‘patterns in a tapestry whose many colorful threads exalt in running riot’ (Rita Dove, e Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry (New York: Penguin, ), p. xxxi). Foremost among these threads is the consensus that writing is a force for good, if not necessarily for change (as Harold Jaffe argues, ‘even if planet earth were not seemingly in its death throes, writing itself would be useless without collective social action’ (p. )). But for Anaïs Nin, writing offers ‘the chance to make a world’ (p. ); for Gaines, ‘literature expresses man’s feelings and relationships much better than politics’ (p. ); for...

Predisposing effect of aflatoxicosis in hepatic Coccidoisis and Pasteurellosis outbreak in a rabbitry

Five ailing and twelve carcasses of soviet chinchilla rabbit of both sexes were presented for clinical and post-mortem examination respectively from a private rabbitry with the history of continuous mortality. Detailed clinical and necropsy were conducted on ailing rabbits and dead carcasses. Heart blood and tracheal swabs were collected for microbiological studies. Organs showing lesions were collected in 10% formalin for histopathological studies. Feed sample was submitted to Animal Feed Analytical and Quality Assurance Laboratory for toxin analysis. Grossly, the liver was enlarged, hard in consistency and had yellowish white nodules on the hepatic parenchyma. Trachea showed severe congestion and haemorrhages. Culture examination of heart blood swab and tracheal swab revealed pasteurella multocida. Histopathologically, liver sections showed severe bile duct hyperplasia, periportal fibrosis, lumen of the bile duct contained varying developing stages of eimeriastediae. Trachea revealed loss of superficial epithelium and severe submucosal haemorrhage. Feed samples were positive for aflatoxins. The remaining rabbits in the rabbitry were recovered by suitable treatment with antibiotics, anticoccidial and liver tonics with change of feed.

Marine Mammals on the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast "Records and Vulnerability"

This work documents strandings and sightings of vulnerable marine mammals on the Egyptian Coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with an emphasis on 2013 to 2018 as well as previous non documented strandings observed by other persons. Marine mammal cases were described and identified to six species: the fin whale (<i>Balaenoptera physalus</i> Linnaeus, 1758), the sperm whale (<i>Physeter microcephalus</i>), Gervais’ beaked whale <i>Mesoplodon europaeus</i> (Gervais, 1855), the common bottlenose dolphin (<i>Tursiops truncates</i>), the rough-toothed dolphin (<i>Steno bredanensis</i>) that which was stranded on the Gamasa coast and was not completely confirmed. The sixth species was California sea lion (<i>Zalophus californianus</i> Lesson, 1828) which was reported for the first time. Moreover, the monk seal (<i>Monachus monachus</i>) was also reported here but has not been observed by the authors; this observation increases the reported species on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt into seven species. The first five species are cetaceans including a baleen whale (Mysticeti) for first whale and toothed species (Odontoceti) for the remaining four species, while the last two ones belong to Pinnipeds (sea lion and monk seal). Most of the observed cases were strandings, while the sea lion was sighted alive. The sea lion is not endemic for Mediterranean sea and its presence may be an accidental or may escape from aquarium. There were also few other records of dead delphinid carcasses that were in a highly decomposed state and could not be identified. In conclusion, this work is important issue in term of documenting marine mammals in the Egyptian Mediterranean water and indicates that the coast has increasingly become a visiting area for many marine mammals, with a concomitant increase in stranding's. These observations reflect their vulnerability due to anthropogenic activities such as fishing operations, shipping, and seismic activities. Moreover, the Egyptian coast has shallower and wider continental shelf in the Nile Delta region which may increase the probability of marine mammals' visitors stranding's, particularly a mong species that inhabit deep water. The repeated sightings of these species may be due to climatic changes that affect their migration and mobility from one place to another. Stakeholders should pay more attention to marine mammals in Egypt through increased awareness and the continuous monitoring, documentation and mapping of recorded strandings to further suggest measures on how to protect these important and vulnerable species.

First evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on sub-Antarctic Marion and Gough Islands

Invasive house mice Mus musculus are significant predators of seabird chicks on islands where they are the only introduced mammal, but there are very few records of attacks on adult birds. We report the first evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on Marion and Gough Islands, where there has been a recent increase in attacks on seabird chicks. In September 2017, wounds consistent with a mouse attack were recorded on an incubating adult male Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli on Marion Island. The nest was deserted, and breeding success within 500 m was 18% (n = 11) compared to 68% at nests > 500 m away (n = 123), suggesting that other incubating adults in the immediate vicinity also might have been affected. In March 2018, an incubating Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena was found on Gough Island with a typical mouse wound on its rump. The egg hatched and the same bird was later seen brooding and feeding the chick. In October 2018, an incubating Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos was found on Gough Island with a wound on its back suggestive of a mouse attack and 23 freshly dead carcasses of this species were found, next to empty nests, in nearby colonies. These observations add to mounting evidence of the impacts of mice on seabirds, and further support calls to eradicate mice from Marion and Gough Islands.

Spatial dynamics of transmission and persistence of African swine fever in wild boar populations: insight for control

Spatial dynamics of transmission and persistence of African swine fever in wild boar populations: insight for control

Effect of hydrochar on anaerobic digestion of dead pig carcass after hydrothermal pretreatment

Incineration and burial are the current practices for pig carcasses disposal but are not environmentally friendly. Anaerobic digestion can be a better alternative if the process inhibition by carcass digestion can be ameliorated. This study successfully mitigated the inhibition in anaerobic digestion of carcasses by hydrochar addition and by co-digestion with RS and HRS. Biogas production from SP of the pretreated hydrothermal carcasses was enhanced by 60.7 to 90.8% through hydrochar addition. The highest biogas production of 450 mL/g-VS was obtained at 4 g-hydrochar/L addition. The methane content was also increased from 57.5% to up to 69.8%. Each gram of hydrochar removed 25 mg of ammonium and 50 mg of VFA. Hydrochar addition promoted the conversion of VFA to biogas by strengthening the intensity of functional groups and the immobilization of microbial biomass. Co-digestion of SP with RS or HRS also increased the biogas production, and the optimal production of 428 mL/g VS was obtained at 70% SP and 30% RS. The co-digestion of carcass SP with RS and the addition of hydrochar can be a promising solution for improving biogas production from a pig carcass, and can be potentially developed as a sustainable waste management method.

Mortality of Calanus helgolandicus: Sources, differences between the sexes and consumptive and nonconsumptive processes

AbstractWhile losses from mortality are as important as gains from reproduction in zooplankton population dynamics, the former are more challenging to quantify. We used two approaches to provide complementary insights into the mortality of a biomass‐dominant copepod, Calanus helgolandicus, at Station L4 in the English Channel. Using a neutral‐red staining method, we found that dead carcasses represented a mean of 9% of the C. helgolandicus copepodites sampled. The resulting nonconsumptive mortality rates are the first that have been derived for C. helgolandicus; and estimates suggest a contribution of 0–54% (median of 4.4%) to the total mortality rate. Consumptive mortality (i.e., that due to removal by predation), dominated for most of the year and contributed a mean of 89% to total mortality. Nonconsumptive mortality increased during summer and winter, and was positively related to maximum wind speed during the preceding 72 h, indicating that extreme weather events may lead to increased mortality. Using the Vertical Life Table approach, mortality rates across the CV‐adult male stage pair were on average ∼ 2.5 times greater than those of CV‐adult females. Adult male consumptive mortality rates were ∼ 6 times greater than those for females; adult male nonconsumptive rates were twice those of females, suggesting that predation is of greater significance to male loss rates. Summer CV‐adult mortality rates were positively correlated to temperature, and to the abundance of predatory chaetognaths and siphonophores, suggesting that the gelatinous predator assemblage is the dominant agent for population control of late stage copepodites of C. helgolandicus at L4.

Rotavirus A associated pathology of intestine and mesenteric lymph nodes and occurrence in bovine calves of Gwalior and Bareilly regions

To understand the pathology of natural cases of rotavirus (RVA) in bovine calves, a total of 40 cases below 6 months died due to diarrhoea were studied, out of which 7 cases (17.5%) turned positive for RVA by RT-PCR. Histopathology of small intestine showed loss of villous enterocytes, blunting and fusion of villi, elongation of crypts and mononuclear cells infiltration in the lamina-propria. The mesenteric lymph nodes were severely depleted of lymphocytes. These changes were corroborated with presence of RVA antigen in sections by dFAT and nucleic acid by RT-PCR. The fluorescent signals were more in mesenteric lymph nodes than in intestine. Besides, 115 rectal fecal samples were also collected from calves for RVA detection by RT-PCR using VP6 gene specific sets of primers. Dead carcasses of calves (n= 40) belonged to organized dairy farm of Bareilly, while rectal fecal samples belonged to both organized (n= 38) and unorganized farms (n= 77) of Bareilly and Gwalior. The overall occurrence of RVA was 19.3% (30/155), comprising 5/37 cases (13.5%) from Gwalior (MP) and 25/118 cases (21.1%) from Bareilly (UP). These findings suggest the infection of RVA widely prevalent in calves and have potential to escape from the intestinal site to mesenteric lymph nodes.

Continental Scope and Its Discontents

Continental Scope and Its Discontents Ankhi Mukherjee (bio) In a memorable scene in Orange is the New Black, the web television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix, the inmate Suzanne Warren, aka "Crazy Eyes," played with manic and poetic fury by Uzo Aduba, recites a Shakespeare monologue to hapless teenage visitors to the prison: You common cry of curs! whose breath I hateAs reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prizeAs the dead carcasses of unburied menThat do corrupt my air, I banish you{And here remain with your uncertainty!… thus I turn my back.There is a world elsewhere} (Shakespeare 2013, 316–17) This occurs in season 1, episode 11 of the popular television series. A group of juvenile delinquents is visiting Litchfield, a minimum-security federal prison in upstate New York, and the inmates have been asked to "act tough" to scare the girls away from leading a life of crime. Suzanne is aggrieved that other prisons get to do "Shakespeare and shit" and seizes this as an acting opportunity. Suzanne suffers from mental illness, aggravated now by stressors associated with the degrading conditions of prison life. She receives no care in captivity and is terrified of being returned to "Psych" or the psychiatric unit of [End Page 814] the prison, widely acknowledged to be more tormenting than SHU, or solitary confinement. An adopted child of white middle-class parents who are loving but obtuse to Suzanne's emergent mental health needs, the flashbacks show a jagged process of identity formation marked by painful social alienation, attachment disorders, and borderline personality traits. The adoptive mother does not engage with the pain caused by Suzanne's inarguable blackness in a predominantly white circle of family and friends: in a rare moment of haptic connection experienced by the child Suzanne, we see an African-American nurse calm her down at hospital by offering to fix her hair. In Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Act III, scene iii begins at the Forum in Rome, addressing the howling crowd to whom Coriolanus has been appealing for the title of Consul, and who have demanded his banishment in ungrateful response. The words lend themselves surprisingly well to Suzanne Warren's improvised theatre. She is the tragic wounded hero to the plebeians, alone (another Coriolanus watchword) in the forced intimacy of a crowd of common people. Suzanne delivers the lines with aplomb, the intense alliteration of common/cry/curs or reek/rotten building up to the exhalation of "my AIIIR." The curious displacement whereby Coriolanus's "I banish you" becomes the coerced and choiceless self-banishment of "I turn my back/There is a world elsewhere" adds poignancy to this mock assumption of sovereign power in Litchfield's ongoing drama of the dispossessed. For this reader, this scene proleptically posits some of the meditations put forth in Thinking Literature Across Continents, by Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller (2016): on why literature matters; on its transnational mobility and lability as well as its transcultural knots and glitches; on the unstable and often self-cancelling relationship between pedagogies and performance; on literature as the ground of comparison between disparate entities, whose placeholders, in this instance, are Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Orange Is the New Black's Suzanne Warren. The authors, however, do not discuss Orange is the New Black or any cultural form of literary transmission remotely relatable to this prison drama. And therein lies a glaring oversight of work. Let me clarify that I am not holding Ghosh and Miller responsible for not watching Orange Is the New Black or Netflix or even popular television entertainments (Miller, for one, openly decries the fate of literature in "an age of prestidigitalization" {68}). I will, however, begin my critique of the book by asking why, given the excursive as well as inclusive pedagogies informing this unique transcontinental collaboration, do we end up discussing (again) "The [End Page 815] Daffodils" and Derrida, Beckett, Arnold, Tagore and Wallace Stevens, Sanskrit literary theory and Chinese classics, not undiscovered or non-credentialised authors, texts, and literary milieu? Why does a mode of critique that proudly identifies itself as the "(in)fusion-transnow thesis" (7) not engage with...

Wildebeest woes: Drowning and devil weed

Wildebeests’ watery grave Wildebeests’ migration across the Serengeti is no walk in the park. With lions, cheetahs, and crocodiles nipping at its heels (among other body parts), life ain’t easy for an ungulate. Turns out death isn’t a simple affair either, according to a team led by Amanda Subalusky of Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Almost every year, authorities report mass drownings of wildebeests as many of the animals fail to scale the steep banks of the Mara River. Annually, this all sums to several thousands of wildebeest carcasses—about 1 million kg, or the equivalent weight of 10 blue whales—being introduced into the river ecosystem in relatively quick spurts. Although scientists figured that such a massive input into the system had significant consequences, no one had documented the phenomenon’s complex downstream effects until Subalusky took on the challenge of probing how these surges of dead carcasses sustain the river’s diverse

Use of yeast (Pichia kudriavzevii) as a novel feed additive to ameliorate the effects of aflatoxin B1 on broiler chicken performance.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of autochthonous Pichia kudriavzevii as a novel bioadsorbent for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). The selection of this yeast was based on the AFB1 adsorption capacity previously demonstrated in vitro (Magnoli et al. 2016). One-day-old Cobb broilers (n=160) were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (T1: basal diet (B); T2: B + 0.1% yeast; T3: B + AFB1, 100μg/kg; T4: B + 0.1% yeast + AFB1, 100μg/kg). Performance parameters (average daily weight gain body, average daily consumption, feed conversion ratio, carcass weight, and dead weight), biochemical parameters (albumin, globulin, and albumin/globulin), liver pathological changes, and AFB1 residual levels in the liver and excreta were evaluated. Significant differences (P<0.05) in performance parameters were observed among treatments and controls: T3 group showed the lowest average daily body weight gain value while in T4 group, the value of this parameter increased significantly (P<0.05). T3 and T4 groups showed the lowest and highest values for average daily feed consumption, respectively. The feed conversion ratio (FC) showed no significant differences among treatments. T3 group showed the lowest dead weight and carcass weight compared with T1 group. The biochemical parameters showed no significant differences among treatments. T3 group showed macroscopic and microscopic liver changes compared to the control. Aflatoxin B1 levels (μg/g) were detected in broiler livers and showed significant differences among treatments (P<0.05). In conclusion, native P. kudriavzevii incorporation (0.1%) in broiler diets containing AFB1 was shown to be effective in ameliorating the adverse effects of AFB1 on production.

Reproduction numbers of infectious disease models.

This primer article focuses on the basic reproduction number, , for infectious diseases, and other reproduction numbers related to that are useful in guiding control strategies. Beginning with a simple population model, the concept is developed for a threshold value of determining whether or not the disease dies out. The next generation matrix method of calculating in a compartmental model is described and illustrated. To address control strategies, type and target reproduction numbers are defined, as well as sensitivity and elasticity indices. These theoretical ideas are then applied to models that are formulated for West Nile virus in birds (a vector-borne disease), cholera in humans (a disease with two transmission pathways), anthrax in animals (a disease that can be spread by dead carcasses and spores), and Zika in humans (spread by mosquitoes and sexual contacts). Some parameter values from literature data are used to illustrate the results. Finally, references for other ways to calculate are given. These are useful for more complicated models that, for example, take account of variations in environmental fluctuation or stochasticity.

Predation by Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) at an Outdoor Piggery

Simple SummaryPredation of piglets by red foxes is a significant risk for outdoor/free-range pork producers, but is often difficult to quantify. Using remote sensing cameras, we recorded substantial evidence of red foxes taking piglets from around farrowing huts, and found that piglets were most likely to be recorded as “missing” over their first week. These data suggest that fox predation contributed to the marked production differences between this outdoor farm and a similar-sized intensive farm under the same management, and warrant greater control of this introduced, invasive predator.Outdoor pig operations are an alternative to intensive systems of raising pigs; however for the majority of outdoor pork producers, issues of biosecurity and predation control require significant management and (or) capital investment. Identifying and quantifying predation risk in outdoor pork operations has rarely been done, but such data would be informative for these producers as part of their financial and logistical planning. We quantified potential impact of fox predation on piglets bred on an outdoor pork operation in south-western Australia. We used remote sensor cameras at select sites across the farm as well as above farrowing huts to record interactions between predators and pigs (sows and piglets). We also identified animal losses from breeding records, calculating weaning rate as a proportion of piglets born. Although only few piglets were recorded lost to fox predation (recorded by piggery staff as carcasses that are “chewed”), it is likely that foxes were contributing substantially to the 20% of piglets that were reported “missing”. Both sets of cameras recorded a high incidence of fox activity; foxes appeared on camera soon after staff left for the day, were observed tracking and taking live piglets (despite the presence of sows), and removed dead carcasses from in front of the cameras. Newly born and younger piglets appeared to be the most vulnerable, especially when they are born out in the paddock, but older piglets were also lost. A significant (p = 0.001) effect of individual sow identification on the weaning rate, but no effect of sow age (parity), suggests that individual sow behavior towards predators influences predation risk for litters. We tracked the movement of piglet carcasses by foxes, and confirmed that foxes make use of patches of native vegetation for cover, although there was no effect of paddock, distance to vegetation, or position on the farm on weaning rate. Trials with non-toxic baits reveal high levels of non-target bait interference. Other management options are recommended, including removing hay from the paddocks to reduce the risks of sows farrowing in open paddocks, and covering or predator-proof fencing the pig carcass pit. Results of this study will have increasing relevance for the expanding outdoor/free-range pork industry, contributing to best practice guidelines for predator control.

Contrasting patterns of preservation in a Jamaican cave

AbstractRed Hills Road Cave, Jamaica is a remnant of a karstic feature quarried away during road building. It is the most important site for Late Pleistocene terrestrial palaeontology on the island. The site is c. 30 ka old. Many taxa were washed in during hurricanes and tropical storms, either as dead carcasses or live organisms that drowned as the cave filled with water. The invertebrate fauna includes snails and arthropods; none are obligate cave dwellers. The 62 species of land snails are the most diverse of any Jamaican cave; operculate taxa may be preserved with the operculum in situ. Arthropods include the only fossil millipedes, isopods and insects (fly puparia, beetle elytra) in the Jamaican fossil record, in addition to land crabs. Millipedes and isopods are well preserved because of a diagenetically early coating of calcite cement. The exoskeletons of these groups contain a small, but significant, calcite component not found in insects, spiders and scorpions. The vertebrate fauna remains understudied, but include: a rodent and three species of bat; a flightless ibis and various other birds; and reptile and amphibian remains. In contrast to the arthropods, the vertebrates are invariably disarticulated apart from rare crania, jawbones retaining teeth and bones that are fused in life. A dead millipede could be coated in calcite when floating in the cave immediately after death; a dead vertebrate carcass would have to rot to expose its bones after the cave dried out and would, most likely, disarticulate before or during the next inundation.

Multisystemic aspergillosis in turkeys

A multisystemic aspergillosis in turkeys is reported. Five ailing turkey poults and 10 carcasses were presented with history of 27% mortality within three days after the onset of symptoms. The ailing birds showed dyspnoea, depression, rattling, diarrhoea, tremor and convulsion. In postmortem, there were numerous caseous yellow nodules in thoracic and abdominal sacs, lungs, intestine and brain grossly. Histopathological analysis of the affected organs displayed multifocal areas of necrosis with fungal hyphae, infiltration of lymphocytes, plasma cells and giant cells and fibrous tissue proliferation at the periphery of the nodules. Swabs from oral cavity of the ailing birds and lungs/airsacs from the dead carcasses yielded fungus Aspergillus fumigatus which was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Typical fungal hyphae and conidiophores were also demonstrated in the lungs, intestine and air sacs by Periodic acidschiff (PAS) staining technique. Examination of bedding material collected from the farm revealed presence of fungus, thus contaminated litter could be the cause for outbreak in this case.

Whale shark on a white shark’s menu

As the world’s largest fish, whale sharks Rhincodon typus could be assumed to be predator-free. Juvenile whale sharks are known to be preyed upon by sharks, marlin and orcas, and, although unconfirmed, bite marks on a sub-adult whale shark were attributed to white sharks Carcharodon carcharias (Department of the Environment and Heritage, DEH 2005). Attacks on large whale sharks by other large sharks are reported, but the predator remains unidentified (Fitzpatrick et al. 2006). Here, we provide confirmation that white sharks feed on adult whale sharks. In the 1960s, a 4.5-m male white shark was caught at Cheynes Beach Whaling Station (near Albany, southwest Australia) by the Department of Fisheries. At that time, white sharks frequented this area and fed on dead whales that were tied up prior to processing for oil. The individual was dissected and two unidentified and damaged shark centra (vertebrae) were recovered from the stomach contents (Fig. 1). These centra have been held in the ichthyology collection of the Western Australian Museum (WAM) for the last 50+ years. The centra were recently re-examined and identified as belonging to a whale shark of at least 8.5 m in length (based on ~12-cm-diameter centra; Wintner 2000). Compared to other orectolobiform sharks, whale shark centra are less calcified, with an open intermedialia. The cartilages of these centra appear etched by stomach acid and distorted due to decalcification, desiccation and shrinkage. Whale sharks are generally tropical, occasionally appearing in more temperate waters, including Albany (DEH 2005). White sharks are most common in temperate Australia; however, they are known from tropical regions, including Ningaloo Reef, where sub-adult whale sharks congregate in the austral Autumn (Fitzpatrick et al. 2006). The diet of white sharks is dominated by smaller sharks, teleosts and mammals (Cortes 1999), and feeding on large cetaceans, either live or dead, is known (e.g. Dudley et al. 2000; Hussey et al. 2012) and regularly reported in the popular media. We cannot confirm whether the white shark preyed on a living whale shark or whether it scavenged on a dead carcass. We also cannot confirm whether the interaction was in tropical or temperate seas.

Highlights--Does Methylation Make the Parent? A First Dive into the Genetics of Social Beetles.

Highlights--Does Methylation Make the Parent? A First Dive into the Genetics of Social Beetles.