Wild Ducks Research Articles

Impact of Season on Intestinal Bacterial Communities and Pathogenic Diversity in Two Captive Duck Species.

Vertebrates and their gut bacteria interact in complex and mutually beneficial ways. The intestinal microbial composition is influenced by several external influences. In addition to food, the abiotic elements of the environment, such as temperature, humidity, and seasonal fluctuation are also important determinants. Fecal samples were collected from two captive duck species, Baikal teal (Sibirionetta formosa) and common teal (Anas crecca) across four seasons (summer, autumn, winter, and spring). These ducks were consistently fed the same diet throughout the entire experiment. High throughput sequencing (Illumina Mi-seq) was employed to analyze the V4-V5 region of the 16sRNA gene. The dominant phyla in all seasons were Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Interestingly, the alpha diversity was higher in winter for both species. The NMDS, PCoA, and ANOSIM analysis showed the distinct clustering of bacterial composition between different seasons, while no significant differences were discovered between duck species within the same season. In addition, LefSe analysis demonstrated specific biomarkers in different seasons, with the highest number revealed in winter. The co-occurrence network analysis also showed that during winter, the network illustrated a more intricate structure with the greatest number of nodes and edges. However, this study identified ten potentially pathogenic bacterial species, which showed significantly enhanced diversity and abundance throughout the summer. Overall, our results revealed that season mainly regulated the intestinal bacterial community composition and pathogenic bacteria of captive ducks under the instant diet. This study provides an important new understanding of the seasonal variations in captive wild ducks' intestinal bacterial community structure. The information available here may be essential data for preventing and controlling infections caused by pathogenic bacteria in captive waterbirds.

Isolation of Toxoplasma gondii in cell culture: an alternative to bioassay

Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan protozoan parasite that can infect mammals and birds. The infection can cause acute toxoplasmosis and death in susceptible hosts. Bioassay using cats and mice has been the standard for the isolation of T. gondii from infected hosts for the past several decades. However, bioassay is labor-intensive, expensive, and involves using laboratory animals. To search alternative approaches and o work towards replacement of animal experiments, we summarized the key literature and conducted four experiments to isolate T. gondii in vitro by cell culture. A few heart tissue samples from animals with the highest antibody titers in a given collection were used for T. gondii isolation. These experiments included samples from five out of 51 wild ducks, four of 46 wild turkeys, six of 24 white-tailed deer, as well as from six kangaroos that had died with acute toxoplasmosis in a zoo. These experiments resulted in three isolates from five chronically infected wild ducks (60%), four isolates from four chronically infected wild turkeys (100%), one isolate from six chronically infected white-tailed deer (17%), and four isolates from six kangaroos with acute toxoplasmosis (67%). In addition, five isolates from the five chronically infected wild ducks were obtained by bioassay in mice, showing a 100% success rate, which is higher than the 60% rate by direct cell culture. These T. gondii isolates were successfully propagated in human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) or Vero cells, and genotyped by multilocus PCR-RFLP markers. The results showed that it is practical to isolate T. gondii directly in cell culture. Although the cell culture approach may not be as sensitive as the bioassay, it does provide an alternative that is simple, cost-effective, ethically more acceptable, and less time-sensitive to isolate T. gondii. In this paper we propose a procedure that may be applied and further optimized for isolation of T. gondii.

ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM THE DISRUPTION OF THE TOURIST SEASON IN THE VILLAGE OF SICHAVKA OF THE LYMAN (COMINTERNIV) DISTRICT

The Ukrainian economy and the tourism sector are experiencing the biggest crisis in recent decades. Inbound tourism practically ceased to exist. Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the holiday season was not opened this year either on the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea. The war destroyed the holiday season by 90%. A large part of the sea coast is occupied by the enemy, and in places where there is access to the sea, the risk of shelling and mines remains. Odesa regional military administration and Odesa city hall decided not to open sea beaches - due to mine danger. The mining of the Black Sea is a huge problem for both people and the environment, now there are several hundred mines in the water area - up to six hundred and some of them are Ukrainian, stolen in Sevastopol by the Russians back in 2014 after the occupation of Crimea. Travel companies in Ukraine almost completely stopped business on February 24. Air flights stopped and hotels accepted displaced people. The tourism industry, which, according to the State Statistics Service, brought 3% of GDP to the budget of Ukraine, and according to expert estimates, up to 7%, has suffered almost the biggest losses since the beginning of the war. In addition to the absence of vacationers, losses are also caused by enemy ammunition. Russian mines hit the shores of the sea, detonating and damaging first-line recreation centers, cafes and bars. In May of this year, it was planned to allow tourists to sunbathe on some beaches and began actively offering accommodation services. However, at dawn on June 6, it became known about the partial destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam The destruction of the dam led to a huge ecological disaster. As a result of the detonation, a huge area was flooded - tons of dirt, poisonous substances along with the ruins of buildings and thousands of dead animals were carried into the Black Sea. Tourists who came to the sea a few days before the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP witnessed frogs jumping out of the sea, wild ducks swimming, trees and driftwood. Here and there there were islands of reeds on the shore. There were green spots on the surface of the water. After what they saw, vacationers began to cancel hotel reservations en masse and returned home. At the same time, losses to the hotel business amounted to hundreds of thousands of hryvnias. Between the cities of Yuzhne and Koblevо, there are 29 tourist accommodation facilities. These are collective accommodation facilities located in the recreation area of the village. Sychivka, each of which can accommodate 200 people on average. Sychavka is a village in the Lymanskyi (Cominternivskyi) district of the Odesa region, which is located on the shore of the Black Sea. The main advantages of recreation in Sychavka are the proximity of the Black Sea, a sandy beach strip, a gentle descent into the sea convenient for children, and the complete absence of industrial enterprises. There are no five-star hotels in Sychavka, but there are several recreation centers right on the shore of the Black Sea. If desired, vacationers can rent rooms in detached houses or cottages. According to preliminary estimates, the economic losses from the disruption of the tourist season in this area amount to approximately 300,000,000 hryvnias.

Molecular identification of H9N2 subtype of avian influenza A virus in wild and domestic ducks in Basrah province, South of Iraq

Molecular identification of H9N2 subtype of avian influenza A virus in wild and domestic ducks in Basrah province, South of Iraq

Stability of the Virucidal Activity of Commercial Disinfectants against Avian Influenza Viruses under Different Environmental Conditions.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) have caused outbreaks in both domestic and wild birds during the winter seasons in several countries in the Northern Hemisphere, most likely because virus-infected wild ducks overwinter and serve as the primary source of infection for other birds in these countries. Several chemical disinfectants are available to deactivate these viruses outside a living organism. However, their virucidal activity is known to be compromised by various factors, including temperature and contamination with organic matter. Hence, the effectiveness of virucidal activity under winter field conditions is crucial for managing HPAIV outbreaks. To investigate the impact of the winter field conditions on the virucidal activity of disinfectants against AIVs, we assessed the stability of the virucidal activity of seven representative disinfectants that are commercially available for poultry farms in Japan against both LPAIVs and HPAIVs under cold and/or organic contamination conditions. Of the seven disinfectants examined, the ortho-dichlorobenzene/cresol-based disinfectant exhibited the most consistent virucidal activity under winter field conditions, regardless of the virus pathogenicity or subtype tested.

Content of Lead and Cadmium in the Tissues and Organs of the Wild Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos L.) Depending on the Region of Poland Where It Is Harvested.

A property common to heavy metals is that even in small concentrations they can exert toxic effects on living organisms, including humans. The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of the tissues and organs of wild mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos L.) by estimating the potential hygiene and toxicological hazard associated with the concentrations of lead and cadmium in these tissues and organs, as well as the influence of the birds' sex and place of origin on these parameters. A significantly higher average lead content was noted in the breast muscles and the livers of the mallards harvested in the Leszno hunting district compared to the birds from the Siedlce hunting district. A higher average cadmium concentration was recorded in the breast and leg muscles of the mallards harvested in the Leszno hunting district than the Siedlce hunting district. The concentration of cadmium in the tissues and organs of the mallards harvested in the Siedlce or the Leszno hunting district did not exceed the acceptable limits for the muscles and livers of slaughtered animals. This study found no significant effect of the sex of the wild crossbreeds on the content of lead and cadmium in tissues and organs. This study showed that the mallard has a measurable response to environmental pollution with lead and cadmium, and therefore it is a species that could to some extent be used as a bioindicator of the level of contamination of the environment with these xenobiotics. The ban on the use of lead pellets as ammunition in Poland may largely limit the degree of lead contamination of the tissues and organs of mallards.

In the ‘Display Case’: (Capitalist) Realism and Simon Stone's ‘Zoological’ Ibsen

How are theatre practitioners (re)defining the realist project, a form of theatre intrinsic to the ideological domestication of capitalism? This paper takes up this question through an examination of Simon Stone's production of The Wild Duck ‘after Ibsen’, staged at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in 2011, and the late Mark Fisher's (2009) theorization of a market-dominated present as capitalist realism. In doing so, it refers to three different cultural contexts by making parallels to the German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier's work and pointing to developments in Britain. It argues that performances dependent upon the subject's capacity to know and represent the world are predicated on a subjective response and therefore risk locating systemic issues in the closed fictional cosmos of situational dramatic art as part of its exploration of the paralysis intrinsic to the capitalist realist politics of (theatre) spectatorship.

An Aerial–Aquatic Robot with Tunable Tilting Motors Capable of Multimode Motion

Aerial–aquatic robots have promising applications due to their ability to operate in air and water with different motion modes. However, challenges such as water/air transition and multimedia movement still limit their development. Inspired by the aerial–aquatic behavior of wild ducks, an aerial–aquatic robot with tunable tilting motors and a delta wing is introduced. The robot can perform multimode motion, including flying in air, swimming on the water surface, transitioning between air and water, and diving underwater. Besides, the buoyancy design enables the robot to float at the air–water interface without consuming energy. Herein, the performance of the robot, including vertical and horizontal cross‐media performance, power consumption, and endurance in various motion modes, is evaluated. The field experiments show that the proposed robot possesses multimode motion and high maneuverability. This study provides a new idea for the structural design of next‐generation practical aerial–aquatic robots.

Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck: A Research-Based Study of the Psychosocial Risk Factors of Hedvig’s Suicide

Adolescent suicide, an issue raised in literature, represents a key moment in Henrik Ibsen’s play, The Wild Duck. Even though the literature available on the play refers to the suicidal act performed by Hedvig by accusing either mysterious fate or particular characters of driving the girl to her doom, the interpretations are apparently few and far between and do not provide analysis of the reasons behind the suicide in one detailed research. This paper, thus, provides a comprehensive study of these factors, using a qualitative analysis of the play that relies on study results gleaned from both sociological and psychological researches examining the risk factors that aggravate the probability of suicide in adolescents. Based on this approach, the paper reveals the role of family conflicts, neglect, personal susceptibility in adolescence, isolation, impaired schooling, economic hardship, and inclination towards self-sacrifice for the sake of the family, in causing the adolescent girl’s death by suicide in the closing scene of the play. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to a deeper understanding of suicide in literary works. The implications of the study extend beyond the realm of literature, giving more insight into the driving forces behind suicide in adolescents, in the hope that intervention methods may alleviate such factors.

Evaluating Effects of AIV Infection Status on Ducks Using a Flow Cytometry-Based Differential Blood Count.

Ducks have recently received a lot of attention from the research community due to their importance as natural reservoirs of avian influenza virus (AIV). Still, there is a lack of tools to efficiently determine the immune status of ducks. The purpose of this work was to develop an automated differential blood count for the mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos), to assess reference values of white blood cell (WBC) counts in this species, and to apply the protocol in an AIV field study. We established a flow cytometry-based duck WBC differential based on a no-lyse no-wash single-step one-tube technique, applying a combination of newly generated monoclonal antibodies with available duck-specific as well as cross-reacting chicken markers. The blood cell count enables quantification of mallard thrombocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, B cells, CD4+ T cells (T helper) and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. The technique is reproducible, accurate, and much faster than traditional evaluations of blood smears. Stabilization of blood samples enables analysis up to 1 week after sampling, thus allowing for evaluation of blood samples collected in the field. We used the new technique to investigate a possible influence of sex, age, and AIV infection status on WBC counts in wild mallards. We show that age has an effect on the WBC counts in mallards, as does sex in juvenile mallards. Interestingly, males naturally infected with low pathogenic AIV showed a reduction of lymphocytes (lymphocytopenia) and thrombocytes (thrombocytopenia), which are both common in influenza A infection in humans. IMPORTANCE Outbreaks of avian influenza in poultry and humans are a global public health concern. Aquatic birds are the primary natural reservoir of avian influenza viruses (AIVs), and strikingly, AIVs mainly cause asymptomatic or mild infection in these species. Hence, immunological studies in aquatic birds are important for investigating variation in disease outcome of different hosts to AIV and may aid in early recognition and a better understanding of zoonotic events. Unfortunately, immunological studies in these species were so far hampered by the lack of diagnostic tools. Here, we present a technique that enables high-throughput white blood cell (WBC) analysis in the mallard and report changes in WBC counts in wild mallards naturally infected with AIV. Our protocol permits large-scale immune status monitoring in a widespread wild and domesticated duck species and provides a tool to further investigate the immune response in an important reservoir host of zoonotic viruses.

Kejadian Infeksi Cacing Saluran Pencernaan pada Ular Sanca Batik (Phyton Reticulatus)

The purpose of this study was to identify intestinal worm infections in reticulated pythons (Phyton reticulatus) in captivity. This study used faecal samples of 2 reticulated pythons at the Taru Jurug Animal Park, Solo. Anamnesis of the two pythons found the presence of adult nematode worms in their feces. Examination of adult worms and faeces was carried out macroscopically and microscopically. Microscopic examination of feces using native methods. The results of the examination showed that the adult worms found were Ascaridia galli worms, with characteristics of having a length of 72 mm, yellowish white color, large size, semi-transparent and including nematode worms. Stool examination found ascarid eggs with oval-shaped characteristics with thick albumin. Findings of ascarid worm eggs correlated with findings of adult Ascaridia galli worms. The factor that reticulated pythons in captivity are infected with Ascaridia galli worms is caused by the feed given, namely wild ducks. The Ascaridia galli worm generally infects poultry, such as wild ducks. Ascarid worm eggs that are excreted along with the faeces of the geese can contaminate the cage, feed and drink.

Poultry consumed by the Dutch in the Dejima trading post, Nagasaki, Japan

Chickens, wild ducks, and geese were considered the main avifaunal food resources in early modern Japan. However, bird consumption in areas outside Edo (early modern Tokyo) has seldom been discussed. Nagasaki was the only place where trade with foreign countries occurred and where knowledge and culture from the West were introduced. Therefore, to understand bird utilisation in early modern Japan, comparing bird consumption in Nagasaki, which may have been subject to foreign influence, with that in the town of Edo might be beneficial. To elucidate bird consumption in Nagasaki, we analysed bird remains recovered from the Oranda Shokan site, which was inhabited by Dutch people in the early modern age. Our results revealed that chickens were the most frequently consumed birds throughout the Edo period (1603–1868), and those targeted for consumption included juveniles and hens. Other poultry such as domestic ducks and geese were also consumed at the site. These poultry consumption patterns are different from those observed in the town of Edo. The results of this study suggest the existence of regional differences in poultry consumption during the Edo period.

Domestication affects sex-biased gene expression evolution in the duck.

Genes with sex-biased expression are thought to underlie sexually dimorphic phenotypes and are therefore subject to different selection pressures in males and females. Many authors have proposed that sexual conflict leads to the evolution of sex-biased expression, which allows males and females to reach separate phenotypic and fitness optima. The selection pressures associated with domestication may cause changes in population architectures and mating systems, which in turn can alter their direction and strength. We compared sex-biased expression and genetic signatures in wild and domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), and observed changes of sexual selection and identified the genomic divergence affected by selection forces. The extent of sex-biased expression in both sexes is positively correlated with the level of both d N /d S and nucleotide diversity. This observed changing pattern may mainly be owing to relaxed genetic constraints. We also demonstrate a clear link between domestication and sex-biased evolutionary rate in a comparative framework. Decreased polymorphism and evolutionary rate in domesticated populations generally matched life-history phenotypes known to experience artificial selection. Taken together, our work suggests the important implications of domestication in sex-biased evolution and the roles of artificial selection and sexual selection for shaping the diversity and evolutionary rate of the genome.

Chinese Domestic Ducks Evolved from Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) and Spot-Billed Duck (A. zonorhyncha)

China has a rich genetic resource in its 34 domestic duck breeds. In order to detect the genetic diversity and explore the origin of these indigenous duck populations, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region was sequenced and analyzed for 208 individual ducks, including 22 domestic breeds, wild Mallards ducks, Eastern spot-billed ducks, White Muscovy ducks, and Black Muscovy ducks. The haplotype diversity (Hd) was 0.653 and the average nucleotide diversity (Pi) was 0.005, indicating moderate genetic diversity. Sixty haplotypes were detected, and the maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree and median-joining (MJ) network were generated from the sequence analyses. In this study, haplotypes from the Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) were detected in most of the Chinese domestic duck breeds. In addition, the Eastern spot-billed duck (A. zonorhyncha) H8 haplotype was detected in two duck breeds. Only two haplotypes were found in Muscovy ducks, suggesting low genetic diversity within this population. The sequence and haplotype analyses revealed that both A. platyrhynchos and A. zonorhyncha contributed to the evolution of domestic ducks in China.

Migrating Anatidae as Sources of Environmental Contamination with Zoonotic Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora and Microsporidia.

Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, and microsporidia are gastrointestinal pathogens that can cause various disease symptoms in both animals and humans. Numerous studies worldwide have confirmed the presence of these eukaryotic pathogens in nesting and migrating wild geese, ducks, and swans. Migration spreads these zoonotic enteric pathogens to distant locations, which could have public health implications. Soils and water bodies (lakes, ponds, rivers and wetlands) in urban and suburban areas have been shown to be vulnerable to contamination by waterfowl droppings. This review addresses the epidemiology of these enteric pathogens in wild migratory bird species (Anatidae) and some consequences of their spread in the environment. To date, both zoonotic pathogens and genotypes restricted to avian hosts have been found in faecal samples from 21 anatid species worldwide. One of the routes of infection for these zoonotic gastrointestinal micropathogens is the indirect route. For example, shared water bodies (e.g., for drinking or recreational purposes) previously contaminated by birds during the migratory season may facilitate infections of humans through water. However, it is unclear how much wild waterfowl contribute to the transmission of giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, cyclosporosis, and microsporidiosis in many regions through contaminated environmental sources. Comprehensive epidemiological surveillance based on molecular data on gastrointestinal pathogens is crucial to take measures to control infections in the future.

Avian influenza (H5N1) virus, epidemiology and its effects on backyard poultry in Indonesia: a review.

Avian influenza (AI) is a zoonotic viral endemic disease that affects poultry, swine, and mammals, including humans. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is caused by influenza type A virus subtypes H5, and H7 which are naturally carried by a wild bird and often affect domestic poultry. Avian influenza (AI) is a major problem worldwide that causes significant economic losses in the poultry sector. Since 2003, the widespread H5N1 HPAI in poultry has led to high mortalities resulting in huge economic losses in the poultry sector in Indonesia. Domestic poultry is a key source of income that contributes to economic growth, both directly and indirectly, by reducing poverty among the people living in rural communities. Furthermore, in many developing countries, including Indonesia, rural people meet a portion of their food needs through backyard poultry. Nevertheless, this sector is strongly affected by biosecurity hazards, particularly in Indonesia by HPAI infections. Avian influenza (AI), subtype H5N1 has zoonotic significance, posing major risks to public health and poultry. Due to close interaction between wild migratory birds and ducks, the domestic poultry sector in Indonesia is directly affected by this virus. This virus continues to be ubiquitous in Indonesia as a result of the unpredictable mutations produced by antigenic drift and shift, which can persist from a few days to several years. In this review, the epidemiology and impact, of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 subtype virus infection on backyard poultry in Indonesia were discussed.

Establishment and application of a PCR assay for the identification of virulent and attenuated duck plague virus DNA in cotton swabs

Duck plague is an acute, febrile, and septic infectious disease caused by duck plague virus (DPV), which causes serious harm to the duck industry in China. Ducks latently infected with DPV display a clinically healthy state, which is one of the epidemiological characteristics of duck plague. In the present study, to rapidly distinguish vaccine-immunized ducks from wild virus-infected ducks during production, a PCR assay based on the newly identified LORF5 fragment was developed to effectively and accurately identify viral DNA in cotton swab samples and was used to assess artificial infection models and clinical samples. The results showed that the established PCR method had good specificity and that only the virulent and attenuated DNA of duck plague virus was specifically amplified, as the results for the detection of common duck pathogens (duck hepatitis B virus, duck Tembusu virus, duck hepatitis A virus type 1, novel duck reovirus, Riemerella anatipestifer, Pasteurella multocida, and Salmonella) were negative. The amplified fragments of virulent and attenuated strains were 2,454 bp and 525 bp, and their minimum detection amounts were 0.46 pg and 46 pg, respectively. The detection rate of the virulent and attenuated DPV strains in duck oral and cloacal swabs was lower than that of the gold standard PCR method (GB-PCR, which is unable to distinguish virulent and attenuated strains), and cloacal swabs from clinically healthy ducks were more suitable for detection than oral swabs. In conclusion, the PCR assay established in the present study can be used as a simple and effective method for the clinical screening of ducks that are latently infected with virulent strains of DPV and shedding virus, which can provide technical support for the elimination of duck plague from duck farms.

Genetic Characterization and Pathogenesis of Avian Influenza Virus H3N8 Isolated from Chinese pond heron in China in 2021.

In October 2021, a wild bird-origin H3N8 influenza virus-A/Chinese pond heron/Jiangxi 5-1/2021 (H3N8)-was isolated from Chinese pond heron in China. Phylogenetic and molecular analyses were performed to characterize the genetic origin of the H3N8 strain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that eight gene segments of this avian influenza virus H3N8 belong to Eurasian lineages. HA gene clustered with avian influenza viruses is circulating in poultry in southern China. The NA gene possibly originated from wild ducks in South Korea and has the highest homology (99.3%) with A/Wild duck/South Korea/KNU2020-104/2020 (H3N8), while other internal genes have a complex and wide range of origins. The HA cleavage site is PEKQTR↓GLF with one basic amino acid, Q226 and T228 at HA preferentially bind to the alpha-2,3-linked sialic acid receptor, non-deletion of the stalk region in the NA gene and no mutations at E627K and D701N of the PB2 protein, indicating that isolate A/Chinese pond heron/Jiangxi 5-1/2021 (H3N8) was a typical avian influenza with low pathogenicity. However, there are some mutations that may increase pathogenicity and transmission in mammals, such as N30D, T215A of M1 protein, and P42S of NS1 protein. In animal studies, A/Chinese pond heron/Jiangxi 5-1/2021 (H3N8) replicates inefficiently in the mouse lung and does not adapt well to the mammalian host. Overall, A/Chinese pond heron/Jiangxi 5-1/2021 (H3N8) is a novel wild bird-origin H3N8 influenza virus reassortant from influenza viruses of poultry and wild birds. This wild bird-origin avian influenza virus is associated with wild birds along the East Asian-Australasian flyway. Therefore, surveillance of avian influenza viruses in wild birds should be strengthened to assess their mutation and pandemic risk in advance.

A Psychoanalytical Reading of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck

Ibsen, as a playwright, as Thomas F. Van Lann comments, has been accused of deceiving his audience regarding the matters of his play- both its central business and its manner; particularly in his style and mode. While reviewing Ibsen through a Lacanian lens, critics such as Oliver W. Gerland III, argue that reading Ibsen is a task of revising interpretative paradigms and that Ibsen’s protagonist revises strategies for enacting the “self”. The Wild Duck (1884), has been critiqued as a poignant drama of illusions, where an idealistic outsider’s gratuitous truth-telling destroys a family. This paper argues that Ibsen’s texts stage the Oedipal crisis in a revised form by taking recourse to Lacan’s re-reading of Freud, where he suggests a paradigmatic triad as a representation of the displaced form of familar Oedipal structure. For Lacan, the Oedipal structure is not a simple love for the mother and hatred for the father, rather it places the child in the realm of the Symbolic, i.e its linguistic association with the father. He argues that the self is rooted in the mirror stage and the infant’s identification with images of coherence and stability- e.g its own reflected image. This paper argues that Ibsen locates his drama in the simples of the Oedipal complex, but revises it. Hjalmar Ekdal’s Imaginary web is disrupted when the idealist Gregers Werle breaks down the Imaginary, invokes the Symbolic authoritarian “no”, and substitutes it with the retelling of Hakon Werle. This paper seeks to accentuate Gregers’ idealism as what Lacan termed as obsessional neurosis and a display of his own lacking in preserving his Imaginary i.e playing a father to his friend and maintaining Hjalmar’s heroic image in his mind, finally resulting in little Hedvig’s suicide.

Molecular surveillance of avian influenza A (H5N6) virus in Quangbinh province, Vietnam

The haemagglutinin (HA) gene of highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza H5Nx viruses (AIVs) has undergone continuous evolution, generating emerging reassorted subtypes and clades. Vietnam has been experiencing HPAI outbreaks since 2003, H5N1 and H5N6 virus infections resulted in culling millions of poultry. This paper presents the results of an active AIVs surveillance in domestic poultry, free-grazing domestic ducks and wild waterfowl in QuangBinh province, Vietnam from September 2015 through March 2018. A total of 452 pool cloacal swabs were analysed by real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR). The positive rates of the H5 subtype AIVs were 1.8% of chickens, 5.7% of ducks, and 11.1% of wild birds. Most of H5N6 AIVs were identified from apparently healthy domestic ducks and wild waterfowl (grey heron). Molecular analysis of ten H5N6 AIVs detected in 2016-2018 showed that these viruses have the basic amino acid motif at the HA1-HA2 cleavage site associated with HPAIV and belonged to the clade 2.3.4.4.c. H5N6 HPAI detected in wild waterfowl determined the possibility of virus transmission between wild and free-grazing domestic ducks in QuangBinh. This type of study is very novel in QuangBinh province. Surveillance in wild and domestic birds should be implemented for early detection of the virus and efficient control of its spread in this area.