- Infestation patterns of Ixodes scapularis and Dermacentor variabilis on dogs and cats across Canada. [Journal Article]PLoS One. 2023; 18(2):e0281192.Plos
- Due to recent climatic and land use changes, Canada has experienced changes in tick populations, leading to an increased risk of tick bites and tick-borne pathogen exposure, especially in eastern Canada. Preventative recommendations for companion animals from veterinary professionals include regular use of tick prevention products and tick checks. Tick checks, specifically, should target regions …
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- Evolution of a Mosquito's Hatching Behavior to Match Its Human-Provided Habitat. [Journal Article]Am Nat. 2023 Feb; 201(2):200-214.AN
- AbstractA subspecies of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, has recently evolved to specialize in biting and living alongside humans. It prefers human odor over the odor of nonhuman animals and breeds in human-provided artificial containers rather than the forest tree holes of its ancestors. Here, we report one way this human specialist has adapted to the distinct ecology of human environme…
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- Non-uniform spatial sampling by individuals in midge swarms. [Journal Article]J R Soc Interface. 2023 Feb; 20(199):20220521.JR
- Individual animals engaged in collective behaviour can interchange their relative positions on a wide range of time scales. In situations where some regions of the group are more desirable, it is thought that more fit individuals will preferentially occupy the more favourable locations. However, this notion is difficult to test for animal groups like insect swarms that fluctuate rapidly and displ…
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- Spectrum of human Pasteurella species infections in tropical Australia. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Pasteurella species remain clinically important pathogens, with the ability to cause severe and invasive infections with associated morbidity. Presentations to hospital are becoming more common, and the polymicrobial nature of bites wounds has implications for empiric antibiotic guidelines.
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- The Association of Antimicrobial Prophylaxis With Return Visits After Dog Bites in Children. [Journal Article]Pediatr Emerg Care. 2023 Feb 01; 39(2):87-90.PE
- CONCLUSIONS: Most children are prescribed antibiotics at an initial emergency department visit after a dog bite. However, very few return for infection independent of antimicrobial prophylaxis, which suggests antibiotics are overprescribed in this setting.
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- Entomological drivers of uneven malaria transmission in urban lowland areas in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: The risk of malaria in urban agricultural lowland areas is uneven. The role of agricultural developments and irrigation patterns in the production of larval habitat should be explored. The exophagic behaviour of Anopheles vectors raises the question of the residual transmission that needs to be assessed to implement appropriate control strategies.
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- Repellent efficacy of 20 essential oils on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and Ixodes scapularis ticks in contact-repellency assays. [Journal Article]
- Cases of mosquito- and tick-borne diseases are rising worldwide. Repellent products can protect individual users from being infected by such diseases. In a previous study, we identified five essential oils that display long-distance mosquito repellency using a Y-tube olfactometer assay. In the current study, the contact repellent efficacy of 20 active ingredients from the Environmental Protection…
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- Differences in ingestive behavior between grazing goats and sheep at the bite scale. [Journal Article]Anim Sci J. 2023 Jan; 94(1):e13811.AS
- This study aimed to clarify the differences in ingestive behavior between goats and sheep at the bite scale. Animals were allowed to graze a feeding station of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) with two sward heights (short and tall) to two levels of bite depletion (20 and 40 bites). Ingestive behavior variables, which represent the rate and mass of bites and chews, intake rate, bite dimension…
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- The nociceptive response induced by different classes of Tityus serrulatus neurotoxins: The important role of Ts5 in venom-induced nociception. [Journal Article]
- Scorpion sting envenomations (SSE) are feared by the intense pain that they produce in victims. Pain from SSE is triggered mainly by the presence of neurotoxins in the scorpion venom that modulates voltage-gated ion channels. In Brazil, SSE is mostly caused by Tityus serrulatus, popularly known as yellow scorpion. Here, we evaluated experimental spontaneous nociception induced by T. serrulatus ve…
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- Automatic monitoring and detection of tail-biting behavior in groups of pigs using video-based deep learning methods. [Journal Article]
- Automated monitoring of pigs for timely detection of changes in behavior and the onset of tail biting might enable farmers to take immediate management actions, and thus decrease health and welfare issues on-farm. Our goal was to develop computer vision-based methods to detect tail biting in pigs using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract spatial information, combined with secondary ne…
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- Development of flank lesions in growing pigs after weaning: A case study. [Journal Article]
- Flank lesions in pigs are a common yet poorly understood consequence of damaging social behavior. One group of pigs on a commercial farm with group lactation and late weaning, and with the history of flank lesions was studied. Skin lesions on the flanks, including linear and circular lesions, and tail lesions on 69 pigs were recorded six times during 5 weeks after weaning at the age of 9 weeks. N…
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- Envenomation by Micrurus hemprichii in Brazilian Amazonia: A report of three cases. [Case Reports]Toxicon. 2023 Jan 26; 224:107048.T
- Herein, we report three new separate cases of human envenomations by Micrurus hemprichii for the Amazon, which is a biome where envenomations by Micrurus are seldom reported. Two women were bitten after stepping on the snakes and one man was bitten while handling the animal. All cases occurred in the peridomicile, in rural areas. The first case evolved mainly to local symptoms, but the patient wa…
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- Superficial lymphangitis after arthropod bite: a warning against unnecessary antimicrobial use. [Case Reports]BMJ Case Rep. 2023 01 27; 16(1)BC
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- Multiple Wasp Stings Leading to Rhabdomyolysis Induced Acute Kidney Injury with Incidental Ectopic Kidney: A Case Report. [Case Reports]JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2022 Oct 01; 60(254):898-901.JJ
- Rhabdomyolysis refers to skeletal muscle breakdown causing a release of different intracellular proteins including myoglobin and several electrolytes in the bloodstream. Elevations diagnose rhabdomyolysis in serum creatine kinase. Mass envenomation by multiple wasp stings can cause rhabdomyolysis followed by acute kidney injury, although it is scarce. A 24-year-old male presented to our tertiary …
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- Which animal-to-feeding-place ratio at time-controlled hay racks is animal appropriate? Preliminary analysis of stress responses of horses. [Journal Article]Front Vet Sci. 2022; 9:1005102.FV
- Automated feeding systems offer numerous advantages for animals and humans, but the associated benefits and risks can often only be seen under practical conditions. The space allowance (~80 cm per horse) at time-controlled hay racks for horses in group housing, unlike at partitioned feeding stands or transponder-controlled feed stations, currently falls below the required individual distance betw…
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- Entomological Surveillance Planning Tool (ESPT)-generated actionable evidence on human and vector behaviours optimizes present interventions and reduces exposure to Anopheles vectors in two communities of Guna Yala, Panamá. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: ESPT-based question-driven planning and the integration of HBOs, intervention, and HLC data generated evidence towards answering the programmatic questions. This evidence enabled the characterization of site-specific human-vector exposure profiles, and the quantification of remaining gaps in protection. These data also provide important insights into remaining gaps in protection that must be addressed to further reduce human exposure to mosquito bites at these sites.
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- Bothrops atrox mice experimental envenoming treatment using light-emitting diode (led) as an adjunct therapy to conventional serum therapy. [Journal Article]Lasers Med Sci. 2023 Jan 25; 38(1):53.LM
- The use of anti-venom is one of the main control measures for snakebite envenoming when applied immediately after the snakebite. Systemic effects of the envenoming are usually reversed; however, neutralization of local effects is hardly achieved. The need for adjuvant therapies associated with serum therapy can improve the treatment for local effects of envenoming, with greater effectiveness in p…
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- The inoculation eschar of Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis in Brazil: Importance and cautions. [Review]Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2023 Mar; 14(2):102127.TT
- Two well characterized tick-borne rickettsioses occur in Brazil. Rickettsia rickettsii caused spotted-fever, transmitted by Amblyomma sculptum and Amblyomma aureolatum, is a severe disease with a high case-fatality rate in the southeastern region of the country. Rickettsia parkeri strain Atlantic rainforest infections transmitted by adult Amblyomma ovale ticks cause a milder non-lethal febrile di…
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- The global prevalence of parasites in non-biting flies as vectors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. [Review]
- CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a theoretical basis for the public health and ecological significance of parasites transmitted by non-biting flies.
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- Assessing welfare risks in unowned unsocialised domestic cats in Denmark based on associations with low body condition score. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight associations that can be used to define a risk profile: low BCS, notably in summer-autumn, in an unowned unsocialised cat was associated with underlying, less visible problems. Thus, low BCS can be more than a step towards being emaciated; it can also be an indicator of other underlying welfare problems.
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- The effect of being housed with a goat on abnormal behavior in horses. [Journal Article]
- Horses in stalls generally remain in single-stall housing, so abnormal behavior can be observed in this management condition. Abnormal behavior can harm the horse's keeper, rider, or even the animal itself. The present study aims to examine the effect of goats on abnormal behaviors in horses. For this purpose, it placed six horses and six goats in the single-stall housing of the horses, one horse…
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- Potential mosquito vector attraction to- and feeding preferences for pigs in Romanian backyard farms. [Journal Article]
- Mosquitoes either biologically or mechanically transmit various vector-borne pathogens affecting pigs. Mosquito species display a wide variety of host preference, as well as host attraction and behaviours. Mosquito species attraction rates to- and feeding rates on pigs or other potential hosts, as well as the seasonal abundance of the mosquito species affects their pathogen transmission potential.
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- Using Zoos as Sentinels for Re-Emerging Arboviruses: Vector Surveillance during an Outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease at the Minnesota Zoo. [Journal Article]
- Vector-borne disease prevalence is increasing at a time when surveillance capacity in the United States is decreasing. One way to address this surveillance deficiency is to utilize established infrastructure, such as zoological parks, to investigate animal disease outbreaks and improve our epidemiological understanding of vector-borne pathogens. During fall 2020, an outbreak of epizootic hemorrha…
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- A Search for Tick-Associated, Bronnoya-like Virus Spillover into Sheep. [Journal Article]
- Tick-borne diseases are responsible for many vector-borne diseases within Europe. Recently, novel viruses belonging to a new viral family of the order Bunyavirales were discovered in numerous tick species. In this study, we used metatranscriptomics to detect the virome, including novel viruses, associated with Ixodes ricinus collected from Romania and France. A bunyavirus-like virus related to th…
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- Secretory Phospholipases A2, from Snakebite Envenoming to a Myriad of Inflammation Associated Human Diseases-What Is the Secret of Their Activity? [Review]
- Secreted phospholipases of type A2 (sPLA2s) are proteins of 14-16 kDa present in mammals in different forms and at different body sites. They are involved in lipid transformation processes, and consequently in various immune, inflammatory, and metabolic processes. sPLA2s are also major components of snake venoms, endowed with various toxic and pharmacological properties. The activity of sPLA2s is…
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- Undocked Tails, Mycoplasma-like Lesions and Gastric Ulcers in Slaughtering Pigs: What Connection? [Journal Article]
- Tail biting is an economical and behavioral problem in the pork production system worldwide and systematic tail docking has been applied for decades to decrease the risk of its onset. However, legal and market-driven requirements are leading pig producers to rear undocked animals. The aim of this work was to monitor tail, pluck (lungs, pleurae, and liver), stomach, carcass, and thigh lesions in s…
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- Measuring entomological parameters before implementing a study on asymptomatic carriers of Plasmodium falciparum in the Zè District in southern Benin. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that malaria transmission is effective in the study area and that An. gambiae s.l. is the main malaria vector. The entomological parameters indicate this study area is potentially favourable for investigations on P. falciparum asymptomatic carriers.
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- Wound Infection of Snakebite from Venomous Protobothrops mucrosquamatus, Viridovipera stejnegeri and Naja atra in Taiwan: Validation of BITE and Cobra BITE Scoring Systems and their Bacteriological Differences in Wound Cultures. [Journal Article]
- Patients bitten by Protobothrops mucrosquamatus, Viridovipera stejnegeri, and Naja atra develop different degrees of wound infection. This study validated BITE and Cobra BITE scoring systems that we established previously. Bacteriological studies of patients with wound infection were conducted. The operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (AUC) and wound infection rates were compa…
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- Highly Evolvable: Investigating Interspecific and Intraspecific Venom Variation in Taipans (Oxyuranus spp.) and Brown Snakes (Pseudonaja spp.). [Journal Article]
- Snake venoms are complex mixtures of toxins that differ on interspecific (between species) and intraspecific (within species) levels. Whether venom variation within a group of closely related species is explained by the presence, absence and/or relative abundances of venom toxins remains largely unknown. Taipans (Oxyuranus spp.) and brown snakes (Pseudonaja spp.) represent medically relevant spec…
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