Leishmania infecting man and wild animals in Saudi Arabia. 9. The black rat (Rattus rattus) a probable reservoir of visceral leishmaniasis in Gizan province, south-west Saudi Arabia

Author(s):  
E.A. Ibrahim ◽  
M.A. Al-Zahrani ◽  
A.S. Al-Tuwaigri ◽  
F.J. Al-Shammary ◽  
D.A. Evans
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham R. Fulton

Little is known of owls in south-western Australia compared with the owls of southern and eastern Australia. Surveys of forest owls in the south-west are almost completely lacking. This study sought to determine the abundance and detectability of owls immediately around the Peel–Harvey Estuary in south-western Australia. The southern boobook (Ninox boobook) and the masked owl (Tyto novaehollandiae) were the only owls detected (n = 23 and n = 1 respectively), although the nocturnal tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) was detected from unelicited calls on three occasions. Southern boobooks were found to be common in this area though they are reported to be in decline in south-eastern and inland Australia. Their detectability was significantly greater in August (late winter) than at other times through unelicited calls; otherwise, there were no detections in winter. A variety of small mammals were detected during the surveys, including: a little red flying-fox (Pteropus scapulatus), a western ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus occidentalis), 19 southern brown bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus), 4 common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), 21 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), a black rat (Rattus rattus), 2 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and 22 microbats.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
ASHOK KUMAR ◽  
ALPANA PARMAR ◽  
ANAND KUMAR BAJPEYEE

Young female Black rat (Rattus rattus), were administered monthly long acting steroid contraceptive to induce hypertriglyceridemia. It was observed that by 3 weeks of the second injection of estrogen containing mixed type of contraceptive, female rats developed consistent and frank hyperglyceridemia . TG in the treated rats was 195.8 ± 7.44 mg /100 ml as compared to 91.5 ± 6.27 mg/100ml in plasma of the control group.


Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdullah Alshehri ◽  
Mohannad Mohammed Al gossadi Alsheri ◽  
Reema Mohammed Al gossadi Alsheri ◽  
Renad Mohammed Al gossadi Alsheri

Author(s):  
Aymen Abdelhaleem ◽  
Nabil Dhayhi ◽  
Mohamed Salih Mahfouz ◽  
Ommer Daffalla ◽  
Mansour Mubarki ◽  
...  

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe clinical form of the disease and has been reported in the Jazan region of southwest Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to diagnose VL by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the direct agglutination test (DAT) and to identify the causative Leishmania species. A total of 80 participants, including 30 suspected VL patients, 30 healthy endemic control individuals, and 20 malaria disease controls, were enrolled in this study. Blood samples were collected and tested for Leishmania DNA by real-time PCR and for antibody by the DAT. Sequencing of some amplified PCR products was used to identify the causative Leishmania species. The diagnosis of VL was successfully achieved by both real-time PCR and by DAT with 100% sensitivity. Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum species were detected by sequencing both by the kDNA and ITS1 target genes, followed a BLASTn search. The detection of VL antibody by the DAT followed by the confirmatory detection of Leishmania DNA in patient blood by PCR could promote the adoption of the much less invasive and more sensitive methods for the routine diagnosis of VL. Further study with high sample volume to evaluate the PCR and the DAT are needed, to generate more robust evidence. Based on the sequencing results, emerging studies on VL should focus on the causative Leishmania species, reservoirs, and vectors that are important in the study area.


The Holocene ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 801-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Rando ◽  
Josep Antoni Alcover ◽  
Jacques Michaux ◽  
Rainer Hutterer ◽  
Juan Francisco Navarro

The Lava mouse ( Malpaisomys insularis), and the Canarian shrew ( Crocidura canariensis) are endemic of the Eastern Canary Islands and islets. The former is extinct while Canarian shrew survives in the two main islands and two islets. In order to provide insights regarding causes and processes contributing to the extinction of these endemic mammals: (i) we established last occurrence dates for Lava mouse, and first records for two exotic species – House mouse ( Mus musculus) and Black rat ( Rattus rattus) – through direct 14C AMS dating of collagen from bones; (ii) we analysed recent material from Barn owl ( Tyto alba gracilirostris) roosting sites to evaluate its impact on Canarian shrew in the presence of introduced rodents. The new data strongly suggest that the extinction of Lava mouse was the result of an accumulative process of independent disappearances (or ‘local extinctions’) affecting the isolated populations. The timing of the introduction of the Black rat on the main islands (before Middle Age European contact in Lanzarote and after Middle Age European contact in Fuerteventura) matches with the last occurrence dates for the presence of Lava mouse on these islands, and are very probably their cause. The losses of these Lava mouse populations occurred in an asynchronous way, spreading across at least six centuries. On small islands, hyperpredation emerges as the most plausible process to explain the disappearance of the Lava mouse in the absence of rat populations, although stochastic processes can not be definitively excluded.


2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
pp. 1068-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Ruffino ◽  
K. Bourgeois ◽  
E. Vidal ◽  
J. Icard ◽  
F. Torre ◽  
...  

The mechanisms by which introduced predators and long-lived seabirds interact and even coexist are still poorly known. Here, the interactions between the widely introduced black rat ( Rattus rattus (L., 1758)) and an endemic Mediterranean cavity-nesting seabird, the yelkouan shearwater ( Puffinus yelkouan (Acerbi, 1827)), were for the first time investigated for a set of 60 suitable breeding cavities throughout the entire breeding cycle of this seabird. Our results pointed out that rat visits to cavities were significantly higher when shearwaters had left the colony for their interbreeding exodus. Among the set of suitable breeding cavities, yelkouan shearwaters preferentially selected the deepest and the most winding cavities for breeding. Very few rat visits were recorded at the shearwater-occupied cavities and no predation event was recorded. These intriguing results reveal a low level of interaction between introduced black rats and yelkouan shearwaters, which may have facilitated their long-term coexistence for thousands of years on some Mediterranean islands.


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