scholarly journals Regional heterogeneity and unexpectedly high abundance of Cooperia punctata in beef cattle at a northern latitude revealed by ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eranga Lakshitha De Seram ◽  
Elizabeth Mary Redman ◽  
Felicity Kaye Wills ◽  
Camila de Queiroz ◽  
John Ross Campbell ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The species composition of cattle gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) communities can vary greatly between regions. Despite this, there is remarkably little large-scale surveillance data for cattle GIN species which is due, at least in part, to a lack of scalable diagnostic tools. This lack of regional GIN species-level data represents a major knowledge gap for evidence-based parasite management and assessing the status and impact of factors such as climate change and anthelmintic drug resistance. Methods This paper presents a large-scale survey of GIN in beef herds across western Canada using ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding. Individual fecal samples were collected from 6 to 20 randomly selected heifers (n = 1665) from each of 85 herds between September 2016 and February 2017 and 10–25 first season calves (n = 824) from each of 42 herds between November 2016 and February 2017. Results Gastrointestinal nematode communities in heifers and calves were similar in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora being the predominant GIN species in all herds consistent with previous studies. However, in Manitoba, Cooperia punctata was the predominant species overall and the most abundant GIN species in calves from 4/8 beef herds. Conclusions This study revealed a marked regional heterogeneity of GIN species in grazing beef herds in western Canada. The predominance of C. punctata in Manitoba is unexpected, as although this parasite is often the predominant cattle GIN species in more southerly latitudes, it is generally only a minor component of cattle GIN communities in northern temperate regions. We hypothesize that the unexpected predominance of C. punctata at such a northerly latitude represents a range expansion, likely associated with changes in climate, anthelmintic use, management, and/or animal movement. Whatever the cause, these results are of practical concern since C. punctata is more pathogenic than C. oncophora, the Cooperia species that typically predominates in cooler temperate regions. Finally, this study illustrates the value of ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding as a surveillance tool for ruminant GIN parasites. Graphical Abstract

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eranga Lakshitha De Seram ◽  
Elizabeth Mary Redman ◽  
Felicity Kaye Wills ◽  
Camila de Queiroz ◽  
John Ross Campbell ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe species composition of cattle gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) communities can vary greatly between regions. Despite this, there is remarkably little large-scale surveillance data for cattle GIN species which is due, at least in part, to a lack of scalable diagnostic tools. This lack of regional GIN species-level data represents a major knowledge gap for evidence-based parasite management and assessing the status and impact of factors such as climate change and anthelmintic drug resistance. MethodsThis paper presents a large-scale survey of GIN in beef herds across western Canada using ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding. Individual fecal samples were collected from 6–20 randomly selected heifers (n = 1665) from each of 85 herds between September 2016 and February 2017 and 10–25 first season calves (n = 824) from each of 42 herds between November 2016 and February 2017. ResultsGastrointestinal nematode communities in heifers and calves were similar in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora being the predominant GIN species in all herds consistent with previous studies. However, in Manitoba, Cooperia punctata was the most predominant species overall and the most abundant GIN species in calves from 4/8 beef herds. ConclusionsThis study revealed a marked regional heterogenicity of GIN species in grazing beef herds in western Canada. The predominance of C. punctata in Manitoba is unexpected as although this parasite is often the most predominant cattle GIN species in more southerly latitudes, it is generally only a minor component of cattle GIN communities in northern temperate regions. We hypothesize that the unexpected predominance of C. punctata at such a northerly latitude represents a range expansion, likely associated with changes in climate, anthelmintic use, management, and/or animal movement. Whatever the cause, these results are of practical concern since C. punctata is more pathogenic than C. oncophora, the Cooperia species that typically predominates in cooler temperate regions. Finally, this study illustrates the value of ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding as a surveillance tool for ruminant GIN parasites.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Rabett ◽  
Philip J. Piper

For many decades Palaeolithic research viewed the development of early modern human behaviour as largely one of progress down a path towards the ‘modernity’ of the present. The European Palaeolithic sequence — the most extensively studied — was for a long time the yard-stick against which records from other regions were judged. Recent work undertaken in Africa and increasingly Asia, however, now suggests that the European evidence may tell a story that is more parochial and less universal than previously thought. While tracking developments at the large scale (the grand narrative) remains important, there is growing appreciation that to achieve a comprehensive understanding of human behavioural evolution requires an archaeologically regional perspective to balance this.One of the apparent markers of human modernity that has been sought in the global Palaeolithic record, prompted by finds in the European sequence, is innovation in bonebased technologies. As one step in the process of re-evaluating and contextualizing such innovations, in this article we explore the role of prehistoric bone technologies within the Southeast Asian sequence, where they have at least comparable antiquity to Europe and other parts of Asia. We observe a shift in the technological usage of bone — from a minor component to a medium of choice — during the second half of the Last Termination and into the Holocene. We suggest that this is consistent with it becoming a focus of the kinds of inventive behaviour demanded of foraging communities as they adapted to the far-reaching environmental and demographic changes that were reshaping this region at that time. This record represents one small element of a much wider, much longerterm adaptive process, which we would argue is not confined to the earliest instances of a particular technology or behaviour, but which forms part of an on-going story of our behavioural evolution.


2007 ◽  
Vol 539-543 ◽  
pp. 2437-2442
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Suwa ◽  
Yoshiyuki Saito ◽  
Hidehiro Onodera

The kinetics and topology of grain growth in three dimensions were simulated using a phase-field model with anisotropic grain-boundary mobilities. In order to perform large scale calculations we applied both modifications of algorithms and parallel coding techniques to the Fan and Chen's phase-field algorithm. Kinetics of abnormal grain growth is presented. It is observed that the grains of a minor component which are at the beginning surrounded preferentially by boundaries of high mobility grow faster than the grains of a major component until the texture reverses completely. Additionally, topological results of grain structures, such as grain size distributions and grain face distributions, are discussed


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Contina ◽  
Sarah Magozzi ◽  
Hannah B. Vander Zanden ◽  
Gabriel Bowen ◽  
Michael B. Wunder

The recognition of adequate sampling designs is an interdisciplinary topic that has gained popularity over the last decades. In ecology, many research questions involve sampling across extensive and complex environmental gradients. This is the case of stable isotope analyses, which are widely used to characterize large-scale movement patterns and dietary preferences of organisms across taxa. Because natural-abundance stable isotope variation in the environment is incorporated into inert animal tissues, such as feathers or hair, it is possible to draw inferences about the type of food and water resources that individuals consumed and the locations where tissues were synthesized. However, modern stable isotope research can benefit from the implementation of robust statistical analyses and well-designed sampling approaches to improve geographic assignment interpretation. We employed hydrogen stable isotope simulations to study inferences regarding the probability of origin of migratory individuals and reveal gaps in sampling efforts while highlighting uncertainties of assignment model extrapolations. We present an integrative approach that explores multiple sampling strategies across species with different geographic ranges to understand advantages and limitations of animal movement inferences based on stable isotope data. We show the characteristics of different sampling strategies through geographic and isotopic gradients and establish a set of diagnostic tools that uncover the attributes of these gradients and evaluate uncertainties of model results. Our analysis demonstrates that sampling regimes should be evaluated in relation to specific research questions and study constraints, and that adopting a single method across species ranges can lead to a costly but less effective sampling strategy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 1538-1548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gérald Chaput

Abstract Chaput, G. 2012. Overview of the status of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the North Atlantic and trends in marine mortality. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: 1538–1548. Since the early 1980s, the ICES Working Group on North Atlantic Salmon has collated and interpreted catch data, exchanged information on research initiatives, and provided advice to managers in support of conservation efforts for Atlantic salmon. During the past three decades, the annual production of anadromous Atlantic salmon from more than 2000 rivers draining into the North Atlantic has been less than 10 million adult-sized salmon. This represents a minor component, by number and biomass, of the pelagic ecosystem in the North Atlantic Ocean. Ideally, Atlantic salmon would be assessed and managed based on river-specific stock units, the scale that best corresponds to the spawner to recruitment dynamic. In reality, comparatively few river-specific assessments are available for either the Northwest or the Northeast Atlantic. The marine survival of Atlantic salmon is low and, based on return rates of smolts to adults from monitored rivers, has declined since the mid- to late 1980s. Abundance has declined more severely for the multi-sea-winter components, and especially in the southern areas of the species' range. Common patterns in abundance, inferred at the level of stock complex in the North Atlantic, suggest that broad-scale factors are affecting productivity and abundance and that they are acting throughout the salmon's time at sea.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 5449-5458
Author(s):  
A. Arokiaraj Jovith ◽  
S.V. Kasmir Raja ◽  
A. Razia Sulthana

Interference in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) predominantly affects the performance of the WSN. Energy consumption in WSN is one of the greatest concerns in the current generation. This work presents an approach for interference measurement and interference mitigation in point to point network. The nodes are distributed in the network and interference is measured by grouping the nodes in the region of a specific diameter. Hence this approach is scalable and isextended to large scale WSN. Interference is measured in two stages. In the first stage, interference is overcome by allocating time slots to the node stations in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) fashion. The node area is split into larger regions and smaller regions. The time slots are allocated to smaller regions in TDMA fashion. A TDMA based time slot allocation algorithm is proposed in this paper to enable reuse of timeslots with minimal interference between smaller regions. In the second stage, the network density and control parameter is introduced to reduce interference in a minor level within smaller node regions. The algorithm issimulated and the system is tested with varying control parameter. The node-level interference and the energy dissipation at nodes are captured by varying the node density of the network. The results indicate that the proposed approach measures the interference and mitigates with minimal energy consumption at nodes and with less overhead transmission.


2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (10) ◽  
pp. 1543-1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman P. Van Leeuwen ◽  
Raewyn M. Town

The degree of (de)protonation of aqueous metal species has significant consequences for the kinetics of complex formation/dissociation. All protonated forms of both the ligand and the hydrated central metal ion contribute to the rate of complex formation to an extent weighted by the pertaining outer-sphere stabilities. Likewise, the lifetime of the uncomplexed metal is determined by all the various protonated ligand species. Therefore, the interfacial reaction layer thickness, μ, and the ensuing kinetic flux, Jkin, are more involved than in the conventional case. All inner-sphere complexes contribute to the overall rate of dissociation, as weighted by their respective rate constants for dissociation, kd. The presence of inner-sphere deprotonated H2O, or of outer-sphere protonated ligand, generally has a great impact on kd of the inner-sphere complex. Consequently, the overall flux can be dominated by a species that is a minor component of the bulk speciation. The concepts are shown to provide a good description of experimental stripping chronopotentiometric data for several protonated metal–ligand systems.


Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Helen M. K. O'Neill ◽  
Sarah M. Durant ◽  
Stefanie Strebel ◽  
Rosie Woodroffe

Abstract Wildlife fences are often considered an important tool in conservation. Fences are used in attempts to prevent human–wildlife conflict and reduce poaching, despite known negative impacts on landscape connectivity and animal movement patterns. Such impacts are likely to be particularly important for wide-ranging species, such as the African wild dog Lycaon pictus, which requires large areas of continuous habitat to fulfil its resource requirements. Laikipia County in northern Kenya is an important area for wild dogs but new wildlife fences are increasingly being built in this ecosystem. Using a long-term dataset from the area's free-ranging wild dog population, we evaluated the effect of wildlife fence structure on the ability of wild dogs to cross them. The extent to which fences impeded wild dog movement differed between fence designs, although individuals crossed fences of all types. Purpose-built fence gaps increased passage through relatively impermeable fences. Nevertheless, low fence permeability can lead to packs, or parts of packs, becoming trapped on the wrong side of a fence, with consequences for population dynamics. Careful evaluation should be given to the necessity of erecting fences; ecological impact assessments should incorporate evaluation of impacts on animal movement patterns and should be undertaken for all large-scale fencing interventions. Where fencing is unavoidable, projects should use the most permeable fencing structures possible, both in the design of the fence and including as many purpose-built gaps as possible, to minimize impacts on wide-ranging wildlife.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2688
Author(s):  
Tobias Goris ◽  
Rafael R. C. Cuadrat ◽  
Annett Braune

Flavonoids are a major group of dietary plant polyphenols and have a positive health impact, but their modification and degradation in the human gut is still widely unknown. Due to the rise of metagenome data of the human gut microbiome and the assembly of hundreds of thousands of bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), large-scale screening for potential flavonoid-modifying enzymes of human gut bacteria is now feasible. With sequences of characterized flavonoid-transforming enzymes as queries, the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Protein catalog was analyzed and genes encoding putative flavonoid-modifying enzymes were quantified. The results revealed that flavonoid-modifying enzymes are often encoded in gut bacteria hitherto not considered to modify flavonoids. The enzymes for the physiologically important daidzein-to-equol conversion, well studied in Slackiaisoflavoniconvertens, were encoded only to a minor extent in Slackia MAGs, but were more abundant in Adlercreutzia equolifaciens and an uncharacterized Eggerthellaceae species. In addition, enzymes with a sequence identity of about 35% were encoded in highly abundant MAGs of uncultivated Collinsella species, which suggests a hitherto uncharacterized daidzein-to-equol potential in these bacteria. Of all potential flavonoid modification steps, O-deglycosylation (including derhamnosylation) was by far the most abundant in this analysis. In contrast, enzymes putatively involved in C-deglycosylation were detected less often in human gut bacteria and mainly found in Agathobacter faecis (formerly Roseburia faecis). Homologs to phloretin hydrolase, flavanonol/flavanone-cleaving reductase and flavone reductase were of intermediate abundance (several hundred MAGs) and mainly prevalent in Flavonifractor plautii. This first comprehensive insight into the black box of flavonoid modification in the human gut highlights many hitherto overlooked and uncultured bacterial genera and species as potential key organisms in flavonoid modification. This could lead to a significant contribution to future biochemical-microbiological investigations on gut bacterial flavonoid transformation. In addition, our results are important for individual nutritional recommendations and for biotechnological applications that rely on novel enzymes catalyzing potentially useful flavonoid modification reactions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay A. VonBank ◽  
Mitch D. Weegman ◽  
Paul T. Link ◽  
Stephanie A. Cunningham ◽  
Kevin J. Kraai ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Animal movement patterns are the result of both environmental and physiological effects, and the rates of movement and energy expenditure of given movement strategies are influenced by the physical environment an animal inhabits. Greater white-fronted geese in North America winter in ecologically distinct regions and have undergone a large-scale shift in wintering distribution over the past 20 years. White-fronts continue to winter in historical wintering areas in addition to contemporary areas, but the rates of movement among regions, and energetic consequences of those decisions, are unknown. Additionally, linkages between wintering and breeding regions are generally unknown, and may influence within-winter movement rates. Methods We used Global Positioning System and acceleration data from 97 white-fronts during two winters to elucidate movement characteristics, model regional transition probabilities using a multistate model in a Bayesian framework, estimate regional energy expenditure, and determine behavior time-allocation influences on energy expenditure using overall dynamic body acceleration and linear mixed-effects models. We assess the linkages between wintering and breeding regions by evaluating the winter distributions for each breeding region. Results White-fronts exhibited greater daily movement early in the winter period, and decreased movements as winter progressed. Transition probabilities were greatest towards contemporary winter regions and away from historical wintering regions. Energy expenditure was up to 55% greater, and white-fronts spent more time feeding and flying, in contemporary wintering regions compared to historical regions. White-fronts subsequently summered across their entire previously known breeding distribution, indicating substantial mixing of individuals of varying breeding provenance during winter. Conclusions White-fronts revealed extreme plasticity in their wintering strategy, including high immigration probability to contemporary wintering regions, high emigration from historical wintering regions, and high regional fidelity to western regions, but frequent movements among eastern regions. Given that movements of white-fronts trended toward contemporary wintering regions, we anticipate that a wintering distribution shift eastward will continue. Unexpectedly, greater energy expenditure in contemporary wintering regions revealed variable energetic consequences of choice in wintering region and shifting distribution. Because geese spent more time feeding in contemporary regions than historical regions, increased energy expenditure is likely balanced by increased energy acquisition in contemporary wintering areas.


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