Prevalence, Serovars, and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Salmonella Isolated from Blue Land Crabs (Cardisoma guanhumi) in Grenada, West Indies

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 1270-1273 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROSS PETERSON ◽  
HARRY HARIHARAN ◽  
VANESSA MATTHEW ◽  
SAM CHAPPELL ◽  
ROB DAVIES ◽  
...  

Samples of intestine and hepatopancreas from 65 blue land crabs (Cardisoma guanhumi), a crustacean commonly consumed as a food item in Grenada, were collected from six geographic sites in Grenada and tested for Salmonella by enrichment and selective culture. The individual animal prevalence of Salmonella based on isolation was 17% (11 of 65), and all infected crabs were from three of the six sampled locations. Isolates were identified by serotyping as Salmonella enterica serovars Saintpaul (n = 6), Montevideo (n = 4), and Newport (n = 1). The intestines of all 11 infected crabs were positive for Salmonella, but only 7 of 11 hepatopancreas samples were positive for Salmonella, and these isolates were the same serovar as isolated from the matching intestine. These three Salmonella serovars are known to cause human illness in many countries, and in the Caribbean Salmonella Saintpaul has been frequently isolated from humans. In a disc diffusion assay, all isolates were susceptible to all 11 drugs tested: amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, imipenem, neomycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. To our knowledge, this report is the first concerning isolation and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Salmonella serotypes from the blue land crab.

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6818
Author(s):  
Iain J. McGaw ◽  
Travis E. Van Leeuwen ◽  
Rebekah H. Trehern ◽  
Amanda E. Bates

Gecarcinid land crabs are ecosystem engineers playing an important role in nutrient recycling and seedling propagation in coastal forests. Given a predicted future decline in precipitation for the Caribbean, the effects of dehydration on feeding preferences of the black land crab Gecarcinus ruricola were investigated. G. ruricola were offered novel food items of lettuce, apple, or herring to test for food choice based on water and nutritional (energetic) content in single and multiple choice experimental designs. The effect of dehydration was incorporated by depriving crabs of water for 0, 4, or 8 days, leading to an average body water loss of 0%, 9%, and 17%, respectively, (crabs survived a body water loss of 23% + 2% and 14–16 days without access to water). The results were consistent between the single and multiple choice experiments: crabs consumed relatively more apple and fish and only small amounts of lettuce. Overall, no selective preferences were observed as a function of dehydration, but crabs did consume less dry food when deprived of water and an overall lower food intake with increasing dehydration levels occurred. The decrease in feeding was likely due to loss of water from the gut resulting in the inability to produce ample digestive juices. Future climatic predictions suggest a 25–50% decline in rainfall in the Caribbean, which may lead to a lower food intake by the crabs, resulting in compromised growth. The subsequent reduction in nutrient recycling highlights possible long-term effects on coastal ecosystems and highlights the importance of future work on climate relative behavioral interactions that influence ecosystem function.


1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (24) ◽  
pp. 3395-3409
Author(s):  
H. Paul ◽  
W. J. P. Barnes ◽  
D. Varjú

The compound eyes, the canal organs of the statocysts and proprioceptors in the legs all generate compensatory eye movements in the horizontal plane in the land crab Cardisoma guanhumi. Frequency analyses of the compensatory eye reflexes elicited by each of these inputs show that visual (V) and proprioceptive (P) reflexes respond best below 0.1 Hz, while statocyst (S)reflexes only achieve a high gain above this frequency. They thus increase the range of frequencies over which compensation can occur. Eye and body movements were recorded in an arena under all possible combinations of crabs seeing or blind (V+ or V-), with or without statocysts (S+ or S-) and freely walking or passively transported on a trolley (P+ or P-). Intact crabs (V+S+P+) show good stabilisation of the eyes in space, the only movements with respect to external coordinates being saccadic resetting movements (fast phases of nystagmus). The eyes thus compensate well for body turns, but are unaffected by translatory movements of the body and turns that are not accompanied by a change in the orientation of the long axis of the body in space. In the absence of any one sense, compensation for rotation is significantly impaired, whether measured by the increase in the width of the histograms of changes in the angular positions of the eyes in space ( capdelta &phgr; E), by the mean angular velocity of the eyes(slope of regression line, mE) with respect to the angular velocity of the body (mB) or by response gain plotted against angular acceleration of body turn (a). The absence of two senses reduces the crab's ability to compensate still further, with the statocyst-only condition (V-S+P-) being little better than the condition when all three senses are absent(V-S-P-).Such multisensory control of eye compensation for body rotation is discussed both in terms of making use of every available cue for reducing retinal slip and in making available the information content of the optic flow field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1202-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Joseps Hearn ◽  
Gwendolyn Towers ◽  
Michael Henry Cynamon

Background:With approximately one-third of the world’s population infected, tuberculosis continues to be a global public health crisis. The rise of strains that are unusually virulent or highly resistant to current drugs is a cause of special concern, prompting research into new classes of compounds, as well as the re-evaluation of known chemotherapeutic agents.Objectives:The antimycobacterial activities associated with some recently-reported thiocarbonyl compounds kindled our interest in the synthesis of substituted hydrazinecarbothioamides (3) and carbonothioic dihydrazides (4), with the aim of investigating their potential in antitubercular drug design and discovery.Methods:In the present study, the title compounds 3 and 4 were prepared by the condensation of hydrazines with isothiocyanates in reactions readily controlled by stoichiometry, temperature and solvent. The compounds were assessed against Mycobacterium bovis BCG in Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion, and minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined against the virulent strain M. tuberculosis Erdman.Results:The chemical structures of these thermally stable compounds were determined by IR, 1HNMR, 13C-NMR, high-resolution mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. In the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion assay, some of the compounds showed substantial diameters of inhibition against BCG. In some cases, the zones of inhibition were so large that no growth at all was observed on the assay plates. Against M. tuberculosis Erdman, several of the compounds showed significant activities. Compound 3h was the most active, demonstrating a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.5 µg/mL.Conclusion:We found that the title compounds may be prepared conveniently in excellent purity and good yields. They are readily identified on the basis of their characteristic spectra. Some members of this class showed significant activities against mycobacteria. We conclude that further work will be warranted in exploring the antitubercular properties of these compounds.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7715
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Czernel ◽  
Dominika Bloch ◽  
Arkadiusz Matwijczuk ◽  
Jolanta Cieśla ◽  
Monika Kędzierska-Matysek ◽  
...  

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using aqueous honey solutions with a concentration of 2%, 10%, and 20%—AgNPs-H2, AgNPs-H10, and AgNPs-H20. The reaction was conducted at 35 °C and 70 °C. Additionally, nanoparticles obtained with the citrate method (AgNPs-C), while amphotericin B (AmB) and fluconazole were used as controls. The presence and physicochemical properties of AgNPs was affirmed by analyzing the sample with ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) and fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The 20% honey solution caused an inhibition of the synthesis of nanoparticles at 35 °C. The antifungal activity of the AgNPs was evaluated using opportunistic human fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis. The antifungal effect was determined by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and disc diffusion assay. The highest activity in the MIC tests was observed in the AgNPs-H2 variant. AgNPs-H10 and AgNPs-H20 showed no activity or even stimulated fungal growth. The results of the Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion susceptibility test for C. parapsilosis strains indicated stronger antifungal activity of AgNPs-H than fluconazole. The study demonstrated that the antifungal activity of AgNPs is closely related to the concentration of honey used for the synthesis thereof.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mashooq Ahmad Bhat ◽  
Mohamed A. Al-Omar ◽  
Ahmed M. Naglah ◽  
Abdul Arif Khan

A series of pyrazoles derived from the substituted enaminones were synthesized and were evaluated for antimicrobial activity. All the compounds were characterized by the spectral data and elemental analysis. The synthesized compounds were initially screened for their antimicrobial activity against ATCC 6538, NCTC 10400, NCTC 10418, and ATCC 27853. During initial screening, compounds (P1, P6, and P11) presented significant antimicrobial activity through disc diffusion assay. These compounds were further evaluated for antimicrobial activity at different time points against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and presented significant activity for 6 hours. The activity was found to be greater against Gram-positive bacteria. In contrast at 24 hours, the activity was found only against Gram-positive bacteria except compound (P11), showing activity against both types of bacteria. Compound (P11) was found to have highest activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.


1990 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Burggren ◽  
Alan Pinder ◽  
Brian McMahon ◽  
Michael Doyle ◽  
Michele Wheatly

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berenice Rojo-Garibaldi ◽  
David Alberto Salas-de-León ◽  
María Adela Monreal-Gómez ◽  
Norma Leticia Sánchez-Santillán ◽  
David Salas-Monreal

Abstract. Hurricanes are complex systems that carry large amounts of energy. Their impact often produces natural disasters involving the loss of human lives and materials, such as infrastructure, valued at billions of US dollars. However, not everything about hurricanes is negative, as hurricanes are the main source of rainwater for the regions where they develop. This study shows a nonlinear analysis of the time series of the occurrence of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea obtained from 1749 to 2012. The construction of the hurricane time series was carried out based on the hurricane database of the North Atlantic basin hurricane database (HURDAT) and the published historical information. The hurricane time series provides a unique historical record on information about ocean–atmosphere interactions. The Lyapunov exponent indicated that the system presented chaotic dynamics, and the spectral analysis and nonlinear analyses of the time series of the hurricanes showed chaotic edge behavior. One possible explanation for this chaotic edge is the individual chaotic behavior of hurricanes, either by category or individually regardless of their category and their behavior on a regular basis.


Palaios ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 461-469
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER A. SPARACIO ◽  
ILYA V. BUYNEVICH ◽  
H. ALLEN CURRAN ◽  
KAREN KOPCZNSKI

ABSTRACT A large brachyuran, the blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumiLatreille, 1825) is a keystone species and a prolific burrower in a variety of low-latitude supratidal habitats; however, few studies have addressed its ichnological aspects. Here we present a detailed morphological assessment of C. guanhumi burrows and make comparisons to Macanopsis plataniformis, a trace fossil thought to be constructed by a similar brachyuran. Using nine burrow casts from a mangrove wetland on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, 29 dimensionless morphometric parameters were compared. Results of Bray-Curtis tests show high overall similarity index (0.85) between casts, with complexity, tortuosity, and opening inclination angle having moderate to high similarity (> 0.8). End chamber angle of the blue land crab has highest similarity both within the modern morphometric parameter dataset (> 0.9) and to that of M. plataniformis (0.88). The large terminal chamber is particularly important because of its high preservation potential, as a repository for organic remains, and as a reliable water table (∼ sea-level) indicator. Cluster analysis suggests size-independent Macanopsis-resembling burrow morphology among different extant taxa can be discriminated via quantitative neoichnological methods. Our findings demonstrate how a quantitative assessment of modern burrows and their likely counterparts from the sedimentary record can help constrain tracemaker identity and aid paleoenvironmental reconstruction of low-energy microtidal settings.


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