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2023 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tayyub ◽  
S. Ali ◽  
A. Javid ◽  
M. Imran

Abstract The current study was carried out to estimate the prevalence and diversity of ectoparasites in rock pigeons in different regions of Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 120 birds were captured from March 2017 to February 2019. The ectoparasites were collected by standard procedures and preserved in 70% ethanol containing one drop of glycerin. Data related to age, health status, sex, type of area, sampling location and season were collected using a standardized form. Ectoparasites were identified based on morphological characteristics by using identification keys. Ninety-six (80%) birds were infested with ectoparasites. A total of seven families and thirteen species of different ectoparasites were observed. Mainly, seven species of lice, two species of flies, one species of tick and three species of mites were recovered from infested birds. The female pigeons were more often infested (89.02%) than male pigeons (60.52%). The prevalence was found higher during summer (100%) as compared to other seasons. The infestation rate was higher in Industrial area (97.50%) as compared to other regions. The highest prevalence of ectoparasites (100%) was recorded from Sargodha district. There was significant (P < 0.05) variation among number of ectoparasites on wing, chest, tail and neck within age groups, seasons and ecological zones. The occurrence of parasites in relation to area, age, health status, sex and season were significant. The infestation rate of parasites in rock pigeon is high in different districts of Punjab. It is recommended that these wild birds infested with multiple species of ectoparasites could be the potential source of infestations in domesticated birds if they come in contact with them. The contact of domesticated birds should be prevented from wild birds to minimize the chance of cross species transmission of ectoparasites.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0262425
Author(s):  
Kahui Lim ◽  
Matthew Rolston ◽  
Samantha Barnum ◽  
Cara Wademan ◽  
Harold Leverenz

In this study, we examined the total bacterial community associated with ureolytic biomineralization from urine drainage systems. Biomineral samples were obtained from 11 California Department of Transportation public restrooms fitted with waterless, low-flow, or conventional urinals in 2019. Following high throughput 16S rRNA Illumina sequences processed using the DADA2 pipeline, the microbial diversity assessment of 169 biomineral and urine samples resulted in 3,869 reference sequences aggregated as 598 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Using PERMANOVA testing, we found strong, significant differences between biomineral samples grouped by intrasystem sampling location and urinal type. Biomineral microbial community profiles and alpha diversities differed significantly when controlling for sampling season. Observational statistics revealed that biomineral samples obtained from waterless urinals contained the largest ureC/16S gene copy ratios and were the least diverse urinal type in terms of Shannon indices. Waterless urinal biomineral samples were largely dominated by the Bacilli class (86.1%) compared to low-flow (41.3%) and conventional samples (20.5%), and had the fewest genera that account for less than 2.5% relative abundance per OTU. Our findings are useful for future microbial ecology studies of urine source-separation technologies, as we have established a comparative basis using a large sample size and study area.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Curran ◽  
Samuel Browett ◽  
David O'Neill ◽  
Aidan O'Hanlon ◽  
Catherine O'Reilly ◽  
...  

Abstract Arthropod populations are constantly changing due to changes in climate and the globalisation of trade and travel. Effective and diverse monitoring techniques are required to understand these changes. DNA metabarcoding has facilitated the development of a broad monitoring method to sample arthropod diversity from environmental and faecal samples. In this study, we applied DNA metabarcoding to DNA extracted from bat faecal pellets of Rhinolophus hipposideros, the lesser horseshoe bat in Ireland, a highly protected bat species of conservation concern in Europe. From as few as 24 bat faecal pellets, we detected 161 arthropod species, spanning 11 orders, including 38 pest species of which five were determined to be priority pests, highlighting important ecosystem services. We also report the identification 14 species not previously reported in Ireland, but upon further investigation found that many of these are likely misidentified due to inadequacies in the genetic reference database. For the first time, we were able to use non-invasively collected bat samples to examine the role of sex in the diet of bats and found that the male and female diets did not differ significantly. However, sampling location did explain variation within the diet, highlighting how landscape features influence arthropod composition and diversity. We discuss the current limitations of the methodology in Ireland, how these can be overcome in future studies, and how this data can be used for biodiversity monitoring and informing conservation management of protected bat species.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261957
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz G. Alghamdi ◽  
Mohamed H. EL-Saeid ◽  
Abdulhakim J. Alzahrani ◽  
Hesham M. Ibrahim

Depending on their particle size and concentration, heavy metals in urban dust pose a health hazard to humans. This study investigated the total concentration, health risk, integrated pollution load index (IPI), and enrichment factor (EF) of various heavy metals in urban dust at different locations in Riyadh City. Surface dust samples were collected from 50 different residential yards in the north, south, west, east, and central corners of the city and analyzed for cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn). With respect to concentrations heavy metals were in the following order Zn > Cu > Mn > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cd. The EF trends exposed repeated anthropogenic activities were responsible for Mn, Cr, and Ni, while Pb, Zn, and Cu appeared to come from Earth’s crust. Since the heavy metal concentrations were lower than the threshold values, children and adults are exposed to lower health risk in investigated area. Also, there are no pollution of heavy metals in the dust with respect to IPI which is less than the critical limit (<1) with the exception of a sampling location in north side of the city with higher IPI showed unhealthy respiration conditions in particular areas. It was concluded that rapid industrialization and urbanization and their concentrations in dust may cause health problems in near future in north side as well as other sides of Riyadh City.


2022 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kahui Lim ◽  
Harold Leverenz ◽  
Cara Wademan ◽  
Samantha Barnum

AbstractClogging and odor is strongly associated with ureolytic biomineralization in waterless and low-flow urinal drainage systems in high usage settings. These blockages continue to hinder widespread waterless and low-flow urinal adoption due to subsequent high maintenance requirements and hygiene concerns. Through field observations, hypothesis testing, and multiple regression analysis, this study attempts to characterize, for the first time, the ureolytic activity of the biomineralization found in alternative technologies located at 9 State-owned restrooms. Multiple regression analysis (n = 55, df = 4, R2 = 0.665) suggests that intrasystem sampling location ($$ \hat{\upbeta} $$ β ̂ = 1.23, p < 0.001), annual users per rest area ($$ \hat{\upbeta} $$ β ̂ = 0.5, p = 0.004), and the volatile solids to total solids mass fraction ($$ \hat{\upbeta} $$ β ̂ = 0.59, p = 0.003), are statistically significant influencers of the ureolytic activity of biomineral samples (p < 0.05). Conversely, ureC gene abundance (p = 0.551), urinal type (p = 0.521) and sampling season (p = 0.956) are not significant predictors of biomineral ureolytic activity. We conclude that high concentrations of the urease alpha subunit, ureC, which can be interpreted as proxy measure of a strong, potentially ureolytic community, does not necessarily mean that the gene is being expressed. Future studies should assess ureC transcriptional activity to measure gene expression rather than gene abundance to assess the relationship between environmental conditions, their role in transcription, and urease activities. In sum, this study presents a method to characterize biomineral ureolysis. This study establishes baseline values for future ureolytic inhibition treatment studies that seek to improve the usability of urine collection and related source separation technologies.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e12694
Author(s):  
Edward R. Atwill ◽  
Saharuetai Jeamsripong

Consumption of contaminated food causes 600 million cases, including 420,000 of fatal infections every year. Estimated cost from food-borne illnesses is USD 110 billion per year, which is an economic burden to low- and middle-income countries. Thailand is a leading producer and consumer of seafood, but little is known about bacterial contamination in seafood. In particular, public health agencies need to know the relationship between Salmonella contamination in seafood and risk factors, as assessed with readily available culture-dependent and bacterial phenotyping methods. To address this, levels of indicator bacteria, Salmonella and Vibrio in various seafood products were determined to identify risk factors associated with Salmonella contamination. A total of 335 samples were collected from October 2018 to July 2019 at seafood markets throughout Bangkok, Thailand; overall sample composition was Pacific white shrimp (n = 85), oysters (n = 82), blood cockles (n = 84), and Asian seabass (n = 84). Prevalence was 100% for fecal coliforms and 85% for E. coli. In contrast, prevalence was 59% for V. parahaemolyticus, 49% for V. cholerae, 19% for V. alginolyticus, 18% for V. vulnificus, and 36% for Salmonella. Highest concentrations of fecal coliforms and E. coli were in oysters. Highest concentrations of Salmonella with Matopeni (31%) being the predominant serotype were in shrimp. Salmonella contamination was significantly associated with type of seafood, sampling location, retail conditions, and the presence of E. coli, V. alginolyticus and V. vulnificus. A cutoff value for E. coli concentration of 1.3 × 104 MPN/g predicted contamination of Salmonella, with a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 61%. Displaying seafood products on ice, presence of E. coli and Vibrio, and seafood derived from Eastern Thailand were associated with an increased risk of Salmonella contamination.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uffe Vest Schneider ◽  
Jenny Dahl Knudsen ◽  
Anders Koch ◽  
Nikolai Søren Kirkby ◽  
Jan Gorm Lisby

BACKGROUND The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented level of world-wide testing for epidemiologic and diagnostic purposes, and due to the extreme need for tests, the gold standard reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) testing capacity has been unable to meet the overall global testing demand. Consequently, although current literature has shown the sensitivity of rapid antigen tests (RATs) to be inferior to RT-qPCR, RATs have been implemented on a large scale without solid data on performance. OBJECTIVE This study will compare analytical and clinical sensitivities and specificities of 50 lateral flow or laboratory based RATs and three Strand Invasion Based Amplification (SIBA)-rt-PCR tests from 30 manufacturers to RT-qPCR on samples obtained from the deep oropharynx. In addition, the study will compare sensitivities and specificities of the included RATs as well as RT-qPCR on clinical samples obtained from the deep oropharynx, anterior nasal cavity, saliva, deep nasopharynx and expired air to RT-qPCR from deep oropharyngeal samples. METHODS In the prospective part of the study, 200 individuals found SARS-CoV-2 positive and 200 individuals found SARS-CoV-2 negative by routine RT-qPCR testing will be re-tested with each RAT applying RT-qPCR as the reference method. In the retrospective part of the study, 304 deep oropharyngeal cavity swabs divided into four groups based on RT-qPCR Cq levels will be tested by each RAT. RESULTS The results will be reported in several manuscripts with different aims. The first manuscript will report retrospective (analytical sensitivity, overall and stratified into different Cq range groups) and prospective (clinical sensitivity) data for RATs with RT-qPCR results as the reference method. The second manuscript will report results for RAT based on anatomical sampling location. The third manuscript will compare different anatomical sampling locations by RT-qPCR testing. The fourth manuscript will focus on RATs that rely on central laboratory testing. Test from four different manufactures will be compared for analytical performance data on retrospective deep oropharyngeal swab samples. The fifth manuscript will report the results of four RATs applied both as professional use and as self-test. The last manuscript will report the results from two breath tests participating in the study. Comparison of sensitivity and specificity between RATs will be done using McNemar for paired samples and chi-squared test for unpaired samples. Comparison of PPV and NPV between RATs will be done by bootstrap test. 95 % confidence intervals for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value are calculated as bootstrap confidence intervals CONCLUSIONS The study will compare the sensitivities of a large number of RATs for SARS-CoV-2 compared to RT-qPCR and will address whether lateral flow based RATs test differ significantly from laboratory based RATS. The anatomical test location for both RAT and RT-qPCR will be compared. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04913116


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 1068
Author(s):  
Maja Ivanić ◽  
Martina Furdek Turk ◽  
Zdenko Tkalčec ◽  
Željka Fiket ◽  
Armin Mešić

This paper investigates the composition of major, trace, and rare earth elements in 15 different species of wild edible mushrooms and the possible effect of urban pollution on elemental uptake. The collected mushrooms include different species from the green areas of the city, exposed to urban pollution, and from the forests, with limited anthropogenic influence. Through a comprehensive approach that included the analysis of 46 elements, an attempt was made to expand knowledge about element uptake by mushroom fruiting bodies. The results showed a wide variability in the composition of mushrooms, suggesting a number of factors influencing their element uptake capacity. The data obtained do not indicate significant exposure to anthropogenic influences, regardless of sampling location. While major elements’ levels appear to be influenced more by species-specific affinities, this is not true for trace elements, whose levels presumably reflect the geochemical characteristics of the sampling site. However, the risk assessment showed that consumption of excessive amounts of the mushrooms studied, both from urban areas and from forests, may have adverse health effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sivan Laviad-Shitrit ◽  
Rotem Sela ◽  
Yehonatan Sharaby ◽  
Leena Thorat ◽  
Bimalendu B. Nath ◽  
...  

Chironomids are aquatic insects that undergo a complete metamorphosis of four life stages. Here we studied, for the first time, the microbiota composition of Chironomus circumdatus, a tropical midge species, both from the Mula and Mutha Rivers in Pune, India and as a laboratory-reared culture. We generated a comparative microbial profile of the eggs, larvae and pupae, the three aquatic life stages of C. circumdatus. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) demonstrated that the developmental stage had a more prominent effect on the microbiota composition compared to the sampling location. Notably, the microbiota composition of the egg masses from the different sampling points clustered together and differed from laboratory culture larvae. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum in all the environmental and laboratory-reared egg masses and pupal samples, and in the laboratory-reared larvae, while Fusobacteria was the dominant phylum in the larvae collected from the field environment. The most abundant genera were Cetobacterium, Aeromonas, Dysgonomonas, Vibrio, and Flavobacterium. The ten amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) that most significantly contributed to differences in microbiota composition between the three sampled locations were: Burkholderiaceae (ASVs 04 and 37), C39 (Rhodocyclaceae, ASV 14), Vibrio (ASV 07), Arcobacter (ASV 21), Sphaerotilus (ASV 22), Bacteroidia (ASVs 12 and 28), Flavobacterium (ASV 29), and Gottschalkia (ASV 10). No significant differences were found in the microbial richness (Chao1) or diversity (Shannon H’) of the three sampled locations. In contrast, significant differences were found between the microbial richness of the three life stages. Studying the microbiota of this Chironomus species may contribute to a better understanding of the association of C. circumdatus and its microbial inhabitants.


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