Journal articles on the topic 'Crickets Diseases'

Despite decades of focus on crickets (family: Gryllidae) as a popular commodity and model organism, we still know very little about their immune responses to microbial pathogens. Previous studies have measured downstream immune effects (e.g., encapsulation response, circulating hemocytes) following an immune challenge in crickets, but almost none have identified and quantified the expression of immune genes during an active pathogenic infection. Furthermore, the prevalence of covert (i.e., asymptomatic) infections within insect populations is becoming increasingly apparent, yet we do not fully understand the mechanisms that maintain low viral loads. In the present study, we measured the expression of several genes across multiple immune pathways in Gryllodes sigillatus crickets with an overt or covert infection of cricket iridovirus (CrIV). Crickets with overt infections had higher relative expression of key pathway component genes across the Toll, Imd, Jak/STAT, and RNAi pathways. These results suggests that crickets can tolerate low viral infections but can mount a robust immune response during an overt CrIV infection. Moreover, this study provides insight into the immune strategy of crickets following viral infection and will aid future studies looking to quantify immune investment and improve resistance to pathogens.

Orthopteran insects have high reproductive rates leading to boom-bust population dynamics with high local densities that are ideal for short, episodic disease epidemics. Viruses are particularly well suited for such host population dynamics, due to their supreme ability to adapt to changing transmission criteria. However, very little is known about the viruses of Orthopteran insects. Since Orthopterans are increasingly reared commercially, for animal feed and human consumption, there is a risk that viruses naturally associated with these insects can adapt to commercial rearing conditions, and cause disease. We therefore explored the virome of the house cricket Acheta domesticus, which is both part of the natural Swedish landscape and reared commercially for the pet feed market. Only 1% of the faecal RNA and DNA from wild-caught A. domesticus consisted of viruses. These included both known and novel viruses associated with crickets/insects, their bacterial-fungal microbiome, or their plant food. Relatively abundant among these viral Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) was a novel Iflavirus, tentatively named Acheta domesticus Iflavirus (AdIV). Quantitative analyses showed that AdIV was also abundant in frass and insect samples from commercially reared crickets. Interestingly, the wild and commercial AdIV strains had short, extremely divergent variation hotspots throughout the genome, which may indicate specific adaptation to their hosts’ distinct rearing environments.

Invertebrate iridoviruses (IIVs), while mostly described in a wide range of invertebrate hosts, have also been repeatedly detected in diagnostic samples from poikilothermic vertebrates including reptiles and amphibians. Since iridoviruses from invertebrate and vertebrate hosts differ strongly from one another based not only on host range but also on molecular characteristics, a series of molecular studies and bioassays were performed to characterize and compare IIVs from various hosts and evaluate their ability to infect a vertebrate host. Eight IIV isolates from reptilian and orthopteran hosts collected over a period of six years were partially sequenced. Comparison of eight genome portions (total over 14 kbp) showed that these were all very similar to one another and to an earlier described cricket IIV isolate, thus they were given the collective name lizard–cricket IV (Liz–CrIV). One isolate from a chameleon was also subjected to Illumina sequencing and almost the entire genomic sequence was obtained. Comparison of this longer genome sequence showed several differences to the most closely related IIV, Invertebrate iridovirus 6 (IIV6), the type species of the genus Iridovirus, including several deletions and possible recombination sites, as well as insertions of genes of non-iridoviral origin. Three isolates from vertebrate and invertebrate hosts were also used for comparative studies on pathogenicity in crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) at 20 and 30 °C. Finally, the chameleon isolate used for the genome sequencing studies was also used in a transmission study with bearded dragons. The transmission studies showed large variability in virus replication and pathogenicity of the three tested viruses in crickets at the two temperatures. In the infection study with bearded dragons, lizards inoculated with a Liz–CrIV did not become ill, but the virus was detected in numerous tissues by qPCR and was also isolated in cell culture from several tissues. Highest viral loads were measured in the gastro-intestinal organs and in the skin. These studies demonstrate that Liz–CrIV circulates in the pet trade in Europe. This virus is capable of infecting both invertebrates and poikilothermic vertebrates, although its involvement in disease in the latter has not been proven.

Shrew is an animal belong to small mammals that the existence must be noticed because it has defecation behavior and their droplets often pollutes the house. Shrew can be vectors in the spread of infectious diseases to human. Shrew management has not been conducted well. Information about the most preferred bait and the effective rodenticide as a reference in controlling is not widely known. Chemical control using rodenticides is effective enough and does not take a long time. The objective of this research was to obtain shrew preference to the types of feed that commonly consumed by human and rodenticide to control it. It can be used as bait in trapping and poisoned bait which are effective in shrew management. Baits that used were cooked rice, rice, white bread, Tenebrio larvae, cricket, chicken nugget, fish meatball, and salted fish. Choice tests were used by serving eight feeds in one cage for seven consecutive days in the first test. Then, choose four prefered feeds and tested for seven consecutive days in the second test. Acute poison (zinc phosphide) and chronic poison (coumatetralyl) mixed with the most preferred feed, then served with control feed as comparison for the third test. Result of this research showed that cricket was the most preferred feed therefore it can be used as trap bait or poisoned bait. Moreover, the other most preferred feed is Tenebrio larvae, fish meatball, and cooked rice that can be used as substitution feed if crickets are difficult to find. Zinc phosphide rodenticide is more effective than coumatetralyl to kill shrew with relatively fast on the time of death.

In this study we take a closer look at the diseases that afflicted Japanese police officers who were stationed in a remote mountainous region of Taiwan from 1921 to 1944. Samples were taken from the latrine at the Huabanuo police outpost, and analyzed for the eggs of intestinal parasites, using microscopy and ELISA. The eggs of <i>Eurytrema</i> sp., (possibly <i>E</i>. <i>pancreaticum</i>), whipworm and roundworm were shown to be present. True infection with <i>Eurytrema</i> would indicate that the policemen ate uncooked grasshoppers and crickets infected with the parasite. However, false parasitism might also occur if the policemen ate the uncooked intestines of infected cattle, and the <i>Eurytrema</i> eggs passed through the human intestines. These findings provide an insight into the diet and health of the Japanese colonists in Taiwan nearly a century ago.

SUMMARYExtreme variation in reproductive success (VRS) has been reported as a common feature of populations. Few individuals producing most of the offspring for the next generation has potential consequences for the population dynamics, genetics, and evolution of a group of organisms. High VRS has been described as a normal feature of helminth populations, although studies have focused largely on parasites of vertebrate hosts. Paragordius varius, a parasite of crickets, was used as a model system to study VRS. In this life cycle, worms absorb and store resources for reproduction from their hosts before being released into water. Egg output varied significantly with worm length, indicating that female length is an excellent predictor of fecundity. Analyses using the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient suggest that there were no marked fecundity differences. This result was supported by data collected from a natural gordiid population, Gordius difficilis, suggesting that within gordiid populations the offspring of the next generation are contributed nearly equally by females. In addition, male body length appeared to be limited by intensity, whereas females showed no length limitation by crowding. These results contrast previous studies of parasites.

ObjectiveFormer sports participants do not necessarily maintain high levels of physical activity (PA) across their lifespan. Considering physical inactivity in former athletes is associated with an increased susceptibility to inactivity-related chronic diseases, research into PA behaviours in cricketers of all playing-standards is needed. The objective was to (1) describe PA and sedentary behaviour in current and former cricketers, and (2) determine the odds of current, former, recreational and elite cricketers meeting PA guidelines and health-enhancing PA (HEPA) compared with the general population.Study designCross-sectional survey.SettingQuestionnaire response, UK.Participants2267 current and former cricketers (age: 52±15 years, male: 97%, current: 59%, recreational: 45%) participated. Cricketers were recruited through the Cricket Health and Wellbeing Study and met eligibility requirements (aged ≥18 years; played ≥1 year of cricket).Primary and secondary outcomesAge-matched and sex-matched data from Health Survey for England 2015 (n=3201) was used as the general population-based sample. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short-Form assessed PA. Logistic regression, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, alcohol consumption, smoking, education and ethnicity were used to meet the second aim.Results90% of current and 82% of former cricketers met UK PA guidelines. Current (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.49)) and elite (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.78) cricketers had greater odds of meeting UK PA guidelines, and elite cricketers had greater odds of HEPA (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.42), compared with the general population. Former cricketers had reduced odds (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.99) of meeting the UK PA guidelines compared with the general population.ConclusionsElite cricketers had a greater odds of meeting the PA guidelines and HEPA, compared with the general population. Former cricketers demonstrated reduced odds of meeting the PA guidelines compared with the general population. Strategies are needed to transition cricketers to an active lifestyle after retirement, since former cricketers demonstrated reduced odds of meeting the PA guidelines compared with the general population.

Hearing is the second most important sense organ after vision. The hearing organ enables cognition, communication with others and perception of the beauty – to hear the singing of birds and the sound of rain, to get acquainted with the street musicians’ performances and enjoy the world music masterpieces. Hearing helps us navigate the surrounding space and warns us of danger. There are many interesting facts on this sense organ in the world. For example, in some insects, such as crickets and grasshoppers, the hearing organs are located on the front legs; elephants have the ability to perceive sounds not only with their ears but also with their trunk and columnar legs – this is how they learn about the approach of an enemy or a herd of relatives. Human ears can grow throughout life, and the right ear is “exploited” four times more often than the left. The laryngoscope, a special tool for examining the larynx, was not invented by an ENT doctor but by a musician, Manuel Garcia, even though it was first used thanks to a doctor and scientist from Budapest, Jan Cermak, in medical practice. It is him who is regarded as the founder of modern otorhinolaryngology, the science that studies the ear, throat and nose diseases.

The southwestern part of Nigeria is a tropical rainforest region having many local beekeepers. The se beekeepers have experienced decline in colony establishment in the recent past . A study carried out in Lagos, Ogun and Osun states between December 2009 and September 2011 examined 14 randomly selected commercial bee farms for problems associated with decline in colony establishment . Sampling and treatments were split equally between each apiary and three colonies were selected in each . All the colonies were housed in Tanzania /local top bar hive s. There were 58.34, 44.84 and 40.61 average percentage declines in colony establishment in Lagos, Ogun and Osun States , respectively. Presence of pests and diseases, pesticide poisoning, poor hive and seasonal management, ecological problem and lack of queen rearing were potential problems identified by the beekeepers . All the apiaries had pests like Crickets, Ants ( Companotus pennsylvanicus ), Small Hive beetle ( Aethina tumida ), Termites ( Macrotermes spp ) and Spider ( Lactrodectus mactan ) . Varroa mite infestations were found in 33 (78.57%) of apiaries sampled. There was no significant difference between the levels of Varroa infestation in all the colonies during the dry and wet seasons at confidence interval of 95 percent ( t = 1.542, df = 13, p = 0.147 ( p > 0.05) . Nosema spores were found in 27 (64.29%) colonies examined. The number of spores range from 16 x 10 3 to 30.4 x 10 3 . T here were no significant differences in the infection from colony to colony, apiary to apiary and between dry and wet seasons ( t = - 0.094 df = 11, P = 0.927 (P > 0.05). Diseases like American and European foulbrood were absent while chalkbrood disease was prevalent. Environmental factors of high temperature, high rainfall and high relative and hive humidity enhanced the spread of pests and disease pathogens. Many insecticides were constantly applied by the farmers on the crops in the surrounding farmland. Two of the commonly used insecticides DDVP (Dichlorvos) and Cyperforce (Cypermetrin) were discovered to have increased mortality on worker honey bees with progressively larger doses. It was obvious that insecticide toxicity had a significant effect on the colony. Hence , ecological and management problems had contributed to the decline in colony establishment in this area.

The growing global food crisis and the changing climatic and agro-ecological conditions on the planet are predominant, serious, and growing issues that require Global attention. Insecurity caused by the lack of food can have devastating effects on health, with malnutrition being considered a major cause of infant mortality. In addition, malnutrition at an early age has been linked to problems later, including hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Insecurity caused by the lack of food contributes to lowering immune function and altering the intestinal microbiome. By 2030, the annual economic cost of mortality and noncommunicable illnesses is anticipated to exceed $1.3 trillion. Edible insects are employed in gastronomy and the food industry in many Asian, Oceanian, African, and Latin American countries. Due to cultural preconceptions and disinformation regarding its detrimental characteristics and effects on the human body, Western societies perceive it as animal feed rather than human food. Academic, industrial, and government forces are constantly trying to reduce negative insect perceptions by raising public awareness of the need to find alternative food sources, developing new insect processing methods, and highlighting the health benefits of insect consumption. Insect consumption, also known as entomophagy, has been reported for a long time. It is estimated that roughly 2 billion individuals ingest insects regularly worldwide. There are about 2,000 edible bug species in the literature, the majority of which come from tropical nations. The most regularly ingested insects are beetles, bees, wasps, ants, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, termites, dragonflies, and flies. This review covers current insect trends as a prospective food source (alternative food source), describes the benefits and risks associated with their ingestion, and highlights the numerous areas where they could be used.

Aging is a natural phenomenon that occurs in all living organisms. In humans, aging is associated with lowered overall functioning and increased mortality out of the risk for various age-related diseases. Hence, researchers are pushed to find effective natural interventions that can promote healthy aging and extend lifespan. Royal jelly (RJ) is a natural product that is fed to bee queens throughout their entire life. Thanks to RJ, bee queens enjoy an excellent reproductive function and lengthened lifespan compared with bee workers, despite the fact that they have the same genome. This review aimed to investigate the effect of RJ and/or its components on lifespan/healthspan in various species by evaluating the most relevant studies. Moreover, we briefly discussed the positive effects of RJ on health maintenance and age-related disorders in humans. Whenever possible, we explored the metabolic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms through which RJ can modulate age-related mechanisms to extend lifespan. RJ and its ingredients—proteins and their derivatives e.g., royalactin; lipids e.g., 10-hydroxydecenoic acid; and vitamins e.g., pantothenic acid—improved healthspan and extended lifespan in worker honeybees Apis mellifera, Drosophila Melanogaster flies, Gryllus bimaculatus crickets, silkworms, Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes, and mice. The longevity effect was attained via various mechanisms: downregulation of insulin-like growth factors and targeting of rapamycin, upregulation of the epidermal growth factor signaling, dietary restriction, and enhancement of antioxidative capacity. RJ and its protein and lipid ingredients have the potential to extend lifespan in various creatures and prevent senescence of human tissues in cell cultures. These findings pave the way to inventing specific RJ anti-aging drugs. However, much work is needed to understand the effect of RJ interactions with microbiome, diet, activity level, gender, and other genetic variation factors that affect healthspan and longevity.

This article discusses the Ngalab Blessing phenomenon in the Open tradition of the Sunan Kudus Grave. This research uses a qualitative approaching a qualitative approach; this article seeks to answer questions about people's perceptions of cricket rice and the lithe Sunan Kudus tomb that are believed to be able to provide blessings. The problem of this research is how people's perceptions of cricket rice and lithe former Sunan kudus tomb. This research aims to describe people's opinions of cricket rice and lithe previous Sunan kudus tombs, which are believed by the community to be able to provide blessings. The results showed that cicada rice has blessings that can, among other things, cure diseases, plant crops and can provide additional sustenance. In addition to cicada rice ngalap blessings that are trusted by the community is through the flexible lithe of the former Tomb of Sunan Kudus. Mori cloth (used) the tomb of Sunan Kudus or commonly called luwur is believed to be an intermediary in obtaining blessings or fortune.

Yuvraj Singh, a famous name in the world of cricket. He is such a kind of person and a sportsman who does not require introduction. Cricket fans see him as a stylish player who hits the ball with brutality, but there is a soft-hearted, gentle person somewhere deep inside. One of his childhood neighboring friend was my colleague at that time. After 20 years down the line he is my closest friend. From him only, I come to know about Yuvaj and his life. According to him, Yuvi is a great friend and a nice human being. Great friend, because he is the one who takes initiative to collect all the yesteryear friends and meet at one place and nostalgic time together. Nice human being, because he participates in many charitable events charging no money. He also runs a charity foundation, which provides aid and economic support who are fighting life-threatening diseases, mainly cancer.

How a host metabolism responds to infection with insect viruses and how it relates to pathogenesis, is little investigated. Our previous study observed that Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV, Dicistroviridae) causes short term persistence in silkworm Bm5 cells before proceeding to acute infection. In this study, a metabolomics approach based on high resolution mass spectrometry was applied to investigate how a host metabolism is altered during the course of CrPV infection in Bm5 cells and which changes are characteristic for the transition from persistence to pathogenicity. We observed that CrPV infection led to significant and stage-specific metabolic changes in Bm5 cells. Differential metabolites abundance and pathway analysis further identified specific metabolic features at different stages in the viral life cycle. Notably, both glucose and glutamine levels significantly increased during CrPV persistent infection followed by a steep decrease during the pathogenic stages, suggesting that the central carbon metabolism was significantly modified during CrPV infection in Bm5 cells. In addition, dynamic changes in levels of polyamines were detected. Taken together, this study characterized for the first time the metabolic dynamics of CrPV infection in insect cells, proposing a central role for the regulation of both amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism during the period of persistent infection of CrPV in Bm5 cells.

Abstract Inflammation is activated prior to symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases, providing a plausible pathogenic mechanism. Indeed, genetic and pharmacological ablation studies in animal models of several neurodegenerative diseases demonstrate that inflammation is required for pathology. However, while there is growing evidence that inflammation-mediated pathology may be the common mechanism underlying neurodegenerative diseases, including those due to dominantly inherited expanded repeats, the proximal causal agent is unknown. Expanded CAG.CUG repeat double-stranded RNA causes inflammation-mediated pathology when expressed in Drosophila. Repeat dsRNA is recognized by Dicer-2 as a foreign or ‘non-self’ molecule triggering both antiviral RNA and RNAi pathways. Neither of the RNAi pathway cofactors R2D2 nor loquacious are necessary, indicating antiviral RNA activation. RNA modification enables avoidance of recognition as ‘non-self’ by the innate inflammatory surveillance system. Human ADAR1 edits RNA conferring ‘self’ status and when co-expressed with expanded CAG.CUG dsRNA in Drosophila the pathology is lost. Cricket Paralysis Virus protein CrPV-1A is a known antagonist of Argonaute-2 in Drosophila antiviral defense. CrPV-1A co-expression also rescues pathogenesis, confirming anti-viral-RNA response. Repeat expansion mutation therefore confers ‘non-self’ recognition of endogenous RNA, thereby providing a proximal, autoinflammatory trigger for expanded repeat neurodegenerative diseases.

The rapid increase in insect production for food and feed both in Europe and elsewhere in the world has led to a need for a coordinated action to assist producers in the diagnosis and management of insect diseases in production stock. Diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and other insect pathogens can be detrimental for reared insects and may cause significant economic loss to producers. Here, we suggest how academia, commercial companies and other insect producers can jointly develop best practice for diagnosing insect diseases early and thereby manage such diseases efficiently. First, we analyse different ways of transmission of insect diseases in closed and semi-closed production facilities. Thereafter we describe four recent cases where companies have requested advice about insect pathogens in their insect stock namely: with giant mealworm Zophobas morio, yellow mealworm Tenebrio molitor, house cricket Acheta domesticus, and with lesser mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus. Our experience dealing with these cases gave us insight to suggest how we should coordinate European activities to establish a service to diagnose and provide advice, and how different European laboratories specialised in insect pathology should collaborate. An important issue will be to educate a new generation of insect pathologists, who with a combination of classical insect pathology methods and the most modern tools can become professionals in diagnosing and managing the various types of insect pathogens.

Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to excess alcohol exposure is a major cause of gut barrier disruption and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced hepatic inflammation, as well as liver steatosis and apoptosis. This study was designed to investigate protective effects of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, an edible insect recognized by the Korea Food and Drug Administration, against acute alcoholic liver damage in mice. Administration of G. bimaculatus extracts (GBE) attenuated alcohol-induced steatosis and apoptotic responses in the liver and intestinal permeability to bacterial endotoxin. These protective effects were associated with suppression of ROS-mediated oxidative stress in both the liver and small intestine. Furthermore, in vivo and in vitro studies revealed that GBE inhibits LPS-induced Kupffer cell activation and subsequent inflammatory signaling. Importantly, the protective effects of GBE were more potent than those of silymarin, a known therapeutic agent for alcoholic liver diseases.

High-throughput approaches have opened new opportunities for understanding biological processes such as persistent virus infections, which are widespread. However, the potential of persistent infections to develop towards pathogenesis remains to be investigated, particularly with respect to the role of host metabolism. To explore the interactions between cellular metabolism and persistent/pathogenic virus infection, we performed untargeted and targeted metabolomic analysis to examine the effects of Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV, Dicistroviridae) in persistently infected silkworm Bm5 cells and acutely infected Drosophila S2 cells. Our previous study (Viruses 2019, 11, 861) established that both glucose and glutamine levels significantly increased during the persistent period of CrPV infection of Bm5 cells, while they decreased steeply during the pathogenic stages. Strikingly, in this study, an almost opposite pattern in change of metabolites was observed during different stages of acute infection of S2 cells. More specifically, a significant decrease in amino acids and carbohydrates was observed prior to pathogenesis, while their abundance significantly increased again during pathogenesis. Our study illustrates the occurrence of diametrically opposite changes in central carbon mechanisms during CrPV infection of S2 and Bm5 cells that is possibly related to the type of infection (acute or persistent) that is triggered by the virus.

Background: Sedentary people who were not actively participating in sports have demonstrated significantly lower HSG compared to physically active people that involved in regular sports activity such as cricket, hockey, tennis, basketball, handball, etc. Therefore, HGS can be used to indicate the sedentary nature of a population, and it would help to predict their potential risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as Myocardial infarction and stroke.Methods: This study was conducted to establish the possible correlation (if any) between body mass index and handgrip strength and endurance among young healthy adults at the city of Dehradun in the region of Uttarakhand.Results: While in females there was statistically non-significant positive correlation between HGS and BMI in normal females. Statistically significant positive correlation was observed in overweight and obese females. When HE was correlated with BMI, it was observed that there was non-significant negative correlation in males.Conclusions: Physical fitness is very much essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Handgrip strength and endurance are important parameters to assess muscular strength of an individual. As the weight increases muscle strength and endurance time also decreases as shown by our study. BMI is considered as a useful tool to measure the degree of overweight, but it will not indicate the factors causing the increase in weight

Background The mosquito Aedes aegypti is a major vector for the arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever and Zika viruses. Vector immune responses pose a major barrier to arboviral transmission, and transgenic insects with altered immunity have been proposed as tools for reducing the global public health impact of arboviral diseases. However, a better understanding of virus-immune interactions is needed to progress the development of such transgenic insects. Although the NF-κB-regulated Toll and ‘immunodeficiency’ (Imd) pathways are increasingly thought to be antiviral, relevant pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) remain poorly characterised in A. aegypti. Methodology/Principle findings We developed novel RT-qPCR and luciferase reporter assays to measure induction of the Toll and Imd pathways in the commonly used A. aegypti-derived Aag2 cell line. We thus determined that the Toll pathway is not inducible by exogenous stimulation with bacterial, viral or fungal stimuli in Aag2 cells under our experimental conditions. We used our Imd pathway-specific assays to demonstrate that the viral dsRNA mimic poly(I:C) is sensed by the Imd pathway, likely through intracellular and extracellular PRRs. The Imd pathway was also induced during infection with the model insect-specific virus cricket paralysis virus (CrPV). Conclusions/Significance Our demonstration that a general PAMP shared by many arboviruses is sensed by the Imd pathway paves the way for future studies to determine how viral RNA is sensed by mosquito PRRs at a molecular level. Our data also suggest that studies measuring inducible immune pathway activation through antimicrobial peptide (AMP) expression in Aag2 cells should be interpreted cautiously given that the Toll pathway is not responsive under all experimental conditions. With no antiviral therapies and few effective vaccines available to treat arboviral diseases, our findings provide new insights relevant to the development of transgenic mosquitoes as a means of reducing arbovirus transmission.

The iridovirus isolate termed cricket iridovirus (CrIV) was isolated in 1996 from Gryllus campestris L. and Acheta domesticus L. (both Orthoptera, Gryllidae). CrIV DNA shows distinct DNA restriction patterns different from those known for Insect iridescent virus type 6 (IIV-6). This observation led to the assumption that CrIV might be a new species within the family Iridoviridae. CrIV can be transmitted perorally to orthopteran species, resulting in specific, fatal diseases. These species include Gryllus bimaculatus L. and the African migratory locust Locusta migratoria migratorioides (Orthoptera, Acrididae). Analysis of genomic and host range properties of this isolate was carried out in comparison to those known for IIV-6. Host range studies of CrIV and IIV-6 revealed no differences in the peroral susceptibility in all insect species and developmental stages tested to date. Different gene loci of the IIV-6 genome were analyzed, including the major capsid protein (274L), thymidylate synthase (225R), an exonuclease (012L), DNA polymerase (037L), ATPase (075L), DNA ligase (205R) and the open reading frame 339L, which is homologous to the immediate-early protein ICP-46 of frog virus 3. The average identity of the selected viral genes and their gene products was found to be 95·98 and 95·18% at the nucleotide and amino acid level, respectively. These data led to the conclusion that CrIV and IIV-6 are not different species within the Iridoviridae family and that CrIV must be considered to be a variant and/or a novel strain of IIV-6.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional composition, techno-functional, and in vitro physiological properties of flours from six different insect species (mealworm, beetle, caterpillar, ant, locust, and cricket). The chemical composition of insects was evaluated following the standard methods (AOAC). Bulk density, water holding capacity, oil holding capacity, water absorption capacity, swelling capacity, emulsifying activity, foaming capacity, and gelation capacity were measured. In vitro antioxidant capacity was measured by the direct ABTS method. Hypoglycemic (glucose adsorption and the inhibition of α-amylase, glucose diffusion, and starch hydrolysis) and hypolipidemic (cholesterol and bile salts binding and lipase inhibition capacities) were investigated using in vitro methods. Insect flours exhibited a high content of protein (39.4%–58.1%) and fat (17.7%–50.1%) as main components, although the presence of chitin in ant samples was also highlighted. The techno-functional properties showed high oil holding, swelling, and emulsifying capacities in all insect flours analyzed, besides bulk density, hydration properties, and foaming capacity showing average values and no gelation capacity. Insects showed high antioxidant capacity (179–221 mg Trolox equivalents/g). Moreover, these edible insect flours revealed effective hyperglycemic and hyperlipidemic properties. Insect flours inhibited α-amylase activity (47.1%–98.0%) and retarded glucose diffusion (17.2%–29.6%) and starch hydrolysis (18.2%–88.1%). Likewise, they bound cholesterol and bile salts (8.4%–98.6%) and inhibited lipase activity (8.9%–47.1%). Hence, these insect flours might be of great interest to the food industry, being a healthy source of protein, exerting a positive impact on functional food properties, and potentially preventing the development of diseases associated with hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia.

Relevance. Introduction and variety study of flower and ornamental crops is one of the main tasks of botanical gardens, which aims to expand the promising assortment for domestic floriculture.Results. In the period from 2018 to 2020 varieties of hybrid iris (Iris x hybrida hort.) from the garden group “tall bearded” were studied in the Stavropol Botanical Garden. The presented 13 varieties belong to foreign selection. Basically, the varieties are characterized by medium or early flowering periods with an average duration of 11-15 days. In the course of the study, biometric characteristics, the economic and biological properties of the varieties were analyzed. The varieties with the longest duration and productivity of flowering were identified. The ability to bear fruit, which is important for further breeding work, was noted in three varieties: Autumn Circus, Pallida Variegata, Immortality. The main disease that harms the studied culture is heterosporiosis. The most resistant to diseases are the varieties Afternoon In Rio, Bye Bye Blues, Pallida Variegata (up to 10% damage). The detected pests (flea beetle, aphid, mole cricket, etc.) generally cause minor damage to the studied plants. In the assessment of decorativeness, 11 parameters were analyzed using a 100-point scale and taking into account the conversion factor. The color, size, shape of the flower, aroma, inflorescence, duration and abundance of flowering, resistance to adverse weather conditions, decorative vegetative part of plants, originality, condition of plants were taken into account. As a result of the variety study, 9 highly decorative varieties were identified: Bye Bye Blues, Stardock, Autumn Circus, Lotus Land, Power Point, Good Day Oregon, Lorilee, Conjuration, Afternoon In Rio.

Sports offer great benefits, improving health and reducing the risk of illnesses. This study’s aim was to investigate the prevalence of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus in football players compared to population based non-elite athlete control subjects. Initially 1100 male volunteers, (550) football players, and (550) population based non-elite athlete control subjects were interviewed. After socio-demographic and medical history analysis, 756 (378) nonsmoker male football players and (378) nonsmoker male control subjects were recruited. The control subjects were not involved in regular sports activities such as football, volleyball, badminton, cricket, hockey, and swimming. Participants with a known history of anemia, blood diseases, diabetes mellitus, and malignancy were excluded from the study. The mean age of football players was 31.80 ± 5.46 years, Body Mass Index (BMI) was 26.40 ± 2.08 (kg/m2), and the mean age of control subjects was 32.32 ± 4.37 years, and BMI was 26.66 ± 1.87 (kg/m2). The selected football players have been playing football for about 2 h a day, 3 days per week, and so the total mean duration of playing football was 1.08 years. American Diabetes Association (ADA) based criteria on Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) was used to investigate prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In football players the prevalence of prediabetes was 30 (7.93%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was 6 (1.59%) compared to population based matched non-elite athlete control subjects where the prediabetes was 71 (18.78%) and T2DM was 89 (23.54%) (p = 0.001). Among football players there was a 7-fold decrease in T2DM compared to control subjects. Football recreational activities markedly reduce the prevalence of prediabetes and T2DM. The study findings demonstrate the benefits of football and other such sport activities and emphasize the urgent need for promoting football based physical activities as a physiological preventive strategy against the globally growing diabetes epidemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic, global climate change, and a fast-growing human population have been reported to be leading millions into food insecurity. According to an FAO report, in 2020 over 811 million people were undernourished with 418 million in Asia, 282 million in Africa and 60 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. The world is off-track in ending hunger and improving nutrition, targets set by the United Nations (UN), to be achieved by 2030. The promotion of sustainable food sources such as entomophagy can help to deliver sustainable nutrition to many populations to reach the aforementioned UN targets. This narrative review explores the existing evidence around the use of edible insects to address food insecurity and malnutrition, including health, social and environmental benefits. For example, the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) provides on the order of three times as much energy, protein, and iron as an equal amount of beef or chicken and, unlike them, is an excellent source of calcium. An effective decontamination technique (to address safety issues such as allergens and pathogens) is required to produce edible insect powder. Insect powder can be used to effectively fortify conventional food products with iron, zinc, calcium and dietary fibre, which are often difficult to obtain in adequate amounts in many common dietary regimes, especially in low-income circumstances. In communities where the consumption of insects is already culturally accepted, promotion of their consumption could also help address chronic diseases related to poor diets such as type 2 diabetes. In addition to their high nutrient content, many edible insects provide anti-inflammatory factors. Supporting the harvesting and even rearing of edible insects could generate increased income from selling them in local markets.

Release and subsequent establishment of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti in native mosquito populations has successfully reduced mosquito-borne disease incidence. While this is promising, further development is required to ensure that this method is scalable and sustainable. Egg release is a beneficial technique that requires reduced onsite resources and increases community acceptance; however, its incidental ecological impacts must be considered to ensure sustainability. In this study, we tested a more environmentally friendly mosquito rearing and release approach through the encapsulation of diet and egg mixtures and the subsequent utilization of waste containers to hatch and release mosquitoes. An ecologically friendly diet mix was specifically developed and tested for use in capsules, and we demonstrated that using either cricket or black soldier fly meal as a substitute for beef liver powder had no adverse effects on fitness or Wolbachia density. We further encapsulated both the egg and diet mixes and demonstrated no loss in viability. To address the potential of increased waste generation through disposable mosquito release containers, we tested reusing commonly found waste containers (aluminum and tin cans, PET, and glass bottles) as an alternative, conducting a case study in Kiribati to assess the concept’s cultural, political, and economic applicability. Our results showed that mosquito emergence and fitness was maintained with a variety of containers, including when tested in the field, compared to control containers, and that there are opportunities to implement this method in the Pacific Islands in a way that is culturally considerate and cost-effective.

Abstract Background Oxyspirura petrowi (Spirurida: Thelaziidae), a heteroxenous nematode of birds across the USA, may play a role in the decline of the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in the Rolling Plains Ecoregion of West Texas. Previous molecular studies suggest that crickets, grasshoppers and cockroaches serve as potential intermediate hosts of O. petrowi, although a complete study on the life-cycle of this nematode has not been conducted thus far. Consequently, this study aims to improve our understanding of the O. petrowi life-cycle by experimentally infecting house crickets (Acheta domesticus) with O. petrowi eggs, feeding infected crickets to bobwhite and assessing the life-cycle of this nematode in both the definitive and intermediate hosts. Methods Oxyspirura petrowi eggs were collected from gravid worms recovered from wild bobwhite and fed to house crickets. The development of O. petrowi within crickets was monitored by dissection of crickets at specified intervals. When infective larvae were found inside crickets, parasite-free pen-raised bobwhite were fed four infected crickets each. The maturation of O. petrowi in bobwhite was monitored through fecal floats and bobwhite necropsies at specified intervals. Results In this study, we were able to infect both crickets (n = 45) and bobwhite (n = 25) with O. petrowi at a rate of 96%. We successfully replicated and monitored the complete O. petrowi life-cycle in vivo, recovering embryonated O. petrowi eggs from the feces of bobwhite 51 days after consumption of infected crickets. All life-cycle stages of O. petrowi were confirmed in both the house cricket and the bobwhite using morphological and molecular techniques. Conclusions This study provides a better understanding of the infection mechanism and life-cycle of O. petrowi by tracking the developmental progress within both the intermediate and definitive host. To our knowledge, this study is the first to fully monitor the complete life-cycle of O. petrowi and may allow for better estimates into the potential for future epizootics of O. petrowi in bobwhite. Finally, this study provides a model for experimental infection that may be used in research examining the effects of O. petrowi infection in bobwhite.

IntroductionAn obesogenic diet, a diet high in saturated fats and sugars, is a risk factor for the development of multiple obesity-related diseases. In this study, our aim was to evaluate the effect of supplementation with a mixture of Mexican functional foods (MexMix), Opuntia ficus indica (nopal), Theobroma cacao, and Acheta domesticus (edible crickets), compared with a high-fat and fructose/sucrose diet on an obesogenic mice model.MethodsFor this study, 18 male C57BL/6J mice were used, which were divided into three groups: (1) control group: normal diet (ND), (2) HF/FS group: high-fat diet along with 4.2% fructose/sucrose and water (ad libitum access), and (3) therapeutic group (MexMix): HF/FS diet up to week 8, followed by HF/FS diet supplemented with 10% nopal, 10% cocoa, and 10% cricket for 8 weeks.ResultsMexMix mice showed significantly reduced body weight, liver weight, visceral fat, and epididymal fat compared with HF/FS mice. Levels of triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, insulin, glucose, GIP, leptin, PAI-1, and resistin were also significantly reduced. For identifying the gut microbiota in the model, 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis was performed, and the results showed that MexMix supplementation increased the abundance of Lachnospira, Eubacterium coprostanoligenes, and Blautia, bacteria involved in multiple beneficial metabolic effects. It is noteworthy that the mice supplemented with MexMix showed improvements in cognitive parameters, as evaluated by the novel object recognition test.ConclusionHence, supplementation with MexMix food might represent a potential strategy for the treatment of obesity and other diseases associated with excessive intake of fats and sugars.

Insects generally have high reproductive rates leading to rapid population growth and high local densities; ideal conditions for disease epidemics. The parasites and diseases that naturally regulate wild insect populations can also impact when these insects are produced commercially, on farms. While insects produced for human or animal consumption are often reared under high density conditions, very little is known about the microbes associated with these insects, particularly those with pathogenic potential. In this study we used both target-free and targeted screening approaches to explore the virome of two cricket species commonly reared for feed and food, Acheta domesticus and Gryllus bimaculatus. The target-free screening of DNA and RNA from a single A. domesticus frass sample revealed that only 1% of the nucleic acid reads belonged to viruses, including known cricket, insect, bacterial and plant pathogens, as well as a diverse selection of novel viruses. The targeted screening revealed relatively high levels of Acheta domesticus densovirus, invertebrate iridovirus 6 and a novel iflavirus, as well as low levels of Acheta domesticus volvovirus, in insect and frass samples from several retailers. Our findings highlight the value of multiple screening approaches for a comprehensive and robust cricket disease monitoring and management strategy. This will become particularly relevant as-and-when cricket rearing facilities scale up and transform from producing insects for animal feed to producing insects for human consumption.

Abstract A variety of physiological, morphological, and behavioral changes occur throughout the life cycle of mosquitoes, which can be correlated with a shift from the aquatic to terrestrial environment. Aedes albopictus Skuse is an abundant invasive species from Asia that was introduced into the Americas in the 1980’s and is responsible for transmitting several important human disease-causing pathogens. How physiological and anatomical changes within each instar and throughout the developmental stages are related to changes in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) levels are an unexplored area of mosquito ecology. We hypothesized that these changes as well as stoichiometry (C:N) would vary with instar stage and larval diet. Cohorts of larvae were grown in three different diets: animal only (crickets), plant only (red maple leaves), and a mixture containing both types. Larval instars (1st–4th), pupae, and adults were raised in each diet and were separately analyzed for nutrient content (%C, %N) and stoichiometry (C:N). Significant changes in nutrient values occurred across the life cycle, with C:N values being lower in early instars versus adults or pupae, especially in animal only or mixed diets; few differences were detected in %C or %N across ontogeny. This knowledge may lead to a better understanding of mosquito ecology and pathogen transmission.

The atmosphere of New Delhi during the months of October to the January next year (every year) remains critical due to factors such as stubble burning in the nearby state of Punjab, air pollution rising out of Diwali fireworks and the smog during December and January. Stubble burning is the intentional incineration of paddy / any other field stubbles by farmers after the harvest. It is usually done to eliminate pests such as rats, crickets and hoppers. The availability of short time between rice harvesting and sowing of wheat is the most important reason for burning of crop residues. Also yield and quality of wheat gets severely affected if there is delay in sowing. Since the time gap is very limited (about 3 – 4 weeks) between rice and wheat, burning of crop residues is preferred since it is the quickest and easiest solution for the farmers. According to reports, New Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad recorded a peak Air Quality Index (AQI) of around 480 – 490 in the month of November 2019. Health effects of air pollution include respiratory diseases, skin and eye irritation and other ailments. An important factor is shortage of labor contributing to burning of rice straw. Apart from stubble burning, farmers burn wood for domestic cooking, removal of municipal solid wastes and accidental / intentional wildfires. Use of combined harvester – Happy Seeder machine is a profitable and less labour-intensive management of rice residue. Yet many farmers still have the perception that there are no alternative solutions for crop residue management. Besides Happy Seeder machine, there are other machines such as rotavator, reaper binder and no-till seed drill that can be alternatives for crop residue burning. In 2019 – 20, the Punjab government disbursed a certain amount to farmers for not burning stubble as compensation, yet many farmers adopted the stubble burning process. Other measures such as adoption of villages by Confederation of Indian Industries, MoU with institutes for wast

Background & Objectives: Sports activities are highly beneficial for improving the human health and reducing the risk of diseases. This cross sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence of prediabetes and Type-2 diabetes mellitus in cricket players compared to population based non-elite athlete control subjects. Methods: The present matched cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the period October 2019 to February 2020. Initially, 700 volunteer males, (300) cricket players and (400) population based non-elite athlete control subjects were interviewed. After socio-demographic and medical history, (200) nonsmoker cricket players and (300) nonsmoker control subjects were recruited. The age of cricket players was 34 (32-37) years, weight 81 (76-84) kg, height 1.79 (1.74-1.84) meters, and body mass index (BMI) was 25.09 (23.66-26.76) kg/m2. The cricket players have been playing cricket for 4 (3-4) hours per day; 3.50 (3-4) days per week; for the total period of 24 (12-36) months. American Diabetes Association (ADA) based criteria on Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) was used to investigate the prediabetes and Type-2 diabetes mellitus. Results: In cricket players, the prevalence of prediabetes was 23 (11.5%) and Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was 7 (3.5%) compared to population based matched non-elite athlete control subjects the prediabetes was 73 (24.34%) and T2DM was 63 (21.1%) (p=0.001). Among cricket players, there was a 6-folds decrease in T2DM compared to control subjects. Conclusions: The cricket sports activities decrease the prevalence of prediabetes and Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the cricket players compared to population based matched non-elite athlete control subjects. The study findings demonstrate the urgent need for promoting sports activities, more cricket grounds as a physiological preventive strategy against the global growing diabetes epidemic. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4128 How to cite this:Meo SA, Abukhalaf AA, Alomar AA, Sami W, Meo AS. Prevalence of Prediabetes and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus in Cricket Players: Multi- Cricket Clubs Cross Sectional Study. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4128 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) is the world’s third largest sporting event. (...) As with any mass gathering, there is an added public health risk [1]. Some of the visitors are coming from countries where infectious diseases are either endemic or capable of creating an epidemic.

The Capsicum plant develops naturally and comprises the majority of domesticated chile in Mexico. The fruit presents gastronomic, cosmetic and pharmaceutical uses. The economic and commercial value of the Piquín pepper is due to the nutritional contribution and content of carotenoids, vitamin C and tocopherols. The study was conducted at the Technological University of Xicotepec de Juárez, Puebla, Mexico. Pests and / or diseases in culture were identified using 50 random plants, Capsaicin content (HPLC), fresh weight (AOAC), and color (Hunter Lab®) in fruit. The pests and diseases found were: spider (Tetranichus urticae), white mosquito (Trialeurodes vaporariorum), chicharita (Empoasca spp), aphid (Bactericera cockerelli Sulc.), Cricket (Acheta assimilis) and blight (Xanthomonas campestris) with incidence rate of: 4 %, 6%, 4%, 4%, 58% and 6%, respectively. The fresh weight of the fruit was 0.13 g, the values for color L: 14.42; a: 12.37 b: 6.47 indicate opacity, tending to dark red, stem growth was 4 to 18 cm, capsaicin content of 168 µg / mL. Piquín pepper has a high content of carotenes related to chronic degenerative diseases, oxidative stress, cancer, etc. The plant during its low incidence of diseases that do not affect the development of the fruit.

Emerging infectious diseases have been responsible for declines and extinctions in a growing number of species. Predicting disease variables like infection prevalence and mortality and how they vary in space and time will be critical to understanding how host-pathogen dynamics play out in natural environments and will help to inform management actions. The pandemic disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has been implicated in declines in hundreds of amphibian species worldwide. We used field-collected measurements of host body temperatures and other physiological parameters to develop a mechanistic model of disease risk in a declining amphibian, the Northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans). We first used a biophysical model to predict host body temperatures across the species range in the eastern United States. We then used empirically derived relationships between host body temperature, infection prevalence and survival to predict where and when the risk of Bd-related declines is greatest. Our model predicts that pathogen prevalence is greatest, and survival of infected A. crepitans frogs is lowest, just prior to breeding when host body temperatures are low. Taken together, these results suggest that Bd poses the greatest threat to short-lived A. crepitans populations in the northern part of this host’s range and that disease-related recruitment failure may be common. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the utility of mechanistic modeling approaches for predicting disease outbreaks and dynamics in animal hosts.

Background. Physical fitness (PF) status in children has been identified as a predictor of chronic disease risk factors, and has also been linked to various non-communicable diseases and an increased risk of premature death in adulthood. Studies have shown that PF has been declining. In South Africa (SA), a similar trend is noted and attributed to urbanisation and shifts from traditional active practices to sedentary lifestyles. Objectives. To examine possible associations between PF levels and socioeconomic status (SES) and anthropometric and cardiovascular risk factors among 407 primary schoolchildren aged 6 - 13 years in KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA. Methods. In a cross-sectional study, children’s PF scores were assessed using the Eurofit test battery: sit and reach, standing long jump (SLJ), sit-ups (SUs), 5 m shuttle run (5m-SRT) and cricket ball throw (CBT). SES was assessed using a structured questionnaire. Standardised procedures were used for anthropometric and cardiovascular measures. Results. Girls weighed significantly more than boys (p=0.001) and had a significantly higher body mass index (BMI) (p<0.001), waist circumference (WC) (p<0.001) and hip circumference (HC) (p<0.001), while boys performed significantly better in SLJ (p=0.030), SUs (p=0.022), CBT (p<0.001) and 5m-SRT (p<0.001). A significant low negative correlation was found between PF and BMI (r=–0.151; p=0.002), WC (r=–0.107; p=0.031) and HC (r=0.123; p=0.013). Multinomial logistic regression analysis identified BMI as the main predictor of low PF (odds ratio 1.16; 95% confidence interval 1.01 - 1.33) in this cohort of primary schoolchildren. The occurrence of low PF status in children of primary school age may be influenced by gender and adiposity. Conclusion. Assessment of PF at policy levels as part of the health screening process may help create a more explicit depiction of the health status of children and assist in early identification of risk factors.

Hundreds of thousands of Australian children were born in the shadow of the Great War, fathered by men who had enlisted between 1914 and 1918. Their lives could be and often were hard and unhappy, as Anzac historian Alistair Thomson observed of his father’s childhood in the 1920s and 1930s. David Thomson was son of a returned serviceman Hector Thomson who spent much of his adult life in and out of repatriation hospitals (257-259) and whose memory was subsequently expunged from Thomson family stories (299-267). These children of trauma fit within a pattern suggested by Marianne Hirsch in her influential essay “The Generation of Postmemory”. According to Hirsch, “postmemory describes the relationship of the second generation to powerful, often traumatic, experiences that preceded their births but that were nevertheless transmitted to them so deeply as to seem to constitute memories in their own right” (n.p.). This article attempts to situate George Johnston’s novel My Brother Jack (1964) within the context of postmemory narratives of violence that were complicated in Australia by the Anzac legend which occluded any too open discussion about the extent of war trauma present within community, including the children of war.“God knows what damage” the war “did to me psychologically” (48), ponders Johnston’s protagonist and alter-ego David Meredith in My Brother Jack. Published to acclaim fifty years after the outbreak of the First World War, My Brother Jack became a widely read text that seemingly spoke to the shared cultural memories of a generation which did not know battlefield violence directly but experienced its effects pervasively and vicariously in the aftermath through family life, storytelling, and the memorabilia of war. For these readers, the novel represented more than a work of fiction; it was a touchstone to and indicative of their own negotiations though often unspoken post-war trauma.Meredith, like his creator, is born in 1912. Strictly speaking, therefore, both are not part of the post-war generation. However, they are representative and therefore indicative of the post-war “hinge generation” which was expected to assume “guardianship” of the Anzac Legend, though often found the narrative logic challenging. They had been “too young for the war to have any direct effect”, and yet “every corner” of their family’s small suburban homes appear to be “impregnated with some gigantic and sombre experience that had taken place thousands of miles away” (17).According to Johnston’s biographer, Garry Kinnane, the “most teasing puzzle” of George Johnston’s “fictional version of his childhood in My Brother Jack is the monstrous impression he creates of his returned serviceman father, John George Johnston, known to everyone as ‘Pop.’ The first sixty pages are dominated by the tyrannical figure of Jack Meredith senior” (1).A large man purported to be six foot three inches (1.9 metres) in height and weighing fifteen stone (95 kilograms), the real-life Pop Johnston reputedly stood head and shoulders above the minimum requirement of five foot and six inches (1.68 metres) at the time of his enlistment for war in 1914 (Kinnane 4). In his fortieth year, Jack Johnston senior was also around twice the age of the average Australian soldier and among one in five who were married.According to Kinnane, Pop Johnston had “survived the ordeal of Gallipoli” in 1915 only to “endure three years of trench warfare in the Somme region”. While the biographer and the Johnston family may well have held this to be true, the claim is a distortion. There are a few intimations throughout My Brother Jack and its sequel Clean Straw for Nothing (1969) to suggest that George Johnston may have suspected that his father’s wartime service stories had been embellished, though the depicted wartime service of Pop Meredith remains firmly within the narrative arc of the Anzac legend. This has the effect of layering the postmemory violence experienced by David Meredith and, by implication, his creator, George Johnston. Both are expected to be keepers of a lie masquerading as inviolable truth which further brutalises them.John George (Pop) Johnston’s First World War military record reveals a different story to the accepted historical account and his fictionalisation in My Brother Jack. He enlisted two and a half months after the landing at Gallipoli on 12 July 1915 and left for overseas service on 23 November. Not quite the imposing six foot three figure of Kinnane’s biography, he was fractionally under five foot eleven (1.8 metres) and weighed thirteen stone (82.5 kilograms). Assigned to the Fifth Field Engineers on account of his experience as an electric tram fitter, he did not see frontline service at Gallipoli (NAA).Rather, according to the Company’s history, the Fifth Engineers were involved in a range of infrastructure and support work on the Western Front, including the digging and maintenance of trenches, laying duckboard, pontoons and tramlines, removing landmines, building huts, showers and latrines, repairing roads, laying drains; they built a cinema at Beaulencourt Piers for “Brigade Swimming Carnival” and baths at Malhove consisting of a large “galvanised iron building” with a “concrete floor” and “setting tanks capable of bathing 2,000 men per day” (AWM). It is likely that members of the company were also involved in burial details.Sapper Johnston was hospitalised twice during his service with influenza and saw out most of his war from October 1917 attached to the Army Cookery School (NAA). He returned to Australia on board the HMAT Kildonian Castle in May 1919 which, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, also carried the official war correspondent and creator of the Anzac legend C.E.W. Bean, national poet Banjo Paterson and “Warrant Officer C G Macartney, the famous Australian cricketer”. The Herald also listed the names of “Returned Officers” and “Decorated Men”, but not Pop Johnston who had occupied the lower decks with other returning men (“Soldiers Return”).Like many of the more than 270,000 returned soldiers, Pop Johnston apparently exhibited observable changes upon his repatriation to Australia: “he was partially deaf” which was attributed to the “constant barrage of explosions”, while “gas” was suspected to have “left him with a legacy of lung disorders”. Yet, if “anyone offered commiserations” on account of this war legacy, he was quick to “dismiss the subject with the comment that ‘there were plenty worse off’” (Kinnane 6). The assumption is that Pop’s silence is stoic; the product of unspeakable horror and perhaps a symptom of survivor guilt.An alternative interpretation, suggested by Alistair Thomson in Anzac Memories, is that the experiences of the vast majority of returned soldiers were expected to fit within the master narrative of the Anzac legend in order to be accepted and believed, and that there was no space available to speak truthfully about alternative war service. Under pressure of Anzac expectations a great many composed stories or remained selectively silent (14).Data gleaned from the official medical history suggest that as many as four out of every five returned servicemen experienced emotional or psychological disturbance related to their war service. However, the two branches of medicine represented by surgeons and physicians in the Repatriation Department—charged with attending to the welfare of returned servicemen—focused on the body rather than the mind and the emotions (Murphy and Nile).The repatriation records of returned Australian soldiers reveal that there were, indeed, plenty physically worse off than Pop Johnston on account of bodily disfigurement or because they had been somatically compromised. An estimated 30,000 returned servicemen died in the decade after the cessation of hostilities to 1928, bringing the actual number of war dead to around 100,000, while a 1927 official report tabled the medical conditions of a further 72,388 veterans: 28,305 were debilitated by gun and shrapnel wounds; 22,261 were rheumatic or had respiratory diseases; 4534 were afflicted with eye, ear, nose, or throat complaints; 9,186 had tuberculosis or heart disease; 3,204 were amputees while only; 2,970 were listed as suffering “war neurosis” (“Enlistment”).Long after the guns had fallen silent and the wounded survivors returned home, the physical effects of war continued to be apparent in homes and hospital wards around the country, while psychological and emotional trauma remained largely undiagnosed and consequently untreated. David Meredith’s attitude towards his able-bodied father is frequently dismissive and openly scathing: “dad, who had been gassed, but not seriously, near Vimy Ridge, went back to his old job at the tramway depot” (9). The narrator-son later considers:what I realise now, although I never did at the time, is that my father, too, was oppressed by intimidating factors of fear and change. By disillusion and ill-health too. As is so often the case with big, strong, athletic men, he was an extreme hypochondriac, and he had convinced himself that the severe bronchitis which plagued him could only be attributed to German gas he had swallowed at Vimy Ridge. He was too afraid to go to a doctor about it, so he lived with a constant fear that his lungs were decaying, and that he might die at any time, without warning. (42-3)During the writing of My Brother Jack, the author-son was in chronically poor health and had been recently diagnosed with the romantic malady and poet’s disease of tuberculosis (Lawler) which plagued him throughout his work on the novel. George Johnston believed (correctly as it turned out) that he was dying on account of the disease, though, he was also an alcoholic and smoker, and had been reluctant to consult a doctor. It is possible and indeed likely that he resentfully viewed his condition as being an extension of his father—vicariously expressed through the depiction of Pop Meredith who exhibits hysterical symptoms which his son finds insufferable. David Meredith remains embittered and unforgiving to the very end. Pop Meredith “lived to seventy-three having died, not of German gas, but of a heart attack” (46).Pop Meredith’s return from the war in 1919 terrifies his seven-year-old son “Davy”, who accompanies the family to the wharf to welcome home a hero. The young boy is unable to recall anything about the father he is about to meet ostensibly for the first time. Davy becomes overwhelmed by the crowds and frightened by the “interminable blaring of horns” of the troopships and the “ceaseless roar of shouting”. Dwarfed by the bodies of much larger men he becomestoo frightened to look up at the hours-long progression of dark, hard faces under wide, turned-up hats seen against bayonets and barrels that are more blue than black ... the really strong image that is preserved now is of the stiff fold and buckle of coarse khaki trousers moving to the rhythm of knees and thighs and the tight spiral curves of puttees and the thick boots hammering, hollowly off the pier planking and thunderous on the asphalt roadway.Depicted as being small for his age, Davy is overwrought “with a huge and numbing terror” (10).In the years that follow, the younger Meredith desires emotional stability but remains denied because of the war’s legacy which manifests in the form of a violent patriarch who is convinced that his son has been rendered effeminate on account of the manly absence during vital stages of development. With the return of the father to the household, Davy grows to fear and ultimately despise a man who remains as alien to him as the formerly absent soldier had been during the war:exactly when, or why, Dad introduced his system of monthly punishments I no longer remember. We always had summary punishment, of course, for offences immediately detected—a cuffing around the ears or a sash with a stick of a strap—but Dad’s new system was to punish for the offences which had escaped his attention. So on the last day of every month Jack and I would be summoned in turn to the bathroom and the door would be locked and each of us would be questioned about the sins which we had committed and which he had not found out about. This interrogation was the merest formality; whether we admitted to crimes or desperately swore our innocence it was just the same; we were punished for the offences which, he said, he knew we must have committed and had to lie about. We then had to take our shirts and singlets off and bend over the enamelled bath-tub while he thrashed us with the razor-strop. In the blind rages of these days he seemed not to care about the strength he possessed nor the injuries he inflicted; more often than not it was the metal end of the strop that was used against our backs. (48)Ironically, the ritualised brutality appears to be a desperate effort by the old man to compensate for his own emasculation in war and unresolved trauma now that the war is ended. This plays out in complicated fashion in the development of David Meredith in Clean Straw for Nothing, Johnston’s sequel to My Brother Jack.The imputation is that Pop Meredith practices violence in an attempt to reassert his failed masculinity and reinstate his status as the head of the household. Older son Jack’s beatings cease when, as a more physically able young man, he is able to threaten the aggressor with violent retaliation. This action does not spare the younger weaker Davy who remains dominated. “My beating continued, more ferociously than ever, … . They ceased only because one day my father went too far; he lambasted me so savagely that I fell unconscious into the bath-tub, and the welts across my back made by the steel end of the razor-strop had to be treated by a doctor” (53).Pop Meredith is persistently reminded that he has no corporeal signifiers of war trauma (only a cough); he is surrounded by physically disabled former soldiers who are presumed to be worse off than he on account of somatic wounding. He becomes “morose, intolerant, bitter and violently bad-tempered”, expressing particular “displeasure and resentment” toward his wife, a trained nurse, who has assumed carer responsibilities for homing the injured men: “he had altogether lost patience with her role of Florence Nightingale to the halt and the lame” (40). Their marriage is loveless: “one can only suppose that he must have been darkly and profoundly disturbed by the years-long procession through our house of Mother’s ‘waifs and strays’—those shattered former comrades-in-arms who would have been a constant and sinister reminder of the price of glory” (43); a price he had failed to adequately pay with his uncompromised body intact.Looking back, a more mature David Meredith attempts to establish order, perspective and understanding to the “mess of memory and impressions” of his war-affected childhood in an effort to wrest control back over his postmemory violation: “Jack and I must have spent a good part of our boyhood in the fixed belief that grown-up men who were complete were pretty rare beings—complete, that is, in that they had their sight or hearing or all of their limbs” (8). While the father is physically complete, his brooding presence sets the tone for the oppressively “dark experience” within the family home where all rooms are “inhabited by the jetsam that the Somme and the Marne and the salient at Ypres and the Gallipoli beaches had thrown up” (18). It is not until Davy explores the contents of the “big deep drawer at the bottom of the cedar wardrobe” in his parents’ bedroom that he begins to “sense a form in the shadow” of the “faraway experience” that had been the war. The drawer contains his father’s service revolver and ammunition, battlefield souvenirs and French postcards but, “most important of all, the full set of the Illustrated War News” (19), with photographs of battlefield carnage. These are the equivalent of Hirsch’s photographs of the Holocaust that establish in Meredith an ontology that links him more realistically to the brutalising past and source of his ongoing traumatistion (Hirsch). From these, Davy begins to discern something of his father’s torment but also good fortune at having survived, and he makes curatorial interventions not by becoming a custodian of abjection like second generation Holocaust survivors but by disposing of the printed material, leaving behind artefacts of heroism: gun, the bullets, the medals and ribbons. The implication is that he has now become complicit in the very narrative that had oppressed him since his father’s return from war.No one apparently notices or at least comments on the removal of the journals, the images of which become linked in the young boys mind to an incident outside a “dilapidated narrow-fronted photographer’s studio which had been deserted and padlocked for as long as I could remember”. A number of sun-damaged photographs are still displayed in the window. Faded to a “ghostly, deathly pallor”, and speckled with fly droppings, years earlier, they had captured young men in uniforms before embarkation for the war. An “agate-eyed” boy from Davy’s school joins in the gazing, saying nothing for a long time until the silence is broken: “all them blokes there is dead, you know” (20).After the unnamed boy departs with a nonchalant “hoo-roo”, young Davy runs “all the way home, trying not to cry”. He cannot adequately explain the reason for his sudden reaction: “I never after that looked in the window of the photographer’s studio or the second hand shop”. From that day on Davy makes a “long detour” to ensure he never passes the shops again (20-1). Having witnessed images of pre-war undamaged young men in the prime of their youth, he has come face-to-face with the consequences of war which he is unable to reconcile in terms of the survival and return of his much older father.The photographs of the young men establishes a causal connection to the physically wrecked remnants that have shaped Davy’s childhood. These are the living remains that might otherwise have been the “corpses sprawled in mud or drowned in flooded shell craters” depicted in the Illustrated News. The photograph of the young men establishes Davy’s connection to the things “propped up our hallway”, of “Bert ‘sobbing’ in the backyard and Gabby Dixon’s face at the dark end of the room”, and only reluctantly the “bronchial cough of my father going off in the dawn light to the tramways depot” (18).That is to say, Davy has begun to piece together sense from senselessness, his father’s complicity and survival—and, by association, his own implicated life and psychological wounding. He has approached the source of his father’s abjection and also his own though he continues to be unable to accept and forgive. Like his father—though at the remove—he has been damaged by the legacies of the war and is also its victim.Ravaged by tuberculosis and alcoholism, George Johnston died in 1970. According to the artist Sidney Nolan he had for years resembled the ghastly photographs of survivors of the Holocaust (Marr 278). George’s forty five year old alcoholic wife Charmian Clift predeceased him by twelve months, having committed suicide in 1969. Four years later, in 1973, George and Charmian’s twenty four year old daughter Shane also took her own life. Their son Martin drank himself to death and died of organ failure at the age of forty three in 1990. They are all “dead, you know”.ReferencesAWM. Fifth Field Company, Australian Engineers. Diaries, AWM4 Sub-class 14/24.“Enlistment Report”. Reveille, 29 Sep. 1928.Hirsch, Marianne. “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today 29.1 (Spring 2008): 103-128. <https://read.dukeupress.edu/poetics-today/article/29/1/103/20954/The-Generation-of-Postmemory>.Johnston, George. Clean Straw for Nothing. London: Collins, 1969.———. My Brother Jack. London: Collins, 1964.Kinnane, Garry. George Johnston: A Biography. 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