Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Exotic diseases'

Context and rationale – This work originates from policy priorities established within Defra to manage exotic animal diseases (EAD); specifically to understand the causes of low probability events, and to establish contingencies to manage outbreak incidents. Outbreaks of exotic animal diseases, e.g. FMD, CSF and HPAI, can cause economic and social impacts of catastrophic proportions. The UK’s government develops and implements policies and controls to prevent EAD and thus minimise these impacts. Control policies to achieve this are designed to address the vulnerabilities within the control systems. However, data are limited for both the introduction of an EAD as well as its resurgence following the disposal of infected carcasses, i.e. the pre-outbreak and post-outbreak phases of an EAD event. These lack of data compromises the development of policy interventions to improve protection. To overcome these data limitations, predictive models are used to predict system vulnerabilities. Cont/d.

Merino sheep are the most numerous domestic livestock in Australia and feral goats are wide-spread and locally abundant in many of the regions where sheep are grazed. Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a disease of ungulates that causes severe economic hardship to countries where outbreaks occur or where it has become endemic. In India, Africa, Greece and recently the United Kingdom and Eire, sheep and goats have been implicated in the spread and maintenance of FMD. In Australia, there are contingency plans (AUSVETPLANS) for dealing with an outbreak of FMD. Included in those plans are strategies for control of the disease in feral ungulates including feral pigs and feral goats. Modelling has provided assistance in developing strategies to combat outbreaks in feral pigs and for controlling outbreaks in domestic livestock. No models have been constructed to aid decisions about controlling FMD in feral goats where they co-occur with merino sheep. In Australia, the greatest densities of free-ranging feral goats and domestic livestock occur in the high rainfall zone (> 500 mm mean annual rainfall) along the eastern tablelands and adjacent slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Previous studies of feral goat biology, population dynamics and behaviour in Australia have concentrated on arid and semi-arid zones or on islands. Interactions between free ranging feral goats and merino sheep have not previously been studied in the high rainfall zone. My study investigated the ecological and behavioural characteristics of feral goats and their interactions with sympatric merino sheep at a high rainfall site in central eastern New South Wales. The population dynamics, biological and behavioural parameters of feral goats and sheep were then used to model FMD in such an environment. Deterministic temporal models and a new spatial stochastic model were used. Of particular interest were the rates of contact within and between subgroups of feral goats (termed herds and mobs), within and between subgroups of merino sheep (termed flocks and mobs), and between subgroups of the two species. Feral goats at the study site were found to be numerous (mean density = 34.94 goats km-2, from aerial surveys), in good condition, fecund and had high adult survival and low annual adult mortality (survival= 0.81�1.00) in the absence of harvesting and hunting. They had an observed instantaneous rate of increase of 0.112 per year. Annual rate of increase was similar to other sites in Australia without sustained harvesting pressure. Home ranges were small for both males (3.754 km², s.e. = 0.232, n = 116 goats) and females (2.369 km², s.e. = 0.088, n = 241 goats). From this and other Australasian studies, an inverse power function was found to be an excellent descriptor of the relationship between mean annual rainfall and female home range size. A resource selection function was fitted in a geographic information system to observational data of feral goats. The habitat selection of feral goats included a preference for wooded vegetation on eastern and north eastern aspects at higher elevations. The resource selection function was also used to set the probabilities of occurrence of feral goats in 1 ha areas of the landscape and these probabilities were used to generate heterogeneity in a spatial model of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) transmission. Daily per capita contact rates were estimated from observed contacts in the field where a contact between individuals was recognised when one approached within 1 body length ([approx] 1m) of another. The contacts between feral goats within herds were frequent and occurred at a rate of 6.96 (s.e. = 1.27) goat�goat contacts day-1. Sheep to sheep contacts were slightly less frequent (4.22 sheep�sheep contacts day-1, s.e. = 0.65) but both estimates were most likely negatively biased because of observer errors in estimating the number of individual animals coming in contact with observation subject (focal) animals. Contacts between herds of feral goats were not common and those between adjacent populations were fewer than 1 per year. In sheep, flock to flock contact was largely governed by husbandry practices and occurred at a mean daily rate of 0.0014 flock�flock contacts. Contacts between sheep and feral goats were less frequent but nonetheless common (2.82 goat�sheep contacts day-1, s.e. = 0.40). In feral goats the size of the mob in which focal goats were observed was found to be the most important factor in determining contact rates between individuals and a counter-intuitive inverse relationship was identified. Contacts were heterogeneous and density was not an important determinant of contact rates implying that, because of the uniformly high densities at the site, saturation had occurred. The temporal models of FMDV transmission showed that the rate of contact within and between species was such that FMD was predicted to spread rapidly throughout an infected herd or flock. Control strategies of intense culling of feral goats at the population level were predicted to allow the disease to persist at low prevalence, with a small peak corresponding to the annual lambing pulse in sheep. However, the same level of control (>90% reduction) at the herd level was predicted to eliminate FMD and allow the safe reintroduction of sheep. Extreme control that left very small groups (<3 individuals) may be counter productive because such small groups are likely to join the reintroduced sheep in an effort by the goats to meet gregarious urges. The spatial model was more reassuring. It predicted that FMD would die out in a mixed sheep and feral goat population in less than 90 days because of the low rate of herd to herd contact and herd to flock contact. For similar environments, the contingency planning consequences are that an outbreak of FMD introduced into feral goats from sympatric sheep is likely to be containable by removing all the sheep, determining the extent and likely range of the feral goats, then removing a substantial proportion of or eradicating each herd. Feral goats, being relatively sedentary, are unlikely to spread to adjacent populations and the disease will die out through lack of contact between herds and populations. Because feral goat home ranges overlap and are centred on one or two small catchments, a containment ring of feral goat control, set to encompass the home range of a target herd and that of adjacent herds, should be adequate to limit spread of FMD.

In Quebec, the swede midge (Contarinia nasturtii), a newly invasive pest, was found for the first time in 2003. During a two year study (2004-2005) I studied the seasonal development of the swede midge, the presence of natural enemies and tested entomopathogenic nematodes for its control. Results showed that the overwintering generation of the swede midge emerged during the second half of June. Based on adult captures and abundance of larvae in the field, there were three to four overlapping generations. Late transplants were more heavily attacked by the swede midge and broccoli and cauliflower were the most susceptible crops. No parasitoids were found in the experimental sites during either year of the study and two polyphagous coccinellid predators (Harmonia axyridis and Coccinella septempunctata) were field-collected for further evaluation under laboratory conditions. Although these two coccinellid species fed on swede midge larvae in plastic containers, further experiments demonstrated that H. axyridis was not able to prey on swede midge larvae on infested broccoli plants. The susceptibility of swede midge larvae to three species of entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinernema feltiae, S. carpocapsae, and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) was also evaluated in laboratory assays. Heterorhabditis bacteriophora was the only species that caused significant mortality to swede midge larvae and, at a concentration of 1000 IJs/larva, caused 90-100% mortality in loam, sandy loam, clay and muck soil. This is the first study describing the seasonal development of the swede midge in Quebec. In addition, the potential use of entomopathogenic nematodes as biological control agents against the swede midge is demonstrated.

To refine our knowledge and to adequately test hypotheses concerning theoretical and applied aspects of invasion biology, successful and unsuccessful invaders should be compared. This study investigated insect establishment patterns by comparing the climatic preferences and biological attributes of two groups of polyphagous insect species that are constantly intercepted at New Zealand's border. One group of species is established in New Zealand (n = 15), the other group comprised species that are not established (n = 21). In the present study the two groups were considered to represent successful and unsuccessful invaders. To provide background for interpretation of results of the comparative analysis, global areas that are climatically analogous to sites in New Zealand were identified by an eco-climatic assessment model, CLIMEX, to determine possible sources of insect pest invasion. It was found that south east Australia is one of the regions that are climatically very similar to New Zealand. Furthermore, New Zealand shares 90% of its insect pest species with that region. South east Australia has close trade and tourism links with New Zealand and because of its proximity a new incursion in that analogous climate should alert biosecurity authorities in New Zealand. Other regions in western Europe and the east coast of the United States are also climatically similar and share a high proportion of pest species with New Zealand. Principal component analysis was used to investigate patterns in insect global distributions of the two groups of species in relation to climate. Climate variables were reduced to temperature and moisture based principal components defining four climate regions, that were identified in the present study as, warm/dry, warm/wet, cool/dry and cool/moist. Most of the insect species established in New Zealand had a wide distribution in all four climate regions defined by the principal components and their global distributions overlapped into the cool/moist, temperate climate where all the New Zealand sites belong. The insect species that have not established in New Zealand had narrow distributions within the warm/wet, tropical climates. Discriminant analysis was then used to identify which climate variables best discriminate between species presence/absence at a site in relation to climate. The discriminant analysis classified the presence and absence of most insect species significantly better than chance. Late spring and early summer temperatures correctly classified a high proportion of sites where many insect species were present. Soil moisture and winter rainfall were less effective discriminating the presence of the insect species studied here. Biological attributes were compared between the two groups of species. It was found that the species established in New Zealand had a significantly wider host plant range than species that have not established. The lower developmental threshold temperature was on average, 4°C lower for established species compared with non-established species. These data suggest that species that establish well in New Zealand have a wide host range and can tolerate lower temperatures compared with those that have not established. No firm conclusions could be drawn about the importance of propagule pressure, body size, fecundity or phylogeny for successful establishment because data availability constrained sample sizes and the data were highly variable. The predictive capacity of a new tool that has potential for eco-climatic assessment, the artificial neural network (ANN), was compared with other well used models. Using climate variables as predictors, artificial neural network predictions were compared with binary logistic regression and CLIMEX. Using bootstrapping, artificial neural networks predicted insect presence and absence significantly better than the binary logistic regression model. When model prediction success was assessed by the kappa statistic there were also significant differences in prediction performance between the two groups of study insects. For established species, the models were able to provide predictions that were in moderate agreement with the observed data. For non-established species, model predictions were on average only slightly better than chance. The predictions of CLIMEX and artificial neural networks when given novel data, were difficult to compare because both models have different theoretical bases and different climate databases. However, it is clear that both models have potential to give insights into invasive species distributions. Finally the results of the studies in this thesis were drawn together to provide a framework for a prototype pest risk assessment decision support system. Future research is needed to refine the analyses and models that are the components of this system.

In the agricultural muck soil area of southwestern Quebec, two native parasitoids, Peristenus pallipes and P. pseudopallipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) were found to parasitize nymphs of the tarnished plant bug Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae), on various flowering plants and on cultivated lettuce. Parasitism levels (ranging from 1.3% to 92.3%) varied with host plant species sampled, and with methods used for the calculation of percentage parasitism. The percentage parasitism of tarnished plant bug populations was expressed as pooled values from all samples in the season (method 1), and by the Southwood and Jepson's graphical method (method 2). Phenology of parasitism, defined as the time during which female parasitoids are active in the field, was evaluated for both native parasitoid species. The cold-hardiness of P. digoneutis, a European nymph parasitoid introduced in northern United States, was evaluated in the laboratory by measuring the supercooling point and cumulative cold damage at sub-zero temperatures. When compared to the native P. pallipes and P. pseudopallipes the exotic parasitoid showed the same capacity to withstand cold temperatures. Prior to introduction, the evaluation of the impact of P. digoneutis on indigenous species will require a rapid identification to species level. The development of immature stages of P. digoneutis was studied to find taxonomic and developmental differences between the three species. At $21 pm1 sp circ$C, the egg matures in five days, and there are three larval instars, the first two molting inside the host while the third emerges from the host, three to four weeks after egg deposition. Adult characters of the pre-imaginal stage can be used to distinguish the exotic P. digoneutis from the two native species since mouth sclerites of the final instar larvae of P. digoneutis, P. pallipes and P. pseudopallipes do not possess reliable distinguishing characters. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

La veille en santé animale, notamment la détection précoce de l'émergence d'agents pathogènes exotiques et émergents à l'échelle mondiale, est l'un des moyens de lutte contre l'introduction de ces agents pathogènes en France.Récemment, il y a eu une réelle prise de conscience par les autorités sanitaires de l'utilité de l'information non-structurée concernant les maladies infectieuses publiée sur le Web.C'est dans ce contexte que nous proposons un outil de veille basé sur une méthode de fouille de textes pour la détection, collecte, catégorisation et extraction de l'information sanitaire à partir des donnés textuelles non structurées (articles médias) publiées sur le Web.Notre méthode est générique. Toutefois, pour l'élaborer, nous l'appliquons à cinq maladies animales infectieuses exotiques : la peste porcine africaine, la fièvre aphteuse, la fièvre catarrhale ovine, la maladie du virus Schmallenberg et l'influenza aviaire.Nous démontrons que des techniques de fouille de textes, complétées par les connaissances d'experts du domaine, sont la fondation d'une veille sanitaire du Web à la fois efficace et réactive pour détecter des émergences de maladies exotiques au niveau international.Notre outil sera utilisé par le dispositif de veille sanitaire internationale en France, et facilitera la détection précoce de signaux de dangers sanitaires émergents dans les articles médias du Web<br>Monitoring animal health worldwide, especially the early detection of outbreaks of emerging and exotic pathogens, is one of the means of preventing the introduction of infectious diseases in France.Recently, there is an increasing awareness among health authorities for the use of unstructured information published on the Web for epidemic intelligence purposes.In this manuscript we present a semi-automatic text mining approach, which detects, collects, classifies and extracts information from non-structured textual data available in the media reports on the Web. Our approach is generic; however, it was elaborated using five exotic animal infectious diseases: african swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, bluetongue, Schmallenberg, and avian influenza.We show that the text mining techniques, supplemented by the knowledge of domain experts, are the foundation of an efficient and reactive system for monitoring animal health emergence on the Web.Our tool will be used by the French epidemic intelligence team for international monitoring of animal health, and will facilitate the early detection of events related to emerging health hazards identified from media reports on the Web

There are numerous examples of how exotic insect pests and pathogens have altered the dominance of native tree species and the ecological processes and function related to those species. While targeted species may persist in a functionally altered state via vegetative sprouting, the widespread decimation of a species can have dramatic direct and indirect consequences for organisms in multiple trophic levels. Devastation due to alien insect herbivores poses the greatest threat to native insect larvae that specialize on the impacted host species. The loss of pollinators whose larvae feed on impacted species and provide services for native plants may also be a serious but yet undocumented indirect threat of these exotic invasions. The disruption of mutualistic relationships between native species will have negative consequences for those species and could potentially benefit exotic species. In the southeastern US, laurel wilt disease (LWD) is impacting numerous species in the Lauraceae family, with the majority of cases observed on Persea borbonia, a common sub-canopy tree found in many Coastal Plain habitats. This species is also known to be the primary larval host of the palamedes swallowtail (Papilio palamedes). While infection rates and crown dieback are catastrophically high (>90%), basal resprouting is a common response in P. borbonia. The exotic Cinnamomum camphora is the only Lauraceae species that has shown resistance to LWD and could benefit from opportunities to replace P. borbonia and other Lauraceae species threatened by LWD. The primary objectives of this study were four fold: 1) to quantify P. borbonia sprouting responses in the field and greenhouse and determine the effect of P. borbonia removal on the composition and abundance of woody and herbaceous plant species in the understory layer, 2) to test the relative suitability of C. camphora as an alternative larval host for P. palamedes, 3) to determine the reliance of the Platanthera ciliaris on P. palamedes for successful pollination and the relative availability of alternative long-tongued pollinators, and 4) to forecast how disease-induced shifts in the relative abundance of native (P. borbonia) and exotic (C. camphora) fruit may alter patterns of consumption and subsequent dispersal of C. camphora by birds. The field component (Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR), Jackson County, MS) of chapter two involved the removal of P. borbonia main stems to mimic the impacts of LWD which resulted in a significant increase (~50%) in light transmission. All treated individuals produced sprouts and the size and number of sprouts was positively related to initial tree size. Following the removal of P. borbonia from treatment plots, Ilex vomitoria showed the greatest increase in basal area after two years. Both woody seedlings and herbaceous plants showed no significant trends in composition and/or abundance over time. In the greenhouse (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL), the stem and leaf biomass of vegetative sprouts was significantly greater in a high-nutrient treatment. Light treatments had no effect on sprout production. Results from chapter two suggest that the loss of P. borbonia from the canopy layer may have little direct effect on plant community dynamics. In addition, I found that sprout production is vigorous in P. borbonia and the capacity to persist and tolerate future disturbances may be enhanced on more nutrient-rich sites. In chapter three, I used laboratory experiments and field observations to compare larval performance and adult female preference of P. palamedes between C. camphora and P. borbonia foliage. My results indicate moderate survivorship on C. camphora (46%) compared to P. borbonia (87%) and there were no differences in first and fourth instar growth rates between treatments. Fourth instars consumed less C. camphora foliage than P. borbonia, but metabolic efficiency did not differ between treatments. In the field and laboratory, I found no oviposition preference for C. camphora relative to P. borbonia. While females laid eggs on C. camphora during laboratory trials, the same number of eggs was also laid on inanimate objects. I conclude that C. camphora is suitable for larval development but host-switching to this species by P. palamedes will be primarily constrained by oviposition behaviors. In chapter four, I monitored pollinator visitation and measured nectar spur lengths of P. ciliaris flowers and proboscis lengths of its floral visitors (at GBNERR). Papilio palamedes was the primary visitor (44 visits) but Phoebis sennae was also observed (4 visits). There were no significant differences among P. ciliaris nectar spurlength and the proboscis lengths of P. palamedes and P. sennae. Fruit set was 55 ± 10.8% with access to pollinators and 0% on bagged inflorescences (pollinators excluded). Although I found a positive relationship between visitation and inflorescence size, there was no such pattern in fruit set, indicating that fruit set was not limited by pollinator visitation within the range of visitation rates I observed. Phoebis sennae may provide supplemental pollination service but is likely constrained by habitat preferences that do not always overlap with those of P. cilaris. Although additional observations are needed, my results suggest that expected LWD-induced declines of P. palamedes will threaten the reproductive success and persistence of P. ciliaris populations. In chapter five, I investigated redundancy between C. camphora and P. borbonia with respect to fruit characteristics (physical and chemical) and selectivity by frugivorous birds (at GBNERR). Across two winter survey periods I observed fruit removal from artificial infructescences. I manipulated background species upon which displays were hung (Myrica cerifera and Triadica sebifera) and the accessibility of the displays. Using motion-activated cameras I confirmed foraging bouts on both P. borbonia and C. camphora fruits by three bird species (Dumetella carolinensis, Turdus migratorius, and Catharus guttatus). There was no significant difference in selectivity between fruit types during year one of my surveys but there was a significant preference for C. camphora in year two, which coincided with significantly lower mean daily temperatures. Background tree species and accessibility had no apparent effect on fruit preference. Total polyphenols and pulp:seed ratio were significantly higher in C. camphora fruit. I conclude that the fruits of C. camphora and P. borbonia represent nearly substitutable resources for native birds. However, native species may prefer C. camphora fruit in times of energetic stress. The decline of P. borbonia will likely increase the consumption and dispersal of C. camphora fruits. Additional studies are required to determine if such changes could ultimately increase the distribution and abundance of this exotic species. Combined, the chapters of this dissertation present substantial empirical evidence for the potential multi-trophic level impacts of an exotic plant disease. While it remains unclear how dramatic these impacts will be, the approach used here is vital for understanding and mitigating the long-term ecological effects of species/disease invasions.

Este levantamento retrospectivo teve por objetivos verificar quais animais de companhia foram levados para atendimento odontológico, avaliar quais foram as afecções mais freqüentes na cavidade oral destes animais, avaliar o grau de conscientização dos proprietários e a metodologia de preenchimento dos prontuários. As 3055 fichas cadastradas em um período de 44 meses foram analisadas de forma seqüencial. Os dados coletados foram espécie, raça, sexo, idade, peso, realização de consulta prévia ao tratamento, afecção presente, realização ou não de tratamento após consulta e retorno após um ano. As moléstias foram divididas em doença periodontal grave, moderada e leve, gengivite, fratura dental e qual dente foi acometido, presença de pelo menos um dente com lesão de reabsorção odontoclástica dos felinos, presença de complexo gengivite-estomatite-faringite nos felinos, fraturas em mandíbula e maxila, neoplasias benignas e malignas, persistência de dentes decíduos e alterações específicas dos sagüis, roedores e lagomorfos domésticos. Após o levantamento, as informações obtidas foram analisadas estatisticamente pelo teste de Qui-quadrado para avaliar a correlação de cada afecção com variáveis como faixa etária, sexo, e tamanho do animal. Das 3055 fichas avaliadas, 2300 foram de caninos, 588 de felinos, 99 de chinchilas, 41 de sagüis, 17 de porquinhos da índia, 9 de coelhos e uma de hamster. Para os cães e gatos, a afecção periodontal foi a de maior freqüência, acometendo 71,4% dos cães e 74% dos gatos. Observou-se correlação estatisticamente significante entre a doença periodontal e tamanho e idade do animal. A doença periodontal é mais freqüente em animais de mais idade (acima de 7 anos) e de porte pequeno (abaixo de 10 quilogramas), enquanto a gengivite ocorre mais em animais mais jovens ou com mais de trinta quilogramas. A persistência de dentes decíduos esteve freqüente em 11,6% dos cães, acometendo de forma estatisticamente significante os animais com menos de dez quilogramas. As fraturas dentais estavam presentes em 20,4% dos cães e 30,6% dos gatos, sendo que em ambas as espécies, os caninos foram os dentes que mais fraturaram. Entre os felinos, 41% apresentaram pelo menos um dente com lesão de reabsorção odontoclástica e 11,7%, complexo gengivite-estomatite-faringite. As neoplasias benignas e malignas acometeram 11,05% dos cães e 9,18% dos felinos, sendo que o melanoma, o carcinoma e os epúlides foram os mais freqüentes no cão e o carcinoma foi a principal neoformação nos felinos. Para os roedores e lagomorfos, as pontas dentárias e o desalinhamento oclusal foram as alterações mais vistas. Nos sagüis, a doença periodontal e as fraturas de dentes caninos estiveram presentes em 43,9% e 56,1% dos casos, respectivamente. Dos cães e gatos que fizeram consulta, 79% realizaram tratamento e apenas 5% retornaram após um ano de tratamento. Pôde-se concluir que além dos cães e gatos, outras espécies são encaminhadas ao atendimento odontológico; que existem outras afecções, além da doença periodontal, que acometem a cavidade oral dos animais domésticos; que a saúde oral ainda não é prioridade para os proprietários e que as anotações realizadas durante a rotina de atendimento podem apresentar falhas<br>The aim of this retrospective survey was to evaluate which pet had been taken for dental consultation, to evaluate which had been the most frequent disease, to try to perceive the degree of awareness of the owners and to evaluate the fulfilling of the dental charts. The 3055 files registered during a period of 44 months were analyzed of sequential form. The collected data were species, race, sex, age, weight, accomplishment of previous consultation to the treatment, present disease, accomplishment or not of treatment after consultation and return after one year. The diseases were divided in severe, moderate or slight periodontitis, gengivitis, dental fracture, presence of at least one tooth with resorptive lesion, presence of gingivitis stomatitis faringitis complex, benign and malignant tumors, jaws fractures, deciduous tooth persistence, presence of carie and specific alterations of the marmosets, rodents and domestic lagomorfs. After the survey, the informations were analyzed statistical by Qui-square test in order to evaluate the correlation of each ilness with variable as age, sex and size of the animal. From the 3055 evaluated files, 2300 were dogs, 588 were cats, 99 were chinchillas, 41 were marmosets, 17 were Indian pig, 9 were rabbits and one was hamster., The prevalence of periodontitis in dogs and cats was 71,4% of dogs and 74% of the cats, occurring significant correlation between size and age of the animal. The periodontal disease is more frequent in older and smaller animals, while the gengivitis occurs more in younger animals or with more than thirty kilograms. The persistence of deciduous was frequent in 11,6% of the dogs been significant for the animals with less than ten kilograms. The dental fractures were present in 20,4% of the dogs and 30,6% of the cats, the canine teeth had been the more fractured. Between the cats, 41% had presented at least a tooth with resorptive lesion and 11.7% with gengivitis-estomatitis-faringitis complex The benign and malignant tumors were present in 11.05% of the dogs and 9.18% of the cats. The melanoma, the carcinoma and epulides were most frequent in the dog and carcinoma was the main tumor in cats. For the rodents and lagomorfos, the dental tips and malocclusions were the more frequent diseases. In the marmoset, the periodontal illness and the fractures tooth had prevalence of 43,9% and 56,1% of the cases, respectively. Dogs and cats that had made consultation, 79% had carried through treatment and only 5% returned for treatment after one year. It can be concluded that beyond the dogs and cats, other species are referred to a dental clinic; that other diseases exist, beyond the periodontal illness, that occurred in the domestic animals; that the oral health is priority to the owners yet and that the charts of the attendance may have imperfections

O relatório desenvolvido baseia-se nos quatro meses e meio do estágio curricular realizado no Centro Veterinário de Exóticos do Porto, em clínica e cirurgia de animais exóticos. Este, teve início a 12 de setembro de 2016 e terminou a 31 de Janeiro de 2017, tendo-se realizado sob a orientação do Professor Doutor Luís Miguel Lourenço Martins e do Dr. Joel Tsou Ferraz, diretor clínico do Centro. O presente relatório encontra-se essencialmente dividido em duas partes; na primeira são descritas as atividades acompanhadas pelo autor no Centro e relacionadas estatisticamente. Na segunda é realizada uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema “Doença da dilatação do proventrículo em psitacídeos”; Abstract: The veterinary practice of exotic pets This report is based on the four and a half months of curricular internship at Centro Veterinário de Exóticos do Porto, in clinics and surgery of exotic animals. The internship began on September 12, 2016 and ended on 31 January 2017, having been held under the guidance of Professor Luis Miguel Lourenço Martins and Dr. Joel Tsou Ferraz, as clinical director of the Center. This report is essentially divided in two parts; the first describes the activities accompanied by the author at the Center, which is statistically reported; the second is a monographic approach of the matter “Proventricular dilatation disease in psittacines”

O presente relatório de estágio surge como término educativo do Mestrado Integrado em Medicina Veterinária na Universidade de Évora, tendo como base o estágio curricular de domínio fundamental na Clínica Veterinaria Exotics (Barcelona), na área de clínica de animais exóticos e silvestres, sob a orientação do Doutor Helder Cortes e do Dr. Xavier Valls. A Gota é a segunda doença metabólica mais observada em Reptilia caracterizada pela acumulação anormal de ácido úrico (tofos), em órgãos internos e/ou nas articulações. O tratamento assenta em três princípios: diminuir o nível de ácido úrico; promover a excreção de uratos e gerenciar crises agudas de gota articular. Existem novas moléculas a serem estudadas e já disponíveis no mercado para medicina humana as quais têm potencial para o uso em herpetologia, no entanto, são necessários estudos sobre a sua acção, dosagem e eficácia nas diferentes espécies da classe Reptilia; ABSTRACT: The following stage’report appears as an educational terminus of the Master in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Évora, based on the fundamental curricular internship that took place at the Clínica Veterinária Exotics (Barcelona), in the clinical area of exotic and wild animals, under the mentorship of Dr. Helder Cortes and of Dr. Xavier Valls. Gout is the second most frequently metabolic disease observed in Reptilia characterized by an abnormal accumulation of uric acid (tophi) in internal organs and / or joint pain. The treatment has three fronts: decrease the level of uric acid; promote urate excretion and manage acute attacks of articular gout. There are new molecules being studied and already on the market for human medicine, which have potential for use in herpetology, however, studies are needed on its action, dosage and effectiveness in different species of the Reptilia class.

The South African commercial forest industry is almost exclusively reliant on plantations of exotic trees, of which Eucalyptus spp. make up almost 50 %. Botryosphaeria spp. are important canker pathogens in these Eucalyptus plantations in South Africa. However, exotic plantations and their pathogens cannot be viewed separately from the related native flora. This study showed the importance of extending our knowledge on pathogens that occur on related native and exotic hosts, and which can pose a threat by cross infection between these host groups. In Chapter 1, a review of the literature concerning Botryosphaeria spp. that occur on Eucalyptus in its native range and exotic plantations is presented. It is clearly shown that Botryosphaeria spp. are important pathogens on Eucalyptus in exotic plantations worldwide, causing various symptoms on this host. Botryosphaeria spp. are also important canker pathogens in Eucalyptus plantations in South Africa. Traditional identification of this group of fungi, based on morphological characteristics, led to much confusion about their identity. However, in recent studies morphological characteristics were combined with DNA sequence data to distinguish and identify these fungi. Based on these data a few revisions have been done and new Botryosphaeria spp. were described on Eucalyptus. Botryosphaeria spp. recognised as pathogens on Eucalyptus in South Africa include B. dothidea, B. parva and B. eucalyptorum. Future studies should be focused on correct identification of Botryosphaeria spp. that occur on Eucalyptus, which is the first step towards preventing the spread of this group of pathogens and developing management strategies to control disease outbreaks. During the study on Botryosphaeria spp. on Syzygium cordatum, isolates of two Botryosphaeria spp. appeared to be undescribed. One of the undescribed species was represented by only one isolate and it was not named. The other species was described as the new Botryosphaeria anamorph within Lasiodiplodia, namely L. gonubiensis. This species grows endophytically on native S. cordatum in South Africa and is the first species in Lasiodiplodia to be found on native trees in the country. Identification of the new species was based on conidial and cultural morphology and DNA sequence data of the rDNA internal transcribed spacers, ITS1 and ITS2. Identification and description of L. gonubiensis is presented and discussed in Chapter 2. In total nine Botryosphaeria spp. were isolated from native Syzygium cordatum in South Africa. These include B. parva, B. ribis, B. lutea, B. australis, B. rhodina, B. dothidea, Fusicoccum mangiferum, Lasiodiplodia gonubiensis and an unknown Botryosphaeria sp. The isolates related to B. ribis, B. parva and F. mangiferum were the most abundant, while only one isolate represented B. dothidea. Species were identified based on morphological characteristics of their anamorphs combined with ITS rDNA sequence data. Some species, such as B. parva and B. ribis, could not be distinguished based on morphology or ITS rDNA data. A PCR-RFLP fingerprinting technique was, therefore, used to distinguish isolates of these two species. Once again this technique has proven useful and reliable in identification of Botryosphaeria isolates, including cryptic species. However, isolates of closely related B. lutea and B. australis could not be distinguished using this technique. It could be of interest to develop PCR-RFLP identification system that could be used in identification of the latter species. Identification and characterization of Botryosphaeria spp. are presented in Chapter 3. Isolates of all Botryosphaeria spp., obtained from native Syzygium cordatum in this study, caused lesions on the stems of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and S. cordatum in trials conducted under greenhouse conditions. Except for Fusicoccum mangiferum, all the other Botryosphaeria spp. were more pathogenic on Eucalyptus than on S. cordatum. The most pathogenic species on Eucalyptus were B. rhodina, B. ribis and B. lutea, whileF. mangiferum and B. ribis were the most pathogenic on S. cordatum. Botryosphaeria dothidea and L. gonubiensis were the least pathogenic on both hosts. The results obtained from this trial clearly show that Botryosphaeria spp. on S. cordatum pose a potential threat to exotic Eucalyptus plantations. Future study should be conducted under field conditions to evaluate data obtained in greenhouse trials. These results were presented and discussed in Chapter 4. The results presented in this study provide the first detailed information on Botryosphaeria spp. on the native Myrtaceae in South Africa. Most of the species isolated from Syzygium cordatum are not known on Eucalyptus in the country. All of the Botryosphaeria spp. obtained in this study are pathogenic to Eucalyptus, and thus pose a threat to this host. Large number of B. ribis, B. parva and F. mangiferum isolates obtained from the native S. cordatum could imply their origin in this region. Further sampling is needed on myrtaceous trees native to the Southern African region, as well as on Eucalyptus. Population studies on the most abundant and most pathogenic Botryosphaeria spp., should provide more information on the movement and origin of these pathogens. The results from this study also highlights the need for quarantine measures to avoid the introduction of new Botryosphaeria spp. or new strains that can be more pathogenic to either native or cultivated plants. Please cite as follows Pavlic, D 2004, Botryosphaeria species on native South African Syzygium cordatum and their potential threat to Eucalyptus , MSc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02062006-112938/ ><br>Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007.<br>Microbiology and Plant Pathology<br>MSc<br>Unrestricted

Butternut (Juglans cinerea L.), a lesser-known relative of black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), is a native tree species beneficial for wildlife, valuable for timber, and part of the great diversity of species in the eastern forests of North America. Populations of butternut are being devastated by butternut canker disease, caused by the fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum (V.M.G. Nair, Kostichka, & Kuntz), which is thought to be introduced to North America. The disease causes multiple branch and stem cankers that eventually girdle trees. Small population sizes, lack of sprouting, and shade intolerance exacerbates the disease and results in permanent losses of butternut across the native range. Fortunately, healthy, canker-free butternut trees have been found proximal to diseased trees, indicating that a breeding approach could be a feasible strategy for producing and reintroducing resistant butternuts. A successful restoration program will require an understanding of genetic variation in open-pollinated seedlings, genetic basis of disease resistance, seedling establishment procedures, site requirements, and a greater understanding of disease development over time. This dissertation is divided into six parts, with the overall goal of insight into butternut ecology and management techniques which could be used to guide restoration decisions for this important species. The first two parts are an introduction and a literature review. In the third section, butternut seedlings were propagated in nursery progeny plantings to determine the genetic and phenotypic variability among one-year-old seedlings in a controlled environment. Part four outlines the disease development of butternut seedlings across progeny in resistance screening plantings at various locations. Part five aims at aiding restoration techniques by determining the impact of phenotypic and genetic variables on establishment success across various planting sites with different silvicultural treatments. Part six describes the dynamics of a large population of healthy and diseased butternut trees including disease development across temporal scales. The information gained from this research will be directly used in gene conservation strategies, the construction of disease resistant breeding orchards, and in determining appropriate restoration techniques.

碩士<br>國立臺灣師範大學<br>生命科學系<br>107<br>Lack of predators and competitors in small and hard-to-reach volcanic oceanic islands can facilitate ecological release of introduced species, including rodents that serve as hosts or reservoirs of a variety of zoonotic diseases. The volcanic Lanyu Island has a high prevalence of scrub typhus, which is transmitted by chigger mites; in addition, spotted fever group rickettsiae have been detected in hard ticks. Rodents are the primary hosts of chiggers and hard ticks. The rodent community in Lanyu is dominated by the exotic Asian house rat (Rattus tanezumi), which can be observed in different types of habitats, including grasslands and natural forests. This is in contrast to Taiwan main island where this species is limited to human residence areas. This study investigated the role of the Asian house rat in hosting chiggers and ticks and whether the grasslands and natural forests in Lanyu also shelter chiggers and ticks. From September 2017 to June 2018, we set up rodent traps and collected ectoparasites from captured rodents in each of the three human residence sites, three grassland sites, and four natural forest sites. Results showed that the Asian house rat was the only rodent trapped across all three habitat types. Abundance of R. tanezumi was significantly lower in human residence sites (2.9±0.8 individuals; mean±SE) than in grasslands (5.9±1.2; p < 0.05) and in forests (9.3±1.3; p < 0.001); their abundance in grasslands also lower than in forest (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, rat abundance was significantly higher in December (10.3±1.9) than the other month (all p < 0.05). All rats were infested with chiggers, which includes three species, although the chigger fauna is dominated (>95%) by Leptotrombidium deliense. There was a significant interactive effect of habitat and season on mean chigger load (total number of chiggers/number of rats; p < 0.001); seasonal change in mean chigger load varied among human residence (285.8±84.9), grasslands (545.5±100.9) and forests (450.7±77.1). The grasslands had the highest total number of chiggers in September(5579.3±1519.1), while total number in forests peaked in June(4958.0±1357.4). Prevalence of tick infestation was 64.6%. Three tick genus were identified, with Ixodes granulatus being the most commonly observed (>70%). Mean ticks load (total number of ticks/number of rats) was significantly lower in human residence (0.9±0.4) than in grasslands (14.8±8.1; p < 0.001); while forests (6.9±1.9) did no differ from the other two habitats (both p > 0.05), and December had a significantly lower tick load than the other months (p < 0.001). In September and December, the total number of ticks in grasslands and in forests were significantly higher than in human residence (p < 0.001), and increased significantly in March (all p < 0.05). This study found that the exotic Asian house rats, and the chiggers and ticks that they carry, are also observed in grasslands and forests of Lanyu, and usually attained higher abundance than in human residence sites. These results suggest that the introduction of exotic rodents to volcanic islands will not only have devastating effect on ecosystems but can also increase human exposure to rodent-borne diseases.