Epizootic Emergence of Usutu Virus in Wild and Captive Birds in Germany

This study aimed to identify the causative agent of mass mortality in wild and captive birds in southwest Germany and to gather insights into the phylogenetic relationship and spatial distribution of the pathogen. Since June 2011, 223 dead birds were collected and tested for the presence of viral pathogens. Usutu virus (USUV) RNA was detected by real-time RT-PCR in 86 birds representing 6 species. The virus was isolated in cell culture from the heart of 18 Blackbirds (Turdus merula). USUV-specific antigen was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry in brain, heart, liver, and lung of infected Blackbirds. The complete polyprotein coding sequence was obtained by deep sequencing of liver and spleen samples of a dead Blackbird from Mannheim (BH65/11-02-03). Phylogenetic analysis of the German USUV strain BH65/11-02-03 revealed a close relationship with strain Vienna that caused mass mortality among birds in Austria in 2001. Wild birds from lowland river valleys in southwest Germany were mainly affected by USUV, but also birds kept in aviaries. Our data suggest that after the initial detection of USUV in German mosquitoes in 2010, the virus spread in 2011 and caused epizootics among wild and captive birds in southwest Germany. The data also indicate an increased risk of USUV infections in humans in Germany

Landslide consequences assessment and post-crisis management along the coast of Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France

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Condemned to rootlessness: the loyalist origins of Canada's identity crisis

Few observers have sought to explain why French Canadians, Metis and even Anglo‐Americans developed a sense of indigenous ethnicity while English‐Canadians failed to do the same. Fewer still have sought to connect this to the national ‘identity crisis’ often mentioned in the discourse of English‐speaking Canada. This article asserts that English Canada's perception of a ‘Canadian’ identity crisis is really an English‐Canadian one which has its roots in English Canada's Loyalist ethnic core. In contrast to most nations, English Canada never developed an indigenous ethnic core. Instead, its ‘non‐ethnic’ identity, from its Loyalist beginnings, remained split. On one side was a repressed American folk culture, which outsiders used to recognize the English‐Canadians. On the other was an exalted set of British myths, symbols and narratives, to which English‐Canadians attached themselves. The pattern of English‐Canadian cultural history is therefore unsurprising: it involves a tension between American and British influence, with seemingly no exit. Thus the ‘Canadians’, deprived of a distinct founding people, were, from the beginning, ‘condemned to rootlessness’

Long term evolution of ‘Les Vaches Noires’ cliffs and spatio-temporal occurrence of landslides (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France). First preliminary results.

International audienc

Evolution à long terme des falaises des ‘Vaches Noires’ et occurrence des glissements (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France)

National audienc

Long term evolution of ‘Les Vaches Noires’ cliffs and spatio-temporal occurrence of landslides (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France). First preliminary results.

International audienc