Toward a sustainable, participatory and inclusive wild meat sector

The meat of wild species, referred to in this report as ‘wild meat’, is an essential source of protein and a generator of income for millions of forest-living communities in tropical and subtropical regions. However, unsustainable harvest rates currently endanger the integrity of ecosystems and threaten the livelihoods of many vulnerable households. This report, produced in response to a call from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is a technical tool to help users guide actions towards a more sustainable wild meat sector. Here, we present an extensive compilation of the current knowledge on wild meat use, drivers and impacts, and provide recommendations on how to improve wild meat governance and management.In all tropical and subtropical regions, greater wildlife offtakes are being enabled by advances in hunting technologies, as well as the increased penetration of new lands by infrastructure, logging, mining and agriculture. Consumers in fast-growing urban centers largely drive demand for wild meat, where it is eaten as a luxury item rather than as a food staple. This greater pressure from large towns and cities has had significant impacts on wildlife populations and ecosystem integrity. In turn, this jeopardizes the financial ‘safety nets’ and food security of remote rural and indigenous communities, for whom wild meat can account for much of their dietary protein, as well as an important source of other nutrients.Key to the success of sustainable management is ensuring that wild meat use is considered a cross-sectoral issue; firmly incorporated in national resource and land-use planning. The success of management strategies will depend on an enabling environment at the national level. In many countries a key first step will be the revision of national hunting laws and land tenure governance systems in consultation with multiple stakeholders. Research efforts must focus on producing science-based evidence that governments, communities, NGOs and industries can use to improve management policies and practices.The creation of a sustainable wild meat sector requires interconnected interventions along the entire value chain – focused on local hunting communities, urban consumers and wider society. Well-designed, participatory approaches can enable sustainable management of wild meat supply for local communities, but only if this is strongly complemented by approaches that aim to reduce urban deman

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Review of erbium fibre laser based nonlinear optics in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)

Recent developments in the use of erbium doped fibre laser to carry out nonlinear optical experiments in periodically poled materials are reviewed. The increased peak powers and pulse energies available from improved rare-earth doped fibre designs coupled with the high nonlinearities available in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) have allowed a range of interesting and novel experiments to be carried out. This paper reviews the progress in this area and highlights the opportunities it provides. The advent of high power lasers based around erbium doped optical fibres together with the development of highly nonlinear materials such as PPLN is resulting in a convergence between nonlinear optics and the capabilities of optical telecomm components. The low cost of components available for use at 1.55 microns together with efficient fibre laser sources pumped by laser diodes makes it an attractive combination for the commercial exploitation of nonlinear optics. We will review the work carried out to date on the combination of erbium fibre sources with PPLN. A range of experiments have been carried out, with the simplest being highly efficient second harmonic generation in PPLN starting from a nanosecond pulse erbium fibre laser (83% single pass conversion efficiency). This high conversion efficiency is a result of careful control of the laser temporal profile. At such high conversion efficiencies parasitic back conversion processes are seen to occur. In terms of complexity, the next simplest experiments have involved optical parametric generation and optical parametric amplification, in these experiments very high single pass gains (around >90dB) are obtained resulting in new, and as yet unexplained optical phenomenon, in particular, a frequency shift of around 0.7nm in optical parametric amplification at 1.3 microns. The final class of experiments reported has involved optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) either directly pumped at 1.5 micron or pumped using a cascaded scheme with the second harmonic of the fibre laser being used to pump the OPO. Such devices have many attractive features including, simplicity, high conversion efficiencies, and most notably pump tunability where a small degree of pump tuning leads to a much larger signal tuning (typically a factor of 8 was achieved)

The ecology of the European badger (Meles meles) in Ireland: a review

peer-reviewedThe badger is an ecologically and economically important species. Detailed knowledge of aspects of the ecology of this animal in Ireland has only emerged through research over recent decades. Here, we review what is known about the species' Irish populations and compare these findings with populations in Britain and Europe. Like populations elsewhere, setts are preferentially constructed on south or southeast facing sloping ground in well-drained soil types. Unlike in Britain, Irish badger main setts are less complex and most commonly found in hedgerows. Badgers utilise many habitat types, but greater badger densities have been associated with landscapes with high proportions of pasture and broadleaf woodlands. Badgers in Ireland tend to have seasonally varied diets, with less dependence on earthworms than some other populations in northwest Europe. Recent research suggests that females exhibit later onset and timing of reproductive events, smaller litter sizes and lower loss of blastocysts than populations studied in Britain. Adult social groups in Ireland tend to be smaller than in Britain, though significantly larger than social groups from continental Europe. Although progress has been made in estimating the distribution and density of badger populations, national population estimates have varied widely in the Republic of Ireland. Future research should concentrate on filling gaps in our knowledge, including population models and predictive spatial modelling that will contribute to vaccine delivery, management and conservation strategies.Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and FoodTeagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm