The Influence of Urban Environments on Oxidative Stress Balance: A Case Study on the House Sparrow in the Iberian Peninsula

The House Sparrow is a globally distributed species and is closely associated with anthropised environments. They are well-adapted to urban life; therefore the decline of their populations in Europe represents an unexpected event that demands an investigation into its causes. Causes that have promoted this decline are not well-known, but one of the highlighted hypotheses is an increase of oxidative stress linked to the toxicity of pollution in urban areas. From an ecophysiological perspective, oxidative damage, antioxidant defense, and oxidative balance are considered reliable indicators of environmental stressors such as pollutants. To carry out this study, blood samples were collected from House Sparrows in three different habitats that varied in terms of urbanization degree: urban, suburban, and rural; during the winter and breeding season. According to our results, urban sparrows showed higher levels of oxidative damage and higher activity of antioxidant enzymes, but lower antioxidant capacity in comparison with the rural birds; and these differences especially increase during the breeding season. The maintenance of oxidative balance increases in an urban environment in comparison to a rural one; we suggest that the high level of pollution and the poor quality diet linked to urban environments. The breeding season is expected to be particularly challenging for the oxidative balance of urban birds, when the reallocation of resources between self-maintenance and reproduction may be critical due to the scarcity of antioxidants found in urban areas. This study may contribute to determining the causes of the population decrease of House Sparrows in cities

Prevalence and genetic diversity of Avipoxvirus in house sparrows in Spain

Avipoxvirus (APV) is a fairly common virus affecting birds that causes morbidity and mortality in wild and captive birds. We studied the prevalence of pox-like lesions and genetic diversity of APV in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in natural, agricultural and urban areas in southern Spain in 2013 and 2014 and in central Spain for 8 months (2012±2013). Overall, 3.2% of 2,341 house sparrows visually examined in southern Spain had cutaneous lesions consistent with avian pox. A similar prevalence (3%) was found in 338 birds from central Spain. Prevalence was higher in hatch-year birds than in adults. We did not detect any clear spatial or temporal patterns of APV distribution. Molecular analyses of poxvirus-like lesions revealed that 63% of the samples were positive. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of 29 DNA sequences from the fpv167 gene, detected two strains belonging to the canarypox clade (subclades B1 and B2) previously found in Spain. One of them appears predominant in Iberia and North Africa and shares 70% similarity to fowlpox and canarypox virus. This APV strain has been identified in a limited number of species in the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and Hungary. The second one has a global distribution and has been found in numerous wild bird species around the world. To our knowledge, this represents the largest study of avian poxvirus disease in the broadly distributed house sparrow and strongly supports the findings that Avipox prevalence in this species in South and central Spain is moderate and the genetic diversity low.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CGL2010-15734/BOS), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CGL2013-41642-P/BOS) and the Innovation and Development Agency of Andalusia (Spain) (P11-RNM-7038). Grants were awarded to JMP (Juan de la Cierva- JCI-2012-11868) and MAJM (FPIBES-2011-047609), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; RAJW (CEI-PICATA2012), CEI Campus of International Excellence; MM (FPU12/0568), Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. RAJW was supported by the Craaford Foundation (grant 20160971) during the writing of this publication. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Trayectorias de un viaje por la investigación educativa desde el sentipensar de los maestros y maestras : experiencias en desarrollo del programa de pensamiento crítico

428 páginasEste libro reúne 19 experiencias que continúan el acompañamiento en la fundamentación, desarrollo y estructuración de estrategias de tipo pedagógico y didáctico dentro de la ruta sentipensante en el Nivel II: Experiencias en desarrollo. Igualmente, en estas experiencias se hace una ampliación de referentes, técnicas e instrumentos para recoger información de los 19 textos presentados. De tal manera, estas experiencias son fruto de este acompañamiento que ha realizado el Instituto para la Investigación Educativa y el Desarrollo Pedagógico IDEP, que servirán de base y referente para seguir aportando en la configuración y consolidación de comunidades de saber y práctica pedagógica, así como en la conformación de colectivos y redes de maestros y maestras

Valores bioquímicos en pollos de buitre negro (Aegypius monachus) del Parque Nacional de Sierra de Guadarrama

Póster presentado al XXII Congreso Español de Ornitología: "Aves y ser humano: una relación variable", celebrado en Madrid del 6 al 9 de diciembre del 2014.El buitre negro (Aegypius monachus) es una especie amenazada y emblemática en Europa. De las 2.500 parejas estimadas en Europa, la mayor parte se encuentran en territorio español, de ahí la importancia del conocimiento y conservación de la población española. En este aspecto, la incorporación del análisis de parámetros bioquímicos en los planes de seguimiento y control de las poblaciones resulta de gran utilidad, aportando información no sólo de las posibles patologías sino también sobre el estado general de los individuos según las condiciones del medio. Además, el establecimiento de valores de referencia de estos parámetros en poblaciones silvestres en buen estado permite crear una base de conocimiento adecuada para evaluar el estado de salud de otras poblaciones silvestres. En este trabajo se han analizado muestras de 42 pollos de buitre negro nacidos en el año 2013, en la colonia de la ZEPA Alto Lozoya, en el Parque Nacional de Guadarrama (Rascafría, Madrid). Se analizaron 17 parámetros bioquímicos, relacionados con el estado nutricional, la funcionalidad hepática y renal y el balance oxidante/antioxidante. Se establecieron los valores medios, la desviación estándar y el rango, tanto en la suma total de individuos, como tras su separación según el sexo. Como era de esperar los datos muestran una distribución normal, no encontrándose en ninguno de los casos diferencias debidas al sexo. El presente trabajo permite establecer una base de rangos de referencia de pollos de buitre negro, lo cual puede resultar una herramienta útil a considerar para su incorporación rutinaria en los planes de seguimiento y control de la especie, permitiendo una mayor eficacia en su conservación.Peer reviewe

Oxidative challenges of avian migration : A comparative field study on a partial migrant

Most avian migrants alternate flight bouts, characterized by high metabolic rates, with stopovers, periods of fuel replenishment through hyperphagia. High-energy metabolism and excessive calorie intake shift the balance between damaging prooxidants and antioxidants toward the former. Hence, migration likely affects the oxidative balance of birds. Migratory flight indeed appears to cause oxidative damage; however, whether migration affects the oxidative state of birds at stopover is unclear. Therefore, we compared total nonenzymatic antioxidant capacity (AOX) and malondialdehyde concentration (MDA; a measure of lipid peroxi-dation) in the plasma of migrant and resident common blackbirds. We also determined plasmatic uric acid (UA) and fatty acid (FA) concentrations and calculated a FA peroxidation index. Birds were sampled during autumn migration at a stopover site that also supports a sedentary blackbird population. Migrants had higher AOX than residents, also after correcting for UA concentration. Migrants tended to have higher FA peroxidation indexes than residents, indicating that the energy source of migrants contains higher concentrations of peroxidizable FAs. However, the two groups did not differ in MDA concentration, also not after correcting for peroxidation index. Peroxidation-corrected MDA concentration was negatively correlated with UA-corrected AOX. In other words, individuals with low nonenzymatic AOX suffered more from lipid peroxidation than individuals with high nonenzymatic AOX. These results together indicate that migrant blackbirds invest in antioxidant defenses to reduce oxidative damage to lipids, likely representing an adaptation to diminish the physiological costs of migration

Oxidative stress in birds along a NOx and urbanisation gradient : An interspecific approach

Urbanisation is regarded as one of the most threatening global issues for wildlife, however, measuring its impact is not always straight forward. Oxidative stress physiology has been suggested to be a useful biomarker of health and therefore, a potentially important indicator of the impact that urban environmental stressors, especially air pollution, can have on wildlife. For example, nitrogen oxides (NOx), released during incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, are highly potent pro-oxidants, thus predicted to affect either the protective antioxidants and/or cause oxidative damage to bio-molecules. To date, epidemiological modelling of the predicted association between oxidative stress and NOx exposure has not been performed in wild animals. Here, we address this short-coming, by investigating multiple oxidative stress markers in four common passerine bird species, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), great tit (Parus major), house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and tree sparrow (Passer montanus), living along a gradient of NOx and urbanisation levels in southern Sweden. First of all, the results revealed that long- and medium-term (one month and one week, respectively) NOx levels were highly correlated with the level of urbanisation. This confirms that the commonly used urbanisation index is a reliable proxy for urban air pollution. Furthermore, in accordance to our prediction, individuals exposed to higher long- and medium-term NOx levels/urbanisation had higher plasma antioxidant capacity. However, only tree sparrows showed higher oxidative damage (protein carbonyls) in relation to NOx levels and this association was absent with urbanisation. Lipid peroxidation, glutathione and superoxide dismutase levels did not co-vary with NOx/urbanisation. Given that most oxidative stress biomarkers showed strong species-specificity, independent of variation in NOx/urbanisation, the present study highlights the need to study variation in oxidative stress across contexts, seasons and life-stages in order to understand how the ecology and phylogeny of species interact to affect species resilience to urban environmental stress

Contaminación y biodiversidad: las aves urbanas como indicadores y proveedores de salud humana

M. Díaz, E. D. Concepción, A. Page, B. Sánchez y A. Herrera-Dueñas. Contaminación y Biodiversidad: las Aves Urbanas Como Indicadores y Proveedores de Salud Humana en el libro electrónico Contaminación, Salud y Políticas Públicas coordinado por J. J. Nogueira, Respira Madrid. Disponible en: https://www.respiramadrid.org/post/biodiversidadLas personas vivimos cada vez más en ambientes urbanos. Por ello, la importancia de la conservación y mejora de la biodiversidad urbana aumenta a medida que las ciudades son mayores y puede que más hostiles. Los factores que afectan a la salud de las personas, como es el caso de la contaminación del aire, puede que también disminuyan la biodiversidad urbana, de manera que esta diversidad sería un indicador de ambientes saludables. Además, la biodiversidad puede ser fuente directa de salud, pues preocuparse y disfrutar de la vida salvaje puede contribuir a nuestro bienestar. En este capítulo revisamos el estado actual de conocimientos sobre los diversos factores que pueden determinar la abundancia, diversidad y estado de salud de las aves urbanas. Indagaremos si estos factores pueden afectar a la ciudadanía de forma directa, cuando implican mecanismos similares a los que condicionan la salud humana, o si lo harían indirectamente, lo que ocurre si la presencia de aves mejora la salud y la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos. Se trata de aspectos que se están investigando activamente en el momento actual, y que pueden tener importantes implicaciones en el diseño de ciudades saludables y sostenibles. Las iniciativas de divulgación y participación ciudadana pueden mejorar la calidad de vida de la gente a través de un mayor conocimiento e implicación en la conservación de su entorno más inmediato, lo que facilita además el establecimiento de vínculos con la naturaleza, que está por todas partes. Más personas contribuirán a afrontar el enorme reto de detener la pérdida de biodiversidad. Porque no se conserva lo que no se conoce.Este trabajo es una contribución al proyecto URBILAND (PID2019-107423GA-I00), financiado por la Agencia Española de Investigación

Understanding the role of birds in the dispersal of antibiotic resistance: Landfill use and gut microbiota of white storks (Ciconia Ciconia)

Resumen del trabajo presentado al 8th International Meeting on Emerging Disease and Surveillance (IMED), celebrado de forma virtual del 4 al 6 de noviembre de 2021.Peer reviewe

Influence of climatic conditions on the link between oxidative stress balance and landfill utilisation as a food resource by white storks

This work was partially supported by the project RTA2011-00111-C03 funded by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA). J.P.-P. was supported by a postdoctoral grant Margarita Salas from the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the Complutense University of Madrid. Storch Schweiz funded the ringing and sampling of stork chicks in Malpartida de Cáceres, by grant CGL2012-32544 from the MINECO, and by grant 511/2012 of the Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales.Landfills have played a significant role in the recovery of white storks (Ciconia ciconia) populations across various European countries. While there is ample information about the populational-level effects, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the individual effects of using this food resource for feeding nestlings. This study aims to assess the nutritional status and oxidative stress balance of nestlings with varying degrees of exposure to landfill-provided food This study aims to assess the nutritional status and oxidative stress balance of nestlings with different use of landfill-provided food. Nestlings fed with food foraged by breeding pairs from landfills exhibited better nutritional status compared to individuals located farther from landfills. This can be attributed to a higher ingestion rate, resulting in increased plasmatic values of cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL in plasma. However, the oxidative stress balance varied across different years, with individuals raised in 2014 showing higher values of Vitamin E and lower values of LDH compared to those raised in 2013. Furthermore, the impact of landfills on certain oxidative stress parameters also depended on the year of study. In 2013, the Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) of plasma showed a positive correlation with the distance to landfills, while the concentration of Malondialdehyde (MDA), an indicator of lipid peroxidation, exhibited a negative correlation. These findings suggest that the use of landfills as a food resource has a consistently positive effect on the nutritional status of white stork nestling. However, the relationship with oxidative stress is highly dependent on the climatic conditions of each year, emphasizing the importance of considering these factors when evaluating the use of landfills as a food resource.Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu

Living in the city: effects of urbanisation on house sparrow digestive yeasts

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la 12th Conference of the European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA), celebrada en Berlin (Alemania) del 26 al 31 de agosto de 2016.The bouse sparrow (Passer domesticus) is one of the most widely distributed urban birds and has successfully expanded its range to all continents. Recent population declines of this and other garden bird species in central and Northern Europe have raised concern and are considered due to several factors, including pathogens such as the protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae. To study the presence of this potential pathogen in Spanish sparrow populations we sampled 76 house sparrows in three areas with different degrees of urbanisation and during both wintering and the reproductive season. Swab samples from the oropharynx and oesopbagus were cultured in trichomonas culture medium enriched with 10% foetal calf serum and tested by direct microscopic observation and PCR for presence of T. gallinae. None of the sparrows was colonised by T. gallinae but two yeasts were detected, Macrorhabdus ornitogaster and Candida sp. in 29% and 23.7% of the cultures, respectively. Candida albicans was identified in most cases by culture in Sabouraud dextrose agar and biochemical tests while Macrorhabdus ornitogaster has characteristic microscopic features. Macrorhabdus ornitogaster was found more frequently in juvenile sparrows (38.89 %, 7 of 18) than adults (25.7 %, 15 of 58; GzLM, p = 0.049, β = -1,304, SE = 0.663). Macrorhabdus prevalence also increases as degree of urbanisation raises (GzLM, p = 0.018, β = 0.906, SE = 0.383). A co-infection effect with Candida sp.has been observed (GzLM, p = 0.034, β = 0.043, SE = 0.383). M. ornithogaster is an ascomycetes yeast tbat is present at tbe junction of the proventriculos and gizzard of wild and domestic birds. It has been described in numerous captive and wild birds, but to our knowledge not previously in house sparrows. Although the sparrows were apparently healthy and M ornithogaster is potentially a commensal, in some passerine, gallinaceous and psittacine species it has been identified as a significant pathogen. The degree of M ornithogaster carriage in sparrows may be affected by environmental conditions and they may act as reservoirs for other more susceptible species. Urban birds have to cope with many stressors that could affect the presence of this commensal yeast. Finally, under stressful conditions fitness of infected individuals could be comprornised and lead to clinical infections.Peer Reviewe