Low water quality in tropical fishponds in southeastern Brazil

Expansion of aquaculture around the world has heavily impacted the environment. Because fertilizers are needed to raise fish, one of the main impacts is eutrophication, which lowers water quality and increases the frequency of algal blooms, mostly cyanobacteria. To evaluate whether the water quality in 30 fishponds in southeastern Brazilian met the requirements of Brazilian legislation, we analyzed biotic and abiotic water conditions. We expected that the high nutrient levels due to fertilization would cause low water quality. We also analyzed cyanotoxins in seston and fish muscle in some systems where cyanobacteria were dominant. The fishponds ranged from eutrophic and hypereutrophic with high phytoplankton biomass. Although cyanobacteria were dominant in most of the systems, cyanotoxins occurred in low concentrations, possibly because only two of the 12 dominant species were potential producers of microcystins. The high phosphorus concentrations caused the low water quality by increasing cyanobacteria, chlorophyll-a, turbidity, and thermotolerant coliforms, and by depleting dissolved oxygen. We found that all the 30 systems were inappropriate for fish culture, according to Brazilian legislation, based on at least one of the parameters measured. Furthermore, there was not any single system in the water-quality thresholds, according to the Brazilian legislation, to grow fish. Our findings indicate the need for better management to minimize the impacts of eutrophication in fishponds, in addition to a rigorous control to guarantee good food

Enteroparasitic occurrence in fecal samples analyzed at the University of Western São Paulo-UNOESTE clinical laboratory, Presidente Prudente, São Paulo State, Brazil Ocorrência de enteroparasitas em amostras fecais analisadas no Laboratório Clínico da UNOESTE, Presidente Prudente, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

This study aims to analyze the enteroparasitic occurrence in children from 0 to 12 years old consulted at the University of western São Paulo Clinical Laboratory, Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil, in relation to the socioeconomic profile of the attended children. Stool samples were examined and a questionnaire was applied with the objective of knowing the patient's age, sex, medical attendance, characteristic of the habitation, provisioning of water, dejection and domestic waste fates, use of footwear and clinical signs. The software EPI INFO 6 (Version 6.04b) was used for the elaboration of the data bank structure and analysis after previous data codification. Among 1,000 children analyzed, as many as 21.3% presented some kind of parasite. The most frequent protozoan was Giardia lamblia (7.3%) followed by Entamoeba coli (3.9%). The most frequent helminth was Enterobius vermicularis (1.9%) followed by Hymenolepis nana (0.5%). The most frequent protozoan association was Giardia lamblia / Entamoeba coli (0.9%).<br>O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a ocorrência de enteroparasitoses em crianças de 0 a 12 anos de Presidente Prudente - SP por meio de exames parasitológicos, associada ao perfil sócio-econômico da população. Um questionário foi aplicado com o objetivo de conhecer as seguintes variáveis: idade do paciente, sexo, tipo de assistência médica, características da habitação, abastecimento de água, destino dos dejetos, do lixo, uso de calçados e sinais clínicos. Para a elaboração da estrutura de banco de dados e sua análise, utilizou-se o programa EPI INFO 6 (Versão 6.04b) após pré-codificação dos dados. Das 1.000 amostras estudadas, 78,7% das crianças não apresentaram parasitas e 21,3% apresentaram alguma espécie de parasita. O protozoário mais freqüente foi Giardia lamblia (7,3%) seguido de Entamoeba coli (3,9%). Os helmintos mais freqüentes foram Enterobius vermicularis (1,9%), seguido de Hymenolepis nana (0,5%). A associação mais freqüente foi Giardia lamblia e Entamoeba coli (0,9%)

Medidas morfométricas de fêmeas e machos de Oncideres dejeani Thompson, 1868 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Morphometric measurements of males and females of Oncideres dejeani Thompson, 1868 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar aspectos morfológicos de Oncideres dejeani que possibilitem a diferenciação sexual destes insetos. Dados da morfometria de 25 casais de insetos obtidos com auxílio de um microscópio estereoscópico e de um paquímetro mostram que o comprimento e a largura dos fêmures dos exemplares machos são menores do que os dos exemplares fêmeas, porém apresentam antenas maiores, havendo uma diferenciação no tamanho das antenas após o quarto antenômero, pelo teste de Mann-Whitney, em 5% de probabilidade de erro. Fêmeas e machos também apresentaram diferenças significativas quanto às medidas de comprimento do élitro, à largura entre os tubérculos, à largura apical do élitro e à largura posterior do protórax. Pela praticidade de obtenção, as medidas do tamanho do corpo e do comprimento de antenas podem ser consideradas suficientes como dados morfométricos de diferenciação sexual desta espécie.<br>The objective of this work was to identify morfologycal aspects of Oncideres dejeani that helps the sexual differentiation of this species. Morphometrics data of 25 couples were analysed with a stereo microscope and pachimeter indicated that femur length and width of male individuals were smaller than on the females however the antennas were larger and there is a differentiation on the antennas length after the forth antennomeres as indicated by the Mann-Whitney test at 5% error probability. Female and male presented significant differences regarding elytra length, width between tubercle, apical width of elytra of hind prothoracic. For their facility in being taken, the measurements of body size and antennae length can be considered enough as morfologycal data hat can be used for sexual differentiation of this species