Genetic variability of raccoon dogs and their impacts on the environment in Lithuania

Pūraitė, I., Griciuvienė, L., Paulauskas, A., Sruoga, A., Gedminas, V., Butkauskas, D

The Long Term Response of Birds to Climate Change: New Results from a Cold Stage Avifauna in Northern England

The early MIS 3 (55–40 Kyr BP associated with Middle Palaeolithic archaeology) bird remains from Pin Hole, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, England are analysed in the context of the new dating of the site’s stratigraphy. The analysis is restricted to the material from the early MIS 3 level of the cave because the upper fauna is now known to include Holocene material as well as that from the Late Glacial. The results of the analysis confirm the presence of the taxa, possibly unexpected for a Late Pleistocene glacial deposit including records such as Alpine swift, demoiselle crane and long-legged buzzard with southern and/or eastern distributions today. These taxa are accompanied by more expected ones such as willow ptarmigan /red grouse and rock ptarmigan living today in northern and montane areas. Finally, there are temperate taxa normally requiring trees for nesting such as wood pigeon and grey heron. Therefore, the result of the analysis is that the avifauna of early MIS 3 in England included taxa whose ranges today do not overlap making it a non-analogue community similar to the many steppe-tundra mammalian faunas of the time. The inclusion of more temperate and woodland taxa is discussed in the light that parts of northern Europe may have acted as cryptic northern refugia for some such taxa during the last glacial. These records showing former ranges of taxa are considered in the light of modern phylogeographic studies as these often assume former ranges without considering the fossil record of those taxa. In addition to the anomalous combination of taxa during MIS 3 living in Derbyshire, the individuals of a number of the taxa are different in size and shape to members of the species today probably due to the high carrying capacity of the steppe-tundra

Sarcocystis Species Lethal for Domestic Pigeons

A large number of Sarcocystis spp. infect birds as intermediate hosts, but pigeons are rarely affected. We identified a novel Sarcocystis sp. that causes lethal neurologic disease in domestic pigeons in Germany. Experimental infections indicated transmission by northern goshawks, and sequence analyses indicated transnational distribution. Worldwide spread is possible

Are Farm-Reared Quails for Game Restocking Really Common Quails (Coturnix coturnix)?: A Genetic Approach

The common quail (Coturnix coturnix) is a popular game species for which restocking with farm-reared individuals is a common practice. In some areas, the number of released quails greatly surpasses the number of wild breeding common quail. However, common quail are difficult to raise in captivity and this casts suspicion about a possible hybrid origin of the farmed individuals from crosses with domestic Japanese quail (C. japonica). In this study we used a panel of autosomal microsatellite markers to characterize the genetic origin of quails reared for hunting purposes in game farms in Spain and of quails from an experimental game farm which was founded with hybrids that have been systematically backcrossed with wild common quails. The genotypes of these quail were compared to those of wild common quail and domestic strains of Japanese quail. Our results show that more than 85% of the game farm birds were not common quail but had domestic Japanese quail ancestry. In the experimental farm a larger proportion of individuals could not be clearly separated from pure common quails. We conclude that the majority of quail sold for restocking purposes were not common quail. Genetic monitoring of individuals raised for restocking is indispensable as the massive release of farm-reared hybrids could represent a severe threat for the long term survival of the native species

Genetic characterization of Atlantic sturgeon stocking material used in Lithuania to restore the Baltic Sea population

Background. Recent genetic analyses of fish remains, obtained from archaeological sites, revealed that more than 2000 years ago the Baltic Sea was inhabited by sturgeons closely related to the Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill, 1815. As some wildlife populations of the Atlantic sturgeon are still present in Canadian rivers, we decided to use those fish to restore the extinct Baltic population. Materials and methods. Fin clips of 50 A. oxyrinchus were collected from fry representing two hatcheries. At the hatchery  No. 1 sturgeons were reared from fertilized eggs received from the Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar Inc., Canada. At the hatchery No. 2, larvae provided by the Regional Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries (Germany) were reared for several months until they were released into rivers. The molecular data of 22 and 28 specimens from hatcheries  No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, were compared with homological D-loop sequences and some microsatellite loci derived from two museum specimens of sturgeons from the Tadas Ivanauskas Museum of Zoology, Kaunas, Lithuania. Signs of possible introgressive hybridization between Acipenser sturio Linnaeus, 1758 and A. oxyrinchus in two museum specimens were checked by comparison of alleles at loci AoxD161, AoxD188, AoxD297, AoxD242, and AoxC30. A possible affinity of between sturgeons released in Lithuanian rivers in 2015 and samples representing hatcheries  No. 1 and No. 2 was estimated based on multi-locus genotyping data using the Structure software, version 2.3.4. Results. The same D-loop haplotype H1 characteristic for the museum specimens (MK637525 and MK637526) was also found as the only haplotype distributed among sturgeons reared in hatcheries and used for population re-establishment. A possible hybridisation between A. sturio and A. oxyrinchus was not confirmed for two museum specimens studied. The first results of genetic application undertaken in Lithuania also revealed the possibility to discriminate the individuals obtained from different hatcheries based on the set of 13 microsatellite loci Aox45, AoxD54, AoxD161, AoxD297, AoxD188, AoxD234, AoxD242, AoxC45, AoxC30, AoxD241, AoxD64, AoxD186, and Ls-68. The analysis of A. oxyrinchus specimens representing F1 generation of parental individuals reared in two separate hatcheries in Canada and Germany revealed significant differences in the allele composition and high probabilities for individuals released into the natural environment to be assigned to the hatchery of their origin. Conclusion. The results of the molecular analysis will be useful for identification of age, pedigree, and for initiating genetic monitoring of the restored population of the Atlantic sturgeon in the Baltic Sea