The masked invader strikes again: The conquest of Italy by the Northern raccoon

The Northern raccoon Procyon lotor is a species native to North and Central America, but alien populations have established in Europe, several Caribbean islands, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Japan, being introduced for fur farming, hunting, or as pets/attraction in animal parks. In the introduced range, raccoons may impact on breeding birds and amphibians, exert crop damages and transmit pathologies to wild species and humans. The species has been introduced also in Italy, where the only known reproductive population is observed since 2004 in Lombardy, along the Adda river. We reconstructed the current distribution range of the Northern raccoon in Italy, collecting information from scientific papers, articles in newspapers and books, as well from experts and local reporters. A total of 53 occurrence points were collected from observation sites. Since 2008, records from Lombardy increased, and sporadic observations were reported from seven other regions. A complete lack of records from the Northernmost provinces of Lombardy (Varese, Como and Sondrio) suggests that the only Italian population does not derive from a range expansion from Switzerland, but it should be considered as an independent, new introduction. Accidental observations of single individuals possibly escaped from captivity are often ignored, and only few animals were removed from the wild. An analysis of the potential distribution of the species was performed in a species distribution modeling framework (MaxEnt). A global model was built up considering the occurrences of reproductive populations from the native range and introduced areas in Europe and Japan and then projected to Italy. The model suggested a good suitability for the plains in Central-Northern Italy and a very low suitability of the Alpine region, thus providing support to the hypothesis that the Italian population did not derive from dispersal from Switzerland. If escapes or releases of raccoons will continue, there is a risk that the species could colonize other areas, making its containment more difficult

Causes and consequences of sociality in a neotropical bat

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Influence of preformed bone defects on key pathogens and bone loss during experimental peri-implantitis formation in a canine model

PURPOSE To determine the impact of experimentally preformed peri-implant crater-shaped bone defects on the evolution of in situ microbiota and development of bone defects compared to those induced over time by ligature placement only. METHODS Implants were installed in the mandibles of eight dogs. Standardized bone defects were preformed in four test animals but not in the other four control animals, prior to implant (3.3 mm × 8 mm) installation. After 2 months of healing, peri-implantitis was induced with silk ligatures in both groups for 2 months. Microbial samples were obtained from implants and teeth for analysis at three time points (qPCR), and the average depths of the bone defects were measured. RESULTS At the baseline, the total marker load of periodontal-pathogenic bacteria (TML) for teeth accounted for 5.2% (0-17.4%). After implant healing, TMLs for implants and teeth were comparable (7.1% [0.3-17.4%]). The TML of both groups was 3.5%, 2 months after ligature placement. Bone defects had a mean depth of 1.84 mm at preformed defects and 1.64 mm at control sites (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION Preformed defects in the test group showed comparable results to the control group in terms of TML, the incidence of periodontal-pathogenic bacteria, and bone defect depth

The French Guianan endemic Molossus barnesi (Chiroptera: Molossidae) is a junior synonym for M. coibensis

International audienceThe taxonomy of the small Neotropical Molossus species has been notoriously difficult due to a lack of adequate comparative material. One taxon in particular, Molossus barnesi Thomas, 1905 was believed to be restricted to a narrow stretch of coastal areas around Cayenne, in French Guiana and was so far represented only by three female specimens. It was variously considered as a species on its own, or synonymized with Molossus molossus or Molossus coibensis. Thanks to the discovery of several mixed colonies of these small molossids in two localities in French Guiana, we could obtain and measure a large sample (nearly 200 specimens) of adult individuals to better assess their morphological variation. Owing to largely bimodal and non-overlapping distributions of external measurements such as forearm length, we could demonstrate the existence of two sympatric morphotypes, the smaller one corresponding to M. barnesi and the larger one to M. molossus. Univariate and multivariate comparisons of cranio-dental and external characters further suggest that the new series of barnesi from French Guiana do not differ notably from specimens assigned to M. coibensis from elsewhere. Molecular reconstruction based on the barcode gene (CO1) confirmed their genetic distinctness, but also the overall close relationships (mean divergence of 1.7%) of all assayed taxa in this group. Although none of the haplotypes are shared across taxa, haplotypes of M. coibensis from Panama and M. barnesi from French Guiana are mixed in a single, poorly supported cluster, suggesting that these animals could represent a single biological species. Based on all evidences, we thus recommend treating barnesi as a junior synonym of M. coibensis, a species now widely and continuously distributed from Central America to Middle South America

Microbial Sampling Using Interdental Brushes and Paper Points around Teeth and Implants: A Pilot Study for Comparison

Inflammatory periodontal and peri-implant diseases follow dysbiotic shifts in a susceptible host. A well-established tool for microbial sample collection is the use of paper points. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the use of interdental brushes compared to paper points. Biofilm samples were collected with paper points and later interdental brushes from ten patients. Five patients were represented with a community periodontal index of treatment needs (CPITN) of 0-2 around the teeth and an implant with PPD ≤ 5 mm and no radiological bone loss. The remaining five patients had a CPITN ≥ 3 and one implant with peri-implantitis. Microbial samples were analyzed with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS). The results showed higher amounts of DNA in samples taken by interdental brushes but also higher Ct values. Both methods detected Filifactor alocis, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola in the majority of samples, while Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans was rarely found. A microbial dysbiosis index showed comparable or higher values in sites with no periodontitis/peri-implantitis with interdental brushes. The results of this pilot study indicate that interdental brushes might be a valid technique for microbial sampling and particularly advantageous in the early detection of dysbiotic shifts around teeth and implants. Larger studies with more participants are needed to validate the proposed microbial sampling method with interdental brushes

Migration confers winter survival benefits in a partially migratory songbird

To evolve and to be maintained, seasonal migration, despite its risks, has to yield fitness benefits compared with year-round residency. Empirical data supporting this prediction have remained elusive in the bird literature. To test fitness related benefits of migration, we studied a partial migratory population of European blackbirds (Turdus merula) over 7 years. Using a combination of capture-mark-recapture and radio telemetry, we compared survival probabilities between migrants and residents estimated by multi-event survival models, showing that migrant blackbirds had 16% higher probability to survive the winter compared to residents. A subsequent modelling exercise revealed that residents should have 61.25% higher breeding success than migrants, to outweigh the survival costs of residency. Our results support theoretical models that migration should confer survival benefits to evolve, and thus provide empirical evidence to understand the evolution and maintenance of migration

Relationship between Phenotypic and Genotypic Resistance of Subgingival Biofilm Samples in Patients with Periodontitis

The phenotypic expression of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) can hamper the use of antibiotics as adjuncts to subgingival instrumentation in the treatment of periodontitis patients. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between the phenotypic and genotypic resistance against ampicillin-sulbactam, clindamycin, doxycycline and metronidazole of subgingival biofilm samples from 19 periodontitis patients. Samples were analyzed with shotgun sequencing and cultivated anaerobically for 7 days on microbiological culture media incorporating antibiotics. All growing isolates were identified to the species level using MALDI-TOF-MS and sequence analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene. Phenotypic resistance was determined using EUCAST-breakpoints. The genetic profile of eight patients matched completely with phenotypical resistance to the tested antibiotics. The positive predictive values varied from 1.00 for clindamycin to 0.57 for doxycycline and 0.25 for ampicillin-sulbactam. No sample contained the nimI gene. It can be concluded that antibiotic resistance may be polygenetic and genes may be silent. Every biofilm sample harboring erm genes was phenotypic resistant. The absence of cfx and tet genes correlated to 100%, respectively, to 75%, with the absence of phenotypic resistance. The absence of nimI genes leads to the assumption that constitutive resistance among several species could explain the resistance to metronidazole

MOESM1 of Group size, survival and surprisingly short lifespan in socially foraging bats

Additional file 1 : Data set of total group size (adults and juveniles) for 81 capture events at 14 social groups. The columns respectively represent the capture site (1), the capture date (2), the capture month (3), and the total group size (adults and juveniles) (4)

MOESM3 of Group size, survival and surprisingly short lifespan in socially foraging bats

Additional file 3 : Survival matrix of 63 adult females analysed with MSMR models. The columns represent respectively the 15 months of recording with absence or group size (1-15), the sex (16), the age (17), the year of first marking (18), and the capture site (19)