Coming back home: recolonisation of abandoned dens by crested porcupines Hystrix cristata and European badgers Meles meles after wood-cutting and riparian vegetation mowing events

Semifossorial species excavate dens and are considered as landscape engineers, often responsible for soil oxygenation, shuffling, landslides and floods. The crested porcupine and the European badger are semifossorial mammals sharing dens in central Italy. Both species localise their setts mainly in densely vegetated areas, providing them with cover and protection from local predators and poachers. This is particularly evident for the porcupine, widely poached in central and southern Italy, whereas badgers may locally exploit burrows also in open and periurban areas. Wood-cutting and mowing of riparian vegetation surrounding den setts force both porcupines and badgers to leave their burrows. We evaluated the probability of den re-occupancy in the years following the vegetation removal, through intensive camera-trapping at 14 den setts monitored for 9 years. We performed GLMMs to test the annual probability of sett occupancy by the two species after vegetation disturbance events. The probability of re-occupying the burrow by porcupines increased with increasing time from the disturbance cessation. A similar pattern was also observed for the badger, which probability of den occupancy was also negatively correlated with the porcupine presence at the same den, confirming the aggressive behavior of this rodent. We also tested whether, since the first year after vegetation removal, the proportion of years of occupation by porcupines on the total of years has been affected by the disturbance repetition. This effect was found to be significant only for the badger. The crested porcupine, protected by international and national laws, is more sensitive than the badger, protected according to the Italian national law, to vegetation removal. A single disturbance event is sufficient to force it to abandon the den sett, followed by a slow recolonisation with growing vegetation. Conversely, the badger is sensitive to continuous vegetation removal whereas it can colonise porcupine dens abandoned after single disturbances

An Unexpected Case of Heterospecific Altruistic Behaviour in a Non-Breeding Migrant Tern (Charadriformes, Sternidae)

Abstract Observations of birds feeding chicks or fledglings of a different species have already been reported in many publications. However, the benefits of the altruistic behaviour are not easy to understand, as benefits and costs of this behaviour have been poorly identified. In May 2013, in a wetland in Central Italy (Piana Fiorentina, Tuscany), some cases of interspecific feeding of an Eurasian Coot Fulica atra chick by an adult non breeding Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida were witnessed. We suggest that the behaviour of the Tern was triggered by the begging of the chick or by its own hormonal status

Everolimus, Cyclosporine, and Thrombotic Microangiopathy: Clinical Role and Preventive Tools in Renal Transplantation

INTRODUCTION: Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is characterized by endothelial cell injury and formation of fibrin thrombi within capillary and arterioles. In renal allograft recipients, TMA mainly presents as hemolytic uremic syndrome. Its occurrence is rare, and diagnosis requires a high degree of suspicion. Drug toxicity, in particular from calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) and mTOR inhibitors (mTORi), is the most common cause posttransplant and has recently been emphasized in the setting of lung transplantation. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to investigate the role of mTORi as an added risk factor in the development of TMA to propose strategies for modulation of immunosuppressive (IS) therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From a database of 496 renal graft recipients, we analyzed 350 renal graft biopsy specimens gathered at our center from 1998 to 2012. In patients undergoing combined therapy with mTORi and CNI, we compared drugs levels in TMA-affected and TMA-free groups, using mTORi and CNI TLC and the summation of [everolimus TLC+(cyclosporine C2/100)] (Σ) as a surrogate marker of combined exposition to 2 drugs. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis of association of EVL TLC+(C2/100) was performed for patients exposed to mTORi. RESULTS: Histologic features of TMA were found in 36 patients (prevalence of 7.3%). The caseload was divided into 2 groups: not drug-related TMA (n=19) and drug-related TMA (n=17). Despite the prevalence of TMA in patients exposed to mTORi being greater (8 of 153; prevalence, 5.3%) compared with therapies without mTORi (9 of 324; prevalence, 2.8%), statistical difference was not reached. Patients treated with mTORi who developed de novo drug-related TMA had higher blood levels of IS drugs compared with those who did not develop TMA. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis found a significant threshold of 12.5 ng/mL (area under the curve, 0.803; P=.006). CONCLUSIONS: Results confirm the pivotal role of IS drugs in the onset of de novo TMA. On the basis of literature, we could speculate a sequence of endothelial damage by CNI, on which everolimus fits hindering the repair of endothelial injury. Therefore, high blood levels of CNI and mTORi seem to predispose patients to posttransplant TMA. Combined monitoring of these 2 drugs might be used to prevent the complication. Σ [everolimus TLC + (cyclosporine C2/100)]>12.5 ng/mL should be avoided as a surrogate risk factor for adverse effects

PAX2/Renal Coloboma Syndrome Expresses Extreme Intrafamilial Phenotypic Variability

Renal coloboma syndrome (RCS) is a disease characterized by kidney and ocular anomalies (kidney hypodysplasia and coloboma). RCS is caused, in half of the cases, by mutations in the paired box 2 (PAX2) gene, a critical organogenesis transcriptional factor. We report the case of a newborn with kidney hypodysplasia in a negative parental context where mother and father were phenotypically unaffected at the initial evaluation. The maternal family presented an important history of kidney disease with undefined diagnosis. Molecular characterization identified a PAX2 variant, classified as likely pathogenic. This variant segregates with the disease, and it was also found in the newborn, explaining his severe symptoms. It is noteworthy that the mother shows the same PAX2 variant, with an apparently negative kidney phenotype, displaying the possibility of an extreme variable expressivity of the disease. This feature suggests extreme caution in segregation analysis and family counseling of PAX2 pedigrees

Aliens Coming by Ships: Distribution and Origins of the Ocellated Skink Populations in Peninsular Italy

The ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) is a widespread lizard, naturally distributed between the Maghreb and coastal Pakistan, with few insular populations in the Mediterranean coastal area. Some populations of this species have also been recorded in peninsular Italy, Campania and Southern Tuscany due to accidental introductions via touristic and commercial routes. In this work, we conducted genetic analyses on mitochondrial DNA COXI, cytb and 16S mtDNA genes on a sample of Italian insular and peninsular populations. Differently from what previously suggested, the nucleus in Portici (Southern Italy) may have originated from Sardinia. The intense trade and touristic traffic between Sardinia and Southern Tuscany may have been responsible for the introduction of this lizard also to Central Italy

High-Mobility Group Box 1 Protein in Human and Murine Skin: Involvement in Wound Healing

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New distributional data for the Mediterranean medicinal leech Hirudo verbana Carena, 1820 (Hirudinea, Hirudinidae) in Italy, with a note on its feeding on amphibians

Scarce data are currently available about the distribution of the Mediterranean medicinal leech Hirudo verbana in Italy, and most of the known occurrence localities are based on records collected in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, which were not confirmed in the last decades, mostly due to a lack of surveys. Accordingly, the available knowledge on the distribution of the species is far from being updated and representative, although a significant negative trend of H. verbana throughout the country is supposed. The lack of sound distribution data is a significant shortfall, which hinders the implementation of the monitoring of the species as required by the Article 17 of the “Habitats Directive” on the species of Union concern. To provide recent, validated distributional data for the Mediterranean medicinal leech in Italy to be used as baseline data for further surveys and monitoring, we present herein a set of unpublished observations collected in the last decades in peninsular Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia. Moreover, we report observation of H. verbana feeding on amphibians, a feeding habit to date poorly documented for the Mediterranean medicinal leech. Based on both published and novel data, H. verbana is characterised by a large but fragmented distribution in Italy. Therefore, dedicated monitoring programs and the collection of validated occasional observations are highly desirable to get a clearer picture of the real distribution of the species