Apparent selective advantage of leucism in a coastal population of Southern caracaras (Falconidae)

ABSTRACT Background: Southern caracaras are medium-sized raptors with a large range stretching to the southern tip of South America. An aberrant, leucistic plumage is found commonly along the coast of Chubut Province (Patagonia, Argentina). Leucistic birds do not produce dark melanin in their feathers. However, they are not albinos because their eyes are not red. No genetic studies of caracara plumages are known. Hypothesis: The high frequency of leucistic birds in Chubut Province arises because of natural selection. Methods: Map the distribution of leucistic individuals relative to normal individuals. Combine a variety of anecdotal natural history observations, collected over 20 years, into a logical inference. Observations: Leucistic caracaras were found only along a 250-km stretch of rocky oceanic islands and continental outcrops with large seabird colonies in Chubut Province. In the rest of their range, Southern caracaras have dark plumage. Where they do occur, leucistic birds are frequent and co-occur with dark-plumaged birds. Intermediate individuals, presumabl

Imminent extinction of the guanay cormorant on the Atlantic South American coast: a conservation concern?

Guanay cormorants Phalacrocorax bougainvilli are distributed mostly on the Pacific coast of Peru and northern Chile. A small population of around 50 pairs was described on the Patagonian Atlantic coast in the late 1960s. Further records have revealed a progressive decrease of this population. During 1999 we looked for guanay cormorants at those Atlantic colonies where the species was recorded in the past. Only four individuals were detected in one colony (Punta Lobería), and all of them were mated with king cormorants P. albiventer. In addition, we recorded hybrids between guanay and king cormorants mated with pure king cormorants P. atriceps. Causes of the population decline are unknown. Since guanay cormorants inhabiting the Atlantic coast could be a genetically differentiated population, we emphasize the need for molecular studies. If genetic polymorphism is detected, the capture of remnant individuals in order to constitute a genetic stock should be considered.Fil: Bertellotti, Néstor Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Donazar, José A.. Estación Biológica de Doñana; EspañaFil: Blanco, Guillermo. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Forero, Manuela G.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ

Apparent selective advantage of leucism in a coastal population of Southern caracaras (Falconidae)

Background: Southern caracaras are medium-sized raptors with a large range stretching to the southern tip of South America. An aberrant, leucistic plumage is found commonly along the coast of Chubut Province (Patagonia, Argentina). Leucistic birds do not produce dark melanin in their feathers. However, they are not albinos because their eyes are not red. No genetic studies of caracara plumages are known. Hypothesis: The high frequency of leucistic birds in Chubut Province arises because of natural selection. Methods: Map the distribution of leucistic individuals relative to normal individuals. Combine a variety of anecdotal natural history observations, collected over 20 years, into a logical inference. Observations: Leucistic caracaras were found only along a 250-km stretch of rocky oceanic islands and continental outcrops with large seabird colonies in Chubut Province. In the rest of their range, Southern caracaras have dark plumage. Where they do occur, leucistic birds are frequent and co-occur with dark-plumaged birds. Intermediate individuals, presumably heterozygotes, exist. Leucism is not related to age or sex. Leucistic individuals are restricted to a particular habitat. Gene flow has not homogenized the coastal and inland populations. Results: Leucism is not simply due to inbreeding producing more homozygous individuals. Leucism is not due to genetic drift. Leucism is not an environmental effect on individual physiology or development. Leucism is not a transient (plastic) phenomenon. Where they occur frequently, leucistic Southern caracaras are apparently favoured by natural selection, either directly or by pleiotropy.Fil: Edelaar, Pim. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Estación Biológica de Doñana; EspañaFil: Donazar, José. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Estación Biológica de Doñana; EspañaFil: Soriano, Matías. Estación Científica de Bahía Bustamante; ArgentinaFil: Santillán, Miguel Angel. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Recursos Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez Zevallos, Diego Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Borboroglu, Jorge Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Lisnizer, Nora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Gatto, Alejandro Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Agüero, Maria Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Passera, Carlos A.. Causana Viajes; ArgentinaFil: Ebert, Luis Augusto. Centro Universitario Leonardo Da Vinci (uniasselvi); BrasilFil: Bertellotti, Néstor Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Blanco, Guillermo. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales; EspañaFil: Abril, Monica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; ArgentinaFil: Escudero, Graciela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Quintana, Flavio Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Dietary inflammatory index and all-cause mortality in large cohorts: The SUN and PREDIMED studies

[Background]: Inflammation is known to be related to the leading causes of death including cardiovascular disease, several types of cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, depression-suicide and other chronic diseases. In the context of whole dietary patterns, the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) was developed to appraise the inflammatory potential of the diet. [Objective]: We prospectively assessed the association between DII scores and all-cause mortality in two large Spanish cohorts and valuated the consistency of findings across these two cohorts and results published based on other cohorts.[Design]: We assessed 18,566 participants in the “Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra” (SUN) cohort followed-up during 188,891 person-years and 6790 participants in the “PREvencion con DIeta MEDiterránea” (PREDIMED) randomized trial representing 30,233 person-years of follow-up. DII scores were calculated in both cohorts from validated FFQs. Higher DII scores corresponded to more proinflammatory diets. A total of 230 and 302 deaths occurred in SUN and PREDIMED, respectively. In a random-effect meta-analysis we included 12 prospective studies (SUN, PREDIMED and 10 additional studies) that assessed the association between DII scores and all-cause mortality.[Results]: After adjusting for a wide array of potential confounders, the comparison between extreme quartiles of the DII showed a positive and significant association with all-cause mortality in both the SUN (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.15, 2.98; P-trend = 0.004) and the PREDIMED cohort (HR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.00, 2.02; P-trend = 0.009). In the meta-analysis of 12 cohorts, the DII was significantly associated with an increase of 23% in all-cause mortality (95% CI: 16%–32%, for the highest vs lowest category of DII).[Conclusion]: Our results provide strong and consistent support for the hypothesis that a pro-inflammatory diet is associated with increased all-cause mortality. The SUN cohort and PREDIMED trial were registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02669602 and at isrctn.com as ISRCTN35739639, respectively.Supported by the official funding agency for biomedical research of the Spanish Government, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through grants provided to research networks specifically developed for the trial (RTIC G03/140, to R.E.; RTIC RD 06/0045, to Miguel A. Martínez-González) and through Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), and by grants from Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC 06/2007), Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria–Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Proyecto de Investigación (PI) 04-2239, PI 05/2584, CP06/00100, PI07/0240, PI07/1138, PI07/0954, PI 07/0473, PI10/01407, PI10/02658, PI11/01647, P11/02505, PI13/00462, PI13/00615, PI13/01090, PI14/01668, PI14/01798, PI14/01764), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Recursos y teconologia agroalimentarias(AGL)-2009-13906-C02 and AGL2010-22319-C03 and AGL2013-49083-C3-1- R), Fundación Mapfre 2010, the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (PI0105/2007), the Public Health Division of the Department of Health of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Generalitat Valenciana (Generalitat Valenciana Ayuda Complementaria (GVACOMP) 06109, GVACOMP2010-181, GVACOMP2011-151), Conselleria de Sanitat y, PI14/01764 AP; Atención Primaria (CS) 2010-AP-111, and CS2011-AP-042), and Regional Government of Navarra (P27/2011).). Drs. Shivappa and Hébert were supported by grant number R44DK103377 from the United States National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases