On the taxonomy of chigger mites (Acariformes: Trombiculidae) parasitizing birds in Thailand and Malaysia, with the description of a new species

Chigger mites were collected from 65 bird species in different regions of Thailand and Malaysia. In total, 21 species were recorded. The previously unknown fauna of chiggers parasitizing shorebirds of Thailand included one new species, Neacariscus (Whartonacarus) andamanensis n. sp. as well as Neacariscus (Neacariscus) pluvius (Wharton, 1945) previously recorded only in Oceania; Neacariscus (Whartonacarus) shiraii (Sasa, Kano and Obata, 1952) (known from Oceania and Japan); and Neacariscus (Whartonacarus) sulae (Oudemans, 1910) and Schoengastia archaea (Taufflieb, 1960), both described from West Africa. Toritrombicula kirhocephales Goff, 1982 described from Papua New Guinea was for the first time recorded in Asia (Thailand). Neoschoengastia gallinarum (Hatori, 1920) and Helenicula comata (Womersley, 1952) were for the first time recorded in Thailand. Ascoschoengastia lorius (Gunther, 1939) was for the first time recorded in Malaysia. Finally, Ericotrombidium cosmetopode (Vercammen-Grandjean and Langston, 1971) described from free larvae, was for the first time recorded on a host (bird Pellorneum ruficeps Swainson); and Leptotrombidium miculum (Traub and Audy, 1954) was for the first time recorded on a bird host. New host species were recorded for a large part of the collected chigger species.</jats:p

Diet analysis of Leopoldamys neilli, a cave-dwelling rodent in Southeast Asia, using Next-Generation Sequencing from feces

peer reviewedLeopoldamys neilli is a Murinae rodent endemic to limestone karst of Thailand and the Lao PDR, but its ecology and the reasons of its endemism to karst are still totally unknown. The aim of this pilot study was to examine the plant composition of the diet of L. neilli at the level of order and family using DNA for molecular identification and to compare it with two other forest-dwelling Leopoldamys species, L. herberti and L. sabanus. A 202bp fragment of the rbcL gene was amplified and sequenced for twenty-three fecal samples of the three species using 454 pyrosequencing. We successfully identified a total of seventeen orders and twenty-one plant families, corresponding to thirty-three putative species, in the feces of these three Leopoldamys species. Solanaceae were the most common plants in the diet of L.neilli regardless of the region and sampling season, and they were also present in feces of both L. herberti and L. sabanus. The Araceae, Fabaceae, and Apocynaceae families were also identified in feces of L. neilli collected in various regions of Thailand and at different seasons. Plants of the Oleaceae family are consumed by both L. herberti and L. sabanus but were not found in the diet of L. neilli. Further improvements of the study, such as the use of additional genes, the creation of a reference collection, the microhistological examination of plant fragments to determine which parts of the plant are consumed, and the analysis of the animal diet of Leopoldamys are suggested to enhance the quality and accuracy of the results obtained

Satellite telemetry tracks flyways of Asian Openbill storks in relation to H5N1 avian influenza spread and ecological change

Abstract Background Asian Openbills, Anastomus oscitans, have long been known to migrate from South to Southeast Asia for breeding and nesting. In Thailand, the first outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection in the Openbills coincided with the outbreak in the poultry. Therefore, the flyways of Asian Openbills was determined to study their role in the spread of H5N1 HPAI virus to poultry and wild birds, and also within their flocks. Results Flyways of 5 Openbills from 3 colonies were monitored using Argos satellite transmitters with positioning by Google Earth Programme between 2007 and 2013. None of the Openbills tagged with satellite telemeters moved outside of Thailand. Their home ranges or movement areas varied from 1.6 to 23,608 km2 per month (95% utility distribution). There was no positive result of the viral infection from oral and cloacal swabs of the Openbills and wild birds living in the vicinity by viral isolation and genome detection during 2007 to 2010 whereas the specific antibody was not detected on both Openbills and wild birds by using microneutralization assay after 2008. The movement of these Openbills did not correlate with H5N1 HPAI outbreaks in domestic poultry but correlated with rice crop rotation and populations of the apple snails which are their preferred food. Viral spread within the flocks of Openbills was not detected. Conclusions This study showed that Openbills played no role in the spread of H5N1 HPAI virus, which was probably due to the very low prevalence of the virus during the monitoring period. This study revealed the ecological factors that control the life cycle of Asian Openbills

Dating of the most recent common ancestors with 95% HPD (blue node bars) computed with BEAST and graphical representation of the biogeographic scenario of <i>L. neilli</i> according to four time periods (A, B, C, D) inferred by VIP, LAGRANGE and DIYABC.

<p>The four maps depict the hypothetical distribution of <i>L. neilli</i> ancestral population (dark grey) (obtained with LAGRANGE), western (mauve), central (yellow), northern (light blue) and northeastern (red) groups and the localisation of barriers (black lines) leading to three vicariant events (obtained with VIP).</p

Median-joining networks based on mitochondrial (A) and nuclear (B) datasets.

<p>Circles represent haplotypes obtained in this study and the circle size is proportional to the number of individuals sharing a haplotype. Squares represent median vectors. Numbers on branches represent the number of mutational steps between haplotypes.</p

Pairwise <i>F</i>_ST among lineages containing more than three individuals calculated on mitochondrial (below diagonal) and nuclear (above diagonal) datasets.

<p>Non significant values are marked with asterisks (significance level = 0.05).</p

Prior distribution of parameters used in our ABC analysis.

<p>Prior distribution of parameters used in our ABC analysis.</p

Maximum likelihood tree based on mitochondrial dataset (GTR+G).

<p>Bootstrap support (1000 replicates) and posterior probabilities of nodes are indicated above and below the branches, respectively. Node support values from within lineages were removed for clarity.</p

Sampling localities of the 225 <i>L. neilli</i> analyzed in this study.

<p>Sampling localities of the 225 <i>L. neilli</i> analyzed in this study.</p

TMRCA (mean values and 95% HPD) of the clades observed in phylogenetic trees.

<p>TMRCA (mean values and 95% HPD) of the clades observed in phylogenetic trees.</p