Seasonal Home Ranges of Raccoons, Procyon lotor, Using a Common Feeding Site in Rural Eastern Ontario: Rabies Management Implications

Thirteen adult Raccoons (Procyon lotor) (six females, seven males) that fed at a garbage dump north of Kingston, Ontario were radio-tracked from 21 June to 16 October 1995 to assess their seasonal home ranges and movements. Average Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) summer and fall home ranges for the collared Raccoons were 78.4 ha (SD=46.2 ha) and 45.6 ha (SD=29.7 ha), respectively. Average grid cell summer and fall home ranges for the collared Raccoons were 143.3 ha (SD=40.0 ha) and 116.9 ha (SD=24.9 ha), respectively. Summer ranges of the Raccoons were significantly larger than fall ranges using both the MCP method (P=0.05) and the grid cell method (P=0.073). Yearling Raccoons travelled an average summer maximum distance from the dump of 2608 m (SD=1964, n=3), more than double the distance of adults (≥2 yr) at 1239 m (SD=547, n=10). The population density for the study area in late August 1995 was estimated at 1 Raccoon/12 ha based on an effective area surrounding the dump of 234 ha. Home range and movement data may be useful to design a strategy to control Raccoon rabies in Ontario

Sistemas de cultivo sobre a podridão comum de raízes e mal-do-pé do trigo

The effect of cultivation systems on the intensity of common root rot and take-all in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) fields was determined in Rio Grande do Sul in 1980 and 1981. Common root rot occurred in all surveyed fields. Its intensity was high in fields cropped annually to wheat and in those maintained out of wheat for one and two years regardless of the other crops grown. Disease was much less intense in fields that had been left fallow for three or four years or that were planted to wheat for the first time. Cochliobolus sativus (Ito & Kurib.) Drechsl. ex Dastur was the dominant pathogen isolated from lesioned wheat roots. Take-all occurred in about 30% of the fields annually cropped to wheat or that either had been left fallow or planted to a non-host crop such as flax, lupine, oats, or rapeseed for one year. It was not found in wheat following two or more years of oats, fallow, or a combination of fallow and a non-host crop. The average disease ratings in 1980 and 1981 were 60% and 71%, respectively.Determinou-se o efeito de sistemas de cultivo sobre a intensidade da podridão comum e do mal-do-pé do trigo (Triticum aestivum L.) em lavouras do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, em 1980 e 1981. A podridão comum ocorreu em todas as lavouras avaliadas. Sua intensidade foi alta em lavouras de plantio anual de trigo ou em lavouras de um a dois anos de pousio ou rotação, independentemente das culturas usadas na rotação. A intensidade da doença foi baixa nas lavouras com pousio de três a quatro anos e nas plantadas com trigo pela primeira vez. Cochliobolus sativus (Ito & Kurib.) Drechsl. ex Dastur foi o principal patógeno isolado das raízes de trigo infectadas. O mal-do-pé ocorreu em, aproximadamente, 30% das lavouras de plantio anual de trigo e de um ano de pousio ou de cultivo com culturas não suscetíveis, como linho, tremoço, aveia ou colza. Esta doença, entretanto, não foi encontrada em lavouras com dois ou mais anos de aveia, pousio, ou de uma combinação de pousio com uma cultura não suscetível. A média do grau de infecção das podridões radiculares das lavouras avaliadas em 1980 e 1981 foi de 60% e 71%, respectivamente

Postexposure Treatment and Animal Rabies, Ontario, 1958-2000

This paper investigates the relationship between animal rabies and postexposure treatment (PET) in Ontario by examining the introduction of human diploid cell vaccine (HDCV) in 1980 and the initiation of an oral rabies vaccination program for wildlife in 1989. Introducing HDCV led to an immediate doubling of treatments. Both animal rabies and human treatments declined rapidly after the vaccination program was introduced, but human treatments have leveled off at approximately 1,000 per year

Comparative genome structure, secondary metabolite, and effector coding capacity across Cochliobolus pathogens.

The genomes of five Cochliobolus heterostrophus strains, two Cochliobolus sativus strains, three additional Cochliobolus species (Cochliobolus victoriae, Cochliobolus carbonum, Cochliobolus miyabeanus), and closely related Setosphaeria turcica were sequenced at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). The datasets were used to identify SNPs between strains and species, unique genomic regions, core secondary metabolism genes, and small secreted protein (SSP) candidate effector encoding genes with a view towards pinpointing structural elements and gene content associated with specificity of these closely related fungi to different cereal hosts. Whole-genome alignment shows that three to five percent of each genome differs between strains of the same species, while a quarter of each genome differs between species. On average, SNP counts among field isolates of the same C. heterostrophus species are more than 25× higher than those between inbred lines and 50× lower than SNPs between Cochliobolus species. The suites of nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), polyketide synthase (PKS), and SSP-encoding genes are astoundingly diverse among species but remarkably conserved among isolates of the same species, whether inbred or field strains, except for defining examples that map to unique genomic regions. Functional analysis of several strain-unique PKSs and NRPSs reveal a strong correlation with a role in virulence