Palaeomagnetism of the Ordovician dolerites of the Crozon Peninsula (France)

In order to obtain a Lower Palaeozoic pole for the Armorican Massif and to test the origin of the Ibero-Armorican arc, the Ordovician dolerites of the Crozon peninsula have been palaeomagnetically studied. The samples show a multicomponent magnetization which has been revealed by AF and thermal demagnetization and thoroughly investigated with rock magnetic experiments, polished section examinations and K/Ar dating. Four groups of directions have been recognized, often superimposed on each other in an individual sample. One component (D) has always the lowest blocking temperatures and coercivities and is considered to be of viscous origin, acquired recently in situ or in the laboratory during storage. Two components (A and B) are interpreted to be of secondary origin and to correspond to the observed K/Ar age distribution between 300 and 190 Myr. These ages represent the time interval between two regional thermo-tectonic events, associated with the Hercynian orogeny and the intrusion of dykes related to the early opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay. A fourth component (C) could be of Ordovician or younger Palaeozoic age; it is not clear whether the age of the magnetization is pre- or post-folding, but a pre-folding age would yield a direction of magnetization similar to Ordovician results from the Iberian peninsula. The latter interpretation suggests a fairly high palaeolatitude, which is in agreement with a glacio-marine postulated for sediments overlying the dolerite sills.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73214/1/j.1365-246X.1983.tb03785.x.pd

Active surveillance of bat rabies in France: A 5-year study (2004–2009)

Active surveillance of bats in France started in 2004 with an analysis of 18 of the 45 bat species reported in Europe. Rabies antibodies were detected in six indigenous species, mainly in Eptesicus serotinus and Myotis myotis, suggesting previous contact with the EBLV-1 rabies virus. Nineteen of the 177 tested bats were shown serologically positive in seven sites, particularly in central and south-western France. Neither infectious viral particles nor viral genomes were detected in 173 and 308 tested oral swabs, respectively. The presence of neutralising antibodies in female bats (18.6%) was significantly higher than in males (5.6%)

In Vitro and In Vivo Isolation and Characterization of Duvenhage Virus

A fatal human case of Duvenhage virus (DUVV) infection in a Dutch traveller who had returned from Kenya was reported in 2007. She exhibited classical symptoms of rabies encephalitis with distinct pathological findings. In the present study we describe the isolation and characterization of DUVV in vitro and its passage in BALB/c mice. The virus proved to be neuroinvasive in both juvenile and adult mice, resulting in about 50% lethality upon peripheral infection. Clinical signs in infected mice were those of classical rabies. However, the distribution of viral antigen expression in the brain differed from that of classical rabies virus infection and neither inclusion bodies nor neuronal necrosis were observed. This is the first study to describe the in vitro and in vivo isolation and characterization of DUVV

Eliminating Rabies in Estonia

The compulsory vaccination of pets, the recommended vaccination of farm animals in grazing areas and the extermination of stray animals did not succeed in eliminating rabies in Estonia because the virus was maintained in two main wildlife reservoirs, foxes and raccoon dogs. These two species became a priority target therefore in order to control rabies. Supported by the European Community, successive oral vaccination (OV) campaigns were conducted twice a year using Rabigen® SAG2 baits, beginning in autumn 2005 in North Estonia. They were then extended to the whole territory from spring 2006. Following the vaccination campaigns, the incidence of rabies cases dramatically decreased, with 266 cases in 2005, 114 in 2006, four in 2007 and three in 2008. Since March 2008, no rabies cases have been detected in Estonia other than three cases reported in summer 2009 and one case in January 2011, all in areas close to the South-Eastern border with Russia. The bait uptake was satisfactory, with tetracycline positivity rates ranging from 85% to 93% in foxes and from 82% to 88% in raccoon dogs. Immunisation rates evaluated by ELISA ranged from 34% to 55% in foxes and from 38% to 55% in raccoon dogs. The rabies situation in Estonia was compared to that of the other two Baltic States, Latvia and Lithuania. Despite regular OV campaigns conducted throughout their territory since 2006, and an improvement in the epidemiological situation, rabies has still not been eradicated in these countries. An analysis of the number of baits distributed and the funding allocated by the European Commission showed that the strategy for rabies control is more cost-effective in Estonia than in Latvia and Lithuania

Las rocas sedimentarias del Ordovícico, Silúrico y Devónico de la Zona de Ossa Morena (SO Península Ibérica, España)

[EN] The present paper reviews the Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian sedimentary rocks of the Ossa-Morena Zone of the SW Hesperian (Iberian) Massif in Spain and Portugal. It gives detailed informations on the successions and faunas from the Early Ordovician to the Late Devonian, i.e. during the passive margin development that followed a Cambrian rifting phase and preceded the Variscan orogenic events. Comparison of the sedimentary and faunal record from the Ossa Morena and Central Iberian zones during the Palaeozoic indicates that both regions were part of the North Gondwanan shelf, characterized by distal (OMZ) and proximal (CIZ) shelf conditions, respectively. This shows that the Badajoz-Córdoba Shear Zone corresponds only to a Variscan shear zone and cannot be considered as the cryptic suture of a Palaeozoic ocean.[ES] Se revisa el registro sedimentario del Ordovícico, Silúrico y Devónico de la Zona de Ossa Morena del Macizo Hespérico (o Ibérico), referido esencialmente a la parte española, pero complementado con algunos datos portugueses. Se analizan en detalle las principales sucesiones y fósiles coetáneos al desarrollo del margen pasivo que sucede a la etapa de rifting cámbrica, y que a su vez precede al ciclo orogénico varisco. La correlación del registro sedimentario y paleontológico paleozoico, entre las zonas de Ossa Morena y Centroibérica, revela que ambas formaron parte de la periferia del norte de Gondwana, pero tipificando ambientes distintos: plataforma marina proximal (en el caso de la Zona Centroibérica) frente a palataforma distal (Zona de Ossa Morena). Consiguientemente, la banda de cizalla Badajoz- Córdoba debe de interpretarse como una falla transcurrente varisca, y no como la sutura críptica de algún océano paleozoico.Peer reviewe

Devonian graptolites from southwestern Europe: a review with new data

10 páginas, 7 figuras.Lower Devonian graptolite faunas have been recognized in the Normandy and southeastern regions of the Armorican Massif, France; the Pyrenees and Catalonian Coastal Ranges regions and northern Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain; the southern Hesperian Massif (Ossa Morena Zone) of the Iberian Peninsula; and from southeastern Sardinia, Italy. All but one the of the graptolite faunas collected throughout this large region are from Lochkovian age strata, representing the Monograptus uniformis, Monograptus praehercynicus, and Monograptus hercynicus biozones corresponding to the lower, middle and upper Lochkovian, respectively, and mostly represented by monospecific or low diversity assemblages. Although many individual sections contain representatives of two of the biozones, relatively few reveal all three. A single, poorly preserved faunule, collected in the Ossa Morena region of Spain from strata dated by brachiopods as Pragian–early Emsian may represent the only known graptoloid fauna of post-Lochkovian age. Almost all graptolites have been recovered from condensed successions of black shales and limestone nodules, similar to those of other proto-Tethyan (i.e. outer shelf, with dominantly pelagic faunas) regions such as Thuringia, Bohemia, the Carnic Alps and northwestern Africa. The two exceptions are an occurrence in a shallow-water, coarser clastic sequences at the Carteret locality in Normandy and in deep water turbidites on the island of Minorca. Graptolites are not known from any other thick, shallow water clastic sequences, although whether this is because of paleo environmental exclusion or simply lack of recovery to date is unknown. Other fossil evidence (e.g. chitinozoans), however, indicates continuous marine sedimentation from the Silurian to Devonian.Financial support for JCGM for project AMR92- 1037-CO2-01 was through the Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Technologia (Spain) and that of ACL was through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada).Peer reviewe