Lepus corsicanus gastro-intestinal helminths: first report

Italian hare Lepus corsicanus De Winton, 1898, is a true species living in simpatry with Lepus europaeus in mainland Italy and with Oryctolagus cuniculus in Sicily, where L. europaeus is absent. Up to date, nobody has studied the helminths of this endemic Italian Mammal. Therefore, in order to describe Italian hare gastro-intestinal helminths, gastro-intestinal tract of 29 Italian hares, coming from mainland Italy (#14) and from Sicily (#15) were collected between 1997 and 2009. Twentyfive hares were positive for at least one parasite (86 %). Six parasite species were isolated, 2 cestodes (Cittotaenia pectinata, prevalence 3 %) and Paranoplocephala sp., 3 %) and 4 nematodes (Trichostrongylus retortaeformis, 86 %, Graphidium strigosum, 14 %, Trichuris sp., 10 % and Teladorsagia circumcincta, 7 %). Both Teladorsagia circumcincta circumcincta and Teladorsagia circumcincta trifurcata morphotypes were identified. Comparison with available data regarding L. europaeus and O. cuniculus in Italy is provided. Being not T. circumcincta and Paranoplocephala sp. typical parasites of leporids, a description of the ob\uacserved specimens is given

Surveillance, monitoring and survey of wildlife diseases: a public health and conservation approach

During the past decades the interest in surveillance and monitoring of wildlife diseases has grown internationally. The main reasons could be the following: a) increased size of many wildlife populations that host pathogens affecting humans; b) the increased economic relevance of some wildlife disease; c) the role played by infections/diseases in the conservation of some wild endangered species. According to the above-described epidemiological situations there is an international need to develop appropriate strategies for the early detection, monitoring and surveys of infectious diseases in wildlife. The paper reviews the epidemiological assumptions on which disease surveillance, monitoring and surveys are, or should be, based. The main conclusions are: 1) wildlife disease surveillance and monitoring are long lasting activities that should be implemented when legal bases are available; 2) a wildlife disease introduced in a free area is more likely to be detected early using passive rather than active surveillance; 3) the definition of the "suspect case" largely affects the sensitivity of the whole passive surveillance; thus the suspected case definition should be modulated according to the level of risk; 4) in both active surveillance and monitoring, sampling plays an important role. The sensitivity of any active surveillance/monitoring system is highly dependent from the sampling unit that we define as: "the host target subpopulation, whose size can maintain the pathogen during a defined inter-sampling interval". Such definition merges the ecological, epidemiological and mathematical approaches aimed in controlling or eradicating infections in both livestock and wildlife; 5) When dealing with the conservation-disease interface, a standardized risk assessment procedure including risk mitigation has to become the rule

Distribution of deer keds (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) in free-living cervids of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, central Italy, and establishment of the allochthonous ectoparasite Lipoptena fortisetosa

Lipoptena fortisetosa and L. cervi are hematophagous ectoparasites belonging to the Hippoboscidae family and preferentially living on cervids. In recent years, they have received specific attention due to the great increase in the abundance of their host species, and to their medical and veterinary importance as possible vectors of pathogens harmful to humans and animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the parasitism level of both of these flies on their main hosts in Italy, which are red deer, fallow deer, and roe deer, and to highlight a possible preference for a species, sex, or age class among the hosts. Deer keds were collected by examining 326 cervids hunted in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. Outcomes showed that L. fortisetosa has greatly spread throughout the study area, where it competes with the autochthonous L. cervi. Moreover, red deer was the favored host species of both ectoparasites, while different preferences for host sex and age classes were observed in the two hippoboscids. The regular monitoring of deer ked populations, especially the allochthonous L. fortisetosa, which is continuously spreading in Europe, is recommended to expand the knowledge on these parasitic species that are potentially dangerous to public health

Pharmacokinetics of acute tryptophan depletion using a gelatin-based protein in male and female Wistar rats

The essential amino acid tryptophan is the precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin. By depleting the body of tryptophan, brain tryptophan and serotonin levels are temporarily reduced. In this paper, several experiments are described in which dose and treatment effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) using a gelatin-based protein–carbohydrate mixture were studied in male and female Wistar rats. Two or three doses of tryptophan depleting mixture resulted in 65–70% depletion after 2–4 h in males. ATD effects were similar in females, although females may return to baseline levels faster. Treatment effects after four consecutive days of ATD were similar to the effects of 1 day of treatment. Object recognition memory was impaired 2, 4, and 6 h after the first of two doses of ATD, suggesting that the central effects occurred rapidly and continued at least 6 h, in spite of decreasing treatment effects on plasma tryptophan levels at that time point. The method of acute tryptophan depletion described here can be used to study the relationship between serotonin and behaviour in both male and female rats

The effects of acute tryptophan depletion on costly information sampling: impulsivity or aversive processing?

RATIONALE: The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in both aversive processing and impulsivity. Reconciling these accounts, recent studies have demonstrated that 5-HT is important for punishment-induced behavioural inhibition. These studies focused on situations where actions lead directly to punishments. However, decision-making often involves making tradeoffs between small 'local' costs and larger 'global' losses. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to distinguish whether 5-HT promotes avoidance of local losses, global losses, or both, in contrast to an overall effect on reflection impulsivity. We further examined the influence of individual differences in sub-clinical depression, anxiety and impulsivity on global and local loss avoidance. METHODS: Healthy volunteers (N = 21) underwent an acute tryptophan depletion procedure in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. We measured global and local loss avoidance in a decision-making task where subjects could sample information at a small cost to avoid making incorrect decisions, which resulted in large losses. RESULTS: Tryptophan depletion removed the suppressive effects of small local costs on information sampling behaviour. Sub-clinical depressive symptoms produced effects on information sampling similar to (but independent from) those of tryptophan depletion. Dispositional anxiety was related to global loss avoidance. However, trait impulsivity was unrelated to information sampling. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings are consistent with recent theoretical work that characterises 5-HT as pruning a tree of potential decisions, eliminating options expected to lead to aversive outcomes. Our results extend this account by proposing that 5-HT promotes reflexive avoidance of relatively immediate aversive outcomes, potentially at the expense of more globally construed future losses

Development of a Real-Time, Large Area, High Spatial Resolution Particle Tracker Based on Scintillating Fibers

The design of a detector for tracking charged particles is presented together with the characterization techniques developed to extract the main design specifications. The goals for the final detector are to achieve real-time imaging performances, a large detection area, and a high spatial resolution, particularly suitable for medical imaging applications. This paper describes the prototype of the tracker plane, which has a 20 × 20 cm2 sensitive area consisting of two crossed ribbons of 500 μm square scintillating fibers. The information about the hit position extracted real-time tracker in an innovative way, using a reduced number of the read-out channels to obtain a very large detection area but with moderate costs and complexity. The performances of the tracker have been investigated using β sources, cosmic rays, and a 62 MeV proton beam

Effects of Acute Tryptophan Depletion on Brain Serotonin Function and Concentrations of Dopamine and Norepinephrine in C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ Mice

Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) is a method of lowering brain serotonin (5-HT). Administration of large neutral amino acids (LNAA) limits the transport of endogenous tryptophan (TRP) across the blood brain barrier by competition with other LNAAs and subsequently decreases serotonergic neurotransmission. A recent discussion on the specificity and efficacy of the ATD paradigm for inhibition of central nervous 5-HT has arisen. Moreover, side effects such as vomiting and nausea after intake of amino acids (AA) still limit its use. ATD Moja-De is a revised mixture of AAs which is less nauseating than conventional protocols. It has been used in preliminary clinical studies but its effects on central 5-HT mechanisms and other neurotransmitter systems have not been validated in an animal model. We tested ATD Moja-De (TRP−) in two strains of mice: C57BL/6J, and BALB/cJ, which are reported to have impaired 5-HT synthesis and a more anxious phenotype relative to other strains of mice. ATD Moja-De lowered brain TRP, significantly decreased 5-HT synthesis as indexed by 5-HTP levels after decarboxlyase inhibition, and lowered 5-HT and 5-HIAA in both strains of mice, however more so in C57BL/6J than in BALB/cJ. Dopamine and its metabolites as well as norepinephrine were not affected. A balanced (TRP+) control mixture did not raise 5-HT or 5-HIAA. The present findings suggest that ATD Moja-De effectively and specifically suppresses central serotonergic function. These results also demonstrate a strain- specific effect of ATD Moja-De on anxiety-like behavior

Oncoplastic and reconstructive surgery in SENONETWORK Italian breast centers: lights and shadows

Highlights: • Despite the significance of oncoplastic procedure, an italian database is lacking. • Senonetwork established a multidisciplinary survey to assess their safety and efficacy. • Reconstructive outcomes were positive across low and high-volume centers. • After mastectomy, implant-based techniques are common. DTI reconstruction is advantageuos. • This contributes to the global understanding of effective strategies against breast cancer

Trophic Shifts of a Generalist Consumer in Response to Resource Pulses

Trophic shifts of generalist consumers can have broad food-web and biodiversity consequences through altered trophic flows and vertical diversity. Previous studies have used trophic shifts as indicators of food-web responses to perturbations, such as species invasion, and spatial or temporal subsidies. Resource pulses, as a form of temporal subsidies, have been found to be quite common among various ecosystems, affecting organisms at multiple trophic levels. Although diet switching of generalist consumers in response to resource pulses is well documented, few studies have examined if the switch involves trophic shifts, and if so, the directions and magnitudes of the shifts. In this study, we used stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes with a Bayesian multi-source mixing model to estimate proportional contributions of three trophic groups (i.e. producer, consumer, and fungus-detritivore) to the diets of the White-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) receiving an artificial seed pulse or a naturally-occurring cicadas pulse. Our results demonstrated that resource pulses can drive trophic shifts in the mice. Specifically, the producer contribution to the mouse diets was increased by 32% with the seed pulse at both sites examined. The consumer contribution to the mouse diets was also increased by 29% with the cicadas pulse in one of the two grids examined. However, the pattern was reversed in the second grid, with a 13% decrease in the consumer contribution with the cicadas pulse. These findings suggest that generalist consumers may play different functional roles in food webs under perturbations of resource pulses. This study provides one of the few highly quantitative descriptions on dietary and trophic shifts of a key consumer in forest food webs, which may help future studies to form specific predictions on changes in trophic interactions following resource pulses