Antibiotics Threaten Wildlife: Circulating Quinolone Residues and Disease in Avian Scavengers

Antibiotic residues that may be present in carcasses of medicated livestock could pass to and greatly reduce scavenger wildlife populations. We surveyed residues of the quinolones enrofloxacin and its metabolite ciprofloxacin and other antibiotics (amoxicillin and oxytetracycline) in nestling griffon Gyps fulvus, cinereous Aegypius monachus and Egyptian Neophron percnopterus vultures in central Spain. We found high concentrations of antibiotics in the plasma of many nestling cinereous (57%) and Egyptian (40%) vultures. Enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were also found in liver samples of all dead cinereous vultures. This is the first report of antibiotic residues in wildlife. We also provide evidence of a direct association between antibiotic residues, primarily quinolones, and severe disease due to bacterial and fungal pathogens. Our results indicate that, by damaging the liver and kidney and through the acquisition and proliferation of pathogens associated with the depletion of lymphoid organs, continuous exposure to antibiotics could increase mortality rates, at least in cinereous vultures. If antibiotics ingested with livestock carrion are clearly implicated in the decline of the vultures in central Spain then it should be considered a primary concern for conservation of their populations

Diversity of Frankia in root nodules of six Morella sp. from the Cape flora of South Africa

Africa hosts numerous endemic actinorhizal plants from the genus Morella, but the diversity of their Frankia endosymbionts has never been explored. The diversity of Frankia in root nodules collected from natural stands of six Morella species within the Cape flora of South Africa was investigated. The diversity of Frankia in root nodules collected from natural stands of six Morella species within the Cape flora of South Africa was investigated by comparative nitrogenase (nifH) gene sequence analysis. Gene sequences assigned nodular strains to both cluster I (Alnus hostinfection group) and cluster III (Elaeagnus host-infection group), with sequences from both groups recovered from three hosts: M. intergra, M. diversifolia and M. quercifolia. Cluster I sequences were found in nodules from acidic soils exclusively. Frankia strains representing both groups were isolated and characterized by 16S rRNA and nifH analysis. This study is the first to investigate the diversity of Frankia associated with endemic African actinorhizal species in their natural habitats, and to report isolation of Frankia strains from African Morella.The South African National Research Foundation and University of Pretoria Genomics Research Institute.http://link.springer.com/journal/111042017-04-30hb2016Genetic