Search Results (56)

In Brazil, Plasmodium infections in non-human primates (NHPs) have been associated with P. simium and P. brasilianum, which are morphologically and genetically similar to the human-infecting species P. vivax and P. malariae, respectively. Surveillance and monitoring of wild NHPs are crucial for understanding the distribution of these parasites and assessing the risk of zoonotic transmission. This study aimed to detect the presence of Plasmodium spp. genetic material in Platyrrhini primates from 47 municipalities in the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais. The animals were captured using Tomahawk-type live traps baited with fruit or immobilized with tranquilizer darts. Free-ranging individuals were chemically restrained via inhalation anesthesia using VetBag^® or intramuscular anesthesia injection. Blood samples were collected from the femoral vein. A total of 298 blood and tissue samples were collected from 10 primate species across five genera: Alouatta caraya (25), Alouatta guariba clamitans (1), Callicebus melanochir (1), Callithrix geoffroyi (28), Callithrix jacchus (4), Callithrix kuhlii (31), Callithrix penicillata (175), Callithrix spp. hybrids (15), Leontopithecus chrysomelas (16), Sapajus robustus (1), and Sapajus xanthosthernos (1). Molecular diagnosis was performed using a nested PCR targeting the 18S small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S SSU rRNA) gene, followed by sequencing. Of the 298 samples analyzed, only one (0.3%) from Bahia tested positive for Plasmodium brasilianum/P. malariae. This represents the first detection of this parasite in a free-living C. geoffroyi in Brazil. These findings highlight the importance of continued surveillance of Plasmodium infections in NHPs to identify regions at risk for zoonotic transmission. Full article

The transition from live bait (LF) feeding to compound feed (CF) feeding in aquaculture is of great production significance. In recent decades, cultivation with CF has become a focus for practitioners and researchers dealing with Siniperca chuatsi. This study focused on experimental subjects of S. chuatsi fed with CF and LF, using short-distance transportation as a stimulating factor. For the first time, the differences between S. chuatsi fed with CF and LF were analyzed from the perspective of stress response during transportation. This study found that after transportation stimulation, the activities of LZM and the contents of MDA, TGs, and glucose in the brain, liver, kidneys, muscles, stomach, pyloric caecum, intestines, and blood of S. chuatsi fed with CF were higher compared to S. chuatsi fed with LF (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed in the impacts of various diets on the gastrointestinal tract, particularly in the intestine. In summary, this study found that S. chuatsi fed with CF could retain more energy after transport stimulation and exhibited stronger resistance to microbial stress, but they had a weaker antioxidant capacity. Therefore, in future research on CF for S. chuatsi, we need to focus on its ability to enhance antioxidant capacity. Full article

Spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) is a major cause of spruce (Picea spp.) mortality in western North America. We synthesized the literature on the chemical ecology of spruce beetle, focusing on efforts to reduce host tree losses. This literature dates back to the mid-20th century and focuses on spruce beetle populations in Alaska, U.S., western Canada, and the central and southern Rocky Mountains, U.S. Spruce beetle aggregation pheromone components include frontalin (1,5-dimethyl-6,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane), seudenol (3-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol), MCOL (1-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol), and verbenene (4-methylene-6,6-dimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]hept-2-ene). The attraction of spruce beetle to one aggregation pheromone component is enhanced by the co-release of other aggregation pheromones and host compounds (e.g., α-pinene). Several baits that attract spruce beetles are commercially available and are used for survey and detection, population suppression, snag creation, and experimental purposes. The antiaggregation pheromone is MCH (3-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one), which has been evaluated for reducing colonization of felled spruce since the 1970s. Beginning in the early 2000s, MCH has been evaluated for protecting live, standing spruce from colonization by and mortality attributed to spruce beetle. With a few exceptions, significant reductions in levels of spruce beetle colonization and/or spruce mortality were reported. More recent efforts have combined MCH with other repellents (e.g., nonhost compounds) in hope of increasing levels of tree protection. Today, several formulations of MCH are registered for tree protection purposes in the U.S. and Canada. Full article

This study examined the effects of stress and social enrichment on fish neuroplasticity and antioxidant capacity, addressing growing concerns about fish welfare in aquaculture. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design comprising eight treatment groups was implemented to investigate how bait type, group size (two distinct sizes tested), and stress level affected the expression of neurogenesis-related genes (PCNA, DCX, and NeuroD) and antioxidant parameters (MDA levels, CAT, GSH-Px, and SOD activity) in the fish. The findings demonstrated that social enrichment significantly reduced aggressive behavior and basal cortisol levels and enhanced the expression of neurogenesis-related gene. However, the optimal group-size augmentation (between the two group sizes tested) considerably increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes and decreased MDA levels. Acute stress further upregulated cortisol levels and the expression of genes related to neurogenesis. A scientific foundation for enhancing fish welfare in aquaculture is provided by the study’s confirmation that social enrichment reduces stress and fosters neuroplasticity. Full article

Digital immortality and transhumanist longevity proposals are currently researched and debated independently. This essay claims that both ideas represent two sides of the same cultural denial of death, reconceptualizing them as interconnected forms of thanato-colonialism. The first form includes the digital immortality industry, in both its passive and active versions. Interpreted from the framework of data colonialism, digital immortality represents a masterful maneuver, guaranteeing that the dead can continue to contribute to the extractive logic of this new economy by endlessly generating data and serving as bait for the appropriation of human lives. In this way, data colonialism is no longer constrained by physical disappearance—transforming death itself into a profitable colonization strategy. The second kind of thanato-colonialism surfaces within the transhumanist imaginaries, which inherit the violence of historical colonialism and resort to the argument of progress to justify their ends. Nick Bostrom’s fable of the Dragon Tyrant allegorizes old age as a mythological beast, an archetype of the “other”—fundamentally different, threatening, and impossible to negotiate with—who must be subdued without contemplation. A team of engineers—humanity’s saviors—is tasked with slaying it. Full article

Soil treatments and baits are two primary chemical control strategies for subterranean termites. Baiting is targeted and eco-friendly but requires ongoing maintenance, while soil treatments provide immediate, long-lasting protection with potential environmental concerns. Previously, we found that termites differentially manage deceased individuals based on their postmortem chemical signatures, potentially circumventing chemical controls. Given the distinct differences in the synthetic termiticides used for soil treatments (fast-acting) and baits (slow-releasing), we hypothesized that termites would respond differently to corpses treated with these two methods. To test this hypothesis, in Reticulitermes flavipes, we (1) profiled postmortem chemicals in termites exposed to different termiticides and (2) documented live termite responses to these corpses. Significant variations in postmortem chemical signatures, particularly 3-octanol and 3-octanone, were found among termites exposed to different termiticides, especially bifenthrin and fipronil. However, these variations did not lead to significantly different undertaking behaviors, indicating a complex relationship between death cues and termite behavior. Contrary to our hypothesis, except for bifenthrin, the fundamental undertaking behaviors were consistent despite differences in retrieval timing. This suggests that termiticides alone do not fully dictate termite undertaking behavior. Understanding termite corpse management is crucial for evaluating termiticide effectiveness, highlighting the need for an integrated pest management approach. Full article

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is known to be very stable within a protein-rich environment and indirect virus transmission can be mediated via oral uptake of different materials. However, experimental studies in pigs have shown that infection by ASFV via the oral route can be difficult to establish. Currently, there is a lack of studies using strict oral inoculations of pigs with different doses of ASFV. Therefore, we aimed to determine the dose of a European genotype II ASFV that is required to establish infection of pigs by the oral route. In this study, 24 pigs were divided into four groups of six. Three of the groups were fed with a low, medium or high dose of the ASFV POL/2015/Podlaskie virus. The pigs in the fourth group served as positive controls and were inoculated intranasally, just once, using the low dose of the virus. All the pigs inoculated intranasally with ASFV succumbed to the infection, while only three of the six pigs that were fed the high dose of the virus became infected. None of the 12 pigs that were fed with either the medium or low dose of the virus became infected, despite receiving up to thirteen doses each. In two of the pigs infected by intranasal inoculation, the presence of a variant form of the ASFV genome was detected. The results obtained in this study underline that ASFV infection is more difficult to establish via the oral route when compared to the intranasal route. The high dose needed in order to establish oral infection could have implications for future strategies using baited vaccines containing infectious live-attenuated ASFV. Full article

Siniperca species are highly valued freshwater fishes in China. In 2022, the country’s production of farmed Siniperca reached 401 kilotons. With the growing demand for high-quality aquatic products, Siniperca aquaculture offers major economic benefits and promising development prospects. However, the current reliance on live bait in Siniperca farming has resulted in resource wastage, environmental pollution, and disease outbreaks, hindering the healthy and sustainable growth of the industry. This review aims to comprehensively summarize the nutritional requirements of Siniperca in artificial farming, with a focus on proteins, amino acids, lipids, fatty acids, carbohydrates, and micronutrients. We also summarize the progress made in researching alternative protein and lipid sources, feed additives, and the development of artificially formulated feeds to replace live bait. The findings of this review will serve as a reference for further research on the nutritional requirements and development of formulated feeds for Siniperca aquaculture. Full article

Vespa velutina (Lepeletier, 1836) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is a eusocial insect that lives in colonies of hundreds to thousands of individuals, which are divided into castes according to their task: queens, workers, and males. The proper functioning of the colony requires communication between the individuals that make up the colony. Chemical signals (pheromones) are the most common means of communication used by these insects to alarm and differentiate between individuals belonging or not to the colony. In this work, profiles of volatile organic compounds were obtained from the hornets and the external cover of four secondary nests located in the Basque Country. The obtained profiles were treated using chemometric tools. The grouping of hornets and nests according to the different colonies and geographical location was observed. In total, 37 compounds were found in common in hornets and nests. Most of them have been reported in the literature as belonging to different insects and plant species. This would corroborate the transfer of chemical compounds between the nest and the hornets’ nest and vice versa. This information could be applied to the development of more efficient control methods for this invasive species, such as attractive traps or baits containing the relevant compounds. Full article

Conventional biochemical methods for studying cellular signaling cascades have relied on destructive cell disruption. In contrast, the live cell imaging of fluorescent-tagged transfected proteins offers a non-invasive approach to understanding signal transduction events. One strategy involves monitoring the phosphorylation-dependent shuttling of a fluorescent-labeled kinase between the nucleus and cytoplasm using nuclear localization, export signals, or both. In this paper, we introduce a simple method to visualize intracellular signal transduction in live cells by exploring the translocation properties of PKC from the cytoplasm to the membrane. We fused bait protein to PKC, allowing the bait (RFP-labeled) and target (GFP-labeled) proteins to co-translocate from the cytoplasm to the membrane. However, in non-interacting protein pairs, only the bait protein was translocated to the plasma membrane. To verify our approach, we examined the Raf–MEK–ERK signaling cascade (ERK pathway). We successfully visualized direct Raf1/MEK2 interaction and the KSR1-containing ternary complex (Raf1/MEK2/KSR1). However, the interaction between MEK and ERK was dependent on the presence of the KSR1 scaffold protein under our experimental conditions. Full article

During the spring–summer seasons between 2019 and 2023, in the localities of Maquehue (La Araucanía Region) and Llifén (Los Ríos Region), we collected 262 virgin Proholopterus chilensis (1 female/2.3 males) specimens emerging from the live trunks of N. obliqua trees, an atypical sex ratio in Cerambycidae, suggesting high male competition for females. Virgin specimens of both sexes were individually placed in panel traps in the field, capturing only males (n = 184) over the field study seasons and only in traps baited with females. This fact preliminarily suggests the P. chilensis females emit possible “volatile or airborne” pheromones (eventually being a long-range sex pheromone), something unusual in Cerambycinae, the subfamily to which it currently belongs, although the taxonomic status of the species is under debate. In Llifén and Santiago (Metropolitan Region), behavioral observations were conducted, which allowed us to define the conditions necessary for male–female encounters that were replicated when carrying out volatile captures (Head Space Dynamic = HSD) and collections of compounds from terminalias excised from females. In field trials, virgin females less than ten days old were more attractive than older ones and attracted males during the night, i.e., between 23:00 and 5:00 AM, when the ambient temperature exceeded 11.6 °C. The aeration of females under the conditions described above and subsequent analysis of extracts by GC-MS allowed the identification of compounds absent in males and the control, including two oxygenated sesquiterpenes, a nitrogenous compound (C₂₀), and a long-chain hydrocarbon (C₂₆). From the terminalia extracts, hentriacontane, heptacosane, and heneicosyl, heptacosyl and docosyl acetates were identified by GC-MS, and their roles are unknown in the development of short-distance sexual behaviors, but they could serve to mark a trail leading the male towards the female in the final stage of approach for courtship/mating. Thus, we proposed the hypothesis that P. chilensis females emit both a long-range and a trail-pheromone, which, if confirmed, would be a rare case in this family. The specific identity of the compounds obtained by HSD, as well as the activities of these chemicals and those obtained from the terminalias, should be evaluated in future behavioral studies, as well as regarding their potential to attract males under field conditions. The current document is the first report on volatiles obtained from aerations and compounds extracted from female terminalia in P. chilensis. Full article

Diopatra neapolitana Delle Chiaje, 1841 (Annelida, Onuphidae) is one of the most exploited polychaete species in European waters, particularly in Ria de Aveiro, a coastal lagoon in mainland Portugal, where the overexploitation of this resource has led to a generalized decline of local populations. In an attempt to reduce the impact of harvesting, several management actions were implemented, but illegal poaching still fuels a parallel economy that threatens the sustainable use of this marine resource. The present study evaluated the combination of fatty acid profiles and elemental fingerprints of the whole body and jaws, respectively, of D. neapolitana collected from four harvesting locations within Ria de Aveiro in order to determine if their geographic origin could be correctly assigned post-harvesting. Results showed that both fatty acid profiles and elemental fingerprints differ significantly among locations, discriminating the geographic origin with higher accuracy when combining these two natural barcodes than when employing each individually. The present work can, therefore, contribute to the implementation of an effective management plan for the sustainable use of this marine resource, making it possible to detect if D. neapolitana was sourced from no-take zones and if it was collected from the place of origin claimed by live bait traders. Full article

House flies are notoriously difficult to control, owing to their tendency to live in close relationships with humans and their livestock, and their rapid development of resistance to chemical controls. With this in mind, we explored an alternative chemical control, a spatial repellent to deter Musca domestica L. from points we wanted to protect (i.e., a baited trap). Our results demonstrated that the synthetic spatial repellent, transfluthrin, is effective in preventing M. domestica adults from entering protected traps for both a susceptible strain (CAR21) and a field-acquired permethrin-resistant strain (WHF; 24 h LD₅₀ resistance ratio of 150), comprising 22% and 28% of the total number of flies collected, respectively. These results are promising and demonstrate that transfluthrin can be an effective spatial repellent to protect points of interest where needed. Full article

To investigate whether Mandarin fish developed oxidative stress after being domesticated with artificial feed, we conducted a series of experiments. Oxidative stress is an important factor leading to diseases and aging in the body. The liver integrates functions such as digestion, metabolism, detoxification, coagulation, and immune regulation, while the gills are important respiratory organs that are sensitive to changes in the water environment. Therefore, we used the liver and gills of Mandarin fish as research materials. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term artificial feed domestication on the expression of oxidative stress genes and the changes in oxidative-stress-related enzyme activity in the liver and gills of Mandarin fish. We divided the Mandarin fish into two groups for treatment. The control group was fed with live bait continuously for 14 days, while the experimental group was fed with half artificial feed and half live bait from 0 to 7 days (T-7 d), followed by solely artificial feed from 7 to 14 days (T-14 d). The experimental results showed that there was no difference in the body weight, length, and standard growth rate of the Mandarin fish between the two groups of treatments; after two treatments, there were differences in the expression of genes related to oxidative stress in the gills (keap1, kappa, gsta, gstt1, gstk1, SOD, and CAT) and in the liver (GPx, keap1, kappa, gsta, gstt1, gr, and SOD). In the liver, GPx activity and the content of MDA were significantly upregulated after 7 days of domestication, while in the gills, SOD activity was significantly upregulated after 7 days of domestication and GPx activity was significantly downregulated after 14 days of domestication. These results suggest that artificial feed domestication is associated with oxidative stress. Moreover, these results provide experimental basic data for increasing the production of aquaculture feed for Mandarin fish. Full article

Live prey is characterized by balanced rich nutrients and high palatability and is widely used for the seedling cultivation of freshwater dark sleeper (Odontobutis potamophila) larvae. In this study, we evaluated the effects of four groups of paired feeding regimens (group C (Daphnia magna), group L (Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri), group H (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix fry), and group M (mixed groups C, L, and H)) on glycolipid and energy metabolism in O. potamophila larvae. We observed that fatty acid synthase (FAS) and sterol-regulatory-element-binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) mRNA levels were significantly lower in group H when compared to mRNA levels in the other three groups (p < 0.05) and that carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1α (CPT1-α) mRNA levels were significantly lower in group L when compared to group M (p < 0.05). Relative glucokinase (GK) expression levels were significantly lower in group M when compared to the other three groups (p < 0.05). Using proteomics, we analyzed and compared groups H and L and identified 457 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), of which 151 were significantly up-regulated and 306 were significantly down-regulated. In the comparison of group M with groups C, L, and H, we found significant enrichment in glycolytic processes, the endoplasmic reticulum lumen, NAD binding, intermediate filaments, and nutrient reservoir activity. Our results provide a theoretical guidance for bait selection during larvae cultivation stages in carnivorous fish. Full article