An outbreak of psittacosis due to Chlamydophila psittaci genotype A in a veterinary teaching hospital.
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An outbreak of psittacosis in a veterinary teaching hospital was recognized in December 2004. Outbreak management was instituted to evaluate the extent of the outbreak and to determine the avian source. Real-time PCR, serologic testing and sequencing of the ompA gene of Chlamydophila psittaci were performed. Sputum samples from patients, throat-swab samples from exposed students and staff, and faecal specimens from parrots and pigeons were tested. In this outbreak, 34 % (10/29) of the tested individuals were infected. The clinical features of the infection ranged from none to sepsis with multi-organ failure requiring intensive-care-unit admission. C. psittaci genotype A was identified as the outbreak strain. Parrots, recently exposed to a group of cockatiels coming from outside the teaching facility, which were used in a practical class, appeared to be the source of the outbreak. One of the tested pigeons harboured an unrelated C. psittaci genotype B strain. The microbiological diagnosis by real-time PCR on clinical specimens allowed for rapid outbreak management; subsequent genotyping of the isolates identified the avian source. Recommendations are made to reduce the incidence and extent of future outbreaks. (+info)
Population genetic structure of the blue-fronted Amazon (Amazona aestiva, Psittacidae: Aves) based on nuclear microsatellite loci: implications for conservation.
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The blue-fronted Amazon (Amazona aestiva) is a widely distributed Neotropical parrot and one of the most captured parrots in nature to supply the illegal trade of wild animals. The objectives of the present study were to analyze the genetic structure of A. aestiva to identify management units and support conservation planning and to verified if A. aestiva populations have undergone a recent bottleneck due to habitat loss and capture for the pet trade. The genetic structure was accessed by analyzing six microsatellite loci in 74 individuals of A. aestiva, including samples from the two subspecies (A. a. aestiva and A. a. xanthopteryx), from five populations: four in Brazil and one in Argentina. A significant genetic differentiation (theta = 0.007, p = 0.005) could be detected only between the most distant populations, Tocantins and Argentina, localized at the northeast and southwest limits of the sample sites, respectively. There was no evidence of inbreeding within or between populations, suggesting random mating among individuals. These results suggest a clinal distribution of genetic variability, as observed for variation in plumage color of the two A. aestiva subspecies. Bottleneck analysis did not show a recent reduction in population size. Thus, for the management and conservation of the species, the populations from Argentina and Tocantins should be considered as different management units, and the other populations from the center of the geographical distribution as another management unit. (+info)
Surface structure and frictional properties of the skin of the Amazon tree boa Corallus hortulanus (Squamata, Boidae).
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First finding of melanic sylvatic Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) colonies in the Argentine Chaco.
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Triatoma infestans (Klug), the most important vector of Chagas disease in southern South America, is a highly domiciliated species with well-known sylvatic foci only in the Bolivian Andean valleys and in the Bolivian Chaco, where melanic insects designated as "dark morphs" were found. After the tentative identification of two melanic bugs collected from parrot nests in a forest reserve in the Argentine Chaco as T. infestans, we conducted an intensive search there using mouse-baited sticky traps in summer 2006 and 2007. Four live T. infestans bugs were collected in trees without parrot nests in 288 trap-nights, whereas no bug was collected from inside trees with active parrot nests in 51 trap-nights. To increase bug captures, hollow tree trunks that recently had had Amazona aestiva (Berlepsch) and Aratinga acuticaudata (Vieillot) parrot nests were treated with insecticide fumigant canisters exhibiting strong knockdown power. Four (22%) of 18 trees were positive for T. infestans with a dark phenotype. A fragment of the mitochondrial gene COI of 8 of the 14 triatomine bugs collected was successfully sequenced and confirmed as T. infestans. Most of the bugs were captured from Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco (Schlechter) hollow tree trunks harboring parrot nests. All of the T. infestans collected from the nearest house located at 10 km from the sylvatic foci displayed normal chromatic characters. The repeated finding of T. infestans in sylvatic habitats, albeit at very low density, shows that this species is capable of maintaining viable sylvatic foci in the absence of human hosts and immigration from domestic populations. These are the first confirmed findings of sylvatic T. infestans colonies in Argentina and of dark morphs in the Argentine Chaco. (+info)
Evidence for vocal learning and limited dispersal as dual mechanisms for dialect maintenance in a parrot.
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Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma in a Yellow-headed Amazon (Amazona oratrix).
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A 9-year-old male Yellow-headed Amazon (Amazona oratrix) with a history of anorexia and vomiting died of a liver tumor. The tumor consisted of neoplastic cells with hepatocellular and cholangiocellular differentiations and their intermingled areas. Neoplastic hepatocytes showed islands or trabecular growth with vacuolated eosinophilic cytoplasm. Cells showing biliary differentiation formed ducts or tubules lined by cytokeratin AE1/AE3-positive epithelia, accompanied by desmoplasia consisting of myofibroblasts reacting to alpha-smooth muscle actin and desmin. The tumor was diagnosed as a combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma, which is very rare in the avian. (+info)
Spectral tuning of Amazon parrot feather coloration by psittacofulvin pigments and spongy structures.
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