The Predation of Artemia Nauplii by the Larvae of the Amazon River Prawn, Macrobrachium amazonicum (Heller, 1862), is Affected by Prey Density, Time of Day, and Ontogenetic Development

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A Case Study: The Effect of Visitors on Two Captive Pumas With Respect to the Time of the Day

This study analyzed the effects of noise levels and number of visitors on the behaviors of a mother puma and her daughter in a zoo environment with respect to the time of day. The study monitored visitation (noise and number) over two 1-week periods (4 weeks between periods) and frequency of various puma behaviors (videorecorded). The study analyzed videotaped behavior of the pumas based on the time of day and visitors number and noise levels. There was a direct association of puma behaviors with visitors number and noise levels. The daughter puma was the most affected and behavioral changes of both pumas correlated more strongly with the noise level than the number of visitors. The noise level and number of visitors affected the behavior of the mother and her daughter only in the morning. The results of this study indicate that both noise level and number of visitors affected these pumas but revealed the noise as predominant. Moreover, the response of these pumas to visitors depended on the time of the day.

Morphology, sex ratio and gene expression of Day 14 in vivo and in vitro bovine embryos

The present study was designed to compare Day 14 bovine embryos that were produced entirely in vitro using the post-hatching development (PHD) system with in vivo-derived embryos without or with transient PHD culture from Day 7 to Day 14. Embryos on Day 14 were used for sex determination and gene expression analysis of PLAC8, KRT8, CD9, SLC2A1, SLC2A3, PGK1, HSF1, MNSOD, HSP70 and IFNT using real-time quantitative (q) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). First, Day 7 in vivo-and in vitro-produced embryos were subjected to the PHD system. A higher rate of survival was observed for in vitro embryos on Day 14. Comparing Day 14 embryos produced completely in vivo or completely in vitro revealed that the mean size of the former group was greater than that of the latter (10.29±1.83 vs 2.68±0.33mm, respectively). Expression of the HSP70 and SLC2A1 genes was down-and upregulated, respectively, in the in vitro embryos. The present study shows that in vitro embryos cultured in the PHD system are smaller than in vivo embryos and that of the 10 genes analysed, only two were differentially expressed between the two groups. These findings indicate that, owing to the poor survival rate, the PHD system is not reliable for evaluation of in vitro embryo quality. © 2013 CSIRO.

Salmonella spp investigation in transport boxes of day-old birds

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Attraction of the cutaneous leishmaniasis vector Nyssomyia neivai (Diptera: Psychodidae) to host odour components in a wind tunnel

Background: Laboratory studies of host-seeking olfactory behaviour in sandflies have largely been restricted to the American visceral leishmaniasis vector Lutzomyia longipalpis. In comparison, almost nothing is known about the chemical ecology of related species, which transmit American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL), due in part to difficulties in raising these insects in the laboratory. Understanding how ACL vectors locate their hosts will be essential to developing new vector control strategies to combat this debilitating disease.Methods: This study examined host-odour seeking behaviour of the ACL vector Nyssomyia neivai (Pinto) (=Lutzomyia neivai) using a wind tunnel olfactometer. The primary aim was to determine whether field-collected female N. neivai would respond to host odours in the laboratory, thereby eliminating the need to maintain colonies of these insects for behavioural experiments. Responses to two key host odour components, 1-octen-3-ol and lactic acid, and a commercially-available mosquito lure (BG-Lure (TM)) were assessed and compared relative to an air control. We also tested whether trials could be conducted outside of the normal evening activity period of N. neivai without impacting on fly behaviour, and whether the same flies could be used to assess baseline responses to air without affecting responses to octenol, thereby reducing the number of flies required for experiments.Results: Octenol was found to both activate host-seeking behaviour and attract female N. neivai in the wind tunnel, while lactic acid elicited weaker responses of activation and attractiveness under identical conditions. The BG-Lure did not activate or attract N. neivai under test conditions. Further experiments showed that sandfly behaviour in the wind tunnel was not affected by time of day, such that experiments need not be restricted to nocturnal hours. Moreover, using the same flies to measure both baseline responses to air and attraction to test compounds did not affect odour-seeking behaviour.Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that N. neivai taken from the field are suitable for use in laboratory olfactometer experiments. It is hoped this work will facilitate further research into chemical ecology of this species, and other ACL vectors.

Diurnal variation in transect counts of birds in a cerrado landscape in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

The general statement that birds are recorded more often on morning than on afternoon counts is quite common and widespread among ornithologists. Although many investigators have reported temporal variations in bird detections using Point Counts in temperate regions, few researches regarding the same objectives have been conducted in Neotropical habitats or used transect counts as field method. We used transect counts to test the hypothesis that birds are evenly recorded between times of day in a predominantly open Cerrado landscape in southeastern Brazil. Although not always significantly, the number of species and individuals were consistently greater during the morning counts, which corroborates the fact that birds can be more detectable during this time of day. However, a few families as well as a small percentage of species were more likely to be recorded during either one of the two periods we analyzed. Our results suggest that morning counts should detect higher number of both species and individuals in our study area, but specific taxa show distinct patterns of detection which should be acknowledged prior to sampling.

Comparison of day 2 embryo quality after conventional ICSI versus intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) using sibling oocytes

Objective: To evaluate whether intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) could influence early paternal effects by observing embryo quality at day 2.Study design: The study included 30 couples with at least one of the following criteria: male factor infertility, at least 2 previous failures of implantation or previous miscarriages after IVF/ICSI. Sibling oocytes of each patient were randomly assigned to either the ICSI group or the IMSI group. For IMSI, spermatozoa were selected at 8400x magnification through an inverted microscope equipped with Nomarski differential interference contrast optics, Uplan Apo 100x oil/1.35 objective lens and variable zoom lens. For conventional ICSI, spermatozoa were selected at 400x magnification. An embryo was defined as top quality if there were four identical blastomeres on day 2 with no fragments or multinucleation of blastomeres. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon and chi-squared tests. The significance level was set at P < 0.05. The variables were analysed in relation to the general population and the subpopulations with or without male factor.Results: A total of 331 MII oocytes (30 oocyte retrievals) were selected and injected by the ICSI (n: 172) or IMSI (n: 159) procedure. For IMSI, only spermatozoa classified as morphologically normal at high magnification were used. No differences (P > 0.05) in fertilisation rate (ICSI: 70.9%; IMSI: 70.4%), early embryo cleavage rate (ICSI: 66.9%; IMSI: 60.4%) or cleavage rate (ICSI: 99.2%; IMSI: 99.1%) were observed. on day 2, as compared to ICSI, IMSI provided a similar proportion of top quality embryos (ICSI: 57.8%; IMSI: 52.2%; P > 0.05). These results were not influenced by the presence or absence of male factor.Conclusion: In terms of embryo quality at day 2, IMSI had the same performance as conventional ICSI. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that IMSI effects occur only as a positive later paternal effect. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genetic and environmental factors that affect the best time of Thoroughbred horses in Brazil

On the basis of information provided by the Brazilian Association of Race Horse Breeders, we analysed the racing performance of 947 Thoroughbred horses in races held from 1985 to 1992. The performance was evaluated using the best, time of the animals. The variance component was obtained by the derivative-free restricted maximum likelihood method, and the model used contained fixed effects of the racing month and year, sex, race track, track condition, animal age, number of competitors in race, and distance, and the random animal effect. The low heritability estimate obtained (0.12) indicates that selection based on animal phenotypic value must induce small genetic changes in this trail.

Effect of application time of APF and NaF gels on microhardness and fluoride uptake of in vitro enamel caries

Purpose : To evaluate the effect of time of fluoride application gel, acidulated or neutral, on in vitro enamel resistance to demineralization and fluoride uptake. Materials and Methods: One hundred and ninety-two human enamel blocks were used in this study and 144 were treated with fluoride gel, acidulated or neutral, for I or 4 minutes. Ninety-six blocks treated with fluoride and 24 control blocks were submitted to a high cariogenic challenge. After the pH-cycling, enamel demineralization was assessed by surface and cross-sectional microhardness. Fluoride in the enamel blocks was also determined after removing an enamel layer by etching acid. Results: Acidulated fluoride gel formed more fluoride in enamel than neutral gel (P < 0.05), and it was also more efficient in reducing the demineralization of the enamel blocks submitted to a cariogenic challenge than the neutral one (P < 0.05). It was found that the time of application was significant in terms of fluoride uptake, but it did not render the enamel more resistant to dernineralization.