Evidences against a significant role of Mus musculus as natural host for Angiostrongylus costaricensis

Wild rodents have been described as the most important hosts for Angiostrongylus costaricensis in Central America and southern Brazil. Sinantropic rodents apparently do not play a significant role as natural hosts. A search for natural infection failed to document worms in 14 mice captured in the house of a patient with diagnosis of abdominal angiostrongylosis and experimental infection of a "wild" Mus musculus strain and groups of albino Swiss mice were carried out. Mortality was not significantly different and varied from 42% to 80% for Swiss mice and from 26% to 80% for "wild" mice. The high mortality of a "wild" M. musculus infected with A. costaricensis was very similar to what is observed with most laboratory mice strains. These data may be taken as indications that M. musculus is not a well adapted host for A. costaricensis, although susceptibility was apparently higher with "wild" populations of M. musculus as compared to Swiss strain.

Adenovirus respiratory infection: significant increase in diagnosis using PCR comparing with antigen detection and culture methods

Adenovirus (AdV) respiratory infections are usually described as being associated with high mortality rates. Laboratory diagnosis is essential for the establishment of the appropriate therapy, and for guiding the implementation of preventive measures in order to prevent the spread of the infection. Aiming to analyze the sensitivity and specificity of the laboratorial diagnosis methods available, we compared antigen detection by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IF), and a specific nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), to detect AdV in respiratory samples collected from patients admitted to hospital with acute respiratory disease. Positive samples were inoculated into a cell culture to confirm the results. We analyzed 381 samples from the nasopharyngeal aspirates collected during the year 2008; of these, 2.6% tested were positive for adenovirus through IF and 10% through PCR; positive isolation was obtained in 40% and 26% of these cases, respectively. Most infected patients were children under six months of age, and despite of the fact that a significant number of patients required intensive care, the mortality rate was low (5%). In conclusion, molecular methods were found to be useful for rapid diagnosis of adenovirus infections with higher sensitivity than antigen detection; their introduction permitted a significant increase in diagnoses of adenovirus infections.

New and significant bird records from Rio Grande do Sul, with comments on biogeography and conservation of the southern Brazilian avifauna

I report on the occurrence of 16 species of birds in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, of which seven are new for the state - Accipiter superciliosus (Linnaeus, 1766), Brotogeris tirica (Gmelin, 1788), Hemitriccus margaritaceiventer (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837), Phyllomyias griseocapilla Sclater, 1862, Saltator coerulescens Vieillot, 1817, Orthogonys chloricterus (Vieillot, 1819), and Sporophila lineola (Linnaeus, 1758) - and seven were previously known from unsubstantiated or poorly documented records - Ixobrychus exilis (Gmelin, 1789), Brotogeris chiriri (Vieillot, 1818), Coccyzus euleri Cabanis, 1873, Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana (Bertoni & Bertoni, 1901), Psilorhamphus guttatus (Ménétriès, 1835), Serpophaga griseicapilla Straneck, 2007, and Hemithraupis ruficapilla (Vieillot, 1818). Descriptive and natural history notes are presented for some of these species. The records of B. tirica, P. guttatus, P. griseocapilla, Myiozetetes similis (Spix, 1825), O. chloricterus, H. ruficapilla, and S. lineola represent significant southward range extensions of up to 300 km. Also, a new confirmed record of Myiarchus ferox (Statius Muller, 1776) is divulged. Finally, I argue that the Atlantic forests of north-eastern Rio Grande do Sul should be included in the Serra do Mar area of endemism (sensu SILVA et al., 2004) because of the presence of Orthogonys chloricterus, and comment on the possible range expansion of Myiozetetes similis, Sporophila lineola and other primarily tropical species in southern Brazil.