Reservoirs are important components of modern aquatic ecosystems that have negative impacts on native aquatic biota both upand downstream. We used a landscape-scale geographic information system (GIS) approach to quantify the spatial effects of 19 large reservoirs on upstream prairie fish assemblages at 219 sites in Kansas, USA. We hypothesized that fish assemblage structure would vary with inc...

INTRODUCTION In the continental US, four terrestrial mammalian species are reservoirs for seven antigenic rabies virus variants. Cross species transmission (CST) occurs when a rabies virus variant causes disease in non-reservoir species. METHODS This study analyzed national surveillance data for rabies in terrestrial mammals. The CST rate was defined as: number of rabid non-reservoir animals/...

In Europe, 6 of the 11 genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato are prevalent in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks. In most parts of Central Europe, B. afzelii, B. garinii, and B. valaisiana are the most frequent species, whereas B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. bissettii, and B. lusitaniae are rare. Previously, it has been shown that B. afzelii is associated with European rodents. Therefore,...

An up-to-date review on human paragonimiasis in Africa was carried out to determine the current geographical distribution of human cases and analyze the animal reservoir, snails and crustaceans which intervene in the local life cycle of Paragonimus species. Two countries, i.e., Cameroon and Nigeria, were mainly affected by this disease, while the distribution of human cases in the other eight s...

To the Editor: The white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, is a natural reservoir host of several pathogens, including Borrelia burgdorferi, an agent of Lyme borre-liosis (LB) (1). B. burgdorferi spiro-chetes are transmitted in the mouse population by Ixodes scapularis ticks. This tick vector also bears B. miyamo-toi, a sister species to the relapsing fever group of spirochetes (2,3). B. miyam...

Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) causes respiratory disorders and abortion in equids while EHV-1 regularly causes equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM), a stroke-like syndrome following endothelial cell infection in horses. Both EHV-1 and EHV-9 infections of non-definitive hosts often result in neuronal infection and high case fatality rates. Hence, EHV-1 and EHV-9 are somewhat unusual ...

Influenza A viruses are amongst the most challenging viruses that threaten both human and animal health. Influenza A viruses are unique in many ways. Firstly, they are unique in the diversity of host species that they infect. This includes waterfowl (the original reservoir), terrestrial and aquatic poultry, swine, humans, horses, dog, cats, whales, seals and several other mammalian species. Sec...

Prevalence and abundance of Cryptosporodium parvum and Giardia spp. were studied in 3 species of rodents from forests and abandoned agricultural fields in N.E. Poland (Clethrionomys glareolus n = 459; Microtus arvalis n = 274; Apodemus flavicollis n = 209). Overall prevalence was consistently higher in the voles compared with A. flavicollis (70.6, 73.0 and 27.8% respectively for C. parvum and 9...