OBJECTIVES A clean India is the responsibility of all Indians. One of the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Initiative) is to bring about behavioural changes regarding healthy sanitation practices. While large-scale programs in India have increased latrine coverage, they have to some extent failed to bring behavioural changes ensuring optimal latrine use, including the safe d...

Previously-developed PCR protocols specific for the 16S rRNA gene of the intestinal spirochaetes Brachyspira aalborgi and Brachyspira pilosicoli were adapted for the detection of these species in human faeces, following DNA extraction and purification using mini-prep columns. The limits of detection in seeded faeces for B. aalborgi and B. pilosicoli respectively were 2x10(2) and 7x10(3) cells p...

The mechanisms which lead to a diurnal variation in the formation of hard and soft faeces in the rabbit are still to a great extent not known. Both types of faeces originate from caecal contents (BONNAFOUS and RAYNAUD, 1967; YOSHIHARA and KANDATSU, 1960). It is therefore presumed that differentiation occurs during the passage through the colon. This results in the hard faeces, with a low concen...

It is not known whether independent tissue-specific evolution accounts for the differences between human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subpopulations in intestinal tissue and blood. To study this, sequential serum samples from three persons were analysed for the presence of HIV-1 V3 genotypes which were detected exclusively in faeces at a specific time-point. For two persons the faeces ...

We examined the putative defence system of a king cricket, Onosandrus sp., in particular the efficacy of the noxious faeces against two types of predator: a lizard, the skink Mabuya striata (an active, diurnal forager), and the toad Bufo gutturalis (a nocturnal, ambush predator). Contrary to our predictions, the faeces did not act as a deterrent to either predator. Tongueflick trials with cotto...

Adults and larvae of Triatoma infestans spend daylight hours assembled in shaded places. An assembling factor has been demonstrated in the excrement of this species. We analysed different aspects of the dynamics of the response of bugs. Recently fed insects do not aggregate around faeces. They start to show a significant assembling response from the 8th hour after feeding onwards. Just deposite...

generally, only a fraction of the mineral ingested by an animal is effectively absorbed, while most are bound to other components such as fibre and then excreted. in this study, faecal mineral composition differentials were used as indicators of mineral uptake by pullets supplemented varying levels of plantain ash in their daily rations for nine weeks. plantain stalk and root base samples were ...

The objective of this research was to compare the composition of bacterial microbiota associated with the ruminal content (RC), ruminal epithelium (RE) and faeces of Holstein dairy cows. The RC, RE and faecal samples were collected from six Holstein dairy cows when the animals were slaughtered. Community compositions of bacterial 16S rRNA genes from RC, RE and faeces were determined using a MiS...

Stable isotope and fatty acid signatures of biomaterials can provide important information about the dietary niche of animals. Stable isotope and fatty acid signatures differ between aquatic and terrestrial food webs, and therefore can be used to assess the aquatic and terrestrial contributions to the diets of species. We studied faecal samples of three co-occurring bat species with known diffe...

Classical scrapie is a naturally transmitted prion disease of sheep and goats. Contaminated environments may contribute to the spread of disease and evidence from animal models has implicated urine, blood, saliva, placenta and faeces as possible sources of the infection. Here we sought to determine whether sheep naturally infected with classical scrapie shed prions in their faeces. We used seri...