Gulls are prevalent in beach environments and can be a major source of fecal contamination. Gulls have been shown to harbor a high abundance of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as Escherichia coli and enterococci, which can be readily detected as part of routine beach monitoring. Despite the ubiquitous presence of gull fecal material in beach environments, the associated microbial community...

Volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) are two suites of chemicals that are of environmental concern as organic contaminants, but little is known about the exposure of wildlife to these contaminants, particularly in birds, in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The present study investigates the spatial distributions of nine cyclic and linear VMSs and 17 OPEs in the e...

AIMS To evaluate the numbers and selected phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of the faecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli and enterococci in gull faeces at representative Great Lakes swimming beaches in the United States. METHODS AND RESULTS E. coli and enterococci were enumerated in gull faeces by membrane filtration. E. coli genotypes (rep-PCR genomic profiles) and E. coli (Vitek...

Armenia as a developing country has a very severe need to integrate and collaborate with the international Geospatial community in order to build a reliable and efficient geospatial infrastructure. Moreover, the availability of such an infrastructure could foster the availability of geospatial data, could facilitate the development of a data sharing policy at national level, and could help to e...

Two novel gull-specific quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays were developed using 16S rRNA gene sequences from gull fecal clone libraries: a SYBR green assay targeting Streptococcus spp. (gull3) and a hydrolysis TaqMan assay targeting Catellicoccus marimammalium (gull4). The objectives of this study were to compare the host specificity of a previous C. marimammalium qPCR assay (gull2) with that of th...

—Laughing gulls (Larus atricilla) are commonly found in many areas of North America and little is known about their diet, particularly in coastal-urban interfaces where gull-aircraft collisions can be a serious concern. The objective of this study was to describe and quantify the consumption of terrestrial invertebrates by laughing gulls at a coastal-urban interface in the northeastern United S...

Mercury (Hg) is a pervasive contaminant that can adversely affect predatory wildlife. Bird eggs provide insights into breeding females' Hg burdens, and are easily collected and archived. We present data on Hg trends in herring gull (Larus argentatus) eggs from five sites in Atlantic Canada from 1972 to 2008. We found a significant decrease in Hg at Manawagonish Island, New Brunswick and Île du ...

The disintegration of the USSR caused certain new social and demographic developments in the Russian Federation. Immigration from the former Soviet republics, mainly to Russia’s largest cities, is a new phenomenon for Russia. This process led to the formation of new diasporas in Russia and to the development of the traditional ones. This article examines the case of the Armenian diaspora in a g...

Introduction The increasing trend of atypical form of FMF among the Armenian population is one of the actual problems in the Armenian medicine. Hence, it induced and promoted the necessity of studying molecular mechanisms for correction of disturbed metabolic processes and for elaboration of new methods at pathogenic therapy of FMF. The specific features of the clinical symptoms in atypical for...