Wildlife campaigners are hoping to do a deal with the burgeoning oil palm industry in Borneo in the hope of creating a forest framework to save the threatened orang-utan. Palm oil companies and the Sabah government in Borneo have agreed to a project to create wildlife corridors that will link forest areas and create a network of safe havens for the ape. Palm oil companies and the Sabah governme...

This study examined whether the method of hair cortisol analysis is applicable to orang-utans (Pongo spp.) and can help to advance the objective monitoring of stress in non-human primates. Specifically, we examined whether fundamental prerequisites for hair cortisol analysis are given in orang-utans and, subsequently, whether segmental hair analysis may provide a retrospective calendar of long-...

Serological screening of sera from orang-utans demonstrated a high percentage of sera that cross-reacted with antigens of the polyomavirus (PyV) simian virus 40. Analysis of archival DNA samples from 71 Bornean and eight Sumatran orang-utans with a broad-spectrum PCR assay resulted in the detection of PyV infections in 11 animals from both species. Sequence analysis of the amplicons revealed co...

309 INTRODUCTION Malaysia is a multiethnic country with a population of 29.5 million people . The indigenous Orang Asli, also known as the original peoples of the Malay Peninsular consist of various aboriginal tribes and make up about 1% of the Malaysian population. The Orang Asli can be grouped into three major ethno-linguistic groups namely Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malays. Within these major ...

An epidemiological cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the endemicity of malaria among the Orang Asli population of Raub, Pahang. Malaria endemicity was measured in terms of the prevalence of parasitaemia and splenomegaly. A total of 520 Orang Asli were examined. The point prevalence of malaria was 24.2% (95% CI 20.7-25.1), with Plasmodium falciparum (67.5%) being the predominant ...

BACKGROUND Today the majority of wild great ape populations are found outside of the network of protected areas in both Africa and Asia, therefore determining if these populations are able to survive in forests that are exploited for timber or other extractive uses and how this is managed, is paramount for their conservation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In 2007, the "Kinabatangan Orang-uta...

BACKGROUND Dengue is prevalent among Malaysia's indigenous peoples, known as the Orang Asli, and it poses a serious health threat to them. The study aims to look at the socio-demographic factors, health beliefs, and knowledge about dengue and its association to dengue prevention practices among Orang Asli communities in Peninsular Malaysia. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 16...

Behavioural observations suggest that orang-utans are semi-solitary animals with females being philopatric and males roaming more widely in search of receptive partners, leading to the prediction that females are more closely related than males at any given site. In contrast, our study presents evidence for male and female philopatry in the orang-utan. We examined patterns of relatedness and pa...

A high level of sequence polymorphism combined with linkage disequilibrium has created a limited number of highly diverged haplotypes across the human Xp/Yp telomere junction region. To gain insight into the unusual genetic characteristics of this region, we have examined the orthologous sequences in the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ), the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the orang-utan (Pon...

Title:Molecular epidemiology of giardiasis among Orang Asli in Malaysia: application of the triosephosphate isomerase gene