Since its detection in China in 1984, rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) has been the subject of numerous studies. Yet, the evolutionary origin of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is still under debate. For example, some aspects related to the epidemiology of the disease are still unknown, such as where the virus is hosted between RHD outbreaks. To detect the presence of RHDV in rabbit-s...

This study compares the continental phylogeographic patterns of two wild European species linked by a host-parasite relationship: the field mouse Apodemus sylvaticus and one of its specific parasites, the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus. A total of 740 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) gene were sequenced in 122 specimens of H. polygyrus and compared with 94 cyt b gen...

Climate change affects distribution and persistence of species. However, forecasting species' responses to these changes requires long-term data series that are often lacking in ecological studies. We used 15 years of small mammal trapping data collected between 1978 and 2015 in 3 areas at Doñana National Park (southwest Spain) to (i) describe changes in species composition and (ii) test the as...

AIM To analyze epidemiologic characteristics of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Croatia, including military implications of the disease and measures for its prevention. METHOD We analyzed data from obligatory infectious disease reports and notification of deaths due to infectious diseases, data on the hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome epidemics in Croatia, and data collected by s...

Daily life of wild mammals is characterized by a multitude of attractive and aversive stimuli. The hippocampus processes complex polymodal information associated with such stimuli and mediates adequate behavioral responses. How newly generated hippocampal neurons in wild animals contribute to hippocampal function is still a subject of debate. Here, we test the relationship between adult hippoca...

It is assumed that mechanisms for recognizing kin and avoiding inbreeding are based on familiarity in more social species and on phenotype matching in less social species because the latter do not grow up in family groups. We tested this prediction in the semi-social wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) where we would expect phenotype matching. In preference tests for male odor we show that indeed ...

Effects of soil properties on the accumulation of metals to wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) were evaluated at two sites with different pH and organic matter content of the soil. pH and organic matter content significantly affected accumulation of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in earthworms and vegetation. For Cd, Cu and Zn these effects propagated through the food web to the wood mouse. Soil-to-kidney rati...