The diagnostic value of skin tests was assessed in 35 patients affected by bird breeder's disease by comparing the results with those obtained in a group of 27 symptomless breeders and 10 symptomless unexposed individuals. Sterilised and diluted serum and lyophilised extracts of faeces prepared from the breeder's own birds were injected intradermally. Skinprick tests using the same materials we...

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.06.002 0003-3472/© 2016 The Association for the Study of A Acorn woodpeckers, Melanerpes formicivorus, are cooperative breeders in which social groups consist of both nonbreeding helpers at the nest (offspring from prior reproductive attempts) and cobreeders of one or both sexes (usually siblings or a parent and his/her offspring). Regardless of composit...

While animal breeders largely focus on improvement using additive genetic variance, inbreeding and asexual reproduction allow plant breeders to at least partially exploit nonadditive genetic variance as well. We briefly review various approaches used by breeders to exploit dominance and epistatic variance, discuss their constraints and limitations, and examine what (if anything) can be done to ...

A trade-off between fecundity and life expectancy is fundamental to most theories on the evolution of life histories and ageing. In fact, sexual reproduction has been shown to reduce lifespan in a large number of species across all biological taxa [1]. The only exception known thus far are eusocial hymenopterans, with reproducing queens usually living much longer than the sterile workers [2]. H...

The objective of this cooperative research project is to quantify Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) uncured and cured poultry, pork and beef products that have been pre-sliced by the manufacturer or sliced upon demand in supermarket delis. This data will expand on a previous study sponsored by the Food Products Association (formerly National Food Processors Association; Gombas et al....

Two-hundred pigeon breeders attending a national convention were studied for a possible correlation between the hobby of raising pigeons and the incidence of respiratory or immunologic abnormalities. Information concerning his exposwe to pigeons, respiratory symptoms and smoking habits was obtained from each breeder. Chest x-ray examinations and pulmonary function tests were also obtained, and ...

In most cooperative breeders, dominants suppress the reproduction of subordinates. However, two previous studies of Neolamprologus pulcher, a cooperatively breeding cichlid fish, have suggested that socially subordinate helper males sneak fertilizations from dominant breeding males. If such sneaking does occur, both theoretical work and empirical studies of other fish species suggest that sperm...