BACKGROUND The majority of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic (transmissible between animals and humans) in origin, and therefore integrated surveillance of disease events in humans and animals has been recommended to support effective global response to disease emergence. While in the past decade there has been extensive global surveillance for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) i...

Fruit loss to birds is a long-standing and costly problem for many producers. We conducted a survey of Honeycrisp apple, blueberry, cherry, and wine grape growers in California, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Washington to estimate costs of bird damage and benefits of bird damage management. We also assessed grower perceptions of impacts on profits and effectiveness of bird management techniqu...

Coal fires cause severe environmental and economic problems worldwide. In the current paper we analyse the potential of the experimental bi-spectral infrared detection (BIRD) small satellite to register coal fire related spectral radiances and we present BIRD data acquired over two coal fire areas in Northern China. Based on field observations of coal fires in the investigated areas, we visuall...

A fully automated method for the detection and quantification of bird migration was developed for operational C-band weather radar, measuring bird density, speed and direction as a function of altitude. These weather radar bird observations have been validated with data from a high-accuracy dedicated bird radar, which was stationed in the measurement volume of weather radar sites in The Netherl...

Increasing international trade in poultry meat presents an opportunity for the global dissemination of poultry disease. However, it would be very unfortunate if expanding world trade resulted in animal diseases being used as unjustified non-tariff trade barriers. For those avian diseases currently listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health, the current evidence suggests that only highly...

Spatiotemporal information on bird migration is of invaluable use to scientists and society alike, but so far no sensor networks have been established that can monitor bird movement continuously over large areas. In aviation bird migration information is important for improving flight safety. Especially military low level flying has a high risk of en-route bird strikes and spatial bird migratio...

The demographics of bird watchers have recently become a topic of increased interest. Race or nationality is one demographic parameter that has been discussed in some depth. This paper further quantifies the relative prevalence of African Americans among U.S. bird watchers and identifies potential barriers that may prevent African Americans from becoming bird watchers. Two questionnaires (one f...

effect of ethanol consumption on fear response in human and conventional animal models (rodents) is controversial. the present study aimed to investigate the effect of ethanol administration on fearfulness in poultry as an alternative animal model.being a reliable measure in avian species, tonic immobility was used to evaluate the fear response in 60 roosters orally administered with ethanol. d...

the determination of toxoplasma gondii prevalence in a variety of domestic birds is thought as a good indicator of distribution of t.gondii ooccyts in the environment. to verify the potential role of domestic birds in circulating toxoplasmosis in iran, the present study was conducted in mazandaran provinces, northern iran. latex agglutination test (la) antibodies were found in 25 of 58 free-ran...