The body proximate compositions were assessed in juvenile Coreius heterodon and C. guichenoti from the upstream of the Yangtze River. The migratory C. guichenoti has a higher lipid content (FAT) than the residential C. heterodon. FAT of C. guichenoti showed an interesting pattern of increase, where FAT increased up rapidly ...

The diversity of the diet of grasshoppers (Acrididae, Orthoptera) is related to multiple factors, including the chemoreceptors on the antennae, palps and on the epipharyngeal face of the labrum. In the present study, we sought to understand the nature of the diet of 12 Moroccan acridian species and to try ...

SUMMARY We studied the energy cost of egg production in two flea species (Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis) feeding on principal (Acomys cahirinus and Meriones crassus, respectively) and auxiliary (M. crassus and A. cahirinus, respectively) rodent hosts. We predicted that fleas feeding on principal as compared with auxiliary hosts will ...

Parasitus bituberosus Karg (Acari: Parasitidae) is one of the predatory mite species inhabiting mushroom houses. It is known to accept a wide range of prey, suggesting that it may be a promising candidate for the biological control of key pests of mushroom culture. In our study it did not show ...

This study evaluated the effects of an increasing proportion of dietary grain on changes in bacterial populations in the goat ileum. Nine ruminally fistulated, castrated male goats were assigned to three diets in a completely randomized design. Goats were fed three different dietary treatments containing different proportions of corn grain ...

OBJECTIVES: Inhibition of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has been proposed to be a potential new therapeutic target for treatment of hypercholesterolaemia. However, little is known about the effects of PCSK9 inhibition on the lipidome. METHODS: We performed molecular lipidomic analyses of plasma samples obtained from PCSK9-deficient mice, and ...

Insects cannot synthesize sterols de novo, so they typically require a dietary source. Cholesterol is the dominant sterol in most insects, but because plants contain only small amounts of cholesterol, plant-feeding insects generate most of their cholesterol by metabolizing plant sterols. Plants almost always contain mixtures of different sterols, but ...

Total mercury concentrations ([THg]) measured in western Aleutian Island Steller sea lion pup hair were the highest maximum [THg] documented in this endangered species to date. Some pups exceeded concentrations at which other fish-eating mammals can exhibit adverse neurological and reproductive effects (21% and 15% pups above 20 and 30μg/g ...

Abstract The Apicomplexa are intracellular pathogens of animals, with the Coccidia being the largest group. Among these are the hemogregarines, which include some of the most common hemoparasites found in reptiles. Several studies have reported a possible pattern of prey-predator transmission for some of these parasites. Snakes from the Mediterranean ...

In this study, the effects of supplementing animal feed with a liquid and spray-dried fucoidan and laminarin extract, derived from the seaweed Laminaria digitata on the porcine gastrointestinal microbiota, specifically the communities of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and enterobacteria were evaluated. Twenty four piglets were fed one of three diets over a ...

Diet composition of the southern Ray's bream Brama australis was examined from stomach contents of 399 specimens sampled by bottom trawl on Chatham Rise to the east of South Island, New Zealand, over 3 years. Prey items were predominantly mesopelagic fishes and crustaceans. Multivariate analysis indicated that moon phase explained more ...

The gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome contributes significantly to host nutrition and health. However, relationships involving GI microbes, their hosts and host macrohabitats remain to be established. Here, we define clear patterns of variation in the GI microbiomes of six groups of Mexican black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) occupying a gradation of ...

Four different endohelminth parasite taxa were found in the viscera of the blacktail comber Serranus atricauda Günther, 1874 caught in the Madeira Archipelago. Nematodes were the dominant group, represented by 2 different taxa, Hysterothylacium spp. Ward & Magath, 1917 and Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) halitrophus Fusco & Overstreet, 1978 comb. n. Plerocerci ...

This study examined the dietary habits and functional composition of butterflyfishes in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Eighteen species of butterflyfishes were recorded in Chagos, including six obligate corallivores (Chaetodon bennetti, Chaetodon guttatissimus, Chaetodon meyeri, Chaetodon trifascialis, Chaetodon trifasciatus and Chaetodon zanzibarensis), five facultative corallivores (Chaetodon auriga, Chaetodon falcula, ...

Although dogs and cats are quite different than many livestock species in that they have evolved by eating diets high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates, the gastrointestinal microbiota still play a key role in the gut and overall host health of these species. Early experiments in this ...

BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of abnormalities in lipoprotein metabolism in clinical canine medicine, the fact that most previously used methods for lipoprotein profiling are rather laborious and time-consuming has been a major obstacle to the wide clinical application and use of lipoprotein profiling in this species. The aim of the ...

Catfishes of the genus Panaque are known for their ability to feed on wood, and hence to process cellulose fibres in their digestive systems. The paper industry uses cellulose fibres and thus has an interest in exploiting this property biomimetically: it could be employed as a pre-treatment to lessen the ...

Little nutritional or metabolic information has been collected from captive exotic cats fed raw diets. In particular, fiber types and concentrations for use in raw meat-based diets for captive exotic felids have not been well-studied. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of fiber type and concentration on apparent total ...

The pH of the gastrointestinal tract can have profound influences on digestive processes. Rodents exhibit wide variation in both stomach morphology and dietary strategies, both of which may influence gut pH. Various rodent species have evolved bilocular (or semi-segmented) stomachs that may allow for more microbial growth compared to unilocular ...

Many species of bats migrate long distances, but the physiological challenges of migration are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that migration is physiologically demanding for bats by examining migration-related phenotypic flexibility. Both bats and birds are endothermic, flying vertebrates; therefore, we predicted that migration would result in similar physiological ...

In many arid countries, dromedaries play an important role as a milk source in rural areas. However, the milk and meat production potential of this species is not well understood and documented. A large-scale camel dairy farm was established in 2006 in the United Arab Emirates. This study summarises the ...

Lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) is the largest herbivore in the Neotropics and, in Argentina, it inhabits a variety of habitats from 100 to 2100 m asl. Lowland tapirs importantly influence their habitat structure because they are selective browsers, seed predators and long-distance seed dispersers. However, increased knowledge of tapir ecology ...

Plant phenolics are generally thought to play significant roles in plant defense against herbivores and pathogens. Many plant taxa, including Solanaceae, are rich in phenolic compounds and some insect herbivores have been shown to acquire phenolics from their hosts to use them as protection against their natural enemies. Here we ...

The degree of dietary generalism among consumers has important consequences for population, community, and ecosystem processes, yet the effects on consumer fitness of mixing food types have not been examined comprehensively. We conducted a meta-analysis of 161 peer-reviewed studies reporting 493 experimental manipulations of prey diversity to test whether diet ...

Dietary restriction is a powerful aging intervention that extends the life span of diverse biological species ranging from yeast to invertebrates to mammals, and it has been argued that the anti-aging action of dietary restriction occurs through reduced oxidative stress/damage. Using Sod1-/- mice, which have previously been shown to have ...

Background: Anisakis simplex sensitization has been associated with acute, but also with chronic urticaria. The objective of this study is to characterize chronic urticaria with (CU+) and without sensitization (CU-) against the ubiquitous fish parasite A. simplex in a transversal and longitudinal evaluation. Methods: 16 CU+ and 22 CU- patients ...

Small pelagic fisheries show wide fluctuations, generally attributed to oceanographic anomalies. Most data on these fisheries come from landings, often reporting sustained catches-per-unit-effort (CPUEs) until a decline occurs. Fishery-independent data are important as management tools. In this study we show that the proportions of Pacific Sardine and Northern Anchovy in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: One of the most widely accepted ecomorphological relationships in vertebrates is the negative correlation between intestinal length and proportion of animal prey in diet. While many fish groups exhibit this general pattern, other clades demonstrate minimal, and in some cases contrasting, associations between diet and intestinal length. Moreover, ...

The aim of this work is to contribute to the knowledge of gastrointestinal parasites of the Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) from 25 de Mayo/King George Island (South Shetlands, Antarctica). Gastrointestinal tracts of 37 fresh dead individuals (21 chicks, 10 juveniles, and 6 adults) were collected from December 2006 to February ...

The aim of this study was to determine whether blood oxygen capacity of waders varies with respect to migration at both inter-specific and individual level. To verify this hypothesis we measured hemoglobin concentration in 875 waders from 14 species during their autumn migration through central Poland. In most of the ...

In pigs, the microbial ecosystem of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is influenced by various factors; however, variations in diet composition have been identified as one of the most important determinants. Marked changes in fermentation activities and microbial ecology may occur when altering the diet, for example, from milk to solid ...

The national Capsicum germplasm bank of Peru at INIA holds a unique collection of more than 700 Capsicum accessions, including many landraces. These conserved accessions have never been thoroughly characterized or evaluated. Another smaller collection exists at UNALM, and CIDRA provided taxonomically characterized fruits from the Amazon region of Ucayali. ...

We used doubly labelled water to measure field metabolic rates (FMR) and water turnover rates (WTR) in one of Australia's largest native herbivores, the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) and one of Australia's dominant livestock species, the wool-breed Merino sheep, under free-living conditions in a typical Australian rangeland. Also, we used ...

The ecological effect of prawn trawling on the benthos of the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia, was investigated by examining stomach contents of common demersal fishes incidentally caught as by-catch in the fishery. Fishes were collected from high and low fishing intensity sites in three regions based on vessel monitoring ...

Numerous eggs of capillariid nematodes have been found in coprolites from a wide range of hosts and in raptor pellets in archaeological samples from Patagonia. The structure and sculpture of the eggshell of these nematodes and their biometry are commonly used for identification. The aim of this study was to ...

Provisioning of garden birds is a growing phenomenon, particularly during winter, but there is little empirical evidence of its true ecological impacts. One possibility is that winter provisioning could enhance subsequent breeding performance, but this seems likely to depend on the types of nutrients provided. For example, whereas effects of ...

Reticulitermes flavipes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is a highly eusocial insect that thrives on recalcitrant lignocellulosic diets through nutritional symbioses with gut-dwelling prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In the R. flavipes hindgut, there are up to 12 eukaryotic protozoan symbionts; the number of prokaryotic symbionts has been estimated in the hundreds. Despite its biological relevance, ...

The spider mite, Eotetranychus lewisi (McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae), is a new emerging pest in California commercial strawberries. The predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis (Athias-Henriot) (Acari: Phytoseiidae), typically used for biocontrol of Tetranychus urticae (Koch) (Acari: Tetranychidae), provided growers little to no control of E. lewisi. Four commonly used phytoseiid predatory mites: ...

We investigated weight loss caused by Liposcelis entomophila (Enderlein) feeding in damaged (cracked) and intact kernels of 'Jagger' variety of hard red winter wheat over a 90-d period at 30 +/- 1 degrees C and 75 +/- 5% relative humidity. L. entomophila caused 8.5% weight loss in damaged wheat kernels, ...

The aim of this study was to estimate breed differences in milk fatty acid (FA) profile among 5 dairy cattle breeds present in the Netherlands: Holstein-Friesian (HF), Meuse-Rhine-Yssel (MRY), Dutch Friesian (DF), Groningen White Headed (GWH), and Jersey (JER). For this purpose, total fat percentage and detailed FA contents in ...

The diet of the feral domestic cat consists of primarily birds and small mammals, but the nutritional composition is relatively unknown. Because of the increasing popularity of natural diets for cats and other wild captive carnivores, the purpose of this study was to describe the body composition and AA concentrations ...

This study evaluated the dietary uptake kinetics and sublethal toxicity of p,p'-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) in Antarctic krill. The uptake rate constant (characterised by the seawater volume stripped of contaminant sorbed to algae) of 200 ± 0.32 mL g(-1) wet weight h(-1), average absorption efficiency of 86 ± 13% and very low elimination rate constant of 5 × 10(-6) ± 0.0031 h(-1) demonstrate ...

Dietary methylmercury (MeHg) uptake by fish in relation to life stage, species, and level of exposure is poorly understood in lower trophic levels, particularly in estuarine species. The authors compared accumulation of dietary MeHg as well as sensitivity (survival and growth) to dietary MeHg exposure in two species of estuarine ...

Cryptosporidium spp. are responsible for devastating diarrhea in immunodeficient individuals. In the intestinal tract, the developmental stages of the parasite are confined to the apical surfaces of epithelial cells. Upon invasion, Cryptosporidium incorporates the microvillous membrane of the enterocyte to form the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) and sequesters itself from the ...

BACKGROUND: The soft tissue envelope of the nose consists of skin, the superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS), and multiple layers of fat. Similar layers have been well described in the neck and face regions but there are few reports of its detailed anatomy in the nose. METHODS: Nine fresh Caucasian cadaver ...

Recent global change has had a substantial influence on the distribution of organisms, and many species are currently expanding their ranges. To evaluate the underlying processes, long-term data with good geographic resolution are essential. One important but generally overlooked data source is offered by the taxon-specific national catalogues of first ...

Developmental origins that guide the evolution of dental morphology and dental formulae are fundamental subjects in mammalian evolution. In a previous study, a developmental model termed the inhibitory cascade model was established. This model could explain variations in relative molar sizes and loss of the lower third molars, which sometimes ...

Understanding dietary trends for endangered species may be essential to assessing the effects of ecological disturbances such as habitat modification, species introductions or global climate change. Documenting temporal variation in prey selection may also be crucial for understanding population dynamics. However, the rarity, secretive behaviours and obscure microhabitats of some ...

Expansion of the aquaculture industry is limited by incomplete knowledge on fish larval nutritional requirements. Nevertheless, it is believed that dietary taurine deficiencies may be particularly critical for fish larvae. The reasons include the high taurine levels found during egg and yolk-sac stages of fish, suggesting that taurine may be ...

While breast milk has unique health advantages for infants, the mechanisms by which it regulates the physiology of newborns are incompletely understood. miRNAs have been described as functioning transcellularly, and have been previously isolated in cell-free and exosomal form from bodily liquids (serum, saliva, urine) and tissues, including mammary tissue. ...