The Campylobacter jejuni-host interaction may be affected by the host's gut microbiota through competitive exclusion, metabolites, or modification of the immune response. To understand this interaction, C. jejuni colonization and local immune responses were compared in chickens with different gut microbiota compositions. Birds were treated with an antibiotic cocktail (AT) (experiments 1 and 2) ...

migratory birds can become long-distance vectors for a wide range of microorganisms. the objective of the present study was to investigate the presence of cryptococcus neoformans in the cloacae, crop and nasal cavity of migratory birds in order to assess their role as potential reservoirs and/or mechanical vectors of human and animal cryptococcosis. a total of 700 samples (cloacae, crops and na...

Epizootic transmission of West Nile virus (WNV) often intensifies rapidly leading to increasing risk of human infection, but the processes underlying amplification remain poorly understood. We quantified epizootic WNV transmission in communities of mosquitoes and birds in the Chicago, Illinois (USA) region during 2005 and 2006. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods, we dete...

Mechanisms contributing to the spread of avian influenza seem to be well identified, but how their interplay led to the current worldwide spread pattern of H5N1 influenza is still unknown due to the lack of effective global surveillance and relevant data. Here we develop some deterministic models based on the transmission cycle and modes of H5N1 and focusing on the interaction among poultry, wi...

hese birds are the size of a crane and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like the ibis, " wrote ancient Hellene traveler and writer, Pausanias (1). He was referring to large flocks of metal-clawed ornithes, which according to legend, roosted in the dense marshes around Lake Stymphalis in Arcadia, ravaging crops and the livelihood of neighboring villages (2). ...

Conservation Reserve Program Conservation Practice 33 (CP33: Conservation Buffers for Upland Birds) provides habitat for grassland birds in agriculture-dominated landscapes. However, landscape context and adjacency of other land covers may influence colonization, occupancy, and reproductive performance of breeding grassland birds in buffers. Our objective was to determine how edge effects influ...

BACKGROUND Chickens are regarded as the main reservoir for human campylobacteriosis. Little is known about the interaction between Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) and chickens. This interaction may be influenced by the stage of maturation of the immune system, developing gut microbiota composition and other factors including breed and diet. Our aim was to investigate the impact of breed, and d...

Tropical bird assemblages display patterns of high alpha and beta diversity and, as tropical birds exhibit strong habitat specificity, their spatial distributions are generally assumed to be driven primarily by environmental heterogeneity and interspecific interactions. However, spatial distributions of some Amazonian forest birds are also often restricted by large rivers and other large-scale ...

BACKGROUND The use of birds as pets has been a historical tradition in Mexico since prehispanic times. It has survived through bird traders, called pajareros, which is a local name given to the trade (derived from pájaro, the Spanish word for bird). However, the trade of birds has not been sufficiently described; therefore, the goal of this paper is to analyze the bird trade in Mexico using the...