A field strain of the bluetongue virus serotype 1 (BTV-1) was isolated from infected sheep in Sardinia, Italy, in October 2013. The genome was sequenced using Ion Torrent technology. BTV-1 strain SAD2013 belongs to the Western topotype of BTV-1, clustering with BTV-1 strains isolated in Europe and northern Africa since 2006.

A new species, Liothrips tractabilis, is described from northern Argentina. Feeding by this thrips causes severe damage to the leaves of Campuloclinium macrocephalum, a plant that has been introduced to South Africa where it is a serious weed of grasslands. A key is provided to the four species of the genus Liothrips recorded from Argentina.

Many of the flows described in this study can affect grandscale geopolitical events. Cocaine trafficking has fed instability in Guinea-Bissau; firearms trafficking has fueled a rebellion in northern Mali; maritime piracy threatens to undermine commerce in the Gulf of Guinea. These flows demonstrate that transnational organized crime has truly risen to the level of a security threat in West Africa.

OBJECTIVE To review the geography and history of sleeping sickness (Human African trypanosomiasis; HAT) over the past 100 years in West Africa, to identify priority areas for sleeping sickness surveillance and areas where HAT no longer seems active. METHOD History and geography of HAT were summarized based on a review of old reports and recent publications and on recent results obtained from ...

Moisture flux and rainfall anomalies over southern Africa that have occurred during strong warm SST events off the coast of Angola since 1950 are considered. These events typically occur during February-April (FMA), the main rainy season for Angola/northern Namibia. Eleven of these events have occurred in this 60 year period and each experiences increased rainfall somewhere in coastal Angola, a...

Plague, in the Middle Ages known as Black Death, continues to occur at permanent foci in many countries, in Africa, Asia, South America, and even the USA. During the last years outbreaks were reported from at least 3 geographical areas, in all cases after tens of years without reported cases. The recent human plague outbreaks in Libya and Algeria suggest that climatic and other environmental ch...

The northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) is a small (approx. 25 g), insectivorous migrant with one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the world, breeding from the eastern Canadian Arctic across Greenland, Eurasia and into Alaska (AK). However, there is no evidence that breeding populations in the New World have established overwintering sites in the Western Hemisphere. Using light-level ...

Antibodies against bluetongue virus were detected in cattle, sheep, goats, and camels in Algeria in 2008. Antibodies against epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus were detected in cattle, but antibodies against African horse sickness virus were not detected in horses and mules. Epizootic hemorrhagic disease in northern Africa poses a major risk for the European Union.

The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth. Yet timing of its inception and response to climatic forcing debated, leading uncertainty over causes consequences regional aridity. Here we present detailed records terrestrial inputs from Africa North Atlantic deep-sea sediments, documenting a long sustained history astronomically paced oscillations between humid arid 11 million years ago. We sho...

Measles is a dangerous childhood disease often with serious complications and its impact on undernourished and malnourished children is even more disastrous. There has been some hesitancy regarding its use in mass campaigns in the Republic at present, but we have been informed that a pilot study is under way in the Cape in order to assess the efficacy and side-effects of the vaccine. Although t...