Domoic acid is a neurotoxic metabolite of widely occurring algal blooms that has caused multiple marine animal stranding events. Exposure to high doses of domoic acid, a glutamate agonist, may lead to persistent medial temporal seizures and damage to the hippocampus. California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are among the most visible and frequent mammalian victims of domoic acid poisoning,...

BACKGROUND AND AIM We present a new clinical entity in relation to the Helicobacter pylori infection characterized by complex and varied clinical extra-digestive manifestations. Clinical findings such as asthenia, adynamia, sleep disorders, hair and nails modifications, digestive symptoms and heart rhythm disorders describe the clinical aspect of toxicosis associated with Helicobacter pylori in...

Harmful algal blooms are increasing worldwide, including those of Pseudo-nitzschia spp. producing domoic acid off the California coast. This neurotoxin was first shown to cause mortality of marine mammals in 1998. A decade of monitoring California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) health since then has indicated that changes in the symptomatology and epidemiology of domoic acid toxicosis in thi...

California sea lions (CSLs) exposed to the marine biotoxin domoic acid (DA) develop an acute or chronic toxicosis marked by seizures and act as sentinels of the disease. Experimental evidence suggests that oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are important mechanisms underlying the seizurogenic potential of environmental toxicants but these pathways are relatively unstudied in CSLs. In the cu...

Measurement of serum or plasma and brain cholinesterase (ChE) activities in wild birds is used to diagnose and monitor their exposure to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides (Marden et al., 1994; Burn & Leighton, 1996; Iko et al., 2002; Osten et al., 2005). Reduced enzyme activity is an indicator of exposure and adverse effects of anti ChE insecticides even in the absence of overt signs o...

Mice (BALB/cJ, C3H/HeN, and C3H/HeJ) primed with actinomycin D became highly susceptible to lethal intoxication with staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). The mice underwent toxicosis and toxic shock and died. Actinomycin D-primed C3H/HeN and C3H/HeJ mice showed equal sensitivity to SEB, suggesting that bacterial lipopolysaccharide derived from gram-negative bacteria in the gut may not be an impo...

Over a hundred cases of toxicosis due to weight reducing drugs containing thyroid preparations were recently observed in various areas in Japan. The most frequent cause was the drug "Baset Super" which contains 20mg of Jodocasein and 20mg of desiccated thyroid per tablet. Cases of toxicosis due to weight reducers containing Jodocasein have not previously been reported. The patients had generall...

Tall fescue is productive and well adapted to the soils and climate in a region commonly referred to as the “fescue belt”, which overlays the transition zone between the temperate northeast and subtropical southeast. Persistence of the grass under low input management is attributed to a fungal endophyte that infects most fescue plants and produces alkaloids that impart tolerance to heat, drough...

Observer rats interacted with conspecific demonstrators immediately after demonstrators ate a novel diet and were made ill by LiCl injection. Following their interaction with demonstrators, observers were tested for aversion to their ill demonstrator's diet. Previous research has shown that (a) an observer can extract information from a demonstrator sufficient to permit identification of the de...