Disease surveillance is vital to the management of New Zealand's endemic and threatened avian species. Three infectious agents that are potential threats to New Zealand's endemic birds include avian polyomavirus (APV), beak and feather disease virus (BFDV), and avian malaria. All three agents have been reported in New Zealand; however, possible reservoir populations have not been identified. In...

Recent behavioural experiments have shown that birds use ultraviolet (UV)-reflective and fluorescent plumage as cues in mate choice. It remains controversial, however, whether such UV signals play a special role in sexual communication, or whether they are part of general plumage coloration. We use a comparative approach to test for a general association between sexual signalling and either UV-...

To determine if different pathotypes of the avian polyomavirus (APV) exist and to compare the genomes of APVs originating from different geographic areas, dates, and species of birds, the partial sequences of 18 APVs were determined. New viral sequences were compared with three published APV sequences. Two of the new viruses had identical sequences. Forty point mutations were found at 31 loci. ...

Expression of the immediate early gene protein Zenk (zif 268, egr-1, NGF1A, Krox24) was induced in forebrain auditory nuclei in a vocal learning parrot species, the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), when the subjects either listened to playbacks of an unfamiliar contact call or to a contact call with which they had been familiarized previously. Auditory nuclei included the Field L complex (...

BACKGROUND Avian paramyxoviruses (APMV) consist of nine known serotypes. The genomes of representatives of all APMV serotypes except APMV type 5 have recently been fully sequenced. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the APMV-5 prototype strain budgerigar/Kunitachi/74. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS APMV-5 Kunitachi virus is unusual in that it lacks a virion hemagglutinin and does...

A throwing arrow is a 15 inch sharpened plastic rod with a groove cut in the shaft where a knotted shoe lace can be used as a sling to hurl the arrow. A 16 year old boy was speared in the right supraclavicular fossa by a throwing arrow in Old Sherwood Forest. He removed the arrow himself, which resulted in profuse bleeding. On arrival in the casualty department the bleeding had stopped, and the...

because corticosteroid treatment has, for some reason, been omitted, or because the dose has not been sufficiently increased during an intercurrent illness. It can also arise during an attempted withdrawal of glucocorticoid therapy. The clinical features are those of glucocorticoid deficiency, and treatment is with high doses of cortisol, which usually have to be given parenterally. would you h...

Ruth E Wiggans (REW): A 52-year-old man was referred with chronic cough of increasing severity over the last 4 years. The cough was productive of green sputum and he experienced coughing attacks weekly. He reported no other respiratory symptoms. He had a sore throat following coughing bouts but denied other upper airway complaints. He was otherwise well with no systemic symptoms. His cough had ...

BACKGROUND The evolutionary relationships of modern birds are among the most challenging to understand in systematic biology and have been debated for centuries. To address this challenge, we assembled or collected the genomes of 48 avian species spanning most orders of birds, including all Neognathae and two of the five Palaeognathae orders, and used the genomes to construct a genome-scale avi...