The study of animals in nature is essential for developing an ecologically valid understanding behaviour. Small mammals, however, are often fossorial and exceedingly difficult to monitor the wild. This limits both taxonomic scope field observation, excludes species that powerful models behavioural mechanisms. Here, we implement automated radiotelemetry system (ARTS) designed track small mammals...

The origin of Vaccinia virus (VACV) outbreaks in Brazil remains unknown, but since the isolation of VACV in Mus musculus mice during a zoonotic outbreak affecting cattle and milkers, peridomestic rodents have been suggested to be a link between cows and wild animals. Considering that experimentally infected mice eliminate viral particles in their feces, we investigated the presence of VACV in t...

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is an emerging pathogen of equids and humans, but infection of its rodent reservoir hosts has received little study. To determine whether responses to infection vary among geographic populations, we inoculated 3 populations of cotton rats with 2 enzootic VEEV strains (Co97-0054 [enzootic ID subtype] and 68U201 [enzootic IE subtype]). The 3 populations...

Multiple species infections with parasitic helminths, including nematodes, are common in wild rodent populations. In this paper we first define different types of associations and review experimental evidence for different categories of interactions. We conclude that whilst laboratory experiments have demonstrated unequivocally that both synergistic and antagonistic interactions involving nemat...

The murine Wand Steelloci encode the Kit receptor tyrosine kinase and its ligand, Steel factor, respectively. Loss of function mutations at either the Wor SI loci lead to a variety of pleiotropic developmental defects, including mast cell deficiency and severe macrocytic anemia. In addition to these loss-of-function mutations, gain-of-function mutations in ckit, leading to constitutive activati...

Learning disabilities are serious societal problems contributing to a loss of quality of life for affected individuals and their families. We hypothesized that the learning disability in Down Syndrome and perhaps in other neurodegenerative disorders is due to an imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory tone in the CNS. Specifically, we predicted that reduction of GABA related inhibition woul...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Specific, high potency receptor antagonists are valuable tools when evaluating animal and human physiology. Within the glucose-dependent, insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) system, considerable attention has been given to the presumed GIP receptor antagonist, (Pro3)GIP, and its effect in murine studies. We conducted a pharmacological analysis of this ligand including inters...

Several studies have shown that environmental factors can affect the outcome of behavioral experiments, shedding doubts on the inter-laboratory reproducibility of behavioral test results. When our laboratory moved from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, to Sanford Research in Sioux Falls, SD, our mouse colony was also transferred and the new environment caused strain-dependent changes ...

Leptospira interrogans has been identified to cause leptospirosis, a widespread zoonotic disease that has been identified in domestic and wild animals. This work analyzed kidneys from two species of wild rodents from the state of Campeche, Mexico. Analyses were made by PCR using specific primers for detection of Leptospira interrogans DNA. The rodent species that tested positive were Heteromys ...

Ixodes spinipalpis maintains Borrelia bissettii spirochetes in Colorado in a cycle involving wood rats and deer mice. This tick has been described as nidicolous, remaining either attached to its rodent hosts or in the rodent nest. Nidicolous ticks pose little risk of pathogen transmission to humans if they do not actively quest for hosts. To investigate the questing potential of I. spinipalpis,...