Native tallgrass prairie once dominated much of the midwestern United States, but this biome and the soil microbial diversity that once sustained this highly productive system have been almost completely eradicated by decades of agricultural practices. We reconstructed the soil microbial diversity that once existed in this biome by analyzing relict prairie soils and found that the biogeographic...

in the present study 6500 stray dogs were killed in 1993-4 to initiate a preliminary control program in rural and urban areas of the city of kerman. 391 dogs including 169 (43.12%) females and 222 (56.8%) males were selected randomly, dissected and examined for echinococcus granulosus and microscopically. the overall prevalence rate was 7.4%. the younger dogs were more susceptible to infection ...

background:   the objective was to determine the prevalence of ectoparasite infestations in referred companion dogs to veterinary hospital of shahid chamran university of ahvaz, from 2009 to 2010 . methods: a total of 126 dogs were sampled for ectoparasites and examined by parasitological methods. the studied animals were grouped based on the age (<1 year, 1–3 years and >3 years), sex, breed an...

Despite a marked increase in the focus toward biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes, studies that confirm species breeding success are scarce and limited. In this paper, we asked whether local (area of forest patches) and landscape (amount of suitable habitat surrounding of focal patches) factors affect the breeding success of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in Tokyo, Centr...

background: surveillance of the canine reservoir is highly important to help control of visceral leishmaniasis in human. it is therefore imperative to improve and develop new tools reliable, easy to use, and cheap for the diagnosis of canine leishmani asis. k39 sub recombinant antigen of leishmania infantum was expressed in prokaryotic system and evaluated for sero-diagnosis of canine visceral ...

Sarcoptes scabiei is one of the important external parasites. Although ivermectin is the recommended treatment, many raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) that were rescued and brought to the Kanazawa Zoological Gardens (Yokohama, Japan) have died because of S. scabiei, even after receiving single ivermectin treatment. Therefore, supportive treatment should be required. The present study reve...

Group living in animals is believed to confer advantages related to a decrease in predation risk and an energetic trade-off between vigilance and foraging efficiency. Eight Gunnison’s prairie dog, Cynomys gunnisoni, colonies in Flagstaff, Arizona (elevation 2300 m), were studied from April to August 2000 to examine the adaptive significance of colonial living in the context of predation risk an...

the present study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors of canine leishmaniasis in a population of owned and strayed dogs in mashhad, north-east iran. of 300 serum samples obtained from dogs, 8.67% (26/300) were positive for leishmania infantum by indirect florcense antibody test (ifat). the sero-prevalence rates in owned and stray dogs were 9.5% (19/200) and 7% (7/10...

Canine ehrlichiosis is a zoonotic rickettsial disease transmitted by ticks. In the present study, 198 companion dogs of different ages were examined for serum antibody detection against Ehrlichia canis by means of immunochromatography assay. The dogs were selected among referred cases to Veterinary Hospital of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Southwestern Iran from November 2008 to March 201...

Abstract: The Purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Canine Coronavirus (CCV) in diarrheic dogs of Ahvaz district. Fecal samples were collected from 58 diarrheic dogs between 2005 and 2006. Dogs were grouped by age (less than and above 6 months), sex, breed, geographical location (urban and rural) and quality of diarrhea (hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic) to determine whether th...