The Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) has become a key species in investigations of the neural processing of sound localization cues in mammals. While its sound localization has been tested extensively under free-field stimulation, many neurophysiological studies use headphones to present signals with binaural localization cues. The gerbil's behavioral sensitivity to binaural cues, howev...

Tyrosinase is encoded by the Tyr (c or albino) locus and is the key enzyme in pigment biosynthesis. Loss of function of this enzyme caused by gene mutation results in albinism. Most cases of albinism are caused by missense mutations of tyrosinase. Albino mutations in Tyr have been identified in various animals, including human, mouse, rat, rabbit, cattle, cat, and ferret, but not in gerbil. We ...

Study of new and previously discovered remains indicates the presence at least three giraffidGiraffidae (giraffid) eight bovid species in Baynunah Formation. Among giraffids, most significant find is a partial skeleton attributed to Palaeotragus aff. germainiaff. . A large sivathereSivatheriinae (sivathere) possibly Samotherium boissieri are also present. Bovids include Pachyportax latidens, Mi...

BACKGROUND Many disabling human retinal disorders involve the central retina, particularly the macula. However, the commonly used rodent models in research, mouse and rat, do not possess a macula. The purpose of this study was to identify small laboratory rodents with a significant central region as potential new models for macular research. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Gerbillus perpallidu...

Meriones shawi (M.shawi) is the main reservoir host for zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Central Tunisia. The incorporation of environmental and climatic effects on spread ZCL M. remains difficult. This study presents an agent-based model (ABM) to overcome these difficulties examine impact environment (i.e. vegetation cover) climate temperature) movement prevalence. simulation consider...

The identification and classification of reservoir hosts zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis are very crucial towards the integrated management control planning. Molecular techniques have been deployed showed sensitive specific results to identify differentiate rodents with great similarity in phenotypes including Meriones spp. species difficult distinguish separate according their morphology phen...

  To examine the seroprevalence of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) among rodents in Azarshahr County, and to assess the possible association of infection among rodents in respect with transmission/prevalence of the disease among children, a survey was conducted during 2003-2004. Azarshahr County is an endemic region for leishmaniasis and this research is the first study in determining the...