We evaluated if postmortem cloacal and oral swabs could replace brain tissue as a specimen for West Nile virus (WNV) detection. WNV was detected in all three specimen types from 20 dead crows and jays with an average of >10(5) WNV PFU in each. These findings suggest that testing cloacal or oral swabs might be a low-resource approach to detect WNV in dead birds.

Cloacal exstrophy is an extremely rare congenital complex deformity that is associated with anterior abdominal wall defects, reflex and exposure of the cloaca (uninterrupted ureter and bowel), aproctia, a widely separated pubic bone, and defects or dysplasia of external genital organs. Here, we present the case of a 42-year-old man with squamous cell carcinoma arising from an abdominal wall def...

The division of the embryonic cloaca is the most essential event for the formation of digestive and urinary tracts. The defective development of the cloaca results in anorectal malformations (ARMs; 2-5 per 10,000 live births). However, the developmental and pathogenic mechanisms of ARMs are unclear. In the current study, we visualized the epithelia in the developing cloaca and nephric ducts (ND...

arterial blood gas (abg) sampling is a painful procedure with no perfect technique for quelling the discomfort. an ideal local anesthesia should be rapid, easy to learn, inexpensive, and noninvasive. this study was aimed to compare pain levels from abg sampling performed with vapocoolant spray in comparison to placebo. we hypothesized that pretreatment with the vapocoolant would reduce the pain...

Two new species of Parapharyngodon collected from the intestine of the Mexican boulder spiny lizard Sceloporus pyrocephalus are described. This study increases to 49 the number of valid species assigned to Parapharyngodon worldwide, 11 of them distributed in Mexico. Males of the two new species share the presence of four pairs of caudal papillae, an anterior echinate cloacal lip and the presenc...

GLANDS of the skin or integument of birds are frequently assumed to be limited to the uropygeal glands (Pycraft, 1910; GrassY, 1950; and others). Nevertheless, if one includes with integument those areas that are histologically skin-like but form unions with mucous membranes or deeper structures, additional glands must be considered. One set of these little-known glands is that found in the int...

Most of the 620+ species of salamanders are relatively small animals, rarely exceeding 200 mm total length, but members of the families Cryptobranchidae (1800 mm), Sirenidae (978 mm), Amphiumidae (1162 mm), Proteidae (486 mm) and Dicamptodontidae (351 mm) can truly be considered "giant salamanders." These families have few species (Proteidae with six species is the most speciose) and are aquati...

INTRODUCTION Cloacal exstrophy is a rare occurrence with an incidence of 1:200,000 to 1:400,000 live births. It represents one of the most challenging reconstructive endeavors faced by pediatric surgeons and urologists. Aside from the genitourinary defects, there are other associated anomalies of the gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and neurological systems that require a multidisciplinary app...

PURPOSE Cloacal exstrophy is a complex multisystem anomaly. Due to ambiguous genitalia gender assignment or reassignment is common. The psychological, emotional and behavioral impact of this condition has rarely been investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS We recruited 8 children with cloacal exstrophy born with genital ambiguity and a control group of 12 with cloacal anomalies born without genit...