Of 237 children with acute gastroenteritis in Antananarivo, Madagascar, during May 2004-May 2005, 14 ( 6%) were infected with norovirus. Seasonality (November-December peak) was detected. Reverse transcription-PCR identified GII as the most common genogroup. GIs belonged to GI.1, GI.3, and GI.4. Noroviruses in Madagascar show extensive genetic diversity.

A new genus and species of Dictyopharidae from Madagascar-Tupala occulta gen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated. It is the third known dictyopharid and the second representing tribe Dictyopharini. Two other taxa with taxonomic problems ascribed to Dictyopharidae are discussed. The question of paucity of Dictyopharidae of Madagascar is raised and several possible explanations are presented.

As with many animal and plant groups, Madagascar has a high level of endemicity among its bee fauna (Pauly et al., 2001). While it has been assumed that many Malagasy bee taxa have resulted from dispersal events across the Mozambique Channel (e.g. Michener, 1977), there have been no studies that have explicitly assessed how frequently bees have been able to cross this barrier or have assessed t...

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is endemic to Madagascar, particularly to the central highlands. Although plague has not been previously reported in northern Madagascar, an outbreak of pneumonic plague occurred in this remote area in 2011. Over a 27-day period, 17 suspected, 2 presumptive, and 3 confirmed human cases were identified, and all 15 untreated 20 patients died. Molecu...

Madagascar has lost about half of its forest cover since 1953 with much regional variation, for instance most of the coastal lowland forests have been cleared. We sampled the endemic forest-dwelling Helictopleurini dung beetles across Madagascar during 2002-2006. Our samples include 29 of the 51 previously known species for which locality information is available. The most significant factor ex...

The Austronesian expansion, one of the last major human migrations, influenced regions as distant as tropical Asia, Remote Oceania and Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. The identity of the Asian groups that settled Madagascar is particularly mysterious. While language connects Madagascar to the Ma'anyan of southern Borneo, haploid genetic data are more ambiguous. Here, we screened genom...

In this short article on lemurs I give a concise introduction for non-specialists to these conspicuous and unique animals on the island of Madagascar. INTRODUCTION Madagascar has long been known for its exquisite wildlife. It has been identified as a Megadiversity country and “Hottest Hotspot” for biodiversity conservation (Meyers et al. 2000 Mittermeier et al. 2005) due to the combination of e...

1 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 2 PIVOT Works, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 3 UMR 224 MIVEGEC, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, France, 4 Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 5 M...

1Bill and Berniece Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, 3701 South 10th Street, Omaha, NE 68107, USA 2State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, 100 Seymour Road, Utica, NY 13502, USA 3University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, Canada 4Conservation Fusion, 504 Ridgewood Dr, Bellevue, NE 68005, USA 5Madagascar Biodiversity Partners...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The shark fisheries of Madagascar remain largely unstudied. Remoteness makes fisheries monitoring challenging while the high value of shark fins combined with the extreme poverty in Madagascar creates intensive pressure on shark resources. MATERIALS AND METHODS We use DNA barcoding and species-specific PCR assays to characterize shark fisheries in Antongil Bay in northeast...