Plague mitigation for prairie dog and black-footed ferret conservation: Degree and duration of flea control with 0.005% fipronil grain bait.

Sylvatic plague, a primarily flea-borne zoonosis, is a significant threat to prairie dogs (Cynomys spp., PDs) and their specialized predators, endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes, BFFs). Host-fed fipronil baits have proven effective in controlling fleas on PDs for the purposes of plague mitigation and BFF conservation. Currently, annual treatments are the norm. We tested the long-term efficacy of fipronil bait treatments with black-tailed PDs (C. ludovicianus, BTPDs) and BFFs in South Dakota, USA. During 2018-2020, we provided BTPDs on 21 sites with grain bait formula, laced with 0.005% fipronil (50 â€‹mg/kg); 18 non-treated sites functioned as baselines. In 2020-2022, we live-trapped, anesthetized, and combed BTPDs for fleas. Flea control was significant for at least 639-885 days. Flea abundance on the treated sites was < 0.5 fleas/BTPD for ∼750 days. During 2020-2022, we sampled BFFs for fleas on 4 BTPD colonies treated with fipronil grain bait and 8 non-treated colonies. Flea control was significant with BFFs, but flea abundance began to rebound within ∼240 days post-treatment. When feasible, the combination of insecticide treatments, such as fipronil baits, and BFF vaccination against plague provide a "two-pronged" protection approach for these endangered carnivores. If fipronil bait treatments are less effective with predatory BFFs than PDs, as found herein, the "two-pronged" approach might be used to protect BFFs and biennial fipronil bait treatments might be used to protect PDs. If BFF vaccination is not possible, or few BFFs can be vaccinated, annual fipronil bait treatments might be used as a precaution to protect BFFs. Flea densities might be surveyed to determine when/where more frequent treatments seem useful.

Social-cognitive mediators of the relationship of media exposure to acute mass violence and distress among adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Traditional and social media coverage of acute mass violence (AMV; e.g., terrorism, mass shootings) create an environment where the possibility of being the victim of AMV is constantly portrayed and this media exposure has been linked to distress among people not directly affected. We explored how initial emotional reactions to media exposure to AMV, threat perception, and core beliefs may mediate the media exposure to current anxiety or depression symptoms relationship. METHOD: Adolescents (N = 342) in the United States aged 13-17 years old (M = 15.43, SD = 1.29; 71.6% female) completed online surveys asking about time spent watching AMV coverage in the media, initial emotional reactions to the media coverage, threat perception, core beliefs, and current anxiety and depression symptoms. Mediation was tested with PROCESS (Hayes, 2018) for anxiety and depression. Sex and having lived in a community exposed to an AMV event were control variables. RESULTS: Bootstrap confidence intervals (95%) for the unstandardized indirect effects of core beliefs, initial anxious emotional reactions, and personal threat perception based on 5,000 bootstrap samples did not include zero, providing support for mediation. Core beliefs and initial anxious emotional reactions were mediators between time-consuming AMV-related media and current anxiety symptoms. Personal threat perception and initial anxious emotional reactions mediated the relationship between time-consuming AMV-related media and current depression symptoms. CONCLUSION: The impact of media exposure to AMV on depression and anxiety can be understood through its influence on initial anxious reactions, core beliefs, and threat perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors affecting mental health service use among university students following an episode of mass violence.

OBJECTIVE: Episodes of mass violence can increase mental health (MH) symptoms among survivors, possibly leading to increased MH service use. Within the context of an episode of mass violence that impacted a university community, we prospectively explore the predisposing (demographics, clinical levels of MH symptoms, victimization history, objective exposure, and social support), enabling (MH stigma, prior MH service use,), and need (MH symptoms, current social support) variables that influence posttragedy MH service use. METHOD: In the original study, 593 students completed surveys at 2 time points during their first year of college. After the tragedy, students were invited to participate in a post event survey for a final sample of n = 142. RESULTS: A total of 14.3% of our sample accessed MH services post event. Results indicate that demographic factors were not related to MH service use. When examined jointly in a logistic regression, the final model suggests that prior MH service use and greater objective exposure were related to posttragedy MH service use. Other predisposing, enabling, and need factors were not associated with MH service use. CONCLUSION: Prior experience with MH services may help survivors engage in services following a disaster. As disaster MH service models tend to target outreach to those with the greatest exposure, this may be why those survivors had greater MH service use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).