Regionalized dynamic climate series for ecological climate impact research in modern controlled environment facilities.

Modern controlled environment facilities (CEFs) enable the simulation of dynamic microclimates in controlled ecological experiments through their technical ability to precisely control multiple environmental parameters. However, few CEF studies exploit the technical possibilities of their facilities, as climate change treatments are frequently applied by static manipulation of an inadequate number of climate change drivers, ignoring intra-annual variability and covariation of multiple meteorological variables. We present a method for generating regionalized climate series in high temporal resolution that was developed to force the TUMmesa Model EcoSystem Analyzer with dynamic climate simulations. The climate series represent annual cycles for a reference period (1987-2016) and the climate change scenarios RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 (2071-2100) regionalized for a climate station situated in a forested region of the German Spessart mountains. Based on the EURO-CORDEX and ReKliEs-DE model ensembles, typical annual courses of daily resolved climatologies for the reference period and the RCP scenarios were calculated from multimodel means of temperature (ta), relative humidity (rh), global radiation (Rg), air pressure (P), and ground-level ozone and complemented by CO2. To account for intra-annual variation and the covariability of multiple climate variables, daily values were substituted by hourly resolved data resampled from the historical record. The resulting present climate Test Reference Year (TRY) well represented a possible annual cycle within the reference period, and expected shifts in future mean values (e.g., higher ta) were reproduced within the RCP TRYs. The TRYs were executed in eight climate chambers of the TUMmesa facility and-accounting for the technical boundaries of the facility-reproduced with high precision. Especially, as an alternative to CEF simulations that reproduce mere day/night cycles and static manipulations of climate change drivers, the method presented here proved well suited for simulating regionalized and highly dynamic annual cycles for ecological CEF studies.

Cardiomyopathy Associated With Coronary Arteriosclerosis in Free-Ranging Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx carpathicus).

The Eurasian lynx (subspecies Lynx lynx carpathicus) was reintroduced to Switzerland in the 1970's. Health monitoring of the reintroduced population started in the late 1980's. Since then, six lynx have been found affected by a myocardial disease. The earliest case was an animal that died after a field anesthesia. Two lynx were found dead, two were euthanized/culled because of disease signs, and one was hit by car. Two had a heart murmur at clinical examination. At necropsy, the first animal showed only lung edema but the other five had cardiomegaly associated with myocardial fibrosis. Three had multisystemic effusions. Histological examination of all six lynx showed mild to severe, multifocal, myocardial interstitial and perivascular fibrosis along with multifocal myocyte degeneration and loss, and replacement fibrosis. Moderate to severe multifocal arteriosclerosis with associated luminal stenosis of the small and medium-sized intramural coronary arteries and the presence of Anitschkow cells was also observed. The heart lesions may have led to sudden death in the first case and to a chronic right-sided heart failure in the remaining. None of the lynx showed lesions or signs suggestive of an acute or subacute infection. Given the common geographic origin of these animals and the severe loss of heterozygocity in this population, a genetic origin of the disease is hypothesized.

Bufonid herpesvirus 1 (BfHV1) associated dermatitis and mortality in free ranging common toads (Bufo bufo) in Switzerland.

Here we report the discovery and partial characterization of a novel herpesvirus tentatively named Bufonid herpesvirus 1 (BfHV1) from severe dermatitis in free ranging common toads (Bufo bufo) in Switzerland. The disease has been observed in toads every year since 2014, in spring, during the mating season, at different and distant locations. The virus is found in the skin and occasionally in the brain of infected toads. The genome of the virus is at least 158 Kb long and contains at least 152 open reading frames with a minimal length of 270 nt. The genome of BfHV1 contains all the signature genes that are present in alloherpesviruses. Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequence of the DNA polymerase and terminase proteins positions the novel virus among the members of the genus Batrachovirus, family Alloherpesviridae. This is the first herpesvirus ever characterized in common toads.

A picture of trends in Aujeszky's disease virus exposure in wild boar in the Swiss and European contexts.

BACKGROUND: In parallel to the increase of wild boar abundance in the past decades, an increase of exposure to the Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) has been reported in wild boar in several parts of Europe. Since high animal densities have been proposed to be one of the major factors influencing ADV seroprevalence in wild boar populations and wild boar abundance has increased in Switzerland, too, a re-evaluation of the ADV status was required in wild boar in Switzerland. We tested wild boar sera collected from 2008-2013 with a commercial ELISA for antibodies against ADV. To set our data in the European context, we reviewed scientific publications on ADV serosurveys in Europe for two time periods (1995-2007 and 2008-2014). RESULTS: Seven out of 1,228 wild boar sera were positive for antibodies against ADV, resulting in an estimated seroprevalence of 0.57% (95% confidence interval CI: 0.32-0.96%). This is significantly lower than the prevalence of a previous survey in 2004-2005. The literature review revealed that high to very high ADV seroprevalences are reported from Mediterranean and Central-eastern countries. By contrast, an "island" of low to medium seroprevalences is observed in the centre of Europe with few isolated foci of high seroprevalences. We were unable to identify a general temporal trend of ADV seroprevalence at European scale. CONCLUSIONS: The seroprevalence of ADV in wild boar in Switzerland belongs among the lowest documented in Europe. Considering the disparity of seroprevalences in wild boar in Europe, the fact that seroprevalences in Switzerland and other countries have decreased despite increasing wild boar densities and the knowledge that stress leads to the reactivation of latent ADV with subsequent excretion and transmission, we hypothesize that not only animal density but a range of factors leading to stress - such as management - might play a crucial role in the dynamics of ADV infections.

Evaluation of a Commercial ELISA for the Detection of Antibodies to Sarcoptes scabiei in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa).

Sarcoptic mange occurs in free-ranging wild boar (Sus scrofa) but has been poorly described in this species. We evaluated the performance of a commercial indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for serodiagnosis of sarcoptic mange in domestic swine when applied to wild boar sera. We tested 96 sera from wild boar in populations without mange history ("truly noninfected") collected in Switzerland between December 2012 and February 2014, and 141 sera from free-ranging wild boar presenting mange-like lesions, including 50 live animals captured and sampled multiple times in France between May and August 2006 and three cases submitted to necropsy in Switzerland between April 2010 and February 2014. Mite infestation was confirmed by skin scraping in 20 of them ("truly infected"). We defined sensitivity of the test as the proportion of truly infected that were found ELISA-positive, and specificity as the proportion of truly noninfected that were found negative. Sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 80%, respectively. Success of antibody detection increased with the chronicity of lesions, and seroconversion was documented in 19 of 27 wild boar sampled multiple times that were initially negative or doubtful. In conclusion, the evaluated ELISA has been successfully applied to wild boar sera. It appears to be unreliable for early detection in individual animals but may represent a useful tool for population surveys.

Intermolecular spin relaxation and translation diffusion in liquids and polymer melts: insight from field-cycling 1H NMR relaxometry.

With the advent of commercial field-cycling (FC) spectrometers, NMR relaxometry has gained new momentum as a method of investigating dynamics in liquids and polymers. The outcome of FC NMR experiments is spin-lattice relaxation time versus frequency (relaxation dispersion). In the case of protons, due to the intra- and intermolecular origin of dipolar interactions, the relaxation dispersion reflects rotational as well as translational dynamics. The latter shows a universal dispersion law at low frequencies, which allows determination of the diffusion coefficient D(T) in addition to the rotational correlation time τ(rot)(T), that is, FC (1)H NMR becomes an alternative to field-gradient NMR spectroscopy. Subdiffusive translation found in polymers can be accessed by singling out the intermolecular relaxation through isotope dilution experiments, and the mean square displacement can then be revealed as a function of time, thus complementing neutron scattering experiments. Likewise, information on reorientational dynamics is provided by the intramolecular relaxation. Assuming frequency-temperature superposition the corresponding correlation functions can be monitored up to eight decades in amplitude and time, which allows thorough testing of current polymer theories.