What is in commercial cat and dog food? The case for mercury and ingredient testing.

Commercial pet foods should be safe for long-term feeding. However, recent recalls and lawsuits have eroded public trust in pet food companies and products. Recent studies have identified high concentrations of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, in pet food products. Here we posit that pet food products require independent testing to verify safety and compliance with developed Food and Drug Administration and Association of American Feed Control Officials standards, and initiate a discussion as to why including quantification of mercury and methylmercury, as well as the identification of adulteration, are important to such testing protocols. The outcomes of these discussions will be multi-faceted: initiating the impetus to investigate the quality and label accuracy of pet foods; ensuring product safety; promoting transparency within the pet food industry; informing veterinary practices regarding pet food recommendations; providing data for evidence-based policy and regulatory enforcement; and working toward fulfilling the National Research Council's call for research that identifies levels of contaminants in animal feeds and residues in human foods.

Ecological niche modeling and distribution of Ornithodoros hermsi associated with tick-borne relapsing fever in western North America.

Tick-borne relapsing fever in western North America is a zoonosis caused by the spirochete bacterium, Borrelia hermsii, which is transmitted by the bite of infected Ornithodoros hermsi ticks. The pathogen is maintained in natural cycles involving small rodent hosts such as chipmunks and tree squirrels, as well as the tick vector. In order for these ticks to establish sustained and viable populations, a narrow set of environmental parameters must exist, primarily moderate temperatures and moderate to high amounts of precipitation. Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modeling (Maxent) was used to predict the species distribution of O. hermsi and B. hermsii through time and space based on current climatic trends and future projected climate changes. From this modeling process, we found that the projected current distributions of both the tick and spirochete align with known endemic foci for the disease. Further, global climate models predict a shift in the distribution of suitable habitat for the tick vector to higher elevations. Our predictions are useful for targeting surveillance efforts in areas of high risk in western North America, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of public health investigations and vector control efforts.

Parasite prevalence and community diversity in sympatric and allopatric populations of two woodrat species (Sigmodontinae: Neotoma) in central California.

Patterns of host-parasite association may vary across the landscape in part because of host and parasite diversity, divergence, local ecology, or interactions among these factors. In central coastal California, we quantified parasite prevalence, infection intensity, and diversity in two sister species of woodrats (Neotoma fuscipes and Neotoma macrotis) where the species co-occur (sympatry) and where each species exists alone (allopatry). In feces from 50 adults we identified seven taxa: the protozoans Eimeria, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium, the nematodes Trichuris, Aspicularis, and Eucoleus, and a cestode in the family Anoplocephalidae. Gastrointestinal parasite infection intensity and diversity were higher in males than in females, a difference that was most pronounced in the more aggressive N. fuscipes. Both species had lower infection intensity in sympatry than in allopatry and in sympatry the two species did not differ in infection intensity in total but did maintain distinct parasite communities. Taken together, our findings suggest that host evolutionary differences, including perhaps species-specific patterns of aggressive behavior, as well as local ecology, influence the likelihood of infection by these endoparasite taxa.