The Size of Winter-Flooded Paddy Fields No Longer Limits the Foraging Habitat Use of the Endangered Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) in Winter.

Paddy fields have traditionally been viewed as the key foraging habitats for the endangered crested ibis (Nipponia nippon). With the population of this species now increasing, its distribution has expanded to both lowland areas and outside the nature reserve. However, little is known about the current foraging habitat preferences of these birds, especially during winter. In this research, a total of 54 used sites and 50 unused sites were investigated during winter from December 2011 to January 2012. The results of logistic regression analysis indicate that soil softness, human disturbance, and distance to the nearest road were important factors. For the site plots of winter-flooded paddy fields, the birds prefer the paddy fields with higher coverage of vegetation, except softer foraging sites and lower human-related disturbance. In lowland areas, the size of winter-flooded paddy fields was not a limiting factor, due to the availability of other wetlands capable of providing abundant food. The micro-habitat characteristics were important indicators of foraging habitat quality rather than the size of winter-flooded paddy fields, and the food accessibility may play an important role in the process of foraging habitat use. We suggest the improvement of the foraging micro-habitat and environmental characteristics would be effective in ensuring the availability of food in the dispersed lowland areas. The local people still needed to be encouraged and compensated by their single-cropping cultivation, ploughed the paddy fields after harvesting and irrigated them with shallow water flooded in the original core areas of the nature reserve.

Application of genotype MTBDRplus in rapid detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex as well as its resistance to isoniazid and rifampin in a high volume laboratory in Southern China.

The alarmingly worsening epidemics of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) call urgent need for a simple method for the rapid detection of drug-resistant TB in clinical settings. In an attempt to establish a rapid procedure for laboratory diagnosis of TB and investigate the local TB epidemiology, molecular line probe assay of the Genotype MTBDRplus was used to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and detect mutations conferring resistance to two most active first-line drugs against TB: Rifampin and Isoniazid. 96 acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smear- positive sputums and 18 PCR-positive non-sputum specimens have been determined for the MTBC and resistance to Rifampin and Isoniazid. The MTBC detection rates in two sources of specimens were 93.8% (90/96) and 77.8% (14/18) respectively. The overall drug resistance (Rifampin or Isoniazid) occurred in 34.6% (36/104). Resistance to rifampin (RMP) was 28.8% (30/104) and 25% (26/104) was to Isoniazid (INH), in which high level drug resistance accounted for 88.5% (23/26) and low level drug resistance accounted for 7.7% (2/26). Multidrug resistance (MDR), defined as resistant to both RMP and INH, was found in 19.2% (20/104) of clinical samples, which was double that of official statistics. In addition, 63.3% (19/30) RMP-resistant mutations were identified in the region of RopB 530-533 and 57.9% (11/19) were the S531L mutation. 84.6% (22/26) of resistance to INH was mediated by Kat S315T1 mutations which conferred the high-level resistance to INH. The Genotype MTBDRplus line probe assay is a suitable and applicable method for establishing the rapidness in detection of drug-resistant TB in clinical laboratory. It will be a valuable addition to the conventional TB diagnostic approaches.