Restricted access to private properties limits management of invasive alien species: A literature review and case studies.

Biological invasions are one of the major drivers of global environmental change and there is a need to develop integrated strategies to counteract this phenomenon. Eradication is an effective management option to mitigate the deleterious impacts of invasive alien species (IAS). Eradication can be achieved if all reproductive individuals are removed and population recovery is prevented. However, individuals may survive removal operations in private areas if interventions are not allowed. Here, we present 1) three case studies in which restricted private property access prevented the local eradication of invasive alien populations, and 2) a list of reasons for denying access to private properties and a list of actions implemented or suggested by managers to facilitate access and reported in 29 reviewed papers. The restricted access affected the local eradication of three Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) populations in Italy. In Lombardy region, in one area a planned eradication did not start and in another area the implemented eradication failed due to the refusal from the owner of a large private property to grant access to managers. In Umbria region, the lack of collaboration from an Italian financial institution produced a delay of 15 months in the removal. In our case studies, therefore, a single person or institution denied access for a personal gain or presumed internal security. The reasons behind landowner opposition may be diverse and individual attitudes towards IAS management will depend on interactions with owners. According to our review, in many cases the denial of access takes place in a general perception of mistrust or opposition to the project as the results of a limited engagement of local people. Such opposition often jeopardizes control activities, with profound negative consequences on eradication, expecially at landscape scale. Bottom-up approaches aiming at involving stakeholders can increase the possibility to achieve IAS eradication, however appropriate legislation remains pivotal to enforce eradication in case of non-cooperative behaviour.

Integrative taxonomy at work: DNA barcoding of taeniids harboured by wild and domestic cats.

In modern taxonomy, DNA barcoding is particularly useful where biometric parameters are difficult to determine or useless owing to the poor quality of samples. These situations are frequent in parasitology. Here, we present an integrated study, based on both DNA barcoding and morphological analysis, on cestodes belonging to the genus Taenia, for which biodiversity is still largely underestimated. In particular, we characterized cestodes from Italian wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris), free-ranging domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) and hybrids populations. Adult taeniids were collected by post-mortem examinations of the hosts and morphologically identified as Taenia taeniaeformis. We produced cox1 barcode sequences for all the analysed specimens, and we compared them with reference sequences of individuals belonging to the genus Taenia retrieved from GenBank. In order to evaluate the performance of a DNA barcoding approach to discriminate these parasites, the strength of correlation between species identification based on classical morphology and the molecular divergence of cox1 sequences was measured. Our study provides clear evidence that DNA barcoding is highly efficient to reveal the presence of cryptic lineages within already-described taeniid species. Indeed, we detected three well-defined molecular lineages within the whole panel of specimens morphologically identified as T. taeniaeformis. Two of these molecular groups were already identified by other authors and should be ranked at species level. The third molecular group encompasses only samples collected in Italy during this study, and it represents a third candidate species, still morphologically undescribed.

Potential health effects of greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion in Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To identify potential health effects of the greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion in Australia. DATA SOURCES: Data were derived from a number of sources: (i) published articles accessed from relevant databases in the disciplines of health, public health and climatology over the past 20 years; (ii) published conference proceedings, review monographs and government reports covering the topic; (iii) a survey of experts in public health and climatology/geography (150 individuals were surveyed in the first phase with a 63% response rate); and (iv) a consensus conference in which 22 invited experts reviewed the results of the literature review and survey and a second conference in which 18 senior members of the health bureaucracy and public health profession considered the implications of the findings. STUDY SELECTION: Over 200 published articles or monographs were reviewed. Criteria for selection were whether the papers contributed information to the objectives of the review. DATA EXTRACTION: Because of the nature of the problem under investigation, predictions based on reasonable scientific assumptions were the major content of the review rather than conclusions based on scientific research. DATA SYNTHESIS: The major predicted health effects of long-term climatic change in Australia are skin and eye damage from increased ultraviolet radiation exposure, increased incidence of some respiratory diseases, vector-borne and water-borne diseases, and the social and physical effects of natural hazards and social and economic restructuring. The most vulnerable groups include the aged, the very young, the chronically ill, those living in poorly designed neighbourhoods and those working in outdoor occupations or heavy industry. CONCLUSIONS: The potential effects on health of long-term climatic change cover the broad spectrum of public health concerns. Detailed predictions of likely problems in specific geographic areas are not yet possible, but progressive development of such predictive capability is a high priority. Doctors will have an increasingly important role in monitoring local health status and participating in disease prevention and surveillance programmes.

Evaluation of preschool meals programmes on the nutritional health of Aboriginal children.

One hundred and sixteen three to five year old Aboriginal children were included in an evaluation of the effect of preschool meals programmes on their nutritional health. Sixty-one children attending preschools in five communities were examined at the beginning and end of the school year. Fifty-five control children in five matched communities had two examinations, 38 weeks apart. Height, weight and haemoglobin concentrations were determined on all children and serum levels of ascorbic acid, ferritin, iron, total protein, albumin, cholesterol and triglycerides were determined on a subsample. Aboriginal children in both groups had initial measurements and nutrient levels below acceptable levels. The 61 children who received preschool meals had consistently better growth than the control children. A negative correlation was found between gains in weight and height and serum levels of ferritin, haemoglobin and ascorbic acid, indicating that more rapidly growing children may have been rapidly utilizing nutrients for growth.

Morbidity and growth of infants and young children in a rural Mexican village.

The relationship between childhood illnesses and growth increments in length and weight was investigated in a 13-month birth cohort of rural Mexican children. Increments in length and weight for each year from birth to three years were related to high and low frequencies of reported time ill during the same period. Seventy-two of the 276 children had already been characterized as exhibiting "growth failure" relative to other members of the cohorts, and this was considered as a separate factor in the study. We found that upper and lower respiratory infection did not affect incremental gain in height or weight. A high frequency of diarrheal infection was found to reduce weight gain, although gain in height was not affected. Relative to the total sample, the average child with a high frequency of diarrhea achieved only 95 per cent of expected body weight age three; a chidl with both growth failure and high diarrheal frequency reached only 90 per cent of expected body weight at age three.