A synthetic review of notoedres species mites and mange.

Notoedric mange, caused by obligately parasitic sarcoptiform Notoedres mites, is associated with potentially fatal dermatitis with secondary systemic disease in small mammals, felids and procyonids among others, as well as an occasional zoonosis. We describe clinical spectra in non-chiropteran hosts, review risk factors and summarize ecological and epidemiological studies. The genus is disproportionately represented on rodents. Disease in felids and procyonids ranges from very mild to death. Knowledge of the geographical distribution of the mites is highly inadequate, with focal hot spots known for Notoedres cati in domestic cats and bobcats. Predisposing genetic and immunological factors are not known, except that co-infection with other parasites and anticoagulant rodenticide toxicoses may contribute to severe disease. Treatment of individual animals is typically successful with macrocytic lactones such as selamectin, but herd or wildlife population treatment has not been undertaken. Transmission requires close contact and typically is within a host species. Notoedric mange can kill half all individuals in a population and regulate host population below non-diseased density for decades, consistent with frequency-dependent transmission or spillover from other hosts. Epidemics are increasingly identified in various hosts, suggesting global change in suitable environmental conditions or increased reporting bias.

Symmetry of fellow-eye intraocular pressure responses to topical glaucoma medications.

PURPOSE: One assumption of the uniocular drug trial in glaucoma management is that fellow-eye pairs exhibit symmetric intraocular pressure (IOP) responses when both eyes are treated with the same topical IOP-lowering medication. The purpose of this study was to determine if this assumption is true. DESIGN: Observational case series. PARTICIPANTS AND CONTROLS: Forty-three patients with bilateral glaucoma or ocular hypertension who underwent bilateral treatment with a topical IOP-lowering medication. METHODS: Patients were on 0 (81%) or 1 (19%) IOP-lowering medication at the time the medication was added in this study. Baseline IOP was the IOP at the treatment initiation visit, and IOP on treatment was assessed in both eyes on the first visit after addition of the medication. Linear regression of right-eye versus left-eye IOP reductions was performed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Correlation of right-eye and left-eye IOP responses to therapy. RESULTS: Right eyes demonstrated a 5.0-mmHg (26.9%) reduction, and left eyes demonstrated a 4.3-mmHg (23.7%) reduction. Linear regression of right-eye IOP reduction against left-eye IOP reduction gave a slope of 0.77 (Pearson correlation coefficient, r = 0.84; r2 = 0.70; P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Fellow-eye pairs exhibited marked symmetry in IOP responses to IOP-lowering medications.

From opportunism to nascent conservation : The case of the Siona-Secoya.

Siona-Secoya hunters of the northwest Amazon strive to maximize short-term yields to provision their households with meat. The observed patterns of hunting more closely resemble the predictions of optimal foraging theory (OFT) than they do a conservation ethic. In the past the Siona-Secoya worried little about conservation because they believed that good shamans attracted abundant game. When hunting was poor, shamans performedyagé ceremonies and appealed to supernatural gamekeepers for the release of more animals from the underworld. The sustainability of Siona-Secoya hunting was aided by factors such as low human population density, dispersed settlements within large hunting territories, settlement movement, and limited hunting technology. Today, increasing involvement in the national economy is leading the Siona-Secoya to invest more time in agriculture and wage labor, and less in traditional foraging activities. Colonization, deforestation, and industrial pollution now pose the greatest threats to wildlife in eastern Ecuador. Because of these changes, the Siona-Secoya are becoming interested in environmental protection and conservation. Several of their efforts to protect forest resources and mitigate pollution are discussed and evaluated.

Game depletion hypothesis of amazonian adaptation: data from a native community.

The low population densities and impermanent settlements of Amazonian Indians are often interpreted as adaptations to a fauna that offers limited protein resources and is rapidly depleted by hunting. Data spanning the 10-year life cycle of one northwestern Amazonian settlement show that variations in hunt yields result from temporal variations in peccary (Tayassu pecari and T. tajacu) kills that appear extrinsic to native population size. After 10 years, hunting success remained high and the kill rates for most prey did not suggest depletion. An array of environmental factors accounts for the incipient settlement relocation observed.