A new species of Pseudoacanthocephalus (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the guttural toad, Sclerophrys gutturalis (Bufonidae), introduced into Mauritius, with comments on the implications of the introductions of toads and their parasites into the UK.

Pseudoacanthocephalus goodmani n. sp. is described from faecal pellets collected from Sclerophrys gutturalis (Power, 1927), the guttural toad. The species is characterized by a suite of characters, including a proboscis armature of 14-18 longitudinal rows of 4-6 hooks with simple roots, lemnisci longer than the proboscis receptacle, equatorial testes, a cluster of elongated cement glands and eggs without polar prolongations of the middle membrane 72.6-85.8 long. The toad had been accidentally translocated from Mauritius to the UK in a tourist's luggage and survived a washing machine cycle. The guttural toad was introduced into Mauritius from South Africa in 1922 and the cane toad, Rhinella marina (Linneaus, 1758), from South America, between 1936 and 1938. It seems most likely, therefore, that P. goodmani was introduced, with the guttural toad, from South Africa. The cane toad is host to the similar species, Pseudoacanthocephalus lutzi, from the Americas, but P. lutzi has not been recorded from places where the cane toad has been introduced elsewhere. Clearly, the guttural toad is a hardy and adaptable species, although it seems unlikely that it could become established in Northern Europe. Nevertheless, any accidental translocation of hosts poses the potential risk of introducing unwanted pathogens into the environment and should be guarded against.

The contribution of fetal-newborn complications to motor and cognitive deficits.

A total of 364 selected high-risk premature and mature infants were studied prospectively to assess the relationship between fetal-newborn complications and motor and cognitive deficits identified during the first year of life. Deficits occurred in 24 per cent of the children: 14 per cent had one or more major deficit and the other 10 per cent had one or more minor deficit. Prematurity was one of the fetal-newborn complications not associated with deficits at one year. Complications that were associated with deficits included fetal hypoxia, respiratory difficulties, infection and newborn encephalopathy. There was also a significant association between fetal hypoxia, newborn respiratory complications, infection and newborn encephalopathy, which is in keeping with the concept that the first three may be mechanisms in CNS injury and subsequent deficits, while newborn encephalopathy reflects the injury and is an important predictor of such deficits.