No description available.

No description available.

Urbanization is arguably the most damaging and rapidly expanding threat to biodiversity. The process of urbanization results in the fragmentation of natural habitat into patches that are disjunct and isolated from one another. Biogeography theory predicts that landscape processes, including fragment size and isolation, should predominate in species assembly. However, these predictions have not been tested on African bats in urban landscapes. Bats are important models for urban studies because they comprise more than a fifth of all mammals, and play vital roles as primary, secondary and tertiary consumers that support human-dominated ecosystems. Furthermore, there is evidence that local, biotic processes specifically competition and prey defences are important determinants of species composition patterns. In this study, I investigated the relative influence of local and landscape processes on the species composition patterns of insectivorous bat ensembles in Durban. Using active capture methods and passive monitoring, I sampled the insectivorous bat ensembles of eight nature reserves in Durban between 2008 and 2010. I used multivariate analyses to test predictions from biogeographic and climate hypotheses, and I used null model analyses to test predictions from competition and nestedness hypotheses to determine whether the bat richness patterns were significantly different from patterns expected by chance. Species richness estimators indicated that species inventories for ensembles were fairly complete (i.e. estimated species richness was not much larger than observed species richness). Multiple regression analyses showed that there was a significant parabolic relationship between species evenness and daily maximum temperature, and there was a significant negative relationship between relative activity and reserve shape. However, I found no evidence that competition influenced species composition patterns. Conversely, I found support for the nestedness hypothesis: species in species-poor ensembles were subsets of species in species-rich ensembles. Spearman rank correlation indicated that the degree of nestedness was significantly correlated with maximum temperature. My results suggest that in urban landscapes, abiotic processes operating at the landscape scale may be more important determinants of composition patterns of insectivorous bat species than biotic factors operating at a local scale. Furthermore, bat species that forage in cluttered habitats may not be able to persist in urban landscapes. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.

No description available.

Abstract Pteropid bats are species of zoonotic significance and are known to be reservoir hosts of many viral diseases recently emerged in Asia and Australia. The transfer of these organisms from bats into terrestrial hosts resulted in lethal illnesses in humans and animals. Implementing attentive strategies for the detection and monitoring of these organisms is essential to the protection of humans, animals and the balance of the global economy. Unfortunately the paucity of information on these mammals’ immune system and the absence of diagnostic tools for the detection and for the studying of the humoral response in these animals disengage us from responding promptly when such outbreaks occur and prevent us from describing the possible underling causes that may be responsible for the absence of symptoms in bats infected with such organisms. It was assumed that flying foxes have immunoglobulin like molecules that provide humoral response and are involved in mediating secondary effector functions such as complement fixation and activation of other components of the cellular response in a similar manner as it occurs in humans and other mammals. The aims of this study which include immunoglobulin isotype identification, purification and characterisation as well as generation of reagents that are immunoglobulin class specific, provide the primary platform that should enable us to begin examining these questions. IgG was purified from the black flying fox’s serum by affinity chromatography using Protein G and Protein A. Protein L was ineffective in purifying any antibody from the bat serum. The heavy chain of IgG was also purified by gel electroelution. IgG was digested with papain to yield Fab and Fc fragments. The identity of the bat IgG was confirmed by N-terminal sequencing of the heavy chain and light chain of immunoglobulins separated by SDS-PAGE and by N-terminal sequencing of Fc and Fc' fragments. IgM has also been purified using methods that have not been previously explored to our knowledge. These methods consisted of the purification of Fab specific antibodies from antisera generated against Fab, and using these antibodies to capture other immunoglobulin classes in samples that had been previously enriched by classical fractionation methods. Antisera against the whole IgG molecule, Fc, Fab, IgG heavy chain and IgM heavy chain have been produced in rabbits and tested by Western blot and ELISA. The antisera against the whole IgG molecule and against the Fc were also utilized to detect antibodies to Nipah virus in bats that were found positive to Serum Neutralisation Test. Failure to identify the bat IgA in the bat serum poses questions on the presence, abundance and functional significance of such molecule in bats. The tools that were generated in this study recognise immunoglobulin isotypes, which enabled us to detect and measure antibodies and will allow the study of the humoral response in infected bats to a large extent. Tedious approaches routinely adopted for the purification of antibodies involve a series of pre-fractionation steps or affinity chromatography which rely on the use of expensive immobilised novel or partially characterised ligands, with no guarantee of affinity for the immunoglobulin isotype of interest. The method adopted for immunoglubulin isotype purification described in this study proved to be an effective, reasonably quick and economic solution for immunoglubulin isotype purification from any mammalian species.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Adelaide, Department of Environmental Biology, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2003.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2004. / Title from title page screen (viewed Sept. 22, 2004). Thesis advisor: David Buehler. Document formatted into pages (xiv, 166 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.)). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-93).

Orientador: Ariovaldo Pereira da Cruz Neto / Banca: Fernando Ribeiro Gomes / Banca: Guilherme Gomes / Resumo: Um dos componentes da resposta imune inata é a resposta de fase aguda (RFA), a qual tem como objetivo restabelecer a homeostase e promover a cura de um organismo através de uma serie de alterações fisiológicas que podem acarretar num alto gasto energético. Algumas das alterações são aumento da taxa metabólica, temperatura corpórea (febre) e granulócitos no sangue (eosinófilos, basófilos e neutrófilos). Os animais podem também apresentar anorexia, diminuição da atividade e perda de massa corpórea, minimizando o gasto de energia durante a ativação da RFA. Em situações de aumento da demanda de energia e diminuição da ingestão calórica, os organismos estão sujeitos a uma deficiência nas reservas energéticas, a qual poderia dificultar o combate efetivo contra patógenos. Nos induzimos a ativação da RFA em morcegos frugívoros da espécie Carollia perspicillata por meio de injeção de lipopolissacarídeo (LPS). Quantificamos o custo energético da RFA e como o mesmo é afetado pela sazonalidade (inverno e verão) e disponibilidade de alimento (restrição alimentar e alimentados ad libitum). A perda de massa corpórea durante a RFA foi significativa em ambas as estações, porém apenas em morcegos em restrição alimentar, provavelmente devido a que nos morcegos em restrição alimentar foi necessária a mobilização de reservas energéticas, enquanto que morcegos alimentados ad libitum cobriram parte do custo da RFA através da mobilização de carboidratos ingeridos horas antes do experimento. Não obse... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: One of the innate immune response components is the APR, which can be activated by trauma, infection, stress and inflammation. The APR activation aims to restore homeostasis and health of an organism exposed to the before mentioned events, through several physiological modifications that may result in high energetic cost. Some modifications are increase in metabolic rate, fever and granulocytes in the blood (eosinophils, basophils and neutrophils). Animals may also show anorexia and body mass loss, reducing the energy expenditure during the APR activation. In situations where animals are exposed to increase energy demand and decrease caloric intake, they could experience a deficiency in energy reserves, which may hamper the effectiveness of an immune response. We induced the APR activation in the Short-tailed fruit bats (Carollia perspicillata) by LPS injection. We quantified the energetic cost of the APR and how it is affected by seasonality (winter and summer) and food availability (food restriction and fed ad libitum). Body mass loss during the APR activation was observed in both seasons, but only in bats in food restriction, probably due to the mobilization of energy reserves, while bats fed ad libitum covered part of the APR cost by the mobilization of carbohydrates from the recent ingested food. Bats did not show fever or leukocytosis, nevertheless, we found increase in N/L ratio when bats were in food restriction and during winter. This parameter is also a stress indicator, so probably the combination of limited food availability and increase in the energy demand for thermoregulation during winter, may be a stressful situation for this bat. It seems that bats from this group were able to activate the APR, nevertheless we could not measure if the effectiveness of the response was jeopardized... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-12-06Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:31:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 tencate_ln_me_araca.pdf: 323403 bytes, checksum: 9c18a3fef42bc32958e956a2a5cdbf59 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Os morcegos são hospedeiros de uma rica diversidade de microrganismos. Muitos trabalhos apontam uma estreita ligação entre os quirópteros e fungos com potencial patogênico, principalmente por habitar ambientes como cavernas, grutas e ocos de árvores, favoráveis, à manutenção e propagação dos fungos. O seguinte trabalho teve como objetivo estudar a microbiota fúngica gastrintestinal de morcegos capturados vivos ou cedidos pelos Laboratórios de Chiroptera e de Raiva do Departamento de Apoio e Produção Animal da Unesp de Araçatuba. Para o cultivo micológico foi utilizado macerados de baço, fígado, intestinos e fezes e inoculados em tubos contendo ágar Sabouraud com cloranfenicol e BHI incubados a temperaturas de 25º e 37º C, respectivamente por um período não inferior a 10 dias.Os cultivos com características de leveduras foram submetidos à coloração com tinta Nanquim, à hidrólise da uréia, termotolerância e fenoloxidase, enquanto que os miceliais foram identificados de acordo com características morfológicas e tintoriais. A PCR foi utilizada para a identificação de espécie com potencial patogênico. Das 98 amostras pertencentes a 11 espécies de morcegos procedentes de 15 cidades estudadas, 20% são da espécie Carollia perspicillata, seguidas de 19%, Artibeus lituratus, 17%, Molossus rufus, 13%, Glossophga soricina, 9%, Nyctinomops macrotis, 8%, Molossus molossus, 7%, Desmodus rotundus, 2%, Lasiurus ega, e 1% de Eptesicus furinalis, Myotis nigricans e Tadarida brasiliensis. De acordo com a dieta houve predomínio de espécies frugívoras (40%) e insetívoras (40%), seguidas de nectarívoras (13%) e sanguívoras (7%). De acordo com a procedência dos morcegos destaca-se a cidade de Guararapes com 28% das amostras, seguida por Araçatuba (23%), Mirandópolis (16%), Penápolis (7%), Andradina (6%), Ilha Solteira (5%), Birigui (4%)... / Bats are hosts of a rich diversity of microorganisms. Many studies indicate a close link between bats and fungi with pathogenic potential, especially for living in environments such as caves, grottoes and hollow trees, favorable to the maintenance and spread of fungi. The present research aimed to study the gastrointestinal mycoflora of bats captured alive or provided by Laboratório de Chiroptera and Laboratório de Raiva from Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Produção Animal of UNESP - Araçatuba. For the mycological culture was used macerated spleen, liver, intestines and feces and inoculated into tubes containing Sabouraud agar and BHI with chloramphenicol and incubated at 25 º C and 37 º C, respectively for a period not less than 10 days. The crops with yeastlike characteristics were stained with Indian ink, tested for hydrolysis of urea, phenoloxidase and thermotolerance, whereas mycelial were identified according to morphological characteristics and staining. PCR was used to identify species with pathogenic potential. Of the 98 samples belonging to 11 species of bats coming from 15 cities studied, 20% of the species were Carollia perspicillata, followed by 19%, Artibeus lituratus, 17%, Molossus rufus, 13%, Glossophga soricina, 9%, Nyctinomops macrotis, 8%, Molossus molossus, 7%, Desmodus rotundus, 2%, Lasiurus ega, and 1% Eptesicus furinalis, Myotis nigricans and Tadarida brasiliensis. Regarding the diet there was a greater predominance of frugivorous (40%) and insectivorous (40%) species followed by nectarivore (13%) and sanguivorous (7%). Regarding the origin of bats stands the city of Guararapes with 28% of samples, followed by Araçatuba (23%), Mirandópolis (16%), Penápolis (7%), Andradina (6%), Ilha Solteira (5 %), Birigui (4%), Pereira Barreto and Coroados (2%) each and Auriflama, Barbosa, Bilac, Brauna, Brejo Alegre Castilho 1% of samples each... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)