Extractable pool of biochar controls on crop productivity rather than greenhouse gas emission from a rice paddy under rice-wheat rotation.

The role of extractable pool of biochar in crop productivity and soil greenhouse gas (GHGs) emission is not yet clear. In this study, two biochars with and without extraction was added to a paddy before rice transplantation at 20 t·ha. Crop yield, plant traits and greenhouse gas emission monitored throughout a rice-wheat rotation.

Molecular evidence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Belgium.

Background: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a tick-borne pathogen of veterinary and human importance. Both ticks as vectors and vertebrates as reservoir hosts are essential for the cycle maintenance of this bacterium. Currently, the whole range of animal species reservoirs for A.

Wild cervids are host for tick vectors of babesia species with zoonotic capability in Belgium.

Babesiosis is a tick-borne disease caused by different species of intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites within the genus Babesia. Different species of Babesia are described as potentially zoonotic and cause a malaria-like disease mainly in immunocompromised humans. Interest in the zoonotic potential of Babesia is growing and babesiosis has been described by some authors as an emergent zoonotic disease.

Enteropathogenic (EPEC), enterohaemorragic (EHEC) and verotoxigenic (VTEC) Escherichia coli in wild cervids.

Aims:   The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of enteropathogenic (EPEC), enterohaemorragic (EHEC) and verotoxigenic (VTEC) Escherichia coli strains in free-ranging wild ruminants in Belgium and to characterize the positive isolates (serogroups and virulence-associated factor-encoding genes).

Methods And Results:   Escherichia coli strains isolated from faeces of wild cervids were characterized by PCR targeting genes coding for the main virulence properties of EPEC, EHEC and VTEC strains. The prevalence rate of these pathogenic strains in faecal samples obtained from the wild ruminants was found to be 15%.

Bluetongue virus in wild deer, Belgium, 2005-2008.

To investigate bluetongue virus serotype 8 infection in Belgium, we conducted a virologic and serologic survey on 2,416 free-ranging cervids during 2005-2008. Infection emerged in 2006 and spread over the study area in red deer, but not in roe deer.