Enzootic transmission of Leishmania spp. in gallery forests of the Brazilian Cerrado.

Gallery forests harbor mammals and sand flies that may be involved in the transmission of Leishmania spp. parasites. Characterizing the enzootic cycles of Leishmania spp.

Tungiasis in the Sanumás Amerindians in the Amazon Rainforest, Brazil: Prevalence, Intensity and Morbidity.

Background: Tungiasis is a disease associated with extreme poverty. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of tungiasis in six different settlements of the Sanumás indigenous community in a remote area in the Auaris region, Yanomami territory, Brazil.

Methods: We conducted an observational study to detect clinical and epidemiological factors associated with tungiasis using a cross-sectional strategy and multivariate logistic regression.

Measuring educational neglect using the Q method: A model based on the burden of disseminated tungiasis.

Background: A paramount factor in the control of neglected tropical diseases from both medical and social aspects is education. New strategies must be constantly pursued to test and provide educational information related to diseases affecting vulnerable populations. We applied the Q method as a model to measure educational neglect based on the burden of disseminated tungiasis.

Quantitative prey species detection in predator guts across multiple trophic levels by mapping unassembled shotgun reads.

Quantifying species trophic interaction strengths is crucial for understanding community dynamics and has significant implications for pest management and species conservation. DNA-based methods to identify species interactions have revolutionized these efforts, but a significant limitation is the poor ability to quantify the strength of trophic interactions, that is the biomass or number of prey consumed. We present an improved pipeline, called Lazaro, to map unassembled shotgun reads to a comprehensive arthropod mitogenome database and show that the number of prey reads detected is quantitatively predicted from the prey biomass consumed, even for indirect predation.

Measuring mosquito control: adult-mosquito catches vs egg-trap data as endpoints of a cluster-randomized controlled trial of mosquito-disseminated pyriproxyfen.

Background: Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus are the main urban vectors of arthropod-borne viruses causing human disease, including dengue, Zika, or West Nile. Although key to disease prevention, urban-mosquito control has met only limited success. Alternative vector-control tactics are therefore being developed and tested, often using entomological endpoints to measure impact.

Trypanosomatid infections in captive wild mammals and potential vectors at the Brasilia Zoo, Federal District, Brazil.

Background: Conservation projects in zoos may involve translocation of captive animals, which may lead to pathogen spread. Neotropical mammals are important hosts of Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. the etiological agents of Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis respectively.

High molecular prevalence of Leishmania in phlebotomine sand flies fed on chicken blood in Brazil.

Leishmaniases are endemic in Brazil, where Leishmania infantum has been detected in humans, dogs, cats, and phlebotomine vectors. Monitoring synanthropic vector populations is critical for leishmaniasis control-surveillance in such transmission-prone areas. Here, a suite of molecular approaches were used to assess Leishmania infection prevalence and to identify blood-meal sources in a large sample of sand flies collected in anthropic environments of a Leishmania-transmission area in Mato Grosso do Sul State (Rio Verde de Mato Grosso municipality), Central-West Brazil.

The role of gallery forests in maintaining Phlebotominae populations: potential Leishmania spp. vectors in the Brazilian savanna.

Background: Knowledge on synanthropic phlebotomines and their natural infection by Leishmania is necessary for the identification of potential areas for leishmaniasis occurrence.

Objective: To analyse the occurrence of Phlebotominae in gallery forests and household units (HUs) in the city of Palmas and to determine the rate of natural infection by trypanosomatids.

Methods: Gallery forests and adjacent household areas were sampled on July (dry season) and November (rainy season) in 2014.

Limitations in dose-response and surrogate species methodologies for risk assessment of Cry toxins on arthropod natural enemies.

Dose-response assays and surrogate species are standard methods for risk analysis for environmental chemicals. These assume that individuals within a species have unimodal responses and that a surrogate species can predict responses of other related taxa. We exposed immature individuals of closely related aphidophagous coccinellid predators, Cycloneda sanguinea and Harmonia axyridis, to Cry1Ac and Cry1F toxins through uniform and constant artificial tritrophic exposure through Myzus persicae aphids.

Biochemical aspects of the soybean response to herbivory injury by the brown stink bug Euschistus heros (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae).

Plant defense response is an elaborate biochemical process shown to depend on the plant genetic background and on the biological stressor. This work evaluated the soybean biochemical foliar response to brown stink bug herbivory injury through an analysis of redox metabolism and proteomic 2DE profiles of susceptible (BRS Silvania RR) and resistant (IAC-100) varieties. The activity of lipoxygenase-3, guaiacol peroxidase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase was monitored every 24 h up to 96 h.

Uptake and transfer of a Bt toxin by a Lepidoptera to its eggs and effects on its offspring.

Research on non-target effects of transgenic crop plants has focused primarily on bitrophic, tritrophic and indirect effects of entomotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis, but little work has considered intergenerational transfer of Cry proteins. This work reports a lepidopteran (Chlosyne lacinia) taking up a Bt entomotoxin when exposed to sublethal or low concentrations, transferring the entomotoxin to eggs, and having adverse effects on the first filial generation (F1) offspring. Two bioassays were conducted using a sublethal concentration of toxin (100.