The Role of Hunters in Wildlife Health Research and Monitoring: Their Contribution as Citizen Scientists in Italy.

In Italy, there are hundreds of research, monitoring, and surveillance activities targeting emerging and re-emerging pathogens. These activities heavily rely on hunters for sample collection and early identification of morbidity/mortality events. The objective of this review is to describe and quantify the contribution of hunters in the context of disease research, monitoring, and surveillance in wild populations. A literature review and descriptive summary statistics were performed following PRISMA-2020 guidelines; articles were obtained from major scientific databases, abstracts from national and international conferences, proceedings, graduate-level theses from online library repositories, and direct contact with academic experts. The contribution of hunters in terms of sample collection for health-related activities on wildlife amounts to 400,000 sampled animals. Wild boars were involved in 158 surveillance systems/research studies, followed by red deer (71), foxes (63), and roe deer (59). The pathogens under surveillance were mainly zoonotic (Salmonella spp.), emerging (Hepatitis E virus), and/or vector-borne (West Nile virus). The temporal distribution of scientific papers followed a positive trend that reflects the growing interest in wildlife from different sectors. These results highlight how wildlife health-related efforts are a paradigm of the concept of One Health, in which the role of hunters is crucial to ensure sample availability, and it constitutes the base of much current wildlife health research, monitoring, and surveillance.

Natural history of chronic idiopathic neutropenia of the adult.

Chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) is a rare benign condition  caused by an immune attack against neutrophils, either primary or in the context of other autoimmune conditions, lymphoproliferative syndromes, and inborn errors of immunity. In this single-center prospective study, 131 adult CIN patients were enrolled (median age 55 years, range: 20-93). At baseline, 56% had anti-neutrophil autoantibodies and 31% had autoimmune comorbidities. Over a median 3-year follow-up, the rate of grade ≥ 2 infections was 42%, with 10% grade ≥ 3, irrespective of neutrophil counts, demographics, and anti-neutrophil antibodies positivity, and G-CSF was used in 6 patients only. No malignant evolution nor deaths were observed. Bone marrow evaluation showed a large granular lymphocyte (LGL) infiltrate in 52%, mostly polyclonal, and hypocellularity in 31% of cases. Immune-histochemistry highlighted deposits of IgG, IgM, and complement fractions C3 and C4d in most cases. Interestingly, 19% of tested patients displayed somatic mutations of myeloid genes with an association with age. In conclusion, adult CIN appears to be a benign condition without life-threatening infections, yet deserving an extensive hematologic evaluation including bone marrow assessment to inform the differential diagnosis.

Interindividual variation and consistency of migratory behavior in the Eurasian woodcock.

Diverse spatio-temporal aspects of avian migration rely on relatively rigid endogenous programs. However, flexibility in migratory behavior may allow effective coping with unpredictable variation in ecological conditions that can occur during migration. We aimed at characterizing inter- and intraindividual variation of migratory behavior in a forest-dwelling wader species, the Eurasian woodcock Scolopax rusticola, focusing on spatio-temporal consistency across repeated migration episodes. By satellite-tracking birds from their wintering sites along the Italian peninsula to their breeding areas, we disclosed a remarkable variability in migration distances, with some birds flying more than 6,000 km to Central Asian breeding grounds (up to 101°E). Prebreeding migration was faster and of shorter duration than postbreeding migration. Birds moving over longer distances migrated faster during prebreeding migration, and those breeding at northernmost latitudes left their wintering areas earlier. Moreover, birds making longer migrations departed earlier from their breeding sites. Breeding site fidelity was very high, whereas fidelity to wintering areas increased with age. Migration routes were significantly consistent, both among repeated migration episodes and between pre- and postbreeding migration. Prebreeding migration departure date was not significantly repeatable, whereas arrival date to the breeding areas was highly repeatable. Hence, interindividual variation in migratory behavior of woodcocks was mostly explained by the location of the breeding areas, and spatial consistency was relatively large through the entire annual cycle. Flexibility in prebreeding migration departure date may suggest that environmental effects have a larger influence on temporal than on spatial aspects of migratory behavior.