Nature Forest Reserves in Tanzania and their importance for conservation.

Since 1997 Tanzania has undertaken a process to identify and declare a network of Nature Forest Reserves (NFRs) with high biodiversity values, from within its existing portfolio of national Forest Reserves, with 16 new NFRs declared since 2015. The current network of 22 gazetted NFRs covered 948,871 hectares in 2023. NFRs now cover a range of Tanzanian habitat types, including all main forest types-wet, seasonal, and dry-as well as wetlands and grasslands. NFRs contain at least 178 of Tanzania's 242 endemic vertebrate species, of which at least 50% are threatened with extinction, and 553 Tanzanian endemic plant taxa (species, subspecies, and varieties), of which at least 50% are threatened. NFRs also support 41 single-site endemic vertebrate species and 76 single-site endemic plant taxa. Time series analysis of management effectiveness tracking tool (METT) data shows that NFR management effectiveness is increasing, especially where donor funds have been available. Improved management and investment have resulted in measurable reductions of some critical threats in NFRs. Still, ongoing challenges remain to fully contain issues of illegal logging, charcoal production, firewood, pole-cutting, illegal hunting and snaring of birds and mammals, fire, wildlife trade, and the unpredictable impacts of climate change. Increased tourism, diversified revenue generation and investment schemes, involving communities in management, and stepping up control measures for remaining threats are all required to create a network of economically self-sustaining NFRs able to conserve critical biodiversity values.

Analysis of Factors Related to the Success of Pediatric Kidney Transplantation: A 35 Years Experience.

BACKGROUND: Despite the significant improvement results over the past 20 years, pediatric kidney transplantation remains a challenge. Chronic rejection, thrombosis, and recurrence of the primary disease are frequent causes of graft loss that have been little studied. Therefore, our objective is to analyze factors related to a better prognosis, which can be used to improve future strategies to allow higher pediatric transplant success rates. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study with patients under 15 years old submitted for kidney transplantation at the Hospital das Clínicas da UNICAMP between January 1, 1987, and January 1, 2022. Age, patient weight, time and type of dialysis, use of anticoagulation, complications, ischemia time, and donor weight were analyzed and related to graft loss. The significance level adopted for the statistical tests was 5%. RESULTS: One hundred ninety-two medical records were anaThe mean follow-up time was 11 years, and the mean graft duration was ration 8.5 years. The main causes of graft loss were chronic dysfunction, thrombosis, and acute cellular rejection. Thrombosis presented significantly with the donor's body mass index and second transplantation. There was no correlation between the analyzed variables and chronic dysfunction or acute cellular rejection. DISCUSSION: Thrombosis remains the main cause of early graft loss, followed by acute cellular rejection. Measures such as thrombophilia screening and thromboprophylaxis have been proposed to improve results. However, they are still not standardized. CONCLUSION: The main causes of graft loss were chronic dysfunction, thrombosis, and acute cellular rejection. Only the thrombosis was related to the donor's body mass index and a second transplantation.

Detecção de anticorpos contra o vírus da diarréia viral bovina (BVDV) em amostras de tanques de leite de rebanhos do Rio Grande do Sul

Uma técnica de soro-neutralização rápida (SNR), anteriormente adaptada para a detecção de anticorpos contra o vírus dadiarréia viral bovina (BVDV) no leite foi utilizada para a pesquisa de anticorpos anti-BVDV em amostras de recipientes coletivosde leite de propriedades leiteiras no Rio Grande do Sul. Inicialmente, a SNR foi comparada com um teste comercial do tipoELISA, na pesquisa de anticorpos em amostras de leite de 430 vacas de status sorológico conhecido. Das 430 amostrastestadas, as duas técnicas concordaram em 368 (85,6%), sendo 266 positivas (61,9%) e 102 negativas (23,8%). Comparando-se com os resultados do ELISA, a SNR apresentou uma sensibilidade de 90,8%, especificidade de 74,4% e precisão de85,5%. O grau de concordância (k) foi de 0,65, que significa uma boa associação entre as técnicas. A técnica de SNR foi entãoutilizada para testar amostras de recipientes coletivos de leite de 11.711 rebanhos do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Anticorposcontra o BVDV foram detectados no leite de 1.028 rebanhos (8,8%), sendo que 180 propriedades (1,5% do total) apresentaramtítulos altos (³80) de anticorpos no leite, sugerindo possuírem infecção ativa. Esses resultados demonstraram que a técnica deSNR é adequada para a detecção de anticorpos anti-BVDV no leite e pode ser utilizada em triagens para a identificação derebanhos positivos para o BVDV.