Ancient DNA Reveals Late Pleistocene Existence of Ostriches in Indian Sub-Continent.

Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of extinct ratite species is of considerable interest as it provides important insights into their origin, evolution, paleogeographical distribution and vicariant speciation in congruence with continental drift theory. In this study, DNA hotspots were detected in fossilized eggshell fragments of ratites (dated ≥25000 years B.P. by radiocarbon dating) using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). DNA was isolated from five eggshell fragments and a 43 base pair (bp) sequence of a 16S rRNA mitochondrial-conserved region was successfully amplified and sequenced from one of the samples. Phylogenetic analysis of the DNA sequence revealed a 92% identity of the fossil eggshells to Struthio camelus and their position basal to other palaeognaths, consistent with the vicariant speciation model. Our study provides the first molecular evidence for the presence of ostriches in India, complementing the continental drift theory of biogeographical movement of ostriches in India, and opening up a new window into the evolutionary history of ratites.

Development of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for rapid and sensitive identification of ostrich meat.

Animal species identification is one of the primary duties of official food control. Since ostrich meat is difficult to be differentiated macroscopically from beef, therefore new analytical methods are needed. To enforce labeling regulations for the authentication of ostrich meat, it might be of importance to develop and evaluate a rapid and reliable assay. In the present study, a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay based on the cytochrome b gene of the mitochondrial DNA of the species Struthio camelus was developed. The LAMP assay was used in combination with a real-time fluorometer. The developed system allowed the detection of 0.01% ostrich meat products. In parallel, a direct swab method without nucleic acid extraction using the HYPLEX LPTV buffer was also evaluated. This rapid processing method allowed detection of ostrich meat without major incubation steps. In summary, the LAMP assay had excellent sensitivity and specificity for detecting ostrich meat and could provide a sampling-to-result identification-time of 15 to 20 minutes.

Ancient DNA reveals elephant birds and kiwi are sister taxa and clarifies ratite bird evolution.

The evolution of the ratite birds has been widely attributed to vicariant speciation, driven by the Cretaceous breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. The early isolation of Africa and Madagascar implies that the ostrich and extinct Madagascan elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) should be the oldest ratite lineages. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of two elephant birds and performed phylogenetic analyses, which revealed that these birds are the closest relatives of the New Zealand kiwi and are distant from the basal ratite lineage of ostriches. This unexpected result strongly contradicts continental vicariance and instead supports flighted dispersal in all major ratite lineages. We suggest that convergence toward gigantism and flightlessness was facilitated by early Tertiary expansion into the diurnal herbivory niche after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Histologia do intestino do avestruz (Struthio camelus, Linnaeus 1758) / Histology of ostrich intestine (Struthio camelus, Linnaeus 1758)

A despeito de o avestruz (Struthio camelus) compartilhar muitas adaptações evolucionárias presentes em outras aves, estes animais apresentam algumas características anatômicas peculiares, como é o caso do seu tubo digestivo em que o cólon é maior que o ceco. Há algum tempo, essa ave tem sido explorada econômicamente e principalmente como fonte alternativa de proteína animal na alimentação humana. O presente trabalho analisou os aspectos histológicos do intestino de avestruzes produzidos em boas condições de manejo ambiental e nutricional. Foram utilizados 13 avestru-zes, com 18 a 30 meses de idade, provenientes da empresa Brasil Ostrich, e encaminhados para o abate no Abatedouro Escola da Universidade de São Paulo, Campus Administrativo de Pirassununga. Os animais foram abatidos com pistola pneumática e, após a sangria e evisceração, foram colhidas amostras de diferentes segmentos do intestino: duodeno, jejuno, íleo e ceco duplo. Os materiais foram processados, corados pela técnica de hematoxilina-eosina (H-E) e exami-nados em microscopia de campo claro. Os resultados obtidos revelaram que as vilosidades estão presentes no duodeno, porém, não existem no ceco. Dos quatro segmentos intestinais examinados, o ceco foi o que apresentou maior número de células caliciformes. Os nódulos linfáticos e os linfócitos foram observados em todos os segmentos examinados. No ceco, os nódulos linfáticos se agregam para constituir a placa de Peyer. O plano histológico dos segmentos intestinais examinados seguiu o padrão observado nos mamíferos domésticos e em outras aves. O conhecimento da histologia dos intestinos desses animais pode oferecer subsídios para a avaliação comparativa de procedimentos de manejo ambiental e nutricional que possam aumentar os níveis de produção e produtividade dessa atividade pecuária.

Regardless of the ostrich (Struthio camelus) share many adaptations to other evolutionary present birds, these animals show some peculiar anatomical features such as their digestive tract than the colon is greater than the cecum. For some time this bird has been economically exploited and especially as an alternative source of animal protein for human consumption. This study examined the histological bowel ostrich produced in good environmental management and nutrition. Thirteen ostriches were used, with 18 to 30 months old, from Brazil Ostrich company, and sent for slaughter in Slaughterhouse School, University of São Paulo Campus Administrative Pirassununga. The animals were killed with pneumatic gun and after bleeding and evisceration were collected, samples of different intestinal segments: duodenum, jejunum, ileum and cecum double. The materials were processed, stained with hematoxylin - eosin (HE) and examined under brightfield microscopy. The results showed that the villi are present in the duodenum but not exist in the cecum. Of the four intestinal segments examined the cecum showed the highest number of goblet cells. Lymph nodes and lymphocytes were observed in all segments examined. In the cecum lymph nodes are added to form the Peyer’s patch. The plan of histological intestinal segments examined followed the pattern observed in other domestic mammals and birds. The knowledge of the histology of the intestines of these animals can provide insight for comparative assessment procedures for environmental management and nutrition that may increase the levels of production and productivity of this livestock activity.

Investigação de Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp. e Pseudomonas spp. no trato intestinal de avestruzes (Struthio camelus) criados no estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil / Investigation of Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp. and Pseudomonas spp. in ostriches (Struthio camelus) intestine from Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

Na estrutiocultura, pesquisas relacionadas com a prevalência de micro-organismos patogênicos para esses animais e de importância em saúde pública ainda são escassas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar a presença de Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp. e Pseudomonas spp. a partir de 60 amostras de suabes cloacais, provenientes de quatro criatórios de avestruzes e avaliar o perfil de susceptibilidade destes micro-organismos frente aos antimicrobianos. Os micro-organismos dos gêneros Salmonella, Listeria e Campylobacter não foram encontrados nas amostras analisadas. Pseudomonas aeruginosa foi isolado a partir de 17 amostras (28,3,%), provenientes de animais de diferentes faixas etárias, oriundos dos quatro criatórios investigados. Adicionalmente, Escherichia coli foi isolado de 57 amostras (95%), Klebsiella spp., de cinco amostras (8,33%), Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris e Enterobacter spp. de uma amostra (1,66%). Das 17 cepas de P. aeruginosa submetidas ao teste de susceptibilidade aos antimicrobianos, todas (100%) apresentaram sensibilidade à Amicacina e à Ciprofloxacina e todas (100%) foram resistentes ao Sulfametoxazol/Trimetoprim e à Tetraciclina. Foram encontrados cinco perfis diferentes de resistência aos antimicrobianos, indicando uma variação da resistência entre as cepas de Pseudomonas isoladas, inclusive em animais do mesmo criatório e mantidos no mesmo piquete.

There has been limited research on the prevalence of ostrich intestinal pathogens and on the role of these animals as foodborne pathogens source. This study was conducted to estimate the frequence of Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., Campylobacter spp. and Pseudomonas spp. from intestinal swabs of ostriches and to investigate the antibiotic resistance of the isolates. Sixty samples collected from four ostrich farms were examined. Salmonella, Listeria and Campylobacter were not isolated from the samples investigated and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from 17 (28.3%) samples. Additionally, Escherichia coli was isolated from 57 samples, (95%), Klebsiella spp. from five (8.33%), and Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris and Enterobacter spp. from one sample (1,66%). All Pseudomonas isolates were susceptible to Amicacin and Ciprofloxacin, and all of them (100%) were resistant to Trimethoprin/Sulfametox and to Tetracicline. Five antimicrobial resistance profiles were found, showing a resistance diversity among the Pseudomonas isolates, even in the same farm and raised at the same pen.

The paranasal air sinuses of predatory and armored dinosaurs (archosauria: theropoda and ankylosauria) and their contribution to cephalic structure.

The paranasal air sinuses and nasal cavities were studied along with other cephalic spaces (brain cavity, paratympanic sinuses) in certain dinosaurs via CT scanning and 3D visualization to document the anatomy and examine the contribution of the sinuses to the morphological organization of the head as a whole. Two representatives each of two dinosaur clades are compared: the theropod saurischians Majungasaurus and Tyrannosaurus and the ankylosaurian ornithischians Panoplosaurus and Euoplocephalus. Their extant archosaurian outgroups, birds and crocodilians (exemplified by ostrich and alligator), display a diversity of paranasal sinuses, yet they share only a single homologous antorbital sinus, which in birds has an important subsidiary diverticulum, the suborbital sinus. Both of the theropods had a large antorbital sinus that pneumatized many of the facial and palatal bones as well as a birdlike suborbital sinus. Given that the suborbital sinus interleaves with jaw muscles, the paranasal sinuses of at least some theropods (including birds) were actively ventilated rather than being dead-air spaces. Although many ankylosaurians have been thought to have had extensive paranasal sinuses, most of the snout is instead (and surprisingly) often occupied by a highly convoluted airway. Digital segmentation, coupled with 3D visualization and analysis, allows the positions of the sinuses to be viewed in place within both the skull and the head and then measured volumetrically. These quantitative data allow the first reliable estimates of dinosaur head mass and an assessment of the potential savings in mass afforded by the sinuses.

Complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequences of extinct birds: ratite phylogenetics and the vicariance biogeography hypothesis.

The ratites have stimulated much debate as to how such large flightless birds came to be distributed across the southern continents, and whether they are a monophyletic group or are composed of unrelated lineages that independently lost the power of flight. Hypotheses regarding the relationships among taxa differ for morphological and molecular data sets, thus hindering attempts to test whether plate tectonic events can explain ratite biogeography. Here, we present the complete mitochondrial DNA genomes of two extinct moas from New Zealand, along with those of five extant ratites (the lesser rhea, the ostrich, the great spotted kiwi, the emu and the southern cassowary and two tinamous from different genera. The non-stationary base composition in these sequences violates the assumptions of most tree-building methods. When this bias is corrected using neighbour-joining with log-determinant distances and non-homogeneous maximum likelihood, the ratites are found to be monophlyletic, with moas basal, as in morphological trees. The avian sequences also violate a molecular clock, so we applied a non-parametric rate smoothing algorithm, which minimizes ancestor-descendant local rate changes, to date nodes in the tree. Using this method, most of the major ratite lineages fit the vicariance biogeography hypothesis, the exceptions being the ostrich and the kiwi, which require dispersal to explain their present distribution.