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A unique pattern of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreaks has emerged along the Central Asia Flyway, where infection of wild birds has been reported with steady frequency since 2005. We assessed the potential for two hosts of HPAI H5N1, the bar-headed goose (Anser indicus) and ruddy shelduck (Tadorna tadorna), to act as agents for virus dispersal along this ‘thoroughfare’.
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It is shown that peatlands are characterized by specific biological diversity on the genetic, species, ecosystem, and landscape levels. They often present the best preserved areas, habitats, and shelters for biological species. Peatlands form a specific environment and play a significant part in the regulation of climate due to their participation in the water and carbon cycles. They are characterized by a wide range of biodiversity; spatial heterogeneity; and a particular structural and functional integrity, which is determined by the interrelations between excessive moisture, peatland vegetation, and peat. The scope of all the features mentioned presupposes a specific, often ambiguous, response of peatlands and their biodiversity to climate change.
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The book includes methodical recommendations on basin approach to integrated water resource management, establishment of protected areas, econet development and sustainable agriculture as well as recommendations how to fill a Ramsar Information Sheet. The book is targeted to national, regional, basin and local level authorities in the water, agriculture and environment sector as well as to environmental NGOs and farmers.
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This article provides recommendations for implementing telemetry studies on waterfowl on the basis of our experience in a tracking study conducted in three countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the study was to document movements by duck species identified as priority candidates for the potential spread of avian influenza.
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In this study, historical data derived from over 80 years of bird ringing are combined with recent satellite tracking data to delineate migration routes, movement chronology and habitat use patterns of waterfowl in relation to H5N1 outbreak locations. Results confirm migratory linkage between breeding and moulting areas in northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia, with nonbreeding areas in the Caspian, Black and eastern Mediterranean Sea basins, as well as with South Asia.
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We monitored avian influenza in wild and domestic birds in two different regions in Nigeria to investigate the presence and persistence of avian influenza virus in African birds. We found low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H5N2 viruses in three spur-winged geese (Plectropterus gambensis) in the Hadejia–Nguru wetlands. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that all of the genes, except the non-structural (NS) genes, of the LPAI H5N2 viruses were more closely related to genes recently found in wild and domestic birds in Europe.
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This study suggests that the continental-scale dynamics of HPAI H5N1 are structured as a number of persistence areas delineated by domestic ducks, connected by rare transmission through migratory waterfowl.
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This review describes outcomes of a 2010 horizon-scanning exercise building upon the first exercise conductedin 2009. The aim of both horizon scans was to identify emerging issues that could have substantial impacts on the conservation of biological diversity, and to do so sufficiently early to encourage policy-relevant, practical research onthose issues.
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The present study highlighted the importance of allocation of water for periodic inundation to maintain floodplain characteristics including aquatic/semi-aquatic vegetation cover as critical to the management of the river ecosystem. The current policy of water use focused entirely on human uses ignoring ecological requirements, and had clear adverse implications on the health of the river ecosystem.
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In this paper, we describe our attempts to make quantitative research studies and precise identification of benthos species a civil procedure with a method that is not only simple but also semi-quantitative and analytical. From field tests and field practices, we propose the following method as the civil procedure.
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This is the first peer reviewed scientific article on the global carbon dioxide emissions due to peatsoil degradation and loss, with a focus on Southeast Asia. The article is based on the work for the report Peat-CO2 that presents the shocking figures about emissions due to drainage and fires in Southeast Asia.
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The infection of wild birds by highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza (AI) virus was virtually unknown – apart from one instance of the disease appearing in common terns in South Africa in 1961 – before the Asian strain of highly pathogenic AI virus (AIV), H5N1, began to expand across the world. Outbreaks of clinical disease in Eurasia have resulted in visible mortality among populations of free-ranging wild birds in a multitude of species.
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