Miguel Ángel Quevedo

Three endemic vulture species Gyps bengalensis, Gyps indicus and Gyps tenuirostris are critically endangered following dramatic declines in South Asia resulting from exposure to diclofenac, a veterinary drug present in the livestock carcasses that they scavenge. Diclofenac is widely used globally and could present a risk to Gyps species from other regions. In this study, we test the toxicity of diclofenac to a Eurasian (Gyps fulvus) and an African (Gyps africanus) species, neither of which is threatened. A dose of 0.8 mg kg(-1) of diclofenac was highly toxic to both species, indicating that they are at least as sensitive to diclofenac as G. bengalensis, for which we estimate an LD50 of 0.1-0.2 mg kg(-1). We suggest that diclofenac is likely to be toxic to all eight Gyps species, and that G. africanus, which is phylogenetically close to G. bengalensis, would be a suitable surrogate for the safety testing of alternative drugs to diclofenac.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and diversity of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) species from wild birds in Spain, as well as to analyze the antimicrobial resistance phenotype/genotype and the virulence gene content. During 2015–2016, tracheal samples of 242 wild birds were collected in different regions of Spain for staphylococci recovery. The species identification was performed using MALDI-TOF. The antimicrobial resistance phenotype and genotype was investigated by the disk diffusion method and by PCR, respectively. The presence of the virulence genes lukF/S-PV, tst, eta, etb, etd and scn was investigated by PCR. Moreover, CoNS carrying the mecA gene were subjected to SCCmec typing. Of the tested animals, 60% were CoNS-carriers, and 173 CoNS isolates were recovered from the 146 positive animals, which belonged to 11 species, with predominance of S. sciuri (n = 118) and S. lentus (n = 25). A total of 34% of CoNS isolates showed a multidrug resistance phenotype, and 42 mecA-positive methicillin-resistant CoNS (MRCoNS) were detected. The isolates showed resistance to the following antimicrobials (percentage of resistant isolates/antimicrobial resistance genes detected): penicillin (49/ blaZ, mecA), cefoxitin (24/ mecA), erythromycin and/or clindamycin (92/ erm(B), erm(C), erm(43), msr(A), mph(C), lnu(A), lsa(B), vga(A) and sal(A)), gentamicin and/or tobramycin (5/ aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2″)-Ia, ant(4′)-Ia), streptomycin (12/str), tetracycline (17/ tet(K), tet(L), tet(M)), ciprofloxacin (4), chloramphenicol (1/ fexA), fusidic acid (86/ fusB, fusD) and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (1/ dfrK). None of the isolates harbored the lukF/S-PV, eta, etb, etd and scn genes, but two S. sciuri isolates (1%) carried the tst gene. Wild birds are frequently colonized by CoNS species, especially S. sciuri. We identified scavenging on intensively produced livestock and feeding on landfills as risk factors for CoNS carriage. High proportions of MRCoNS and multidrug resistant CoNS were detected, which coupled with the presence of important virulence genes is of concern.

There is a lack of protocols specifically developed for the assessment of welfare of wild animals in captivity, even when it is known that providing good standards of welfare is important. The aim of this study was the development and the application of a protocol for the assessment of welfare in captive dorcas gazelles. The protocol was mainly developed taking into account the protocol for the assessment of welfare in cattle from the Welfare Quality® project, the available literature of the biology of this species and the Husbandry Guidelines developed for captive breeding and management of this species. The protocol was specifically developed for dorcas gazelles and included four principles, 10 criteria and 23 animal and environmental-based indicators. To test its utility, this protocol was applied to five different groups of gazelles from three different zoos. Its application made possible to detect areas for improvement in all groups assessed.

Ensuring welfare in captive wild animal populations is important not only for ethical and legal reasons, but also to maintain healthy individuals and populations. An increased level of social behaviors such as aggression can reduce welfare by causing physical damage and chronic stress to animals. Recently, cortisol in hair has been advanced as a non‐invasive indicator to quantify long‐lasting stress in many species. The sensitivity of social behavior and hair cortisol concentration was evaluated in several groups of dorcas gazelles ( Gazella dorcas ). Four different groups of gazelles from three different zoos were observed and the expression of intra‐specific affiliative and negative social behaviors was assessed across the different groups. Hair samples were taken from sub‐groups of animals and analyzed for cortisol concentrations. Significant differences between groups of dorcas gazelles were found in frequency of negative social behavior and hair cortisol concentration. Despite the low sample size, these two parameters had a positive Spearman correlation coefficient ( r s = +0.80, P = 0.20). These results suggest that hair cortisol levels are sensitive to differences in the social structure of dorcas gazelles. Zoo Biol. 35:467–473, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.