The examination of population‐specific adaptations of introduced salmonids to the wide range of environments found in Patagonia (southern South America) can help unveil some of the genetic and environmental contributions to life history variation. The rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss introduced into Argentina originated from a few parental stocks. Although some of these stocks were anadromous, all of the dozens of established populations described until now have been freshwater resident. In this paper we provide the first documentation of the presence of an anadromous run of rainbow trout in the Santa Cruz River, the second largest river of Argentinean Patagonia. Microsatellite analysis revealed that anadromous and resident fish from the Santa Cruz River are genetically indistinguishable, probably representing alternative life histories within the same population. Both wild types are very different from the fish of Danish origin that were reared in a local hatchery, suggesting that they are descended more directly from California stocks or that they have been affected by strong drift or selection. Marine growth and freshwater residence are comparable to those of California steelhead. River entrance peaks in early fall. Population age structure and scale pattern analysis indicate that fish enter the river at age 3 but that most do not spawn until their next river entry as 4‐year‐olds. An unusual aspect of Santa Cruz anadromous fish is that they are long‐lived and highly iteroparous. For instance, 20% of the fish analyzed had experienced as many as five spawning events.

Medication use at the end of life varies widely by setting, both for potentially appropriate and inappropriate medications. Combining experts' opinion and current medication use resulted in the identification of 16 medications that might be used to assess the quality of cancer care at the end of life.

The presence of Chinook salmon in Patagonia is an example of a successful invasion by a Pacific salmon species. The combination of historical records and genetic data can help to determine the origin of invasive / introduced species and allow the identification of the sources and dispersal process. We analyzed the genetic structure of Chinook salmon in the Futaleufú River (Pacific slope basin of Patagonia) using single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes and a recently described baseline dataset of native North American Chinook salmon populations. Our results revealed that Chinook salmon established in the Futaleufú River have high levels of within-population genetic diversity compared with populations from across the native range. Based on genetic similarity and historical reports, our results indicate that the Futaleufú population was first established by colonizing fish derived from the Lower Columbia River Basin, imported into Chile for ocean ranching purposes during the 1970s and 1980s, and afterward it was strongly supplemented by escaped fish from net pen aquaculture that used broodstock imported during the 1990s from various sources, including the California Central Valley (via New Zealand), the Middle Oregon Coast, and Vancouver Island. The higher incidence of fish derived from the most recent introductions in our sample suggest that the contribution of escaped salmon from these posterior stockings on establishment success must have been particularly strong because included different sources. Subsequent admixture and hybridization among these multiple independent source stocks is likely responsible for the high level of standing genetic variation, which may be facilitating local adaptation and augmenting the opportunity for successful invasion and further colonization.

Background and aimsDespite advances in our knowledge of effective services for people who use drugs over the last decades globally, coverage remains poor in most countries, while quality is often unknown. This paper aims to discuss the historical development of successful epidemiological indicators and to present a framework for extending them with additional indicators of coverage and quality of harm reduction services, for monitoring and evaluation at international, national or subnational levels. The ultimate aim is to improve these services in order to reduce health and social problems among people who use drugs, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, crime and legal problems, overdose (death) and other morbidity and mortality.Methods and resultsThe framework was developed collaboratively using consensus methods involving nominal group meetings, review of existing quality standards, repeated email commenting rounds and qualitative analysis of opinions/experiences from a broad range of professionals/experts, including members of civil society and organisations representing people who use drugs. Twelve priority candidate indicators are proposed for opioid agonist therapy (OAT), needle and syringe programmes (NSP) and generic cross-cutting aspects of harm reduction (and potentially other drug) services. Under the specific OAT indicators, priority indicators included ‘coverage’, ‘waiting list time’, ‘dosage’ and ‘availability in prisons’. For the specific NSP indicators, the priority indicators included ‘coverage’, ‘number of needles/syringes distributed/collected’, ‘provision of other drug use paraphernalia’ and ‘availability in prisons’. Among the generic or cross-cutting indicators the priority indicators were ‘infectious diseases counselling and care’, ‘take away naloxone’, ‘information on safe use/sex’ and ‘condoms’. We discuss conditions for the successful development of the suggested indicators and constraints (e.g. funding, ideology). We propose conducting a pilot study to test the feasibility and applicability of the proposed indicators before their scaling up and routine implementation, to evaluate their effectiveness in comparing service coverage and quality across countries.ConclusionsThe establishment of an improved set of validated and internationally agreed upon best practice indicators for monitoring harm reduction service will provide a structural basis for public health and epidemiological studies and support evidence and human rights-based health policies, services and interventions.

In the present study, profiles of stable isotope composition were characterized for two species with partially migratory populations in rivers along the latitudinal gradient of Patagonia, brown trout Salmo trutta and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. The effects of factors (e.g. ontogeny of fishes, location, species and fasting) that may influence the stable isotope analysis (SIA) were evaluated, as was SIA evaluated as a tool to assign individual fish to their corresponding ecotype. Anadromous fishes exhibited enriched d 15 N (15Á2 AE 1Á0%; mean AE S.D.) and d 13 C (À19Á2 AE 1Á3%) relative to resident fishes' d 15 N (8Á8 AE 1Á1%) and d 13 C (À23Á2 AE 2Á5%). For both species, the difference in d 15 N was larger between resident (range 6Á8-10Á7%) and anadromous (range 14Á3-17Á8%) fishes than that in d 13 C. Values of d 13 C, while not as dramatically contrasting in rainbow trout, provided a powerful anadromy marker for brown trout in the region. Increases were found in both d 15 N and d 13 C during the spawning migration of anadromous rainbow trout, most likely due to fasting. Differences in stable isotopes between location, size and species were found, suggesting different stable isotopes base levels in freshwater environments and different trophic levels and feeding location of anadromous populations. The SIA was demonstrated as a powerful tool for ecotype discrimination in Patagonian Rivers, overriding any effect of sampling location, size or species.