A year long study of seasonal variations in community structure and biomass of sandy intertidal zone was carried out in Sonmiani Bay (Miani Hor), Balochistan. The samples were collected, by using a small beach seine and experimentally designed small beam trawl to collect the pelagic, demersal and benthic intertidal organisms. The sampling was carried out from January 2002 to December 2002 during the low tides duration. A total of 84 species were recorded mainly comprised of three major faunal groups e.g. fishes, crustaceans and mollusca. The mollusca were the most diverse and abundant group of animals that formed 39.37% of total faunal assemblage, where as crustaceans and fishes contributed 32.2% and 27.6% ,respectively. Of these, Mugilidae and Sillaginidae were dominating families from fishes. Portunidae, Penaeidae, Diogenidae, Nassariidae and Dentaliidae families also showed their presence obviously as the prominent community groups. The beam trawl collected more number (58.71%) of benthic individuals from the benthic area than beach seine that sampled the pelagic and free swimming fauna (41.28%). A significant seasonal variation (P=0.047) in the biomass distribution indicated the utilization of shallow intertidal zone adjacent to mangroves, as nursery and refuge of many juveniles of resident and visiting fauna
Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite of veterinary and human public health importance for which birds act as an intermediate host. No information is available about the epidemiology of T. gondii in wild birds of Pakistan. The present study was designed to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with T. gondii antibodies in wild birds of District Kasur, Punjab Province, Pakistan. A total of 200 wild birds of 28 species were captured from four tehsils (administrative subdistricts of districts) of the district Kasur and their serum samples screened for the presence of T. gondii antibodies using a latex agglutination test (LAT; cut-off value: 1:64). Twenty-five (13%) individual birds and 13 (46%) of the bird species were seropositive for T. gondii antibodies. There were statistical differences in T. gondii prevalence between adults and young (15% and 7%, respectively, P=0.001) and healthy and sick (11% and 50%, respectively, P=0.000) while there were not differences between genders, sites, urbanicity, and tehsils. The present study provides evidence of T. gondii antibodies in wild birds of Pakistan.
Length-weight relationship of Liza subviridis and Sillago sihama (Family: Mugilidae; Class: Pisces and Family:
Sillaginidae; Class: Pisces) in subadults sampled from Somiani Bay Balochistan, Pakistan during 2002, 2003 and 2006 was analyzed. Liza subviridis showed positive allometry (3.23) in 2002, and nHgative allometry during
2003 (2.95) and (1.95). Sub adults of Sillago sihama showed positive allometry during 2002 (3.10) and
2003 (3.13). An isometric condition (3.02) was observed in the samples of Sillago sihama collected from Bhaira
in 2006.
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