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Relatively few studies on hemoparasites have been conducted on wading birds in the families Ardeidae and Threskiornithidae (order Pelecaniformes), especially in the United States. In this study, we obtained baseline data on the prevalence and genetic diversity of haemosporidian parasites in wading birds opportunistically sampled from southern Florida, USA. We detected blood parasites in White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Green Heron (Butorides virescens), and Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) with several novel host-parasite relationships. Infected birds had low parasitemias (average 0.77%, range 0–4%) suggesting that infections were chronic. Despite the low sample sizes for several of our sampled species, these data highlight the diversity of parasites in this understudied group of birds and suggest that additional studies are needed to investigate the potential impacts of these parasites on their health, especially since southern Florida is becoming increasingly urbanized which can alter parasite transmission or host susceptibility.

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Suffering from decubitus ulcer, also known as bedsore, leads to long lasting treatment of the affected region as well as it provides a significant contribution to expenditures in health care. Acquiring a decubitus ulcer during a hospital stay is often related to surgical procedures. Therefore an improvement of the intraoperative situation is eligible. In contrast to common approaches focusing on passive pressure redistribution of the mat a new approach towards an active load controlled bedding system is presented. This active support system consists of multiple elements, enabled to change height and detecting the applied load on each element. Due to lowering an overloaded region a decrease of applied load is expected while the load on the surrounding elements will increase.

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