Tick burdens cause direct damage to hosts and transmit several disease agents, the majority of which are secreted into feeding lesions through tick salivary glands. Reduced incidence of naturally transmitted tick-borne diseases was recently observed among cattle immunized with tick salivary gland extracts (TSGE). The aim of this work was to compare the ultrastructure of salivary glands from Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus removed from cattle that were immunized with TSGE to those from control cattle injected with saline. Partially fed female ticks that infested these cattle were collected, and their salivary glands were removed and compared with light microscopy. More extensive salivary gland damage was observed in ticks collected from cattle immunized with TSGE than those from saline controls. Salivary glands from immunized cattle had extensive necrosis in agranular c and f cells; partial necrosis in granular b, c, and e cells; and slight necrosis in a and d cells. These results indicated that host immunization with TSGE causes detrimental effects to female tick salivary glands and correlated with the reduced incidence of naturally transmitted tick-borne diseases observed among these cattle.

To clarify the mechanism of implantation, relationship between positioning of the mouse embryo in the uterus and distribution of uterine glands along the long axis of the uterine horn was examined by three-dimensional remodelling of the uterine endometrium. There were two unique regions in the endometrium. Uterine glands were distributed widely from mesometrial to anti-mesometrial side in one region. It was localized from lateral to anti-mesometrial side in another. These different regions were alternately aligned throughout the uterine horn. The number and position of embryos was consistent with that of the latter region. This study suggests that the type of distribution of uterine glands is closely related to the positioning of the embryo in mice.

Acerodon jubatus (the Golden-Crowned flying fox) is an endemic species in the Philippines, which was suspected to be a host of the Reston strain of the Ebola virus. As nocturnal animals, the flying foxes spend daytime at the roosting site, which they use for self-maintenance and reproduction. To understand the variation in diurnal behavior and time allocation for various activities in the Golden-Crowned flying fox, we investigated their daytime behavior and activity budget using instantaneous scan sampling and all occurrence focal sampling. Data collection was performed from 07:00 to 18:00 hr during January 8–17, 2017. The most frequent activity was sleeping (76.3%). The remaining activities were wing flapping (5.0%), self-grooming (4.2%), hanging relaxation (3.4%), wing spread (2.9%), movement (2.4%), mating/courtship (2.4%), aggression (1.9%), hanging alert (1.2%), excretion (0.1%) and scent marks (0.05%). The frequency of sleeping, wing flapping, self-grooming, hanging relaxation, aggression, mating/courtship and movement behaviors changed with the time of the day. Females allocated more time for resting than males, while males spent more time on the activities that helped enhance their mating opportunities, for example, movement, sexual activity and territorial behavior.

ABSTRACT. To determine the effect of diabetes on reproductive performance, two kinds of diabetes mice, i.e., KK/TaJcl mice with Type-II diabetes and Streptozotocin-induced diabetes mice with Type-I diabetes, were used in this study. Particular attention was paid to uterine natural killer (uNK) cells and placental growth factor (PlGF). The number of fetuses, the fetal and placental weights in both diabetes mice were significantly decreased when compared to controls. Surprisingly, uNK cells in both diabetes mice persisted in the metrial gland even at the term of pregnancy. Although PlGF expression in both diabetes mice was significantly decreased, PlGF protein did not change. These results show that diabetes condition affects reproductive performance, particularly uNK cell behavior, but not PlGF production. KEY WORDS: diabetes, placental growth factor, uterine natural killer cell.

Flying foxes have been widely studied as they are well-known reservoirs of infectious agents. Understanding their population dynamics might help to explain seasonal patterns of disease prevalence, and contribute towards the conservation of flying fox populations. Therefore, this study explored the annual variation in the number of deaths in P. lylei. The study was conducted from 2015–2017, at a Buddhist temple in Thailand, which is the roosting site of P. lylei. The average total number of bat deaths in a month significantly varied between times of a year. A peak was observed during March and May, which ranged in the period of birthing and lactating. There were no significant differences in the average total number of bat deaths in a month between sexes or age classes across times of a years.