Ute Kryger

How to test nontarget effects of veterinary pharmaceutical residues in livestock dung in the field

To register veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) as parasiticides on pastured animals, legislation in the European Union requires an environmental risk assessment to test the potential nontarget effects of fecal residues on dung-dwelling organisms. Products with adverse effects in single-species laboratory tests require further, higher-tier testing to assess the extent of these effects on entire communities of dung-dwelling organisms under more realistic field or semifield conditions. Currently, there are no documents specifically written to assist researchers in conducting higher-tier tests or to assist regulators in interpreting the results of such tests in an appropriate context. Here we provide such a document, written by members of the SETAC Advisory Group DOTTS (Dung Organism Toxicity Testing Standardization) with research experience on dung fauna in central and southern Europe, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. This document briefly reviews the organisms that make up the dung community and their role in dung degradation, identifies key considerations in the design and interpretation of experimental studies, and makes recommendations on how to proceed.

Dung beetle assemblage structure in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve : responses to a mosaic of landscape types, vegetation communities, and dung types

ABSTRACT Tswalu Kalahari Reserve is a private game reserve covering 1,020 km2 in the Northern Cape, South Africa. It has been created from a number of reclaimed farms and restocked with large indigenous mammals. Two surveys were conducted to inventory the dung beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) and determine their spatial patterns and food type associations. The spatial survey used pig dung—baited pitfall traps to examine dung beetle distribution across three main landscape types (plains, dunes, hills) comprising six principal vegetation communities. The food study examined their relative associations with carrion and four different dung types within a single vegetation community. A total of 70 species was recorded. Because the food association study was spatially restricted and conducted under drought conditions, abundance and species richness (47 species) were much lower than in the spatial study (64 species), which was conducted after substantial rainfall. Principal spatial differences in species abundance structure of assemblages were between the sandy southwest plains and dunes; the sandy northern dune fields and plains; and the rocky hills. Forty species analyzed in the food association study showed clear distributional biases to carrion or the dung of elephant (monogastric herbivore), pig (omnivore), cattle and sheep (ruminant herbivores), or pig and cattle. The results (1) show how dung beetle assemblage structure is locally diversified across the heterogeneous landscape of the reserve and (2) indicate how the different dung types dropped by a diverse assemblage of indigenous mammals may variously favor different species of dung beetles.

Retroposon Insertions Provide Insights into Deep Lagomorph Evolution

The homogenous mammalian order Lagomorpha comprises about 80 species in two families, Ochotonidae (pikas) and Leporidae (rabbits and hares). However, the phylogenetic relationships among leporids are controversial. Molecular data, particularly from mitochondrial sequences, give highly homoplasious signals. To resolve the controversy between mitochondrial and nuclear data, we analyzed genomic orthologous retroposon insertion sites, a virtually homoplasy-free marker system. From a differential screen of rabbit genomic data for intronic retroposon insertions of CSINE elements, we polymerase chain reaction-amplified and sequenced 11 retroposons in eight representative lagomorphs. We found three retroposons shared among all lagomorphs but absent in outgroups, four confirmed the monophyly of leporids, and three significantly supported Pronolagus as the sister group to all other leporids. One retroposon supported the monophyly of Lepus. The position of Pronolagus outside of the remaining leporids supports the sequence-based signals of nuclear genes and clearly refutes the misleading signals of mitochondrial genes.

Effects of cattle treatment with a cypermethrin/cymiazol spray on survival and reproduction of the dung beetle species Euoniticellus intermedius (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

In a bioassay to determine non-target ecotoxicological effects of a pyrethroid spray (Ektoban) on dung beetles, dung from both cypermethrin/cymiazol-treated and control cattle was collected one, two, three, five, seven, 14, 21 and 28 days after treatment and fed to a treatment and control group (respectively) of beetles of the species Euoniticellus intermedius (Reiche). This was done to assess whether a spray formulation of cypermethrin may affect dung beetles differently than previously tested pour-on formulations. Following three beetle generations for two weeks each, the experiment retrieved no significant differences in adult or larval survival, egg production, fecundity and fertility between the control and treatment group. These results demonstrated that the used spray formulation of cypermethrin is likely to be far less detrimental to dung beetles than previously tested pour-ons.

New taxa of relictual Canthonini dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) utilizing rock hyrax middens as refuges in South-western Africa

Presently 21 canthonine genera with 89 species are presently known from Africa. In this paper we describe three new species collected in rock hyraxes ( Procavia capensis (Pallas)) dung middens. They are Dicranocara tatasensis Deschodt and Scholtz sp. n., Dicranocara inexpectata Deschodt and Scholtz sp. n., and Namakwanus davisi Deschodt and Scholtz sp. n. In addition, we describe the immature stages and provide new information on the biology of Dicranocara deschodti Frolov and Scholtz and Namakwanus davisi . The known distribution of all the south-west African endemic canthonine species is also updated. Additionally, a 743 base pair long fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO I) gene is used to construct a molecular phylogeny for the genus Dicranocara Frolov and Scholtz. In the resultant trees, D. tatasensis , D. inexpectata and D. deschodti form three monophyletic groups with high bootstrap support. Applying a molecular clock to the sequence divergences dates the separation of the three species to 3.2 – 2.47 million years before present.

Phylogeography and Conservation of the Rare South African Fruit Chafer Ichnestoma stobbiai (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Ichnestoma stobbiai is an endangered fruit chafer (Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) that occurs in small habitat fragments of South Africa. The adults of this species are short-lived and the females are flightless. Thus, the vagility of these beetles is extremely low. Prompted by the recent discovery of morphological diver-gence between geographic populations, this genetic study aimed to assess genetic differentiation within and among these different populations. DNA sequencing of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial gene was used to determine the genetic composition of the populations. Most populations revealed low haplotype diversity. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequence data resulted in a basal polytomy. Nested clade analysis inferred allopatric fragmentation for all significant clades. This reconfirms the original hypothesis that the extant populations represent relicts of a single, formerly widely distributed species. All habitat patches should be protected and a detailed plan for genetic augmentation should be worked out.