Sera from 273 wild mammals from Missouri and Kansas (USA), collected between December 1974 and December 1987, were tested for the presence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii using the Sabin-Feldman dye test. Sixty-five (24%) had antibodies at titers of > or = 1:8, including 38 (66%) of 58 carnivores, 14 (15%) of 94 omnivores, 13 (11%) of 117 herbivores, and none of four insectivores. The prevalence of antibodies in mice (Mus musculus and Peromyscus spp.) and rats (Rattus norvegicus and Sigmodon hispidus) was low (3%), while medium sized herbivores such as squirrels (Sciurus spp.), rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), and muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) had prevalences of about 18%. Red foxes (Vulpes fulva) and mink (Mustela vison) had the highest prevalence of antibodies with frequencies of 90 and 66%, respectively. In 32 attempts to isolate Toxoplasma gondii from wild mammals with positive (> or = 1:4) titers, only six (19%) were successful: a gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), a beaver (Castor canadensis), an opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), a red fox and two mink. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the probability of infection with Toxoplasma gondii, and therefore prevalence of antibodies in wildlife, is greatest in carnivores.
Humanitarian intervention is one of the primary international security problems of today. As an object analysis, it sits at the intersection of the realist and idealist traditions in the study of international relations. Despite its high profile, debate on humanitarian intervention is unsatisfactory; participants talk past one another and most discussion is devoid of ethical concepts. In particular, there is a striking absence of explicit reference to the Just War tradition. Only scholars of international law have explicitly and systematically examined normative issues, but their focus seems too narrow. The result is a series of what appear to be arbitrary judgments about when humanitarian intervention is justified combined with an often fundamental misunderstanding of the international system. This essay presents a sketch of the Just War tradition's main concepts and argues that it is both possible and advantageous to resort to them in discussing and evaluating humanitarian intervention. The article then applies these concepts to the recent debate on humanitarian intervention and shows that almost all of the concerns raised in this scholarship fit within the Just War framework. The essay focuses on the criteria from the Just War tradition that deal with when to resort to the use of armed force.
To assess the roles of the German cockroach (Blatella germanica) and the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) in the transmission of Sarcocystis muris and of 3 other coccidia of cats-Toxoplasma gondii, Isospora felis, and Isospora rivolta, cockroaches exposed to feces containing these coccidia were periodically fed to mice, as was a portion of the fecal matter. Sarcocystis muris sporocysts, which in feces remained infectious for at least 20 days, were also transmitted to mice by P. americana for at least 20 days and by B. germanica for 5 days after exposure to infectious feces. Toxoplasma gondii oocysts were transmitted by P. americana intermittently up to 10 days, but by B. germanica only immediately after exposure to feces. Oocysts of 2 species of Isospora, when associated with fecal matter, remained infectious for 20 days. Those of I. rivolta were transmitted by both cockroach species for 10 days, but I. felis was transmitted only by by B. germanica, and for only 2 days.
The following heteroxenous and cyst-forming coccidian genera, Besnoitia, Cystoisospora, Frenkelia, Hammondia, Neospora, Sarcocystis and Toxoplasma have been compared biologically, and a key to determine their tissue cysts is provided.
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