Globally, protected areas have long been the corner stone of biodiversity conservation efforts. In India's Western Ghats, small and isolated protected areas are embedded in a matrix of multiple land-uses, most of which include agroforests. These agroforests are being increasingly recognized for their supplementary role in conserving wildlife. We examined bird species richness and densities in areca (Areca catechu), coffee (Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) agroforests in the Western Ghats. We developed a priori hypotheses, predicting that bird species richness and guild density would be highest in coffee, followed by areca and rubber agroforests. We carried out 551 point-count surveys involving 386 hours of sampling in 187 agroforests across a 29,634 km 2 area of the Ghats. We observed 204 bird species, of which 170 were residents. The average estimated richness per agroforest was higher in coffee (60.5) compared to rubber (45.4) and areca (34.1). We modeled species richness as a function of relevant biogeographic and environmental covariates. The most influential factors were tree cover, tree density and rainfall in all agroforests, but the strength of these effects varied. Coffee supported higher densities in all four habitat and three feeding guilds compared to areca and rubber. We integrated extensive field sampling with modeling that accounted for imperfect detection, while assessing bird richness and densities across multiple agroforest types. We establish that coffee agroforests are substantially richer in birds than rubber and areca, but all three agroforests play an important role in providing subsidiary habitats for birds in the Ghats. Policy decisions and markets must incorporate such biodiversity values and services provided by these agroforests to sustain and facilitate long-term biodiversity conservation.

Background:The Plain-backed Thrush Zoothera mollissima breeds in the Himalayas and mountains of central China. It was long considered conspecific with the Long-tailed Thrush Zoothera dixoni, until these were shown to be broadly sympatric. Methods:We revise the Z. mollissima-Z. dixoni complex by integrating morphological, acoustic, genetic (two mitochondrial and two nuclear markers), ecological and distributional datasets. Results:In earlier field observations, we noted two very different song types of "Plain-backed" Thrush segregated by breeding habitat and elevation. Further integrative analyses congruently identify three groups: an alpine breeder in the Himalayas and Sichuan, China ("Alpine Thrush"); a forest breeder in the eastern Himalayas and northwest Yunnan (at least), China ("Himalayan Forest Thrush"); and a forest breeder in central Sichuan ("Sichuan Forest Thrush"). Alpine and Himalayan Forest Thrushes are broadly sympatric, but segregated by habitat and altitude, and the same is probably true also for Alpine and Sichuan Forest Thrushes. These three groups differ markedly in morphology and songs. In addition, DNA sequence data from three non-breeding specimens from Yunnan indicate that yet another lineage exists ("Yunnan Thrush"). However, we find no consistent morphological differences from Alpine Thrush, and its breeding range is unknown. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that all four groups diverged at least a few million years ago, and identify Alpine Thrush and the putative "Yunnan Thrush" as sisters, and the two forest taxa as sisters. Cytochrome b divergences among the four Z. mollissima sensu lato (s.l.) clades are similar to those between any of them and Z. dixoni, and exceed that between the two congeneric outgroup species. We lectotypify the name Oreocincla rostrata Hodgson, 1845 with the Z. mollissima sensu stricto (s.s.) specimen long considered its type. No available name unambiguously pertains to the Himalayan Forest Thrush. Conclusions: The Plain-backed Thrush Z. mollissima s.l. comprises at least three species: Alpine Thrush Z. mollissima s.s., with a widespread alpine breeding distribution; Sichuan Forest Thrush Z. griseiceps, breeding in central Sichuan forests; and Himalayan Forest Thrush, breeding in the eastern Himalayas and northwest Yunnan (at least), which is described herein as a new species. "Yunnan Thrush" requires further study.

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1. Global tropical forests have been modified and fragmented by commodity agroforests, leading to significant alterations in ecological communities. Nevertheless, these production landscapes offer secondary habitats that support and sustain local biodiversity. In this study, we assess community level and species-specific responses of amphibians to land management in areca, coffee and rubber, three of the largest commodity agroforests in the Western Ghats.2. A total of 106 agroforests across a 30,000-km 2 landscape were surveyed for amphibians using a combination of visual and auditory encounter surveys. We used a Bayesian multi-species occupancy modelling framework to examine patterns of species richness, beta diversity, dominance structure and individual species occupancies. The influence of biogeographic variables such as elevation and latitude as well as microhabitat availability of streams, ponds and unpaved plantation roads was tested on amphibian species occupancy.3. Coffee agroforests had the highest species richness and lowest dominance when compared to areca and rubber. Beta diversity was highest in areca for within agroforest measures. Compared across agroforests, coffee had highest beta diversity with areca and rubber. Both elevation and latitude showed an overall positive association with amphibian occupancy, although species-specific responses varied considerably.4. Microhabitat availability was one of the strongest predictors of amphibian occupancy, with mean community response being positive with presence of water bodies and roads. Pond presence increased species richness per site by 34.7% (speciesspecific responses in occupancy ranged from -2.7% to 327%). Stream presence alone did not change species richness but species-specific response ranged from -59% to 273%. Presence of plantation roads also increased species richness by 21.5% (species-specific response ranged from -82% to 656%). Being unpaved withThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infections are major public health problems in developing countries, including India. Hence, combination vaccines containing DTwP, recombinant hepatitis B and Hib conjugate vaccines have been developed. Here, we report a Phase IV study which assessed safety and reactogenicity of a new DTwP-HepBCHib vaccine. Three doses of DTwP-HepBCHib vaccine (Pentavac, Serum Institute of India Ltd) or TritanrixHBCHib (GlaxoSmithKline Beecham) were administered to infants at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age in 2:1 ratio. The subjects were followed till one month after the third dose for safety assessment. Adverse events were captured in structured diaries and physical examinations were performed on each visit. The study was conducted in 1510 infants. Both vaccines caused injection site local and systemic reactions and the incidence was similar in both the groups. The incidence of local solicited reactions was: tenderness 35.9 %-33.6 %; redness 18.1 %-17.2 %; swelling 23.7 %-22.4 %; induration 12.8 % -13.7 %. The percentage of systemic solicited reactions were: diarrhea 2.2 %-2.2 %; drowsiness 3.3 %-3.4 %; fever 14.0 %-11.2 %; irritability 28.1 %-25.4 %; loss of appetite 6.6 %-5.6 %; persistent crying 17.7 %-15.7 %; vomiting 3.5 %-3.0 %. No serious adverse event was caused by the vaccines. The new DTwP-HepBCHib combination vaccine showed similar safety profile to that of an imported vaccine in Indian infants.

We re‐evaluated the taxonomy of the Striated Prinia Prinia crinigera–Brown Prinia P. polychroa complex using molecular, morphological and vocal analyses. The extensive seasonal, sexual, age‐related, geographical and taxon‐specific variation in this complex has never before been adequately studied. As no previous genetic or vocal analyses have focused on this group, misinterpretation of taxonomic signals from limited conventional morphological study alone was likely. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, we found that P. crinigera sensu lato (s.l.) comprises two non‐sister groups of taxa (Himalayan crinigera and Chinese striata groups) that differ substantially morphologically and vocally and that are broadly sympatric in Yunnan Province, China. Prinia polychroa cooki (Myanmar) and P. p. rocki (southern Vietnam) are each morphologically, vocally and genetically distinct. Thai, Cambodian and Laotian populations formerly ascribed to P. p. cooki are morphologically and vocally most similar to and most closely related to Javan P. p. polychroa, and require a new name, proposed here. Prinia p. bangsi of Yunnan is part of the crinigera group rather than of P. polychroa, and hence there is no evidence for sympatry between P. polychroa s.l. and P. crinigera s.l., nor of the occurrence of P. polychroa in mainland China or Taiwan. We recommend the recognition of five species in the complex, with the following suggestions for new English names: Himalayan Prinia P. crinigera sensu stricto (s.s.; with subspecies striatula, crinigera, yunnanensis and bangsi); Chinese Prinia P. striata (subspecies catharia, parumstriata and striata); Burmese Prinia P. cooki (monotypic); Annam Prinia P. rocki (monotypic) and Deignan's Prinia P. polychroa s.s. (subspecies Javan polychroa and the new Southeast Asian taxon). This study underlines the importance of using multiple datasets for the elucidation of diversity of cryptic bird species and their evolutionary history and biogeography.

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