Study finds disparate gender differences in victims of child sex trafficking

Study first to test for gender differences in risk factors, experiences of youth incarcerated for childhood prostitution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE STUDY, BY FAU'S COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, EXAMINED A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF INCARCERATED YOUTH INVOLVED IN PROSTITUTION, WHICH WAS DEFINED AS “BEING PAID FOR HAVING SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH SOMEONE.” view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

In the United States, federal laws were created to effectively decriminalize prostitution in minors under the age of 18. However, state and local justice systems continue to arrest and incarcerate minors for prostitution, despite widespread agreement that youth involved in commercial sexual exploitation are victims, not offenders. 

Most youth tend to fall victim to child prostitution and sex trafficking between the ages of 12 and 14. Victims of child prostitution have especially high rates of prior physical, sexual and emotional abuse as well as neglect. 

Calli M. Cain, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice, examined the characteristics and risk factors such as victimization histories, living situations and drug/alcohol use, of incarcerated youth charged with prostitution in the U.S. Given that males and females have different pathways to crime/arrest, she also tested for gender differences in these risk factors. 

The study, published in the journal Victims & Offenders, is the first to look at gender differences in a nationally representative sample of detained youth. Results show that this population of incarcerated youth has several risk factors, including extensive victimization experiences during childhood, and that these experiences vary by gender.

The sample included 2,643 incarcerated youth involved in prostitution, which was defined as “being paid for having sexual relations with someone.”

Among the key findings of the study:

• Seventy-five percent were males and 25 percent were females. The most commonly incarcerated youth were white males (29.4 percent), about 16 years old, followed by black (26.8 percent) and Hispanic (24.7 percent) males.
• About 30 percent of the female sample were white, followed by two or more races/other (24.6 percent), black (23.7 percent) and lastly Hispanic (21.6 percent).
• Nearly 43 percent indicated they had been molested as a child and more than 35 percent had experienced forced sex growing up.
• Nearly half (45.9 percent) indicated they had experienced emotional abuse; the majority (85.3 percent) also indicated they had witnessed serious violence.

“Most youth charged with prostitution have an extensive history of victimization experiences and detaining them often exacerbates their problems, delays appropriate care, interrupts their education, exposes them to youth who commit more serious offenses, and increases justice system costs,” said Cain.

The study showed that female youth charged with prostitution had significantly higher prevalence rates of every form of victimization except witnessing serious violence. Nearly four out of five females reported experiencing physical abuse as a child compared to just over half of males.

• Almost two-thirds of the girls were molested as a child, half were raped, and three-fourths were emotionally abused as a child, compared to 36 percent of males who were molested, 31 percent who were raped, and 37 percent who were emotionally abused.
• Significantly more females (84 percent) reported using substances every day or several times a week in the months before custody compared to 75 percent of males.
• Females had far higher rates of polyvictimization; 80 percent reported three or more victimization types compared to males (49 percent), and 31 percent of females experienced all five types of prior victimization (e.g., physical and emotional abuse, molestation, forced sex growing up) compared to 11 percent of males.

In relation to living circumstances, males were significantly more likely to have lived with their parent(s) growing up compared to females. Alternatively, females were more likely to be living in foster care/group homes, with friends, on their own, or were homeless before their arrest, compared to males.

“Education and training are crucial for professionals to correctly identify sex trafficking victimization and reduce misidentification, especially since most victims of sex trafficking do not identify themselves as victims,” said Cain.

With April being “National Child Abuse Prevention Month,” gaining a better understanding of risk factors associated with commercial sexual exploitation among this group of youth is imperative. Cain says such endeavors could improve early intervention efforts, a coordinated and collaborative criminal justice response, and responsive public policy to reduce harm and improve outcomes for affected youth.

“Providing this population of youth with treatment and perhaps residential care in a safe environment could help them exit ‘the life’ and prevent them from being re-trafficked, which is a common occurrence when they are treated punitively by the Juvenile Justice System,” said Cain.

This study utilized secondary data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This is the only nationally representative, anonymous, self-report survey that collects detailed information directly from justice-involved youth about their prior victimization experiences.

For more information about child sex trafficking training provided by Calli Cain, contact cainc@fau.edu.

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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JOURNAL

Victims & Offenders

DOI

10.1080/15564886.2022.2151538 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Victims Treated as Offenders: Examining the Gendered Risk Factors of Incarcerated Youth Charged with Prostitution

Pilot study finds metabolic alterations related to sexual and physical abuse

– Further research into oxidative stress and transsulfuration in the context of trauma is needed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

A pilot study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland found metabolites related to oxidative stress and the transsulfuration pathway of one-carbon metabolism to be associated with a history of sexual or physical abuse in depressed adolescent outpatients. Oxidative stress and transsulfuration are closely connected and regulate each other’s functions, and they play a role in inflammation, which is also recognized as a possible mechanism of trauma. The results were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, in a special issue entitled “Biological mechanisms underlying adverse mental health outcomes after trauma.”

“Although the results are clearly preliminary and require further confirmation, the extent of similar findings in the literature related to the biological effects of trauma is convincing. Oxidative stress and the inflammatory system have often been associated with post-traumatic stress. Oxidative stress refers to an excess of unstable oxygen-containing molecules, which damage cells and have numerous consequences, whereas the end product of transsulfuration is an antioxidant compensating for this damage,” says Doctoral Researcher Karoliina Kurkinen from the University of Eastern Finland.

The study included 76 depressed adolescent outpatients, whose blood samples were analysed with mass spectrometry to determine the concentrations of specific metabolites. In addition to metabolites taking part in oxidative stress and transsulfuration, metabolites related to the methionine cycle of one-carbon metabolism, mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation were also found to be associated with a history of abuse in these patients. These associations became smaller after taking into account depression and lifestyle-related background variables. This exploratory pilot study should be replicated with a larger data set comprising post-traumatic stress disorder patients and healthy controls. In addition, future research could examine the levels of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis hormones and interleukins to take stress and inflammation better into consideration.

“Depression is a very common symptom in traumatized patients, but so are fight and flight-related symptoms, which relate to stress and activation of the sympathetic nervous system. It would be interesting to further investigate the biological mechanisms behind these two different symptom clusters, how they overlap and affect each other, and which pathways would be most helpful to intervene in for a traumatized patient,” Kurkinen says.

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JOURNAL

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

DOI

10.1080/20008066.2023.2191396 

ARTICLE TITLE

The associations between metabolic profiles and sexual and physical abuse in depressed adolescent psychiatric outpatients: An exploratory pilot study

Cities will need more resilient electricity networks to cope with extreme weather

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUND UNIVERSITY

Dense urban areas amplify the effects of higher temperatures, due to the phenomenon of heat islands in cities. This makes cities more vulnerable to extreme climate events. Large investments in the electricity network will be necessary to cool us down during heatwaves and keep us warm during cold snaps, according to a new study led by Lund University in Sweden.

“Unless we account for extreme climate events and continued urbanisation, the reliability of electricity supply will fall by up to 30%. An additional outlay of 20-60 per cent will be required during the energy transition in order to guarantee that cities can cope with different kinds of climate,” says Vahid Nik, Professor of Building Physics at Lund University and one of the authors of the article in Nature Energy.

The study presents a modelling platform that ties together climate, building and energy system models in order to facilitate simulation and evaluation of cities’ energy transition. The aim is to secure the cities’ resilience against future climate changes at the same time as densification of urban areas is taking place. In particular, researchers have looked closely at extreme weather events (e.g. heatwaves and cold snaps) by producing simulations of urban microclimates. 

“Our results show that high density areas give rise to a phenomenon called urban heat islands, which make cities more vulnerable to the effects of extreme climate events, particularly in southern Europe. For example, the outdoor temperature can rise by 17% while the wind speed falls by 61%. Urban densification – a recommended development strategy in order to reach the UN’s energy and climate goals – could make the electricity network more vulnerable. This must be taken into consideration when designing urban energy systems, says Kavan Javanroodi, Assistant Professor in Building and Urban Physics.

“The framework we have developed connects future climate models to buildings and energy systems at city level, taking the urban microclimate into account. For the first time, we are getting to grips with several challenges around the issues of future climate uncertainty and extreme weather situations, focussing in particular on what are known as ‘HILP’ or High Impact Low Probability events”, says Vahid Nik.

There is still a large gap between future climate modelling and building and energy analyses and their links to one another. According to Vahid Nik, the model now being developed makes a great contribution to closing that gap. 

“Our results answer questions like ‘how big an effect will extreme weather events have in the future, given the predicted pace of urbanisation and several different future climate scenarios?’, ‘how do we take them and the connections between them into account?’ and ‘how does the nature of urban development contribute to exacerbating or mitigating the effects of extreme events at regional and municipal level?’ “

The results show that the peaks in demand in the energy system increase more than previously thought when extreme microclimates are taken into account, for example with an increase in cooling demand for 68% in Stockholm and 43% in Madrid on the hottest day of the year. Not considering this can lead to incorrect estimates of cities’ energy requirements, which can turn into power shortage and even blackouts. 

“There is a marked deviation between the heat and cooling requirements shown in today’s urban climate models, compared to the outcomes of our calculations when urban morphology, the physical design of the city, is more complex. For example, if we fail to take into account the urban climate in Madrid, we could underestimate the need for cooling by around 28%,” says Kavan Javanroodi.

Vahid Nik explains that an increasing number of countries have become interested in extreme weather events, energy issues and the impact on public health. At the same time, there are no methods of quantifying the effects of climate change and planning for adapting to them, especially when it comes to extreme weather events and climate variations across space and time. 

“Our efforts can contribute to making societies more prepared for climate change. Future research should aim to examine the relationship between urban density and climate change in energy forecasts. Furthermore, we ought to develop more innovative methods of increasing energy flexibility and climate resilience in cities, which is a major focus of research for our team at the moment,” says Vahid Nik.

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JOURNAL

Nature Energy

DOI

10.1038/s41560-023-01232-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Challenges resulting from urban density and climate change for the EU energy transition

Your baby’s gut is crawling with unknown viruses

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: PROFESSOR DENNIS SANDRIS NIELSEN, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN view more 

CREDIT: EMILIE THEJLL-MADSEN / UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

Viruses are usually associated with illness. But our bodies are full of both bacteria and viruses that constantly proliferate and interact with each other in our gastrointestinal tract. While we have known for decades that gut bacteria in young children are vital to protect them from chronic diseases later on in life, our knowledge about the many viruses found there is minimal.

A few years back, this gave University of Copenhagen professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen the idea to delve more deeply into this question. As a result, a team of researchers from COPSAC (Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood) and the Department of Food Science at UCPH, among others, spent five years studying and mapping the diaper contents of 647 healthy Danish one-year-olds.

"We found an exceptional number of unknown viruses in the faeces of these babies. Not just thousands of new virus species – but to our surprise, the viruses represented more than 200 families of yet to be described viruses. This means that, from early on in life, healthy children are tumbling about with an extreme diversity of gut viruses, which probably have a major impact on whether they develop various diseases later on in life," says Professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen of the Department of Food Science, senior author of the research paper about the study, now published in Nature Microbiology.

The researchers found and mapped a total of 10,000 viral species in the children's faeces – a number ten times larger than the number of bacterial species in the same children. These viral species are distributed across 248 different viral families, of which only 16 were previously known. The researchers named the remaining 232 unknown viral families after the children whose diapers made the study possible. As a result, new viral families include names like Sylvesterviridae, Rigmorviridae and Tristanviridae.

Bacterial viruses are our allies

"This is the first time that such a systematic an overview of gut viral diversity has been compiled. It provides an entirely new basis for discovering the importance of viruses for our microbiome and immune system development. Our hypothesis is that, because the immune system has not yet learned to separate the wheat from the chaff at the age of one, an extraordinarily high species richness of gut viruses emerges, and is likely needed to protect against chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes later on in life," states Shiraz Shah, first author and a senior researcher at COPSAC.

Ninety percent of the viruses found by the researchers are bacterial viruses – known as bacteriophages. These viruses have bacteria as their hosts and do not attack the children's own cells, meaning that they do not cause disease. The hypothesis is that bacteriophages primarily serve as allies:

"We work from the assumption that bacteriophages are largely responsible for shaping bacterial communities and their function in our intestinal system. Some bacteriophages can provide their host bacterium with properties that make it more competitive by integrating its own genome into the genome of the bacterium. When this occurs, a bacteriophage can then increase a bacterium's ability to absorb e.g. various carbohydrates, thereby allowing the bacterium to metabolise more things," explains Dennis Sandris Nielsen, who continues:

"It also seems like bacteriophages help keep the gut microbiome balanced by keeping individual bacterial populations in check, which ensures that there are not too many of a single bacterial species in the ecosystem. It's a bit like lion and gazelle populations on the savannah."

Shiraz Shah adds:

"Previously, the research community mostly focused on the role of bacteria in relation to health and disease. But viruses are the third leg of the stool and we need to learn more about them. Viruses, bacteria and the immune system most likely interact and affect each other in some type of balance. Any imbalance in this relationship most likely increases the risk of chronic disease."

The remaining ten percent of viruses found in the children are eukaryotic – that is, they use human cells as hosts. These can be both friends and foes for us:

"It is thought-provoking that all children run around with 10-20 of these virus types that infect human cells. So, there is a constant viral infection taking place, which apparently doesn’t make them sick. We just know very little about what’s really at play. My guess is that they’re important for training our immune system to recognise infections later. But it may also be that they are a risk factor for diseases that we have yet to discover," says Dennis Sandris Nielsen.

Could play an important role in inflammatory diseases

The researchers have yet to discover where the many viruses in the one-year-olds come from. Their best answer thus far is the environment:

"Our gut is sterile until we are born. During birth, we are exposed to bacteria from the mother and environment. It is likely that some of the first viruses come along with these initial bacteria, while many others are introduced later via dirty fingers, pets, dirt that kids put in their mouths and other things in the environment," says Dennis Sandris Nielsen.

As Shiraz Shah points out, the entire field of research speaks to a huge global health problem:

"A lot of research suggests that the majority of chronic diseases that we’re familiar with – from arthritis to depression – have an inflammatory component. That is, the immune system is not working as it ought to – which might be because it wasn’t trained properly. So, if we learn more about the role that bacteria and viruses play in a well-trained immune system, it can hopefully lead us to being able to avoid many of the chronic diseases that afflict so many people today."

The research groups have begun investigating the role of gut viruses in relation to a number of different diseases that occur in childhood, such as asthma and ADHD.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT BACTERIOPHAGES

• There are generally two types of bacteriophages. Virulent bacteriophages take over the bacterium and produce 30-100 new virus particles inside it. After this, the bacterial cell explodes from the inside and the new virus particles escape into the environment. Virulent bacteriophages help to keep the intestinal ecosystem in balance.
   
• So-called temperate bacteriophages can reproduce by integrating their genetic material into the genome of the host bacterial cell. When the cell divides, so does the bacteriophage.  Temperate bacteriophages help transfer new genes to the bacteria so it becomes more competitive. However, there are also studies suggesting that an imbalance in the temperate bacteriophage population is associated with various diseases, e.g., inflammatory bowel disease.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT VIRUSES

• A virus is a microorganism consisting of a genome – either DNA or RNA – encapsulated in a protein membrane. Viruses cannot multiply. Instead, a virus attacks a host cell, which it uses to make copies of itself.
   
• Viruses are classified into viral families, which are then divided into a larger number of viral genera and viral species. A more well-known example of a viral family is coronavirus, to which the viruses Covid-19, MERS, SARS and several common cold viruses belong.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT THE STUDY

• The research team mapped the gut "viromes" from the guts of 647 healthy Danish one-year-old children. "Virome" is an umbrella term for all viruses found in a given environment. This includes both viruses that attack bacteria (bacteriophages), as well as those that go after human cells (eukaryotic virus).
   
• The 647 infants are all part of the mother-child cohort Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC2010), that has been followed very closely clinically throughout childhood at COPSAC. The children are now 13 years old.
   
• This interactive atlas allows you to see the diversity of viruses in the children and download information about the individual viral families.
   
• The results have been published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Microbiology.
   
• The researchers behind the study come from COPSAC, University of Copenhagen; Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen; Department of Health Technology, DTU; Université Laval, Canada; Université Paris-Saclay, France; Université Clermont, France and the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology.

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Microbiology

DOI

10.1038/s41564-023-01345-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Hundreds of viral families in the healthy infant gut

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

Gossip influences who gets ahead in different cultures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Gossip influences if people receive advantages whether they work in an office in the U.S. or in India—or even in a remote village in Africa, a Washington State University study found.

In a set of experiments, WSU anthropologists found that positive and negative gossip influenced whether participants were willing to give a person a resource, such as a raise or a family heirloom, especially when the gossip was specific to the circumstance. For instance, positive gossip concerning job-related behavior, such as saying the person worked well under pressure, increased the participants’ willingness to give a work-related benefit compared to gossip about family relationships.

The researchers ran the experiment with 120 online participants workers in the U.S. and India, and after making some culturally appropriate adjustments, with 160 Ngandu horticulturalists, who make a living from small gardens in the Central African Republic. In all three groups, they found similar results.

“Gossip seems context relevant. People don’t just say random things,” said Nicole Hess, a WSU anthropologist and lead author on the study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. “Gossip that was relevant to the exchange and the relationship had the most impact on whether a person gave a resource, or not.”

Anthropologists consider gossip, defined as exchanging reputational information about other community members, to be a feature of almost every human society, but it is less clear what function it serves. Some argue that talking about other people this way helps enforce social norms or serves as social bonding between the gossipers. This study lends evidence to yet another theory: that gossip is used competitively because it shows a direct relationship between gossip and the likelihood of receiving more resources.

“Up until this study, no one had even really asked ‘what is the end result of gossip?’ Gossip makes a person’s reputation worse or better, so what is the result?” Hess said. “These findings support the competitive evolutionary model: that people are using gossip to compete with each other over valuable resources in their communities.”

For this study, Hess and co-author Ed Hagen, also a WSU anthropologist, developed a set of experiments that provided participants with job- or family-related scenarios. For the office workers in the industrialized countries, the scenarios described a situation where they could either give a raise to one of their co-workers or an inherited painting to a family member.

They then were given a mix of gossip statements about how a theoretical co-worker or relative behaved at work or dealt with their family. For example, the work statement might be about whether the colleague was willing to work late to finish a project, or on the family side, whether they got along well with their siblings.

After reading a mix of these statements, the participants were asked whether they were willing to give that fictional person the resource.

For the Ngandu farmers, the work scenario was adjusted to have them evaluate a fictional worker they hired to help with their garden, and whether they would share some shirts with the worker that a produce buyer had given them. The family scenario involved deciding whether to give a relative some nice clothes the participant had inherited.  

Both surveys showed a similar pattern: participants were more willing to give the resource when exposed to more positive, context-specific gossip statements about them, and less willing when exposed to more negative, context-specific gossip statements.  

In this paper, the researchers also included an observational study of 40 Aka hunter-gatherers who live near the Ngandu horticulturists. This study was designed as a series of questions asked verbally about real people the participants knew, which increased the study’s ecological validity, meaning it shows that the results can be generalized to real-life settings.

While not exactly parallel with the experimental studies, these observational results also indicated that an individual’s positive reputation strongly influenced whether the Aka participants were willing to share a resource with them.

“The cultural contexts are different, but they have the same patterns of responses,” said Hess. “This appears to be the universal psychology in how people evaluate reputation in allocating valuable things from industrial societies to small scale communities.”

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JOURNAL

Evolution and Human Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.02.013 

ARTICLE TITLE

The impact of gossip, reputation, and context on resource transfers among Aka hunter-gatherers, Ngandu horticulturalists, and MTurkers

Study recommends greater awareness of biopesticides to help fight locust outbreaks in China

A new study led by scientists from the Chinese MARA-CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety suggests greater awareness of biopesticide market availability, efficacy and field application processes could help tackle locust outbreaks in China.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

 

IMAGE: LOCUSTS ATTACKED BY THE FUNGUS METARHIZIUM SP. view more 

CREDIT: CSIRO/VIA SCIENCEIMAGE.CSIRO.AU (CC BY 3.0)

A new study led by scientists from the Chinese MARA-CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety suggests greater awareness of biopesticide market availability, efficacy and field application processes could help tackle locust outbreaks in China.

The researchers, who outline their findings in the journal Sustainability, argue that future studies should also focus on modelling the expected impact and cost effectiveness of chemicals verses biopesticides – therefore increasing the evidence base for promoting more environmentally friendly biopesticide use.

Locusts are among the world’s most destructive pests that cause significant financial loss and ecological damage in many parts of the world. In China, the scientists highlight that locust outbreaks have a 3,000-year history and – along with floods and droughts – are considered the three biggest natural disasters for the country.

They add that successes have been achieved by using emerging technologies – including spraying of the locusts using drones, GPS tracking, GIS mapping and satellite data imagery – but chemical pesticides in China and other countries remains the primary method of control for the pests.

Though, China has made great strides with the use of biopesticides, the researchers stress and further highlight that a reason why chemical pesticides are chosen is due to their fast action despite more negative impacts on the environment.

The scientists say that the uptake of biopesticides remains low due to various factors including inconsistent field results, shorter product life, high costs and effectiveness on a smaller range of pests as compared to other products. Despite this, there is increasing evidence of the benefits of biopesticides in general, including for locusts.

Dr Hongmei Li, lead author of the paper and Senior Scientist, based at CABI’s centre in China, said, “Our findings show that China has an integrated national locust response protocol, which involves various institutions from all administrative levels of government.

“The process is inherently highly complex but efficient with multi-sectoral agencies working closely together to prevent and/or manage locust outbreaks.

“In addition, the process has been successful in combating recent outbreaks, due to dedicated government funding, decisive administrative and technical actions as well as the empowerment of local government administration.”

She adds that this is particularly the case with the county level acting as a ‘first responder’ that is financially and technically able to respond to a locust invasion in their jurisdiction.

Co-author, Dr Mariam Kadzamira, Senior Researcher, Agribusiness, based at CABI’s head office in Wallingford, UK, said, “Our research also shows that despite the availability of biopesticides in local markets, their use is dampened by inadequate information about market availability, negative perceptions by decision-makers about their efficacy and concerns about their costs as well as limited knowledge of their application techniques.

“Actions are, therefore, needed by relevant authorities to enhance stakeholder awareness of biopesticide market availability, efficacy and field application processes.”

The researchers stress that to increase the use of biopesticides for locust control there should be evidence-based local exemplars and case studies, and where possible, this should include comparisons with the long-term outcomes of using biopesticides verses chemical pesticides on locust populations.

They further add that since pest outbreaks necessitate quick and decisive actions for success, information packages should be made available to decision-makers on an on-going basis – not just when there is an outbreak.

Dr Hongmei Li added, “In addition, other research should centre around metrics-based process mapping that includes analysing the time lag between strategic actions during a locust outbreak.”

Dr Kadzamira highlighted that this would “facilitate a better understanding and mapping of work flows and would contribute to improving the efficiency of different actors across all relevant administrative structures, in the event of a locust emergency.”

The scientists based their research on Yunnan Province as a case study as it was one of the worst areas affected in the 2020 locust invasion. It was also chosen as efforts to control the locusts during this invasion were relatively successful and, therefore, understanding the processes could inform future management of the pest, for China, as well as for other countries.

 

Additional information

Main image: The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is one of the world’s most destructive migratory pests (Credit: Pixabay).

Full paper reference

Li, H.; Kadzamira, M.A.T.J.; Ogunmodede, A.; Finch, E.; Zhu, J.; Romney, D.; Luke, B. Lessons Learned and Challenges of Biopesticide Usage for Locust Management—The Case of China. Sustainability 2023, 15, 6193. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076193

The paper can be read open access here: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/6193/html

Funding acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the funding provided for this research by the following organizations and agencies: the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) (Grant No.ST/V000306/1), and China’s Donation to the CABI Development Fund (Grant No. IVM10051).

CABI is an international intergovernmental organisation, and we gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation), and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). See https://www.cabi.org/about-cabi/who-we-work-with/key-donors/ for full details.

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JOURNAL

Sustainability

DOI

10.3390/su15076193 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Lessons Learned and Challenges of Biopesticide Usage for Locust Management—The Case of China

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Apr-2023

Disclaime

Mutant strains of Salmonella make infection more aggressive in commercial poultry, study shows

The findings reinforce the importance of taking animal health measures as soon as chicks are hatched and until slaughter, as well as care during meat transportation and conservation.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: LEFT: SECTION OF BROILER’S CECUM INFECTED BY WILD-TYPE SALMONELLA ENTERITIDIS DISPLAYING REACTIONS IN MACROPHAGES (DARKER PARTS) 14 DAYS AFTER INFECTION. RIGHT: MUTANT STRAINS CAUSED MORE PRONOUNCED IMMUNE RESPONSES view more 

CREDIT: JULIA CABRERA/FCAV-UNESP

In Brazil, a group of researchers supported by FAPESP created mutant forms of Salmonella to understand the mechanisms that favor colonization of the intestinal tract of chickens by these pathogenic bacteria and find better ways to combat the infection they cause.

An article on the study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. In it, the researchers note that, contrary to expectations, the mutant strains caused more severe infections than wild-type bacteria.

In the mutant strains, the genes ttrA and pduA were deleted. In previous research using mice, both genes had been shown to account for the ability of Salmonella to survive in an environment without oxygen, favoring intestinal colonization and dissemination in a production environment.

“This would confer an advantage in competition with other microorganisms that also inhabit the intestinal tract,” said Julia Cabrera, first author of the article. She had a technical training scholarship from FAPESP and is currently conducting doctoral research at São Paulo State University’s School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences (FCAV-UNESP) in Jaboticabal.

“Salmonella’s genetic apparatus is sufficient to enable it to change behavior in response to not only hosts [commercial poultry] but also other bacteria that compete with it in the same environment. When these two genes were deleted, it found other survival mechanisms and became even more pathogenic to the birds,” said Mauro Saraiva, second author of the article and responsible for leading the study during a postdoctoral fellowship at FCAV-UNESP.

The findings reinforce the importance of taking animal health measures as soon as chicks are hatched and until slaughter, as well as care during meat transportation and conservation. A vaccine to prevent intestinal colonization of poultry by strains of Salmonella responsible for food-borne outbreaks of human salmonellosis lies beyond the horizon for now.

The study is part of a project supported by FAPESP and led by Angelo Berchieri Junior, a professor at FCAV-UNESP (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/29808). 

According to Berchieri Junior, few food-borne human infections have been detected in Brazil, but consumers should not neglect proper food conservation and hygiene. “The Salmonella serotypes known to cause food-borne diseases don’t always make a person sick. Although there are other important routes for these bacteria to be introduced into poultry farms, the greatest danger occurs when very young chicks are exposed, as their immune system isn’t fully formed,” he said.

In these cases, fecal excretion lasts longer and causes more extensive contamination of the chicken shed. As a result, more infected birds are transported to the slaughterhouse. Most contamination of carcasses (chickens ready for sale) occurs during this stage.

Infection

In the study, laying hens and chicks of various ages were first infected with the serotypes of Salmonella enterica most frequently found in Brazil, Enteritidis and Typhimurium, using mutant strains with ttrA and pduA inactivated in the laboratory. The infections were compared with those caused by wild-type strains of the same serotypes, in which all genes were functional.

The cellular immune response was measured using immunochemistry methods, which are based on antigen-antibody reactions and staining of compounds formed in infected tissue. The larger the area stained, the more exacerbated the organism’s cellular response to infection. The researchers analyzed different parts of the intestinal tract (cecal tonsils, cecum and ileum), as well as the liver.

Mutant strains of Enteritidis caused a more pronounced cellular immune response than wild-type strains, except in laying hens. Both mutant and wild-type Typhimurium caused a similar response. 

In all lineages studied, tissue infected by Salmonella was infiltrated by significant quantities of macrophages, immune cells that attack bacteria and other pathogens.

“The next step will entail real-time PCR testing to understand which molecules are involved in this more exacerbated immune response in birds infected by mutant strains,” Saraiva said.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-27741-x 

ARTICLE TITLE

Salmonella enterica serovars in absence of ttrA and pduA genes enhance the cell immune response during chick infections

Rare colored red-tailed hawk found covered in oil in Pennsylvania

Story by Brian Whipkey and Camille Fine,
USA TODAY NETWORK • Yesterday

Mercersburg, Pa. — A Pennsylvania game warden who helped to save an injured bald eagle found coated in oil actually found another bird with a rare condition.

As it turns out, the tannish-white bird wasn’t an eagle — it was a leucistic red-tailed hawk, which means its plumage lacks melanin and pigmentation to provide color in its feathers.

Leucism — which can be discerned from albinism because it does not affect eyes' pigment

cells — causes white coloration, white patches, spots, or splotches on the skin or fur, according to the National Park Service.

As a result, the hawk’s feathers are mostly white as opposed to the typical brown and dark red commonly found on red-tailed hawks.

Red-tailed hawks, which can stand about 2 feet tall and have a wingspan about twice that wide, are believed to be plentiful in Pennsylvania, but this condition is rare.

Philip Bietsch, the Pennsylvania Game Commission warden that learned of the young bald eagle on March 25, said the bird had apparently been sitting along a creek in Mercersburg, near the southern border of the state, for a couple of days and hadn’t moved from that location.

“It’s definitely the first one I’ve seen,” he said.

Bietsch was called to assess the bird's condition after someone who thought it was sick or injured captured the bird and took it home. A lubricant that seemed lighter than car oil coated many of the bird's feathers.

The bird was showing some signs of malnourishment and was probably unable to eat for a few days, Bietsch said.

The Raven Ridge Wildlife Center in Lancaster County where Bietsch took the bird for treatment said it was actually covered in a "cooking" oil substance, which matted its feathers and prevented her from flying.

After a much-needed and thorough cleaning, the center will keep the hawk for observation before releasing it back into the wild.

Bietsch, who recently spoke with the bird’s caregiver, said the raptor is becoming aggressive again, “which is a really good sign" for re-release.

Where did the oil come from?

Bietsch isn’t sure where the oil came from but said the agency hasn’t received any additional reports of oil or injured wildlife in that area.

What to do if you find an animal

If an injured animal or bird is discovered, call the agency’s statewide dispatch center at 833-742-4868.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania.