Arthropod-borne viruses belonging to the flavivirus genus possess an enormous relevance in public health. Neotropical non-human primates (NPs) have been proposed to be infected more frequently with flaviviruses due to their arboreal and diurnal habits, their genetic similarity to humans and their relative closeness to humans. However, the only known flavivirus in America that is maintained by sylvatic cycles involving NPs is Yellow Fever virus (YFV), and the NPs role as potential hosts of flaviviruses is still unknown. Here, we examined flavivirus exposure in 86 free range and captive NPs of Costa Rica to evaluate their involvement in flavivirus transmission cycles and their potential as flavivirus hosts. We used a highly-specific micro plaque reduction neutralization test (micro-PRNT) to determine the presence of antibodies against YFV, Dengue virus 1-4 (DENV), Zika virus, West Nile Virus (WNV) and Saint Louis Encephalitis virus (SLEV). We found evidence of seropositive NPs to DENV-1 8.2% (homotypic –3/86, heterotypic – 4/86), SLEV 15.1% (homotypic – 10/86, heterotypic – 2/86), WNV 2.3% (homotypic – 2/86) and 8.1% (7/86) undetermined Flavivirus species. No antibodies against YFV or ZIKV were found. This work provides compelling serological evidence of exposure in NPs of flaviviruses associated with urban cycles, i.e. DENV, and confirms decades of circulation of SLEV in the same environments. Also, the range of years of sampling and the socioeconomic region was statistically significant for the presence of Dengue and Flavivirus undetermined seropositive individuals, respectively. Both the years and socioeconomic regions with greater seroprevalence coincide with the years and socioeconomic regions with high numbers of Dengue human cases for the country. Our work suggests bidirectional? circulation of different flaviviruses between humans and wildlife with public health importance and underscores the necessity of further surveillance for flaviviruses in the humans/wildlife interface in Central America.

We provide here a current overview of marmoset (Callithrix) evolution, hybridization, species biology, basic/biomedical research, and conservation initiatives. Composed of two subgroups, the aurita group (C. aurita and C. flaviceps) and the jacchus group (C. geoffroyi, C. jacchus, C. kuhlii and C. penicillata), this relatively young primate radiation is endemic to the Brazilian Cerrado, Caatinga, and Atlantic Forest biomes. Significant impacts on Callithrix within these biomes resulting from anthropogenic activity include: (1) population declines, particularly for the aurita group; (2) widespread geographic displacement, biological invasions, and range expansions of C. jacchus and C. penicillata; (3) anthropogenic hybridization; and (4) epizootic Yellow Fever and Zika viral outbreaks. A number of Brazilian legal and conservation initiatives are now in place to protect the threatened aurita group and increase research about them. Due to their small size and rapid life history, marmosets are prized biomedical models. As a result, there are increasingly sophisticated genomic Callithrix resources available and burgeoning marmoset functional, immuno-, and epi- genomic research. In both the laboratory and the wild, marmosets have given us insight into cognition, social group dynamics, human disease, and pregnancy. Callithrix jacchus and C. penicillata are emerging Neotropical primate models for arbovirus disease, including Dengue and Zika. Wild marmoset populations are helping us understand sylvatic transmission and human spillover of Zika and Yellow Fever viruses. All of these factors are positioning marmosets as preeminent models to facilitate understanding of facets of evolution, hybridization, conservation, human disease, and emerging infectious diseases.

A deep review of the existing literature on the culpeo ecology is carried out, using scientific articles, book chapters and web resources. For information published before 1988, the synthesis made by a previous report was used. For subsequent information, bibliographic searches were carried out through the main servers, considering all of the generic names used to define the species so far. From this update, new general patterns on ecology, behavior and conservation concerns about culpeos are described. Gaps in current knowledge have been identified and new lines of research are proposed.Most of the studies focused on diet, conflicts with the species in livestock areas, and on the use of space and habitat. We found an incomplete, poor justification for all of the proposed subspecies and their supposed geographical distribution, as well as a scarcity of studies on genetic issues, population dynamics and conservation concerns. It is remarkable that vast regions in South America holding culpeos lacked basic information on the species.Diet studies describe a marked trend towards resources selection at the local level, which supports the view of the culpeo as a facultative trophic specialist. In addition, it has been confirmed that in the high Andes the culpeo is also a top predator that may regulate carnivorous communities, as well as that in arid environments culpeos can act as important seed dispersers. The assessment of the conservation status of the species differs among regions, although there is no sufficient information to reach clear conclusions in most cases. Even so, in Ecuador and Colombia the species has been listed as ‘Vulnerable’. Direct persecution and habitat alteration are considered to be the most important threats that the species is facing in many countries, although other risk factors such as climate change could also have serious consequences for the canid at the global scale.

French Guiana mosquito fauna diversity encompasses 242 species, of which nearly half of them belong to Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) genus. Whereas several species from Culex genus are important vectors of arbovirus, scarce studies focus on Culex genus, notably due to the inaccurate morphological identification of field-caught females gender. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been reported as a promising method for the identification of mosquitoes. Culex females from French Guiana field were dissected based on morphological classification. Abdomens were used for molecular identification using COI (cytochrome oxydase 1) gene. Legs and thorax of 169 specimens belonging to 13 Culex species,( i.e. Cx. declarator, Cx. nigripalpus, Cx. quinquefasciatus, Cx. usquatus, Cx. adamesi, Cx. dunni, Cx. eastor, Cx. idottus, Cx. pedroi, Cx. phlogistus, Cx. portesi, Cx. rabanicolus and Cx. spissipes) were then submitted to MALDI-TOF MS analysis. A high intra-species reproducibility and inter-species specificity of MS spectra for each mosquito body part tested were noticed. A corroboration of the specimen identification was revealed between MALDI-TOF MS, morphological and molecular results. MALDI-TOF MS protein profiling proves to be a suitable tool for identification of neotropical Culex species and will permit to enhance knowledge on this highly diverse Culex mosquitoes genus.

For tropical forests to survive anthropogenic climate change, the trees that comprise them will need to tolerate the newly emerging conditions through adaptation or acclimation, or they can avoid climate change through range shifts and “species migrations”. In this review, we show that the rapid pace and extreme severity of modern climate change makes it extremely unlikely that tropical tree species can adapt (with some possible exceptions). We also show that while many tropical tree species are shifting their distributions to higher, cooler elevations, the rate of these migrations are mostly insufficient to offset ongoing changes in temperatures, especially in lowland tropical rainforests where thermal gradients are shallow or nonexistent. We argue that the best hope for tropical tree species to avoid becoming “committed to extinction” is acclimation. While several new methods are being developed to test for acclimation, we unfortunately still do not know if tropical tree species can acclimate or what factors may prevent or facilitate acclimation. Until these questions are answered, our ability to predict the fate of tropical species and tropical forests – and the many services that they provide to humanity – remains critically impaired.

Rotaviruses are highly infectious and typically transmitted by fecal-oral route via in the tropics and leading the cause of diarrheal deaths in children of developing countries, besides causing significant economic impacts like neonatal disease agents of domestic animals. This present report aims to present the clinical and diagnostic findings of two confirmed cases of rotavirus (RV) infection in orphaned Leopardus tigrinus (Schreber, 1775) and Leopardus pardalis (Linnaeus, 1758), the first register of the infection by group A rotavirus in these species. Both felids were rescued in the Pará State Amazon Brazil by the IBAMA (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), and treated by veterinarians into intensive care ward in a public Environmental Park of Belém city. After the adaptation period to the quarantine, these animals showed non-specific symptoms of acute fulminant gastroenteritis. Rotavirus group A antigen was identified in blood and faecal samples of L. tigrinus analyzed by immunochromatography (ICG) and immunoassay methods (ELISA) at the Virology Laboratory of the Institute Evandro Chagas. The animals died within few days during the clinical exacerbation unresponsive to current treatment, its necropsies and histopathological analysis were performed in the Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology of the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA). Despite the compatible pathologic findings of rotavirus infection in both animals, the atypical hemorrhagic character was a curious finding, considering the presumed etiology.