CURRENT ITEMS

• 10th International Mammalogical Congress. Mendoza, Argentina 9 -14 August 2008 www.crycit.edu.au/imc10

 

• 2008 Australian Academy of Science Boden Research Conference "Beyond the Platypus Genome", 23-26 of November 2008.
  
  We hope that this will be a great opportunity for the Monotreme research community to interact and discuss recent work in particular on molecular aspects of platypus and echidnas.
  
  As we are considering poster or mini-poster presentation it would be great if people can let us know if they or their students would be interested in presenting at this conference.
  
  Boden Research Conference Organising Committee
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  Frank Grützner, PhD
  Discipline of Genetics, School of Molecular & Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, 5005 SA, Australia
  Phone: +61 8 8303 4812
  Fax: +61 8 8303 4362
  Email: Frank.grutzner@adelaide.edu.au
  
  Russell C. Jones, BSc PhD
  Discipline of Biological Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia 2308
  Phone: (02) 4921 5702
  Fax: (02) 4921 6923
  Email: Russell.Jones@newcastle.edu.au
  
  Jennifer A. Marshall Graves, PhD, FAA
  Research School of Biological Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
  Phone: 612 6125 2492
  Fax: 612 6125 4891
  Email: jenny.graves@anu.edu.au

 

• Call for unwanted marsupial plasma samples
  
  The scarcity of information on the effects of pesticides on Australian native vertebrates constrains the development of biologically relevant risk assessments in Australia for the registration of pesticides. As part of a larger collaboration between the University of Wollongong and the Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) looking at the ecophysiological effects of pesticides used for locust control on Australian native vertebrates, Bill Buttemer and I are investigating the question of whether endemically old and unique Australian vertebrate fauna display high sensitivity to pesticides used for locust control. In turn, this has provoked an examination of the acute oral toxicity of the organophosphorus pesticide, fenitrothion for the fat-tailed and stripe-faced dunnarts which has revealed that these species are approximately 10-14 times more sensitive to fenitrothion then any other mammals for which LD50 values have been reported.
  
  Previous authors have demonstrated that differences in chlorpyrifos toxicity between young and adult Long-Evans rats could be attributed to young rats having less chlorpyrifos-oxonase (an A-esterase responsible for hydrolysing chlorpyrifos-oxon, the active ChE suppressing metabolite of chlorpyrifos) activity and therefore having a lower capacity to detoxify physiologically relevant concentrations of the chlorpyrifos-oxon after exposure. The presence of sufficient A-esterase activity to hydrolise the oxon components of OP insecticides is a critical step in the metabolism of, in this case, fenitrothion in mammals and differences in the availability or functionality of paraoxonase may likely be the reason why native Australian marsupials studied here differ from other mammals in their sensitivity to organophosphorus insecticides.
  
  Examination of how these animals differ in this regard deserves further study and so, to this end, I am currently collecting marsupial plasma samples for analysis of their paraoxonase activity by Professor Clem Furlong (University of Washington, USA). I have samples from the dunnarts, Sminthopsis macroura and S. crassicaudata as well as several bilby samples. I am, however, keen to get hold of as wide a spread of samples as possible across the marsupial taxa and would be grateful to hear from anyone with spare marsupial plasma from other species before travelling to the USA in November this year. Alternatively if marsupial research was planned investigating an aspect of the RBC component of a blood sample, with the plasma being earmarked for the rubbish bin, I would be more than happy to take the plasma component off your hands. I am happy and willing to travel (within reason) to pick samples up provided they have been kept in either liquid nitrogen or at -80C.
  
  Thanks
  
  Paul Story
  Environmental Officer
  Australian Plague Locust Commission
  Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  GPO Box 858
  Canberra ACT 2601
  Phone: (02) 6272-5176 Fax (02) 6272-5074 Mobile 0428-287514 Sat phone: 0147-141137
  Mail to: Paul.Story@daff.gov.au <blocked::mailto:Paul.Story@daff.gov.au> or pgs24@uow.edu.au <blocked::mailto:pgs24@uow.edu.au>
  (ACT area representative: Australian Institute of Biology http://www.aibiol.org.au <blocked::http://www.aibiol.org.au/> )

 

ARCHIVED ITEMS

* Update report on the current status of Christmas Island   Pipistrelle Bats - P. murrayi

* Forum for Interactions between Mammal Societies Internationally
* Integrated sustainability assessment
* View Conferences around the world here
* Are Australian Zoos active in conservation of Australian Mammals?
* Salute to The Australian Mammal Society
* Use Of 1080 Poison To Be Banned In State Forests Tasmania
* Bat Calls of NSW identification guide to bat calls of NSW
* Society for Conservation Biology for the Australasian region
* Kangaroo disease may hop to humans
* Koalas in zoo crisis
* Call continues for Kangaroo Is koala cull
* Legislation changes & additions - Permits - Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
* Register of persons or bodies to be consulted on applications - Section 266A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC)
* Experts meet to save Tasmanian devil
* Wombat Rescue off at a flying start
* Rare wallaby's bright future