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Helicopter-based shooting is an effective management tool for large vertebrate pest animals. However, animals in low-density populations and/or dense habitat can be difficult to locate visually. Thermal-imaging technology can increase detections in these conditions. We used thermal-imaging equipment with a specific helicopter crew configuration to assist in aerial culling for feral pigs ( Sus scrofa ) and fallow deer ( Dama dama ) in South Australia in 2021. Seventy-two percent of pigs and 53% of deer were first detected in dense canopy/tall forest habitat. Median time from the first impact shot to incapacitation was < 12 s. The culling rate (animals hour −1 ) doubled compared to visual shoots over the same populations and the wounding rate was zero resulting in a incapacitation efficiency of 100%. The crew configuration gave the shooter a wide field of view and the thermal operator behind the shooter provided essential support to find new and escaping animals, and to confirm species identification and successful removal. The crew configuration allowed for successful target acquisition and tracking, with reduced target escape. The approach can increase the efficiency of aerial culling, has the potential to increase the success of programs where eradication is a viable option, and can improve animal welfare outcomes by reducing wounding rates and the escape of target animals.

Adaptive hunting management is commonly used for controlling the populations of overabundant large herbivores; however, induced behavioural changes can make the effective control of target populations difficult. However, few studies have compared the impact of different levels of hunting intensities on the activity patterns of ungulates before, during, and after a culling program. We investigated how different culling intensities affect the activity patterns of sika deer on Nakanoshima Island in Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan using camera-trap surveys comparing the period of treatment before, during, and after a culling program. We used the number of deer photographed per hour per camera as an index of activity. Sika deer showed consistent crepuscular activity patterns (i.e., dawn and dusk) during spring–summer and trimodal activity patterns (i.e., dawn, dusk, and midnight) in autumn throughout the study period. In response to increased culling intensity, the activity peaks shifted slightly towards the night. The shift towards nocturnal activity persisted during post-culling period. Understanding the changes in activity patterns in response to culling intensity could be used to facilitate population control and assist in establishing a night shooting program. Thus, wildlife managers should consider night shooting once hunting during day time has shifted the normal diurnal activity of deer to nocturnal activity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209236.].

Near-net-shaped jet engine blade machining process have better performance on both reducing material waste during production and improving work reliability in service, while precision machining of this blade is very challengeable and difficult due to its positioning difficulty and low stiffness. This paper propose that reasonable fixture and adaptive CNC machining technology can provide a systematic solution for the machining of near-net-shaped blade Tenon root, tip and Leading edges and Trailing edges (LTE). Firstly, process characteristics, difficulties and requirements of near-net-shaped blade are analyzed. Secondly, adaptive CNC machining process and its key technical principles are introduced and optimized, and proposes measuring bad points culling algorithm of simultaneously using distance relationship, angle relationship and radius relationship, and proposes camber line calculation algorithm of equidistant offset, and optimizes the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm based on point-to-line ICP algorithm with six control points, and realizes the reconstruction of processing model. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed adaptive CNC machining process and the designed Polyetheretherketone (PEEK-GF30) material and multi-points support rigid-flexible coupling fixture are verified by a typical near-net-shaped blade LTE and Tenon root adaptive CNC machining process experiments. The results shows that the proposed process scheme of reasonable fixture and adaptive CNC machining process can solve two problems of near-net-shaped blade manufacturing of position difficulty and low stiffness. The designed fixture of PEEK-GF30 material and multi-point support rigid-flexible coupling, and the optimized adaptive CNC machining process algorithms can realize high-precision manufacturing of near-net-shaped jet engine blade.

Large carnivores inhabiting human-dominated landscapes often interact with people and their properties, leading to conflict scenarios that can mislead carnivore management and, ultimately, jeopardize conservation. In northwest Spain, brown bears Ursus arctos are strictly protected, whereas sympatric wolves Canis lupus are subject to lethal control. We explored ecological, economic and societal components of conflict scenarios involving large carnivores and damages to human properties. We analyzed the relation between complaints of depredations by bears and wolves on beehives and livestock, respectively, and bear and wolf abundance, livestock heads, number of culled wolves, amount of paid compensations, and media coverage. We also evaluated the efficiency of wolf culling to reduce depredations on livestock. Bear damages to beehives correlated positively to the number of female bears with cubs of the year. Complaints of wolf predation on livestock were unrelated to livestock numbers; instead, they correlated positively to the number of wild ungulates harvested during the previous season, the number of wolf packs, and to wolves culled during the previous season. Compensations for wolf complaints were fivefold higher than for bears, but media coverage of wolf damages was thirtyfold higher. Media coverage of wolf damages was unrelated to the actual costs of wolf damages, but the amount of news correlated positively to wolf culling. However, wolf culling was followed by an increase in compensated damages. Our results show that culling of the wolf population failed in its goal of reducing damages, and suggest that management decisions are at least partly mediated by press coverage. We suggest that our results provide insight to similar scenarios, where several species of large carnivores share the landscape with humans, and management may be reactive to perceived conflicts.

African swine fever (ASF) is a severe viral disease that is currently spreading among domestic pigs and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ) in large areas of Eurasia. Wild boar play a key role in the spread of ASF, yet despite their significance, little is known about the key mechanisms that drive infection transmission and disease persistence. A mathematical model of the wild boar ASF system is developed that captures the observed drop in population density, the peak in infected density and the persistence of the virus observed in ASF outbreaks. The model results provide insight into the key processes that drive the ASF dynamics and show that environmental transmission is a key mechanism determining the severity of an infectious outbreak and that direct frequency dependent transmission and transmission from individuals that survive initial ASF infection but eventually succumb to the disease are key for the long-term persistence of the virus. By considering scenarios representative of Estonia and Spain we show that faster degradation of carcasses in Spain, due to elevated temperature and abundant obligate scavengers, may reduce the severity of the infectious outbreak. Our results also suggest that the higher underlying host density and longer breeding season associated with supplementary feeding leads to a more pronounced epidemic outbreak and persistence of the disease in the long-term. The model is used to assess disease control measures and suggests that a combination of culling and infected carcass removal is the most effective method to eradicate the virus without also eradicating the host population, and that early implementation of these control measures will reduce infection levels whilst maintaining a higher host population density and in some situations prevent ASF from establishing in a population.

The loss of vital cells within healthy tissues contributes to the development, progression and treatment outcomes of many human disorders, including neurological and infectious diseases as well as environmental and medical toxicities. Conversely, the abnormal survival and accumulation of damaged or superfluous cells drive prominent human pathologies such as cancers and autoimmune diseases. Apoptosis is an evolutionarily conserved cell death pathway that is responsible for the programmed culling of cells during normal eukaryotic development and maintenance of organismal homeostasis. This pathway is controlled by the BCL-2 family of proteins, which contains both pro-apoptotic and pro-survival members that balance the decision between cellular life and death. Recent insights into the dynamic interactions between BCL-2 family proteins and how they control apoptotic cell death in healthy and diseased cells have uncovered novel opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Importantly, the development of both positive and negative small-molecule modulators of apoptosis is now enabling researchers to translate the discoveries that have been made in the laboratory into clinical practice to positively impact human health.BCL-2 family proteins are the mediators of apoptotic cell death. The balance between pro-apoptotic and pro-survival BCL-2 family members is differently regulated in various physiological contexts to modulate cellular apoptotic susceptibility. Perturbation of this balance causes excessive or insufficient cell death, leading to diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer.

1. Migratory animals are widely assumed to play an important role in the long-distance dispersal of parasites, and are frequently implicated in the global spread of zoonotic pathogens such as avian influenzas in birds and Ebola viruses in bats. However, infection imposes physiological and behavioural constraints on hosts that may act to curtail parasite dispersal via changes to migratory timing (“migratory separation”) and survival (“migratory culling”). 2. There remains little consensus regarding the frequency and extent to which migratory separation and migratory culling may operate, despite a growing recognition of the importance of these mechanisms in regulating transmission dynamics in migratory animals. 3. We quantitatively reviewed 85 observations extracted from 41 studies to examine how both infection status and infection intensity are related to changes in body stores, refuelling rates, movement capacity, phenology and survival in migratory hosts across taxa. 4. Overall, host infection status was weakly associated with reduced body stores, delayed migration and lower survival, and more strongly associated with reduced movement. Infection intensity was not associated with changes to host body stores, but was associated with moderate negative effects on movement, phenology and survival. 5. In conclusion, we found evidence for negative effects of infection on host phenology and survival, but the effects were relatively small. This may have implications for the extent to which migratory separation and migratory culling act to limit parasite dispersal in migratory systems. We propose a number of recommendations for future research that will further advance our understanding of how migratory separation and migratory culling may shape host-parasite dynamics along migratory routes globally.

Human-wildlife conflict is a global issue. Attempts to manage this conflict impact upon wild animal welfare, an issue receiving little attention until relatively recently. Where human activities harm animal welfare these effects should be minimised where possible. However, little is known about the welfare impacts of different wildlife management interventions, and opinions on impacts vary widely. Welfare impacts therefore need to be assessed objectively. Our objectives were to: 1) establish whether an existing welfare assessment model could differentiate and rank the impacts of different wildlife management interventions (for decision-making purposes); 2) identify and evaluate any additional benefits of making formal welfare assessments; and 3) illustrate issues raised by application of the model. We applied the welfare assessment model to interventions commonly used with rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), moles (Talpa europaea) and crows (Corvus corone) in the UK. The model ranked interventions for rabbits (least impact first: fencing, head shot, chest shot) and crows (shooting, scaring, live trapping with cervical dislocation). For moles, managing molehills and tunnels scored least impact. Both spring trapping, and live trapping followed by translocation, scored greater impacts, but these could not be compared directly as they scored on different axes of the model. Some rankings appeared counter-intuitive, highlighting the need for objective formal welfare assessments. As well as ranking the humaneness of interventions, the model highlighted future research needs and how Standard Operating Procedures might be improved. The model is a milestone in assessing wildlife management welfare impacts, but our research revealed some limitations of the model and we discuss likely challenges in resolving these. In future, the model might be developed to improve its utility, e.g. by refining the time-scales. It might also be used to reach consensus among stakeholders about relative welfare impacts or to identify ways of improving wildlife management practice in the field.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a costly disease in Britain and Ireland shared by cattle and badgers ( Meles meles ), and to reduce the infection in cattle to low levels some form of badger management is considered necessary. We compare the results of a badger field trial where test-positive badgers are culled, and test-negative badgers vaccinated (a TVR approach) with the results of the simulation model originally used to predict the effect of the trial in Northern Ireland. Initial model results depended strongly on whether social perturbation occurred in the badger population following culling, and the field study demonstrated no evidence for such behavior. Here we re-run the model with the initial conditions of the TVR study and with no social perturbation and predict a similar outcome in terms of number of badgers caught, number testing positive, and the substantial decline in prevalence. These results validate our model and demonstrate the utility of such predictive modelling for this disease system. This is particularly important as the UK government moves away from widespread badger culling in England toward more vaccination, as this combined approach of vaccination and selective culling based on test results may give a more robust method of disease management than just vaccination on its own.