• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.305-308
• /
• 2018

This study was aimed to disclose the prevalence rate of tick-borne pathogens from ticks collected from cattle and wild animals in Tanzania in 2012. Ticks were collected from slaughtered cattle and dead wild animals from November 5 to December 23, 2012 and identified. PCR for detecting Anaplasmataceae, Piroplamidae, Rickettsiaceae, Borrelia spp., and Coxiella spp. were done. Among those tested, Rickettsiaceae, Piroplasmidae, and Anaplasmataceae, were detected in ticks from the 2 regions. Rickettsiaceae represented the major tick-borne pathogens of the 2 regions. Ticks from animals in Maswa were associated with a higher pathogen detection rate compared to that in ticks from Iringa. In addition, a higher pathogen detection rate was observed in ticks infesting cattle than in ticks infesting wild animals. All examined ticks of the genus Amblyomma were infected with diverse pathogens. Ticks of the genera Rhipicephalus and Hyalomma were infected with 1 or 2 pathogens. Collectively, this study provides important information regarding differences in pathogen status among various regions, hosts, and tick species in Tanzania. Results in this study will affect the programs to prevent tick-borne diseases (TBD) of humans and livestock in Tanzania.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.465-474
• /
• 2004

Due to the rapid increase of human population and economic development, the natural ecosystem has been severely degraded. To restore the degraded ecosystem is extremely urgent and an important task in China. High biodiversity status in the natural ecosystem in tropical and subtropical regions in China has given high attention to the conservationists. The recent trends to the ecological restoration on degraded ecosystem in the tropical and subtropical regions of China were discussed for four different ecological recovery types: watershed ecosystems, wetlands, mining wastelands and mountain forests. The successful restoration case studies in tropical and subtropical regions of China were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.428-436
• /
• 2008

This study observed the upper tropospheric ozone enhancement in the northern Atlantic for the Aerosols99 campaign in January-February 1999. To find the origin of this air, we have analyzed the horizontal and vertical fields of Isentropic Potential Vorticity (IPV) and Relative Humidity (RH). The arch-shaped IPV is greater than 1.5 pvus indicating stratospheric air stretches equatorward. These arch-shaped regions are connected with regions of RH less than 20%. The vertical fields of IPV and RH show the folding layer penetrating into the upper troposphere. These features support the idea that the upper tropospheric ozone enhancement originated from the stratosphere. Additionally, we have investigated the climatological frequency of stratospheric intrusion over the tropical north Atlantic using IPV and RH. The total frequency between the equator and $30^{\circ}N$ over the tropical north Atlantic exhibits a maximum in northern winter. It suggests that the stratospheric intrusion plays an important role in enhancing ozone in the upper troposphere over the tropical north Atlantic in winter and early spring. Although the tropospheric ozone residual method assumed zonally invariant stratospheric ozone, stratospheric zonal ozone variance could be caused by stratospheric intrusions. This implies that stratospheric intrusion influences ozone variance over the Atlantic in boreal winter and spring, and the intrusion is a possible source for the tropical north Atlantic paradox.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.58 no.6
• /
• pp.689-694
• /
• 2020

Strongyloidiasis is caused by Strongyloides stercoralis and is one of the most neglected tropical diseases in tropical and subtropical regions. Although several strongyloidiasis cases have been reported in Korea, genetic analysis of Korean isolates is still incomplete. In this study, a parasite was isolated from a 61-year-old man diagnosed with strongyloidiasis during the treatment of lymphoma on his retroperitoneal lymph node. Diffuse symmetric wall thickening from the ascending to descending colon and a nematode-infected intestine was observed following microscopic examination. Genomic DNA was isolated from a patient tissue block, and S. stercoralis was identified by PCR and sequencing (18S rDNA). In order to determine phylogenetic location of a Korean isolate (named KS1), we analyzed cox1 gene (500-bp) and compared it with that from 47 previous S. stercoralis isolates (28 human isolates and 19 canid isolates) from Asian countries. Our results showed that phylogenetic tree could clearly be divided into 5 different groups according to hosts and regions. KS1 was most closely related with the Chinese isolates in terms of genetic distance.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.247-251
• /
• 2008

This study investigated freshwater fish for their current infection status with metacercariae of Clonorchis sinensis in Korea. Twenty-one species of freshwater fish (n = 677) were collected from 34 regions nationwidely from February 2007 to June 2008. They were individually examined by digestion technique. Eight species of freshwater fish from 17 different regions were recognized positive for the metacercariae of C. sinensis. The positive rates (range of metacercariae number per fish) of fish by the species were as follows: 48% (1-1,142) in Pseudorasbora parva, 60% (1-412) in Pungtungia herzi, 15.7% (1-23) in Pseudogobio esocinus, 29% (1-7) in Acheilognathus intermedia, 21% (1-4) in Odontobutis interrupta, 33% (1-6) in Zacco temmincki, 3.6% (1-4) in Zacco platypus, and 26.3% (1) in Hemibarbus labeo. The two species, P. parva and P. herzi, are able to be the index fish for estimation of C. sinensis transmission in a certain locality. Still several species of freshwater fish are briskly transmitting C. sinensis infection in many riverside areas of southern Korea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.351-353
• /
• 2013

Until recently, Pacific equatorial tropical island states were subject of only very limited interest by scientists, government officials, industry and policy makers of Korea. And, comprehensive information and data on these island regions is not very detailed to help better understand their social backgrounds as well as their natural environment. However, these island regions are now in the middle of diplomatic tug-of-war among super powers as well as becoming nucleus of various science-based ocean issues including marine biodiversity, shifting ecosystem, global environmental change including sea level rise and ocean acidification, fisheries, etc. Therefore, rising political and scientific importance of these areas call for better understanding of these regions, in social aspects as well as natural scientific knowledge of the region. To be provocatively prepared to more actively role in these regions, "A study on Establishing Research Infrastructures in the Tropical Pacific" has been supported during 2012-2013 as a mission-oriented in-house project of the KIOST. This project aims to provide various research infrastructure for Pacific island states, to reinforce cooperation with these nations, and to enhance Korea's national prestige. This special issue contains 10 research articles based on the studies conducted in 2012~2013.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.665-674
• /
• 2019

Objective: In tropical regions, as in temperate regions where seasonality of forage production occurs, well-preserved forage is necessary for animal production during periods of forage shortage. However, the unique climate conditions (hot and humid) and forage characteristics (high moisture content and low soluble carbohydrate) in the tropics make forage preservation more difficult. The current study used natural ensiling of tropical forage as a model to evaluate silage characteristics under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). Methods: Four tropical forages (king grass, paspalum, white popinac, and stylo) were ensiled under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). After ensiling for 30 and 60 days, samples were collected to examine the fermentation quality, chemical composition and microbial community. Results: High concentrations of acetic acid (ranging from 7.8 to 38.5 g/kg dry matter [DM]) were detected in silages of king grass, paspalum and stylo with relatively low DM (ranging from 23.9% to 30.8% fresh material [FM]) content, acetic acid production was promoted with increased temperature and prolonged ensiling. Small concentrations of organic acid (ranging from 0.3 to 3.1 g/kg DM) were detected in silage of white popinac with high DM content (50.8% FM). The microbial diversity analysis indicated that Cyanobacteria originally dominated the bacterial community for these four tropical forages and was replaced by Lactobacillus and Enterobacter after ensiling. Conclusion: The results suggested that forage silages under tropical climate conditions showed enhanced acetate fermentation, while high DM materials showed limited fermentation. Lactobacillus and Enterobacter were the most probable genera responsible for tropical silage fermentation.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.599-615
• /
• 2016

This study investigates the accuracy of short-term ocean predictions during the development of ocean stratification for the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) Global Seasonal Forecast System version 5 (GloSea5) as well as the effect of atmosphere-ocean coupling on the predictions through a series of sensitive numerical experiments. Model performance is evaluated using the marine meteorological buoys at seas around the Korean peninsular (KP), Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project (TAO) buoys over the tropical Pacific ocean, and ARGO floats data over the western North Pacific for boreal winter (February) and spring (May). Sensitive experiments are conducted using an ocean-atmosphere coupled model (i.e., GloSea5) and an uncoupled ocean model (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean, NEMO) and their results are compared. The verification results revealed an overall good performance for the SST predictions over the tropical Pacific ocean and near the Korean marginal seas, in which the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) were $0.31{\sim}0.45^{\circ}C$ and $0.74{\sim}1.11^{\circ}C$ respectively, except oceanic front regions with large spatial and temporal SST variations (the maximum error reached up to $3^{\circ}C$). The sensitive numerical experiments showed that GloSea5 outperformed NEMO over the tropical Pacific in terms of bias and RMSE analysis, while NEMO outperformed GloSea5 near the KP regions. These results suggest that the atmosphere-ocean coupling substantially influences the short-term ocean forecast over the tropical Pacific, while other factors such as atmospheric forcing and the accuracy of simulated local current are more important than the coupling effect for the KP regions being far from tropics during the development of ocean stratification.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.61 no.3
• /
• pp.263-271
• /
• 2023

The present study aimed to survey the prevalence of chigger mites and Orientia tsutsugamushi (O. tsutsugamushi) infection in the northern regions of Gangwon-do, Korea. From early February to early June 2015, a total of 17,050 chiggers were collected from striped field mice, Apodemus agrarius, in Cheorwon-gun, Hwacheon-gun, Yanggu-gun, and Goseong-gun, which are well-known endemic areas of scrub typhus in Korea. The chiggers were analyzed using molecular genomic methods, as previously described. Among the 7,964 identified chiggers, the predominant species was Leptotrombidium pallidum (76.9%), followed by L. zetum (16.4%), L. orientale (4.3%), L. palpale (0.3%), L. tectum (0.2%), and Neotrombicula tamiyai (1.8%). The chigger index (CI) was highest in Hwacheon (115.58), followed by Cheorwon (97.02), Yanggu (76.88), and Goseong (54.68). Out of the 79 O. tsutsugamushi-positive chigger pools, 67 (84.8%) were identified as the Boryong strain, 10 (12.7%) as the Youngworl strain, and only 2 were the Jecheon strain. Based on the high infestation of chiggers in striped field rodents and the high rate of O. tsutsugamushi infection in chigger mites, Hwacheon-gun and Cheorwon-gun are presumed to be high-risk areas for scrub typhus. Furthermore, L. pallidum, a major vector of scrub typhus, and the dominant O. tsutsugamushi serotype, the Boryong strain, were found in the northern regions of Gangwon-do, Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.54-59
• /
• 2023

Lovenia elongata is a member of the family Loveniidae and is one of the most common tropical echinoids. This species has a broad distribution range in the sub- and tropical regions of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, extending from the Mozambique to the Hawaiian Islands, and from southern Japan to northern Australia. It is commonly found in subtidal areas and on coral reefs within these regions. This species was for the first time recorded from the Ulleungdo Island, Korea. This species is characterized by a teardrop-shaped test that reaches up to 5 cm in length, with a deep groove at the front and tapered at the back end. The petaloid is not obvious, and the primary spines are long and banded. This study is the first to report the newly recorded L. elongata in Korea.