Dataset Information

Why did the pheasant cross the road? Long-term road mortality patterns in relation to management changes.

ABSTRACT: Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are commonly killed on UK roads, presenting a threat to motorists and a loss to the game shooting industry. Pheasants may be inherently susceptible, or the recent increase in their artificial rearing and release may have exacerbated the situation, either through population increases or because artificial rearing has altered movement behaviour. We compared intra-annual patterns of roadkill reported in the UK from the 1960s (prior to the onset of mass release programmes) with that from the 2010s (when pheasant release was well established and widespread), considering roadkill sex and locations and accounting for changes in traffic levels. Pheasants in the UK are disproportionately likely to be reported killed on roads. However, this likelihood has not changed notably over the past 50 years. Instead, the timing of roadkill has changed. Pheasants in the 2010s are no longer susceptible during their breeding season, unlike in the 1960s, perhaps because relatively few breed successfully. Instead, roadkill first peaks in September-November as pheasants disperse from release pens, females first. Roadkill declines over winter, but when supplementary feeding ceases in February, we see a second peak in roadkill. Roadkill rates are higher in regions of the UK where there is little arable farming and hence natural food supplies are scarce.

SUBMITTER: Madden JR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5666256 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Why did the pheasant cross the road? Long-term road mortality patterns in relation to management changes.

Madden Joah R JR Perkins Sarah E SE

Royal Society open science 20171004 10

Pheasants (<i>Phasianus colchicus</i>) are commonly killed on UK roads, presenting a threat to motorists and a loss to the game shooting industry. Pheasants may be inherently susceptible, or the recent increase in their artificial rearing and release may have exacerbated the situation, either through population increases or because artificial rearing has altered movement behaviour. We compared intra-annual patterns of roadkill reported in the UK from the 1960s (prior to the onset of mass release ...[more]

PMID: 29134073

Similar Datasets

Project description:Declines in bird populations in agricultural regions of North America and Europe have been attributed to agricultural industrialization, increases in use of agrochemical application, and increased predation related to habitat modification. Based on count data compiled from Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) from 1974 to 2012, Christmas Bird Count (CBC) collected from 1914 to 2013, and hunter data from Annual Game Take Survey (AGTS) for years 1948-2010, ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in California have experienced substantial declines in agricultural environments. Using a modeling approach that integrates all three forms of survey data into a joint response abundance index, we found pheasant abundance was related to the amount of harvested and unharvested crop land, types of crops produced, amount of total pesticide applied, minimum temperature, precipitation, and numbers of avian competitors and predators. Specifically, major changes in agricultural practices over the last three decades were associated with declines in pheasant numbers and likely reflected widespread loss of habitat. For example, increases in cropland were associated with increased pheasant abundance during early years of study but this effect decreased through time, such that no association in recent years was evidenced. A post hoc analysis revealed that crops beneficial to pheasant abundance (e.g., barley) have declined substantially in recent decades and were replaced by less advantageous crops (e.g., nut trees). An additional analysis using a restricted data set (1990-2013) indicated recent negative impacts on pheasant numbers associated with land use practices were also associated with relatively high levels of pesticide application. Our results may provide valuable information for management policies aimed at reducing widespread declines in pheasant populations in California and may be applicable to other avian species within agricultural settings. Furthermore, this general analytical approach is not limited to pheasants and could be applied to other taxa for which multiple survey data sources exist.

Project description:BackgroundMost previous studies have relied on single measurements of body weight and physical activity and have not considered the interplay between long-term changes in body weight and physical activity in relation to mortality. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the joint effect of changes in body weight and leisure-time physical activity over a period of ~ 10 years on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.MethodsThe study population comprised 34,257 individuals who participated in the first (1984-86) and second (1995-97) waves of the HUNT Study, and were followed up through the Norwegian Cause of Death Registry until December 31st, 2013. We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of death associated with changes in body weight and leisure-time physical activity.ResultsCompared to the reference group with stable weight who were long-term physically active, people who gained ≥5% of their weight had a HR for all-cause mortality of 1.54 (95% CI: 1.28-1.85) if they were long-term physically inactive; a HR of 1.23 (1.09-1.40) if they became physically active, and a HR of 1.00 (95% CI 0.94-1.06) if they were long-term physically active. The corresponding HRs for cardiovascular mortality were 1.57 (95% CI 1.17-2.12), 1.28 (95% CI 1.04-1.58) and 1.06 (95% CI 0.96-1.16), respectively. Long-term physical inactivity was associated with increased all-cause (HR 1.29; 95% CI 1.08-1.53) and cardiovascular (HR 1.37; 95% CI 1.05-1.79) mortality among those who were weight stable.ConclusionsThe risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality is particularly evident among people who gain weight while remaining inactive during a ~ 10 year period. However, participants who remained physically active had the lowest risk of premature mortality, regardless of maintenance or increase in weight. These findings suggest that there is an interplay between long-term changes in body weight and physical activity that should receive particular attention in the prevention of premature mortality.

Project description:BackgroundMultimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more diseases in one patient, is a frequent phenomenon. Understanding how different diseases condition each other over the lifetime of a patient could significantly contribute to personalised prevention efforts. However, most of our current knowledge on the long-term development of the health of patients (their disease trajectories) is either confined to narrow time spans or specific (sets of) diseases. Here, we aim to identify decisive events that potentially determine the future disease progression of patients.MethodsHealth states of patients are described by algorithmically identified multimorbidity patterns (groups of included or excluded diseases) in a population-wide analysis of 9,000,000 patient histories of hospital diagnoses observed over 17 years. Over time, patients might acquire new diagnoses that change their health state; they describe a disease trajectory. We measure the age- and sex-specific risks for patients that they will acquire certain sets of diseases in the future depending on their current health state.ResultsIn the present analysis, the population is described by a set of 132 different multimorbidity patterns. For elderly patients, we find 3 groups of multimorbidity patterns associated with low (yearly in-hospital mortality of 0.2-0.3%), medium (0.3-1%) and high in-hospital mortality (2-11%). We identify combinations of diseases that significantly increase the risk to reach the high-mortality health states in later life. For instance, in men (women) aged 50-59 diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension, the risk for moving into the high-mortality region within 1 year is increased by the factor of 1.96 ± 0.11 (2.60 ± 0.18) compared with all patients of the same age and sex, respectively, and by the factor of 2.09 ± 0.12 (3.04 ± 0.18) if additionally diagnosed with metabolic disorders.ConclusionsOur approach can be used both to forecast future disease burdens, as well as to identify the critical events in the careers of patients which strongly determine their disease progression, therefore constituting targets for efficient prevention measures. We show that the risk for cardiovascular diseases increases significantly more in females than in males when diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension and metabolic disorders.

Project description:PurposeTo investigate the short-term cerebral metabolic effects of intravenous chemotherapy and their association with long-term fatigue/cognitive complaints.Experimental designUsing [18F]-FDG-PET/CT whole-body scans, we retrospectively quantified relative cerebral glucose metabolism before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in a cohort of patients treated for non-metastatic breast cancer (2009-2019). Self-report of cognitive complaints and fatigue were prospectively assessed 7 ± 3 years after therapy. Metabolic changes were estimated with i) robust mixed-effects modelling in regions-of-interest (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and insular cortex) and ii) general-linear modelling of whole-brain voxel-wise outcomes. iii) The association between metabolic changes and self-reported outcomes was evaluated using linear regression-analysis.ResultsOf the 667 screened patients, 263 underwent PET/CT before and after chemotherapy and 183 (48 ± 9 years) met the inclusion criteria. After chemotherapy, decreased frontal and increased parietal and insular metabolism were observed (|ß|>0.273, pFDR <0.008). Separately, additional increased occipital metabolism after epiribucin+ cyclophosphamide (EC) and temporal metabolism after EC+ fluorouracil chemotherapy were observed (ß>0.244, pFDR ≤0.048). Voxel-based analysis (pcluster-FWE <0.001) showed decreased metabolism in the paracingulate gyrus (-3.2 ± 3.9%) and putamen (3.1 ± 4.1%) and increased metabolism in the lateral cortex (L=2.9 ± 3.1%) and pericentral gyri (3.0 ± 4.4%). Except for the central sulcus, the same regions showed changes in EC, but not in FEC patients. Of the 97 self-reported responders, 23% and 27% experienced extreme fatigue and long-term cognitive complaints, respectively, which were not associated with metabolic changes.ConclusionBoth hyper- and hypometabolism were observed after chemotherapy for breast cancer. Combined with earlier findings, this study could support inflammatory mechanisms resulting in relative hypermetabolism, mainly in the parietal/occipital cortices. As early metabolic changes did not precede long-term complaints, further research is necessary to identify vulnerable patients.

Dataset Information

Why did the pheasant cross the road? Long-term road mortality patterns in relation to management changes.

Publications

Why did the pheasant cross the road? Long-term road mortality patterns in relation to management changes.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets