The Aboriginal population of Australia has a higher burden of chronic health conditions than non-Aboriginal Australians. However, there is a paucity of data on clinical and demographic ...characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in this population.
In this retrospective study we evaluated the clinical, demographic and environmental influences in adult Aboriginal patients with COPD living in the regional and remote communities of the Northern Territory of Australia.
There were 380 patients (49%) with a diagnosis of COPD of the 767 patients referred to specialist respiratory outreach clinics. The mean age was 57 years (56% were female) and mean±SD BMI was 24.30±7.01 kg/m
. Smoking history was noted in 93% of the study cohort. The most common respiratory symptom was shortness of breath in 62%, and inhaled medications (salbutamol, tiotropium, salmeterol/fluticasone) were used by 79%, 44% and 58% of patients, respectively. Spirometry showed obstructive impairment (FEV
/FVC <0.7) in 79% (0.56±0.17), with mean FEV
42% of predicted, and a bronchodilator response was present in 28.6%. Comorbid bronchiectasis was diagnosed in 49.8% along with COPD. The relationship between COPD and community demography showed a higher proportion of smokers and those with underlying bronchiectasis to have lower FEV
/FVC ratios. Communities with a higher proportion of asthma were younger and had higher smoking rates. Mortality increased with increasing number of exacerbations and hospital admissions.
The Aboriginal population with COPD has a higher prevalence of smoking, moderate to severe airflow obstruction on spirometry and frequently co-diagnosed bronchiectasis with increased severity of ventilatory impairment.
Background
Chronic respiratory disorders are highly prevalent in Aboriginal Australian population, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. However, there is paucity ...of information in the literature among Aboriginal patients with underlying COPD with and without bronchiectasis.
Aims
In this retrospective study we evaluated the demographic and clinical characteristics of adult Aboriginal Australian patients with a clinical diagnosis of COPD with and without bronchiectasis from the remote communities of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Methods
Clinical records were reviewed to extract information on demographics, respiratory and medical comorbid conditions, COPD directed treatment, hospital admission frequency and exacerbations. Chest radiology were reviewed to evaluate the presence or absence of bronchiectasis. Spirometry results, sputum culture and cardiac investigations were also recorded.
Results
Of the 767 patients assessed in the remote community respiratory outreach clinics 380 (49%) patients had a clinical diagnosis of COPD. Chest X‐ray and computed tomography scan were available to evaluate the presence of bronchiectasis in 258 patients. Of the 258/380 patients, 176/258 (68.2%) were diagnosed to have COPD alone and 82/258 (31.8%) had bronchiectasis along with COPD. The mean age was 56 and 59 years among patients with and without bronchiectasis, respectively, and 57% were males with bronchiectasis. Patients with bronchiectasis had lower body mass index (22 vs 24 kg/m2), frequent hospital admissions (2.0 vs 1.5/year) and productive cough (32.1% vs 28.9%). Spirometry showed 77% had forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/forced vital capacity ratio <0.7. In 81% and 75% of patients with and without bronchiectasis the FEV1/forced vital capacity ratio was <0.7 and the mean FEV1 was 39% and 43% respectively.
Conclusions
About 32% of Aboriginal Australians had co‐existent bronchiectasis with COPD. Lower body mass index, productive cough, frequent hospital admission and marginally more severe reduction in lung function were noted among patients with COPD and bronchiectasis compared to those with COPD in isolation.
Introductions of non-native fish are intended to have positive social outcomes, although they can also result in negative environmental consequences. Recently, incidental introduction of tilapia (
...Oreochromis
cf.
niloticus
) was recorded in the Kikori River, Papua New Guinea. This study investigated the abundance of
Oreochromis
cf.
niloticus
relative to native fish species in the Kikori Town market, and interviewed market vendors to gauge the local perception of
Oreochromis
cf.
niloticus
. Market data were collected over eight days with 1474 individual fish observed.
Oreochromis
cf.
niloticus
comprised 11.4% (n = 168) of fish and was the largest contributor of biomass (40.2%). Market vendors reported that
Oreochromis
cf.
niloticus
was easy to catch and sell, and ranked it highly in sale preference compared to native species. There is potential to explore export markets for Kikori River
Oreochromis cf. niloticus
in PNG’s highland provinces to expand economic opportunities for local communities.
The Australian freshwater turtle fauna is dominated by species in the family Chelidae. The extant fauna comprises a series of distinct lineages, each of considerable antiquity, relicts of a more ...extensive and perhaps diverse fauna that existed when wetter climes prevailed. Several phylogenetically distinctive species are restricted to single, often small, drainage basins, which presents challenges for their conservation. Specific threats include water resource development, which alters the magnitude, frequency, and timing of flows and converts lentic to lotic habitat via dams and weirs, fragmentation of habitat, sedimentation, nutrification, and a reduction in the frequency and extent of floodplain flooding. Drainage of wetlands and altered land use are of particular concern for some species that are now very restricted in range and critically endangered. The introduced European red fox is a devastatingly efficient predator of turtle nests and can have a major impact on recruitment. In the north, species such as the northern snake‐necked turtle are heavily depredated by feral pigs. Other invasive animals and aquatic weeds dramatically alter freshwater habitats, with consequential impacts on freshwater turtles. Novel pathogens such as viruses have brought at least one species to the brink of extinction. Species that routinely migrate across land are impacted by structural simplification of habitat, reduction in availability of terrestrial refugia, fencing (including conservation fencing), and in some areas, by high levels of road mortality. We report on the listing process and challenges for listing freshwater turtles under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, summarize the state of knowledge relevant to listing decisions, identify the key threatening processes impacting turtles, and identify key knowledge gaps that impede the setting of priorities. We also focus on how to best incorporate First Nations Knowledge into decisions on listing and discuss opportunities to engage Indigenous communities in on‐ground work to achieve conservation outcomes.
The freshwater turtle fauna in Australia, mainly consisting of species in the family Chelidae, is characterized by distinct lineages that have survived from a more diverse past. Conservation efforts face challenges due to habitat fragmentation, water resource development, invasive predators like foxes and feral pigs, altered land use, and the impact of invasive species and pathogens. This article discusses the process of listing turtles under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, highlights key threats and knowledge gaps, and explores the inclusion of First Nations Knowledge and the engagement of Indigenous communities in conservation initiatives.
Methods to measure and monitor wild populations are important conservation tools in areas affected by anthropogenic disturbances. We compared three populations of the South American frog Physalaemus ...cuvieri Fitzinger, 1826 (Leptodactylidae) from areas with different degrees of anthropogenic disturbance in regard to their degrees of fluctuating asymmetry (FA). We selected four morphological characters (radio-ulna, femur, tibia-fibula and digit length) and compared two populations from relatively pristine areas with one population located in a highly urbanised and disturbed area. We found a significantly higher level of FA for the digit length, p < 0.05, in the population suffering the highest level of anthropogenic disturbance in relation to the two populations located in the pristine areas. There are no significant differences in the three populations in regard to FA for the radio-ulna, femur and tibia-fibula. The absence of FA in these three measurements might indicate a negative effect of limb asymmetry on this species survivorship. Our study provides a good example of the use of FA as indicator of environmental stress. However, this result must be viewed with some caution, since we observed FA in only one morphological character.
In turtle species with temperature-dependent sex determination, hatchling sex ratios skewed toward males could threaten populations where females are vulnerable to harvest. We tested the efficiency ...of black plastic covers in producing more female hatchlings from nests of the six-tubercle Amazon River turtle (Podocnemis sextuberculata) at the Mamirauá Reserve, Amazonas, Brazil, during September to November 2003. Covered nests produced 37% more females and midnest average temperatures were 1°C higher than control nests. Incubation period was 3 days shorter, but survivorship was 12% lower in nests with black plastic. This technique could be an inexpensive, local alternative for short-term sex-ratio manipulation in endangered male-biased populations with temperature-dependent sex determination.
► We provide concrete evidence of decline in populations of the pig-nosed turtle. ► We combine matched village and market surveys separated by 30 years. ► We access trends in nesting female size, and ...of levels and efficacy of harvest. ► An effective response needs to consider both conservation and fisheries perspectives. ► Our study is representative of harvest regimes within the range of the species in PNG.
Papua New Guinea has astonishing biological and cultural diversity which, coupled with a strong community reliance on the land and its biota for subsistence, add complexity to monitoring and conservation and in particular, the demonstration of declines in wildlife populations. Many species of concern are long-lived which provides additional challenges for conservation. We provide, for the first time, concrete evidence of a substantive decline in populations of the pig-nosed turtle (
Carettochelys insculpta); an important source of protein for local communities. Our study combined matched village and market surveys separated by 30
years, trends in nesting female size, and assessment of levels and efficacy of harvest, each of which was an essential ingredient to making a definitive assessment of population trends. Opportunities for an effective response by local communities to these declines needs to consider both conservation and fisheries perspectives because local communities consider the turtle a food resource, whereas the broader global community views it as a high priority for conservation. Our study in the Kikori region is representative of harvest regimes in most rivers within the range of the species in Papua New Guinea, and provides lessons for conservation of many other wildlife species subject to harvest.
•Diet among the Amazon podocnemidids varies depending on species, sex, season and location.•There is no relationship between maximum carapace length and vegetable matter consumed.•Habitat (water ...type) indirectly influences the average volume of total vegetable matter consumed.•Species with no specialised stomach adaptations consume vegetable matter less hard to digest.•Plant secondary metabolites most effectively prevent consumption by turtles that lack adaptations to herbivory.
Amazon rivers can be divided into three groups (black, white and clear waters) according to the origin of their sediment, dissolved nutrient content, and vegetation. White water rivers have high sediment loads and primary productivity, with abundant aquatic and terrestrial plant life. In contrast, black water rivers are acid and nutrient-poor, with infertile floodplains that support plant species exceptionally rich in secondary chemical defences against herbivory. In this study, we reviewed available information on the diet of Amazon sideneck river turtles (Family Podocnemididae). Our aim was to test the relationship between water type and diet of podocnemidids. We also took into account the effects of season, size, age, sex and phylogeny. Based on our review, turtles of this family are primarily herbivorous but opportunistic, consuming from 46 to 99% (percent volume) of vegetable matter depending on species, sex, season and location. There was no significant correlation between the maximum carapace size of a species and vegetable matter consumed. When the available information on diet, size and habitat was arranged on the podocnemidid phylogeny, no obvious evolutionary trend was evident. The physicochemical properties of the inhabited water type indirectly influence the average volume of total vegetable matter consumed. Species with no specialised stomach adaptations for herbivory consumed smaller amounts of hard to digest vegetable matter (i.e. leaves, shoots and stems). We propose that turtles with specialized digestive tracts may have an advantage in black water rivers where plant chemical defences are more common. Despite limitations of the published data our review highlights the overall pattern of diet in the Podocnemididae and flags areas where more studies are needed.
Environmental, biological, social, economic and political values influence the creation of protected areas. In some instances, the main aim of protected areas is to conserve a particular threatened ...species. The pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta) in Papua New Guinea is a typical example of a species that would benefit from the introduction of small protected areas aimed to reduce overharvest. This species is highly prized as food and it is the most exploited turtle in the country. This study aims to identify priority areas for C. insculpta conservation in the Kikori region, taking into account the data available on biology, demography and harvest, as well as the distribution and demography of the Kikori human population. We identified seven potential priority areas for conservation and no-take areas, which comprise remote nesting sandbanks and feeding grounds. The conservation goals of these protected areas should be clearly linked with the local community aspirations of maintaining and increasing the number of eggs and adult turtles for future harvest. Monitoring of human and C. insculpta populations inside and outside priority areas are crucial to ensure that the vital areas for C. insculpta life cycle are maintained and protected, since feeding and nesting areas, as well as hunting areas, are likely to change in response to food and sandbank availability. The method presented in this paper has the potential to be adapted and applied while defining priorities in remote locations, where the implementation of protected areas are likely to affect communities livelihoods.
Management of wildlife use by communities living a partially traditional lifestyle is usually more successful when the interactions between those communities and the environment are well understood. ...We mapped the harvest areas for the Vulnerable pig-nosed turtle Carettochelys insculpta for six language-groups in the Kikori region of Papua New Guinea and compared harvest parameters between different areas and language-groups and, when possible, between 1980–1982 and 2007–2009. Spatially, the main influence on harvest method was a tribe's location relative to the turtle's distribution. No small juveniles (< 20 cm straight-line carapace length) were found outside the Kikori delta, which is probably the species’ feeding grounds. In contrast, nesting females were captured only in upstream and coastal sandbank areas. Temporally there were distinct differences in harvesting parameters between tribes, which may be explained by differential employment opportunities. To halt the decline of pig-nosed turtles in the Kikori region we recommend the establishment of beach and feeding-ground protection initiatives, together with monitoring of the turtle population and harvest. Concomitantly, trips specifically targeted at harvesting the turtles, which account for 81% of the animals captured, need to be restricted. These initiatives should include all six language-groups and take into account their specific harvesting patterns.
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