Iron storage disease (ISD) in lemurs has been reported since as early as the 1960s, and in the 1980s was demonstrated to be a consistent finding in postmortem investigations of captive lemurs. Since then this disease has consistently been diagnosed at the point of necropsy. In the current study we describe a preclinical screening procedure, as well as the quantified preventive effects of dietary intervention upon iron absorption. Twenty-three individual lemurs of four species were initially tested with the transferrin saturation test (%TS); 21 of these animals were on conventional zoo diets, and two were fed a specific diabetic diet. Initially, 20 of 21 lemurs on conventional zoo diets were demonstrated to have %TS levels above the normal range for humans; 17 of these lemurs were in the category (for humans) of excessive iron absorption. A dietary change aimed at reducing dietary iron and vitamin C levels and increasing the levels of iron-chelating tannins and/or phytates was instigated. After the animals were retested, a matched-pair comparison of %TS values before and after the diet change revealed significantly (P

In the process of nuclear transfer (NT), different cytoplasm from a donor cell and a recipient oocyte are mixed. However, it is unclear what effect the donor cytoplasm has upon the dedifferentiation of donor nuclei in enucleated ooplasm and upon subsequent production of live cloned offspring. Mitochondria are component parts of cytoplasm so the detection of mitochondrial DNA is helpful to reveal changes of donor cytoplasm in the NT reconstructed embryos. In this study, the experiments were designed to develop efficient DNA extraction techniques and specific primer pairs for mitochondrial DNA of Holstein and Chinese Yellow breeds in order to identify the changes of donor cytoplasm in early stage embryos. Firstly, by adding Triton X-100 and Taq DNA polymerase reaction buffer to the DNA extraction mixture, DNA was rapidly isolated from single diploid cells, single oocytes, early stage embryos and from single hairs. Secondly, two specific primer pairs for the two breeds were designed to detect the cytoplasmic DNA in a different amount of single cells and in early stage embryos. The results show that two specific fragments were successfully amplified from single somatic cells, single oocytes, parthenogenetic embryos and from NT reconstructed embryos. As a result, the techniques provide a powerful tool for studying the developmental mechanism in NT reconstructed embryos.

1. Dabry's sturgeon, a large, long-lived migratory fish is endemic to the Yangtze River. Overfishing and habitat destruction have caused large-scale declines in natural stocks in the last two decades. 2. Examining patterns of genetic diversity has become an integral component of many management plans for endangered species. DNA fingerprinting was applied to detect genetic diversity in Dabry's sturgeon collected in 1958-1959, 1980-1981 and 1998-1999. 3. Studies on direct genetic parameters (genetic variability, hypervariable loci and heterozygosity) and indirect parameters (band-sharing coefficient and allelic frequency) showed that the continuous decline in wild populations has caused the loss of genetic diversity in present-day sturgeon. 4. The present-day populations have the lowest genetic variability; thus, effective management is needed to preserve genetic diversity. 5. A conservation strategy is urgently required, comprising artificial rearing facilities coupled with breeding management plans. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis Hilzheimer) was once distributed in the Zhejiang Province, China, but there have not been any tiger sightings in this province since 1985. Fortunately, within the boundaries of the Fengyangshan-baishanzu State Natural Reserve, gamekeepers have found 'tiger footprints' and 'tiger faeces' many times since 1998. However, these tracks may have been left by the leopard or clouded leopard, which leave similar tracks. The presence of the Chinese tiger in Zhejiang Province was demonstrated using DNA fingerprinting and faecal DNA. The study not only revealed a new habitat for Chinese tigers, Zhejiang Province, but also provided an effective scatology method to identify the distribution of tigers and other wild felines.

Over the last 100 years giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) have been separated into six completely isolated mountain ranges. DNA fingerprinting revealed different differentiation patterns in giant pandas, including early-stage, late-stage, recent divergence and recent genetic depression. A separation around 10 000 years ago resulted in highly significant differences in DNA fingerprints and morphological characteristics between Qinling and Sichuan populations. Supported by morphological differences, the genetic data were used to classify the Qinling population as a new subspecies, A. m. qinlingensis, while the Sichuan populations were classified into the original subspecies,A. m. melanoleuca. Thus, the Qinling population deserves management as a separate unit. In the Sichuan populations, two management units were defined, including Qionglai-Minshan and Daxiangling-Xiaoxiangling-Liangshan. Our data suggest urgent measures are needed to establish green corridors between subpopulations in each mountain range to increase gene flow and genetic variation to ensure long-term survival.

Chinese sika deer, Cervus nippon, are currently threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation and human hunting, which has led to the extinction of three subspecies in the wild. The remaining subspecies subsist in the narrow regions of Jilin, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Gansu, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces. In order to design effective conservation strategies for the Chinese sika deer, we have investigated genetic diversity, population structure and gene flow in the Chinese sika deer populations by analyzing 995 bas epairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region in 59 individuals sampled from the northeast of China, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Chinese sika deer exhibited low mtDNA diversity and high gene flow among the four populations, and showed no strong geographical structure. The analyses of mtDNA variation among individuals of sika deer identified only two main phylogenetic groups even though three subspecies were sampled. These data singles out the Zhejiang population as being highly genetically distinct and worthy of separate conservation consideration. Therefore, it is recommended that a breeding program for the Zhejiang population be established.

Globally, tigers are considered to be endangered, and are listed on Appendix I of CITES. A simple test, using a species-specific primer pair, was developed to identify tiger meat, faeces and dried skin, and provide forensic evidence of illegal wildlife trade. The specific fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was also successfully amplified from raw DNA products extracted from single tiger hairs. This PCR-based approach opens a new avenue to forensic identification of less-than-optimal samples.

Quantifying genetic diversity in populations is one of the fundamental measures for species conservation. This is far more important for critically endangered species like giant pandas, where there are few individuals remaining in the population. However, previous multilocus probes could not identify homozygous loci resulting from inbreeding of giant pandas, and produced few polymorphic loci. As a result, we have prepared a new oligonucleotide probe, which had the highest paternity probability and succeeded in identifying the homozygous loci and in discriminating giant panda individuals.