Positive relationships with pets can sometimes foster more positive judgments of other animals. The present study sought to examine the scope of this “pets as ambassadors” effect in relation to four meaningful animal categories (companion, farmed, predator, and pest) derived from the Animal Images Database (Animal.ID). The Animal.ID contains ratings from 376 Portuguese individuals on pet attachment and several dimensions related to animal attributes and moral concern for 120 different animals, which offered insights into the scope and nature of the “pets as ambassadors” effect. Pet attachment was related positively to ethical concern for animals and lower levels of speciesism. The relationship between pet attachment and animal attributions were expressed, beyond companion animals, most consistently for predators and farmed animals, and least of all pests. The benefits of pet attachment centered mostly on aesthetic judgments and benevolent feelings toward predators and farmed animals, sentience attributions for pests, and concerns about the killing of all animal groups for human consumption. Pet attachment did not reliably relate to the attributions individuals made about the intelligence or dangerousness of animals, or their similarity to humans. The findings help clarify how pets might serve as ambassadors for other animals.

Abstract – Population fluctuation studies are very important for pest control, since they provide fundamental information on when and in what intensity a harmful organism can arise in crops, thus providing a greater accuracy in the application of control measures. The population fluctuation of the South American rice water weevil (Oryzophagus oryzae), of the rice stink bug (Oebalus spp.), and of the rice caseworm (Nymphula spp.) in irrigated rice fields were related to the crop management. For these species, control measures can be planned and implemented based on population fluctuation studies.

The area with plantations of trees of the genus Eucalyptus and Corymbia is of more than 20 million hectares in the world. In Brazil, those of the Eucalyptus genus occupy 77% of the total area of planted forests. These plantations are threatened by native and exotic pest insects, which can limit wood production if not managed properly. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce pest insects to Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. The main species are mentioned and the aspects of biology, injury, damage and monitoring, and control strategies described for the most important ones. Technologies, especially biological control, are discussed for the management of these pests. The management of eucalyptus pests in Brazil has contributed to reducing the problems with exotic pests in these crops.

More than six decades after the onset of wide-scale commercial use of synthetic pesticides and more than fifty years after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, pesticides, particularly insecticides, arguably remain the most influential pest management tool around the globe. Nevertheless, pesticide use is still a controversial issue and is at the regulatory forefront in most countries. The older generation of insecticide groups has been largely replaced by a plethora of novel molecules that exhibit improved human and environmental safety profiles. However, the use of such compounds is guided by their short-term efficacy; the indirect and subtler effects on their target species, namely arthropod pest species, have been neglected. Curiously, comprehensive risk assessments have increasingly explored effects on nontarget species, contrasting with the majority of efforts focused on the target arthropod pest species. The present review mitigates this shortcoming by hierarchically exploring within an ecotoxicology framework applied to integrated pest management the myriad effects of insecticide use on arthropod pest species.

O autor parte da premissa de que a profilaxia da doença infecciosa decorre do encadeamento epidemiológico: fonte de infecção-veículo transmissor - receptivel, para explicar a da peste, baseada no mesmo princípio. Depois de citar os 4 principais complexos epidemiológicos da peste e afirmar que tôda a profilaxia da doença consiste em atingir os dois primeiros elos dessas cadeias e proteger o último, passa a classificar os vários métodos profiláticos empregados em 2 grandes grupos: o das medidas destrutivas ou provisórias e o das medidas supressivas ou definitivas. Entre as primeiras arrola a desratização e a despulização, às quais acrescenta o tratamento e isolamento do doente e do portaãor, e entre as segundas inclui a anti-ratização e a imunização. A seguir, passa a explicar em que consistem essas várias medidas profiláticas e quais os agentes de que se tem lançado mão para executá-las, expendendo ao curso dessa exposição o conceito que formula a respeito de cada uma delas, à guisa de apreciação do seu valor relativo. Enaltece sobretudo as medidas supressivas ou definitivas, às quais empresta a maior significação na luta antipestosa, chamando a atenção, em especial, para a necessidade de estudos imunológicos para aperfeiçoamento do poder imunitário das vacinas de germes vivos avirulentos, que considera um grande recurso para a profilaxia da doença, sobretudo para a proteção do rurícola, cujo labor e modo de vida o expõem inevitavelmente a se infectar, por ocasião da ocorrência de epizootias de origem silvestre. Concluída essa primeira parte, passa a fazer o histórico de como se desenvolveu a campanha contra a peste, no Brasil, desde a época da sua invasão em 1899 pelo pôrto de Santos até os nossos dias. Nesse histórico, detem-se um pouco para expôr a atuação do extinto Serviço Nacional de Peste, o qual, criado em 1941, após a reorganização do Departamento Nacional de Saúde, passou, como órgão específico, a cuidar do problema até sua incorporação em 1956, a dois outros grandes Serviços Nacionais (o de Malária e o de Febre Amarela), para constituição do Departamento Nacional de Endemias Rurais, ao qual cabe atualmente a responsabilidade da campanha.