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Section: Infections ; Topics: Ecology, Immunology and inflammation, Microbiology

Interaction dynamics of Borrelia afzelii and tick-borne encephalitis virus in C3H mice: insights into immune response

Porcelli, Stefania; Le Roux, Delphine; Heckmann, Aurélie; Galon, Clémence; Mateos-Hernandez, Lourdes; Šimo, Ladislav; Cabezas-Cruz, Alejandro; Lagrée, Anne-Claire; Karadjian, Grégory; Deshuillers, Pierre Lucien; Moutailler, Sara

10.24072/pcjournal.660 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e131
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Ticks are important vectors responsible for transmitting a wide range of diseases that have significant impacts on both human and animal health. In Europe, the Ixodes tick is especially remarkable for its ability to spread pathogens such as Borrelia, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), which can lead to serious neurological infections. Building on the results of our previous research involving co-infection with Borrelia afzelii and TBEV in C3H mice, this study aimed to further investigate the interactions between these two pathogens, focusing on the timing of infection and examining mRNA cytokine levels in the brain and spleen of both single- and co-infected mice and their possible link to the clinical outcome. The results revealed that the timing of infection significantly influenced the immune response, highlighting the complex interactions between B. afzelii and TBEV. B. afzelii infection can influence TBEV dynamics, either amplifying or suppressing its effects depending on the timing of infection. In addition, this study helps to better understand how the immune system reacts when both TBEV and B. afzelii infect a host under different conditions. It sheds light on how these pathogens interact and affect disease progression.
Section: Ecology ; Topics: Ecology

Over the hills and far away: linking landscape factors with cavity excavation on living forest trees by the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius, L. 1758)

Cabrera, Cedric; Monnet, Jean-Matthieu; Boutteaux, Jean-Jacques; Doutau, Baptiste; Denis, Pascal; Paillet, Yoan

10.24072/pcjournal.658 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e130
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The Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius, L. 1758) is the largest primary cavity excavator in Europe. Its cavities represent an essential microhabitat for many other forest species and the knowledge on landscape factors linked with cavity excavation by the Black Woodpecker is needed to support the conservation of this species and associated species. Such relationships should thus be quantified at different scales ranging from the stand to the extended home range. We used cavity maps established by foresters and naturalists to build a large (2689 cavity bearing trees) database distributed over several sites in France. Based on this and on a set of background points, i.e. randomly selected points devoid of cavity in the vicinity, we analysed the effects of stand composition and landscape features (forest cover, forest connectivity and fragmentation) at three different scales around each cavity and background point corresponding to a forest management unit (10ha), the core (100ha) and extended (250ha) home range scales. We showed that indices describing forest continuity (cohesion, landscape shape index) and forest tree species composition (especially the presence of mixed forests) had significant positive effects but that the magnitude varied across the three scales. We notably observed the strongest effects at the core home range scale (100ha), indicating that Black Woodpecker requirements for cavity excavation are more pronounced at this scale. The Black Woodpecker tends to avoid pure conifer-dominated stands to excavate cavities, but benefits from mixed forests, that couple favourable foraging and cavity excavation sites. The bird also prefers continuous forest landscapes with high cohesion and low edge densities. We also showed that the positive effects of forest landscape were generally larger at higher elevation, indicating context-dependence. Forest planning rarely integrates the landscape patterns. A better understanding of the features linked with cavity excavation by the Black Woodpecker may hence help to better integrate their conservation in forest management planning. Our results also show the importance to maintain mixed broadleaf-conifer forests as well as continuous and well-connected forest landscapes to favour features that benefit primary and secondary cavity nesters.
Section: Psychology ; Topics: Anthropology, Psychological and cognitive sciences, Health sciences

Exploring potential bidirectional causality between psychotic experiences and religiosity in a UK longitudinal cohort study (ALSPAC)

Obo, Grace; Golding, Jean; Zammit, Stanley; Jones, Hannah J; Halstead, Isaac; Major-Smith, Daniel

10.24072/pcjournal.654 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e129
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Background: Psychotic experiences (PEs) are common in the general population, and can be an early sign of psychotic disorders, which can have a large impact on people’s lives. Understanding the causes and consequences of PEs is therefore important, both for identifying potential causal risk factors for PEs and for exploring how PEs may subsequently affect people’s beliefs and behaviours. To investigate this, we focus on potential bidirectional causality between PEs and religiosity – a topic which remains under-researched and currently with a weak evidence base – using large-scale data from a UK longitudinal birth cohort. Methods: We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). PEs were assessed using semi-structured interviews at age 24 (for PEs since age 12) and self-reported questionnaires at age 32 (for PEs in the past year). Religiosity was self-reported at age 28, and included questions on religious beliefs, identity and service attendance. Multivariable regression models, adjusted for relevant confounders, analysed bidirectional associations between PEs and religiosity (i.e., whether PEs from age 12-24 potentially cause religiosity at age 28, and whether religiosity at age 28 potentially causes PEs at age 32). Multiple imputation was used to impute missing data and boost statistical power, with g-computation used to calculate our marginal causal contrasts of interest. Results: Interview-rated PEs between age 12-24 were associated with a greater probability of religious belief; participants with PEs were 7.8%-points (95% confidence/compatibility interval [CI] = 1.9% to 13.7%) less likely to answer ‘no’ to believing in God, and 5.7%-points (95% CI = 0.7% to 10.7%) more likely to answer ‘yes’. Similar patterns were observed for religious identity (PEs associated with a 5.6%-point [95% CI = 0.2% to 11.0%] increase in identifying as religious), but with weaker evidence of an association with religious service attendance (PEs associated with a 1.7%-point [95% CI = -1.0% to 4.4%] increase in regular attendance). Religious belief at age 28 was also associated with an increased probability of self-reported PEs at age 32 (5.7%-points [95% CI = 1.8% to 9.5%]), with effects for religious identity (2.1%-points [95% CI = -0.9% to 5.0%] increase in PEs) and religious attendance (5.6%-point [95% CI = -1.8% to 12.9%] increase in PEs) in the same direction but weaker and/or plausibly null. Conclusion: To the extent these results can be given a causal interpretation, these findings suggest a potential bidirectional causal relationship between PEs and religiosity, especially regarding religious beliefs. Further research is needed to explore whether these results are replicable and generalisable across populations, in addition to whether religiosity may moderate or mediate the long-term impact of PEs on mental health outcomes.
Section: Ecology ; Topics: Ecology

Spatio-temporal dynamics of attacks around deaths of wolves: A statistical assessment of lethal control efficiency in France

Grente, Oksana; Opitz, Thomas; Duchamp, Christophe; Drouet-Hoguet, Nolwenn; Chamaillé-Jammes, Simon; Gimenez, Olivier

10.24072/pcjournal.652 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e128
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The lethal control of large carnivores is criticized regarding its efficiency to prevent hotspots of attacks on livestock. Previous studies, mainly focused on North America, provided mixed results. We evaluated the effects of wolf lethal removals on the distribution of attack intensities in the French Alps between 2011 and 2020, using a Before After Control‐Impact approach with retrospective data. We built an original framework combining both continuous spatial and temporal scales and a 3D kernel estimation. We compared the attack intensities observed before and after the legal killings of wolves over a period of 90 days and a range of 10 km, and with control situations where no removal occurred. The analysis was corrected for the presence of livestock. A moderate decrease in attack intensity was the most common outcome after the lethal removal of a single wolf. This reduction was greatly amplified when removing two or three wolves. The scale of analysis also modulated this general pattern, with decreases being generally amplified at a small spatio-temporal range. Contextual factors (e.g., geographical or seasonal variations) could also lead to deviations from this general pattern. Overall, between 2011 and 2020, lethal control of wolves in France generally contributed to reducing livestock attacks, but mainly locally and to a minor extent. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for scale in such assessments and suggest that the evaluation of the effectiveness of lethal removals in reducing livestock predation might be more relevant in a local context. As a next step, we recommend to move forward from patterns to mechanisms by linking the effects of lethal control on wolves to their effects on attacks through analysis of fine-scaled data on wolves and livestock.

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The network image was drawn by Martin Grandjean: A force-based network visualization CC BY-SA