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Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)

BACKGROUND: Scorpionism is a worldwide problem that has already made thousands of victims, and multi-disciplinary approaches for controlling their populations are to be more successful. Hens are often mentioned as tools for controlling scorpions; however, systematic/experimental behavioral studies a...

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Autores principales: Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta, Pagoti, Guilherme Ferreira, Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite, Willemart, Rodrigo Hirata
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Centro de Estudos de Venenos e Animais Peçonhentos (CEVAP/UNESP) 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8833830/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35222555
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-9199-JVATITD-2021-0050
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author Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta
Pagoti, Guilherme Ferreira
Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite
Willemart, Rodrigo Hirata
author_facet Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta
Pagoti, Guilherme Ferreira
Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite
Willemart, Rodrigo Hirata
author_sort Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Scorpionism is a worldwide problem that has already made thousands of victims, and multi-disciplinary approaches for controlling their populations are to be more successful. Hens are often mentioned as tools for controlling scorpions; however, systematic/experimental behavioral studies are not available. Moreover, there is no systematic information on the effect of scorpion venoms on hens. Using the venomous yellow scorpion Tityus serrulatus, the present study aimed to clarify the following aspects: (1) voracity of hens, (2) how hens react when stung, (3) the effect of scorpion stings on hen behavior during attacks, and (4) hen survivorship after feeding on scorpions. METHODS: We attracted hens with corn powder, offered them scorpions and then recorded the hen-scorpion interaction. To test the effects of the sting we manually removed the scorpion’s telson. RESULTS: We found that some hens ate up to six scorpions within minutes. By means of an ethogram and drawings, we showed that they exhibited several aversive behaviors when capturing scorpions. Removal of the scorpion telson stopped the aversive reactions, which was not observed in the control group. Finally, hens did not exhibit atypical behaviors after 1, 7 and 30 days and were all alive after 30 days. CONCLUSION: This is the first empirical and video recorded study providing evidence that hens are clearly affected by scorpion venom but do not die. Therefore, they may have potential to be used in biological control of these arthropods.
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spelling pubmed-88338302022-02-24 Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus) Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta Pagoti, Guilherme Ferreira Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite Willemart, Rodrigo Hirata J Venom Anim Toxins Incl Trop Dis Research BACKGROUND: Scorpionism is a worldwide problem that has already made thousands of victims, and multi-disciplinary approaches for controlling their populations are to be more successful. Hens are often mentioned as tools for controlling scorpions; however, systematic/experimental behavioral studies are not available. Moreover, there is no systematic information on the effect of scorpion venoms on hens. Using the venomous yellow scorpion Tityus serrulatus, the present study aimed to clarify the following aspects: (1) voracity of hens, (2) how hens react when stung, (3) the effect of scorpion stings on hen behavior during attacks, and (4) hen survivorship after feeding on scorpions. METHODS: We attracted hens with corn powder, offered them scorpions and then recorded the hen-scorpion interaction. To test the effects of the sting we manually removed the scorpion’s telson. RESULTS: We found that some hens ate up to six scorpions within minutes. By means of an ethogram and drawings, we showed that they exhibited several aversive behaviors when capturing scorpions. Removal of the scorpion telson stopped the aversive reactions, which was not observed in the control group. Finally, hens did not exhibit atypical behaviors after 1, 7 and 30 days and were all alive after 30 days. CONCLUSION: This is the first empirical and video recorded study providing evidence that hens are clearly affected by scorpion venom but do not die. Therefore, they may have potential to be used in biological control of these arthropods. Centro de Estudos de Venenos e Animais Peçonhentos (CEVAP/UNESP) 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8833830/ /pubmed/35222555 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-9199-JVATITD-2021-0050 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Murayama, Gabriel Pimenta
Pagoti, Guilherme Ferreira
Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite
Willemart, Rodrigo Hirata
Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title_full Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title_fullStr Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title_full_unstemmed Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title_short Voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (Tityus serrulatus)
title_sort voracity, reaction to stings, and survival of domestic hens when feeding on the yellow scorpion (tityus serrulatus)
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8833830/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35222555
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-9199-JVATITD-2021-0050
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