Key informant perceptions on wildlife hunting in India during the COVID-19 lockdown

Lockdowns intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in major socioeconomic upheavals across the world. While there were numerous reports of these lockdowns benefiting wildlife by reducing human movement and habitat disturbance, increased hunting during these lockdowns emerged as a conservation concern, particular in tropical Asia and Africa. We used online interviews with key informants including wildlife researchers, enforcement staff and NGO employees (N=99), and media reports (N=98), to examine the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown in India (March-May 2020) on wildlife hunting across the country. We asked whether and how hunting patterns changed during the lockdown, and explored socioeconomic and institutional factors underlying these changes. Over half the interviewees spread over 43 administrative districts perceived hunting (mammals, in particular) to have increased during the lockdown relative to a pre-lockdown reference period. Interviewees identified household consumption (53 percent of respondents) and sport and recreation (34 percent) as main motivations for hunting during the lockdown, and logistical challenges for enforcement (36 percent), disruption of food supply (32 percent), and need for recreational opportunities (32 percent) as key factors associated with hunting during this period. These insights were corroborated by statements by experts extracted from media articles. Collectively, our findings suggest that the COVID-19 lockdown potentially increased hunting across much of India, and emphasize the role of livelihood and food security in mitigating threats to wildlife during such periods of acute socioeconomic perturbation.

N-Acetyl-Glucosamidase as Biomarker for Acute Kidney Injury

Background : The estimated inci­dence of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is two to three cases per 1,000 patients. Seven percent of hospitalized patients and about two-thirds of patients in intensive care units develop acute kidney injury and the mortal­ity rates range between 25 and 80 percent. Disruption in epithelial brush border of proximal tubular cell causes N-Acetyl-β-D-Glucosaminidase (NAG) to be released to the urine and the amount of enzyme could be directly correlated with tubular disruption. Objective : The aims of this research is to determine the sensitivity and specificity of NAG urine examination as an early biomarker for acute kidney injury. Methods : There’s 66 subjects who met the inclusion criteria. All the subject were checked for the NAG urine level with Cloud Clone kit and creatinine serum were also checked 48 hours after admission. Results : The results showed in the cut-off point of 7.98 Ng/mL, urine NAG has a sensitivity of 68.6% and specificity 77.4%, positive predictive value 77.42%, negative predictive value 68.57 % and accuracy of 72.73% Conclusions : The result shows that urine NAG examination is more sensitive and specific as an early biomarker for Acute Kidney Injury compared to creatinine serum. Key words : Acute Kidney Injury, N-Acetyl-β-D-Glucosaminidase , sensitivity, spesificity