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Neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection (HSV infection in infants less than 6 weeks of age) is rare but mortality and morbidity rates are high after disseminated disease and encephalitis. In France, the epidemiology is poorly described, and two decades ago, incidence was estimated to be 3 per 100,000 live births a year. We describe determinants, epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of neonatal HSV infection in a managed-care population attending in two major obstetric and paediatric centres, Paris, France, over a 10-year period. This retrospective case series study was conducted from 2013 to 2023, in infants less than 42 days of age who had virologically confirmed HSV infection. We report an overall rate of neonatal herpes of 5.5 per 100,000 live births a year and an incidence of symptomatic cases of 1.2 per 100,000 live births a year. HSV-1 was the major serotype involved (84.2%) and post-natal acquisition through the orolabial route reached 63.2%. All neonates who had neonatal HSV PCR screening (owing to clinical signs in parents) and who received prompt acyclovir treatment remained asymptomatic. Symptomatic forms accounted for 21.1% cases of the total and mortality was high (62.5% of symptomatic forms). Conclusion: This case series confirms that neonates at risk for HSV disease and poor outcome are those born to HSV-seronegative mothers, preterm infants, and those who received acyclovir after onset of symptoms (mainly because mothers did not present evidence of acute HSV infection). Our study confirms the major role of HSV-1 and the frequency of its early post-natal acquisition. What is known: • Neonatal herpes simplex virus infection is rare but motality and morbidity rates are high after disseminted disease and encephalitis. National recommendations exist worldwide but mangement of this disease is not always easy. What is new: • As in France epidemiology of neonatal herpes is poorly described, our report is potentially an important addition to the existing literature. Moreover, we describe local practice that may be useful to physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hybrid poplar plantations have become an important component of forest and agricultural landscapes in alluvial floodplains since poplars are among the fastest-growing trees in temperate regions. However, these habitats are thought to decrease biodiversity, including ground beetle diversity, as compared to other traditional land-uses such as grasslands and semi-natural forests. To evaluate the impacts of poplar plantations on carabid diversity, we tested whether carabid assemblages are more affected by land-use type than by canopy cover type in three alluvial floodplains in North-Eastern France. We stratified our 63-plot sampling design according to four habitat types based on land-use and plantation age. Non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed a successional gradient in species composition related to canopy cover progressing from grasslands through young, then adult poplar plantations, to semi-natural forests. Species-level response models showed that many carabid species distinguished the open habitats (grasslands and young poplar plantations) from the closed ones (adult poplar plantations and semi-natural forests). Only a few species preferred one of the traditional land-uses such as grasslands or semi-natural forests. Based on our data, the deleterious effect of poplar plantations on the conservation of ground beetles may not be as high as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Composition of plants and saproxylic beetles assemblages co-varied with habitat variables. • The contribution of habitat variables to species composition inertia was relatively weak. • Forest subgroups showed weaker relationships with habitat variables than did full-taxa. • We found seven habitat thresholds above which species richness was significantly higher. To encourage forest managers to use biodiversity indicators in their work, providing environmental variables that depict species habitats, have well-calibrated and strong relationships with biodiversity and are easy to routinely record would be a step forward. The Index of Biodiversity Potential (IBP) is a rapid habitat assessment method widely used in France. It uses ten variables that indicate potential habitat for forest-dwelling species and is easy for forest managers to implement during their day-to-day activities. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the indicator power of these IBP variables at the stand scale, i.e. their capacity to co-vary with empirical species richness and composition data for nine taxa. The data were obtained from 487 plots set up in 19 forested areas in France. Taxonomic data focused on corticolous lichens, corticolous and saproxylic bryophytes, polypores, saproxylic beetles, ground beetles, hoverflies, birds, bats and vascular plants. For the latter five taxa, we built subgroups of forest-specialist species. The IBP variables were recorded on 1-ha circular plots centered on the sampling point used to record taxonomic data. We explored the relationships between the IBP variables and species composition/richness of nine taxa at the stand scale. Furthermore, we searched for threshold values for all the significant relationships found between species richness and the IBP variables. Variations in the species composition of vascular plants and saproxylic beetles, and to a lesser extent, polypores, bats and lichens, were significantly related to habitat variations (ranked according to the Procrustes significance level). The contribution of the IBP variables to the total inertia of species composition was about 18.7% on average. The IBP variables had a lower number of significant relationships with species richness than with species composition. Unexpectedly, the forest subgroups mainly showed fewer significant relationships with habitat variables than did the full-groups, both for species richness and composition. We highlighted seven significant thresholds in the habitat variables above which species richness was significantly higher. Finally, we recommend that forest managers (i) routinely use a rapid habitat assessment such as the IBP, (ii) orient silvicultural practices to ensure conservation of autochtonous tree species, large logs and different types of aquatic habitats above the thresholds highlighted in this study, and (iii) periodically complete a biodiversity assessment at the forest scale by recording taxonomic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Monitoring exploited population trends is a timely issue for sustainable management. • Some hunter associations collect routinely hunting logs of wild boar drive hunting. • A simple reproductible Bayesian catch-effort conceptual framework was used. • Catchability allows to link hunting components in order to assess population trends. • Our framework can be used immediately by manager to adapt their wild boar harvest. For sustainable management of exploited populations, it is required to have good knowledge on temporal trends in population density to adapt the harvest. In this regard, hunting statistics are often collected routinely by government agencies and associations. These data are used to assess demographic trends through the development of indices, which are in turn used to manage exploited populations in a sustainable way. However, these population indices depend on features of the hunting process (e.g. hunting effort, hunting conditions, probability of catch). In this study, we show how to use hunting logs to assess demographic trends in exploited populations while accounting for the components of the hunting process. In particular, we developed a catch-effort model to study how the hunting effort leads to mortality rate – hunting pressure – within a given habitat type and during a given period. We illustrated the usefulness of this approach using exploited wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations as a case study. We used a large hunting logs dataset to perform our study, with several hundreds of thousands hunting events for more than 10 years in two French departments in France, including information about the number of hunters, of wild boars culled and the date of the hunt. We showed that catchability is a key parameter to assess hunting pressure at a given time and place. This parameter varies both within the hunting season and between habitat types. Once this variation in catchability was accounted for, our catch-effort model allowed us to obtain estimates of relative densities of wild boar populations over the study period at the management unit scale. Thus, catch-effort models are powerful tools to assess population density and to understand the underlying hunting process. Our study offers straightforward and reproducible conceptual framework that can be applied routinely by wildlife managers on exploited populations and practitioners from hunting statistics logs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]