and restricted them from other nonchemical methods of pest control while allowing food products produced in the same ways to be imported.
what the doctor ordered according to new animal research from the University of Michigan Health System.
The results which were seen in stroke-prone rats were presented April 23 at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting in Boston.
and the drug Actos in stroke-prone rats by measuring the animals'systolic blood pressure as well as locomotion balance coordination all of
By putting the rats through various physical tests such as walking on a tapered beam and climbing a ladder the researchers found that compared to Actos tart cherry intake significantly improved balance and coordination and at the same time lowered blood pressure.
While the research results indicate that rats who consumed only tart cherries had the best results those who had the combination of tart cherries
if the risk for stroke would decline in animals taking both tart cherry and the drug Seymour says.
New study finds animals do recover from neglectanimal sanctuaries can play an important role in rehabilitating goats
and other animals that have suffered from neglect according to scientists at Queen Mary University of London.
In this first scientific study of rescued animals the researchers examined moods in 18 goats nine
which involved giving the animals an opportunity to look for food to understand the link between poor welfare
In this case we found that female goats that had been neglected previously were the most optimistic of all the tested animals.
The study shows that animal rescue centres such as Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats where we collected our data can provide a vital role in reversing long-term neglect once the animals receive excellent care.
The study was published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science April 23 2013. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Queen Mary University of London.
#Vets and medical doctors should team up to tackle diseases transmitted from animals to humansa new study at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp analyses the impact of animal brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis (BTB) on animals
The World health organization (WHO) ranks them as major zoonoses infectious diseases transmitted between species. The research maps risk factors for transmission of these diseases from animals to humans indicating that closer collaboration between medical doctors
consumption of unpasteurised milk lack of hygiene in households presence of coughing animals in the herd and absence of quarantine.
Animals graze in rural areas but are brought to the city when lactating in order to be as close as possible to the consumer.
The study concludes that it is crucial to address the interlinks between humans animals and the environment to control animal brucellosis and BTB.
We should not forget that more than 60%of human pathogens originate from animals. But raising awareness about these relatively unknown diseases is also crucial from an economic perspective.
Results show that around 13%of herds included animals infected with brucellosis. It was found that animals below the age of one were more likely to fall ill than animals aged 1-4 years.
Around one in hundred cows were found to be infected with BTB. Analysis of samples taken at the abattoir of Niamey showed that cows were affected significantly more by BTB than other categories of cattle.
#Roe deer more likely to be run over at nightfall on a Sunday in Apriltraffic accidents involving wildlife are on the rise in Europe.
and roe deer are most likely to take place. Car accidents involving animals are a serious and growing problem in Europe.
They pose a risk for human life and may result in mortal victims damage to vehicles and the loss of wildlife.
Wild boar are the cause of 63%of traffic accidents involving wild ungulates and roe deer come second in 37%of the accidents.
The researchers analysed a database of 6255 accidents of this type. Drivers must understand that many roads pass through the habitats of these species
Accidents involving roe deer occur more frequently between April and July particularly in April and May.
which the young roe deer born in the previous year are expelled from the group and start to look for a new territory explains Lagos
and therefore the probability is higher as they are nocturnal animals adds Lagos. In addition in these months
which coincide with the hunting season the beaters chase the animals away and they often cross the roads in Galicia.
and roe deer are more active at dawn and nightfall which is reflected in the distribution of the accidents.
and without grapes (the control diet) on the heart liver kidneys and fat tissue in obesity-prone rats.
and integrated into the animals'diets for 90 days. Specifically the results showed that three months of a grape-enriched diet significantly reduced inflammatory markers throughout the body but most significantly in the liver and in abdominal fat tissue.
which demonstrated that a grape-enriched diet reduced risk factors for heart disease and diabetes in obesity-prone rats.
Second many people consider their pets to be part of the family so the food has to be culturally acceptable to the owner as well as good for the animal.
Many are formulated to appeal to the owners who think their pets need extremely high levels of protein and other nutrients.
Dogs and cats require specific nutrients not ingredients. It is possible to meet nutritional requirements using a wide variety of nutrient sources.
while meeting the animals'nutritional needs and keeping the products affordable. Pet food is a $55 billion industry worldwide so adopting sustainable practices could have a global impact.
Overfeeding and obesity of pets is a growing concern. Swanson stresses the importance of educating consumers veterinarians pet food professionals everybody.
Especially with cats it's very difficult. Cats do not self-regulate their food intake well
and have decided a preference for protein and fat. Swanson said it would be helpful to develop a model that would estimate the environmental impact of pet foods
Such a model could be used to respond to those who argue that we should not keep pets at all.
A controversial study published in 2009 equated the cost of keeping a mid-sized dog eating a normal diet with the environmental cost of driving an SUV 12500 miles a year.
A New zealand environmentalist has launched a campaign Cats to Go which aims to ban all cats from the country.
Pets play an important role in our lives and society so sustaining pet ownership is critical in maintaining these benefits.
Research has demonstrated the positive impact pets have on both the emotional and physical health of people with
Studies on wild birds conducted as part of APEIR demonstrated the importance of undertaking surveillance in wild birds to characterise the influenza viruses carried by these birds.
and N components of this virus were derived probably from wild birds and also possibly from poultry.
and this information helps in understanding the transmission of other influenza viruses by wild birds.
APEIR researchers including Professor Lei Fumin of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are currently investigating the possible role of wild birds in transmission of H7n9 avian influenza.
Professor Lei Fumin said We have seen already suggestions that this virus could be transmitted widely among migratory birds
and poultry and it is important to assess the likelihood of this through scientific studies on wild birds as they fly north through China to their summer breeding grounds.
and pitfalls of vaccination so that these can be weighed up scientifically without outside interference. Although there is no evidence so far that this virus will result in a human pandemic this outbreak provides a reminder of the importance for all countries to ensure they have an appropriate stockpile of antiviral medication.
and strawberries have also been shown to improve behavior and cognitive functions in stressed young rats.
and University of Maryland Baltimore County recently fed rats a berry diet for 2 months
All of the rats were fed berries 2 months prior to radiation and then divided into two groups-one was evaluated after 36 hours of radiation and the other after 30 days.
After 30 days on the same berry diet the rats experienced significant protection against radiation compared to control said investigator Shibu Poulose Phd.
but while groups such as mammals birds and reptiles have been understood fairly well by scientists for decades knowledge about relationships among many types of fishes was essentially unknown--until now.
Tunas appear to be more closely related to the small sedentary seahorses whereas marlins are close relatives of flatfishes
Current fertilization practices may not match the uptake capabilities of hybrids that contain transgenic insect protection
The study examined six hybrids each with transgenic insect protection at two Illinois locations Dekalb and Urbana.
They separated them into their different fractions (leaves stems cobs grain) to determine season-long nutrient accumulation utilization and movement.
and shelter or avoid predators for example. Research conducted by Dr. Nachum Ulanovsky and research student Michael Yartsev of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department published today in Science reveals for the first time how three-dimensional volumetric space is perceived in mammalian brains.
The question of how animals orient themselves in space has been studied extensively but until now experiments were conducted only in two-dimensional settings.
when the animal is located in that area. Together the place cells produce full representations of whole spatial environments.
Unlike the laboratory experiments however the navigation of many animals in the real world including humans is carried out in three dimensions.
which they launched rats into space (aboard a space shuttle). However although the rats moved around in zero gravity they ran along a set of straight one-dimensional lines.
Other experiments with three-dimensional projections onto two-dimensional surfaces did not manage to produce volumetric data either.
in order to understand movement in three-dimensional volumetric space it is necessary to allow animals to move through all three dimensions--that is to research animals in flight.
Ulanovsky chose to study the Egyptian fruit bat a very common bat species in Israel. Because these are relatively large the researchers were able to attach the wireless measuring system in a manner that did not restrict the bats'movements.
Ulanovsky in cooperation with a US commercial company created a wireless lightweight (12 g about 7%of the weight of the bat) device containing electrodes that measure the activity of individual neurons in the bat's brain.
which tracked wild fruit bats using miniature GPS devices. One of the discoveries was that when bats arrive at a fruit tree they fly around it utilizing the full volume of space surrounding the tree.
To simulate this behavior in the laboratory--an artificial cave equipped with an array of bat-monitoring devices--the team installed an artificial tree made of metal bars
when the bat is located in that area. Together the population of place cells provides full coverage of the cave--left and right up and down.
The researchers note that for those non-flying animals that essentially move in flat space the different axes might not be perceived at the same resolution.
It may be that such animals are naturally more sensitive to changes along the length and width axes than that of height.
because on the one hand humans evolved from apes that moved in three-dimensional space when swinging from branch to branch but on the other hand modern ground-dwelling humans generally navigate in two-dimensional space.
The neural basis of animal behavior will be investigated in laboratories that simulate natural conditions--or even on animals in their natural habitats carrying out their normal day-to-day activities.
#Student tracks Asian birds migration patterns; recommends conservation strategiesan Arizona State university biologist and her team have found that the Asian subspecies of great bustard one of the heaviest birds capable of flight covers migratory routes of more than 2000 miles traveling to
and from its breeding grounds in northern Mongolia and wintering grounds in Shaanxi province in China.
and will be published in the next volume of the Journal of Avian Biology is the first of its kind to monitor the movement of this rarely studied subspecies through satellite telemetry
and to connect a breeding population of Asian great bustards to their wintering grounds. The research also offers insight into conservation challenges.
Mimi Kessler a doctoral candidate in biology at the School of Life sciences has spent more than two years on Eurasian grasslands studying habitat use population genetics causes of mortality and migration routes of the Asian great bustards.
We attached GPS transmitters to these birds that collect location data Kessler says. These transmitters relay the datasets to a satellite system
so we are able to remotely monitor the movement of these birds very closely something that has never been done before.
Great bustards are large birds found in grasslands from Spain to Mongolia. Males of the Asian subspecies can weigh up to 35 pounds
The significant size difference between males and females makes bustards the most sexually dimorphic avian species On earth.
and monitoring these birds is no easy feat. Known for their elusive nature and wariness toward humans Asian bustards are seen rarely with the naked eye.
Kessler and her colleagues use spotting-scopes on hillsides to scan valleys in Mongolia but it may take the team months to capture
and tag a single bird. The process of capturing these birds requires us to be extremely alert and careful of every footstep
and sound we make Kessler says. The work is so painstaking that it becomes an obsession.
Members of our team often dream about capturing a bustard. And when it does finally happen it's a real adrenaline rush.
Kessler says great bustards across Eurasia exhibit a range of migratory behavior corresponding to the severity of winter weather.
Great bustards found in Spain may travel only about 10 miles annually whereas those in western Russia travel about 600 miles one way to warmer wintering regions.
The Asian subspecies however is the marathon runner of the great bustard family. In Mongolia winter temperatures can drop 30 to 50 degrees below zero Kessler says.
We found that the Asian great bustards travel for an average of two months covering 1200 miles to reach wintering grounds in Shaanxi province in central China.
The team also found that the birds tend to migrate in a solitary fashion making multiple long stopovers during their journey.
but to track each tagged bird individually. Kessler says the findings are not only the first of their kind
since research regarding Asian great bustards is scarce but also offer an insight into the challenges the Asian bustard subspecies and conservationists face.
Asian great bustards are threatened a species in Mongolia Kessler says. They face several dangers including poaching for sport or sale of meat to exotic food markets in China.
The birds have a low reproductive rate; adults raise just one or two chicks to maturity every 10 years making hunting unsustainable.
Bustards are also less maneuverable due to their large size which makes collisions with power lines and overhead cables a serious threat.
Modern agricultural techniques also endanger the subspecies. Heavy machinery used for tilling land and harvesting crops can destroy nests
and crush chicks as the birds often nest in agricultural fields. Pesticides kill protein-rich insects that bustard chicks rely on for rapid growth to be able to migrate come fall.
Rapid development in Central asia combined with climate change and low reproductive rate could make these birds disappear Kessler says.
We need to take immediate measures to conserve them. Kessler's solution: implementing conservation strategies that span international borders as well as working within local communities to raise awareness about the subspecies while providing educational and employment opportunities.
We want our work to lead to a brighter future for local communities and these unique populations of great bustards.
#Study of pumas in Santa cruz Mountains documents impact of predator/human interactionin the first published results of more than three years of tracking mountain lions in the Santa cruz Mountains UC Santa cruz
researchers document how human development affects the predators'habits. In findings published today (April 17) in the online journal PLOS ONE UCSC associate professor of environmental studies Chris Wilmers
and colleagues with the UC Santa cruz Puma Project describe tracking 20 lions over 6600 square miles for three years.
Researchers are trying to understand how habitat fragmentation influences the physiology behavior ecology and conservation of pumas in the Santa cruz Mountains.
Depending on their behavior animals respond very differently to human development Wilmers said. Lions are totally willing to brave rural neighborhoods
but when it comes to reproductive behavior and denning they need more seclusion. The large predators living relatively close to a metropolitan area require a buffer from human development at least four times larger for reproductive behaviors than for other activities such as moving and feeding.
In addition pumas give a wider berth to types of human development that provide a more consistent source of human interface such as neighborhoods than they do in places where human presence is more intermittent as with major roads
or highways the authors write. 37 lions capturedwilmers and his team which includes graduate students and a dog tracking team working with the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife have captured 37 lions to date. Twenty-12 females and eight males-were followed closely between 2008 and 2011.
Once captured and anesthetized the lions'sex was determined they were weighed measured fit with an ear tag and a collar with a GPS transmitter.
The collars developed in part by an interdisciplinary team at UCSC including wildlife biologists and engineers transmit location data every four hours.
Researchers are able to track the lions'movements and calculate locations of feeding sites communication spots and dens.
Pumas communicate with scent markings known as scrapes where they scrape leaves or duff into a pile then urinate on it.
Males typically make the scrapes advertising their presence and availability. Females visit scrapes when looking for mates.
The Puma Project team set up and monitored remote cameras at 44 scrape locations and documented males and females which confirmed GPS data from the pumas'collars.
Researchers also found 10 den sites belonging to 10 different female lions. They visited 224 GPS clusters where activities suggested a feeding site and located prey remains at 115 sites.
Wilmers said the research is helping identify corridors where pumas typically travel between areas of high-quality habitat.
This includes neighborhoods where females often are willing to explore for food for their fast-growing brood.
when lions were struck by cars or caught raiding livestock. One male known as 16m was shown to have crossed busy Highway 17 between Scotts Valley and Los Gatos 31 times.
Eight of the 11 pumas that died during the study were killed when caught attacking domestic livestock.
Wilmers advised owners of goats or other livestock to consider keeping them in a fully-enclosed mountain lion-proof structure.
While Wilmers advised people to proceed with caution in any known mountain lion roaming grounds he said humans need not panic about the presence of mountain lions.
The study's conservation goals are meant to help lions survive in the midst of rapidly growing human development by building awareness of lions'behavior and providing safe transit opportunities under or over major highways.
There is currently no way of treating infected animals but a study published in Nucleic acids Research reports that the Schmallenberg virus nucleocapsid protein
The Schmallenberg virus appears to be spread by midges. It causes a relatively mild illness in adult animals
but is responsible for stillbirths and birth defects in cattle sheep and goats. The Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA) believes the disease was brought probably into the UK from infected midges blown across the Channel.
It has since spread rapidly causing severe losses on many holdings across the entire UK.
There is new evidence that the Schmallenberg virus can also spread to wild animal populations such as deer
but the discovery by the Leeds-led team is the first step toward developing a treatment that could be used after an animal is infected.
#Parents tend to share more bacteria with family dogs than childrenas much as dog owners love their children they tend to share more of themselves at least in terms of bacteria with their canine cohorts rather than their kids.
That is just one finding of a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder that looked at the types
and transfer modes of microbes from the guts tongues foreheads and palms (or paws) of members of 60 American families including canines.
Knight and his team sampled 159 people and 36 dogs. Seventeen of the 60 families had children at home ranging in age from 6 months to 18 years 17 families had one
or more dogs and no children eight families had both children and dogs and 18 families had neither children nor dogs.
Each family consisted of at least one couple between the ages of 26 and 87 and all of the children in the study were biologically related to the couples in the study.
The team swabbed various parts of the body to obtain microbial samples on the couples children and dogs.
and fecal samples to detect individual microbial communities Dogs were sampled similarly except that fur was sampled instead of skin on the forehead
and pets said Knight also a faculty member at CU-Boulder's Biofrontiers Institute and an Early Career Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientist.
In fact the microbial connection seems to be stronger between parents and family dogs than between parents and their children.
If you want to share more of your skin bacteria with your spouse get a dog.
which includes the presence of household pets. The primary results indicated the family unit had a strong effect on human microbial community composition across all body sites said Knight.
Dogs were key to the new study said Knight of CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department since results from previous studies suggested there were components of co-habitation involved in microbe sharing.
And since so many people consider their pets truly a part of the family it seemed appropriate to include them in a study involving family structure.
Knight also is involved in the American Gut project a crowdfunded effort that allows members of the public to learn more about their own individual microbes as well as microbes being carried by their dogs.
#Ricebag to treat soft tissue injuriesuniversity Teknology MARA researchers investigated the effects of rice barley
Researchers from the Faculty of Applied sciences and the Faculty of sport Sciences at University Teknology MARA collaborated in a study to invent supplementary and better solutions to treat soft tissue and muscle injuries.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length g
#Resurgence of endangered deer in Patagonian#Eden highlights conservation successthe Huemul a species of deer found only in the Latin american region of Patagonia is bouncing back from the brink of possible extinction
and policing to prevent poaching in the Bernardo O'Higgins National park--a vast natural Eden covering 3. 5 million hectares--conservation efforts have allowed the deer to return to areas of natural habitat from
The study by researchers from Cambridge the Wildlife Conservation Society and CONAF the Chilean national forestry commission is released today in the journal Oryx published by conservation charity Fauna and Flora International.
A national symbol that features on the Chilean coat-of-arms Huemul deer are estimated to have suffered reductions of 99 per cent in size since the 19th century according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Researchers believe 50 per cent of this decline has come in recent years with only 2500 deer now left in the wild.
The Huemul is a naturally tame and approachable animal which led to it becoming easy prey for hunters particularly with the arrival of European colonists in the area who would hunt Huemul for meat to feed their dogs.
Recent increases by local farmers in the practice of releasing cattle indiscriminately into national parkland for retrieval later in the year has damaged the habitats of endemic wildlife such as the Huemul
and coupled with continued hunting of the species deer populations plummeted. The joint efforts of conservationists and researchers with government and private initiatives created a small number of field stations in this remote natural paradise on the tip of South america--one of the least populated areas of the world
not only stabilised but also began to increase with deer coming down from the hostile mountain areas it had sought refuge in
and increased extinction risk as with another Chilean mammal that Briceã o is researching called Darwin's Fox--named for the scientific genius that first discovered it--with barely 500 now left in the world.
#Invasive kudzu bugs may pose greater threat than previously thoughtthe invasive kudzu bug has the potential to be a major agricultural pest causing significant damage to economically important soybean crops.
Conventional wisdom has held that the insect pests will be limited to areas in the southern United states but new research from North carolina State university shows that they may be able to expand into other parts of the country.
Kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria) are native to Asia and were detected first in the U s. in Georgia in 2009.
The bugs have an interesting life cycle which has been thought to be a limiting factor on far they can spread.
which we'll call Generation A. The immature bugs of Generation A normally feed on kudzu plants until they reach adulthood
Generation B kudzu bugs can feed on soybean crops during both their immature and adult life stages causing significant crop damage.
Because the immature Generation A kudzu bugs have only been seen to feed on kudzu researchers thought that the pest would not be able to migrate to northern and western parts of the United states where kudzu doesn't grow.
Under controlled conditions in a greenhouse laboratory researchers at NC State found that immature Generation A kudzu bugs were limited not to feeding on kudzu--they were feed able to exclusively on soybeans reach maturity
and the field observations indicate that kudzu bugs are potentially capable of spreading into any part of the U s. where soybeans are grown.
It also means that both annual generations of kudzu bugs could attack soybean crops in areas where the bug is established already
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