Wolves may aid recovery of Canada lynx, a threatened species

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2011) — As wolf populations grow in parts of the West, most of the focus has been on their value in aiding broader ecosystem recovery -- but a new study from Oregon State University also points out that they could play an important role in helping to save other threatened species.

In research published in Wildlife Society Bulletin, scientists suggest that a key factor in the Canada lynx being listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act is the major decline of snowshoe hares. The loss of hares, the primary food of the lynx, in turn may be caused by coyote populations that have surged in the absence of wolves. Scientists call this a "trophic cascade" of impacts.

The increase in these secondary "mesopredators" has caused significant ecosystem disruption and, in this case, possibly contributed to the decline of a threatened species, the scientists say.

"The increase in mesopredators such as coyotes is a serious issue; their populations are now much higher than they used to be when wolves were common in most areas of the United States," said William Ripple, a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at OSU.

"Before they were largely extirpated, wolves used to kill coyotes and also disrupt their behavior through what we call the 'ecology of fear,'" Ripple said. "Coyotes have a flexible, wide-ranging diet, but they really prefer rabbits and hares, and they may also be killing lynx directly."

Between the decline of their central food supply and a possible increase in attacks from coyotes, the Canada lynx has been in serious decline for decades and in 2000 was listed as a threatened species. It also faces pressure from habitat alteration, the scientists said, and perhaps climate change as lower snow packs further reduce the areas in which this mountain species can find refuge.

In numerous studies in recent years, researchers have documented how the presence of wolves and other large predators helps control populations of grazing ungulates including deer and elk, and also changes their behavior. Where wolves have become established, this is allowing the recovery of forest and stream ecosystems, to the benefit of multiple plant and animal species.

Lacking the presence of wolves or other main predators in both terrestrial and marine environments, populations of smaller predators have greatly increased. Other studies have documented mesopredator impacts on everything from birds to lizards, rodents, marsupials, rabbits, scallops and insects. This includes much higher levels of attacks by coyotes on some ranch animals such as sheep, and efforts attempting to control that problem have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Scientists have concluded that exploding mesopredator populations can be found in oceans, rivers, forests and grasslands around the world.

"In the absence of wolves, coyote densities and distributions generally expanded in the U.S., into the Midwest, to the northeast as far as Newfoundland, and as far northwest as Alaska," the researchers wrote in their report.

Where wolves recovered, as in Yellowstone National Park, coyote populations were initially reduced by 50 percent, Ripple said. Although more sampling will be required, early evidence indicates that a snowshoe hare recovery may be taking place.

As these issues are factored into decisions about how to manage wolves, the researchers said, it's also important to maintain what they call "ecologically effective" wolf populations, the researchers wrote in their study. The full value of these top predators, and the numbers of them it takes to achieve a wide range of ecological goals, should be more thoroughly researched and better understood, they said.

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william J. Ripple, Aaron J. Wirsing, Robert L. Beschta, Steven W. Buskirk. Can restoring wolves aid in lynx recovery? Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/wsb.59

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Sniffer dogs can be used to detect lung cancer, research suggests

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2011) — Sniffer dogs could be used for the early detection of lung cancer, according to new research published in the European Respiratory Journal.

The study, carried out by researchers from Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany, is the first to find that sniffer dogs can reliably detect lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the second most frequent form of cancer in men and women across Europe with over 340,000 deaths per year. It is also the most common cause of death from cancer worldwide.

The disease is not strongly associated with any symptoms and early detection is often by chance. Current methods of detection are unreliable and scientists have been working on using exhaled breath specimens from patients for future screening tests.

This method relies on identifying volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to the presence of cancer. Although many different technological applications have been developed, this method is still difficult to apply in a clinical setting as patients aren't allowed to smoke or eat before the test, sample analysis can take a long time and there is also a high risk of interference. Because of these reasons, no lung cancer-specific VOCs have yet been identified.

This new study aimed to assess whether sniffer dogs could be used to identify a VOC in the breath of patients. The researchers worked with 220 volunteers, including lung cancer patients, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and healthy volunteers. They used dogs that had been specifically trained.

The researchers carried out a number of tests to see if the dogs were able to reliably identify lung cancer compared with healthy volunteers, volunteers with COPD and whether the results were still found with the presence of tobacco.

The dogs successfully identified 71 samples with lung cancer out of a possible 100. They also correctly detected 372 samples that did not have lung cancer out of a possible 400.

The dogs could also detect lung cancer independently from COPD and tobacco smoke. These results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer that is independent of COPD and also detectable in the presence of tobacco smoke, food odours and drugs.

Author of the study, Thorsten Walles from Schillerhoehe Hospital, said: "In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs' keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease. Our results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer. This is a big step forward in the diagnosis of lung cancer, but we still need to precisely identify the compounds observed in the exhaled breath of patients. It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer!"

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Lung Foundation, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Rainer Ehmann, Enole Boedeker, Uwe Friedrich, Jutta Sagert, Jürgen Dippon, Godehard Friedel, Thorsten Walles. Canine scent detection in the diagnosis of lung cancer: Revisiting a puzzling phenomenon. European Respiratory Journal, 2011; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00051711

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Apply public trust doctrine to 'rescue' wildlife from politics

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2011) — When a species recovers enough to be removed from the federal endangered species list, the public trust doctrine -- the principle that government must conserve natural resources for the public good -- should guide state management of wildlife, scientists say.

In the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Science, the researchers note that the public trust doctrine holds that certain natural resources, including wildlife, have no owners and therefore belong to all citizens. So, they add, when federal statutory law no longer offers protection to a species, the public trust doctrine imposes upon states an obligation to conserve the species for their citizens.

The researchers cite the case of the gray wolf, which lost federal protection in the northern Rocky Mountains last spring under a rare Congressional legislative rider. This rider was passed after courts had reversed three previous U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attempts to delist the wolf in the region, which includes Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.

The merits of protecting gray wolves have been hotly debated for years in the northern Rocky Mountains, where public opinion varies considerably among livestock owners, hunters and wildlife advocates. Idaho and Montana have launched public hunts aimed at reducing wolf populations since federal protections were lifted. Wolf advocates fear that heavy-handed "lethal management" of wolves could deplete the population so rapidly that the species will require federal protections again. Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government monitors a species for at least five years after it is delisted, but state wildlife agencies take over management.

Lost in these bitter arguments is any attempt to clarify state agencies' obligation to their citizens, said Jeremy Bruskotter, assistant professor in Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources and lead author of the Science paper.

The wildlife trust doctrine, a branch of the public trust doctrine, defines that obligation, the paper's authors argue. The public trust doctrine has roots in ancient Roman and English common law, but its application to wildlife in the United States dates to the late 19th century. In an 1896 case, Geer vs. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the wildlife trust doctrine imposed on states a duty "to enact such laws as will best preserve the subject of the trust and secure its beneficial use in the future to the people of the state."

"If you recognize a wildlife trust doctrine, and that the state has the obligation to maintain these populations in perpetuity not just for current residents but for future residents, then there is a degree of protection for species in the absence of the statutory protection," Bruskotter said.

The researchers note that natural resource agency professionals are likely to be aware that all wildlife are communally owned by each state, but western politicians' open hostility toward this formerly protected species raises the question: What are states actually going to do?

"Some of the rhetoric about the killing of wolves might be political showmanship. But when they make exaggerated claims -- for example, comparing wolf restoration to the resurrection of the T. rex, which was done in Utah -- that adds layers of ambiguity and fear. Conservationists wonder if they will try to eliminate wolves and wonder if they can do it," Bruskotter said. "But the public trust doctrine holds that if state politicians were to intervene to try to prevent the maintenance of a viable wolf population, they could be taken to court. There is a legal mechanism to prevent that type of action."

Traditionally, the conservation and management of wildlife resources in the United States has been driven by state governments, which established agencies to monitor wildlife populations and regulate activities like hunting and trapping. However, the federal government began to take an interest in imperiled species in the 1960s, culminating with the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

"This is where the conflict turns. Until then, the impetus for wildlife management had come primarily from the states. Then the feds came in and said, 'We're taking over the protection and, hopefully, the recovery,'" Bruskotter said.

The federally led reintroduction of gray wolves to western states didn't sit well with many of those states' officials, who characterized the action as an unwanted federal intervention. When the wolf population was deemed to have met federal recovery goals in the region in 2002, state politicians began "clamoring for management authority," Bruskotter said.

To date, wildlife advocates haven't had to rely on the wildlife trust doctrine to guide their management because states generally show a strong desire to conserve species. The case of gray wolves in the northern Rockies has been unusual, with western legislatures continually expressing the desire to minimize or even remove wolf populations altogether.

While case law exists to define the reach of the public trust doctrine, additional case law would be beneficial to firmly establish states' obligations in the management of species no longer covered by federal protection, the authors contend.

"If this obligation is going to be more than just understood, there will need to be case law established, which is going to require somebody to take things to court to see what those obligations are," said Sherry Enzler, a co-author of the paper and a public trust scholar at the University of Minnesota.

The authors note that this argument for the application of the wildlife trust doctrine should not be construed as an appeal on behalf of the gray wolf.

"It's not about protecting any particular species. It's about how we ensure we have adequate protection for all imperiled species under state-led management. Not all species are a perfect fit for federal protection, so this is a better long-term solution," Bruskotter said.

"There is a middle ground here, and there is a legal process for defining this middle ground. States have an obligation to maintain, at minimum, a viable population of a species that has been removed from the endangered species list."

Better clarity about state management could also apply to the case of the grizzly bear, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stands ready to delist in the greater Yellowstone region. As part of a recent plan to remove protection, federal officials asked states to agree to certain management practices under a series of memoranda of understanding. A federal court rejected the plan because the memoranda were not legally binding -- states could not be compelled to conserve.

"This court-made law could be that regulatory mechanism," Bruskotter said, noting that this represents how the wildlife trust doctrine's application could support delisting a previously threatened species. "This common law could have been used to help remove grizzly bears from protection because it could have provided the regulatory mechanism the court sought in that case."

Bruskotter and Enzler co-authored the article Adrian Treves of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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J. T. Bruskotter, S. A. Enzler, A. Treves. Rescuing Wolves from Politics: Wildlife as a Public Trust Resource. Science, 2011; 333 (6051): 1828 DOI: 10.1126/science.1207803

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Disagreeable people prefer aggressive dogs, study suggests

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2012) — Aggressive dog ownership is not always a sign of attempted dominance or actual delinquency. A study carried out at the University of Leicester's School of Psychology has found that younger people who are disagreeable are more likely to prefer aggressive dogs, confirming the conventional wisdom that dogs match the personality of their owners.

Researchers found that low Agreeableness was the best predictor of a preference for those dogs seen as more aggressive, such as bull terriers or boxers. Individuals low in Agreeableness are typically less concerned with others' well-being and may be suspicious, unfriendly and competitive.

However, the study found no link between liking an aggressive dog and delinquent behaviour, or the possibility that liking an aggressive dog is an act of 'status display' to show off or attract romantic partners.

Dr Vincent Egan, lead researcher on the study, said: "This type of study is important, as it shows assumptions are not the whole picture. It is assumed owners of aggressive dogs (or dogs perceived as aggressive) are antisocial show-offs. But we did not find persons who expressed a preference for aggressive dogs had committed more delinquent acts, or reported showing off more.

"However, we did find a preference for a dog with an aggressive reputation was related to being younger and being lower in Agreeableness (i.e., being less concerned with the needs of others, and being quicker to become hostile)."

The study looked at the reasons why some people prefer aggressive dog breeds. Professor Egan explained:

"A lot of human behaviour involves status display and dominance, and evolutionarily this helps with finding mates. Basic personality also influences a lot of our behaviour. By measuring both at the same time, we could see whether they each had an influence on liking aggressive dogs, or whether one was due to another.

"We were surprised mating effort did not have an influence here, but think it might be because we looked at a wider age range. A preference for a non-aggressive dog may also make a statement about a person; liking a pedigree Labrador or a clipped Poodle may be as much a statement as having a pit-bull with a studded collar."

In the study, participants indicated their preference for different types of dogs, and filled in personality tests. The dogs were independently rated according to how aggressive people perceived them to be. Bull terriers were rated as most aggressive, followed by boxers; retrievers and cocker spaniels were seen as least aggressive.

Analysing the findings, the research team found that certain personality factors indicated a preference for dogs perceived to be more aggressive. Low agreeableness and higher conscientiousness were related to a preference for aggressive dog breeds. Younger people were also more likely to prefer the aggressive breeds.

Surprisingly, the results indicated a small effect suggesting that those who liked aggressive dogs showed signs of conscientiousness - being careful, reliable and thoughtful about their actions. This contradicts the perception that owners of aggressive dogs are always irresponsible.

Dr Egan said: "These results with conscientiousness were unexpected, but the effect is a small one, and needs to be repeated in a different group of people. Studies of this kind tend to only look at a restricted age ranges, which may exaggerate findings which do not occur across the entire lifespan, so we believe a stereotype is always true, whereas it may only be true under certain conditions. Our study employed a broader age range.

"We were surprised to find a small association between a preference for aggressive dogs and greater Conscientiousness (i.e., valuing and following rules). However, dogs also prefer rules and firm boundaries themselves. We speculate that cheap dog-training classes would be enjoyable and beneficial for both dog and owner."

The findings were published last week in the journal Anthrozoos.

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Vincent Egan, Jason MacKenzie. Does Personality, Delinquency, or Mating Effort Necessarily Dictate a Preference for an Aggressive Dog? Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 2012; 25 (2): 161 DOI: 10.2752/175303712X13316289505305

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Gene discovery in truffle dogs sheds new light on mechanisms of childhood epilepsy

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2011) — A new epilepsy gene, LGI2, has been found in the Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, known from their gift for truffle hunting. The gene discovery made by Professor Hannes Lohi and his research group at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Rsearch Center offers a new candidate gene for human benign childhood epilepsies characterized by seizure remission.

The research is published in the online journal PLoS Genetics.

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disease in children. It occurs in 0.5 percent of all 2-10 year-old children -- during the ages when the development of the nerves in the brain is at its strongest. Childhood epilepsies are characterized by remission: the seizures set in and last for a while before they disappear completely. The mechanisms related to the remission have remained unknown. The new gene discovery made by the research group of Professor Lohi and colleagues in the Lagotto Romagnolo breed gives us new perspectives into the development of a child's brain and the remission mechanisms in childhood epilepsies. In addition, the identified gene has enabled the development of a DNA test for the Lagotto Romagnolo breed.

"This gene discovery is significant for both dogs and humans. Every third Lagotto Romagnolo carries the gene mutation in its genome and we have now developed a gene test to be used by breeders to eliminate the disease from the breed. Furthermore, the gene has not previously been linked to human epilepsies, which makes it a new candidate gene for especially childhood epilepsies," explains Hannes Lohi.

An epileptic seizure is caused by an electronic disturbance in brain function. Epilepsies form a heterogeneous group of syndromes of the nervous system in which the causes, the age of onset and the treatment vary significantly. Epilepsy is most common in the ends of the age spectrum -- childhood and old age.

"With this study we gain crucial insight into the pathways and mechanisms that control the development of a child's brain, optimizing its structure for electrical stability and seizure-freedom in the rest of adult life. This study will open vast avenues of research in uncovering the molecular bases of the transformation of the brain from its immature state in infancy to its maximal abilities in adolescence and early adulthood," says Dr. Berge Minassian, senior co-author of the study and a senior scientist and pediatric epileptologist at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Epilepsy is the most common disease of the nervous system in dogs, and different types of hereditary epilepsy exist in many breeds. Lohi has previously identified the first canine epilepsy gene, EPM2B, in the Miniature Dachshund. The newly identified mutation in the LGI2 gene is the first idiopathic epilepsy gene in dogs.

Previous clinical studies have demonstrated the focal remitting epilepsy in Lagotto Romagnolo puppies. Seizures causing tremor, trembling, shaking and wheezing set in at around four weeks of age and last for one to two months before a complete cease. The seizure frequency varies significantly even within the same litter and severity can vary from very mild to attacks of unconsciousness. The mildest seizures may even go unnoticed. Between seizures some dogs may experience ataxic episodes with difficulties in movement coordination and motor function. Lagotto's epilepsy resembles human benign childhood epilepsies with remission.

"We tested the mutation in about 40 different breeds and in dogs with a very early age of onset of epilepsy, but it was present only in Lagottos. On the other hand, the study revealed another form of epilepsy in the breed, unconnected with this mutation and with an age of onset in adulthood. In addition, the breed has a progressive juvenile ataxia (lack of motor coordination) with similar onset and symptoms to juvenile epilepsy except that it does not remit -- ataxic puppies have to be euthanized usually by the first year of life. More samples are needed for both adult-onset epilepsy and ataxia to enable us to investigate their genetics further," says a primary author of the study, Eija Seppälä, PhD.

Together with his research group Lohi has built a large canine DNA bank in Finland with over 35 000 samples from 250 breeds. The DNA bank has played an important role in the present and ongoing studies.

"We also study the epilepsies in other breeds, and several new epilepsy loci have been discovered recently. I believe that there will be more similar success stories such as the case of the truffle dogs in future. Canine epilepsies are natural, spontaneous and resemble human epilepsies, offering us a great opportunity to advance the epilepsy research for the benefit of both humans and dogs," Lohi asserts.

Lohi's research group operates in two campuses at the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine at the University of Helsinki and also at the Folkhälsan Research Center. His research is funded by several sources including the Academy of Finland, the European Union, the Sigfrid Jusélius Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Biocentrum Helsinki, University of Helsinki Research Funds and Folkhälsan.

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Eija H. Seppälä, Tarja S. Jokinen, Masaki Fukata, Yuko Fukata, Matthew T. Webster, Elinor K. Karlsson, Sami K. Kilpinen, Frank Steffen, Elisabeth Dietschi, Tosso Leeb, Ranja Eklund, Xiaochu Zhao, Jennifer J. Rilstone, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Berge A. Minassian, Hannes Lohi. LGI2 Truncation Causes a Remitting Focal Epilepsy in Dogs. PLoS Genetics, 2011; 7 (7): e1002194 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002194

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Bacteria from dog feces present in outdoor air in urban areas

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2011) — Bacteria from fecal material -- in particular, dog fecal material -- may constitute the dominant source of airborne bacteria in Cleveland's and Detroit's wintertime air, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.

The CU-Boulder study showed that of the four Midwestern cities in the experiment, two cities had significant quantities of fecal bacteria in the atmosphere -- with dog feces being the most likely source.

"We found unexpectedly high bacterial diversity in all of our samples, but to our surprise the airborne bacterial communities of Detroit and Cleveland most closely resembled those communities found in dog poop," said lead author Robert Bowers, a graduate student in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department and the CU-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES. "This suggests that dog poop may be a potential source of bacteria to the atmosphere at these locations."

The study was published July 29 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Co-authors on the study included Noah Fierer, an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department and a CIRES fellow; Rob Knight, an associate professor in CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department; Amy Sullivan and Jeff Collett Jr. of Colorado State University; and Elizabeth Costello of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Scientists already knew that bacteria exist in the atmosphere and that these bacteria can have detrimental effects on human health, triggering allergic asthma and seasonal allergies, Fierer said. But it is only in recent years that researchers have realized that there is an incredible diversity of bacteria residing in the air, he said.

"There is a real knowledge gap," said Fierer. "We are just starting to realize this uncharted microbial diversity in the air -- a place where you wouldn't exactly expect microbes to be living."

To gain further understanding of just what microbes are circulating in urban environments, the team analyzed the local atmosphere in the summer and winter at four locations in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. Three of the locations -- Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit -- are major cities with populations of greater than 2 million, and one location, Mayville, Wis., is a small town with a population of less than 6,000.

The team used nearly 100 air samples collected as part of a previous study conducted by Colorado State University. The CSU experiment investigated the impact of biomass burning and involved studying the impacts of residential wood burning and prescribed fires on airborne fine particle concentrations in the Midwestern United States.

"What we've been looking at are the numbers and the types of bacteria in the atmosphere," Fierer said. "We breathe in bacteria every minute we are outside, and some of these bugs may have potential health implications."

The researchers analyzed the bacteria's DNA in the collected air samples and compared the bacteria they found against a database of bacteria from known sources such as leaf surfaces, soil, and human, cow and dog feces. They discovered that the bacterial communities in the air were surprisingly diverse and also that, in two of the four locations, dog feces were a greater than expected source of bacteria in the atmosphere in the winter.

In the summer, airborne bacteria come from many sources including soil, dust, leaf surfaces, lakes and oceans, Bowers said. But in the winter, as leaves drop and snow covers the ground, the influence that these environments have as sources also goes down. It is during this season that the airborne communities appeared to be more influenced by dog feces than the other sources tested in the experiment, he said.

"As best as we can tell, dog feces are the only explanation for these results," Fierer said. "But we do need to do more research."

The team plans to investigate the bacterial communities in other cities and to build a continental-scale atlas of airborne bacterial communities, Fierer said. "We don't know if the patterns we observed in those sites are unique to those cities," he said. "Does San Francisco have the same bacteria as New York? Nobody knows as yet."

Fierer believes it is important to pin down the types of bacteria in the air, how these bacteria vary by location and season, and where they are coming from.With this information, scientists can then investigate the possible impacts on human health, he said.

"We need much better information on what sources of bacteria we are breathing in every time we go outside," Fierer said.

The study was funded by the CIRES Innovative Research Program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health. The aerosol sample collection for this project was supported by the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium.

CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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R. M. Bowers, A. P. Sullivan, E. K. Costello, J. L. Collett, R. Knight, N. Fierer. Sources of bacteria in outdoor air across cities in the midwestern United States. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.05498-11

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Keeping pets sweet: Treating diabetes in dogs

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2011) — Diabetes affects not only humans but also animals. While humans generally show some willingness to modify their behaviour to help their treatment, pet owners face additional problems in that animals generally do not understand the need for intervention. Treatment plans should be based on an understanding of natural fluctuations in blood glucose levels but these are very hard to determine. Nadja Affenzeller and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have now shown that a commercially available system for continuous glucose monitoring can be applied to dogs without requiring the animals to be kept in a clinic.

The resulting information can give valuable guidance to veterinarians to improve the dogs' treatment. The work is published in the current issue of the journal The Veterinary Record.

Diabetes has many severe consequences that can only be prevented by maintaining blood glucose levels at values that are extremely close to those of non-diabetics. There have recently been considerable advances in insulin treatment but these require a precise knowledge of fluctuations in blood glucose levels that is difficult to obtain. Measurements are generally taken while patients are in clinics but the results may be misleading as a result of differences in food intake and exercise, as well as the associated stress, all of which may lead to changes in the normal patterns. Monitoring blood glucose levels while patients -- people or animals -- are leading their normal lives would give far more meaningful information.

Menarini Diagnostics has developed a system for the continuous monitoring of blood glucose levels in human patients. The system, known as GlucoDay, can measure glucose concentrations over a very wide range, which makes it potentially suitable for use in animals. Nadja Affenzeller and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna thus tested it in ten diabetic dogs, all of which were believed to be receiving appropriate insulin treatment. The system was found to be well tolerated and to work well under the test conditions, although one of the dogs lost the apparatus in the course of a fight and the system stopped working before the end of the monitoring period in two other cases.

Despite these slight problems, the results were extremely revealing. Based on the detailed records of blood glucose levels, it was clear that none of the ten dogs was being ideally treated. The scientists were able to make recommendations for improved treatment, varying from reducing or increasing the insulin dose or changing the type of insulin to changing the animals' diets.

Affenzeller is clearly excited by the system's potential. "The information on the dogs' glucose levels was easy to interpret and enabled us to improve the treatment in every single case. This doesn't mean that the vets hadn't done their work properly but shows how difficult it is to determine appropriate treatment without detailed information of this kind." Thanks to the application of continuous glucose monitoring systems such as GlucoDay, it may be possible to give diabetic pets the quality of treatment that to date have been possible only for humans.

The paper "Home-based subcutaneous continuous glucose monitoring in ten diabetic dogs -- a case series study" by Nadja Affenzeller, Johann G. Thalhammer and Michael Willmann is published in the current issue of The Veterinary Record (169(8):206).

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N. Affenzeller, J. G. Thalhammer, M. Willmann. Home-based subcutaneous continuous glucose monitoring in 10 diabetic dogs. Veterinary Record, 2011; 169 (8): 206 DOI: 10.1136/vr.d4315

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How motherhood behavior is influenced by alterations in brain function

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2011) — Instinctive mothering behavior towards care of newborns has long been recognized as a phenomenon in humans and animals, but now research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has shown that motherhood is associated with the acquisition of a host of new behaviors that are driven, at least in part, by alterations in brain function.

The research, by Dr. Adi Mizrahi of the and Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University, has just been published in the journal Neuron. It provides insight into how neural changes integrating odors and sounds lie behind a mouse mother's ability to recognize and respond to distress calls from her pups.

"We know that distinct brain changes are linked with motherhood, but the impact of these changes on sensory processing and the emergence of maternal behaviors are largely unknown," explains Mizrahi. "In mice, olfactory and auditory cues play a major role in the communication between a mother and her pups. Therefore, we hypothesized that there may be some interaction between olfactory and auditory processing so that pup odors might modulate the way pup calls are processed in the mother's brain."

Dr. Mizrahi and his post-doctoral colleague Dr. Lior Cohen examined whether the primary auditory cortex, a brain region that is involved in the recognition of sounds, might serve as an early processing region for integration of pup odors and pup calls. The primary auditory cortex is known as a site that undergoes functional changes in response to sensory input from the environment.

In their study, the researchers exposed regular mice, mice that had experienced interaction with their pups, and lactating mother mice to pup odors, and then monitored both spontaneous and sound-evoked activity of neurons in the auditory cortex. The odors triggered dramatic changes in auditory processing only in the females that had interacted with pups, while the lactating mothers were the most sensitive to pup sounds. The olfactory-auditory integration appeared in lactating mothers shortly after they had given birth and had a particularly strong effect on the detection of pup distress calls.

Taken together, the findings suggest that motherhood is associated with a previously un-described form of multisensory processing in the auditory cortex.

"We have shown that motherhood is associated with a rapid and robust appearance of olfactory-auditory integration in the primary auditory cortex occurring along with stimulus-specific adaptation to pup distress calls," says Dr. Mizrahi. "These processes help to explain how changes in neocortical networks facilitate efficient detection of pups by their caring mothers."

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Lior Cohen, Gideon Rothschild, Adi Mizrahi. Multisensory Integration of Natural Odors and Sounds in the Auditory Cortex. Neuron, 2011; 72 (2): 357 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.08.019

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New twist in a blindness-causing disease gene discovered

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2011) — After more than three decades of research, University of Pennsylvania veterinarians and vision-research scientists, with associates at Cornell University, have identified a gene responsible for a blindness-inducing disease that afflicts dogs. In the process, the Penn scientists may have discovered clues about how retinal cells, and perhaps even neurons, can be regenerated.

The research was conducted by Gustavo D. Aguirre, William A. Beltran, Agnes I. Berta and Sem Genini of Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, along with Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia of the Penn School of Dental Medicine. They collaborated with researchers from Cornell, the National Eye Institute and the Semmelweis University of Medicine, in Hungary.

Their study was published in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

At the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, Aguirre was studying rod dysplasia, a genetic disease that causes blindness in a rare breed of dog known as the Norwegian Elkhound. After the blinding disorder in the original group of dogs was eliminated, Aguirre and his colleagues endeavored to find other dogs that suffered from the same condition, only to discover a similar but separate disease instead.

This disease, which they termed early retinal degeneration, or ERD, resulted in the same blindness but in a much shorter period of time; the afflicted dogs became completely blind within a year of birth, instead of between two and four years.

Interested in gene therapies to cure blindness, Aguirre and his colleagues began narrowing down the list genes that could be responsible for ERD. As the relevant technologies improved, the researchers were able to work faster, but it was only recently that they discovered the culprit.

It was hiding in an unlikely place in the dog's genome.

"After developing the dog genetic map in the late '90s and then mapping the disease to a known region of the genome," Aguirre said, "we had a physical interval to look for this gene in, but we had to prioritize gene candidates by their location and what their function is. This gene was at the bottom of our list because it's normally only found in the brain and was not related to any known vision defect. But, lo and behold, it's actually a very important gene to the retina."

Identifying the gene is a first step to explaining a puzzling aspect of ERD: a "plateau" in its progression. The visual cells in the retina initially remain but then are lost and vision quickly fades. Microscopic analyses of retinas from afflicted dogs showed that, during this period, vision-related cells die at an accelerated rate but are just as quickly replaced; the cell death and compensatory formation of new ones is a new and totally unexpected finding in diseases of the retina. This work was done by A´gnes Berta, a medical doctor from Budapest who, as part of her Ph.D. studies, spent a year in the Aguirre lab through a Fulbright educational exchange program fellowship.

The researcher used an antibody-labeling system to identify how the photoreceptors were affected. The two types of these cells responsible for vision are rods, which are very sensitive to dim light, and cones, which distinguish color. Humans have short, medium and long cones, which correspond to the wavelengths of light they detect. Dogs and most other mammalian species have only two cone types, one that is sensitive to short wavelengths and another that absorbs light in both the long and medium wavelength range.

"When Berta used an antibody label for the medium and long cones, it was very discreet, but when she used label for the short wave length sensitive cones a population of rods was also labeled," Aguirre said. "We saw that as the cell proliferates it goes back to a primordial, hybrid photoreceptor."

Though the exact function of the relevant gene has yet to be identified, it is likely involved in the control of the cell division cycle. Normally, photoreceptors cells in the retina stop dividing shortly after birth. These hybrid photoreceptors, however, continue to divide during ERD's plateau period.

Understanding what keeps those cells rejuvenating may hold the key for therapies that can hold off the onset of blindness, or even reverse it.

"These cells are abnormal," Aguirre said. "Normally, there is no good evidence of large amounts of new cells being created in the retina or the central nervous system. We can better understand the way that the photoreceptor cells divide by studying this disease and potentially manipulate the gene in such a way that you could get the division component without the abnormal component. If we could regrow our diseased retinal cells, it would be wonderful."

In addition to Aguirre, Beltran, Berta, Genini and Boesze-Battaglia, the research was conducted by Orly Goldstein and Gregory M. Acland of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, Paul J. O'Brien of the National Eye Institute and Ágoston Szél of Semmelweis University.

The research was supported by the National Eye Institute, the National Institutes of Health, a Fulbright Educational Exchange Program Fellowship, the Foundation Fighting Blindness Center, the Van Sloun Fund for Canine Genetic Research, Hope for Vision, The ONCE International Prize for R&D in Biomedicine and New Technologies for the Blind.

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Ágnes I. Berta, Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia, Sem Genini, Orly Goldstein, Paul J. O'Brien, Ágoston Szél, Gregory M. Acland, William A. Beltran, Gustavo D. Aguirre. Photoreceptor Cell Death, Proliferation and Formation of Hybrid Rod/S-Cone Photoreceptors in the Degenerating STK38L Mutant Retina. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (9): e24074 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024074

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Researchers look to dogs to better understand intricacies of bone cancer

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — A new University of Minnesota discovery may help bone cancer patients fight their disease more effectively, according to new research published in the September issue of Bone.

Bone cancer typically affects children; the course and aggressiveness of the disease can vary from patient to patient and is very difficult to predict. Some patients respond remarkably well to conventional therapies. Their disease shows less aggressive behavior and they can survive for decades without recurrence. Others respond poorly to treatment or their disease comes back rapidly. Often, these patients survive less than five years.

Recently, a team led by Dr. Jaime Modiano, a College of Veterinary Medicine and Masonic Cancer Center expert in comparative medicine, discovered a gene pattern that distinguishes the more severe form of bone cancer from a less aggressive form in dogs. Dogs are the only other species besides humans that develops this disease spontaneously with any frequency.

In fact, dogs are much more likely to develop bone cancer than humans, but according to Modiano -- who specializes in the relationship between animal and human disease -- human and canine forms of bone cancer are very similar and the gene pattern is an exact match. The discovery of this key differentiating signature may be beneficial in the treatment planning of human bone cancer patients.

"Our findings pave the way to develop laboratory tests that can predict the behavior of this tumor in dogs and children at the time of diagnosis," said Modiano. "This allows us to tailor individualized therapy to meet the patient's needs."

The downstream impact of the findings

University of Minnesota researchers hope to use their findings to develop practical and useful lab tests for humans and for companion animals that will help clinical care providers determine the type of cancer a patient faces, and how aggressive that cancer may be.

Then, depending on which type of cancer a patient has, clinicians could adjust interventions and treatment plans accordingly.

"Patients with less aggressive disease could be treated conservatively, reducing the side effects and the risks associated with treatment, while patients with more aggressive disease could be treated with more intense therapy," said Modiano.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the AKC Canine Health Foundation and the Kate Koogler Canine Cancer Fund.

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Milcah C. Scott, Aaron L. Sarver, Katherine J. Gavin, Venugopal Thayanithy, David M. Getzy, Robert A. Newman, Gary R. Cutter, Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, William C. Kisseberth, Lawrence E. Hunter, Subbaya Subramanian, Matthew Breen, Jaime F. Modiano. Molecular subtypes of osteosarcoma identified by reducing tumor heterogeneity through an interspecies comparative approach. Bone, 2011; 49 (3): 356 DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2011.05.008

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If your dog is aggressive, maybe it is in pain

ScienceDaily (June 13, 2012) — Dogs can sometimes suffer sudden episodes of aggression without their owners understanding why. But, in many cases, the cause of these attacks can be pain that has never been diagnosed or treated. For the first time the study describes the characteristics of this irritability, which can make dogs violent and increase aggression in already conflictive individuals.

There are many factors that explain aggression in dogs: the conditions of the mother during gestation, the handling of the puppy in the neonatal phase, the age at weaning, the experiences of the animal during the socialising phase, diet, exercise, genetics and learning techniques based on active punishment during adulthood. However, aggressive behaviour also arises from the presence of pathologies and pain in the dog.

Between 2010 and 2011 a team of researchers from the department of Animal and Food Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in Spain analysed the aggression problems of 12 dogs (Giant schnauzer, Irish setter, Pit-bull, Dalmatian, two German shepherds, Neapolitan Mastiff, Shih-tzu, Bobtail, Catalan Sheepdog, Chow-chow and Doberman) who were brought to the UAB's Veterinary Hospital by their owners.

"All (eleven males and one female) were diagnosed as having aggression caused by pain. Out of the 12 studied, eight had suffered a hip dysplasia," as was outlined by Tomás Camps, lead author of the study that was published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior and researcher at the Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service of the UAB.

Scientists identified the most frequent circumstances in which dogs were aggressive, the most characteristic positions, the most frequent target of attacks and if they were impulsive or, in other words, whether or not they showed signs before an imminent attack.

The study shows that dogs that were already aggressive for other reasons before the onset of pain attacked their owners more intensely and frequently when food was taken away, when they were moved from their rest area or when they were made to do something. Animals displayed aggression in the same situations (or nearly) as those that were already aggressive.

On the other hand, "dogs that had never been aggressive before the onset of pain began to behave in this way in situations were an attempt is made to control them," points out Camps.

In addition, the study shows that those dogs were more impulsive or, in other words, attacked with no prior warning in the form of growls, for instance. The research team states that "if the pet is handled when in pain, it will quickly act aggressively to avoid more discomfort without the owner being able to prevent it."

Diagnosing hip dysplasia

Canine hip dysplasia affects more than 40% of Golden Retrievers, Labradors and Rottweillers and is a hereditary and degenerative bone disorder that affects the joint connecting the hip and the femoral head. In general, it can affect any breed of large dog but is less frequent is small breeds.

The new study suggests that the pain produced by hip dysplasia is a key factor in the risk of large dogs becoming aggressive. But the problem begins when the dog experiences periods of little pain and the illness is not diagnosed on time.

The researchers have reassessed the importance of diagnosis and treatment of pain since, according to Camps, "it can cause aggression or worsen aggression problems."

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Tomás Camps, Marta Amat, Valentina M. Mariotti, Susana Le Brech, Xavier Manteca. Pain-related aggression in dogs: 12 clinical cases. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 2012; 7 (2): 99 DOI: 10.1016/j.jveb.2011.08.002

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Nunavik sled dogs need first aid and care too

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2012) — In Nunavik, there are many dogs -- sled dogs, pets, and strays -- but no veterinarian, so the University of Montreal International Veterinary Group has given Andréanne Cléroux, a veterinary student, the mandate to design and deliver a first aid guide for dogs in northern Quebec. "The problem relates mainly to animal health care, immunization, and dog population control," Cléroux explains. "We wanted to create a guide that would provide basic tools for pet owners so they can provide care to their animal while waiting to contact the remote veterinary consultation service to get advice from a veterinarian at the CHUV (University of Montreal Veterinary Hospital)."

The initiative is part of the Support project in veterinary public health and animal health in Nunavik, which began in 2008 with the creation of the remote veterinary consultation service.

Last year, Cléroux spent a month writing the guide before flying to Nunavik. During her one-week stay, she presented a draft of her work to several inhabitants of the town of Kuujjuaq. She was accompanied by the junior college student Emaly Bibeau Jonas, who provided interpretation between Inuktitut and French. "Through their comments, I was able to rework the guide to make it more simple, concise, and user-friendly," says Cléroux, who was supervised by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine's Dr. Denise Bélanger, Dr. Cécile Aenishaenslin, and Dr. Josiane Houle.

The challenge, she notes, was to produce a manual that would address both those unfamiliar with animal health care and those who already have more advanced knowledge, such as dog sled drivers. "Dog mushers are great for recognizing and treating all kinds of medical conditions," says Cléroux.

With accompanying photographs, the guide covers everything from vaccination schedules, drug administration, and care of newborns, to sterilization, zoonotic diseases, fractures, and bandaging methods.

Cléroux has also created a first aid kit that includes all the necessary material to provide the care described in the manual. "At the moment, there is only one kit available at the Makivik Corporation research center in Kuujjuaq. Our goal is to distribute one kit to each of the 14 communities in Nunavik." This month, she'll be travelling once again north of the 55th parallel to deliver copies of the official version of the guide to dog owners in Kuujjuaq. She will do the same in the communities of Quaqtaq and Puvirnituq, while providing first aid kits. "We will evaluate their use by the residents and then decide how to proceed with the other villages," she says. "I hope our work will increase people awareness of veterinary public health issues and animal health, and that our tools will encourage them to promote animal health and care."

Vaccination campaign Rabies is an often-cited problem in Nunavik. "It's an endemic problem. There are reported cases every year," notes Cléroux. The ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) visits the communities in Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay to conduct annual vaccination campaigns. They provide basic and antirabies vaccines. Local vaccinators are also present at other times of the year. "There is still room for improvement, but we must recognize that vaccination is more widespread than before," says Cléroux.

She experienced this first hand during her stay. At the invitation of MAPAQ, she organized a vaccination clinic, which to her surprise, drew dozens of people. "We saw 120 dogs and two cats in one afternoon!" she recounts, still amazed. "The children were leaning over our shoulders to watch us work and each had a story to tell."

This experience was "extremely rewarding" for the student. "I would like to continue working in these communities. I could go there from time to time to participate in immunization clinics or other projects that focus on animal and public health."

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Are pet owners healthier and happier? Maybe not

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2011) — For many people, Fido and Fluffy are more than just pets, they're true and equal members of the family. And it's not hard to see why. Our pets greet us at the door after a long day of work, settle in our laps while we're watching TV, or 'sing' along when we hum a tune. They provide companionship and even a sense of comfort. We like to believe that our pets are good for us, that they enrich our lives and make us happier, and messages in media and advertising reinforce these beliefs. But is there really a universal 'pet effect' on human mental and physical health?

According to Harold Herzog, Professor of Psychology at the Western Carolina University , there simply isn't strong evidence for the general claim that living with a pet makes for a happier, healthier or longer life.

In a new article, to be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Herzog argues that existing research on pet ownership has produced very conflicting results. While some studies suggest that owning a pet is associated with positive health outcomes like reduced rates of depression or lower blood pressure, other studies suggest that pet owners are no better off, and may even be worse off in some ways, than people who don't own pets. The reason for these inconsistencies, Herzog says, is that studies on pet ownership often suffer from methodological problems, such as small, homogeneous samples, lack of appropriate control groups, and reliance on self-report to measure participants' health and well-being. Furthermore, very few studies have used the kind of experimental design necessary to show that pets actually cause improvements in their owner's health and happiness.

Herzog, who is author of the book Some we love, some we hate, some we eat: Why it's so hard to think straight about animals, is quick to point out that he himself is a pet owner and pet lover. "I'm not trying to denigrate the role of animals in human life, I'm trying to do just the opposite," he says. It's entirely plausible that our pets really do provide medical and psychological benefits, but "we just don't know how strong that effect is, what types of people it works for, and what the underlying biological and psychological mechanisms might be."

The notion that pets have psychological benefits has led to a blurring between what we consider companion animals and what we consider therapeutic or service animals. Herzog notes that the Americans with Disabilities Act had to be revised recently in order to clarify the fact that only trained dogs and miniature horses that fulfill a specific service function could legally qualify as service animals.

In order to truly understand the effects that pets have on our lives, Herzog says we need more rigorous research. Animals are important in many aspects of human life, and research on human-animal relationships is important because it "offers a window into really big issues in human psychology" and can help to shed light on many of our cultural and ethical practices. On a more practical level, it's clear that pets can serve a therapeutic function in certain situations -- the issue is figuring out which ones. "Let's say it turns out that some kids with autism benefit from interacting with animals -- wouldn't it be great to be able to know which kids are going to benefit and which aren't?"

Herzog points out that the scientific community is starting to take these issues seriously. In 2008, the National Institutes of Health began a program to fund studies that examine the medical and psychological benefits of pets on children. Herzog is encouraged that that psychological scientists are really becoming involved in this research: "I think in five years we're going to have some answers to our questions."

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