Clipmarks | dmccluredvm's clips

Wash your hands and keep them out of your mouth!

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:44:37 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: Just like your Momma told you!

CDC: Pet frogs source of salmonella outbreak

Pet frogs are being blamed for a national salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 48 people.

The illnesses occurred from June through November, with reports coming in from 25 states. Health officials investigating the illnesses found that many of the people said they'd been in contact with frogs such as the African dwarf frog. The salmonella strain was found in aquariums with frogs in three homes where illnesses occurred.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the outbreak Monday.

Whiskerology -

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:00:01 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: Rodents don't see too well, but they have amazing navigation abilities through their very sensitive whiskers.

Clip Source: news.medill.northwestern.edu

Maybe the Three Blind Mice didn’t really need their vision

Hartmann said one of the biggest surprises in her research was finding out how much independent control a rat has over its whiskers. Hartmann’s team found that whiskers do not bend and move the way people typically think-- in sync and in a fluid brushing motion. A rat can shut down one side of its whiskers, while the other side goes to work.

Hartmann explained why it is important for scientists to study such seeminglyunusual systems as rat whiskers.
“By studying rat whiskers, what we're really studying is the neural basis for the sense of touch and motor control. In the long run, understanding the rat's neural circuits will greatly help us in understanding circuits of the human brain, and helping people with motor and sensing disabilities or injuries."

Tags: mice, rat, rodent

Donna Haraway's Critters

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:54:37 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: Donna Haraway is capturing a fundamental truth in the way way humans in modern western culture interact with animals. It isn't about human domination over the animal world, but humans and animals as companions on Earth. Her request that we take a serious and new look at the relationship between humans and animals from both a cognitive and scientific perspective is laudable. I also value curiosity and the inquisitive nature of humans as "precious and fragile and not very nice virtue."

Clip Source: chronicle.com

Haraway's key idea is that animals are "companion species." This phrase seems less provocative than "cyborg," but it has some teeth: It rebuts the traditional Western view that man rightly has "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle" (Genesis 1:26). Haraway sees it the other way around: We are not kings in a great chain of being, but, in her parlance, we are all critters. This idea has a good deal of consequence in how we relate to and what we do with animals.

Donna Haraway's Critters

With The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Prickly Paradigm, 2003) and When Species Meet (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), she has become a prominent figure in the developing field of animal studies. If her first manifesto stamped the Age of the Cyborg, her recent books mark the Age of the Animal.

Tags: human, animal, bond

A RESCUE dolphin has been killed by sharks

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:54:43 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: — only TWO hours after it was released back into the wild

Clip Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Unlucky Dunham had spent months being nursed back to health by carers after he was found washed up on coastline in Florida.

Biologists at the Clearwater Aquarium, Florida, spent seven months treating the stricken dolphin — before releasing him into the sea.

They watched on in horror as the predator mounted a stealth attack on the mammal — tearing into the dolphin with its razor-sharp teeth.

More on the Animal Liberation Front Attack on UCI

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:45:10 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: Gary Robbins is doing a commendable job in reporting on this event. He has received direct e-mail from ALF.

Clip Source: sciencedude.freedomblogging.com

UCI says animal-rights attack won’t slow research

July 20th, 2009, 6:00 am · 1 Comment · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor

ALF sent this blog an email saying that, “On July 10, 2009 3 vehicles and the home of a UC Irvine vivisector were hit by the ALF. 1 of his cars (the fanciest of the 4 in front) was doused with paint stripper. 2 others had red paint poured all over them.

“More red paint was splattered across his driveway, and “KILLER” was spray painted in huge red letters across his garage door so that all his neighbors could see what a cruel, sick person they live near.” (Full story).

The details of the attack against the property of pathologist Michael Selsted were confirmed by UCI officials. (Selsted is still on faculty but also is chair of pathology at USC.)

We discussed the attack with UCI evolutionary biologist James Hicks, who often presents the university’s position on animal research

Tags: animal rights, animal activism, domestic terrorism

New Insights Into Novel H1N1

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:42:40 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.nih.gov

New Insights Into Novel H1N1

Several research groups funded by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) have recently put together a picture of where the novel H1N1 virus came from and how it evolved. They discovered that the novel H1N1 virus is a descendent not only of swine viruses but also of the H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, which killed 40-50 million people worldwide.

Tags: h1n1 flu virus

CVMA Supported Legilation Passes

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:19:11 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: The Gov signed SB 762 by Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) - Professions and vocations: healing arts! This is key legislation for veterinarians and other health professionals. Cities can not longer create laws that override the practice act...like declawing.

Clip Source: gov.ca.gov

Legislative Update

NOTE: These bills were sent to the Governor for his consideration prior to his announcement yesterday that he would not sign any non-urgent legislation until a budget agreement is reached.

SB 762 by Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) - Professions and vocations: healing arts.

Tags: veterinarians, health care professionals, legislation, california

Do your relatives look more lie an orang or a chimp?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:55:57 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Orangutans May Be Closest Human Relatives, Not Chimps

Orangutans, not chimpanzees, are the closest living relatives to humans, a controversial new study contends.

The authors base their conclusion on a close physical resemblance between orangutans and humans, which they say has been overshadowed by genetic evidence linking us to chimps.

What's more, the study authors argue, the genetic evidence itself is flawed. (Get a genetics overview.)

Baboons Fight Malaria with the Same Genetic Variation as Man

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:59:37 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

On Malaria Struggle, Baboons And Humans Have Similar Stories To Tell

ScienceDaily (June 24, 2009) — Evolutionarily speaking, baboons may be our more distant cousins among primates. But when it comes to our experiences with malaria over the course of time, it seems the stories of our two species have followed very similar plots.

"It's a nice example of how – in the vastness of the genome – the same gene was modified in the same way in two different species to produce the same kind of resistance," says Greg Wray, director of the IGSP's Center for Evolutionary Genomics. "That's a pretty remarkable thing when you think of all the different ways malaria resistance might have evolved."

Tags: animal model, baboon, primate, malaria

Mobile Boarding Passes

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:04:40 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.aa.com

Introducing Mobile Boarding Passes

Since November 2008, if your flight originated from Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Los Angeles International (LAX) or Santa Ana John Wayne/Orange County (SNA) airports, AA.com has provided you the option to have your boarding pass sent directly to your mobile device - saving paper and time. And now, we've expanded this service to include flights originating from Atlanta (ATL), Las Vegas (LAS), or Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP).

Survivorship Depends on Your Mother's Social Skills

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:22:20 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.newsroom.ucla.edu

Close social ties make baboons better mothers, study finds

"If you're a baboon, the strength of your mother's relationship with other females is the best predictor of whether you'll live to have children yourself," said Joan Silk, the study's lead author and a UCLA professor of anthropology. "The study adds to mounting evidence of the biological benefits of close relationships among females."

The findings are significant because "survivorship to reproduction is the gold standard in evolutionary biology," said co-author Dorothy Cheney, a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania. "Females who raise offspring to a reproductive age are more likely see their genes pass along, so these findings demonstrate an evolutionary advantage to strong relationships with other females. In evolutionary terms, social moms are the fittest moms — at least when it comes to baboons."

Tags: baboon, primate, surviorship, animal, social biology

Lab Mice or Lab Pigs

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:31:15 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: Animal scientists are hoping to join in the battle for NIH research dollars.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

This little piggie went to the science lab

And the agricultural scientists hope to go all the way to the bank. They say farm animals are an underrated resource for human health studies, and they want more in government research funds.

A bullish group of agricultural scientists says that farm animals have been vastly underrated as a resource for improving human health -- and they're vying for some of the billions of dollars the government invests in biomedical research.

Tags: animal research, animal models, mice, swine, pigs, animal science

Anteaters get the flu

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:42:18 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.google.com

Anteaters caught (human) H1N1 flu in zoo outbreak, expanding range of wily virus

Humans, horses, dogs, whales, seals, birds, cats, ferrets and even raccoons are known to be susceptible to the tiny eight-gene viruses. Researchers in Tennessee have now added giant anteaters to that list.

"Who would have thunk it?" senior author Dr. Melissa Kennedy says with a laugh. "We were pretty amazed."

The February 2007 outbreak, involving 11 adult giant anteaters at Tennessee's Nashville zoo, is reported in an article that will be published in the July issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. All the anteaters survived the illness.

Beyond the initial "Even anteaters?" reaction, some who study influenza profess to be less taken aback than Kennedy and her co-authors. The virus is so unpredictable, scientists who work in the field expect the unexpected.

Tags: animal, anteater, flu, outbreak, zoo

Is your animal research program prepared?

Tue, 26 May 2009 19:49:22 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm
clipper's remarks: "Maintaining a high quality animal care and use program, good relationships within the institution and the community, and an effective education program can help to prevent and alleviate many crisis situations and significantly reduce the need for long term damage control."

Clip Source: grants.nih.gov

Be Prepared

An animal program of impeccable integrity;
A security program based on risk assessment;
An integrated communication plan with descriptions of research projects in lay terminology, spokespersons, and a telephone tree
An internal and external community outreach program that includes legislators and funding agencies.

The ARENA/OLAW Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Guidebook (PDF - 3.2 MB; see section B.6.a) describes the 4 key elements of institutional preparedness:

Tags: animal research, crisis management, disaster

Animal Welfare Web Portal from FAO

Sat, 23 May 2009 01:08:29 GMT

clipped by: dmccluredvm

Clip Source: www.fao.org

Animal welfare web portal launched

One-stop shop for policy-makers, farmers, scientists and animal welfare organizations

Tags: animal welfare, agriculture animal