Copyright 2008 Medical News Today Latest Veterinary News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/veterinary/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115852.php The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) has produced Bat Care Guidelines, in association with the BVA AWF, RSPCA and RCVS Trust, aimed at veterinary professionals, wildlife hospitals and new rehabilitators. The document is split into basic sections including 'health and safety', 'rescue and collection' and 'ailments and treatments' which aim to provide minimum guidelines for bat care. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115842.php Recent studies suggested that individuals may use the reproductive performance of conspecifics as a source of public information on breeding patch quality, but experimental evidence is still limited for species breeding in colonies, such as seabirds. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115841.php The hormonal environment experienced during prenatal development may affect adult phenotype and behavior. Digit lengths may provide an estimate of steroid levels encountered during embryonic development in humans and other vertebrates. Finger patterns in humans, specifically 2D:4D finger ratios, have been shown to reveal sexual orientation or cooperative behavior. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115850.php The Goat Veterinary Society (GVS) has produced a DVD designed to help veterinary surgeons to disbud goats. Produced in association with the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation the DVD is in memory of the late Mike Teale MRCVS, following a donation from his family. The DVD discusses the potential problems associated with disbudding kid goats and provides guidance on how to avoid them. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115849.php The BVA AWF (British Veterinary Association and the Animal Welfare Foundation) have launched an online tutorial on practical animal handling which has been prepared in conjunction with Newcastle University. The tutorial is primarily aimed at veterinary students and nurses. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115840.php Social information, or information from the behavior of others, may be commonly used to improve estimates of resource quality. We exposed female cactus bugs (Chelinidea vittiger) to different types of social information, presented at different times, to examine theoretical predictions regarding the influence of social information on offspring production. We found that females laid more eggs when other females' offspring were present. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115839.php Primate vocal behaviour is often said to be biologically hard-wired. According to this idea, individuals produce calls from a limited repertoire, and mostly to evolutionarily important events, such as discovery of food or a predator. In doing so, they are thought to have little or no awareness of their audience and how listeners might be affected by their calls. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115838.php In many reptiles, the sex of an individual is determined early in development by incubation temperature (temperature-dependent sex determination, TSD). But what determines the relationship between sex and temperature? Schwanz and Proulx address this question by simulating the evolution of TSD. They introduce a new measure of TSD, mutual information (MI), that incorporates the sex-temperature relationship and natural temperatures in the environment. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115837.php Human land use can fragment landscapes, creating new habitat edges. These edges affect how animals use the landscape and how predators interact with their prey. Edges of beach vegetation in Barbados create an ecological trap for endangered hawksbill sea turtles: while hawksbills prefer to nest near vegetation, introduced mongooses stay in vegetation and prey on nests near the edge. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115834.php In groups of a social mammal, the banded mongoose, the majority of pups each form a stable exclusive association with an adult group member (its 'escort') that is its principal care provider. In spite of pups within the communal litter being closely related, each pup aggressively defends access to its escort, preventing other pups approaching, and therefore monopolises the care provided by its escort. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115833.php Competitive exclusion prevents coexistence of producer species, which eventually limits the biodiversity of natural ecosystems. For the first time, analyses of complex food-web models show that herbivory predominantly reduces the biomass of dominant producers without assuming a trade-off between the producers' nutrient-intake efficiency and their resistance to herbivory. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115835.php Avian brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of individuals of other species ("hosts") which take care of parasitic chicks. The screaming cowbird is a highly specialized brood parasite that uses almost a single host despite having many other potential hosts available. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115831.php Animals often live in groups. We know that individuals do not interact with others at random, but why this is the case remains unclear. One possibility is that their choice is affected by their 'personality', such as how bold or shy they are. We tested this using stickleback fish, and found that shy fish associated frequently with a small subset of other group members. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115689.php It's hard to read the headlines these days and not get the message, loud and clear, that human health is directly affected by the health of animals. Salmonella from infected wildlife or livestock spreads to produce and leads to the poisoning of hundreds across the United States. Millions of pounds of ground beef are pulled from stores after dozens become ill with E. coli-related illnesses. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115687.php Dogs, it appears, are capable of much more than providing companionship to their owners, fetching the morning paper or serving as willing participants during an evening jog. They may one day also help us find a cure for cancer, and veterinarians are playing a vital role in the process. That expertise will be on full display during the American Veterinary Medical Association's 145th Annual Convention in New Orleans, La., July 19 - July 22, 2008. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115686.php The American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates (AVMA-HOD) have voted to pass a groundbreaking policy on veal calf housing that promotes both animal health and welfare. The resolution passed by a landslide 88.7 percent vote. This new policy states "that the AVMA supports a change in veal husbandry practices that severely restrict movement, to housing systems that allow for greater freedom of movement without compromising health or welfare. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115685.php Veterinarian Timothy McCarthy remembers one case of elbow joint damage in a German shepherd that was so severe that he and the dog's owners contemplated amputation. In another case, an aging Rottweiler was so hobbled that he shuffled around the exam room like an "old man" before plopping himself back down on the floor. But to the delight of owner, doctor and patient, both dogs made remarkable recoveries. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115688.php The pet food recalls that took place in the spring of 2007 were shocking, drawing the attention and concern of pet owners, veterinarians and politicians. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration has been charged with developing new federal regulations for pet foods, which historically were regulated primarily by the states, and some pet owners were so shaken that they decided to change the way they feed their pets, trying organic brands, home-cooked meals and even raw food diets. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115684.php Approximately 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs every year and about 800,000 of these individuals - half of which are children - are bitten severely enough that they receive medical attention. At this year's annual convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in New Orleans, July 18-22, there have been several presentations and an announcement of the release in this country of a new AVMA-sponsored dog-bite prevention program. Dr. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115682.php While it's no secret that proper nutrition usually means a healthier pet, advances in understanding the dog and cat genomes have opened new doors for veterinarians and scientists who are constantly looking at how nutrition can help improve the health and quality of lives of our pets. Their efforts are beginning to pay dividends in studying everything from arthritis to obesity and aging. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115681.php The earliest known writings about herbal medicines date back to 2800 B.C. in China, and many people believe that electromedicine goes back to the time of Aristotle. But while many complementary or alternative modalities may not be new, these alternative measures are still not well understood by many Americans. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115680.php Veterinary professionals attending New Orleans at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) annual convention, held July 18-22, will have a chance to learn more about one of the area's most remarkable industries and conservation efforts - Louisiana's alligator ranches. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115679.php A multimillion-dollar partnership program, Platinum Partner Program, or 'P3,' secures $4.5 million in support of AVMA programs and services over the next four years. Premier P3 partners include Fort Dodge Animal Health, Hill's Pet Nutrition and Merial. Each company has pledged $380,000 to the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) each year over the next four years. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115147.php Female monkeys are more dominant when they live in groups with a higher percentage of males. This is caused by self-organisation. This surprising discovery was made by researchers at the University of Groningen. What makes the study particularly interesting is that the researchers used a computer model which can simulate interaction between monkeys. Their findings will be published on July 16 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115082.php Avian olfaction is poorly understood: birds are widely regarded as relying primarily on visual and auditory inputs. Among vertebrates, the sense of smell is mediated by olfactory receptors (ORs). We estimated the number of OR genes in nine bird species that occupy different ecological niches and found that they vary in relation to the area in the brain that is responsible for the processing of olfactory information.