Rachel Carson has sparked the modern day environmental
movement with her book Silent Spring
published 50 years ago and Ruth Harrison’s book Animal Machines, also written 50 years ago, alerted
the public to the undeniable suffering of calves living in veal crates and
birds in battery cages. The second and final day of the conference revisiting
these two books was about the current challenges of conservation and animal
welfare and what the future holds. The two sessions comprised five
presentations:
I’m attending the ‘Rachel Carson & Ruth Harrison 50
years on conference’, which is taking place on 12-13 March 2013, at the Oxford
University Biodiversity Institute. These two women whose books changed science
certainly deserve the recognition. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) was a wake-up call for the environment and
helped to turn conservation into the mainstream scientific and public concern
it is today. In Silent Spring, she described
how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in animals and human tissues, causing
cancer and genetic damage. Ruth Harrison’s Animal
Machines (1964) was also a wake-up call for the conditions of farm animals and
helped to turn animal welfare into the mainstream scientific and the public
concern it is today.
Ahead of the upcoming Biodiversity Institute Conference, Marian Stamp Dawkins, Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Oxford, highlights the pioneering work of two women who spoke out about the negative effects on animals of greater efficiency in food production.
‘Greater efficiency’ may for some people be an obvious goal for producing sustainable food for an increasing human population, but it sends shivers down the spine of the animal welfare community. Fifty years ago, Ruth Harrison published her landmark book Animal Machines and drew the public's attention to what was being done in the name of more efficient food production: hens in battery cages, veal calves in crates, sows in stalls.
Schmallenberg virus was first reported in in cattle the
summer of 2011 near the town in Northern Germany that gives it its name. Since
then, the spread of the virus has been rapid. In the UK, it was first reported
on 11 farms in January 2012, and has grown month-on-month since then. It is
spread by midges (Culicoides), and so
can easily be transferred between animals. It has also been found in wild deer,
which could be a reservoir of infection.
It causes stillbirths in lambs and calves, and fever,
reduced milk yields and loss of appetite in adult cattle. Schmallenberg virus
has now been confirmed at over 1500 farms in the UK, and has been detected
throughout northern, central and eastern Europe.
A report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) sets out the staggering cost of alien species - animals and plants brought to Europe from other parts of the world. The cost, and the threat to health and the environment, is said to be greater than expected, costing at least €12bn (£10bn) a year.
More than 10,000 "alien" species have gained a foothold in Europe, from Asian tiger mosquitoes to North American ragweed, and at least 1,500 are known to be harmful, the EEA said. And the real cost could be even greater than quoted.
Idolised in Ancient Egypt, then vilified in Medieval
Europe, the domestication of cats has taken them on an interesting route from
uninvited guests chasing mice in our grain stores to the moggies we cuddle
today. At John Bradshaw’s talk at Blackwell’s
in Oxford last month, evidence of their interesting history was just around the
corner at the Pitt Rivers Museum, where mummified cats are
part of its unusual collection. Dogs, on the other hand, have a long history of
being companions to humans, bred into many shapes and sizes to make them capable
of a number of tasks that have played a key role both in human and canine
evolution.
Prior to his talk with world renowned author and academic Dr. John Bradshaw on Wednesday 16 January at Blackwell's Bookstore, Oxford , guest blogger and professional photographer Andy Hughes writes about the human-animal bond from a photographers perspective using images from his recent publication I, Jack Russell
Photographers, artists, writers and other ‘creatives’ are diverse in motivation, interests, experiences and insights. Much of my photographic practice deals with issues concerning the marine and coastal environment, however recently, I realized or perhaps discovered by accident that I had many more images of my two dogs than I did of my family and friends and this lead to a new field of research. I began this project about Jack Russell dogs by looking to find as many family snapshots, which included our dogs. I found a few and these are included in my recent book I Jack Russell which attempts to encourage readers to think about their own snapshots of dogs and about the dog human bond.
Compelling evidence of cheese-making has been uncovered in prehistoric pottery sieves found in the Kuyavia region in Poland by researchers from Great Britain, Poland and the United States. The study has just been published online in Nature journal on 12 December 2012.
An abundance of milk fats was detected in these specialized pottery vessels, comparable in form to modern cheese strainers, suggesting that humans have been making cheese in Europe for at least 7,500 years. There is a possibility that cheese was made even at earlier times using other materials such as cloth or wooden cheese strainers, but these materials are more perishable and difficult to detect as archeological material.
“Can we have a pet for Christmas?” is something I hear a lot each December. The answer, much to my children’s disappointment, is always no.
In addition to the fact that we are often told that Christmas is not the best time to introduce a new animal into a household [e.g. see PetRescue.Com article: No Christmas Puppies, Please!], I can’t think of any pet that is both practical and fulfils the necessary fluffy/cute criteria that my kids are requesting. (Apparently the stick insects that we have are not ‘proper’ pets!).
After listening to experts talk at CABI’s Human-Animal Bond Symposium last month, I can appreciate the benefits that introducing something cuddly into the family could bring. Professor Alan Beck, of Purdue University, described some of the ways that pets can benefit human health and welfare. For example, dog ownership generally results in increased exercise and greater social contact through talking with other dog owners; people with dogs or cats have been found to have lower blood pressure, heart rates and reduced cholesterol than those without; and even staring at a fish tank can provide enough of a distraction from our worries to induce a relaxation response. Animals can also help teach children about responsibility and compassion.
Infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) is a pathogen of marine-farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). However, ISAV can be transmitted experimentally to fish in fresh water. Outbreaks are restricted to Atlantic salmon but other salmonids may harbour the virus and act as reservoirs. ISAV remains an emerging fish pathogen because of the asymptomatic infections in marine wild fish. Natural outbreaks are usually chronic, lasting for several months and mortality varies between 15-100%.
Diagnosis is based on characteristic gross pathology and light microscopy, anaemia and absence of pathogenic bacteria. Supporting diagnosis of the virus is achieved by culture on the salmon head kidney cell line (SHK-1), a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).2
ISAV was first diagnosed in southwest Norway in 1984 and has since been diagnosed in Canada, Scotland, the USA, the Faeroe Islands and Chile. The first outbreak of ISAV in marine-farmed Atlantic salmon in the Southern hemisphere occurred in Chile in 2007.
