CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Raisin questions.

Recently I read in an abstract in the CAB Abstracts Database that “Dog poisoning caused by grape or raisin consumption has been increasing recently. The first cases of poisoning were documented around 1989, several tens cases have been registered yearly in the world since 2003”. The author writing in a Czech veterinary journal is correct in saying that the first report of raisin poisoning in dogs was fairly recent, and there appears to be no recorded cases before 1989. 

Raisin poisoning can be very serious with most affected dogs developing vomiting and/or diarrhoea within 6-12 hr of eating the grapes or raisins. Other signs include lethargy, anorexia, abdominal pain, weakness, dehydration, polydipsia, and tremors (shivering). Oliguric or anuric renal failure can develop within 24-72 hr after eating the raisins, and once anuric renal failure develops, most dogs die or are destroyed. Some dogs develop transient elevations in serum glucose, liver enzymes, pancreatic enzymes, serum calcium, or serum phosphorus develop in some dogs.

The Merck veterinary manual recommends that affected dogs should be given an emetic as soon as possible to try and eliminate the fruit, followed by doses of activated charcoal. With large ingestions or in cases where vomiting and/or diarrhoea has spontaneously developed within 12 hr of ingestion of grapes or raisins, aggressive fluid diuresis for 48 hr is recommended. Renal function and fluid balance should be monitored during fluid administration. For oliguric dogs, urine production may be stimulated by using dopamine and/or furosemide. Anuric dogs are unlikely to survive unless peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis is performed, and even then the prognosis is guarded.

The interesting thing about raisin/grape poisoning is why it has only been reported in recent years? Dogs have not suddenly become more greedy and less discerning in what they choose to eat. Also the availability of raisins in houses would have been greater in the past when more people baked fruit cakes and their own Christmas puddings at home. I far as I know, dogs (some breeds in particular) have always been great opportunists when it comes to raiding the larder, so its hard to belief that they never had the chance to eat raisins before 1989. Could it be that raisins have changed in some way? Or is it just that cases of raisin poisoning did occur in the past and were just not reported? Some authors have suggested that a mycotoxin contaminating the raisins may be to blame for the poisonings. Would some change in the processing of raisin and grapes be responsible? If the toxin can cause kidney failure in dogs does it have an adverse effect in humans? As yet no toxin has been identified, so suggesting a mycotoxin is just speculation. So, looking at the literature on a particular topic, like raisin poisoning, may not provide all the answers we would like, but it does help to us to ask the right questions.

Farm visits, brother in tow

As a mother of two young boys, I have been following the coverage of the 'petting farm' E. coli outbreak with particular interest. As of 22 September, 74 cases of infection with E. coli O157 have been linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey.

Having visited two similar attractions this summer, I am now reflecting on my decision to take my 21-month-old as well as my five-year-old. While official guidance from the Department of Health is that contact with animals is fine as long as good hand hygiene is followed, Prof Hugh Pennington has expressed an opinion that under-fives should not touch the animals because of the risk that they might infect themselves (see BBC news).

A prickly encounter

We first noticed the prickly visitor to our garden one evening. It appeared on our patio, but quickly dashed under cover of the plants once spotted. Much to the delight of my eldest son, Mrs (or Mr?) Tiggy-Winkle was on the patio again early morning at breakfast - shouldn't a hedgehog be asleep by now I thought?

Lost Land of the Volcano

Last night on BBC television in the UK was the first of three programmes of the BBC’s jungle expedition, natural history discovery programmes “Lost Land of the ….” in this Volcano. This time the series, was filmed in the forests of the remote tropical island of New Guinea, primarily exploring the area around the giant extinct volcano - Mount Bosavi. (Pictured Steve Backsall - copyright BBC).

The aims of this programme were to explore and catalogue the species of this seldom studied region, ultimately with the hope to have the forest designated as protected to save it from logging.

We caught malignant malaria from chimpanzees -- but when exactly?

Image: CDC/ James Gathany, Dr. Frank Collins, University of Notre Dame

A couple of weeks ago I came across a news item entitled 'Scientists report original source of malaria', with a sub-headline to the effect that it jumped to humans from chimpanzees, possibly through a single mosquito. Reading the story indicated that it actually referred just to Plasmodium falciparum malaria, although this is the most important form as it causes the most serious disease and the great majority of human malaria deaths (remember that malaria in the wider sense affects a wide variety of animals and dates back millions of years).

Please can I have some more?

Pets may be able to negotiate with their owners over what, when and how much they are fed. This is the view of Jon Day of the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, based in part on evidence of how human babies “ask” for food before they can talk. Analysing these interactions may help avoid obesity in pets. The paper by Day and his colleagues appears in CABI’s broad-ranging reviews journal, CAB Reviews.

 

Both pets and babies use begging and finicky eating habits to control what they are given, in a push-pull relationship. Day and his colleagues say that behaviour before, during and after eating all influence the feeder. Cats can self-regulate their diet in the laboratory at a healthy level, suggesting that obesity in the home may be the result of the pet manipulating the feeder, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

 

 

cc schmollmolch

Evidence suggests that men are less able to judge levels of hunger in infants than women. There is also wide variation in the ability of pet owners to interpret the behaviour of pets in terms of appetite and “fullness”.

 

Food refusal is common in infants and is thought to make the caregiver more dependent on the infant, and gaining them more attention. Cats sometimes refuse a food that they have previously eaten without problems, and they too may use feed refusal as a strategy to influence what they are fed, but also more generally to dominate their relationship with their owners.  

 

While begging behaviour is influenced by an animal’s hunger, there may also be elements of conditioned routine and social interaction with the owner that affect how much an animal begs. For example, the extent which a dog will beg depends on whether it can see its owner’s face or eyes.  

While there is still more research to be done, it’s probable that at least eight out of ten owners know that their cats are manipulating them over what food they give them, and a better understanding of this may help keep their pets healthier.

 

The paper, “Do pets influence the quantity and choice of food offered to them by their owners: lessons from other animals and the pre-verbal human infant?” by Jon E.L. Day, Sophie Kergoat and Kurt Kotrschal appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 2009 4, No. 042.

http://www.cababstractsplus.org/CABReviews/Reviews.asp?action=display&openMenu=relatedItems&ReviewID=106612&Year=2009

Dangerous Squeals

A leaflet produced by the UK Health and Safety Executive warning of the dangers of squealing pigs has caught the attention of the British media.

Apparently a large group of pigs in intensive housing can create noise levels of 100 decibels or above, especially just before they are fed. Farmers are advised to either wear hearing protection or avoid the animals until they are fed and contented. (This is less of an issue for farmers with automated feeding systems that can be switched on from the outside).

Wild and Woolly 2009

I recently went llama trekking and thoroughly enjoyed it. Up close, the llama (Lama glama) not only sports rather glamorous long eyelashes but also has the most amazing fibrous coat. This reminded me that 2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibres (IYNF) – a year of all things wild and woolly!

FAO have deemed 2009 as the International Year to highlight the importance of natural fibres and their many uses, not only to producers and industry, but also to consumers and the environment.

IYNF, or “Wild and Woolly 2009”, as it’s also known, has a great website with profiles of natural fibres from abaca to alpaca to silk and sisal. Here you can find out about events taking place throughout the year, and find out why, in a world of synthetics, natural fibres should be the natural choice.

Further reading

FAO (2009). Discover natural fibres 2009. Common Fund for Commodities. Proceedings of the Symposium on Natural Fibres. Rome, 20 October 2008. Technical Paper No. 56.

Photo courtesy of Isobel Hoskins

Man Flu Really Exists, New Study Shows

Man flu is considered by large segments of society to be the psychological condition of men with colds. It is often said that when men have a cold they think it is a flu and as a consequence they moan more than women and stay longer in bed until they feel better.

Man flu is not to be confused with the current H1N1 pandemic flu which is affecting humans in some 40 countries. There has also been one swine case on a farm in Canada.

H1N1 Flu Panic Hits Pigs and Producers Hard

More than a month since the first reports of influenza in humans in Mexico, the first case of the H1N1 influenza in pigs has been reported. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced on 2 May that a H1N1 influenza virus was found in a pig herd in Alberta. Since then, the CFIA has assured the public that the outbreak on the Alberta farm has been fully contained and that additional analyses of the virus have confirmed that the virus is the human strain. It is highly probable that the pigs were exposed to the virus from a farm worker who had recently returned from Mexico and had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Signs of illness were subsequently observed in the pigs, but both the farm worker and all of the pigs are recovering or have recovered.

The outbreak came as the World Health Organisation agreed that the virus should be called influenza A (H1N1) rather than “swine flu”.

Although this outbreak remains the only confirmed case of H1N1 influenza in pigs so far, and although in this case the virus was transmitted from a man to the pigs, a number of countries have resorted to using panic measures to prevent spread of non-existent “swine flu” even before this outbreak, which have had a significant negative impact on welfare of pigs and pig farming.

For example, Egypt has reportedly culled its entire pig population (approximately 250,000 animals) without any evidence of disease in pigs, which has prompted the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to issue a statement that there is no need to slaughter animals in view of preventing circulation of the influenza A (H1N1) virus.

In Afghanistan, a pig has been quarantined at Kabul Zoo after visitors raised concerns it could infect them with “swine flu”. According to media reports, this is Afghanistan's only known pig, because pigs and pork products are illegal in this country for religious reasons.

The pig industry has also suffered significant financial losses due to the suspension of imports of live pigs and pork products by dozens of countries.

The US National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has stated that the US pork industry is almost on the verge of financial disaster and has called on everyone working in the pork industry to address “influenza outbreak misinformation”. The NPPC statement also adds that the media still make reference to the current influenza as "swine flu” despite the consensus of international scientific organizations, including the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Agriculture that this is not "swine flu", but influenza A (H1N1).

Since the flu outbreak first hit the news headlines, producers have lost $6 per pig, which has cost the industry about $2.5 million per day, according to the NPPC.