Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

Biology And Conservation Of Horseshoe Crabs, John T. Tanacredi, Mark L. Bottom, David R. Smith

School of Marine and Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

We dedicate this book to Drs. Carl N. Shuster, Jr. and Koichi Sekiguchi for their life-long contributions to the biology and conservation of the magnificent horseshoe crab.

Prevalence Of Intestinal Parasite Infection In Symptomatic And Asymptomatic Dogs In Southwestern West Virginia: The Potential Impact On Human Health, Tashina Marie Savilla

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Most dog owners are unaware of asymptomatic infection and of the possibility of contracting zoonotic parasites from their dogs. We hypothesized that parasite infection is: associated with one or more symptoms; independent of gender and age; and independent of anthelmintic usage. Stool samples were collected from 231 dogs in Kanawha County, West Virginia, and were examined by simple fecal flotation. Parasitic prevalence was found to be 23% for Ancylostoma caninum, 8% for Trichuris vulpis, 7% for Toxocara canis, 4% for Isospora species, and 32.5% overall. There was no significant relationship between infection and gender, nor between infection and symptom for …

Curing Nature-Deficit Disorder: How Environmental Education Helps Kids Learn, Jamie Leigh Langley

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Walk into any public school and talk with the children about their experiences in nature and you will begin to see a pattern. Children have made few connections with the world around them. They do not spend much time outdoors and the time they do spend outdoors is not spent interacting directly with nature. Why does this matter? Look at these same kids and you will see another pattern emerging: Attention-Deficit Disorder, depression, obesity, emotional problems, etc. While not all of these problems are directly caused by a lack of interaction with the natural world, current research shows that there …

Can We Measure Distress In Animals?, David Fraser

Ethology Collection

When scientists try to identify and mitigate distress in animals, an obvious first question is: can we actually measure distress? Today, after three decades of scientific research on animal welfare it must seem obvious that this is possible, but let me offer a more guarded response.

Recognition Of Distress In Animals – A Philosophical Prolegomenon, Bernard E. Rollin

Sentience Collection

For those who continue to doubt the studiability of distress or suffering or misery in all of its forms in animals, consider the following thought experiment: If the government were to come up with a billion dollars in research funding for animal distress, would that money go a-begging? We can study these states just as we studied pain—excellent work on boredom by Franciose Wemelsfelder in a volume on laboratory animal welfare I co-edited made the methodology for such study quite explicit. (Wemelsfelder, 1990) And when the ideological scales fall from our eyes, we realize that the work of scientists like …

Concepts Of Distress, Suffering And Their Operational Interpretation, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Ethology Collection

The major concern of this paper is with the operational interpretation of animal distress and suffering – that is, with the issue of how we can measure the extent of an animal’s distress in practice. I shall probably make myself very unpopular by expressing the view right from the outset that I think it is neither possible nor desirable to try to discover universal ‘indicators’ of distress that will apply to all animals in all situations.

Understanding Norms Without A Theory Of Mind, Kristin Andrews

Sentience Collection

I argue that having a theory of mind requires having at least implicit knowledge of the norms of the community, and that an implicit understanding of the normative is what drives the development of a theory of mind. This conclusion is defended by two arguments. First I argue that a theory of mind likely did not develop in order to predict behavior, because before individuals can use propositional attitudes to predict behavior, they have to be able to use them in explanations of behavior. Rather, I suggest that the need to explain behavior in terms of reasons is the primary …

Constructive And Deconstructive Tool Modification By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Amanda E. Bania, Stephany Harris, Hannah R. Kinsley, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Nine chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were tested for their ability to assemble or disassemble the appropriate tool to obtain a food reward from two different apparatus. In its deconstructed form, the tool functioned as a probe for one apparatus. In its constructed form, the tool functioned as a hook, appropriate for a second apparatus. Each subject completed four test trials with each apparatus type. Tool types were randomized and counter-balanced between the two forms. Results demonstrated that adult and juvenile chimpanzees (N = 7) were successful with both tool types, while two infant chimpanzees performed near chance. Off-line video analyses revealed …

Animal Welfare: Review Of The Scientific Concept And Definition, Corrado Carenzi, Marina Verga

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

The aim of this paper is to present a review of the current scientific viewpoints about the concept and definition of animal welfare. The need of interaction among different disciplines is stressed, as well as the need to scientifically assess welfare, using validated indicators. The role of applied ethology in animal welfare science is stressed.

The paper provides a brief overview of the historical steps in the development of the concept and presents scientific viewpoints, briefly explaining their theoretical foundation.

The possibility of defining welfare on a scientific basis is explained, identifying the main problems according to the scientific, cultural …

Host And Seasonal Effects On The Infection Dynamics Of Skrjabinoptera Phrynosoma (Ortlepp) Schulz, 1927, A Parasitic Nematode Of Horned Lizards, Kathryn Claire Hilsinger

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's Abstract: Skrjabinoptera phrynosoma (Ortlepp) Schulz, 1927 is a common parasitic nematode of horned lizards. The life cycle of S. phrynosoma was described by Lee in 1957, but has received little attention since. The present study addressed effect of season as well as host characteristics on the infection dynamics in lizard hosts. In the Alvord Basin in southeastern Oregon, S. phrynosoma were collected from Phrynosoma platyrhinos Gerard 1852 horned lizards via stomach flushes, cloaca flushes and fecal pellet collections. Parasite load variables (number of nematodes per host, length of those nematodes, and total worm burden (ΣL)) were analyzed within three …

Mice Deficient In The Serine/Threonine Protein Kinase Vrk1 Are Infertile Due To A Progressive Loss Of Spermatogonia, Matthew S. Wiebe, R. Jeremy Nichols, Tyler P. Molitor, Jill K. Lindgren, Paula Traktman

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The VRK1 protein kinase has been implicated as a proproliferative factor. Genetic analyses of mutant alleles of the Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans VRK1 homologs have revealed phenotypes ranging from embryonic lethality to mitotic and meiotic defects with resultant sterility. Herein, we describe the first genetic analysis of murine VRK1. Two lines of mice containing distinct gene-trap integrations into the Vrk1 locus were established. Insertion into intron 12 (GT12) spared VRK1 function, enabling the examination of VRK1 expression in situ. Insertion into intron 3 (GT3) disrupted VRK1 function, but incomplete splicing to the gene trap rendered this allele hypomorphic (~15% of …

Letter From The Dean, Lalit Verma

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.