Other Animal Sciences Commons^™

On Measuring Progress In Animal Welfare, James A. Serpell

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Improvements in the welfare of animals arise from two primary sources: Changes in public attitudes and beliefs regarding what constitutes acceptable treatment of animals, and mandatory changes in behavior toward animals imposed by governments and regulatory authorities. During the last 30-40 years, public and political support for improvements in animal welfare has increased dramatically in many countries. Funding from both governmental and non-governmental sources continues to grow, and the relatively new field of animal welfare science has emerged and expanded to support and inform these efforts. Many experts in the field recognize, however, that there is still a distinct gap …

Visual Attention And Its Relation To Knowledge States In Chimpanzees, Pan Troglodytes, Megan J. Bulloch, Sarah T. Boysen, Ellen E. Furlong

Sentience Collection

Primates rely on visual attention to gather knowledge about their environment. The ability to recognize such knowledge-acquisition activity in another may demonstrate one aspect of Theory of Mind. Using a series of experiments in which chimpanzees were presented with a choice between an experimenter whose visual attention was available and another whose vision was occluded, we asked whether chimpanzees understood the relationship between visual attention and knowledge states. The animals showed sophisticated understanding of attention from the first presentation of each task. Under more complex experimental conditions, the subjects had more difficulty with species-typical processing of attentional cues and those …

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Shane Bevell, Jennifer Vaughan

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Understanding Animal Welfare, David Fraser

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

In debates about the welfare of animals, different people have tended to emphasize different concerns. Some emphasize the basic health and functioning of animals, especially freedom from disease and injury. Others emphasize the "affective states" of animals – states like pain, distress and pleasure that are experienced as positive or negative. Others emphasize the ability of animals to live reasonably natural lives by carrying out natural behaviour and having natural elements in their environment. These concerns constitute different criteria that people use to assess animal welfare. The criteria overlap substantially but are sufficiently independent that the single- minded pursuit of …

Factors Associated With Success In Guide Dog Training, Lara S. Batt, Marjolyn S. Batt, John A. Baguley, Paul D. Mcgreevy

Service and Support Animals Collection

Tests of motor laterality and behavioral reactivity, as well as salivary cortisol concentrations, were examined in this pilot study to identify dogs best suited to guide dog work. Over a 14-month period, lateralization tests were conducted and cortisol concentrations were determined on 3 separate occasions, and temperament testing was performed on 2. Potential guide dogs (N = 43) involved in this study were 5 golden retrievers (4 males, 1 female) and thirty-eight Labrador retrievers (8 black males, fifteen yellow males, 5 black females, and ten yellow females). Results from these tests were then compared with the ultimate success of the …

Lpe Center News, July 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Webcasts Now Available “To-Go”

• Grant Program Is Seeking Innovative Manure Management Technologies

• Disaster Assistance Guide for Farmers Is Updated

• 4-H Manure Management Curriculum Released in Colorado

Lpe Center News, June 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Ammonia: The Air-Water Interface

• Federal Air Regulations for Animal Feeding Operations

• USGS Report Focuses on Research About Water Consumed by Livestock Production

• Water Quality Credit Trading is the Focus of August Workshop

• Great Lakes Manure Handling Expo

• Want to Reduce Ammonia Emissions from Layers? Feed Them Fiber!

Novel Candidate Genes Identified In The Brain During Nociception In Common Carp (Cyprinus Carpio) And Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss), Siobhan C. Reilly, John P. Quinn, Andrew R. Cossins, Lynne U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Recent studies have demonstrated that teleost fish possess nociceptors that detect potentially painful stimuli and that the physiological properties of these fibres are markedly similar to those found in mammals. This finding led to suggestions of possible pain perception in fish, contrary to the view that the sensory response in these animals is limited to the spinal cord and hindbrain and as such is reflexive. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if the brain is active at the molecular level by using a microarray analysis of gene expression in the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain of two fish …

Lpe Center News, May 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• “Managing Manure on Small Farms” Will Be Presented In the June Webcast

• Are We Doing Our Job? Tell Us In the Impact Survey

• Coming Soon! Air Quality Series of Webcasts

• Hot Off the Press! Research Information on Pharmaceuticals and Manure

• Report Is Critical of the Impact of Large-Scale Animal Production

Roosting Ecology Of Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat, Corynorhinus Rafinesquii, In Southeastern Mississippi, Austin Webb Trousdale Iii

Dissertations

Rafinesque's big-eared bat, Corynorhinus rafinesquii, is considered rare and/or declining throughout its range. Concrete bridges are potentially important roosts for C. rafinesquii, especially in the Gulf Coastal Plain where the species' natural roosts (caves and large hollow trees) are inherently scarce. Successful efforts to monitor and conserve this species must account for its movements among multiple roosts and determine the duration of its roost use (including bridges) at different temporal scales. Therefore, I investigated roosting ecology of C. rafinesquii from 2000-2005 within a mixed hardwood-pine (Pinus spp.) system in southeastern Mississippi. I conducted surveys of concrete bridges to determine phenological …

Lpe Center News, April 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Making Money and Helping the Environment

• How Do I View Archived Webcasts?

. • Manure Entrepeneurs: Turning Brown to Green

• Iowa Releases Final Rule on Manure Application to Soybean Cropland

Lpe Center News, March 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Managing Potential Risks from Antibiotics and Hormones in Animal Manure Is the April Webcast Topic

• New LPE Learning Center Website is Now Live

• California Panel to Evaluate Manure Treatment Technologies for Dairies

• University of Missouri Professor Remembered as a Mentor

•Impact on Manure Management from Feeding Ethanol Co-Products

Lpe Center News, February 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Potential Pharmaceutical Impacts on Water Quality Is the March Webcast Topic

• LPE Learning Center To Be Part of the National Launch of eXtension

• 2008 Value Added Producer Grants Can Assist With Manure Marketing

• USGS Releases Findings on the Sources of N and P in the Gulf of Mexico

Terrapene Ornata (Ornate Box Turtle) Predation On Cliff Swallows, Mary Bomberger Brown, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

During a 25-year study of Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, we observed Terrapene ornata prey, or attempt to prey, on swallows. On one occasion as large numbers of birds flushed and hit the net, the weight of the birds pulled the net down to ground level. One T. ornata, which was seen regularly at the colony, approached one adult Cliff Swallow that was very low in the net and killed it by biting and eating its head. After killing the bird, the turtle walked away carrying the head.

The Natural History And Distribution Of The Mountain Earthsnake (Virginia Valeriae Pulchra) In West Virginia, Daniel Ware

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Mountain Earthsnake, Virginia valeriae pulchra, has received little attention in the literature to date. It is imperiled in West Virginia with only 6 to 20 populations known throughout the Allegheny Mountain and Ridge and Valley Physiographic provinces. Eighty snakes were collected during the 2006 and 2007 summers. Typical habitat is open fields with short grass, flat to moderate slopes that have scattered fine sandstone rocks near a source of water and forest edge. Fine sandstone rocks were the primary cover objects used. Snakes were sexually dimorphic with males having longer tails expressed as a percent of total body lengths …

Amyloid Fibrils: Potential Food Safety Implications, Michael Greger

Human Health Collection

The demonstration of oral Amyloid-A (AA) fibril transmissibility has raised food safety questions about the consumption of amyloidotic viscera. In a presumed prion-like mechanism, amyloid fibrils have been shown to trigger and accelerate the development of AA amyloidosis in rodent models. The finding of amyloid fibrils in edible avian and mammalian food animal tissues, combined with the inability of cooking temperatures to eliminate their amyloidogenic potential, has led to concerns that products such as pâté de foie gras may activate a reactive systemic amyloidosis in susceptible consumers. Given the ability of amyloid fibrils to cross-seed the formation of chemically heterologous …

Processing Of The Müller-Lyer Illusion By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Jennifer Vicinay, Patrick Cavanagh

Sentience Collection

Alex, a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) who identifies the bigger or smaller of two objects by reporting its color or matter using a vocal English label and who states "none'' if they do not differ in size, was presented with two-dimensional Müller-Lyer figures (Brentano form) in which the central lines were of contrasting colors. His responses to ``What color bigger/smaller?'' demonstrated that he saw the standard length illusion in the Müller-Lyer figures in 32 of 50 tests where human observers would also see the illusion and reported the reverse direction only twice. He did not report the illusion when (a) …

How To Identify Dear Enemies: The Group Signature In The Complex Song Of The Skylark Alauda Arvensis, Elodie F. Briefer, Thierry Aubin, Katia Lehongre, Fanny Rybak

Ethology Collection

Song geographic variation and Neighbour–Stranger (N–S) discrimination have been intensively but separately studied in bird species, especially in those with small- to medium-sized repertoires. Here, we establish a link between the two phenomena by showing that dialect features are used for N–S recognition in a territorial species with a large repertoire, the skylark Alauda arvensis. In this species, during the breeding season, many pairs settle in stable and adjoining territories gathered in locations spaced by a few kilometres. In a first step, songs produced by males established in different locations were recorded, analyzed and compared to identify possible microgeographic variation …

Low Frequency Groans Indicate Larger And More Dominant Fallow Deer (Dama Dama) Males, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Background: Models of honest advertisement predict that sexually selected calls should signal male quality. In most vertebrates, high quality males have larger body sizes that determine higher social status and in turn higher reproductive success. Previous research has emphasised the importance of vocal tract resonances or formant frequencies of calls as cues to body size in mammals. However, the role of the acoustic features of vocalisations as cues to other quality-related phenotypic characteristics of callers has rarely been investigated.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined whether the acoustic structure of fallow deer groans provides reliable information on the quality of the caller, …

Lack Of Assortative Mating Between Incipient Species Of Stickleback From A Hybrid Zone, F. C. Jones, C. Brown, V. A. Braithwaite

Evolutionary Biology Collection

Both premating and postmating barriers to gene flow can contribute to reproductive isolation but the relative role of these factors, particularly in the early stages of speciation, is not well understood. Evidence suggests that factors contributing to assortative mating and, thus, the development and maintenance of divergent species, can be ecology-dependent. Here, we present results from a study of assortative mating between recently diverged anadromous and freshwater sticklebacks conducted in semi-natural conditions. Sympatric anadromous and freshwater sticklebacks were sampled from a contact zone and multiple male and female morphs were allowed to breed in replicate ponds. Mate choice was determined …

Lpe Center News, January 2008

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• February Webcast: Impact of Ethanol Co-Products on Nutrient Planning and Manure Management

• Past Webcasts (and More!) Available at the Archive

• Nutritionists Certified in Feed Management

• Environmental Management Resources for Small Farms

• Comment Period on Exempting Animal Waste from EPCRA and CERCLA Reporting is Now Open

High Rate Of Recent Transposable Element–Induced Adaptation In Drosophila Melanogaster, Josefa Gonzalez, Kapa Lenkov, Mikhail Lipatov, J. Michael Macpherson, Dmitri A. Petrov

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Although transposable elements (TEs) are known to be potent sources of mutation, their contribution to the generation of recent adaptive changes has never been systematically assessed. In this work, we conduct a genome-wide screen for adaptive TE insertions in Drosophila melanogaster that have taken place during or after the spread of this species out of Africa. We determine population frequencies of 902 of the 1,572 TEs in Release 3 of the D. melanogaster genome and identify a set of 13 putatively adaptive TEs. These 13 TEs increased in population frequency sharply after the spread out of Africa. We argue that …

Dictionary Of Invertebrate Zoology, Mary Ann Basinger Maggenti, Armand R. Maggenti, Scott Gardner

Zea E-Books Collection

An exhaustive dictionary of over 13,000 terms relating to invertebrate zoology, including etymologies, word derivations and taxonomic classification. Entries cover parasitology, nematology, marine invertebrates, insects, and anatomy, biology, and reproductive processes for the following phyla: Acanthocephala Annelida Arthropoda Brachiopoda Bryozoa Chaetognatha Cnidaria Ctenophora Echinodermata Echiura Entoprocta Gastrotricha Gnathostomulida Kinorhyncha Loricifera Mesozoa Mollusca Nemata Nematomorpha Nemertea Onychophora Pentastoma Phoronida Placozoa Platyhelminthes Pogonophora Porifera Priapula Rotifera Sipuncula Tardigrada.

doi:10.13014/K2DR2SN5

Heritable And Experiential Effects On Boldness In A Tropical Poeciliid, Culum Brown, Fiona Burgess, Victoria Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

Consistent differences in human behaviour are often explained with reference to personality traits. Recent evidence suggests that similar traits are widespread across the entire animal kingdom and that they may have substantial fitness consequences. One of the major components of personality is the shyness–boldness continuum. Little is known about the relative contributions of genes and the environment in the development of boldness in wild animal populations. Here, we bred wild-caught fish (Brachyraphis episcopi) collected from regions of highand low-predation pressure, reared their offspring in the laboratory under varying conditions and tested boldness utilising an open-field paradigm. First-generation laboratory-reared fish showed …

Correlation Between Boldness And Body Mass In Natural Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyrhaphis Episcopi, C. Brown, F. Jones, V. Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

The boldness of individual Brachyrhaphis episcopi, collected from regions of high and low predation, was investigated using two independent assays: (1) the time to emerge from cover and (2) the propensity to leave shoal mates and investigate a novel object. A strong correlation between the two assays was revealed such that fish that emerged from shelter sooner were also more likely to approach a novel object. This is indicative of a boldness personality axis acting across both behavioural contexts. Fish from high-predation areas were bolder than those from low-predation areas and males were bolder than females. A significant correlation between …

Lpe Center News, December 2007

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• Dry Manure Housing Systems for Beef and Dairy Featured in the January, 2008 Webcast

•. Survey to Determine Air Quality Webcast Topics

• Report Outlines Policy Changes to Clean Up the Chesapeake Bay

•.Virginia Project Offers Incentives for Improved Feed Management on Dairy Farms

Lpe Center News, November 2007

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• December Webcast Showcases Innovative Manure Treatment Technologies from SBIR Program

•.New and Improved LPELC Website Set for a March, 2008 Launch

• EPA AgSTAR Program Encourages Use of Anaerobic Digesters

• National Air Mitigation Conference Call for Papers Closes December 1

Inside Unlv, Cate Weeks, Diane Russell, David Ashley, Grace Russell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Relative Effects Of Mammal Herbivory And Plant Spacing On Seedling Recruitment Following Fire And Mining, Michael H. Parsons, Christine M. Rafferty, Byron B. Lamont, Kenneth Dods, Meredith M. Fairbanks

Natural Resources Research Articles

No abstract provided.

Lpe Center News, October 2007

Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center: Newsletters

In this issue:

• November Webcast to Examine Vegetative Treatment Systems for Managing Open Lot or Barnyard Runoff

• New Webcast Technology to Debut in October

• Mid-Atlantic Water Quality Program Website Offers Nutrient Budgets

• Pennsylvania Project Examines Manure Management in No-Till Systems