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As many Asian countries prepare to celebrate Year of the Tiger beginning February 14, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that tigers are in crisis around the world, including here in the United States, where more tigers are kept in captivity than are alive in the wild throughout Asia. As few as 3,200 tigers exist in the wild in Asia where they are threatened by poaching, habitat loss, illegal trafficking and the conversion of forests for infrastructure and plantations.

WWF is releasing a new interactive map of the world's top 10 tiger trouble spots and the main threats against tigers. WWF is also launching a campaign: Tx2: Double or Nothing to support tiger range states in their goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

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Massey University in New Zealand has opened its Master of Veterinary Medicine distance programme to international applicants for the first time.

Until now, the programme has only been available extramurally to New Zealand citizens working abroad, but Director of the Master of Veterinary Medicine, Dr Liz Norman, says that by 2012 the University hopes to offer 24 papers in four majors: companion animal, production animal, equine and business administration.

Dr Norman says few institutions offer this sort of programme or its equivalent. “Enquiries we receive indicate that many veterinarians have an innate drive to continually learn, but balancing education with their often busy lives is problematic. We’ve designed our flexible distance programmes to offer in depth study in a supported environment led by internationally renowned experts. Students can extend themselves, their reputation and their practice by studying in their own place, at their own pace and at times which suit them.”

FAO Animal Production and Health Division Proceedings
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This technical meeting of brucellosis experts was convened in Rome from 11 to 14 May 2009 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), in order to develop guidance to support and improve surveillance and control of Brucella melitensis infection in affected countries.

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Defining policies and mechanisms to assure that people of the world will have safe and sufficient food at all times.

The III Global Feed & Food Congress in Cancun will be the world feed industry's most significant event in 2010. Hosted by the Mexican Feed Manufacturers Association (CONAFAB), it is being organized by the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) with technical participation from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

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Comment
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Finding the right formula

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Papers
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Predictors for successful bacteriological culture from milk samples
H. Bishop, J. Erkelens, and S. Van Winden

Effects of adding butorphanol to a balanced anaesthesia protocol during arthroscopic surgery in horses
S. Caure, M. Cousty, and C. Tricaud

Possible pathogenic interplay between Chlamydia suis, Chlamydophila abortus and PCV-2 on a pig production farm
K. Schautteet, D. S. A. Beeckman, P. Delava, and D. Vanrompay

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Short Communications
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Effect of propofol and alfaxalone on pain after ovariohysterectomy in cats P. J. Murison and F. M. Taboada

Use of semicircular external fixators to treat tibial, radial and ulnar fractures in sheep
Z. Adamiak

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Research Digest
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Effect of group size and stocking density on behaviour and welfare of transported ponies
T. G. Knowles, S. N. Brown, S. J. Pope, C. J. Nicol, P. D. Warriss, and C. A. Weeks

Evaluation of the accuracy of a urine dipstick test for detection of proteinuria in dogs
A. Zatelli, S. Paltrinieri, F. Nizi, X. Roura, and E. Zini

Specific strains of Escherichia coli are pathogenic for the endometrium in cattle
M. Sheldon, A. N. Rycroft, B. Dogan, M. Craven, J. J. Bromfield, A. Chandler, M. H. Roberts, S. B. Price, R. O. Gilbert, and K. W. Simpson

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Books
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Approaching alopecia: Hair Loss Disorders in Domestic Animals, Lars Mecklenburg, Monika Linek and Desmond J. Tobin
Richard G. Harvey

All about donkeys: The Complete Book of the Donkey, Elisabeth Svendsen
Karen E. Reed

Source:
Prions are a special class of proteins best known as the source for mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases. Despite this negative reputation, according to a new report in the February 5th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, a prion may also have important and very positive roles in brain function. The researchers suggest that a prion-like protein may participate in memory in higher eukaryotes, from sea slugs on up. "The persistence of memory is a fundamental problem," said Kausik Si of Stowers Institute for Medical Research. "Experiences are temporal; they happen once, but somehow must lead to changes in the brain that are somewhat permanent." Those changes must be mediated by molecules, including proteins. "The question is: how can you maintain a stable state with unstable biological molecules," Si said. And now, research conducted by Si in collaboration with Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, suggests that prions may be one solution to that problem. Prions are distinguished by their ability to assume at least two distinct conformational states, one of which is dominant and self-perpetuating. That means that once a protein switches to its "prion state" it has the ability to convert other "non-prion" proteins to that state as well. Therefore, once engaged, the "prion state" is self-renewing and stable.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design. Scientists mapped five types of light receptors in the chicken's eye. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many colors in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye. "Based on this analysis, birds have clearly one-upped us in several ways in terms of color vision," says Joseph C. Corbo, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and assistant professor of pathology and immunology and of genetics. "Color receptor organization in the chicken retina greatly exceeds that seen in most other retinas and certainly that in most mammalian retinas." Corbo plans follow-up studies of how this organization is established. He says such insights could eventually help scientists seeking to use stem cells and other new techniques to treat the nearly 200 genetic disorders that can cause various forms of blindness. Scientists published their results in the journal PLoS One.

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The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and WebMD have teamed up to launch a pet health community called the Pet Health Exchange. Visitors to the new site can discuss pet health issues with AVMA member veterinarians.

"The AVMA is concerned about the vast amount of misinformation about pet health that can be found on the Internet," explains Dr. Larry R. Corry, president of the AVMA. "Through this collaboration with an established and respected resource, we hope to give pet owners an opportunity to get accurate, sound advice about animals in general and, more specifically, about their pets."

More than 20 veterinary Guest Experts are involved in the Healthy Pets Exchange to date. The Guest Experts encourage discussion and help owners ask the right questions of their pet's veterinarian to open a dialogue that can lead to the most appropriate diagnosis and treatments for their pets.

"The Pet Health Exchange will help pet owners keep up to date on pet information about their pet's health, so they can provide the very best care for their animals," says Dr. Corry. "But no online community, no matter how well it is done, can ever be a substitute for the relationship between veterinarians and their clients."

The link to the new Pet Health Exchange is on the upper right on the www.webmd.com, and you can also visit the new WebMD Health Pet Exchange directly at http://exchanges.webmd.com/pet-health-exchange. For any other information about veterinary medicine, please visit www.avma.org.

Source:
A veterinary drug that kills worms in cattle may also fight river blindness, a debilitating parasitic infection that afflicts 37 million people worldwide, researchers say. But experts caution against trying the compound in humans just yet. People contract river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis, when bitten by black flies that carry a nematode known as Onchocerca volvulus. The worm larvae mature and mate, producing up to 1000 "microfillariae" offspring per day, which migrate to the surface of the skin and to the eyes. When the microfillariae die, they cause itchy lesions that can lead to blindness. The disease often forces farmers to abandon lush river valleys rife with infected black flies for less fertile areas.

Doctors currently treat river blindness with ivermectin, a drug that kills the microfillariae and lowers the fertility of the adult worms. Ivermectin has slashed cases of blindness and lesions in countries like Senegal and Mali. But ivermectin doesn't target the nearly-mature worms that cause new infections from a black fly's bite. Instead, the drug controls the symptoms until the worms eventually die out. Scientists are still searching for a compound that would block infection altogether, for example by killing the adolescent worms upon arrival.
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