Researchers are toilet-training cows to reduce ammonia emissions caused by their waste

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

VIDEO: THIS VIDEO SHOWS A CALF IN A LATRINE UNDERGOING MOOLOO TRAINING. view more 

CREDIT: FBN

On a farm where cows freely relieve themselves as they graze, the accumulation and spread of waste often contaminates local soil and waterways. This can be controlled by confining the cows in barns, but in these close quarters their urine and feces combine to create ammonia, an indirect greenhouse gas. In an article published on September 13 in the journal Current Biology, researchers show that cows can be potty-trained, enabling waste to be collected and treated, thereby cleaning up the barn, reducing air pollution, and creating more open, animal-friendly farms.

“It’s usually assumed that cattle are not capable of controlling defecation or urination,” says co-author Jan Langbein (@niebgnal), an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in Germany, but he and his team questioned this thinking. “Cattle, like many other animals or farm animals are quite clever and they can learn a lot. Why shouldn’t they be able to learn how to use a toilet?”

To potty-train the calves, a process they dubbed MooLoo training, the research team with scientists from FBN, FLI (Germany) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand) worked backward. They started off by rewarding the calves when they urinated in the latrine, and then they allowed the calves to approach the latrines from outside when they needed to urinate.

The ammonia produced in cow waste doesn’t directly contribute to climate change, but when it is leached into the soil, microbes convert it into nitrous oxide, the third-most important greenhouse gas after methane and carbon dioxide. Agriculture is the largest source of ammonia emissions, with livestock farming making up over half of that contribution.

“You have to try to include the animals in the process and train the animals to follow what they should learn,” says Langbein. “We guessed it should be possible to train the animals, but to what extent we didn’t know.”

To encourage latrine use, the researchers wanted the calves to associate urination outside the latrine with an unpleasant experience. “As a punishment we first used in-ear headphones and we played a very nasty sound whenever they urinated outside,” says Langbein. “We thought this would punish the animals—not too aversively—but they didn’t care. Ultimately, a splash of water worked well as a gentle deterrent.”

Over the course of a few weeks, the research team successfully trained 11 out of the 16 calves in the experiment. Remarkably, the calves showed a level of performance comparable to that of children and superior to that of very young children.

Langbein is optimistic that with more training that this success rate can be further improved. “After ten, fifteen, twenty years of researching with cattle, we know that animals have a personality, and they handle different things in a different way. They are not all the same.”

Now that the researchers know how to potty-train cows, they want to transfer their results into real cattle housing and to outdoor systems. Langbein hopes that “in a few years all cows will go to a toilet,” he says.

CAPTION

This photo shows a calf in a latrine undergoing MooLoo training.

CREDIT

This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.

CLIMATE CHANGE WHO IS AT FAULT? COWS ARE AT  FAULT

Current Biology, Dirksen et al.: “Learned control of urinary reflexes in cattle to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00966-0 

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

CAPTION

Observers watch calves undergo MooLoo toilet training.

CREDIT

FBN

JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.011 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Learned control of urinary reflexes in cattle to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2021

 

Socio-economic status of children can influence microorganisms in their digestive tract

TGen-led national study suggests how a child’s early environment may influence their health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE TRANSLATIONAL GENOMICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sept. 13, 2021 — Findings of a nationwide study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest that a family’s socio-economic status (SES) may influence children’s composition of gut microbiome — the mix of microscopic organisms within the digestive tract.

SES includes economic resources such as education, income and occupation, and are reflected in living conditions, nutrition and psychosocial stress, according to the study, which focused on the education levels of mothers and fathers.

Samples of DNA and nucleic acids from a racially diverse group of 588 children, ages 1 month to 15 years old, found that environmental factors such as SES could influence the health of individuals throughout their lives, potentially influencing such measures as blood pressure, height, weight, diabetes, obesity and even attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Gut microbiota play an important role in a broad range of body functions, including the immune system, metabolic and inflammatory processes, and the central nervous system.

While previous studies have examined how SES can affect the gut microbiome of adults, this is one of the first such examinations in young children, according to the study published recently in the journal Microorganisms.

“These findings may have important implications for understanding how interventions in childhood could help prevent the eventual impact of SES on microbiome diversity and subsequent health,” said Candace Lewis, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in TGen’s Neurogenomics Division, and the study’s lead author. “Our results demonstrate that modifiable environmental factors, such as SES, may influence gut microbiome composition at an early age.”

Human DNA samples were collected from saliva. Microbial nucleic acid samples were extracted from stool. Investigators tested and ranked for an abundance of gut microbes, including: Anaerostipes, Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Faecalibacterium, and Lachnospiraceae. Parents with more years of education had children who scored higher on a “latent microbiome factor,” defined as higher abundance of Anaerostipes, Eubacterium, Faecalibacterium, and Lachnospiraceae, and lower abundance of Bacteroides.

Faecalibacterium, considered a key biomarker of a healthy gut, produces butyrate, which is an energy source that plays a major role in gut physiology and has several beneficial health effects, including protection against pathogens, modulation of the immune system, and reduction of cancer progression.

“Faecalibacterium abundance may be one biological pathway in which early environmental influences shape disease vulnerability through life,” the study said.

Other factors considered in the study were age, sex, antibiotic exposure, and even birth type (whether the child was born vaginally or by caesarean section).

“These results are important, as our understanding of gut microbiome influences on health continue to expand,” said Sarah Highlander, Ph.D., a Research Professor in TGen’s Pathogen and Microbiome Division and one of the study’s authors. “This study tests the associations between family SES with the relative abundance of microbiota type and diversity of infants and children, while controlling for potential genetic associations.”

Contributing to this study were: Arizona State University; Wellesley College; Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Brown University; and Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Discovery & Tools, a part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Funding for this study — Family SES Is Associated with the Gut Microbiome in Infants and Children — was provided by: National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NIH’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO project), and the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

# # #

About TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope

Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life-changing results. TGen is affiliated with City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases: CityofHope.org.  This precision medicine affiliation enables both institutes to complement each other in research and patient care, with City of Hope providing a significant clinical setting to advance scientific discoveries made by TGen. TGen is focused on helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases through cutting-edge translational research (the process of rapidly moving research toward patient benefit). TGen physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of both common and complex rare diseases in adults and children. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities worldwide, TGen makes a substantial contribution to help our patients through efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. For more information, visit: tgen.org. Follow TGen on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @TGen.

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JOURNAL

Microorganisms

DOI

10.3390/microorganisms9081608 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Human tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Family SES Is Associated with the Gut Microbiome in Infants and Children

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jul-2021

Dying at home, lack of healthcare contribute to COVID’s hidden death toll

Inaccurate COVID death counts were more likely in counties with a greater share of uninsured residents, less access to primary care, and more at-home deaths, obscuring the true impact of the pandemic on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Inaccurate COVID death counts were more likely in counties with a greater share of uninsured residents, less access to primary care, and more at-home deaths, obscuring the true impact of the pandemic on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities.

The official US death count for COVID-19 has now surpassed 650,000, but the true death toll is likely much higher. Recent research indicates that approximately 20 percent of excess deaths—i.e. the number of all-cause deaths beyond what would have been expected in a normal year—were not reflected in COVID-19 death totals in 2020. These excess deaths include mortality that was directly caused by COVID-19 or indirectly caused by social or economic consequences of the pandemic.

Now, a new study from Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) has identified healthcare factors associated with excess deaths that have not been assigned to COVID-19 at the county level across the US.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study found that a greater proportion of excess deaths not reflected in COVID-19 death counts occurred in counties with reduced access to health insurance and primary care services, as well as in counties with more deaths that occurred at home.

“Accurate and timely mortality surveillance is critical to a well-functioning and equitable public health system,” says Andrew Stokes, lead author and professor of global health at BUSPH. “In the context of COVID, inaccuracies in cause of death ascertainment have hidden the true scale of the pandemic and its vastly uneven impact across communities. In the present study, we find that discrepancies between official COVID death tallies and excess mortality estimates were especially severe in areas with poor health care access and more at-home deaths.

“These differences suggest an urgent need to increase funding and support for the U.S. medicolegal death investigation system, which is often involved in certifying home deaths,” Stokes says.

The study builds upon earlier findings by the researchers, who found that excess deaths not directly attributed to COVID-19 were higher in counties with lower socioeconomic status and less formal education, as well as in counties located in the South and West, and counties with more non-Hispanic Black residents. In the JAMA Network Open study, Stokes and colleagues used publicly available data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Census Bureau to compare the percentage of excess deaths not attributed to COVID in 2,096 counties in 2020 with county-level information on residents’ access to healthcare and locations in which excess deaths occurred.

In counties with more uninsured residents, the percentage of excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 was higher than in counties with fewer uninsured residents. Similarly, the percentage was also higher in counties with fewer primary care physicians per capita.

“Patients without health insurance or access to a doctor may be less likely to receive COVID-19 testing and have their death accurately coded to COVID-19,” says study co-author Dielle Lundberg, research fellow in the Department of Global Health at BUSPH. “Expanding access to healthcare is thus a priority not only for health equity, but for data integrity.”

The researchers also found that in counties with a greater number of at-home deaths, the percentage of excess deaths not assigned to COVID was significantly higher than in counties with fewer at-home deaths, and with more deaths at hospitals and in nursing homes. It was also higher in counties that lacked a medical examiner (18 percent).

“At-home deaths are more common in rural areas where there is less access to hospital care, and where people are more likely to have died without being tested for COVID-19,” says Jacob Bor, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at BUSPH. “Additionally, 'cause of death' for people who die at home may be determined by coroners who were not present prior to the death, and who lack the formal medical training of medical examiners. Failure to attribute deaths to COVID-19 in rural areas led to biased estimates of epidemic severity and might have reduced compliance with preventive strategies and less demand for protective public health policy."

The researchers say the underreporting of Covid-19 deaths obscures the true impact of the pandemic and disproportionately impacts communities of color and other populations that are already vulnerable to social and racial injustices.

“Given that underreporting is closely tied to access to health insurance and healthcare providers, this underreporting is likely to have a greater impact on minority populations,” says study co-author Irma T. Elo, professor and chair of sociology at Penn. “When Covid-19 does not appear on the death certificate, these populations are less likely to be able to access government support, such as funeral assistance from FEMA, and this is one of many examples of how COVID-19 has exacerbated existing racial and ethnic inequalities.”

The study was also co-authored by Katherine Hempstead of RWJF and Samuel H. Preston of Penn, and was funded by the RWJF.

**

About Boston University School of Public Health
Founded in 1976, Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations—especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable—locally and globally.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association of Health Care Factors With Excess Deaths Not Assigned to COVID-19 in the US

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2021

COI STATEMENT

Dr. Stokes reported receiving grants from Ethicon, Inc. and Swiss Re outside the reported work.

 

New research provides useful genetic resource of farm-raised kuruma shrimp

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OKINAWA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (OIST) GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: KURUMA SHRIMP ARE AN IMPORTANT AQUACULTURE PRODUCT IN OKINAWA, SECOND ONLY TO MOZUKU SEAWEED. view more 

CREDIT: OIST

• Kuruma shrimp are an economically important species in Asia and considered a delicacy in Japan, where a large shrimp farming industry has been established.
• Despite its importance, very little genetic work has been done on this species so far, resulting in limited knowledge of its basic biology.  
• Researchers used two different techniques to establish a useful genetic resource that could be used for fisheries management or to establish a breeding program.  
• They are hoping this resource could uncover immunity-, growth-, and reproduction-related genes.

New research from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology has resulted in a useful genetic resource on the kuruma shrimp. These are one of the largest species of prawn (females can reach 27cm in length!) and are found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In Japan, they’re considered a delicacy and have been a major fisheries and aquaculture product (especially in Okinawa) since the early 20th century. But a big problem with the shrimp farms is that the high density of the animal means that diseases spread quickly.

One concerning disease is a viral infection called white spot disease, which is one of the most threatening pathogens to shrimp aquaculture worldwide. It is lethal and highly contagious; outbreaks have wiped out entire farms in just a few days.

“We’re interested in the relationship between aquaculture animals and disease-related bacteria and viruses,” explained Dr. Eiichi Shoguchi, a Group Leader in the Marine Genomics Unit at OIST. “Having this genetic resource on hand could be useful for producing a disease-resistant line of the shrimp or vaccines.”

Supported by OIST’s DNA Sequencing Section, the researchers used two different techniques—genome sequencing and transcriptome sequencing—to produce this genetic resource. Their work was published in G3: Genes l Genomes l Genetics.   

A genome is the full set of genetic information found in every cell. It is subdivided into genes. These genes are made up of DNA base pairs and each gene contains the instructions needed to create a protein, and thus leads to the proper care and maintenance of a cell. For the instructions to be carried out, the DNA must first be transcribed into RNA. A transcriptome is a collection of all these gene readouts. In some ways, the transcriptome can be considered a reflection of the genome. Some genes might be related to disease resistance, and some individuals may contain variations of these gene that leads to stronger resistance. If these genes can be identified, then it could be possible to establish a disease-resistant line of shrimp.

Firstly, the researchers focused on deciphering the genome. They took one kuruma shrimp from a commercial farm in Okinawa and generated the initial sequences. This produced many short DNA sequences which, although useful, didn’t provide the researchers with enough clues to string them together. Essentially, they had all the pieces of a puzzle but no way of assembling it. They then used a second technology to produce longer, but less precise, DNA sequences–the scaffolding of the genome. By bringing the two sequences together they were able to assemble a draft of the genome.

Following this, the researchers analyzed 49 RNA samples of different shrimp individuals (including both adults and larvae). This provided them with 66,406 high-quality gene readouts—the draft of the transcriptome.

"The kuruma shrimp genome provides us with a comprehensive catalog of immune-related genes,” explained Mr. Satoshi Kawato, lead author of the paper and PhD student at the Laboratory of Genome Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. “This will allow us to better understand how shrimp respond to pathogens and will aid in developing strategies for preventing disease outbreaks. The genomic resources will also help address various other aspects of shrimp biology, such as growth and reproduction."

When their work was compared to that of the kuruma shrimp’s relatives—the giant tiger prawn and the whiteleg shrimp—nearly 70% genes was found to be the same across all three species, meaning that a high number of genes have been preserved.

“We think that this will serve as a useful resource for future research to understand the shrimp’s basic biology,” concluded Dr. Shoguchi. “But it could also be used for fishery management and to establish a breeding program.”

CAPTION

Kuruma shrimp are considered a delicacy in Japan.

CREDIT

OIST

JOURNAL

G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

DOI

10.1093/g3journal/jkab268 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Genome and transcriptome assemblies of the kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2021

 

Compound hazards pose increased risk to highly populated regions in the Himalayas

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

Most of the research concerned with hazards like flooding, landslides, or wildfires describes only one hazard at a time, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment report states that anthropogenic climate change is increasing the likelihood of compound hazards—events where more than one hazard interact with multiplicatively destructive consequences. A recent study has found that current urbanization trends in the Himalaya are exposing more and more people to risks from increasingly destructive compound hazards. 

In a paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a global team of researchers led by Jack Rusk, a Master of Environmental Management student at the Yale School of the Environment, found that only a small proportion of the Himalaya region is susceptible to compounding threats from multiple hazards, yet almost half of the region’s population is concentrated in that high-risk area.

The paper, entitled “Multi-hazard susceptibility and exposure assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya,” shows that current patterns of urbanization are putting people in harm’s way while less hazardous landscapes remain more sparsely populated. “Our sobering realization is that urbanization processes are concentrating human settlement in these relatively smaller but highly hazardous areas,” says Karen C. Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at Yale School of the Environment and a co-author of the study. In mid-elevation valleys in the Hindu Kush region, the same conditions that correspond to multi-hazards are also major sites of urban growth.

Compounding hazards in the Himalaya take many forms. For example, climate change is causing more frequent and intense wildfires, which contribute to landslides by destabilizing slopes. Those landslides can dam waterways swelling from increased precipitation and glacial melt, leading to catastrophic flooding when the dam breaks. And high-magnitude earthquakes, like the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, can trigger landslides and floods together. The reality of compounding multi-hazards suggests that connections between hazards may be as impactful as any single hazard alone.

“It’s often stated that the Himalaya is a high-risk environment,” says Rusk. “But the difficulty of working across such a large area meant that patterns of risk weren’t previously understood. Contrary to studies that describe the entire region as highly hazardous, our study shows that the highest risk areas are relatively small.” 

Understanding these patterns of risk would not have been possible without a big data approach that connected on-the-ground observations of floods, wildfires, and landslides with satellite data collected from high in the atmosphere. Relatively few hazard incidents are documented in the Himalaya, so the team used machine learning techniques to infer patterns in the distribution of hazards from historical hazard information and environmental conditions described by satellite data. For floods, landslides, and wildfires, ten environmental conditions were tested. The results showed that multi-hazard risk was often concentrated in relatively hotter mid-elevation valleys with wet soils. Based on 2019 population estimates, this study shows over 36 million people (49% of the region’s population) living in areas highly susceptible to multi-hazards. 

The migration and mobility patterns shaping urbanization in the region are motivated by factors other than hazard risk, study co-author Sara Shneiderman, associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs/Institute of Asian Research and the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, says. 

“Urbanization in the Himalaya is driven by social processes as people seek economic, educational, and political opportunities,” says Shneiderman. “As people move across the region in search of sustainable livelihoods, they are tending to settle in areas at risk of compounding hazards.”

To reduce the tragic risks associated with compounding multi-hazards, approaches to risk reduction must continue to evolve. The interdisciplinary team of authors balanced a quantitative modeling approach with the insights of social scientists who live or have worked extensively in the region.

Co-author Mark Turin, associate professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and former Yale Himalaya Initiative Director, notes the uniquely broad and interdisciplinary approach taken by Rusk and the research team. 

“This study brings together transboundary approaches—pursuing issues as they move across political borders—with innovative transdisciplinary methodologies. I see much potential in integrating granular, site-specific ethnographic knowledge with broader scale computational and machine learning tools in service of complex research questions like those addressed in this paper.”

Building from this expertise, the paper emphasizes that effective disaster risk reduction must span from very large to very small scales. At the smallest scale, risk reduction strategies should consider the knowledge of individual residents. “Residents in multi-hazard environments,” the paper states, “have detailed knowledge of multi-hazard processes, and their knowledge should be central to mitigation planning efforts.” 

At larger scales, Amina Maharjan, Senior Specialist (Livelihoods and Migration) at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal, underscores the need for this transboundary study to motivate transboundary collaboration for disaster risk reduction: “Often in this region, disasters cross administrative and international boundaries, so disaster mitigation and risk reduction require a transboundary approach—saving lives and livelihoods are a humanitarian concern for which countries in the region must collaborate without delay.”

 

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DOI

10.1016 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Multi-hazard susceptibility and exposure assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Sep-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

 

MU project studies increasing prevalence of chronic wasting disease

Findings help increase awareness for deer hunters, surveillance efforts in Midwest.

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI HAVE FOUND CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE – A FATAL ILLNESS FOUND IN DEER THAT AFFECTS THEIR NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM AND CAUSES CHRONIC WEIGHT LOSS – HAS SPREAD FIVEFOLD AMONG KANSAS COUNTIES, RAISING CONCERNS ABOUT THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATING HUNTERS ABOUT IT. view more 

CREDIT: MU

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Researchers at the University of Missouri have found chronic wasting disease – a fatal illness found in deer that affects their neurological system and causes chronic weight loss – has spread fivefold among Kansas counties, raising concerns about the spread of the disease and the importance of educating hunters about it.

“In 2009, there were only six Kansas counties with confirmed positive cases of chronic wasting disease, and by 2020, there were 32 Kansas counties with confirmed positive cases,” said Zoe Koestel, a doctoral student at MU. “There has definitely been an increase in the prevalence of this disease, so our surveillance research will help better track the spread of the disease and possibly identify clusters or patterns, which can inform management efforts.”

Koestel works with Ram Raghavan, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Health Professions, and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, to test samples of hunted deer at MU’s Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. After analyzing more than 1,900 samples from last year’s deer hunting season, they identified chronic wasting disease in seven eastern Kansas counties where the disease was previously undetected.

The project involves collaborating with taxidermists, wildlife biologists, game wardens and individual hunters, who collect and send the lymph nodes of their hunted deer to the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, where the samples are tested for chronic wasting disease.

“If a test comes back positive, I will call the hunter to let them know the CDC advises against eating the meat of diseased animals,” Koestel said.

Chronic wasting disease has been spreading throughout the United States for decades, despite efforts to contain it. Since it was first discovered in Colorado in 1967, the disease has now been identified in deer in 26 states, and the Midwest has seen a particularly sharp increase of its prevalence recently.

Currently, there are no reports of humans becoming infected with chronic wasting disease by eating the meat of a deer with the disease. However, similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease is caused by misfolded proteins called prions, which cannot be eliminated by traditional means such as cooking or heating.

There is evidence that mad cow disease can be transmitted to humans by ingestion of diseased beef. According to the CDC, four deaths from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human prion disease, have been identified in the United States, which has helped raise awareness regarding the consumption of meat from diseased animals.

“This project not only helps us track the spread of the disease, it also helps raise awareness for hunters because we want them and their families to stay as safe as possible,” Koestel said. “Hunters are the world’s original conservationists, and they often ask how they can help our efforts. The more samples we receive from hunters, the better we can track the spread of chronic wasting disease.”

The testing results may provide key insights on not just where the disease is currently located, but where it might be detected in the future.

“At the ‘One Health’ laboratory in MU’s Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, we investigate how wildlife and other diseases change trends in geographical areas over time, so these results provide helpful information to public health officials so more tailored management efforts may be considered,” Koestel said.

As hunting license purchases and excise taxes on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment, collected through the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, make up a large component of funding for state wildlife agencies, Koestel is also interested to see how the increased prevalence of chronic wasting disease, as well as the ability to test harvested animals for the disease, will impact hunter perceptions moving forward.

“Hopefully this research leads to more awareness about the disease so hunters are inclined to have their harvested deer tested for it,” Koestel said.

Programs such as Share the Harvest, which allows hunters to donate surplus venison to low-income families in Missouri, will only accept and package meat that tests negative from the 29 Missouri counties within the state’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone.

“It feels good to contribute to sampling efforts that will add knowledge about this disease so it can be managed among deer and also potentially prevent it from jumping to other species, particularly humans,” Koestel said. “This is a great example of the ‘One Health’ concept, as the health of humans, animals and the environment are all intertwined and affect one another.”

Editor’s note: Funding for the chronic wasting disease surveillance project is provided by the United States Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, and administered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. The content does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

 

To cheat or not to cheat?

Cognitive control can drive cheaters to be honest and honest people to cheat

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE

 

IMAGE: TOPOPLOTS OF THE FIRST HALF SECOND OF THE SPOT THE DIFFERENCE TASK (LEFT) AND THE LAST 250 MS OF THE STROOP TASK (RIGHT) IN THE THETA BAND. view more 

CREDIT: SPEER ET AL., JNEUROSCI 2021

The ability of cognitive control allows humans to override the brain’s impulses, like focusing on one person in the crowd and ignoring distractions. It also plays a role in making moral decisions. But does cognitive control override a moral impulse to be honest, or to be dishonest? It depends on a person’s moral default, according to new research published in JNeurosci.

Speer et al. used EEG to find the activity pattern of cognitive control and compare it to the brain activity of participants during a cheating task. Participants played spot-the-difference and won a reward when they reported finding three differences. But only some pairs of images actually contained three differences, encouraging the participants to cheat. The moral default of the participants varied: some people chose to cheat a few times, while others only told the truth a few times. As participants decided whether or not to cheat, the activity of theta brainwaves strengthened — an activity pattern representative of cognitive control. Stronger theta activity meant participants were more likely to go against their moral default: cheaters were more likely to be honest, and honest people were more likely to cheat.

###

Paper title: Cognitive Control Promotes either Honesty or Dishonesty, Depending on One’s Moral Default

Please contact media@sfn.org for the full-text PDF and to join SfN's journals media list.

About JNeurosci

JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.

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JOURNAL

JNeurosci

DOI

10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0666-21.2021 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cognitive control promotes either honesty or dishonesty, depending on one’s moral default

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2021

COI STATEMENT

No competing interests.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAle