Survey finds a need for pet care during hospitalizations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Tiffany Braley, M.D., M.S., an associate professor of neurology at University of Michigan Health, was surprised when a patient she was caring for explained why they needed to go home from the hospital as soon as possible: their pets.

After she heard several more patients voice concern for their cats, dogs and other animals at home as they sat in the hospital, she soon realized that this occurrence was not uncommon. In many cases, it involved patients who were the sole caregivers for their pets.

“I’ve had patients with acute strokes explain to me that they needed to get home to their pets, even though it was in their best medical interest to be admitted or remain in the hospital,” Braley said. “Through these interactions, it became evident to me that we needed to learn more about the scope of this problem and how we could find better ways to address it.”

Braley, who also loves animals, then reached out to fellow animal lover colleagues in neurology, social work, nursing, and the University of Michigan's Office of Patient Experience to investigate this question.  The first step: learning about pet owner experiences from Michigan Medicine’s own patient advisors.

Study results

In partnership with U-M’s Office of Patient Experience, Braley and colleagues sent a survey to patient and family advisors who previously offered to help share their experiences to improve the patient experience. The purpose of the survey was to understand how a need to care for animals at home might affect how hospitalized patients follow their doctors’ recommendations.

Researchers published their findings in the Journal of Patient Experience.

More than half of the 113 people who responded to the survey (63%) reported difficulty figuring out pet care during their own hospitalization and/or that of a loved one.

Nearly a third reported that pet care needs impacted their decision, the decision of someone they knew, or both, about whether to stay at the hospital when the medical team recommended it.

And 16% of respondents said they know someone who has left the hospital against medical advice to go care for their pets.

“These patients are stressed already; how do you heal or accept staying in the hospital for treatment when you’re also worried about the welfare of your beloved pets?” said first author Carri Polick, R.N., a doctoral student at the U-M School of Nursing. “It can be hard if a patient doesn’t have a lot of social contacts or family members.”

Although social work is typically brought in to help patients come up with care plans for their pets, they may not be notified until several days into the hospitalization, typically when the situation is urgent, and are usually forced to turn to the patient’s social circle for help. Unfortunately, some patients do not have available social support, and there are limitations in what is available for assistance.

“We see a rising need for a formalized services to identify patients early in their course who need assistance with pet care, and a need to provide better resources, before it becomes a crisis and impacts their care or the welfare of their pets,” said Braley, the senior author and principal investigator.

The study team notes that, while this study is an important first step, the survey was small and included mostly women and white participants who live in nearby Washtenaw, Wayne and Oakland counties, which could indicate low estimations of the issue at large. To learn more about the overall scope and impact of pet care needs in a larger, more diverse group, the team is now studying people currently hospitalized or in the Emergency Department at Michigan Medicine to explore how pet care needs affect their hospital outcomes.

They’ve also started talking with potential local partners, including the Michigan Humane Society, to brainstorm what a future foster care collaboration could look like.

“This research is further evidence that pets are truly a part of the family and an important part of how and why we make decisions,” said Matt Pepper, the organization’s president and CEO. “Here at Michigan Humane, our work has taught us that people will forego their own health and safety for that of their pet. This study reinforces the need for communities to support families inclusive of the pet.”

Braley said a pilot program might start by focusing on a specific unit or patient population first – perhaps people needing inpatient rehabilitation, or parents of a child in the hospital who have an animal back at home. That way, the team could start helping people and their pets while they continue learning about the needs.

“Given the importance of pets to human health, follow-on studies are needed to explore how pet ownership impacts patients’ healthcare decision-making and outcomes,” Braley said. “If there is a link between pet ownership and adherence to medical treatments, I hope that early assessment of pet care needs and implementation of patient-centered methods to meet these needs will become standard of care for hospitalized patients.”

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JOURNAL

Journal of Patient Experience

DOI

10.1177/23743735211046089 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Impact of Pet Care Needs on Medical Decision-Making among Hospitalized Patients: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Patient Experience

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Oct-2021

Honeybees’ waggle dance reveals bees in rural areas travel further for food

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

VIDEO: BEE PERFORMING WAGGLE DANCE view more 

CREDIT: MATTHEW HASENJAGER

By decoding honeybees’ waggle dances, which tell other bees where to find food, researchers have found that bees in agricultural areas travel further for food than those in urban areas. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

In the study, researchers at Royal Holloway University and Virginia Tech decoded 2827 waggle dances across 20 western honeybee colonies in London and surrounding agricultural areas. The information conveyed in the dances told the researchers that foraging trip distances were consistently shorter in urban areas compared to agricultural areas.

The researchers calculated that bees in urban areas had an average foraging distance of 492 metres, compared to bees in agricultural areas that had an average foraging distance of 743 metres.

They also found no significant difference in the amount of sugar collected by the urban and rural bees, indicating that the longer foraging distances in rural areas were not driven by far away, nectar rich resources and that urban areas provided honeybees with consistently more available food.

Professor Elli Leadbeater of Royal Holloway University and author of the study said: “Our findings support the idea that cities are hotspots for social bees, with gardens providing diverse, plentiful and reliable forage resources. In agricultural areas, it is likely harder for honeybees to find food, so they have to go further before they find enough to bring back to the hive.”

The researchers warn that because urban areas constitute a small percentage of total land cover, they are unlikely to be sufficient to support bee populations across a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture.

Professor Leadbeater said: “Conservation efforts should be directed towards increasing the amount of non-crop flowers in agricultural areas, such as wildflower strips. This would increase the consistency of forage available across the season and landscape as well as minimize bees’ reliance on small numbers of seasonal flowering crops.”

There are several challenges in assessing and comparing floral resources in different habitat types. For instance, large areas need to be surveyed to get a good picture of flower species richness and in cities it is almost impossible to access land in private gardens.

“In this study, we overcame the hurdles of assessing floral resources by getting the bees themselves to tell us where to find food.” Said Professor Leadbeater. “Calculating the distance to forage indicated by the waggle dances provides a real-time picture of current forage availability, from the bees’ own perspective.”

The waggle dance is unique to honeybees and is used to communicate the location of floral resources to the hive. When a honeybee returns to the hive with food, instead of immediately leaving to forage again, they will repeat a figure of eight movement on the honeycomb. The duration of the central run of this dance tells other bees how far to fly, and the angle tells them which direction to take.

In the study the researchers recorded a total of 2827 waggle dances between April and September 2017, across 20 sites: 10 in central London to represent urban land and 10 in agricultural land in Kent, Surrey and the other home counties. They then decoded these dances and mapped out where the bees had been.

They also collected data on the sugar concentration from forages by collecting 10 returning bees on each hive visit and inducing regurgitation of collected nectar. This allowed the researchers to test their assumption that longer foraging trips reflected a dearth of available forage rather than the existence of distant but high-quality resources.

Because the study focussed on honeybees, which are domesticated and are not threatened, the researchers warn that the findings will not apply to all bee species. Professor Leadbeater said: “While we can potentially extrapolate our results to some wild bees, such as generalist bumblebee species, our results should not be used to imply that this pattern will hold for all bee species. For many solitary bees, the existence of specialist host plant species or nesting sites will be important in determining whether cities are valuable habitats.”

- Ends -

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JOURNAL

Journal of Applied Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2664.14011 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Dancing bees evaluate central urban forage resources as superior to agricultural land

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Oct-2021

FLATULENCE FUND 

$10 million announced to support algae-feed research for US dairy

Grant and Award Announcement

BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: COWS AT THE MINER INSTITUTE IN NEW YORK EAT A MIXED FEED, BALANCED TO MEET THEIR DIETARY NEEDS. A NEW $10 MILLION GRANT FROM THE USDA, LED BY NICHOLE PRICE WITH BIGELOW LABORATORY AND COLBY COLLEGE, WILL FUND RESEARCH INTO DEVELOPING NEW ALGAL-BASED SUPPLEMENTS THAT COULD BE ADDED TO FEED TO IMPROVE MILK PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY. view more 

CREDIT: WILLIAM H. MINER AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE.

A new $10 million grant will bolster research into algae-based feed supplements that could increase environmental sustainability in the dairy industry while improving milk production. The five-year grant from USDA Sustainable Agriculture Systems Program will support a research team, led by Nichole Price with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Colby College, as it tests algal feed additives and assesses the product’s impact on animals, farms, communities, and the planet.

As the Earth warms and its population grows, pressure is mounting to optimize our food production and decrease its impact on the planet. Milk production in the United States has quadrupled in the past century, and the demand for dairy continues to grow globally. These new funds will support research into algae-based feed supplements that aim to balance quality milk production with environmental, economic, and social sustainability. 

“This grant allows us to bring together a multidisciplinary team of world-class experts in their fields,” said Price, the project director. “This is a team that has already been working well together for several years on finding pointed solutions for sustainability within the cattle industry. Now, we can expand our scope and work together on a whole-systems approach to sustainably enhance U.S. milk production.” 

Price is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory and holds a research faculty appointment at Colby College. This is the largest government-funded research grant in the college’s history. The project team includes researchers from Syracuse University, University of New Hampshire, University of Vermont, Clarkson University, and William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute. The collaboration will also support substantial teaching and extension projects. 

Recent research has shown that certain algae-based feed additives reduce cows’ methane-emitting burps, and can be produced with a lower carbon footprint than land crops. They also allow for increased potential to recycle and recapture nutrients in the feed production process. Further studies show that microscopic algae can offer similar benefits, and could provide a scalable solution for farms of all sizes.

To turn these scientific findings into an economic opportunity, a team of economists and other social scientists will look at how to integrate the product into the supply chain, make it profitable for each stakeholder, and foster its adoption through community outreach and decision-making tools. 

“The supplement may work perfectly, but it can only be a real solution if supply chain actors will buy it and farmers adopt it,” said University of Vermont Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics David Conner, a collaborator on the project. “In order to succeed, we have to make sure the entire process is economically resilient and can survive market shocks, support dairy production, and promote a healthy agricultural economy.”

Feed trials will investigate the impact of algal ingredients on an array of cows and farms. By testing supplements with feeds available in different geographic areas, researchers can develop a nutritious additive that is widely applicable and more impactful. In conjunction, the researchers will also evaluate the supplement’s impact on the cows’ wellbeing. 

"Animal welfare holds an important place in animal agriculture. Farmers care a lot about their cows and the health of their animals directly relates to their productivity," said Research Scientist Sarah Morrison, a collaborator at William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute. "We need to ensure that the supplements we develop do not have a negative effect on the cows and, in turn, the farm’s success. The goal of this project is to develop a sustainable and effective product, while hopefully even improving cows’ welfare."

The team will also be looking at how the new supplement impacts greenhouse gas emissions at each stage of production and distribution, ensuring a whole-systems understanding of its impact on the industry's carbon footprint. These life cycle assessments will enable the researchers to seek the best balance of greenhouse gas emissions with milk yield and quality. 

“To find a real solution, the process has to be assessed economically and environmentally at every step along the way,” said Bigelow Laboratory Senior Research Scientist Steve Archer, a co-lead on the project. “We're striving to develop products that are a benefit to industry and the planet, it's essential that those two criteria go hand in hand."

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Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is an independent, nonprofit research institute located in East Boothbay, Maine. From the Arctic to the Antarctic, Bigelow Laboratory scientists use innovative approaches to study the foundation of global ocean health and unlock its potential to improve the future for all life on the planet. Learn more at bigelow.org, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

A CENTURY AFTER THE CAR

More and more roads but little knowledge about their impact on wildlife

Traffic probably poses one of the greatest risks to animal populations. However, we currently know very little about this issue

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GERMAN CENTRE FOR INTEGRATIVE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (IDIV) HALLE-JENA-LEIPZIG

 

IMAGE: RESEARCH ON TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS CURRENTLY FOCUSES MAINLY ON CARNIVORE MAMMALS, UNGULATES, MARSUPIALS AND TURTLES. view more 

CREDIT: PIXABAY

In their meta-study, the Spanish scientists reviewed over a thousand studies on the effects of road networks on wildlife. They found that the existing data is limited to high-income countries and only a few species groups, while particularly species-rich regions such as Southeast Asia, South America and Central Africa are hardly covered at all. Also, the species spectrum is only fragmentarily represented here. 90 percent of the data cover large mammals, mainly bears, deer and antelopes, but also kangaroos, koalas and turtles. Only two percent of the species recorded were those considered threatened by traffic in the IUCN Red List.

The rapid expansion of road networks poses major challenges for wildlife: On the one hand, many animals die directly as a result of being struck by vehicles, and on the other hand, roads fragment the land. For many species, this creates impassable barriers that make successful reproduction difficult.

In order to be able to introduce protection measures, it is important to complete the hitherto incomplete picture. Unresearched species such as primates, bats and invertebrates, which are also known to be affected by road networks, must be given greater consideration in monitoring. The proportion of Red List species among those examined is still too low to understand the effect of road networks on threatened species. In addition, this infrastructure is developed to different extents in countries with different economic strengths. This makes it difficult to compare the studies internationally.

“In order to close the knowledge gaps, future research, instead of limiting itself only to the recording of wildlife-vehicle collisions, should examine how roadkill affects population dynamics,” suggests first author Dr Rafael Barrientos, postdoctoral researcher at UCM. “Moreover, more research needs to be done on whether lack of connectivity and mitigation measures, such as green bridges, affect population survival along roads.”

Last author Prof Dr Henrique Pereira, head of the research group “Biodiversity and Conservation” at iDiv and the MLU, also sees a strong need to catch up: “Until now the literature has been dominated by empirical studies looking at animal mortality hotspots on roads, but little attention has been given to systematically assessing how much roads contribute to high risk of species extinction. It is now time to go beyond those empirical studies and use population models to assess the impact of roads on the extinction risk of species so that mitigation measures can target the species most affected."

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JOURNAL

Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.pecon.2021.07.004 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

The Lost Road: Do transportation networks imperil wildlife population persistence?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Sep-2021

Beavers benefit fish by building dams in Scottish rivers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

 

IMAGE: BEAVER SWIMMING. view more 

CREDIT: R NEEDHAM

Modification of river habitat by Eurasian beavers helps fish in small upland streams, according to a new study led by the University of Southampton.

The research shows that by building dams in shallow streams, the beavers create deeper pools that increase availability of suitable habitat and abundance of food – benefiting brown trout, which are a commercially and ecologically important species.

As a result of beaver activity, the trout tended to be larger, having grown well throughout the year, with the largest and most mature fish, that are of greatest interest to fishermen, being much more abundant. In beaver modified habitat, the trout also benefit from the provision of sanctuary from predators.

The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Southampton, and published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, monitored the fish that inhabited two Scottish streams in Inverness-shire that flow into the same loch. One stream was modified by beaver activity through the construction of five dams, while the other was left unaltered, providing a unique opportunity to compare the influence of beaver habitat modification on fish.

PhD student Robert Needham, from the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research at Southampton, explained: “There has been a great deal of concern about the possibility of beaver dams blocking the upstream and downstream migration of Atlantic salmon and trout as they move to and from their spawning grounds, as well as impacting habitat quality. This study explored how brown trout respond to beaver activity.”

Beavers were once common throughout the UK until they were hunted to extinction around the 16th Century. As is the case in many countries in Europe, beavers have recently been reintroduced to the UK, with the first trial reintroduction taking place in Scotland in 2009. Today they are once again considered a natural component of the Scottish fauna and are now protected.  However, as they have been absent from the UK landscape for so long, there is a paucity of data on how they may affect other fauna and flora, including economically important freshwater fish.

Professor Paul Kemp from the University of Southampton, the project lead, said: “This is the first published research of its kind conducted in the UK. Most of our understanding of beaver-fish interactions is based on North American studies which involves a different species of beaver, and different species of fish. The results of this study are important because it is hoped that they will allay fears expressed by some representatives of fisheries interests that beavers may be damaging to fish stocks.”

The project was conducted in collaboration with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), the Salmon and Trout Conservation, and NatureScot. The findings are important because reintroductions and natural recolonisation’s are gaining pace in Scotland, England and Wales.

CAPTION

Beaver dam in Scotland.

CREDIT

R Needham

Dylan Roberts, Head of GWCT Fisheries, said ‘We welcome the results of this much needed UK based published work to inform what is currently a very topical debate. The fact that numbers of larger trout responded positively to pools created by the beavers is good news. However, there is still much to learn to see if their dams impede the upstream migration of adult salmon and trout on their way to spawning grounds and the downstream migration of juvenile fish.”

Dr Martin Gaywood, NatureScot’s Species Projects Manager, said: “We continue to work with stakeholders, including fishery groups, to identify the many complex ways beaver interact with our environment, make the most of the many benefits beavers can bring to nature and us, and explore ways to mitigate problems when necessary. This research is an important contribution to this process.”

The paper ‘The response of a brown trout (Salmo trutta) population to reintroduced Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) habitat modification’ was published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2021-0023 

Ends

CAPTION

Measuring a Brown Trout.

CREDIT

R Needham

Notes to Editors

1. For more information or interviews, please contact Peter Franklin, Media Relations, University of Southampton. Tel 07748 321087 Email: p.franklin@southampton.ac.uk
    
2. Robert Needham was funded by the NERC SPITFIRE Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) hosted at the University of Southampton. SPITFIRE creates an innovative multi-disciplinary experience for the effective training of future leaders in environmental science, engineering, technology development, business, and policy.
    
3. Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust: Providing research-led conservation for a thriving countryside. The GWCT is an independent wildlife conservation charity that has carried out scientific research into Britain’s game and wildlife since the 1930s. We advise farmers and landowners on improving wildlife habitats. We employ 22 post-doctoral scientists and 50 other research staff with expertise in areas such as birds, insects, mammals, farming, fish and statistics. We undertake our own research as well as projects funded by contract and grant-aid from Government and private bodies. The Trust is also responsible for several Government Biodiversity Action Plan species and is lead partner for grey partridge and joint lead partner for brown hare and black grouse.
    
4. The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2022). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk
    
5. For more on Engineering at Southampton visit: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/index.page

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JOURNAL

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

DOI

doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2021-0023 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

The response of a brown trout (Salmo trutta) population to reintroduced Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) habitat modification

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Oct-2021

“Mystery plant” from the Amazon declared a new species after nearly 50 years of flummoxing scientists

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FIELD MUSEUM

 

IMAGE: A SPECIMEN OF A LEAF AND TINY ORANGE FRUIT FROM THE MYSTERY PLANT view more 

CREDIT: PATRICIA ÁLVAREZ-LOAYZA

In 1973, a scientist stumbled upon a strange tree in the Amazon rainforest, unlike anything he’d ever seen. It was about 20 feet tall, with tiny orange fruits shaped like paper lanterns. He collected samples of the plant’s leaves and fruits, but all the scientists he showed them to wound up scratching their heads-- not only were they unable to identify the plant as a species that had previously been described by scientists, but they couldn’t even declare it a new species, because they couldn’t tell what family it belonged to. But in a new study in the journal Taxon, scientists analyzed the plant’s DNA and determined where it belongs in the family tree of trees, finally giving it a name meaning “Mystery of Manu,” after the park in Peru it came from.

“When I first saw this little tree, while out on a forest trail leading from the field station, it was the fruit — looking like an orange-colored Chinese lantern and juicy when ripe with several seeds — that caught my attention,” says Robin Foster, the scientist who originally collected the mystery plant in Peru’s Manu National Park, a retired curator at Chicago’s Field Museum and now a researcher with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. “I didn’t really think it was special, except for the fact that it had characteristics of plants in several different plant families, and didn’t fall neatly into any family.  Usually I can tell the family by a quick glance, but damned if I could place this one.”

Foster wasn’t the only one who couldn’t figure it out. Nancy Hensold, a botanist at the Field Museum, remembers him showing her a dried specimen of the plant more than 30 years ago. “I came to work at the Field Museum in 1990, and Robin showed me this plant. And I tried to get it identified using little fine technical characters like boiling up the ovaries of the flowers and taking pictures of the pollen, and after all that, we still didn’t know,” she recalls. “It really bugged me.”  

The mystery plant sat in the Field Museum’s herbarium, a library of dried plant specimens, for years, but Hensold and her colleagues didn’t forget about it. “When you have a plant no one can put in a family, it can fall through the scientific cracks. I felt for it,” she says. The team eventually got a grant to study the plant, funded by the Field Museum’s Women’s Board, and the search was on. 

The team attempted to analyze the plant’s DNA using the dried specimens, but when that didn’t work, they enlisted the help of Patricia Álvarez-Loayza, a scientist who works in the Manu National Park and has spent years monitoring the forest there, to find a fresh specimen of the plant. She did, and when the researchers back at the Field analyzed it in the museum’s Pritzker DNA Laboratory, they were shocked by what they found.

“When my colleague Rick Ree sequenced it and told me what family it belonged to, I told him the sample must have been contaminated. I was like, no way, I just couldn’t believe it,” recalls Hensold. 

The DNA analysis revealed that the mystery plant’s closest relatives were in the Picramniaceae family, which was a big deal to the botanists because it didn’t look anything like its closest relatives, at least at first glance. “L​​ooking closer at the structure of the tiny little flowers I realized, oh, it really has some similarities but given its overall characters, nobody would have put it in that family,” says Hensold.

The researchers sent specimens to Wayt Thomas, a curator emeritus at The New York Botanical Garden and an expert in Picramniaceae. “When I opened the package and looked at the specimens, my first reaction was, ‘What the heck?’ These plants didn’t look like anything else in the family,” says Thomas, the lead author of the paper in Taxon. “So I decided to look more carefully–once I looked really carefully at the tiny, 2-3 milimeter long flowers, things fell into place.”

With the DNA finally revealing what family the plant belonged to, the researchers were able to give it a formal scientific name, Aenigmanu alvareziae. The genus name, Aenigmanu, means “mystery of Manu,” while the species name is in honor of Patricia Álvarez-Loayza, who collected the first specimens used for the genetic analysis. (It’s worth noting that while Aenigmanu alvareziae is new to scientists, it has long been used by the Indigenous Machiguenga people.)

The researchers say that finally getting a scientific classification for Aenigmanu alvareziae could ultimately help protect the Amazon rainforest in the face of deforestation and climate change.

“Plants are understudied in general. Especially tropical forest plants. Especially Amazon plants.  And especially plants in the upper Amazon. To understand the changes taking place in the tropics, to protect what remains, and to restore areas that have been wiped out, plants are the foundation for everything that lives there and the most important to study,” says Foster.  “Giving them unique names is the best way to organize information about them and call attention to them. A single rare species may not by itself be important to an ecosystem, but collectively they tell us what is going on out there.”

  

CAPTION

A shot of the mystery tree in the Amazon rainforest.

CREDIT

Patricia Álvarez-Loayza

JOURNAL

Taxon

ARTICLE TITLE

Aenigmanu, A New Genus of Picramniaceae from Western Amazonia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Oct-2021

CAPTION

Scientists Nancy Hensold, Patricia Álvarez-Loayza, and Robin Foster (left to right) working in the Field Museum's herbarium

CREDIT

Juliana Philipp

New insights on the diversity of the Iberian wild goat

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

 

IMAGE: SPECIMEN OF IBERIAN WILD GOAT. view more 

CREDIT: JORDI LÓPEZ OLVERA

A new study led by a research team from the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG; CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB), with the participation of numerous Spanish scientific institutions, has evaluated the genetic diversity of the Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), a species with scarce genetic variability and highly differentiated populations. This research, published in the journal Evolutionary Applications, indicates that the degree of admixture among the different Iberian wild goat populations is very low, despite the efforts made over the last 50 years to increase the genetic diversity of this species. The study also demonstrates the existence of individuals resulting from the hybridisation between Iberian wild goats and domestic goats (Capra hircus), a rare phenomenon but one that should be avoided as much as possible to preserve the genetic heritage of this wild ungulate.

The Iberian wild goat is a species native to the Iberian Peninsula that thrives on mid and high-mountain forests, where it feeds on shrubs, bushes and herbaceous plants. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Iberian wild goat populations suffered drastic reductions due to excessive hunting and habitat destruction, coupled with outbreaks of sarcoptic mange and other endemic diseases. The population decline was such that, of the four subspecies of Iberian wild goat described at the beginning of the 20th century, two became extinct.

From the 1980s onwards, the creation of the Spanish network of natural parks and protected areas, together with the absence of predators, reforestation policies and the progressive abandonment of rural activities, contributed to the recovery and expansion of the Iberian wild goat. In order to increase the genetic diversity of this species, individuals were moved between different populations (reinforcements) and also introduced into geographical areas where the species had disappeared (reintroductions), but the impact of these relocations strategies on the genetic diversity of the Iberian wild goat has not been assessed until now.

What was the impact of reintroductions and population reinforcements?

To evaluate the effect of the relocations carried out at the end of the past century, the researchers analysed the genetic diversity of 118 Iberian wild goats belonging to populations in Tortosa-Beceite (an area located between Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia), Sierra Nevada (Granada), Muela de Cortes (Valencia), Gredos (peninsular centre) and Batuecas (Salamanca). Once the genotypes of the animals had been obtained using a DNA chip, a series of genetic-population analyses were carried out to study the genetic composition of these Iberian wild goat populations, as well as the relationships among them.

"We have observed that these five Iberian wild goat populations show very low genetic diversity due to drastic population reductions, and we have confirmed the existence of large genetic differences between populations. Only three individuals showed evidence of being the product of admixture between different populations, so the relocations that were made over the past 50 years to increase the genetic diversity of the Iberian wild goat populations did not leave a strong enough genetic footprint to be detected in current populations. The chronic stress that relocated individuals often experience during the capture process and the competition with local populations make it difficult for them to adapt to their new habitat. In fact, these could have been the main factors limiting the impact of relocations on the genetic diversity of the Iberian wild goat", explains Marcel Amills, leader of the study and researcher at the Department of Animal and Food Science of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and at CRAG.

Hybrids between Iberian wild goat and domestic goats

Previously published results indicated the possible existence of hybrid individuals between Iberian wild goat and domestic goats, but the frequency of these hybridisations and their possible contribution to the increase of genetic variation in the Iberian wild goat was unknown. Of the 118 Iberian wild goats analysed in this study, only eight specimens with genetic profiles similar to those of domestic goats were detected, indicating that they were hybrids of domestic and Iberian wild goats.

"Our results point out that hybridisation between domestic and Iberian wild goats can occur in natural populations, although this is likely a rare event given the existence of some degree of reproductive incompatibility among them. In addition, domestic and Iberian wild goat herds do not usually come into direct contact with each other. However, it should be ensured that Iberian wild goat range areas are not occupied by domestic or feral goats, as hybridisation of the two species could generate individuals with low adaptive potential and a dilution of the Iberian wild goat gene pool", concludes Amills.

Preserving the Iberian wild goat's future

The accelerated rate at which Iberian wild goat populations have been growing since the 1980s leads researchers to consider that their diversity could increase as a consequence of this expansion process, without the need for human intervention. This is particularly true if we take into consideration the low genetic impact of past relocations, as this study has convincingly demonstrated. Further research will be essential to closely monitor the demographic evolution of Iberian wild goats, researchers note.

Moreover, the results obtained in this study indicate that, although unlikely, hybridisation with domestic goats could become a potential threat to the genetic conservation of the Iberian wild goat, not to mention the adverse effects associated with the transmission of infectious diseases. Thus, researchers point out the need to adopt specific measures to limit the presence of domestic or feral goat herds in mountain areas inhabited by this iconic wild ungulate.

About funding for this research:

This research has been possible thanks to the financial support by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-105805RB-I00), the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 2020–2023, and research grants CGL2012-40043-C02-01, CGL2012-40043-C02-02, and CGL2016-80543-P), the Spanish Ministry of Education (BES-C-2017-0024 grant to María Gracia Luigi-Sierra; FPU15/01733 grant to Emilio Mármol-Sánchez), and the CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil (fellowship to Tainã Figueiredo Cardoso).

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JOURNAL

Evolutionary Applications

DOI

10.1111/eva.13299 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing the levels of intraspecific admixture and interspecific hybridization in Iberian wild goats (Capra pyrenaica)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2021