Author: susanbulanda

Blindness in dogs–X-linked retinitis pigmentosa cured

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A team from the University of Pennsylvania announced that they have cured X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, a blinding retinal disease in dogs when caught early. XLRP causes gradual vision loss starting at a very young age in dogs, often as early as five weeks. It is an inherited retinal disease.

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/retinitis-pigmentosa

Continuing the research the veterinarian researchers found that the gene therapy helped dogs at 12 weeks of age (mid-stage disease) when about 40% of the eye’s photoreceptor cells were dead and then at 26 weeks of age (late-stage) when 50 – 60% of the cells were dead.  What the researchers found was that they were able to halt the degeneration of the photoreceptor cells in the treated area.

Now they’ve shown that they can cure the canine disease over the long term, even when the treatment is given after half or more of the affected photoreceptor cells have been destroyed.

To date, dogs have maintained their vision for over two years after treatment. This is very exciting because humans suffer from the same type of blindness. With that in mind, researchers are already examining human patients to determine how to treat their blindness and who might qualify for future treatments.

Again, man’s best friend is offering hope to humans who suffer from this type of cell death that causes blindness. Since this is an inherited disease, breeders should have their dogs examined by a certified canine ophthalmologist and register their dogs with the Canine Eye Registration Foundation, CERF. http://www.tctc.com/~maplerg/cerf-.htm   This will help researchers continue to develop cures for blindness as well as prevent the breeding of dogs who have this inherited disease.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151012174519.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdogs+%28Dogs+News+–+ScienceDaily%29

Sue’s Note: All pets who are blind can live a happy life. My cat is blind and is happy and safe. It helps if things are not moved around or left out in the open where the blind pet will bump into them. Blind pets should never be allowed outside unless they are in a fenced area or on a leash.

My blind cat, Mimi

A New discovery about humpback whales and their intelligence

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The fact that humpback whales create bubble nets to trap krill has been known for a while. However, researchers at the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at UH Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF) made a new and exciting discovery.

Humpback whales not only create bubble nets, but they blow bubbles in patterns that have internal rings. They determine the number of rings, the size and depth of the net and even the spacing between the bubbles. By doing this they can catch up to seven times more krill in one feeding, thus allowing them to eat more and expend less energy.

photo from pixabay

This discovery has included humpback whales in a small group of animals that can both make and use their own tools for hunting.  

Sue’s Note: Consider the cognitive process each whale must use to determine how to create their bubble net. Each new discovery such as this one makes a person wonder how many other animals are not given credit for their intelligence and abilities.

Journal Reference:

A. Szabo, L. Bejder, H. Warick, M. van Aswegen, A. S. Friedlaender, J. Goldbogen, J. M. Kendall-Bar, E. M. Leunissen, M. Angot and W. T. Gough. Solitary humpback whales manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake. Royal Society Open Science, 2024 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.240328

Cite This Page:

University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpbacks are among animals who manufacture and wield tools.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 August 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240820221814.htm>.

New research about overeating

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UCLA psychologists have discovered a circuit in the brain of mice that makes them crave food and seek it out, even when they are not hungry. What is interesting about this discovery is that when the group of cells is stimulated, the mice seek fatty and pleasurable foods such as chocolate instead of healthier foods such as carrots.

The area of the brain where the cells are located is called the periaqueductal gray which is in the brainstem. When these cells are stimulated, the mice are so driven to eat that they will endure foot shocks to get to the food. The opposite occurs when the researchers inject a virus that produces a protein that reduces the cells activity even hungry mice foraged less.

“Like mice, humans also possess vgat PAG cells in the brainstem. It could be that if this circuit is overactive in a person, they might feel more rewarded by eating or crave food when not hungry. Conversely, if this circuit is not active enough, they could have less pleasure associated with eating, potentially contributing to anorexia. If found in humans, the food-seeking circuit could become the treatment target for some kinds of eating disorders.”

Sue’s Note: If mice have this cluster of cells, it stands to reason that other animals have it as well. Could this be why some of our pets overeat and some have low appetites?

Journal Reference:

  1. Fernando M. C. V. Reis, Sandra Maesta-Pereira, Matthias Ollivier, Peter J. Schuette, Ekayana Sethi, Blake A. Miranda, Emily Iniguez, Meghmik Chakerian, Eric Vaughn, Megha Sehgal, Darren C. T. Nguyen, Faith T. H. Yuan, Anita Torossian, Juliane M. Ikebara, Alexandre H. Kihara, Alcino J. Silva, Jonathan C. Kao, Baljit S. Khakh, Avishek Adhikari. Control of feeding by a bottom-up midbrain-subthalamic pathway. Nature Communications, 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46430-5

Cite This Page:

University of California – Los Angeles. “Craving snacks after a meal? It might be food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 March 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240320122517.htm>.

Heart murmurs in dogs

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Researchers at the University of Cambridge have perfected an algorithm that can accurately detect heart murmurs in dogs. A heart murmur is the main indicator of cardiac disease such as mitral valve disease. About one in thirty dogs develop this, especially small dogs such as the King Charles Spaniels. The algorithm was originally designed for use on humans, but the team was able to adjust the program to detect and grade heart murmurs in dogs.

In humans, mitral valve disease can only be corrected by surgery, but medication is available for dogs. This program will allow the general practitioner veterinarian to accurately determine if a dog has heart disease earlier and treat the dog, increasing its quality of life and longevity.   

Journal Reference:

  1. Andrew McDonald, Jose Novo Matos, Joel Silva, Catheryn Partington, Eve J. Y. Lo, Virginia Luis Fuentes, Lara Barron, Penny Watson, Anurag Agarwal. A machine‐learning algorithm to grade heart murmurs and stage preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2024; DOI: 10.1111/jvim.17224

Cite This Page:

University of Cambridge. “AI algorithm accurately detects heart disease in dogs.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 October 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241028211501.htm>.

Dogs understand words from a soundboard

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A new study investigated whether dogs understand the words on a soundboard or if they were responding to cues from their owners. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego as well as other institutions and have proven that dogs who are trained with soundboard buttons can comprehend specific words and will perform contextually appropriate responses. The study was led by Federico Rossano who is an associate professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego and is head of the comparative Cognition Lab. This study was the first empirical study from the world’s largest longitudinal or panel study of button-trained pets.

The way the study was conducted removed bias, owner cues, and showed that the dogs truly did understand the words on the sound board. One of the more important findings is that it shows the complexities of dog cognition and communication.

Sue’s Note: Since I first started training dogs and working as a behaviorist, we have come a long way in understanding how intelligent dogs (and other animals) are. One of the key lessons that we as pet owners must keep in mind, is that dogs are much smarter than previously thought and understand much more than most people give them credit for. This is important to keep in mind when training any animal. What you do and how you do it is critical in building your relationship with your dog or other pet and having them understand what you are teaching them or want them to do. This is why it is very important to use the same word for a specific command. For example, do not use the word DOWN to tell your dog to get off you or furniture and then say the same word to tell your dog to lie down.

Journal Reference:

  1. Amalia P. M. Bastos, Ashley Evenson, Patrick M. Wood, Zachary N. Houghton, Lucas Naranjo, Gabriella E. Smith, Alexandria Cairo-Evans, Lisa Korpos, Jack Terwilliger, Sarita Raghunath, Cassandra Paul, Hairou Hou, Federico Rossano. How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension. PLOS ONE, 2024; 19 (8): e0307189 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307189

Cite This Page:

University of California – San Diego. “Dogs understand words from soundboard buttons.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 August 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240828154926.htm>.

Faithful Friends: Holocaust Survivors Stories of the Pets Who Gave Them Comfort, Suffered Alongside Them and Waited for Their Return

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Imagine that your family is frightened, you know it even though they are trying to hide it from you. People who were your friends now ignore or avoid you. War has gripped your country, and some people are leaving everything behind to flee. Yet at night, you sleep soundly because your faithful pet, whether it be a dog or cat, lays by your side. You pet still loves you and thinks that you are the best person in the world. Then one day, you and your family are taken away, forced to leave your best friend behind. Faithful Friends is the story of these devoted animals. All are true, all are treasured memories, and all are special to the people who shared them for this book, the only book of its kind to tell the stories of these devoted animals. Available in English and Italian.

Order a copy at www.sbulanda.com, https://cladach.com/bookstore/

The origin of dogs in the United States is still a topic of research

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It is believed that by 1492 until the present day, the indigenous lines of dogs in America were replaced by the dogs from Europe. Therefore, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Iowa decided to study the remains of dogs that lived in Jamestown, Virginia because there were enough specimens to study.

They knew that prior to the introduction of European dogs, there were a lot of Indigenous dogs in the United States and that many of them disappeared. The researchers wanted to try and determine if they were culled, was it competition with European dogs or was their demise due to disease.

The team studied 22 remains that spanned the years from 1607 to 1619. What they found was that the body size of the dogs ranged between 22 – 39 lbs., about the size of a modern Beagle. The remains indicate that some of the dogs were eaten, which implies that the colonists did not have enough food. At least six of the dogs were of Indigenous North American ancestry suggesting that the colonists and Indigenous tribes traded dogs and were not overly concerned with interbreeding. The study also indicates that the Indigenous dogs were not immediately eradicated when Europeans arrived in North America.

Sue’s Note: The Carolina Dog is considered the last wild dog in North America.

Carolina Dog

Journal Reference:

  1. Ariane E. Thomas, Matthew E. Hill, Leah Stricker, Michael Lavin, David Givens, Alida de Flamingh, Kelsey E. Witt, Ripan S. Malhi, Andrew Kitchen. The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century. American Antiquity, 2024; 1 DOI: 10.1017/aaq.2024.25

Cite This Page:

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Ancient DNA reveals Indigenous dog lineages found at Jamestown, Virginia.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 August 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240816173937.htm>.

When did dogs come to America?

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Researchers were sequencing DNA from a collection of hundreds of bones excavated years before in Southeast Alaska by researchers including Timothy Heaton, PhD, professor of earth sciences at the University of South Dakota when they discovered a dog bone. Charlotte Lindqvist, an evolutionary biologist from University at Buffalo, was studying how Ice Age climatic changes impacted animals’ survival and movements in Southeast Alaska.

Lindqvist originally thought that the bone was from a bear but quickly realized that it was a dog bone. This gave them evidence about early human migration through that area and possibly how dogs first arrived in America.

Researchers analyzed the dog’s mitochondrial genome and concluded that the animal belonged to a lineage of dogs whose evolutionary history diverged from that of Siberian dogs as early as 16,700 years ago.

This discovery showed the the dog had a marine diet and supports the hypothesis that the first dog and human migration occurred through the Northwest Pacific coastal route.

Journal Reference:

  1. Flavio Augusto da Silva Coelho, Stephanie Gill, Crystal M. Tomlin, Timothy H. Heaton, Charlotte Lindqvist. An early dog from southeast Alaska supports a coastal route for the first dog migration into the Americas. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021; 288 (1945): 20203103 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3103

Cite This Page:

University at Buffalo. “How did dogs get to the Americas? An ancient bone fragment holds clues.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 February 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210223192442.htm>.

God’s Creatures a Biblical View of Animals

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As a Christian and an animal behavior consultant, I am always asked questions about God’s relationship with animals. Does God care about them? Does God talk to them? Can they be evil? Surprisingly, the Bible gives us the answers to these and many more questions. Often people are surprised to learn that animals have been part of Biblical miracles. God’s Creatures covers fifteen different topics that involve animals, all questions that I have been asked.

Everything in this book is backed by Scripture and has been reviewed by two theologians for accuracy. When I wrote this book, I compared critical English words with the original Greek to ensure that the translation was accurate to the English meaning. And of course, the most often and the most controversial question that I have been asked is, do animals go to Heaven? This question is covered in the book. Even if you are not a Christian, I am sure you will find the references to scientific studies and the topics in God’s Creatures interesting. God’s Creatures is a great Bible study for churches or Sunday school. It is written so that children can read and understand what it says. Offering a Bible study about animals is a good way to reach out to the members of your community. You can order the book from my website, www.sbulanda.com, on Amazon or from the publisher, www.Caladach.com.

Dogs help people relieve stress

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Researchers at the University of South Korea have studied the benefits people have from interacting with dogs. Although is this not new information, they researched further to see if different activities produced a different reaction in people. They had people play, walk, groom and massage dogs while studying their brainwaves. They found that the people who walked or played with dogs had an increase in relaxed wakefulness. The participants who groomed, played and massaged a dog had a heightened level of concentration. They also observed that the subjects felt a significant drop in the feeling of fatigue, depression and stress after interacting with dogs.

Sue’s Note: I would think that the same results would be found when people interact with other animals that they enjoy. This study supports the use of therapy animals in all situations.

Journal Reference:

  1. Onyoo Yoo, YuTong Wu, Jin Soo Han, Sin-Ae Park. Psychophysiological and emotional effects of human–Dog interactions by activity type: An electroencephalogram study. PLOS ONE, 2024; 19 (3): e0298384 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298384

Cite This Page:

PLOS. “Interactions with dogs can increase brainwaves associated with stress relief and heightened concentration.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 March 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240313185025.htm>.