Doggy diagnosis can sniff out seizures: study

Yahoo – AFP, March 28, 2019

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Paris (AFP) - Dogs can use their remarkable sense of smell to recognise the specific scent of seizures, researchers said Thursday, raising hope that canine carers could one day protect sufferers before a fit takes hold.

Previous tests have shown dogs are able to detect the odours of certain diseases, including some cancers, diabetes and malaria.

There is also anecdotal evidence they can sense that their owner may be about to have a seizure, though this was poorly understood until now.

Researchers in France used five dogs -- Casey, Dodger, Lana, Zoey and Roo -- in a study to sniff out a scent specifically linked to a human seizure.

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic 

compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion (AFP Photo/OLI SCARFF)

They presented the dogs with a variety of smells taken from epileptic patients, including body odours emitted during calm activity, while exercising, and during an attack.

Casey, Dodger and Zoey all identified the seizure scent 100 percent of the time, while Lana and Roo sniffed out the right sample two goes out of three.

"The results went beyond our expectations by showing that there is indeed a general odour of an epileptic seizure," Amelie Catala, a researcher at the University of Rennes and lead study author, told AFP.

"We hope it will open new lines of research that could help anticipate seizures and thus get patients to seek security."

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion.

The most sophisticated current "electronic noses", meant to pick up potentially harmful odours that humans can't smell, have a detection threshold of around 300 parts per billion.

Catala said that while dogs had been shown previously to be able to sniff out chronic diseases, this experiment showed they could potentially diagnose acute health episodes that last just a few minutes.

"The study of odours by the use of dogs constitutes a fast, low-cost, non-invasive, and effective screening method of diseases that can be difficult to identify normally," she said.

The paper was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Dutch introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs before they can breed

DutchNews, March 18, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands is to introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs such as pugs and boxers to make sure they are fit enough to breed, broadcaster NOS said on Monday. 

Agriculture minister Carola Schouten has sent new rules covering the breeding of flat faced dogs to parliament in an effort to reduce the health problems many dogs suffer from. 

The tests, which will be administered by vets, will involve dogs walking up to 1km at a fast pace and then being checked for their heart rate and recovery speed. Those which fail will be considered unsuitable for breeding. 

New criteria are also being introduced covering the form of the dogs’ skulls, noses and eyes. 

The measures are contained in a report by Utrecht University vets who say many flat faced dogs suffer poor health, including breathing difficulties, over-heating and runny eyes because of their extreme appearance. 

In 2014, the government launched a special programme with breeders to try to improve the health and socialisation of some breeds. However, while this has led to some successes, a number of breeders refuse to join and ‘a number of challenges’ remain, the minister said in her briefing.

Horse takes daily stroll through Frankfurt — without owner

Deutsche Welle, 9 March 2019

Veterinarians have dismissed criticism that the Arabian mare poses a danger to herself and others during her morning walks. Despite dozens of calls from worried pedestrians, police say they've never had to intervene.

Jenny the Arabian mare snacking on garden shrubs during a morning stroll in
Fechenheim

Every morning in Frankfurt's Fechenheim district, an Arabian mare named Jenny takes a leisurely stroll through the streets by herself. But she has to wear a card that reads: "I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk. Thanks."

For more than a decade, police have had to tell worried pedestrians calling in that Jenny is known throughout the neighborhood and that she does not present a danger, local media reported this week.

"The police know. When someone calls in, the police ask me: 'Werner, do you know where Jenny is?' Yes, I say. 'Ok, then everything is in order,'" Jenny's owner, Werner Weischedel, told "Maintower," a news show.

"We've never had to do anything before," police spokeswoman Isabell Neumann told German news agency dpa.

Read more: Thousands petition to move 'bullied' ape Bili out of Germany

Werner Weischedel said there has never been a problem during Jenny's
promenades through Frankfurt

But that hasn't stopped some from criticizing Jenny's unsupervised strolls through the city. Several social media users have accused the owner of negligence, saying the chaotic streets could lead her to hurt herself or someone else.

However, the horse veterinarians union told dpa that there isn't any issue, especially since Jenny is well-acquainted with her surroundings after 14 years of making her way through the area alone. Veterinarian Maren Hellige said the mare "seems very relaxed and satisfied."

Read more: Petrified horse remains found near Pompeii

The tag reads: 'I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk'

Chimps' cultural diversity threatened by humans, study says

Yahoo – AFP, March 7, 2019

Researchers who studied 144 chimpanzee communities in Equatorial Africa found
31 behaviors that varied from one group to another (AFP Photo/ISSOUF SANOGO)

Washington (AFP) - Like humans, chimpanzees are culturally diverse but those differences are being eroded by human incursion, international researchers say in a groundbreaking study published Thursday.

The striking results, published in the American journal "Science," show that the behavioral diversity of chimpanzees was reduced by an average 88 percent in areas with the highest human impact, compared to remote pristine forests.

In the tropical rainforests and savanna woodlands that are the chimpanzees' natural habitat, the researchers observed 31 behaviors that were not universal or innate among chimpanzees and varied from one group to another, in a total of 144 chimpanzee communities studied in 17 Equatorial African countries where the animals live.

Reflecting the diversity, not all communities of chimpanzees use the same tools to hunt or dig. Neither do they extract termites and ants in the same way. Ditto for honey and nuts. Their use of stones, ponds and caves also varies.

Researchers assume this diversity is passed between individuals within the group.

They based their findings on existing studies supplemented with their own field observations of 46 communities over the past nine years.

Such data had never before been compiled on chimpanzee behavior, the researchers said. Until now, scientists have focused on the loss of genetic diversity, or human-caused population decline.

Their findings mean that the more humans disturbed the environment with roads, infrastructure, deforestation, agriculture, plantations and so on, the less chimpanzee behavior was diverse.

For instance, researchers have observed areas where nut cracking had ceased.

"These are very noisy behaviors, and hunters could locate you easily," Hjalmar Kuehl, an ecologist at the German iDiv research center and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told AFP as a hypothesis of why the behavior may have been lost.

Another example of noisy and potentially vulnerable behavior: "accumulative stone throwing" by chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau, a form of communication where chest-pumping apes throw rocks at trees.

Fishing for algae with sticks, seen in Guinea, is also threatened by encroaching humans.

"Our findings suggest that strategies for the conservation of biodiversity should be extended to include the protection of animal behavioral diversity as well," said Kuehl.

He proposes to create "Chimpanzee cultural heritage sites," a concept that can be extended to other species with high degrees of cultural variability, including orangutans or whales.

War horses: Syria's Arabian beauties plod way to recovery

Yahoo – AFP, Maher al-Mounes, March 3, 2019

Arabian mare Karen is one of dozens of Arabian horses from all over Syria
recovering from the impact of conflict (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Damascus (AFP) - A shadow of her former self after years of war, 11-year-old Arabian mare Karen stands quietly as a Syrian vet gently pushes a syringe into her pale grey neck.

"Karen used to be the beauty queen of all horses," says the vet, Ahmad Sharida.

But inside her stable near Damascus today, her hips jut out viciously from her overgrown speckled coat.

Weak and withdrawn, Karen is unable to even whinny.

After almost eight years of war, she is one of dozens of Arabian horses from all over Syria recovering from the physical and psychological trauma of the fighting.

Prized for their beauty, endurance and speed, Arabian purebreds are one of the oldest horse breeds in the world.

In Syria, Bedouins have bred them in the north of the country for centuries, seeking to maintain the purity of the local bloodlines.

Before the conflict, Sharida had proudly watched Karen grow from a long-legged foal into a graceful equine beauty.

"I know her very well. I was the one who brought her out of her mother's belly," says the vet, a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

Horse trainer Jihad Ghazal (R) says horses are very sensitive and that "the 

sounds they hear greatly affect them" (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

But he lost sight of Karen after she was stolen from her stable in Eastern Ghouta in 2012, the same year rebels overran the region northeast of Damascus.

The area suffered five years of regime bombardment, as well as food and medicine shortages under a crippling siege, before Russia-backed government forces took it back last year.

Sharida had long fled his home region but returned to search for missing Arabian horses and immediately recognised Karen when he found her in October.

"I was so shocked," says the 51-year-old vet.

"She was all skin and bones, and could barely stand up."

'Kidnapped and killed'

Like all other horses he found, she was frail and sick after years of being surrounded by fighting, not enough food, and no medical attention.

Of the 8,500 horses that Syria registered with the World Arabian Horse Organization 

in 2011, it has lost 3,000 in the war (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

And it has taken a toll on the country's equine population too.

"Horses have greatly suffered, just like us all," says Mohammed Ghaith al-Shaib, head of the state's Arabian Horse Office.

"They've also been displaced, kidnapped and killed."

Of the 8,500 horses that Syria registered with the World Arabian Horse Organization (WAHO) in 2011, it has lost 3,000 in the war, he says.

But the conflict in Syria has turned around in recent years, and after a series of victories against rebels and jihadists, President Bashar al-Assad's regime is now in control of almost two-thirds of the country.

Having returned to one region after another, the Damascus authorities are now trying to protect the country's Arabian purebreds.

Karen (L) is now cared for at a state-run stables west of Damascus (AFP Photo/

LOUAI BESHARA)

Since 2014, WAHO has recognised 2,400 new Syrian foals as Arabian, after samples from their manes were sent off for DNA testing in Germany, Shaib says.

Horses rescued from retaken areas are being looked after at a state-run stables west of the capital, Damascus.

A daughter?

At the stables in Dimas, staff are paying special attention to Karen's recovery.

She hails from the Hadbaa strain of Arabian purebreds, so called after their long eyelashes and mane.

But after years of war, she is the only known female survivor of a rare Syrian branch of that family.

"The Hadbaa Enzahi Fawaeira were already at risk of dying out before the war," says Shaib.

But "today, it's only Karen".

After nearly eight years of war, Karen is the only known female survivor of a rare 

Syrian branch of the Hadbaa strain of Arabian purebreds (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Arabian mares are often seen as more precious than their male counterparts, as they carry the bloodline from one generation to the next.

Once Karen has regained her health, her carers hope to artificially inseminate her so that she can give birth to a daughter.

To maintain her bloodline, a Syrian purebred should father that female foal -- but he does not need to come from the same strain.

Karen is just one of many Arabian horses all over Syria recovering from conflict.

'Greatly affected'

In the adjacent hippodrome, trainer Jihad Ghazal watches a student trot around the red-earth arena on a horse with a shiny brown coat.

Nejm -- "star" in Arabic -- spent the war in Damascus, a city which has remained relatively sheltered from the conflict.

But the mare was one of the luckier ones, says Ghazal, who is full of anecdotes about the suffering of her kind.

Arabian mares are often seen as more precious than their male counterparts, as they 

carry the bloodline from one generation to the next (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

"Horses are very sensitive, and the sounds they hear greatly affect them," says the 40 year-old, wearing jeans and trainers.

During the war, an alleged Israeli strike hit Dimas, traumatising pregnant mares, for example.

"For a year afterwards, foals were born paralysed or dead because their mother had been so terrified," he says.

In 2016, a horse was so shocked by a blast that, within hours, he had killed himself.

"He banged his head against metal until he died."