Australian legal regime on animal based bio-medical research

This thesis, by using evaluative criteria based on overseas law, scientific evidence, philosophy and ethics, concluded that the Australian legal regime regarding animal based bio-medical research for human benefit only partly met one of that regime's major objectives of adequately protecting research animals during the entire research process.

The relationship between childhood cruelty to animals and psychological adjustment : a Malaysian study

In Western research, cruelty to animals in childhood has been associated with comorbid conduct problems and with interpersonal violence in later life. However, there is little understanding of the etiology of cruelty to animals, and what in the child's life may require attention if the chain linking animal cruelty and later violence is to be broken. The study reported in this paper investigated the association between parent-reported cruelty to animals, and parent- and self-reported psychological strengths and weaknesses in a sample of 379 elementary school children in an Eastern context, Malaysia. No gender differences were found in relation to cruelty to animals or psychological problems, as assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). However, there were different predictors of cruelty to animals for boys and girls. Regression analyses found that for boys, parent-reported hyperactivity was a unique predictor of Malicious and Total Cruelty to animals. For girls, self-reported conduct problems was a unique predictor of Typical Cruelty to animals. Parent-reported total difficulties were associated with Typical, Malicious, and Total Cruelty to animals. We suggest that routine screening of children with an instrument such as the SDQ may help to detect those children who may need to undergo further assessment and perhaps intervention to break the chain linking childhood cruelty to animals and later conduct problems.

Childhood cruelty to animals : a tri-national study

Childhood cruelty to animals is a symptom of conduct disorder that has been linked to the perpetration of violence in later life. Research has identified several factors associated with its etiology, including social factors. However, no cross-cultural studies on this phenomenon have been reported. This study investigated childhood cruelty to animals in Japan, Australia and Malaysia. Parents of 1,358 children between the ages of 5 and 13 years completed the Children’s Attitudes and Behaviours towards Animals questionnaire (CABTA) which assesses Typical and Malicious Cruelty to animals. Analyses revealed no overall differences between children from these countries on either scale. However, younger boys were more likely to be cruel than younger girls in each country, and younger children in Australia and Japan were more likely to be cruel that older children in those countries. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and recommendations for future studies are suggested.

Building genetic networks using relatedness information : a novel approach for the estimation of dispersal and characterization of group structure in social animals

Natal dispersal is an important life history trait driving variation in individual fitness, and therefore, a proper understanding of the factors underlying dispersal behaviour is critical to many fields including population dynamics, behavioural ecology and conservation biology. However, individual dispersal patterns remain difficult to quantify despite many years of research using direct and indirect methods. Here, we quantify dispersal in a single intensively studied population of the cooperatively breeding chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps) using genetic networks created from the combination of pairwise relatedness data and social networking methods and compare this to dispersal estimates from re-sighting data. This novel approach not only identifies movements between social groups within our study sites but also provides an estimation of immigration rates of individuals originating outside the study site. Both genetic and re-sighting data indicated that dispersal was strongly female biased, but the magnitude of dispersal estimates was much greater using genetic data. This suggests that many previous studies relying on mark–recapture data may have significantly underestimated dispersal. An analysis of spatial genetic structure within the sampled population also supports the idea that females are more dispersive, with females having no structure beyond the bounds of their own social group, while male genetic structure expands for 750 m from their social group. Although the genetic network approach we have used is an excellent tool for visualizing the social and genetic microstructure of social animals and identifying dispersers, our results also indicate the importance of applying them in parallel with behavioural and life history data.

Childhood cruelty to animals in China: the relationship with psychological adjustment and family functioning

Background
The current study broadened the general scope of research conducted on childhood cruelty to animals by examining the association between psychological adjustment, family functioning and animal cruelty in an Eastern context, China.

Method
The mothers and fathers of 729 children attending primary school in Chengdu, China participated in this study. Each parent completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Chinese Family Assessment Instrument, and the Children's Attitudes and Behaviours towards Animals questionnaire.

Results
Findings from an actor partner interdependence model demonstrated that parents' ratings of family functioning and of their child's externalizing coping style predicted only modest amounts of variance in animal cruelty. In particular, parents' ratings of their child's externalizing coping style most consistently predicted animal cruelty. Family functioning, fathers' ratings in particular, played a minor role, more so for boys compared with girls.

Conclusion
This study provided the first insight into childhood animal cruelty in China, and suggests that further research may enhance our understanding of these phenomena.

Mohair research update 18 : the importance of the live weight of Angora goats on husbandry and production

The live weight of farm animals is strongly associated with production, profitability, management requirements and animal survival (Table 1). The mature live weight of farm animals and of goats is positively associated with their potential to grow rapidly. Live weight is directly related to the nutrient requirements of goats, irrespective of their productive state.

For Angora goats in particular, live weight is associated with mohair production and mohair fibre diameter, age at puberty, reproductive performance and ovulation rate, carcass attributes, meat production and sale value at the end of their productive life. Live weight also affects the timing of the eruption of incisor teeth.

A low power micro deep brain stimulation device for murine preclinical research

Deep brain stimulation has emerged as an effective medical procedure that has therapeutic efficacy in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Preclinical research involving laboratory animals is being conducted to study the principles, mechanisms, and therapeutic effects of deep brain stimulation. A bottleneck is, however, the lack of deep brain stimulation devices that enable long term brain stimulation in freely moving laboratory animals. Most of the existing devices employ complex circuitry, and are thus bulky. These devices are usually connected to the electrode that is implanted into the animal brain using long fixed wires. In long term behavioral trials, however, laboratory animals often need to continuously receive brain stimulation for days without interruption, which is difficult with existing technology. This paper presents a low power and lightweight portable microdeep brain stimulation device for laboratory animals. Three different configurations of the device are presented as follows: 1) single piece head mountable; 2) single piece back mountable; and 3) two piece back mountable. The device can be easily carried by the animal during the course of a clinical trial, and that it can produce non-stop stimulation current pulses of desired characteristics for over 12 days on a single battery. It employs passive charge balancing to minimize undesirable effects on the target tissue. The results of bench, in-vitro, and in-vivo tests to evaluate the performance of the device are presented.

The biology and ecology of the ocean sunfish Mola mola : a review of current knowledge and future research perspectives

Relatively little is known about the biology and ecology of the world’s largest (heaviest) bony fish, the ocean sunfish Mola mola, despite its worldwide occurrence in temperate and tropical seas. Studies are now emerging that require many common perceptions about sunfish behaviour and ecology to be re-examined. Indeed, the long-held view that ocean sunfish are an inactive, passively drifting species seems to be entirely misplaced. Technological advances in marine telemetry are revealing distinct behavioural patterns and protracted seasonal movements. Extensive forays by ocean sunfish into the deep ocean have been documented and broad-scale surveys, together with molecular and laboratory based techniques, are addressing the connectivity and trophic role of these animals. These emerging molecular and movement studies suggest that local distinct populations may be prone to depletion through bycatch in commercial fisheries. Rising interest in ocean sunfish, highlighted by the increase in recent publications, warrants a thorough review of the biology and ecology of this species. Here we review the taxonomy, morphology, geography, diet, locomotion, vision, movements, foraging ecology, reproduction and species interactions of M. mola. We present a summary of current conservation issues and suggest methods for addressing fundamental gaps in our knowledge.

Life history and the ecology of stress: how do glucocorticoid hormones influence life-history variation in animals?

Glucocorticoids hormones (GCs) are intuitively important for mediation of age-dependent vertebrate life-history transitions through their effects on ontogeny alongside underpinning variation in life-history traits and trade-offs in vertebrates. These concepts largely derive from the ability of GCs to alter energy allocation, physiology and behaviour that influences key life-history traits involving age-specific life-history transitions, reproduction and survival. Studies across vertebrates have shown that the neuroendocrine stress axis plays a role in the developmental processes that lead up to age-specific early life-history transitions. While environmental sensitivity of the stress axis allows for it to modulate the timing of these transitions within species, little is known as to how variation in stress axis function has been adapted to produce interspecific variation in the timing of life-history transitions. Our assessment of the literature confirms that of previous reviews that there is only equivocal evidence for correlative or direct functional relationships between GCs and variation in reproduction and survival. We conclude that the relationships between GCs and life-history traits are complex and general patterns cannot be easily discerned with current research approaches and experimental designs. We identify several future research directions including: (i) integration of proximate and ultimate measures, including longitudinal studies that measure effects of GCs on more than one life-history trait or in multiple environmental contexts, to test explicit hypotheses about how GCs and life-history variation are related and (ii) the measurement of additional factors that modulate the effects of GCs on life-history traits (e.g. GC receptors and binding protein levels) to better infer neurendocrine stress axis actions. Conceptual models of HPA/I axis actions, such as allostatic load and reactive scope, to some extent explicitly predict the role of GCs in a life-history context, but are descriptive in nature. We propose that GC effects on life-history transitions, survival probabilities and fecundity can be modelled in existing quantitative demographic frameworks to improve our understanding of how GC variation influences life-history evolution and GC-mediated effects on population dynamics Lay Summary Functional Ecology

The trajectory of dispersal research in conservation biology. Systematic review

Dispersal knowledge is essential for conservation management, and demand is growing. But are we accumulating dispersal knowledge at a pace that can meet the demand? To answer this question we tested for changes in dispersal data collection and use over time. Our systematic review of 655 conservation-related publications compared five topics: climate change, habitat restoration, population viability analysis, land planning (systematic conservation planning) and invasive species. We analysed temporal changes in the: (i) questions asked by dispersal-related research; (ii) methods used to study dispersal; (iii) the quality of dispersal data; (iv) extent that dispersal knowledge is lacking, and; (v) likely consequences of limited dispersal knowledge. Research questions have changed little over time; the same problems examined in the 1990s are still being addressed. The most common methods used to study dispersal were occupancy data, expert opinion and modelling, which often provided indirect, low quality information about dispersal. Although use of genetics for estimating dispersal has increased, new ecological and genetic methods for measuring dispersal are not yet widely adopted. Almost half of the papers identified knowledge gaps related to dispersal. Limited dispersal knowledge often made it impossible to discover ecological processes or compromised conservation outcomes. The quality of dispersal data used in climate change research has increased since the 1990s. In comparison, restoration ecology inadequately addresses large-scale process, whilst the gap between knowledge accumulation and growth in applications may be increasing in land planning. To overcome apparent stagnation in collection and use of dispersal knowledge, researchers need to: (i) improve the quality of available data using new approaches; (ii) understand the complementarities of different methods and; (iii) define the value of different kinds of dispersal information for supporting management decisions. Ambitious, multi-disciplinary research programs studying many species are critical for advancing dispersal research.

Are migratory animals superspreaders of infection?

Migratory animals are simultaneously challenged by the physiological demands of long-distance movements and the need to avoid natural enemies including parasites and pathogens. The potential for animal migrations to disperse pathogens across large geographic areas has prompted a growing body of research investigating the interactions between migration and infection. However, the phenomenon of animal migration is yet to be incorporated into broader theories in disease ecology. Because migrations may expose animals to a greater number and diversity of pathogens, increase contact rates between hosts, and render them more susceptible to infection via changes to immune function, migration has the potential to generate both "superspreader species" and infection "hotspots". However, migration has also been shown to reduce transmission in some species, by facilitating parasite avoidance ("migratory escape") and weeding out infected individuals ("migratory culling"). This symposium was convened in an effort to characterize more broadly the role that animal migrations play in the dynamics of infectious disease, by integrating a range of approaches and scales across host taxa. We began with questions related to within-host processes, focusing on the consequences of nutritional constraints and strenuous movement for individual immune capability, and of parasite infection for movement capacity. We then scaled-up to between-host processes to identify what types, distances, or patterns of host movements are associated with the spread of infectious agents. Finally, we discussed landscape-scale relationships between migration and infectious disease, and how these may be altered as a result of anthropogenic changes to climate and land use. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of the interactions between infection and animal migrations; yet, with so many migrations now under threat, there is an urgent need to develop a holistic understanding of the potential for migrations to both increase and reduce infection risk.