Zoonoses parasitárias veiculadas por alimentos de origem animal: revisão sobre a situação no Brasil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Human-calf relationship and its implications on animal welfare

Pós-graduação em Zootecnia - FCAV

A comparative study of production performance and animal health practices in organic and conventional dairy systems

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Animal models in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-an overview

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by progressive airway obstruction resultant from an augmented inflammatory response of the respiratory tract to noxious particles and gases. Previous reports present a number of different hypotheses about the etiology and pathophysiology of COPD. The generating mechanisms of the disease are subject of much speculation, and a series of questions and controversies among experts still remain. In this context, several experimental models have been proposed in order to broaden the knowledge on the pathophysiological characteristics of the disease, as well as the search for new therapeutic approaches for acute or chronically injured lung tissue. This review aims to present the main experimental models of COPD, more specifically emphysema, as well as to describe the main characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, possibilities of application, and potential contribution of each of these models for the knowledge on the pathophysiological aspects and to test new treatment options for obstructive lung diseases.

Pathogens in animal meal and the use of Salmex (R) in the elimination of Clostridium perfringens

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

O bem-estar animal: como avaliá-lo e promovê-lo

The traffic of wild animals can be identified as the main cause of finding captive animals in zoos and sorting centers in Brazil. The maintenance of these animals in captivity is usually justified by the prevention of total loss of individuals of that specie, if it becomes extinct in the wild, and also, the importance of these subjects in studies of basic biology of the species. Keeping animals in captivity environment brings the need to ensure the welfare of them. The high population density and limited space are some of the possible stressors that these individuals face in capivity. Even the low pressure feeding and food easily available could be stressors, since they change the budget activities typical of the specie, causing sedentary behavior and sometimes depression. The captive environment and activities related to it (handling, transport, social change and social isolation) could compromise the animal welfare. Reduction in life expectancy, impaired growth and reproduction, personal injury, illness, immunosuppression, exacerbated adrenal activity and abnormal behavior, are events often lonked to compromised welfare. Hence, assessment and promoter methods are used to provide the welfare to captive animals. The assessment can be made by hormonal and/or behavioral measures. Both are extremely important, and usually are used in combination, to provide more tangible results about the condition of the animal. The promotion of animal welfare can be accomplished through environmental enrichment, a technique which aims to provide a more complex and diverse environment, increasing the possibility of the animal express more natural behavior, or characteristic of the species. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is discuss the importance of animal welfare and the ways this can be evaluated and promoted... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Uma perspectiva fenomenológica para: o que é o animal no circo?

The relationship between humans and the world around is getting less symbiotic and harmonic, so as with the other animals we share the planet with, mostly about domination of plagues, domination for food, company, work or fun. This last both are responsible for the beginning of the Circus as we know, with the exhibition of wild animals and horses, and have been increased with clowns, acrobats, and jugglers, street artists, getting to be one unified show all around the world, which most of them don´t have animals. Following this tendency, the PL 7291/06 is on process on the plenary assembly to forbidden the animals inside Circus. In that matter, this work is a Phenomenological perspective of the phenomenon Circus’s animals sited beyond the animal rights activists perspective. The Ideographic and Nomotetic analysis of the activist’s speech realize that is no discordance between then. All the speeches agrees that the animal must be out of the circus, and most of them agrees about the cruelty involving the animal´s domination, about that ONGs should be the better destination for this animals, and they shows lack of knowledge about the Brazilian Circus, with or without animals, their traditions and characteristics, so as the lack of knowledge about de ecology and biology of the animals involved.

A Ética na Experimentação Animal

A experimentação em animais é a metodologia mais utilizada para se testar a ação de todo tipo de droga em um organismo e suas reações. Atualmente existe na ciência a preocupação com a ética para amenizar o sofrimento dos animais envolvidos. Com o advento de novas tecnologias, são propostas técnicas alternativas que se abstém da utilização destes. Mas que não são ainda largamente estudadas no Brasil. Portanto realizou-se uma breve revisão das relações ser - humano/natureza presentes historicamente na atividade científica. Foram respondidos questionários e entregues para a análise, no qual se teve o objetivo de averiguar a opinião em relação a esse assunto perante os experimentadores de um conceituado Centro de Pesquisas e verificar assim, a possibilidade da inserção de uma nova ética, a qual possa futuramente livrar todos os animais de qualquer sofrimento. Os pesquisadores apresentam de uma forma geral, uma pequena preocupação com a reflexão sobre a utilização de materiais alternativos, em contrapartida se mostram bastante preocupados com a utilização dos animais de forma ética, a fim de minimizarem o sofrimento causado

Modelagem matemática de tumores e estequiometria biológica

Cancer biology is a complex and expanding field of science study. Due its complexity, there is a strong motivation to integrate many fields of knowledge to study cancer biology, and biological stoichiometry can make this. Biological stoichiometry is the study of the balance of multiple chemical elements in biological systems. A key idea in biological stoichiometry is the growth rate hypothesis, which states that variation in the carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus stoichiometry of living things is associated with growth rate because of the elevated demands for phosphorusrich ribosomal RNA and other elements necessary to protein synthesis. As tumor cells has high rate proliferation, the growth rate hypothesis can be used in cancer study. In this work the dynamic of two tumors (primary and secondary) and the chemical elements carbon and nitrogen are simulate and analyzed through mathematical models that utilize as central idea biological stoichiometry. Differential equations from mathematical model are solved by numerical method Runge-Kutta fourth order

Atividade imunomoduladora de parasporina de Bacillus thuringiensis sobre linfócitos e monócitos humanos

Bacillus thuringiensis is an environmental bacteria that produces a group of crystallizable proteins (Cry) that are toxic for several insects and worms species. Recently, it was described a novel class of Cry proteins called parasporins (PS) that showed cytotoxic effects on animal and human tumor cells. Six types of PS have been described so far, PS1 to PS6, and their cytotoxic activity has been studied. However, the direct effect on tumor cells has been the current research focus, while the immunomodulatory role of the PS has not been studied yet. Therefore, this study aimed to verify whether PS of TC 2.3.1R6 B. thuringiensis strain has immunostimulatory activity on human lymphocytes and monocytes. We have evaluated the protein toxicity against human cells, the lymphoproliferative activity and the effects on peripheral blood monocytes. The PS-PK showed no toxic or stimulating activity on lymphocyte proliferation. However, it inhibited the spontaneous production of IL-10 as well as ConA-induced and the production of IFN-γ. PS-PK decreased the release of hydrogen peroxide and increased the production of TNF- α by monocytes. PS-PK performed inhibitory production of hydrogen peroxide and TNF-α by monocytes, whereas PS-Tp showed stimulation of the production of hydrogen and TNF-α

Escolha de pareamento com coespecíficos na tilápia-do-Nilo: efeito do tamanho do animal e do horário do dia

Considerando os conceitos de senciência e bem-estar animal, os testes de escolha e preferência são das alternativas interessantes para se discutir o bem-estar em peixes. Assim, avaliamos a escolha da tilápia-do-Nilo (Oreochromis niloticus) em manter-se em isolamento ou próxima a coespecíficos não-familiares de diferentes tamanhos (menores, similares ou maiores que o peixe-foco). O tamanho foi estudado por ser um fator determinante da dominância. Admitindo que o grau de atenção dos indivíduos possa ter flutuação circadiana, testamos também se o período do dia (manhã e tarde) afeta essa escolha. A escolha foi determinada pela maior freqüência do animal junto ao respectivo estímulo. Nesse estudo vimos que a tilápia-do-Nilo apresenta dois perfis de escolha: “decididos”, onde os animais escolhem uma posição em número significativamente maior de vezes; e os “indecisos”, que escolhem igualmente no mínimo duas opções de estímulos. No período da manhã há maior proporção de animais “decididos” do que à tarde. Portanto, embora não tenhamos detectado uma nítida escolha por tamanho de coespecífico o período do dia influenciou o número de indivíduos em cada um dos perfis. Assim, concluímos que a tomada de decisão na tilápia-do-Nilo varia em função do período do dia

Neoplasia mamária em cadelas: aspectos clínico-cirúrgicos

Oncology is presenting an important role in clinical practice as a speciality in recent years in Veterinary Medicine. Mammary gland tumors are detected mainly in old and middleaged bitches that are sexually intact or spayed and the caudal abdominal and inguinal mammary glands are the most affected and they present a percentage up to 75% of malignancy. The majority of dogs with mammary neoplasms are clinically healthy at the time of diagnosis and the tumors can be identified by the owner or a professional during a routine physical examination. Cytological examination of fine needle aspirates can be performed. This procedure is easy and low cost and some criteria that may indicate malignancy are evaluated, however to obtain a definitive diagnosis is performed histopathology of the excised tissue or from biopsy. Regional lymph nodes are the first lymph node to receive lymphatic drainage from the neoplasm. They are at the highest risk of regional metastasis, while the lung is the most common site for distant metastasis. Determining the clinical stage enables the definition of the extension of the tumor. As a consequence, this allows a prognosis to be established and treatment to be planned. The type of therapy to be chosen incites controversy since there are numerous treatment options described, but the surgery is the chosen treatment. However, surgery is not always effective for malignant tumors, and recurrences may occur and in these cases, auxiliary chemotherapy treatments are used. The prognosis for animals that have mammary tumors depends on several factors, such as: size, stage, type of tumor cells and clinical behavior of the tumor, age and medical condition of the animal, and presence of metastasis. Because of this, more detailed studies are needed based on epidemiological surveys in order to provide more informations about risk factors, prevalence and follow-up after treatment of mammary... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Nutrição e nutrição parenteral no animal hospitalizado

The beneficial effects derived from the nutritional support in human patients and experimental animal models include the improvement of immune function, repair of wounds, answer to the treatment, time of recovery and survival. In front of these benefits, we end up alienating the nutritional needs of hospitalized patients, especially those with clinical or surgical affections threatening. The objective of the nutritional support is to indicate the importancea and the proportions of energy and nutrients that the patient can use with the maximum effectiveness. The majority of hospitalized patients do not have voluntary food intake adequate to meet even the minimal nutritional needs. It is often perceived that lack of adequate food intake, will have serious impact on the patient’s clinical outcome. The nutritional assessment will help determine which route of feeding will be the safest, most effective and best tolerated by the patient. Diet choice is based on which of the patient’s problems can and should be addressed with nutrition and the feeding access available

Planejamento e síntese de novo candidato a fármaco útil para o tratamento de tumores sólidos

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Síndromes Paraneoplásicas em Pequenos Animais

Paraneoplastic syndromes are being increasingly recognized in dogs and cats in veterinary medicine as they often are oncological emergencies and may help in early diagnosis of primary neoplasm, performing a more effective treatment, which usually is the removal of the tumor, and thereby improving the quality of life of the animal and perhaps prognosis. The syndrome is caused by the tumor through the production of substances such as hormones and cytokines that are released into circulation and are responsible for the appearance of distant signals from the primary neoplasm. These syndromes can involve multiple systems of the body, among them we mention: the hematology, the dermatologist, the neurologist, endocrine and musculoskeletal