https://phys.org/biology-news/veterinary-medicine en-us Veterinary medicine news stories about diseases, disorders and injuries in non-human animals New research in PLOS ONE uncovers an important discovery in the study of marine mammal health by being the first study to detect Otariid gammaherpesvirus 1 (OtGHV1) in free-ranging South American pinnipeds, as well as a novel herpesvirus Otariid gammaherpesvirus 8 (OtGHV8) in South American sea lions (Otaria byronia) in the Southern Hemisphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-reveals-herpesvirus-south-american-pinnipeds.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:01:03 EST news628966862 New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation. The results are published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-genetic-mutation-quarter-labradors-hard.html Molecular & Computational biology Veterinary medicine Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EST news628942750 Owners of a popular dog breed are being encouraged to keep their pet pooch in tip-top condition after a James Cook University study found that Rottweilers could suffer from reduced lifespan after being neutered. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-neutering-rottweilers-affect-lifespan.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Thu, 29 Feb 2024 17:15:02 EST news628449301 A team of Chinese veterinary researchers has found high levels of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli in dogs with diarrhea. In their study, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, the group tested fecal samples from 185 dogs with diarrhea. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-antimicrobial-resistant-coli-dogs-diarrhea.html Cell & Microbiology Veterinary medicine Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:40:01 EST news628421385 The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, posing an immediate threat to wildlife conservation, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) in Argentina. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-avian-influenza-virus-marine-mammals.html Evolution Veterinary medicine Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:34:04 EST news628353242 A team of veterinary students and scientists at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Brazil, working with the Cannabis Development and Innovation Center, also in Brazil, has found that oral administration of cannabis oil to dogs can reduce symptoms of discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), a canine autoimmune-based skin disorder. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-cannabis-oil-effective-treatment-canine.html Veterinary medicine Wed, 28 Feb 2024 10:50:01 EST news628337832 Cancer is common in dogs, with some breeds being more prone to certain variations of the disease than others. Recent studies have shown that nearly half of dogs over the age of 10 will develop cancer, making early screening a crucial precaution for dog owners of any breed. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-screening-cancer-fingerprint-dogs.html Biotechnology Veterinary medicine Thu, 08 Feb 2024 13:31:03 EST news626621461 A multi-disciplinary research team specializing in canine behavior and artificial intelligence has developed an AI algorithm that automates the high-stakes process of evaluating potential working dogs' personalities. They hope to help dog training agencies more quickly and accurately assess which animals are likely to succeed long term in careers such as aiding law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-ai-dog-personality-algorithm-friend.html Veterinary medicine Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:36:03 EST news626434561 A puppy's jaw spontaneously regrew after Cornell veterinarians removed a majority of his lower left mandible due to cancer. Although this phenomenon has been documented in children, this is the first reported case of its kind for dogs of any age or breed. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-french-bulldog-puppy-spontaneously-regrows.html Veterinary medicine Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:11:34 EST news626019086 Small, long-nosed (or dolichocephalic) dog breeds such as Whippets have the highest life expectancies in the UK, while male dogs from medium-sized flat-faced (or brachycephalic) breeds such as English Bulldogs have the lowest. The results, published in Scientific Reports, have been calculated from data on over 580,000 individual dogs from over 150 different breeds, and could help to identify those dogs most at risk of an early death. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-small-nosed-dogs-longest.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:00:02 EST news626003158 In a new study, 38% of dog owners surveyed in Denmark reported giving their pups cannabinoids, particularly cannabidiol or CBD. Pernille Holst and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on January 31. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-surveyed-danish-dog-owners-dogs.html Veterinary medicine Wed, 31 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625914956 Goats can tell the difference between a happy-sounding human voice and an angry-sounding one, according to research co-led by Professor Alan McElligott, an expert in animal behavior and welfare at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK). https://phys.org/news/2024-01-goats-happy-angry-voice.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Tue, 30 Jan 2024 03:10:01 EST news625225142 A new mobile phone-based facial recognition application for dogs has the potential to significantly improve rabies vaccination efforts in endemic areas like Africa and Asia, according to a study on the research published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-facial-recognition-app-dogs-rabies.html Biotechnology Veterinary medicine Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:19:03 EST news625317541 A "fitness check" of regulations in five countries, meant to protect animals during transportation, has deemed that they all fall short of fully protecting animals during transport. Findings from this interdisciplinary work involving animal welfare scientists and a law lecturer which compared animal transport rules designed to protect the billions of livestock that are transported on lengthy journeys—within Australia, Canada, New Zealand, EU (including the UK) and the US—highlight serious failures. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-animal-purpose-large-international.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Tue, 23 Jan 2024 19:00:01 EST news625235347 A study of more than 25,000 U.S. dogs and 238 breeds has linked dog size to varying patterns of risk for health conditions over the course of a dog's lifespan. Yunbi Nam of the University of Washington, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-big-dogs-small-sizes-higher.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news624702491 A team of biologists, life scientists and animal researchers affiliated with several institutions across Europe and one in the U.S., has conducted a meta-analysis of dog tail wagging to find out if the combined efforts of multiple research efforts might explain the behavior. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the group describes several theories that have been developed and which they see as the most likely possibilities. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-meta-analysis-dogs-wag-tails.html Evolution Veterinary medicine Wed, 17 Jan 2024 11:02:53 EST news624711770 If you've ever taken a car trip through a rural area, you might already know that livestock, including cows and sheep, can be individually tracked using decidedly old-fashioned methods, such as ear tags or even branding marks. By contrast, many tech-savvy pet owners have opted to have their dog or cat "chipped" by having a radio frequency identification (RFID) permanently implanted under the skin. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-customizable-polymer-molds-microneedle-tattoos.html Biotechnology Veterinary medicine Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:29:45 EST news624194981 Veterinary researchers at the University of Liverpool, along with partners at Dogs Trust, have developed a unique approach to detecting and predicting dog mobility issues. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-unique-approach-dog-mobility-issues.html Veterinary medicine Mon, 08 Jan 2024 11:08:03 EST news623934481 Research shows that three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases are passed from animals to humans; an illness of this type is known as zoonosis (plural: zoonoses). Farm animals, especially pigs and poultry, pose a high risk of zoonotic infection. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-animal-welfare-health-case-farm.html Veterinary medicine Agriculture Mon, 08 Jan 2024 09:19:16 EST news623927952 Scientists from the University of Nottingham are one step closer to understanding how bacteria, such as E. coli and Salmonella enterica, share genetic material which makes them resistant to antibiotics. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-chicken-farms-ground-antibiotic.html Cell & Microbiology Veterinary medicine Fri, 05 Jan 2024 10:11:04 EST news623671861 Dogs are humans' best friends. Need to quickly locate a bomb? There's a dog for that. Can't see very well? There's a dog for that. Searching for a lost hiker in the mountains or survivors in an earthquake, diagnosing illness, comforting the bereft—there are dogs for every need. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-exposure-cigarette-cancer-dogs.html Veterinary medicine Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:05:04 EST news623509501 A University of Queensland-led study has found humans can tell if chickens are excited or displeased, just by the sound of their clucks. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-chicken-humans-clucking-code.html Veterinary medicine Agriculture Wed, 03 Jan 2024 11:20:16 EST news623503211 Dog owners may need to learn to appreciate their best friend's urine. Scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University have devised an efficient, non-invasive, and pain-free method to reprogram canine stem cells from urine samples, bringing furry companions one step closer to veterinary regenerative treatment. Their findings have been published in Stem Cell Reports . https://phys.org/news/2023-12-future-canine-stem-cell-therapy.html Molecular & Computational biology Veterinary medicine Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:00:02 EST news622373026 A team of animal science specialists at Teikyo University of Science, working with a colleague from Showa University, all in Japan, has found that most dogs have an eye color that is darker than their closet wolf relative, suggesting that darker eye color has evolved due to domestication. In their study, reported in the journal Royal Science Open Science, the group compared the eye color of multiple wolves and dogs. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-domestication-dogs-darker-irises.html Evolution Veterinary medicine Wed, 20 Dec 2023 11:40:02 EST news622293227 An international team of scientists led by geneticists and disease biologists from the University of Oxford and LMU Munich have used ancient DNA to trace the evolution of Marek's Disease Virus (MDV). This global pathogen causes fatal infections in unvaccinated chickens and costs the poultry industry over $1 billion per year. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ancient-dna-reveals-chicken-virus.html Evolution Veterinary medicine Thu, 14 Dec 2023 14:00:02 EST news621765579 Cats tend to dictate games of fetch with their owners and most cats who play fetch learned to do so without explicit training, according to a survey of 924 cat owners published in Scientific Reports. The findings also highlight the variety of objects that cats prefer to fetch, including hair ties and bottle parts. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-cats-playing-game-unfolds.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Thu, 14 Dec 2023 11:00:02 EST news621768210 All dog owners think that their pups are special. Science now has documented that some rare dogs are even more special. They have a talent for learning hundreds of names of dog toys. Due to the extreme rarity of this phenomenon, until recently, very little was known about these dogs, as most of the studies that documented this ability included only a small sample of one or two dogs. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-reveals-characteristics-group-uniquely-gifted.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Thu, 14 Dec 2023 05:00:01 EST news621709221 Flat-faced dog breeds are popular all over the world. In the U.S. and in Hungary, the French bulldog is currently the most common breed. However, their popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: Shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-dogs-affects.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Wed, 13 Dec 2023 16:15:35 EST news621706533 Nottingham Trent University research revealed how carnivores became significantly more active and engaged more with their enclosures when given additional enrichment such as different types of feeding, new structures, the introduction of manipulable objects and techniques to trigger their smell senses. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-zoo-housed-carnivores-react-positively-enclosures.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Tue, 12 Dec 2023 12:55:03 EST news621608101 Researchers from the University of Minnesota partnered with Mayo Clinic to conduct a groundbreaking study that could offer hope for dogs, and potentially humans, diagnosed with osteosarcoma— a devastating bone cancer predominantly affecting children, adolescents and young adults. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-viral-treatment-effective-devastating-bone.html Biotechnology Veterinary medicine Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:08:03 EST news621180481