Research

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 110.550 EUR

Project Details:
Social media are playing a rapidly growing role in human communication. If content is posted, imitated or shared on Social media which can impair animal welfare, it potentially reaches a broad mass of people. This project is intended to initiate a social debate on the subject of animal welfare on Social media, which is scientifically based. The aim is to educate potential users about the animals' expressive behaviour and needs, as well as the potential relevance of various depictions for animal welfare. Several functional groups such as universities, schools, veterinarians, pet shops and the (print) media are involved for this purpose.

Results:

A targeted search for pet videos with animal suffering was carried out on the platforms TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Numerous videos with animal welfare relevance were found, which were categorized according to their content. The scientific analysis of animal behaviour in the videos was the basis for determining the animal welfare relevance. In 82.4% of the videos analysed, the animals showed signs of stress. In 53.3% of the videos there was a risk of injury to the animals, and in 29.7% of the videos the animals were suspected of being in pain. The results of an online survey with 3,256 participants showed that 98.5% of respondents had already contact with animal videos. 41.7% of respondents said that they never/almost never searched for animal videos themselves and 73.8% said that they often/very often had animal videos suggested by the platforms' algorithms. Various print and online media reported on the project (e.g. Spiegel, Zeit (Leo), Hannoversche Allgemeine and various specialist magazines). In addition, those responsible for the project gave interviews on radio, television and in a podcast. Posters, flyers, logos as well as GIFS and PDF files were also made available to the public. Various functional groups were involved as multipliers through lectures at events and teaching opportunities for schools.

Funding: TIB, 104.334 EUR

Project Details:
Within the framework of this joint project of the TiHo with the MHH, it is planned to thematically expand and extend the OER collection "Animal Welfare and Ethics" on the Lower Saxony OER platform "Twillo" to include OER contributions on agricultural livestock farming, also from the perspective of public health ethics, taking into account the One Health concept. This is based on the great importance of agriculture for Lower Saxony. Agriculture there has a share of 8.9% of the gross domestic product. The planned OER will address the economic importance of the individual livestock branches as well as the different forms of animal husbandry and the state animal welfare initiative referring to it. Animal ethics, as an established branch of philosophical ethics, is sometimes very critical of farm animal husbandry. However, the ethical discussion of farm animal husbandry from the perspective of medical and public health ethics remains largely unaddressed, especially in the German-speaking world. Therefore, the OER should also support Twillo users in understanding the basics of the human-animal relationship in farm animals.

Results:

The OER named in the application were created and uploaded to twillo.de:

OER "Economic importance of agricultural pig farming"

OER "Economic importance of agricultural cattle farming"

OER "Economic importance of agricultural chicken husbandry"

OER "Forms of husbandry in pig fattening"

OER "Forms of husbandry in chicken fattening"

OER "Housing systems for cattle on conventional dairy and fattening farms"

OER "Farming husbandry systems for chickens"

As there were legal changes to the state animal welfare label by the end of the approval period, the OER "state animal welfare label" could not be created. Instead, the following OER was created:

OER "economic importance of livestock farming"

Cooperation Partners:

MHH

Funding: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), 115.800 EUR

Project Details:
The Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) Foundation deals with a variety of veterinary and biological research topics in different wildlife species. These include, for example, habitat use, reproduction, feeding ecology, infectious diseases in wild animals, effects of anthropogenic activities and their protection and management of their habitat. ITAW has extensive experience in working on national and international research projects. In addition to project days at the institute, lectures as part of the "Children's University", participation in vocational training fairs or interactive information stands at various events, ITAW carries out a wide range of activities in those areas. Environmental education has always played a major role and is reflected, for example, in long-standing cooperation with local schools. An important aspect of the international marine research projects, some of which are funded by the EU, is the development of communication material that is also aimed at schoolchildren. In the project "Marine Mammals Science Education", expedition boxes on the topic of marine mammals were created for the first time in 2018 and were successfully used by ITAW and all project partners in Germany and abroad (www.marine-mammals.com). Funded by the Volks-Wagen-Stiftung in cooperation with schools in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, further boxes have been developed and tested. They deal with topics such as parasites, viruses as well as bones and skulls and are based on various topics in biology tuition. These first research boxes can be borrowed from the TiHo website as part of school projects at the ITAW and enable independent and active learning in face-to-face lessons, see:

https://www.tiho-hannover.de/forschungskisten

Within the scope of the intended project, new research boxes on various wildlife and environmental topics will be developed and made available to schools for classroom and online teaching. These boxes contain experiments, teaching material, digital materials (e.g. films, PPTs) as well as information for "home-exploring". Furthermore, the individual processing of individual topics within the framework of homeschooling for two different age groups, among other things through diverse creative forms of work, is a component of the boxes. Interviews with scientific experts are also planned, as is the digital dissemination of lectures within the framework of the Children's University. Within the framework of science transfer, a selection of current research results and methods on the following six main topics is planned:

-Bioacoustics - Communication of wild animals
-Barriers to wildlife on land and water
-Effects of agriculture on small game species
-Threats and protection options for the otter
-Microplastics in wildlife
-Invasive species - e.g. raccoon, raccoon dog, woolly hand crab

Using these research topics from veterinary medicine and biology, students learn about research activities and scientific research methods through their own work.

Results:

Research boxes on veterinary and biological issues in various wild animal species were created. Science Transfer Mission (STM) lends out the research boxes for the TiHo via the website www.forschungskiste.com. There are "real" research boxes with experiments and teaching material available, as well as digital research boxes only with teaching material.

http://www.forschungskiste.com/unterrichtsmaterial

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. Kirstin Poremba, Schule am Meer (SaM), 25761 Büsum

Katrin Wollny-Goerke, Meeresmedien, 22397 Hamburg

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 119.980 EUR

Project Details:
Interactions between humans and wild animals in teh urban environment take place in many ways, indirectly and directly, rationally and emotionally. The discourse will involve various interest groups using variable discussion formats with online participation and accompanying data collection. Structured debates, including scientific findings and expertise, are intended to formulate theses on how to deal with animals in the human environment and create respective recommendations.

Project Details:
Ziel des Projektes ist die Untersuchung von Probenmaterial zum Nachweis von Mykoplasmen bei Schlangen, und die Auswertung in Abhängigkeit von der Lokalisation, Spezies und der klinischen Symptomatik.

Cooperation Partners:

Laboklin GmbH

PD Dr. Rachel Marschang

Marline Faulhaber

Project Details:
Ziel der Studie soll die Evaluierung der Ausbreitung von Ophidiomyces in der Schlangenpopulation in Deutschland sein. Durch Einbeziehung klinisch gesunder und erkrankter Schlangen soll eine Aussage bezüglich der Prävalenz getroffen und weitere Erkenntnisse über die Pathogenität und Auswirkungen sowohl auf das Einzeltier als auch die Gesamtpopulation sollen gesammelt werden.

Cooperation Partners:

Laboklin GmbH

PD Dr. Rachel Marschang

Lisa Schüler

Project Details:
Ein Verfahren zur Messung des Stresslevels über Ausscheidungen des Mäusebussards soll etabliert, validiert und anschließend zur Einschätzung der Stressbelastung von Tieren in Rehabilitation eingesetzt werden.

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Dr. Touma, Universität Osnabrück

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 49.500 EUR

Project Details:
Ergänzung der klassischen Lehre in Präsenz durch die Entwicklung digitaler, jederzeit verfügbarer Inhalte.

Project Details:
Frequencies of Glaesserella parasuis isolates resistant against various antimicrobial substances will be compared in the years 2006-2021

Results:

Wiencek I, Hartmann M, Merkel J, Trittmacher S, Kreienbrock L, Hennig-Pauka I. Temporal Patterns of Phenotypic Antimicrobial Resistance and Coinfecting Patho-gens in Glaesserella parasuis Strains Isolated from Diseased Swine in Germany from 2006 to 2021. Pathogens 2022; 11: 721. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.802570

Funding: QS-Wissenschaftsfonds, 28.229 EUR

Project Details:
The core of the research project is to answer important questions regarding the spatiotemporal impact of restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic on the value chain of poultry meat production. Data from primary production, structural analyses as well as data on slaughter findings, reported zoonoses in the German population and restrictions due to the pandemic will be linked to derive significances and correlations. From this, important propositions are generated, which address and evaluate the resilience to massive interventions of the integrated process chains in global world trade.

In particular, the project will demonstrate whether the reduction in reported Campylobacter enteritis in the population during the pandemic was due to changes in the occurrence of the pathogen in primary production, process flows in slaughterhouses, changes in consumer behavior, or other factors. The restrictions of the Covid 19 pandemic are included in the synthesis of the results.