Research

Funding: Landesbetrieb für Küstenschutz, Nationalpark und Meeresschutz Schleswig-Holstein, Tönning, 83.205 EUR

Project Details:
As part of the seal live monitoring program, harbour seals and other seal species are caught with nets in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea. In addition to staff from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, this campaign is carried out with the help of experienced staff from the State Office for Coastal and Nature Conservation, seal hunters and other helpers. The seals are measured (including blubber thickness via ultrasound) and weighed. Blood, hair and faecal samples as well as swabs for bacteriology and virology are taken. Based on the samples, blood counts are drawn up and blood chemistry, cytology, microbiology, virology and serology tests are carried out. Furthermore, tests for heavy metals (hair and blood) and persistent organic pollutants are performed.In addition, parasitological examinations for the detection and species identification of parasites as well as cytological and pathological processing of changes in the animal body are done. If grey seals are caught during the seal catches, the named examinations will also be carried out on them.
The examinations are carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Virology and the Institute of Pathology at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, the Institute of Hygiene and Infectious Diseases at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, the Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch (FOCUS) of the University of Liege (Belgium) and the department of Ecological Chemistry of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH (UFZ) Leipzig. In addition to these investigations, seals are also equipped with telemetry devices as part of other research projects and doctoral theses.

Cooperation Partners:

Institut für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch (FOCUS) der Universität Liege (Belgien)

Department Ökologische Chemie des Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH (UFZ) Leipzig

Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)/PTJ Jülich, 165.805 EUR

Project Details:
In phase II of CREATE the subproject of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, aims at the identification and the establishment of health indicators for native marine mammal species in order to be able to assess the impacts of increasing anthropogenic activities on marine mammals and the marine ecosystem and to be able to detect them at an early stage. For this purpose, health data is analysed from about three decades, as well as data gained during the project, of native marine mammals from the German North Sea and Baltic Sea. The Knowledge gained in phase I on the spatial and temporal occurrence of bacteria and viruses will be used for more extensive investigations in phase II. The aim is to investigate a possible interaction between the occurrence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses and other infections, such as bacterial/viral co-infections or parasite infestation. It will also be analysed to what extent there is a connection between the determined causes of illness and death and the occurrence of certain pathogens. In this context, factors that are relevant to the population as a whole are of particular interest. The chronology of the data can be used to assess whether there have been changes in the burden on marine mammals over the last 30 years. Finally, the analysed data will be evaluated for their suitability for indicators, especially with regard to anthropogenic effects on marine mammal populations. The identification of such indicators would enable long-term monitoring strategies, promote the development of effective management measures and also feed into international agreements such as HELCOM and OSPAR. In addition, the data developed in the project will be used to create various Knowledge formats for stakeholders and thus communicate the here gained findings to the general public.

Cooperation Partners:

Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven inklusive Helmholtz-Institut für Funktionelle Marine Biodiversität an der Universität Oldenburg

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde

Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie, Bremen

Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

Leibniz-Zentrum f. Mar. Tropenforschung Bremen

Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung über Projektträger Jülich/Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Rostock, 443.773 EUR

Project Details:
The habitat of marine mammals is strongly characterised by anthropogenic use in the North and Baltic Seas. Marine mammals are sensitive to Stressors such as maritime traffic, offshore wind energy development, pollution and fishing. These activities can lead to habitat degradation for marine mammals, as habitat loss or fragmentation often occurs.
The interdisciplinary and cross-scale end-to-end (E2E) modelling System developed in the first phase of CoastalFutures will be extended in phase II to model the occurrence of marine mammals under different future scenarios. This novel tool now offers the possibility to analyse the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities on indicator species by generating a virtual environment. For the first time, simulations on the effectiveness of various management measures for the protection and Conservation of marine mammal populations can be carried out in phase II, thus providing Knowledge for action for the implementation of political decisions. The impact of underwater noise on harbour seals as a result of the expansion of offshore wind farms (OWFs) is estimated at population level using a multifactorial assessment. Animal movement models are extended to include aspects of animal physiology so that effects on the energy budget can be integrated, while the effects of other Stressors and management measures are also considered, taking future climate conditions into account. In addition, potential impacts, such as the role of OWFs as artificial reefs and noise impacts on marine mammals, will be analysed and assessed to explore negative and positive effects. This in turn leads to a quantitative assessment of the food and habitat base for marine mammals and the exposure to Stressors in the marine protected areas.

Cooperation Partners:

-Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling

-Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde

-Technische Universität Braunschweig, Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources

-Thünen-Institut (TI für Seefischerei, TI für Ostseefischerei)

-Leibniz Universität Hannover, Ludwig-Franzius-Institut

-Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven

-Technische Universität Hamburg, Institute of River and Coastal Engineering

Assoziierte Partner:

-Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie

-Deutscher Wetterdienst

-Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau

- Bundesamt für Naturschutz

Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / DLR, 182.810 EUR

Project Details:
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat that involves complex, opaque transmission
processes between humans, animals and the environment. The particular role of wildlife and the
environment in the emergence, maintenance, dissemination and transmission of AMR bacteria and AMR genes is widely unknown. In the MARRES project, AMR bacteria from grey and harbour seals of the North and Baltic Sea and of sea water (environmental - eDNA) will be determined to perform a targeted surveillance of these two marine ecosystems. State of the art microbiological techniques, genome and metagenome sequencing will be applied. The evaluation of published human and animal AMR data of the investigated areas as well as on a global scale shall put the obtained results from this almost unexplored field into a One Health context. The approach covers three One Health settings of marine ecosystems as one of the greatest players in Global Health. It promises to provide relevant insight into transmission pathways of AMR bacteria, including pathogens, and of AMR determinants between humans, wildlife and the environment. A database for AMR associated to marine mammals in the Baltic Sea will be established following the FAIR principles. On a longer term, this project should be the starting point to establish a transnational network between experts in the field of AMR and marine biologists in Europe. The implementation of a harmonized AMR surveillance in the marine ecosystem sector will significantly contribute to AMR mitigation strategies and thus to public health.

Cooperation Partners:

Project coordination: Prof. Dr. Christa Ewers, Institute of Hygiene and Infectious Diseases of Animals, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Dr. Iwona Pawliczka vel Pawlik, University of Gdańsk, Institute of Oceanography, Hel Marine Station, Poland

Prof. Modestas Ruzauskas, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Microbiology and Virology Institute, Lithuania

?ilvinas Kleiva, PhD, Lithuanian Sea Museum, Lithuania

Martin Hölzer, Robert Koch Institute, Germany

Funding: UBA, 299.799 EUR

Project Details:
With the melting of the ice in the Arctic, new areas are becoming accessible for shipping routes, seismic oil exploration, extraction of critical raw materials for new technologies (e.g. rare earth elements), and other anthropogenic activities. All these activities have the potential to impact cetaceans.
Studies performed on rats and humans show that different chemicals (including PCBs and heavy metals) can cause hearing loss and/or effects of noise exposure are more pronounced. However, a correlation between hearing loss and high levels of PCBs or heavy metals in cetaceans has not been determined to date.

The aim of this project is to identify and quantify the effects of noise and chemical pollution on hearing in cetaceans in the Arctic. Since cetaceans rely on hearing for all their daily activities, it is crucial to understand how underwater noise and chemical pollution (or the cumulative effects of both stressors) could affect cetacean hearing.
To achieve this we will analyze ears of cetaceans that stranded or were legally harvested including complementary techniques to be able to identify lesions in the ear that are compatible with noise exposure. Samples of blubber and/or liver of the same animals will be analyzed for selected chemical pollutants to determine concentrations of persistent organic pollutants and chemical elements and correlate them with the findings of the ear analyses. If possible, the findings of the PIONEER project will be correlated with comprehensive post-mortem findings of each individual to determine the impact of the overall health status on the specific findings but also how cumulative effects of exposure (i.e. noise and chemical pollution) can affect cetacean health.
The novel approach of PIONEER combining the results of the analysis of hearing structures and concentrations of contaminants in several cetacean species in different countries along the Arctic will increase our understanding on the effects of underwater noise pollution on hearing and chemical pollution on health of wild populations.

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Annika Jahnke (Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ)

Prof. Krishna Das (Universität Lüttich, ULiege)

Dr. Marianna Pinzone (Universität Lüttich, ULiege, und Norwegisches Polarinstitut)

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), 155.950 EUR

Project Details:
Abstract:
Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a highly contagious morbillivirus, which causes severe systemic disease with involvement of the respiratory tract in domestic and wildlife carnivores. Innate immune cells play a key role in the pathogenesis in a variety of viral respiratory diseases. However, the knowledge about pulmonary innate immunity in canine distemper is still fragmentary. The envisioned project is based on our previous work, in which it could be demonstrated that innate immune cells are able to carry CDV to facilitate cell-to-cell transmission in the respiratory tract and that restriction of antiviral signaling pathways of innate immune cells enhance virus release from the lung in canine distemper. The first part of the project aims at investigating the polarizing effect of CDV upon innate immune cells in vitro. Here the ability of CDV to influence the phenotype of pulmonary and blood-derived macrophages, and the maturation state of monocyte-derived dendritic cells will be analyzed by flow cytometry. In addition, virus-mediated effects upon macrophages and dendritic cells will be characterized by whole transcriptome analyses and functional assays, including mixed leukocyte reaction, as well as migration, phagocytosis and nitric oxide release assays. In the second part, the impact of macrophage polarity and dendritic cell maturation upon CDV cell entry and the capacity of modulated innate immune cells to transmit CDV to the airway epithelium will be investigated using canine air-liquid interface cultures and precision-cut lung slices. In addition, virus-induced cytopathic effects and ultrastructural changes, such as ciliary pathology and apoptosis induction, as well as the regenerative capacity of infected cultures will be determined. The study will give mechanistic insights in the dysfunction of pulmonary innate immunity in CDV infection and its impact on disease pathogenesis. Elucidating the regulatory mechanisms through which pathogens regulate innate immune cell plasticity will contribute to the discovery of therapeutic targets in morbillivirus diseases and prevention of virus transmission to other hosts.

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), 155.950 EUR

Project Details:
Abstract:
Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a highly contagious morbillivirus, which causes severe systemic disease with involvement of the respiratory tract in domestic and wildlife carnivores. Innate immune cells play a key role in the pathogenesis in a variety of viral respiratory diseases. However, the knowledge about pulmonary innate immunity in canine distemper is still fragmentary. The envisioned project is based on our previous work, in which it could be demonstrated that innate immune cells are able to carry CDV to facilitate cell-to-cell transmission in the respiratory tract and that restriction of antiviral signaling pathways of innate immune cells enhance virus release from the lung in canine distemper. The first part of the project aims at investigating the polarizing effect of CDV upon innate immune cells in vitro. Here the ability of CDV to influence the phenotype of pulmonary and blood-derived macrophages, and the maturation state of monocyte-derived dendritic cells will be analyzed by flow cytometry. In addition, virus-mediated effects upon macrophages and dendritic cells will be characterized by whole transcriptome analyses and functional assays, including mixed leukocyte reaction, as well as migration, phagocytosis and nitric oxide release assays. In the second part, the impact of macrophage polarity and dendritic cell maturation upon CDV cell entry and the capacity of modulated innate immune cells to transmit CDV to the airway epithelium will be investigated using canine air-liquid interface cultures and precision-cut lung slices. In addition, virus-induced cytopathic effects and ultrastructural changes, such as ciliary pathology and apoptosis induction, as well as the regenerative capacity of infected cultures will be determined. The study will give mechanistic insights in the dysfunction of pulmonary innate immunity in CDV infection and its impact on disease pathogenesis. Elucidating the regulatory mechanisms through which pathogens regulate innate immune cell plasticity will contribute to the discovery of therapeutic targets in morbillivirus diseases and prevention of virus transmission to other hosts.

Funding: Landesbetrieb für Küstenschutz, Nationalpark und Meeresschutz Schleswig-Holstein, 49.580 EUR

Project Details:
The ITAW has been conducting research on marine mammals for more than 30 years and, with over 50 employees at the institute in Büsum, has sufficient highly qualified professionels on hand. The aim of the scientists is to investigate the ecology and physiology of marine mammals and to assess the impacts of humans on the animals, their health and their population.
In the project "Monitoring of marine mammal strandings"", all reporting forms completed by the seal hunters are digitized and transferred to a database. This reporting forms are filled in by the seal hunters of Schleswig-Holstein for every stranded marine mammal, both for stranded sick or dead animals, and contain information on stranding date, location, species and condition of the animal/carcass. This data is summarized and evaluated annually in order to investigate trends in stranding numbers for the three resident marine mammal species and to assess the possible causes for the stranding. Furthermore, the data is regularly cross-referenced with the data from the cases investigated at the ITAW. This enables a more comprehensive and objective assessment of the situation of the native marine mammal population. In addition, more complex scientific evaluations can be carried out than before and the resulting findings can be used directly by the responsible authorities for the further development of existing management plans."

Funding: DFG, 482.000 EUR

Project Details:
Streptococcus suis is a frequent colonizer of the upper respiratory tract of pigs, but can also cause severe systemic diseases like meningitis and septicemia. However, pathogenesis of S. suis infection and the role of its virulence-associated factors, namely the pore-forming toxin suilysin (SLY) and the D-alanine-D-alanyl carrier ligase (DltA), is still not fully understood. So far, it is known that SLY damages different host cells by lytic pore formation and induces an inflammatory response leading to the release of cytokines, especially by monocytes/macrophages, and the recruitment of neutrophils. D-alanylation of lipoteichoic acids in the cell wall by DltA is known to increase resistance against antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and phagocytosis of S. suis by neutrophils.
Our aim is to clarify the role of SLY and DltA in S. suis colonization of the porcine respiratory tract, systemic dissemination via the bloodstream, and invasion of the central nervous system. Thereby we will focus on their influence on innate immunity cells and the crosstalk between monocytes/macrophages and neutrophils. We hypothesize that the host compartments influence the expression of sly and dltA differentially and that vice versa SLY and DltA influence the host?s innate immune response by modulating the crosstalk between neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages contributing to the resistance of. S. suis towards immune defense mechanisms.
To investigate this, we will use complex in vitro cell culture systems that closely mimic the in vivo situation of the three main host compartments: a co-culture system of primary respiratory epithelial cells differentiated under air-liquid interface conditions and alveolar macrophages, porcine precision-cut lung slices, a reconstituted whole blood model, and the blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier model. Infection experiments will be performed with S. suis serotype 2 wild-type strain (wt), its isogenic mutants Δsly, ΔdltA, and ΔdltAΔsly as well as the respective complemented mutant strains.
We will start with the analysis of sly and dltA expression in the three compartments by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting, followed by the investigation of the neutrophil and the monocyte/macrophage response towards S. suis wt and sly- and dltA-deficient mutants. We will focus on the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps, reactive oxygen species production, phagocytic activity, and the release of certain cytokines and AMPs. Finally, we will investigate how secretions from monocytes/macrophages induced by S. suis infection influence neutrophils regarding their transmigration, inflammatory response, and phagocytic capacity, and vice versa.
The detailed investigation of the innate immune response towards S. suis infection in the three different compartments will help to better understand the switch of S. suis as a colonizer to an invasive pathogen, and how SLY and DltA are involved in this process.

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. Sophie Öhlmann (Institut für Bakteriologie und Mykologie, Veterinärmedizinische Fakultät, Universität Leipzig)

Funding: Volkswagenstiftung, 657.600 EUR

Project Details:
Eine potentiell flächendeckende Wiedervernässung der Moore zwecks Revitalisierung und CO2-Speicherung führt über die extensive Nutzung zum Anfall ligninreicher Primärbiomasse, die nicht effizient für die klassische Tierhaltung nutzbar ist. Diese Biomasse kann bisher maximal energetischen Zwecken dienen, was aber in Zukunft im Sinne einer ehrgeizigen Energiewende und Kreislaufwirtschaft nicht mehr zielführend ist. Im Rahmen diese Projektes soll die Lignozellulosestruktur der organischen Rohstoffe technisch durch Vorbehandlungen aufgebrochen werden und die dann insgesamt besser verdauliche Biomasse anschließend für eine dezentrale Insektenproduktion genutzt werden. Modellhaft sollen Standard-Insektenlarven (schwarze Soldatenfliege) und Spezialitäten (Mehlwurm, Grillen etc.) aufgezogen werden. So sollen skalierbar hochwertige Rohstoffe für die Heimtierernährung oder perspektivisch neuartige Lebensmittel produziert werden.

Cooperation Partners:

Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e.V., Quakenbrück

Dr. Kashif ur Rehman