Research

Funding: Industry (Feed manifacturing) , 20.178 EUR

Project Details:
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Funding: Industry (Animal breeding), 57.481 EUR

Project Details:
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Funding: 111.250 EUR

Funding: Industry (Feed manifacturing) , 13.595 EUR

Project Details:
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Funding: VolkswagenStiftung, 119.700 EUR

Project Details:
By means of the Planning Grant, preliminary work will be carried out for a full proposal in the VW Foundation's Kurswechsel program. The goal is to develop a qualification concept that enables young researchers to use networks, big data analytics, pervasive connectivity and computing, and artificial intelligence in a meaningful way for the welfare of farm animals.

Results:

The full proposal was completed, but not successful.

Cooperation Partners:

Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Datentechnik und Kommunikationsnetze

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), 8.400 EUR

Project Details:
The aim of this project was to establish an international cooperation between German and Costa Rican scientists specialized in the fields of veterinary medicine and public health. The main topic was animal husbandry and its importance in the development of antibiotic resistance, with a first focus on aquaculture systems in Costa Rica, which are used for the production of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Results:

The full proposal was written and submitted.

Cooperation Partners:

Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

National University of Costa Rica

Funding: BMBF/DLR, Zoonoseplattform, 100.000 EUR

Project Details:
diese in den meisten Geweben in vivo deutlich niedriger sind. Im Falle einer Infektion und der daraus resultierenden Entzündung kommt es zu einer massiven Absenkung der Sauerstofflevel, zu einer sogenannten Hypoxie, die die Wirt-Pathogen-Interaktion wesentlich beeinflussen kann. Zahlreiche Studien inklusive aktueller Publikationen der Antragsteller belegen, dass die Sauerstoffverfügbarkeit signifikante Auswirkungen auf zelluläre Prozesse im Laufe einer Infektion hat. Untersuchungen, welche die Wirts-Erregerabwehr unter physiologischen Sauerstoffbedingungen charakterisieren, sind daher unbedingt von Nöten, um die grundlegenden Reaktionen der Zelle besser zu verstehen und neue therapeutische und prophylaktische Ansätze entwickeln zu können. Leider gibt es bisher unzureichende Daten darüber, wie stark die Sauerstoffwerte im infizierten Gewebe tatsächlich absinken, um diese Bedingungen dann auch für molekulare und zelluläre in vitro Versuche umsetzen zu können.
Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die physiologisch und pathophysiologisch relevanten Sauerstofflevel im Laufe einer bakteriellen zoonotischen Infektion zu detektieren, um diese für in vivo nahe Studien der Wirt-Pathogen-Interaktion anwenden zu können. Im Fokus des hiermit beantragten Versuchsvorhabens steht als Beispiel die Erforschung der Interaktion von Streptococcus (S.) suis als zoonotischer Krankheits- und Modellkeim mit dem Schwein als natürlichen Wirt sowie das Modell für die S. suis Meningitis beim Menschen. Da die Sauerstoffbedingungen während einer bakteriellen Meningitis wie auch bei anderen Infektionsgeschehen im Vergleich zum gesunden Tier im Liquor nicht bekannt sind, ist zunächst das erste Ziel, die Sauerstofflevel während in vivo Tierversuchen genau zu charakterisieren. Zusätzlich sollen die Systeme für die Sauerstoffmessungen auch für weitere Gewebetypen in vivo angepasst und etabliert werden, um die technische Expertise zukünftig Kooperationspartnern zur Verfügung stellen zu können. Schließlich sollen im Labor etablierte porcine und humane in vitro Systeme an die detektierten in vivo physiologischen und pathophysiologischen Sauerstofflevel für Studien der Wirt-Pathogen-Interaktion sowie der Suche nach neuen therapeutischen Ansätzen angepasst werden.
Die zu erwartenden Ergebnisse stellen sowohl technisch wie auch inhaltlich einen hohen Mehrwert für die vernetzte Zoonoseforschung dar und sollen mittels eines Workshops an Mitglieder der Zoonoseplattform weitergegeben werden. Die Zusammenarbeit der Zoonosenplattform mit den Antragstellern soll dazu dienen, technische Expertise, Erfahrungen und Wissen auszutauschen. Dadurch sollen zukünftig neue innovative Projekte mit weiteren Erregern über die Speziesgrenzen in Kooperation mit Mitgliedern der Zoonoseplattform basierend auf der Thematik "Hypoxie"" und den im Rahmen dieses Projektes etablierten Techniken imitiert werden."

Results:

de Buhr N, Martens A, Meurer M, Bonilla MC, Söbbeler F, Twele L, Neudeck S, Wendt M, Beineke A, Kästner S, von Köckritz-Blickwede M. 2021. In vivo oxygen measurement in cerebrospinal fluid of pigs to determine physiologic and pathophysiologic oxygen values during CNS infections. BMC Neurosci 22:45.

 

Martens A, de Buhr N, Ishikawa H, Schroten H, von Köckritz-Blickwede M. 2022. Characterization of Oxygen Levels in an Uninfected and Infected Human Blood-Cerebrospinal-Fluid-Barrier Model. Cells 11:151.

Funding: University of Gedansk, Polen, 1.080 EUR

Project Details:
In this project a full dissection of marine mammals stranded on the Polish Baltic coast will be conducted. This includes an external examination and morphometric measurements , visual inspection and description of the state of internal organs, issue sampling for further analysis, segregation and description and securing of samples. Assessment of the age of dissected individuals, making a test of the parasites and making a report from the section.

Funding: Industry (Veterinary pharmaceuticals/Vaccines), 65.000 EUR

Funding: Landesbetrieb f. Küstenschutz, Nationalpark u. Meeresschutz Schleswig-Holstein, Tönning, 51.769 EUR

Project Details:
Harbor porpoises are representatives of the top predators from the group of mammals in the North Sea and Wadden Sea. With the amendment of the National Park Act in 1999, part of the national park was explicitly dedicated to harbor porpoise protection, as a high density of mother-calf groups was found there. As part of the reorganization of the Federal-Länder Marine Program (BLMP), a program for joint monitoring of marine mammals was agreed upon in January 2011, which meets the requirements of monitoring according to the relevant European guidelines and international conventions. In this program, the Schleswig-Holstein National Park Administration (NPV) within the Schleswig-Holstein State Agency for Coastal Protection, National Parks and Marine Conservation (LKN) has the task of organizing, implementing and financing the acoustic monitoring of harbor porpoises. The acoustic surveys for the NPV are conducted by the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) as part of the joint marine mammal monitoring under the BLMP. For this purpose, monitoring stations are operated at four specified locations in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (Lister Tief, Meldorfer Bucht, Rochelsteert, and Westerland). The monitoring stations are equipped with click detectors (C-PODs), which record the echolocation activity of harbor porpoises. The C-PODs are maintained and read out on a regular basis. The data obtained will be evaluated against the background of the optimization of the acoustic monitoring as well as necessary extensions in case of a permanent operation of the monitoring stations. The data of this long-term study provide information about a possible rhythmicity as well as tidal dependence in the porpoise detection over the day and over the course of a year.

Results:

The analysis of the data showed that harbor porpoises have been recorded at all four monitoring positions over the study period to date. However, spatial (between stations) and temporal differences (individual years, over the course of a year, over the course of a day) in detection rates were noted. At the station Lister Tief (LT), on the eastern side of Sylt, the lowest detection rates were recorded. The station Westerland (WL), west of Sylt in the whale sanctuary, has the highest detection rates (maximum per day) over the study period. The station Meldorfer Bucht (MB), which is located in the immediate vicinity of Büsum harbor, also showed very high detection rates, with an increasing trend in the summer months. The modeling of the individual stations could clearly show that there is a strong seasonality in the harbor porpoise detections. All stations show a maximum in detections in spring, in the period from mid-March to mid-April. This period is just before the phase of the highest birth rate, which lasts from mid-June to the end of July. During this period, increased detections were only detected at station MB. Approximately two months after the birthing phase, the mating season of harbor porpoises in the North Sea begins. Within this period, an increased detection was observed at Rochelsteert station (RS) in contrast to all other stations. This could be an indication that the area around the station is used for mating. The calves are suckled for about 10 months, but start eating solid food, in the form of small shrimp-like crabs (Euphausiidae, e.g., North Sea shrimp), at about five months of age. During this stage, an increase in detection rates was noted at Station LT. It is conceivable that juvenile harbor porpoises visit shallow water areas, such as at station LT, to seek benthic first solid food.

 

Time of day had little effect on detection rates over the entire study period. However, a pattern in diurnal rhythms with more frequent detections in the morning hours was observed at Station LT. A similar pattern was also evident at station RS, with slightly higher detections, spread throughout the day.

The influence of the tide is more pronounced than the diurnal rhythmicity and could be observed at high tide or in the phases between high and low tide. Station LT shows increased detection rates just before low water and a minimum during high water. When comparing stations WL and RS with MB, an opposite effect is observed. Station MB shows a minimum in detection rates shortly after high tide, which translates into a maximum during high tide at stations WL and RS.

 

The Wadden Sea monitoring has so far generated robust and continuous long-term data sets of nine years of harbor porpoise click activity. With these unique data sets, it is possible to build models that provide information on harbor porpoise presence in the Wadden Sea and the influence of possible environmental parameters. The increase of the data base over the years has shown that the models provide an increasingly clear picture of the influence of abiotic factors on harbor porpoises. The assessments of harbor porpoise presence required by international agreements (MSFD and trilateral agreements) can currently only be carried out on a temporal scale using the acoustic data generated within the project with click detectors. In order to further expand the data base and thus improve the quality for assessment, it is necessary to continue the Wadden Sea monitoring every year.