Research

Funding: Drittmittelprojekt, gefördert durch die Fritz-Ahrberg-Stiftung., 100.000 EUR

Project Details:
(Deep)freezing is a process for preserving fat. Both the duration and the temperature of the freezing treatment influence the physicochemical and sensory quality of the fat and also the quality of the products made with this fat (Flavia et al. 2014). In our opinion, there have been no studies that have related the influence of the freezing duration and temperature of fat to the quality of the cooked sausage produced with it. For this reason, in the project pork and turkey fat will be stored after freezing for up to 24 weeks at -18 °C and approx. -80 °C. After 12 and 24 weeks, the fat will be processed to cooked cured sausages. The products will be directly characterised with regard to physicochemical (e.g. colour, pH value, aw value, antioxidative capacity), microbiological (e.g. total bacterial count) and sensory properties (following the DLG 5-point scheme). The products will then be cut, packaged in a protective gas atmosphere and stored according to the storage time, which is typical for the product in retail. The control products contain fat that was frozen overnight (for technological reasons).

Funding: Ministerium für Energie­wende, Klimaschutz, Umwelt und Natur, 308.493 EUR

Project Details:
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) is classified as endangered in Europe due to continuous The population declines. Meanwhile, its occurrence along the coast of Schleswig-Holstein has potential for conflict with the culturally established and economically important fisheries.
This pilot study will develop approaches to startle common eiders from mussel farms and allow a sustainable coexistence of conventional fisheries in the Baltic habitat and protected species. The main focus is the protection of mussel farms against common eider predation. However, the results can potentially be transferred to fisheries, to prevent unintentional bycatch of birds in gillnets.
Post-mortem examinations of common eiders will be carried out simultaneously, to find out about potential pathological causes for the population decline and gain an insight into the health status of the population. These examinations include bacteriological, virological and parasitological analyses. Furthermore, toxicological analyses will deliver information about environmental pollution load.

Funding: SwAM; Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, 93.700 EUR

Project Details:
The European Atlantic is changing rapidly, and it is essential that neighbouring countries have access to up-to-date robust information on the status of key species and populations so that future monitoring and management can be directed effectively and efficiently to achieve and maintain favourable conservation status of species and good environmental status of European Atlantic waters. The "Small Cetaceans in European Atlantic waters and the North Sea (SCANS)" survey is being planned for summer 2022. The objective of SCANS-IV is to estimate the abundance of cetacean species in shelf and oceanic waters of the European Atlantic through a large-scale multinational aerial and shipboard survey in July 2022. This is the most appropriate survey month because of the higher probability of good sighting conditions, and also to ensure that results are comparable with those from SCANS surveys conducted in 1994, 2005/2007 and 2016 (Hammond et al. 2002, 2013, 2021). Thus, this project will represent the fourth survey in the SCANS series. SCANS-IV will deliver regionally coordinated synoptic surveys in shelf and offshore waters of the European Atlantic. It will generate robust abundance estimates for regularly occurring whale and dolphin species and improve power to detect trends in shelf and offshore species. The outputs of the project are timely for EU Member States obligations for reporting under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD Article 8: due 2024) and the next reporting round under the Habitats Directive (Article 17: 2019 - 2024) (where applicable) and allow OSPAR/HELCOM assessments. The estimates are also needed for impact assessments of offshore industries and fisheries.
The project will be achieved through the successful completion of six work packages. The first two WPs (WP1 & WP2) focus on collecting data on cetacean abundance and distribution through implementation of aerial surveys on the continental shelf and shipboard surveys in offshore waters. The data will be analysed in WP3 to generate abundance estimates, trends and perform spatio-temporal habitat modelling. WP4 will consider the long-term security of the large-scale cetacean monitoring SCANS programme in the Northeast Atlantic and propose a governance structure to ensure the continuation into the future. WPs 5 & 6 will focus on dissemination of results, project management and reporting.

Results:

Estimates of cetacean abundance in European Atlantic waters in summer 2022 from the SCANS-IV aerial and shipboard surveys. Final

report published 29 September 2023. 64 pp.

https://tinyurl.com/3ynt6swa

Cooperation Partners:

Projektkoordination Dr. Anita Gilles, ITAW-Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

Joint Nature Conservation Committee, United Kingdom

Wageningen Marine Research, Netherlands

Aarhus University, Denmark

Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden

La Rochelle University, France

Instituto Español de Oceanografia, Spain

University of Aveiro, CESAM - Centre of Environmental and Marine Studies and Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, Portugal

Funding: Niedersächsische Tierseuchenkasse, 134.050 EUR

Project Details:
The project aims to develope and to evaluate a filtration system that can be used in natural vetilated poultry houses in transistion periods to prevent from AI entries via air. The lifespan of filters, filter efficiencies and the impact of air filtration on the quality of climate in natural ventilated barns are unknown. Therefore, investigations will be conducted at a natural ventilated turkey barn, equiped with a fine dust filtration system.

Cooperation Partners:

Big Dutchman AG

Funding: MWK, 75.880 EUR

Project Details:
Circular RNAs regulating the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the cardiovascular system.

Results:

https://www.umg.eu/forschung/corona/cofoni/

Funding: MELUND, 749.985 EUR

Project Details:
The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is (re-)expanding in all parts of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (SH) nowadays. As an aquatic mammal, otters mainly inhabit rivers, streams and lakes but also forage along the coastlines. Otters primarily feed on fish, whereas they are considered food generalists and also target amphibians, crustaceans, birds, mammals and other invertebrates. It is assumed that the decline of certain endangeredeD fish species can be linked to the growing otter population. Furthermore, there is an increase in conflicts between fisheries and otter conservation, both nationally and internationally. Therefore, an extensive evaluation of the current conflict potential between the growing otter population, fisheries situation and conservation conflicts between species is needed. This will be covered in the frame of this research project that focuses on fisheries, natural otter habitat and spawning areas of endangered salmonids in comparison:
-Installing wildlife cameras to assess the local abundance of otters
-Dietary analysis to investigate the prey spectrum of otters
-Determination of otter individuals using spraints (genetic fingerprinting)
-Evaluation of a potential conservation conflict between otters and salmonids
-Development of acustic deterrents to protect fisheries from otters
-Analysing reproduction parameters to assess the population health of otters using specimens found dead

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), 398.333 EUR

Project Details:
Virus emergence and re-emergence is an increasing public health
problem as globalization and climate change promote the spread of
infectious disease. This is particularly true for mosquito-borne
infections as mosquitoes continue to spread to new geographic
regions. Alphaviruses such as Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) belong to the group of
mosquito-borne viruses, which cause pathology in humans. The re-emerging CHIKV is causing long-lasting arthritis like symptoms, while
VEEV infection leads to encephalitis. Why the two viruses from the
same family cause pathologies in different tissues, i.e. joints versus
central nervous system (CNS), is unclear to date. This gap of
knowledge is reflected by the fact that few host factors for CHIKV and
VEEV are known. Here we capitalize on our findings that the
phosphatidylserine (PS) receptor T cell immunoglobulin mucin
receptor 1 (TIM-1) and a tetraspanin are host factors for CHIKV. We
hypothesize that (a) VEEV also hijacks PS receptors and tetraspanins
to infect human cells, (b) TIM-1 and the tetraspanin interact with
additional proteins to promote infection with CHIKV and possibly
VEEV and (c) that a subset of these host factors contribute to tissue
tropism of CHIKV and VEEV. To test our hypothesis we will initially
use unbiased state of the art quantitative proteomics methods to
identify entry factors and receptors of CHIKV and VEEV. Next we will
screen PS receptors and all 33 human tetraspanins for their role in
VEEV infection by RNA interference in human cells. TIM-1 and
Tetraspanin associated proteins will be identified by proximity labeling
in conjunction with high-resolution affinity enrichment mass
spectrometry. Finally we will investigate the contribution of the
identified host factors to tissue tropism of CHIKV and VEEV using
proteomics, single cell sequencing and virological methods.
Specifically, we will infect skin organotypic raft cultures and determine
the predominantly infected cell type as well as expression levels of
identified host factors in the susceptible versus refractory cells.
Additionally we will integrate expression data from online repositories
and measure proteomes of relevant cell types including fibroblasts
and neuronal cells. Using feature selection approaches, we will
identify host factors, which likely contribute to the distinct tissue
tropism and pathologies caused by CHIKV and VEEV. These host
factors will be systematically knocked out first in relevant cell types
and then in mice to delineate the contribution to disease manifestation
in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, this research program aims at
providing mechanistic insight into the infection processes caused by
two important human pathogens, CHIKV and VEEV. The results will
help understand disease mechanisms and may ultimately reveal drug
targets for therapeutic intervention with Chikungunya fever and
Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

Funding: COVID-19-Forschungsnetzwerkes COFONI vom Niedersächsischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur über die Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, 50.000 EUR

Project Details:
This project aims at
(1) Establish a database for BSL-3 sample biobanking from preclinical in vivo models of
COVID-19 disease within COFONI-network
(2) Initial review and meta-analysis of internationally available data on preclinical in vivo
models of COVID-19 disease

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 204.886 EUR

Project Details:
In this research project, systematic investigations on the development and the role of the immune response during Enterococcus cecorum infections in chickens will be conducted for the first time. Until now it is unknown, how the unspecific and specific immune system reacts on the infection.The results of this research project may be fundamental for the development of vaccines against this very important pathogen of broiler type birds.

Funding: Industry (Feed manifacturing) , 20.347 EUR