Research

Funding: QS Fachgesellschaft Geflügel GmbH, 40.000 EUR

Project Details:
The aim of the project is to scientifically evaluate a combination of different approaches in practice and to comprehensively analyze whether the following measures significantly improve animal health and, in particular, reliably prevent enterococcal infections.

Project Details:
Diese Projekt analysiert Vorstellungsgründe, Symptome, Therapie und den Krankheitsverlauf sowie Spätfolgen von Kaninchen mit einer Enzephalitozoon cuniculi (E.c.)-Infektion. Dazu werden die Untersuchungsergebnisse von Kaninchen mit einem positiven Antikörpertiter gegen E.c. ausgewertet.

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.

Project Details:
Dieses Projekt wertet die Anästhesieprotokolle der Klinik für Heimtiere, Reptilien und Vögel aus. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt hierbei auf der Untersuchung und Ursachenforschung von Narkosezwischenfällen. Außerdem auf der Analyse der verwendeten Medikamente, Narkoseregime und postoperativer Versorgung.

Project Details:
Meerschweinchen werden häufig mit Urinabsatzbeschwerden oder Schmerzen beim Urinabsatz in der tierärztlichen Praxis vorgestellt. Häufig liegen in diesen Fällen bakterielle Infektionen als Ursache vor. Dieses Projekt wertet die mikrobiologischen Untersuchungsergebnisse von Harnuntersuchungen bei Meerschweinchen mit Zystitis aus, welche in den letzten 10 Jahren in der Klinik für Heimtiere, Reptilien und Vögel durchgeführt wurden.

Funding: Morris Animal Foundation, 62.488 EUR

Project Details:
We will investigate brain function, brain metabolism and gut microbiome in dogs to distinguish between epileptic seizures and a episodic movement disorder called paroxysmal dyskinesia - commonly mistaken for epileptic seizures - to improve diagnosis and appropriate treatment

Funding: Fritz-Ahrberg-Stiftung, 100.000 EUR

Project Details:
technique
Summary:
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an increasingly common food-associated cause of acute viral hepatitis. To ensure rapid pathogen identification and tracing of the infection sources, rapid and reliable detection methods are crucial. Various approaches are available for the detection of HEV, some of which involve considerable effort, such as cultivation of cell cultures or performing animal experiments. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification enables rapid pathogen detection with low-cost equipment and little work effort, qualifying the method for on-site application. Within the framework of the project a LAMP assay for detecting HEV in pork products and liver will be developed and validated. For this purpose, suitable genomic target regions will be identified and used for specific primer design. Assay validation includes analytical specificity and sensitivity testing as well as determining the detection limit in artificially contaminated matrices under the influence of product-typical background flora. Finally, the assay will be applied to natively contaminated samples to define the diagnostic quality criteria of the test procedure. In the second phase of the project, pig livers will be examined using the developed LAMP assay and classified into three categories according to viral load. Afterwards, liver sausages will be produced from this material and tested again so that conclusions can be drawn about the significance of the virus load in the raw material and influences of the production process on the viral load in final products.

Funding: Industry (Feed manifacturing) , 20.347 EUR

Funding: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Panama, 18.000 EUR

Project Details:
The evolution of different forms of parental care is an important topic in behavioral ecology, and it involves complex suites of associated parental and offspring traits. For example, some parents provide nourishment or selection and protection of suitable nesting sites for offspring. Understanding how memory guides individuals to locate or return to a reproductive resource is one of the major challenges in studies of animal behavior. During parental care, poison frogs routinely transport their tadpoles from terrestrial clutches to suitable deposition sites, and some individuals return to supply their offspring with nutritive unfertilized eggs. Thus, these frogs rely on spatial memory to exploit resources important for successful reproduction. However, it is unknown how the spatial abilities are related to the parental care traits performed by an individual. The aim of this study is to investigate behavioral spatial strategies and their genetic basis in the strawberry poison-dart frog, Oophaga pumilio. To investigate the spatial strategies in the context of parental care we aim examining ability of females and males to find a goal in a plus maze under experimental conditions. Moreover, we will determine the possible genes involved in spatial learning through gene expression analysis (RNASeq) of the pallium, the brain region known to be involved in spatial learning. Since females perform most parental care duties involving navigation in large home ranges, we expect females to have better spatial abilities than males.

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. Roberto Ibañéz, Ph. D., Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Prof. Dr. Klaudia Witte, Universität Siegen

Project Details:
The aim of this study is to examine a possible association between the
concentration of IGFBP and IGF-1 in blood and follicular fluid and whether this is also reflected in differences in local gene expression in the immediate vicinity of the oocyte. The IGFBP pattern in blood and follicular fluid of the same animals will be measured by Western ligand blotting and the IGF-1 concentration by ELISA. The local gene expression of components of the IGF system in obtained granulosa cells will be detected by PCR. Thus, a possible transfer between the somatotropic axis and the local IGF-1 system will be investigated and visualized by in vivo experiments.

Results:

https://elib.tiho-hannover.de/receive/tiho_mods_00007881

Cooperation Partners:

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg