Research

Funding: Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL); Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung, 7.975 EUR

Project Details:
Development of a multifunctional barn concept for the animal-friendly keeping of dual-purpose chickens and brother cocks from chicks to food

Cooperation Partners:

Hochschule Osnabrück, Tierhaltung und Tierprodukte (Prof. Dr. R. Andersson)

Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, Fachbereich Agrarwirtschaft, Prof. Dr. M. Mergenthaler

Universität Bonn, Institut für Tierwissenschaften, Dr. I. Tiemann

Universität Bonn, Verfahrenstechnik in der Tierischen Erzeugung, Prof. Dr. W. Büscher

Funding: ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Sea), 22.760 EUR

Project Details:
There is an increasing concern on the effects of underwater noise on hearing of cetaceans. However, cochlear frequency maps (i.e. distribution of frequencies along the cochlear spiral within the inner ear) are still lacking for marine mammal species. The aim of this study is to predict the cochlear frequency map for harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), based on morphometrics of the sensory cells of the organ of Corti (hearing organ). Once the map for a species is known, it will be possible to identify the frequencies that are impaired once lesions are found in the inner ear, and have better understanding of the consequences for individual to have a hearing loss in a particular hearing range. In cases of noise-induced hearing loss, it will be possible to extrapolate the characteristics of potential sound sources that have triggered a damage. This map will be a crucial tool for management of the effects of underwater noise on hearing in porpoises, as well as improved decision-making in conservation plans for harbour porpoises and other marine mammals.

Results:

Morell, M., Rojas, L., Caplot, A., Siebert, U. 2022. Prediction of the cochlear frequency maps of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Report to ASCOBANS (reference SSFA-ASCOBANS-2022-002_TiHo)

https://www.ascobans.org/sites/default/files/document/ascobans_ac28_inf8.6_report-cochlear-frequency-maps-hp_0.pdf

Funding: BFG, 9.212 EUR

Project Details:
In this project, a diagnostic examination of nutria shot in 2020 and 2021is carried out, and liver tissue is made available for chemical analysis. For this purpose, 41 individuals from Lower Saxony will be autopsied, including a histologic examination of lung, liver, kidney and spleen tissue. In addition, an individual age determination (adult animal/juvenile animal), sex, nutritional status, general health status and a sampling of liver tissue will be provided. Chemical residue analyses will be carried out by the BFG. The diagnostic findings are presented and summarized in an Excel sheet and final reports per sampling.

Results:

In this project, a diagnostic examination of nutria shot in 2020 and 2021 was carried out, and liver tissue is made available for chemical analysis. For this purpose, 41 individuals from Lower Saxony were autopsied, including a histologic examination of lung, liver, kidney and spleen tissue. In addition, an individual age determination (adult animal/juvenile animal), sex, nutritional status, general health status and a sampling of liver tissue was provided. Chemical residue analyses were carried out by the BFG, the results were not yet reported. The diagnostic findings were presented and summarized in an Excel sheet and final reports per sampling. All animals showed typical traumatic, death-related injuries with histologically recognizable agonal changes in the lungs and the circulatory system. In addition, low-grade diffuse liver lipidoses were found in three animals, and high-grade urolithiasis was found in one animal. Five animals were pregnant females. Chronic interstitial pneumonia with a suspected infectious, presumably viral cause was diagnosed in 27 animals.

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 119.900 EUR

Project Details:
Im Rahmen dieses Projektes werden Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler mit verschiedenen Interessensgruppen in den Diskurs treten, um die Akzeptanz potentieller Alternativen zu herkömmlichen Proteinquellen zu erfragen, da diese für den späteren Einsatz als Lebensmittel von entscheidender Bedeutung ist. Der Fokus wird hierbei auf Insekten liegen, da deren Verzehr wahrscheinlich eine größere Herausforderung darstellt als der pflanzlicher Proteine. Ziel des Projekts ist es, die Verbraucherwünsche und -erwartungen sowie die Einstellungen gegenüber neuartigen Lebensmitteln besser zu verstehen und einzuordnen.

Funding: Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (MWK) Niedersachsen, 127.000 EUR

Project Details:
Basis_SOUVER@N supports the joint project SOUVER@N through accompanying measures. The project aims to strengthen the cooperation of experts and to identify the heterogeneous technical and organizational framework conditions of the universities participating in the SOUVER@N joint project and to promote their compatibility.

Results:

An der Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule (TiHo) wurden im Rahmen des Verbundprojektes u.a. technische Voraussetzungen für die digitale Lehre erweitert sowie Dozierende beim digitalen Lehren und Studierende beim digitalen Lernen unterstützt. Anleitungen zur digitalen Lehre und zu digitalen Lerntechnologien wurden neu erstellt oder überarbeitet. Für Studierende wurde ein neues virtuelles Mikroskop für das Selbststudium geschaffen. Lehrveranstaltungsräume wurden mit Technik für die hybride Lehre bzw. für Vorlesungsaufzeichnungen ausgestattet, das Lernmanagementsystem Moodle, welches an der TiHo eingesetzt wird, wurde erweitert.

Cooperation Partners:

1) Universität Osnabrück

2) Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

3) Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

4) Technische Universität Clausthal

5) Stiftung Universität Hildesheim

6) Universität Vechta

7) Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

8) ELAN e.V.

Project Details:
Frequencies of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae isolates resistant against various antimicrobial substances will be compared in the years 2006-2021. Frequencies of coinfecting agents will be determined.

Results:

doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.802570

Funding: Projektförderung aus dem Europäischen Landwirtschaftsfonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums (ANBest-ELER 2021, Europäischen Innovationspartnerschaft "Produktivität und Nachhaltigkeit in der Landwirtschaft" (EIP Agri), 89.794 EUR

Project Details:
Suboptimal availability and quality of drinking water as well as a lack of hygiene in water pipes on pig farms can cause animal welfare and health problems. Insufficient water intake due to technical deficiencies, low palatability due to e.g. biofilm formation in the pipes or a restrictive water supply represent a massive stressor for animals and can lead to health impairments that promote other diseases (e.g. ear and tail injuries, diarrhea).
In this project, a new drinking water pipe cleaning concept for piglet rearing farms will be established and tested for practical use in two rearing barns. The system, developed in a collaborative project and tested under laboratory conditions, will be used to clean water pipes contaminated with plaque, to destroy Salmonella reservoirs in the pipes, and to reduce endotoxin contamination. It is exspected, that ear and tail lesions will be reduced after cleaning the drinking water pipes in case that they are related to endotoxins. After technical, chemical and microbiological analyses, as well as examinations of the piglets, the drinking water pipe cleaning is carried out on the farms. A newly developed mobile flushing device and a new substance containing tartaric acid and catalytic additives are used. The substance is highly effective against biofilms and also destroys the genetic material of pathogens. The effects of this cleaning concept will be measured and evaluated on two farms in three baches respectively.

Cooperation Partners:

Landwirtschaftliche Betriebe

Aumann Hygienetechnik

ConVet GmbH&Co. KG

Funding: Herbonis Animal Health GmbH Rheinstrasse 30 4302 Augst BL, Schweiz, 4.300 EUR

Project Details:
Solanum glaucophyllum (waxy nightshade) is one of the few plants that naturally produces 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol glycosides (1,25(OH)2D3-gly). In the literature it is mentioned that the glycosides are cleaved before absorption and thus only the aglycone is absorbed. However, no data are known so far that confirm this assumption analytically. In a multi-stage approach, this question is to be clarified in vitro. To do this, a number of preliminary tests must first be carried out, including one focusing on possible cell toxicity. Since the cell toxicity of 1,25(OH)2D3-gly can only be extrapolated from the data for synthetic 1,25(OH)2D3 to a limited extent, this experiment serves to determine the maximum possible dose.

Cooperation Partners:

Herbonis Animal Health GmbH

Rheinstrasse 30

4302 Augst BL, Schweiz

Funding: EU, 8.320 EUR

Project Details:
The overall aim of the HELCOM BLUES project is to support regional capacity, coordination and cooperation with regards to developing effective measures to secure good status of the marine environment. This includes provisioning, and making available, necessary knowledge to advance the development and implementation of joint measures addressing common pressures, as well as to provide concrete support to the decision-making process within the Baltic Sea region.
The task carried out by TiHo focuses on highly mobile and under-reported groups (here: cetaceans), and considers several aspects identified in recent HELCOM review processes to be knowledge/assessment gaps and aspects of high regional priority. The harbour porpoise can be categorised as both a highly mobile and an under-reported species in the Baltic Sea region. At present, there are no functional regional HELCOM indicator(s) to assess status for abundance or distribution, which are two of the primary Marine Strategy Framework Directive criteria under MSFD D1. This clear gap was identified as a high priority for the HELCOM region. This task will provide support for the HELCOM indicator team and focus on improving methods and operational assessments of harbour porpoise abundance by HOLAS III, and on harmonising methods of assessment with other EU regions (i.e. OSPAR and HELCOM). The main aspects addressed by TiHo are:
1) Establishment of a harmonised approach to indicator development for harbour porpoises between HELCOM and OSPAR (of particular relevance to shared marine areas);
2) Assessing trend in abundance for assessment of the Belt Sea population;

Results:

final report of the EU project "HELCOM BLUES"

https://blues.helcom.fi/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/HELCOM-BLUES_Activity_2.4-Harbour-porpoise-Main-report.pdf

Cooperation Partners:

Project coordinator

Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), Finland

Partners

Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Germany

University of Hamburg, Germany

Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Finland

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), Sweden

Stockholm University (SU), Sweden

Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Sweden

Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), Sweden

Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia

University of Tartu (UT), Estonia

Center for Environmental Policy (AAPC), Lithuania

Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Latvia

Funding: Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, 21.010 EUR

Project Details:
Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are the largest animals found in the Wadden Sea in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Since the seals were placed under the protection of the Trilateral Wadden Sea Agreement and especially since the establishment of the Wadden Sea National Parks in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the severely depleted populations of seals and grey seals have been able to recover. The unique value of the marine mammals' habitat was confirmed in 2009 when the Wadden Sea was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Seals and grey seals are "charismatic species" and therefore play an important role for recreation and tourism. This is also true for the Wadden Sea National Parks, where marine mammals are popular and serve as a tourist marketing tool.
The marine mammals are promoted as a tourist attraction in various places in the Wadden Sea, especially through organised seal watching trips. They thus represent an important
ecosystem service contributing to value generation for local economies.
These human-wildlife relationships are not without conflict: for example, the overlap of the high tourist season with the seals' whelping and nursing season from mid-June onwards is problematic. While observation cruises carried out by established shipping companies adhere to standards such as minimum distances to the seal banks and navigating at an adapted speed, private pleasure boats, wind and kite surfers are much more difficult to control. At the same time, less national park-specific tourism offers with event character have also increased in recent years. It is possible that this trend will continue due to the increased
domestic tourism demand observed during the Corona crisis. The effects of these different forms of tourism in the Wadden Sea on the stress levels and behaviour of marine mammals have not yet been sufficiently researched. Therefore, these questions will be investigated from an international and multidisciplinary perspective.
Information on behaviour can be obtained through observations and telemetry, and existing data will be analysed in this regard.
On the other hand, the importance of marine mammals for tourism will be investigated from a tourism perspective. The aim of the project is to present a scientifically sound framework that takes into account both the interests of wildlife and nature conservation in terms of minimising disturbance, and at the same time the needs of the tourism sector and the local economy in terms of business in terms of enhancing tourist attractions and developing attractive wildlife and nature experiences.

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Dr. Julius Arnegger, International Tourism Management, DITF - German Institute for Tourism Research, West Coast University of Applied Sciences, 25746 Heide, Germany