Research

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur Volkswagenstiftung, 75.000 EUR

Project Details:
Various studies have already shown effects of chemicals from everyday products on the environment and health. The European Green Deal therefore aims to better assess the risks of hazardous chemicals and in particular very persistent chemicals in a timely manner. Pollution from persistent and mobile chemicals is closely linked to prevailing production and consumption patterns and is determined by the lack of appropriate technical options. These chemicals also challenge regulators to develop and enforce effective policies. The project aimed at increasing knowledge on health and environmental effects on aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. In addition to developing solutions for monitoring, a better understanding of the accumulation of these chemicals in the environment, in line with the EU call with the planned research project, should also help to proactively prevent negative impacts of persistent and mobile chemicals on humans and the environment.
The project serves to build and consolidate a project consortium to ensure the project application and a joint timely application in this EU funding programme. The involvement of many European countries in the project consortium should make it possible to write the project proposal with experienced scientists from the fields of toxicology and health and to submit it on time with an external professional office for EU project applications.

Results:

In the project, a project consortium was established to ensure a project proposal and a joint timely application in this EU funding program. The involvement of many European countries in the project consortium made it possible to write the project application with experienced scientists from the fields of toxicology and health and to submit it on time with an external professional office for EU project applications.

Funding: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 41.976 EUR

Project Details:
In this project, the activity fluxes of indicator virus aerosols are measured under different parameter settings in gas flow apparatus.

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 97.745 EUR

Project Details:
The ongoing dispute over the future of livestock has enormous economic relevance in a state like Lower Saxony; in the livestock-rich regions, the issue is also becoming socially explosive. The issue is a major concern for society.
The aim of the project is to objectify the debate and contribute to a deeper understanding of the positions. The core of the project consists of analyzing the content and positions of animal husbandry and relating them to their own ability to engage in discourse.

Results:

The project locates and analyzes reasons for moments of failure and escalation in the farm animal discourse. At the same time, perspectives for its improvement are identified in order to point out possible turning points towards a more peaceful, respectful and constructive discussion about so-called farm animals.

The main results of the project are a discourse path as a suggested outline and a flyer with rules for discussion, which can be viewed on the website https://wiemenschenuebertierestreiten.jimdofree.com/.

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 89.827 EUR

Project Details:
The aim of the joint project between the TiHo and the MHH is to initiate an OER collection on the topic of "animal welfare and ethics" on the Lower Saxony OER platform. Based on preliminary work in the past three years, OER's on the topic "Alternatives to animal experimentation" will be started for the development of this collection.

Results:

As part of the project, an OER collection on the topic of "Alternatives to animal testing" was created with the following OER contributions:

(1) Discussing ethical issues

(2) What is an animal experiment?

(3) 3R International: USA

(4) 3R International: Israel

(5) Animal interests and animal rights positions

(6) Anthropocentrism, pathocentrism, biocentrism?

(7) The moral status of animals (with subtitle)

(8) The moral status of animals (without subtitle)

(9) Animal experimentation ethics: an introduction

(10) The 3Rs concept

(11) The epiCS test (with subtitles)

(12) The epiCS test (without subtitles)

(13) The LDH test (with subtitle)

(14) The LDH test (without subtitles)

(15) EU Directive 20210/63, Animal Welfare Act, Animal Welfare Experimental Animal Ordinance

Cooperation Partners:

Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

Funding: Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, 50.000 EUR

Project Details:
The projects`main question is if, why and how the welfare of farm animals is connected to the idea of sustainability and if animals`interests are playing a role in the present discussions on sustainability.

Results:

In current sustainability concepts, animals and animal welfare are only indirectly addressed in places, although this preliminary study has shown that their inclusion is socially desirable or even demanded. The extent to which the anthropocentric sustainability goals and the welfare of farm animals can be meaningfully linked will be the subject of a follow-up project.

Funding: LUH, 30.000 EUR

Project Details:
An efficient, cost-effective test system will be established to test a large number of people as quickly as possible
(> 1,000/day). In three process steps i) Samples are taken in mobile test centers
(Throat swab according to the standard of the Robert Koch Institute), ii) processed (RNA isolation) and iii) evaluated by means of PCR analysis according to the Charité Berlin1 protocol. Positive results from the screening will be
diagnostically confirmed by certified laboratories and reported to the local health department. The mobile stations
are built on the basis of flexibly set up shipping containers and both for taking swabs
as well as the purification set up. In this way, a strict separation between the removal and
the processing of potentially infectious material in the mobile container and the subsequent analysis of the
non-infectious RNA samples secured in separate laboratories.

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (MWK), 49.976 EUR

Project Details:
Ein neuartiges virtuelles Lehrmodul zum selbstgesteuerten Erlernen von Bestandstiermedizin auf Milchkuhbetrieben wird für Studierende der Veterinärmedizin der Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover entwickelt und erprobt. Auf dem virtuellen Milchkuhbetrieb werden die Studierenden in der Rolle des bestandsbetreuenden Tierarztes mit Hilfe von Learning Nuggets (Mikrolearning-Formaten) wichtige Grundlagen der Bestandstiermedizin aus den Kernthemenbereichen Haltung, Fütterung, Tiergesundheit und betriebliches Management erlernen können, um praxisrelevante Fragestellungen zu lösen.

Project Details:
Im Rahmen dieser Untersuchung soll die Digitalisierungsstrategie in Bezug auf die universitäre Lehre an der Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover während der COVID-19-Pandemie, ihre Nachhaltigkeit und Übertragbarkeit auf vergleichbare Situationen untersucht werden.

Funding: BMBF, 101.062 EUR

Project Details:
In dem Projekt ANI-CoV soll untersucht werden, welche Haus- und Nutztierarten für das SARS-CoV-2 empfänglich sind und möglicherweise dieses Virus auf den Menschen oder weitere Tierspezies übertragen können. Während sich bereits erste Studien mit der Suche nach dem Reservoirwirt und der Identifizierung von möglichen Überträgern im Rahmen des Ausbruchs in Wuhan, China befassen, fehlen bisher Informationen darüber, ob weitere Tierspezies SARS-CoV-2 verbreiten können. Dieses Projekt befasst sich daher mit der Fragestellung, ob Haustiere wie Katzen, Hunde und Frettchen und Nutztiere, insbesondere Rinder und Schweine, potentielle Überträgerwirte darstellen. Die Relevanz den Fokus auf Haus- und Nutztiere zu legen, ist durch den regelmäßigen und engen Kontakt des Menschen mit diesen Tieren zu erklären. Für die Untersuchungen werden verschiedene Zellkultursysteme (Lungen-Präzisionsschnitte, Explantate der Nasenschleimhaut, Air-liquid-interface Kulturen) hergestellt und infiziert. Neben der Empfänglichkeit einzelner Tierspezies soll auch der Einfluss der SARS-CoV-2 Infektion auf die Morphologie und Funktion der infizierten Zellen untersucht werden. Ein weiterer Fokus soll hierbei auf SARS-CoV-2 induzierter und veränderter Zilienmorphologie und -Aktivität gelegt werden.

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 116.300 EUR

Project Details:
Neozoa are alien or non-native animal species that have been directly or indirectly introduced into a new habitat by humans. Intentional and unintentional introductions pose a threat to biodiversity worldwide. One prominent example is the raccoon. This problem is well known and is taken into account in Germany, for example, in the Federal Nature Conservation Act and the National Biodiversity Strategy. However, it is often unclear how introduced animal species should be dealt with. Prevention is the top priority. The aim is to prevent new species from being introduced and spreading. However, depending on the species and the invasiveness assessment by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, animals are also removed and killed. This leads to a conflict between animal welfare, species protection and environmental protection. Although animal-related issues are usually discussed very emotionally, this problem has so far only been partially recognized by the public. For this reason, this area of conflict will be addressed during the project and discussed with various interest groups. The focus will be on two projects of the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation, which deal with the introduction of the nutria, originally from South America.

Results:

Gethöffer, F.; Kirberg, S.; Schöttes, F.; Siebert, U. Der Umgang mit Neozoen: ein gesellschaftlicher Diskurs. Naturschutz und Landschaftsplanung 2022, 54 (6), 30-36. https://doi.org/10.1399/NuL.2022.06.03.

https://doi.org/10.1399/NuL.2022.06.03