Overview of research projects

Project Details:
The behavior of European hedgehogs after hindlimb amputation is insufficiently researched. While some literature suggests hedgehogs may cope well with such amputations, there is a lack of systematic studies to confirm this. This project aims to evaluate the gait of hedgehogs after hindlimb amputation during rehabilitation. Healthy four-legged and three-legged hedgehogs will be analyzed and compared using accelerometers to understand the impact on their movement and survival, ultimately contributing to more effective treatments and better outcomes for wildlife rehabilitation.

Project Details:
Salmonella-specific phages are isolated and characterized from bearded dragons. Their spectrum of activity is determined, and their in vitro and in vivo effectiveness is examined.

Cooperation Partners:

Robert-Koch-Institut RKI Wernigerode

Funding: MEKUN, 172.488 EUR

Project Details:
The occurrence of harbor seals in the waters of Schleswig-Holstein has increased in recent years. At the same time, the seals are exposed to an increasing amount of human activity. These include chemical pollution, offshore wind turbine constructions, the Fehmarnbelt crossing, shipping, military and civilian detonations (munitions disposal), fishing, litter, habitat loss and other disturbances such as tourism. The increasing grey seal population in the North Sea has also led to the predation and rape of seals by grey seals in recent years.
As part of this research project, a total of 30 dead seals from the Schleswig-Holstein North Sea and Baltic Sea are to be examined in-depth for their state of health. These 30 individuals will be examined in addition to the 30 seals that will be necropsied as part of the project, which is funded by the Supreme Hunting Authority in the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Areas, Europe and Consumer Protection of Schleswig-Holstein (MLLEV), bringing the total number of necropsied seals from Schleswig-Holstein to 60. Histological, microbiological and parasitological examinations will be carried out.

Funding: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, 233.000 EUR

Project Details:
The project aims to develop a time- and location-based, digital, and mobile decision aid for citizens who have found a wild animal in nature. It enables the identification of the species and, based on the symptoms, provides a help recommendation through a decision tree. Specific contacts for further information are also provided.

Funding: MEKUN, 394.000 EUR

Project Details:
Amphibians worldwide are confronted with a variety of factors causing a rapid population declines. In Schleswig-Holstein, these population declines can also be in otherwise widely distributed species and cannot be explained by structural parameters alone, such as habitat loss and alteration. Other factors influencing amphibians can include toxicological contamination and invasive pathogens. The effects of those stressors on our native amphibians are largely unknown. Furthermore, the extent to which the different stressors interact is largely unknown, although it is assumed that they potentiate each other. In order to implement successful conservation measures in the long term, it is important to identify and evaluate the relevant stressors. Based on preliminary studies carried out at the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) from 2021 to 2023, the project aims to investigate possible stressors for amphibians native to Schleswig-Holstein. This includes the continued monitoring of pathogens, such as fungi originating from Asia (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal)) as well as Ranaviruses and herpes viruses. In addition, of animal-related data as well as data on habitat-specific factors are collected to be able to explain differences in the occurrence of infectious agents. The collection of habitat-related data includes water quality characteristics (e.g. pH value, water temperature) and analyses of possible contaminants correlation with utilization, structure and surrounding vegetation over the course of the year.
In addition to recording possible stressors and their interaction, this study aims to develop a basis to evaluate habitats in the course of species protection measures such as reintroduction projects.

Cooperation Partners:

Rachel Marschang und Christoph Leineweber, LABOKLIN GmbH, Bad Kissingen

Annika Jahnke und Nadin Ulrich, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung, Leipzig

Krishna Das, University oh Liege, Lüttich, Belgium

Arne Drews, Landesamt für Umwelt, Schleswig-Holstein

Christian Winkler, faunistische Gutachten

René Seifert, Bündnis Naturschutz in Dithmarschen e. V.

Funding: Europäische Union, 142.547 EUR

Project Details:
The European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare (EUPAHW) is a research and innovation initiative funded by the European Commission (EC) to control infectious diseases of animals, and to promote animal welfare. Due to the close link between animal health, animal welfare and human well-being, the One Health-One Welfare perspective takes a prominent position in the EUPAHW. Within the EUPAHW, the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research will work with other partners on wildlife-livestock-human interface. The overall objective is to integrate the health of wild mammals and birds into the overall health surveillance and monitoring of livestock. Wildlife health surveillance contributes to the assessment of environmental health because wild animals may serve as sentinels for both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Improving wildlife population monitoring and surveillance of wildlife pathogens/diseases aims to detect the emergence of pathogens and reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases between wildlife and livestock and even humans. The information is needed to design, apply and support sustainable livestock and wildlife management systems. In this context, the EUPAHW will assess the impact of climate change and human/anthropogenic activities such as hunting, trade, feeding, rewilding and translocation of wildlife on the spread of diseases and the establishment of invasive species.

Cooperation Partners:

56 Forschungsinstitutionen aus Europa (https://www.eupahw.eu)

Funding: IDT Biologika und von der Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), 484.000 EUR

Project Details:
We will study the immunogenicity and efficacy of our vaccine candidate, MVA-MERS-S, when used in different single vaccination and vaccination-booster setting in the lethal k18-hDPP4-mouse model after MERS-CoV-challenge infection. Different vaccination schedules also include different time points of challenge infection. We will characterize the activation of MERS-CoV-specific antibodies and T cells. The protective efficacy will be analyzed by morbidity, mortality and viral load in the lung and the brain a target organs. Moreover, a histopathological examination of the upper and lower respiratory tract of the animals upon challenged with MERS-CoV will show any evidence of ADE and ERD, respectively. Another study will evaluate the impact of passively transfered sera from MVA-MERS-S vaccinated mice for the outcome of protection after challenge infection.

Funding: Stiftung zur Förderung der Erforschung von Ersatz- und Ergänzungsmethoden zur Einschränkung von Tierversuchen, 125.000 EUR

Project Details:
Chronic pain represents a significant health problem affecting approximately 20 to 50% of the world's population. Therapeutic methods are largely developed in behavioral tests with induced pain in rodents. This approach does not allow for pain treatment, leading to severe distress for the animals. Nevertheless, therapeutics developed in animals are not always effective in humans. Therefore, two in vitro models using human cells will be developed to quantify neuron-mediated chronic pain with the highest possible predictive power. For this purpose, stem cell-derived sensory neurons will be used (1.) to develop a luciferase-based exocytosis assay to easily quantify the increased release of neuropeptides (Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) involved in the chronic pain response. Additionally, (2.) an innervated skin model will be developed to quantify neurite outgrowth and the expression of regulated genes associated with chronic pain receptors and ion channels involved in signal transduction in vitro. The proof-of-concept for the use of these models in pharmacology and toxicology will be provided by inhibiting induced neuropeptide release, induced neurite outgrowth, and induced gene expression with therapeutically effective substances or by triggering them through the addition of exogenous substances. This approach allows for the modeling of molecular pathways of chronic pain development in vitro, directly in human cells, to avoid unnecessary animal experiments and to develop effective and safe therapeutics for humans. Following the project, the skin model will be adapted to model atopic dermatitis using induced pluripotent stem cells and primary cells from patients, aiming to bring specific in vitro disease models into application for the development of new therapies in cooperation with industrial partners. Furthermore, the project should serve as a foundation for further cross-disciplinary in vitro modeling, such as the simulation of chronic joint pain.

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Dr. Annemarie Lang, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Funding: DFG, 372.000 EUR

Project Details:
Der Begriff "innate immune memory" beschreibt das Phänomen, dass Zellen des angeborenen Immunsystems auf ein Pathogen oder ein Pathogen/Mikroben-assoziiertes molekulares Muster (PAMP/MAMP) anders reagieren, wenn sie vorher Kontakt mit diesem PAMP oder anderen Pathogenen hatten. Die stärkere Sekundärreaktion wird als Ausdruck eines Trainings des angeborenen Immunsystem oder als "trained innate immunity" bezeichnet, deren Induktion ein vielversprechendes prophylaktisches Konzept darstellt. Um dies für das Rind nutzbar zu machen, fehlen entscheidende Grundlagenkenntnisse über die Biologie relevanter, zu trainierender Immunzellen: die Monozyten und die aus ihnen differenzierenden Makrophagen. So ist noch unbekannt, inwieweit das hormonelle Profil und zirkulierende Stoffwechselmetaboliten von Kühen unterschiedlicher Leistungs- und Reproduktionsstadien die Monozyten/Makrophagen-Differenzierung und Polarisierung beeinflussen und wie dies das Reaktionsverhalten auf eine Stimulation mit Erreger-stämmigen Molekülen steuert und ihr innate immune training beeinflusst. Vor diesem Hintergrund soll im Projekt analysiert werden, wie sich die Zusammensetzung boviner monozytärer Subpopulationen, deren Transkriptom, das Expressionsmuster von C-Typ-Lektin-Rezeptoren (CLRs) und ihre Trainierbarkeit durch CLR-Liganden im Verlauf der Trächtigkeit und in verschiedenen Leistungsstadien verändert und gesteuert wird. Ergänzt wird dies durch mechanistische Analysen von epigenetischen Modifikationen und Effektorfunktionen myeloider Zellen nach innate immune training über CLR-Liganden. Die Analysen des CLR-vermittelten Trainings und der Monozyten/Makrophagen-Polarisierung erfolgen bei Kühen in den zentralen Lebensphasen, der Hochlaktation und der Spätträchtigkeit, um zu prüfen, wann bei der Kuh Differenzierungs-steuernde immunmodulatorische Strategien Wirksamkeit zeigen, die auf dem innate immune training-Prinzip beruhen. Im Projekt werden grundlegende Erkenntnisse über die CLR-abhängige Modulation von Monozyten- und Makrophagen-Funktionen gewonnen, die in der Prophylaxe peripartaler Infektionserkrankungen und im rationalen Design Leistungs-angepasster immunmodulatorischer Konzepte Anwendung finden können.

Funding: MWK Niedersachsen, 184.200 EUR

Project Details:
Die Kryokonservierung von ex vivo und in vitro Kultursystemen des Respirationstraktes verschiedener Spezies ist eine bislang wenig erforschte Methode, welche den Nutzen dieser Modelle als Ersatz und Ergänzung von Tierversuchen aber deutlich steigern könnte. Daher sollen im vorliegenden Teilprojekt primäre Zell- und Gewebekulturen wie Nasenschleimhaut-Explantate, Air-Liquid Interface Kulturen aus trachealen Epithelzellen und Lungenpräzisionsschnitte von ausgewählten Spezies wie Frettchen, Hund, Maus und Schwein mittels verschiedener Gefriermedien kryokonserviert und nach dem Auftauen morphologisch, funktionell sowie anhand einer Transkriptomanalyse untersucht und mit nicht kryokonservierten Kulturen verglichen werden. Insbesondere die Zilienmorphologie und funktionalität der Kultursysteme soll dabei im Mittelpunkt stehen und durch softwaregestützte Videoanalysen näher charakterisiert werden. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sowie die generierten Kulturen sollen Projektpartnern des Verbundes und darüber hinaus anderen Arbeitsgruppen über die gesamte Förderperiode zur Verfügung stehen.

Cooperation Partners:

Forschungskooperation mit der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover: "Mikro-Replace-Systeme"