RESEARCH : Fish communicate with one another using urine.

RESEARCH : Fish communicate with one another using urine. A paper published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology by a team of researchers has shown that at least one species of fish communicates with others of its kind using chemicals in its urine. The researchers inserted a partition in the middle of a fish tank that prevented fish on either side from interacting physically with one another. In some scenarios, the barrier had tiny holes to allow water to pass between the sides, while in others it did not. RESEARCH : Fish communicate with one another using urine. Also, some barriers were opaque and others were transparent. In addition, the researchers injected the fish with a blue dye that allowed them to see and measure urine being expelled by the fish once in the tank. The researchers measured how much urine was expelled under a variety of situations—in which only one fish was in the tank; in which there were two but they could not see each other; in which there were two and they could see each other but were or were not able to communicate via urine through the barrier—the team also used a variety of fish sizes and noted fish behavior throughout each test. The researchers looked at their results and noted that when two fish saw one another in the tank, they raised their fins and approached each other in an aggressive manner, and both emitted more urine than when they were not able to see another fish. They found that only when the urine was allowed to move through the barrier was there a noticeable change in behavior of the fish—in such cases, the smaller fish generally reduced its aggressiveness, yielding to the larger one. The researchers also noted that when the urine was not able to pass through the barrier and the fish were able to see one another, both emitted more urine than in any other scenario, apparently aware that their message was not getting through.

USDA removes animal welfare reports from its website.

The Agriculture Department has removed animal welfare inspection reports, enforcement records and other information about the treatment of animals from its website, citing privacy and other laws. Tanya Espinosa, a spokeswoman for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the information was removed from the site around 11 a.m. Friday. She would not say if the removal was temporary or permanent in the new Trump administration. The information is used by advocacy groups and other members of the public to look up information on commercial dog and horse breeders, some of whom have had a history of abuse. The reports included lists of animal welfare violations at those facilities and also at animal testing labs, and whether those violations have been corrected. n place of the online database is a new message from the department saying it is "implementing actions to remove documents" related to the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act that contain personal information. continue

Pet snake stuck in owner's earlobe.

Most people don’t expect their pets to send them to the emergency room, but that’s exactly what happened to one Oregon woman. Ashley Glaw, of Portland, took to social media and posted a photo from the emergency room after her pet snake decided that her gauged earlobe would be a nice place to hang out. Glaw said she was holding her snake Bart when he caught sight of the hole in her earlobe. She said Bart went through the hole so quickly that she didn’t have time to stop him. Then, he got stuck. Luckily, Glaw and Bart are both fine after doctors made a small cut in her ear and wiggled Bart free with the help of some Vaseline. source

Pot for pets: The future of veterinary medicine.

Cannabis for canines and cats is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to treat pain for your four-legged friend. It’s such a growing trend that many veterinarians are turning to holistic healing, using oils and even edibles. Could medical marijuana hold the key to helping our pets. A tiny pooch was helpless, suffering from a seizure, it was a terrifying moment for the family, seeing Sadie in pain. Sadie was given cannabis oil as she began having a seizure, and within seconds, the seizure stopped. Dr. Anne Lampru is a holistic veterinarian in Tampa and has been treating man’s best friend for 37 years. Over time, she began to realize that a more natural, organic approach to medicine was not only popular, but practical. Dr. Lampru uses a variety of cannabis products to help sick or injured pets, from edibles, to capsules, to oils. “Pain relief, cancer control, anti-nausea, for those that are on chemotherapy, it’s effective,” said Lampru. “This is just the cannabinoid oil. This is not anything with the psychoactive effect at all.” more

Bringing financial services to smallholder farmers.

Financial inclusion has made considerable progress in recent years. There are now a wide range of financial products which can help small farmers: debt financing, short term working capital to finance purchasing of inputs, long term working capital to finance machinery, equity and factoring. Whereas banks used not to want to go the ‘last mile’, ICT innovations have made it possible and profitable to do so. Vision Fund, for example, has over 1.2 million customers. There is nonetheless still a large financing gap for smallholders: $50billion is being offered, but over $200 billion is needed. This means that smallholders often have to resort to loan sharks. In India for example 37% of loans are still from the informal sector with interest rates of 20-40%. At the “Future of Small Farms” conference, organised by CABI and the Syngenta Foundation on 24-25 January in Basel, four bottlenecks were identified which constrain the growth of financial services to small farmers: 1)Little interest in agriculture shown by banks and formal lenders. This is due in part because they do not fully understand the sector, its needs and cycles. continue

Fake Doctor Nabbed For Carrying Out Illegal Abortion.

Fake Doctor Nabbed For Carrying Out Illegal Abortion.A fake doctor who allegedly performed an illegal abortion of a six month pregnancy in Akute, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State has been arrested. The crime was uncovered by a supervisory team of the State Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) while monitoring the level of compliance of the re-validation and registration exercise of health facilities in the State. Chairman of NANNM, Roseline Solarin who disclosed this during an interview added that the fake doctor was also discovered to have organised a graduation ceremony for a fake nurse.continue

Vegan ‘bleeding’ burger on Michelin-starred menu

Vegan ‘bleeding’ burger on Michelin-starred menu: Bill Gates-backed Silicon Valley start-up Impossible Foods will launch its ‘bleeding’ meat-free burger at two New York restaurants this week.

Hungary orders poultry indoors amid bird flu concern

Hungary orders poultry indoors amid bird flu concern: Hungary’s chief veterinarian Lajos Bognar has ordered the nation’s poultry industry to keep birds indoors as the country grapples with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HAPI).

EU hits out at South Africa's poultry dumping protest

EU hits out at South Africa's poultry dumping protest: The European Commission has expressed concern after hundreds of people protested in Pretoria, South Africa, against EU poultry dumping that has forced profit-hit chicken processors to cut jobs.

Insecticide resistance in mosquitoes.

A new study published in the PLOS Genetics shows that genetic analysis of mosquito populations in Africa shows that recent successes in controlling malaria through treated bednets has led to widespread insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying have been incredibly successful at preventing the spread of malaria, but their widespread use has driven mosquitoes to evolve resistance to these insecticides. By identifying genetic patterns that predict when and where resistance will evolve, scientists hope to mitigate the effects of resistance. In the current study, researchers used a combination of sequencing techniques and genetic analyses to elucidate a continent-wide population structure of a major African malaria vector, the mosquito Anopheles funestus. They identified a gene region that has allowed mosquitoes to evolutionarily adapt to insecticides by enabling them to break down commonly used pyrethroid insecticides. The resistance form of this gene has now swept through mosquito populations in southern Africa to become almost universal. This gene region has been implicated previously in insecticide resistance, but the evolutionary pressures acting on it were not fully understood. This selective sweep occurred after 2002, likely in response to increased efforts at mosquito control. The study demonstrates the intense pressure that the use of pyrethroid insecticides places on mosquito populations. If this pressure and the associated increase in resistance continues, then humans will no longer be able to control malaria effectively through existing strategies.

Sitting Too Much Ages You by Eight Years.

Sit less, move more. It's a motto worth repeating, especially as research accumulates showing just how detrimental prolonged sitting is for your body. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer and premature death are just some of the chronic conditions linked to sitting too much, and a new study hints at why: Being sedentary for long periods of time each day appears to accelerate aging at the cellular level. Among close to 1,500 older women included in the study, those who sat the longest were, on average, eight years older, biologically speaking, than women who moved around more often. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine gave activity trackers to a group of 64- to 95-year-old women and questioned them about their activity. Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day and got less than 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had shorter telomeres. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter, which is why they're used as a measure of biological aging. Eventually, the telomeres become so short that the cell can no longer divide and dies. For this reason, telomeres are also sometimes compared to a lit bomb fuse In the women who sat for 10-plus hours a day, the telomere shortening was equivalent to about eight years of aging. In other words, too much sitting accelerated the aging process by about eight years. Short telomeres have also been linked with chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.more

Timing of soy intake may help or hinder cancer therapy: Rat study

Timing of soy intake may help or hinder cancer therapy: Rat study: Soy consumption has been shown to have both a positive and negative effect on cancer treatment as the legume appears to exhibit specific effects according to when it is consumed.

Baker Perkins ServoForm Mini makes 3D lollipops

Baker Perkins ServoForm Mini makes 3D lollipops: Baker Perkins is targeting niche manufacturers and start-up companies with its ServoForm Mini starchless small-batch depositor for confectionery.

RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C.

RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C. Researchers at the University of Iowa(UI) explains that most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally,but this route will not provide the dose to kill the cancer cells. The UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C intravenously—and bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion pathways—creates blood levels that are 100 - 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C's ability to attack cancer cells. RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C. In a new study, published recently in issue of the journal Redox Biology, Buettner and his colleagues have homed in on the biological details of how high-dose vitamin C kills cancer cells.The study shows that vitamin C breaks down easily, generating hydrogen peroxide, a so-called reactive oxygen species that can damage tissue and DNA. The study also shows that tumor cells are much less capable of removing the damaging hydrogen peroxide than normal cells. Normal cells have several ways to remove hydrogen peroxide, keeping it at very low levels so it does not cause damage. The new study shows that an enzyme called catalase is the central route for removing hydrogen peroxide generated by decomposing vitamin C. The researchers discovered that cells with lower amounts of catalase activity were more susceptible to damage and death when they were exposed to high amounts of vitamin C.

Social media and suicide trap..

Social media has encouraged and in fact created a platform for many depressed people to end their lives. In a world where majority are self centered,lack empathy and have no emotional intelligence,hatred seems to sell and increase follower ship . People reach out on social media for different reasons and when expectation is cut short,they have no guts to live. This is a sad story of a youth told to commit suicide on social media;A grief-stricken mother from a northern Ontario First Nation is sharing the hate-filled social media messages her 12-year-old daughter received on the day of her death by suicide, in hopes of saving the lives of other girls in her community. "If I'd seen those earlier, if she showed them to me, I think I could have done something, tried to talk to her, not to believe those words," Sandra Fox told CBC News. Fox's daughter, Chantel, died by suicide early in January in Wapekeka First Nation, a few days after her friend, Jolynn Winter, also 12, died by suicide. Several other girls from the community, about 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., remain on suicide watch and at least one of them has also received messages encouraging her to kill herself. continue

Ferret fitted with pacemaker.

A ferret named Zelda is recovering at home after being fitted with a pacemaker during a rare surgery at Kansas State University. Surgeons say it’s the first time they’ve performed this type of procedure on a ferret, which required the use of special wires, given her small size, to bring energy from the pacemaker to the heart. The ferret named Zelda had a third-degree block in her heart, which caused a low heart beat and a lack of energy – but, thanks to the ground-breaking surgery, she’s expected to live out a full ferret lifespan of around ten years. The university ran a series of tests, which determined that Zelda was a good candidate for a pacemaker, although it had to be specially ordered because of the small size of her veins.As with a human patient, this condition called for the implantation of a pacemaker to help increase Zelda’s heartbeat and provide her a good quality of life. According to Emily Klocke, clinical associate professor of small animal surgery, the pacemaker is the same that would be used for a human but with special leads – the wires that bring energy from the machine to the heart muscle.source

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Dogs 'prefer reggae and soft rock' to other music genres.

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Dogs 'prefer reggae and soft rock' to other music genres. A new research has shown that dogs 'prefer reggae and soft rock' to other music genres. The Scottish SPCA and the University of Glasgow have published a paper which suggests music affects dogs' behavior. Researchers played a variety of music to dogs at a rehoming centre in Dumbarton and assessed physiological and behavioral changes. Prof Neil Evans said the most positive behavior changes were seen when the dogs were played reggae and soft rock. VETERINARY MEDICINE : Dogs 'prefer reggae and soft rock' to other music genres. All though these genres stood out, he said the study suggested each dog had its own music tastes. Prof Evans said: "Overall, the response to different genres was mixed highlighting the possibility that like humans, our canine friends have their own individual music preferences." The dogs were played five different genres of music: soft rock, Motown, pop, reggae and classical.The study suggested that dogs spent "significantly more time lying and significantly less time standing" when music was played, regardless of genre. By measuring the dogs' heart rate, researchers said they showed a decrease in stress levels when played music - particularly when it was soft rock or reggae. PhD student Amy Bowman said: "We were keen to explore the effect playing different genres of music had. VETERINARY MEDICINE : Dogs 'prefer reggae and soft rock' to other music genres. "It was clear that the physiological and behavioral changes observed were maintained during the trial when the dogs were exposed to a variety of music." The Scottish SPCA said it would now be investing in sound systems for all its kennels. The Scottish SPCA said it would now be investing in sound systems for all its kennels. Gilly Mendes Ferreira, of the SSPCA said "At present both our Glasgow and Edinburgh centres are able to pipe music into their kennels. "In the future every centre will be able to offer our four-footed friends a canine-approved playlist, with the view to extending this research to other species in our care." source

Proliferation of bird flu outbreaks raises risk of human pandemic.

The global spread of bird flu and the number of viral strains currently circulating and causing infections have reached unprecedented levels, raising the risk of a potential human outbreak, according to disease experts. Multiple outbreaks have been reported in poultry farms and wild flocks across Europe, Africa and Asia in the past three months. While most involve strains that are currently low risk for human health, the sheer number of different types, and their presence in so many parts of the world at the same time, increases the risk of viruses mixing and mutating - and possibly jumping to people. "This is a fundamental change in the natural history of influenza viruses," Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at University of Minnesota, said of the proliferation of bird flu in terms of geography and strains - a situation he described as "unprecedented". Global health officials are worried another strain could make a jump into humans, like H5N1 did in the late 1990s. It has since caused hundreds of human infections and deaths, but has not acquired the ability to transmit easily from person to person. The greatest fear is that a deadly strain of avian flu could then mutate into a pandemic form that can be passed easily between people - something that has not yet been seen. While avian flu has been a prominent public health issue since the 1990s, ongoing outbreaks have never been so widely spread around the world - something infectious disease experts put down to greater resilience of strains currently circulating, rather than improved detection or reporting. While there would normally be around two or three bird flu strains recorded in birds at any one time, now there are at least half a dozen, including H5N1, H5N2, H5N8 and H7N8. The Organization for Animal Health (OIE) says the concurrent outbreaks in birds in recent months are "a global public health concern", and the World Health Organization's director-general warned this week the world "cannot afford to miss the early signals" of a possible human flu pandemic. continue

Chronic wasting disease found for first time in wild Texas white-tail deer.

State wildlife officials are restricting the transport of live and dead white-tailed deer and requiring sampling of carcasses after the discovery of a fatal disease in a free-ranging deer this week. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department(TPWD) on Tuesday identified chronic wasting disease in a 1 1/2-year-old buck harvested in Medina County west of San Antonio, the first wild individual of its species to be found with the disease in Texas. The hunter brought the carcass into a voluntary state checkpoint for sampling. Chronic wasting disease affects the nervous system of deer and their relatives, including elk and moose. Mule deer were the first to be infected in Texas, with the first case found in West Texas in 2012. In 2015, a captive-bred white-tailed deer at Texas Mountain Ranch in Medina County was the first of that species to test positive for the disease in the state. The disease has been found in 25 states and two Canadian provinces, according to federal scientists. Wild deer can spread the disease among themselves through nose-to-nose contact and shed it in urine, feces or other tissue, said David Hewitt, a wildlife biologist with Texas A&M University’s Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. Though a buck may travel as far as 10 miles from its birthplace between its first and second year, the risk of spreading the disease far and wide comes from humans moving animals and carcasses around the state. To stop the spread of chronic wasting disease in wild deer, TPWD put new restrictions on moving captive deer or carcasses from a designated containment zone in parts of Bandera, Uvalde and Medina counties. Hunters must also now submit all deer harvested in that zone for testing, though general deer hunting season ended last week. Source

Poultry nutritional strategies to reduce woody breast.

At IPPE 2017, WATTAgNet discussed strategies to reduce woody breast with Rob Shirley, poultry technical services at Adisseo and Christine Alvarado, associate professor of poultry processing and products at Texas A&M. Woody breast is defined as breast muscle that is hard to the touch and usually cause texture quality issues for consumers and losses for the producers. The texture quality issues include fibrous nature and crunchiness, as well as overall unappealing attributes for consumers. This particular issue has become more common with the selection of high-yielding broilers, the trait is categorized on a scale of zero to three, with three being the most severe instances of woody breast. Nutrition is very dynamic, and so is the management of the birds, Until the genetics companies have bred this trait out of high-yielding broilers, companies can employ various nutrition and Some management strategies to reduce woody breast in these birds,discussed according to studies are 1)Feeding the bird up to 45 days of age. 2)Supplementing with nutrients that affect vasculature and antioxidant properties of the meat such as vitamin C or an increased vitamin premix. 3)Slowing down the birds by reducing the amino acid density in the grower phase by about 15 percent, e.g if you’re feeding a 1.09 digestible lysine diet, you’re going to reduce it to approximately .93 percent. These strategies have reduced the number of two and three scores to zero and one, moving toward more favorable breast meat for the consumer. Although more research needs to be done to determine what the mechanism is behind how each of the nutrients affects the overall growth, development and protein turnover of the breast meat from day of hatch to market age.

Chinese medicine fueling rise in donkey slaughter for global skin trade.

Chinese medicine fueling rise in donkey slaughter for global skin trade.Demand for hide, used to make traditional ejiao, has raised the price and rate of slaughter of donkeys, endangering the livelihoods of those who rely on them .This trade is threatening livelihoods and communities as thousands of donkeys in developing countries are being killed and their skins sold to China for use in traditional medicine, reveals a report published by the Donkey Sanctuary. The demand for donkey hide, which is boiled to produce gelatine – the key ingredient in a medicine called ejiao – has raised the price and the rate of slaughter of the animals, threatening the livelihoods of poor communities who rely on the them. The emergence of the global trade in donkey hide is attributed to the rise of China’s middle class and increased perception of the medicine’s efficacy. Ejiao can sell for up to £300 per kilo. The Chinese herbal communities believe its a blood builder,effective for blood disorders such as heavy periods ,anaemia and cure of dry cough. According to the report the demand for donkey hide is outstripping supply. Around 1.8m donkey hides are traded per year, while global demand is estimated between 4 to 10m skins. This has raised the price of donkeys in some countries, making them unaffordable for many people who use them to take goods to market, cultivate land, and fetch water.

Peroxide ingestion is dangerous to deadly.

High-concentration peroxide, sometimes promoted in alternative medicine circles for cleanses or as a so-called "natural cure," can lead to numerous life-threatening ailments and death itself, according to a paper published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Outcomes Following High Concentration Peroxide Ingestions"). "Ingesting high-concentration peroxide can cause embolisms affecting the cardiac, respiratory and neurological systems, leading to permanent disability or death," said lead study author Benjamin Hatten, MD, MPH, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colo. "Though touted by the alternative and complementary medicine communities as 'super water,' peroxide should not be ingested for any reason. Because there are also industrial uses, some ingestions have been accidental because of its resemblance to water." Dr. Hatten examined 10 years of poison control records for high-concentration peroxide ingestion (concentration strength of 10 percent or greater). Almost 14 percent (13.9 percent) of reported cases had embolic events and 6.8 percent of cases either died or exhibited continued disability. Life-threatening ailments associated with high-concentration peroxide ingestion include seizure, altered mental status, respiratory distress, stroke, pulmonary embolism and heart attack. Patients treated early with hyperbaric oxygen had improved outcomes. Caustic injuries were rare and routine endoscopy was not beneficial.

Canada.

Opportunities for work for professionals,agribusiness and further studies. The country is expanding its knowledge base through research, scholarships, partnerships and citizenship ,see if you qualify for this opportunity see

Food revolution, lets eat like nomads..

Change is the only constant thing and as the nomads continually change,moving from place to place to feed their animals; an entrepreneur has decided to build on this experience to change our eating habits. Welcome to food revolution,eating like nomads. According to CNN, Selassie Atadika wants to change the way you eat. The UN worker-turned-chef is on course to revolutionize African cuisine through her new movement: the nomadic dining experience, which sees her encourages diners to ditch restaurants and move meals outside. "It's about creating experiences in different locations in a way similar to my lifestyle working with the UN, but also in the context of Africa ... the Nomadic people," Midunu ("Come Let's Eat"), Atadika's company, hosts Nomadic dinners every other month where diners can enjoy a four course meal in various locations across Accra.continue

Agribusiness: Making money leasing farm machinery to farmers.

Farm machinery is part and parcel of a successful agribusiness but many farmers shun the equipment due to high costs. Entrepreneurs can cash in by investing in these farm equipment and then lease out to farmers for a fee.

For livestock farmers, depending on the size of investment, tractors, chaff-cutters, mowers, sprayers, forage harvesters and balers are some of the machinery to consider as they help in proper management and feeding of the livestock.

 Creative and  innovations to boost farming productivity is encouraged as it also helps grow the country’s economy in different ways.  Emphasis on irrigation to reduce dependence on rain-fed farming should also be of core interest of the in the face of limited farming land and idle land deemed un-farmable due to the prevailing dry conditions. 

 In crop farming, tractors, ploughs, planters, tillers and harrowers, among others, are essential as they facilitate better farming. continue

Doubling farm income with irrigation in India.

The finance minister has reiterated that the government is committed to doubling of farm incomes within five years. This is heartening, although we are not sure what is the base-year income one is taking to double. But deciphering his strategy from allocation of funds, three things stand out: one, irrigation seems to be a prime INSTRUMENT. The total funds from the Centre for irrigation would amount to more than Rs 32,000 crore. Second, interest subvention on credit also amounts to Rs 15,000 crore; and, thirdly, insurance premium subsidy is continue

Antibiotic restriction, not deep cleaning, appears to have halted C. difficile epidemic.

Antibiotic restriction, not deep cleaning, appears to have halted C. difficile epidemic according to new research.Widespread overuse of fluoroquinolone antibiotics like ciprofloxacin appears to have been the primary driver of the Clostridium difficile epidemic in the U.K., according to new research. Investigators concluded that restriction of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, rather than deep cleaning and other infection control measures, led to significant reductions in the incidence of C. difficile infections. Emergency measures such as ‘deep cleaning’ and careful antibiotic prescribing were introduced and numbers of C. difficile infections gradually fell by 80% but no one was sure precisely why. The study shows that the C. difficile epidemic was an unintended consequence of intensive use of an antibiotic class, fluoroquinolones, and control was achieved by specifically reducing use of this antibiotic class, because only the C. difficile bugs that were resistant to fluoroquinolones went away.” To determine whether it was antibiotic restriction or hospital infection control measures that achieved the significant decline in C. difficile infections (CDIs) after 2006, The study evaluated regional and national data on CDI incidence and antimicrobial prescriptions from 1998 to 2014. They also evaluated whole genome sequences from 4,045 national and international C. difficile isolates to estimate the incidence of CDIs caused by strains resistant or susceptible to fluoroquinolone. They hypothesized that CDIs caused by fluoroquinolone-resistant strains would have declined faster if the outbreak was stopped by antibiotic restriction, and that secondary transmitted infections of both resistant and susceptible strains would decline at the same rate if the outbreak was stopped by infection control measures. First, they determined that prescribing of fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin strongly correlated with CDI incidence compared with overall antibiotic prescribing continue

Exposure to patients with influenza persists despite hospital surveillance.

According to study results published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, a large community hospital in Toronto failed to diagnose one in six patients with influenza until they had exposed other patients and health care workers for more than 24 hours. Strategies to reduce transmission of influenza in hospitals include vaccination, the exclusion of ill staff and visitors, adherence to good hand hygiene routines, screening to detect influenza illness in patients, additional precautions used to care for patients with influenza, and antiviral agent despite implementation of such strategies, health care-acquired influenza and influenza outbreaks continue to occur. The researchers assessed the frequency, risk factors, transmission and exposure associated with influenza in hospitalized patients at North York General Hospital, a 426-bed community teaching hospital with active surveillance, in Toronto, Canada. They collected prospective data from consenting patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza admitted from Oct. 1 to April 30 during the 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 influenza seasons. Upon admission, only 557 of 661 patients with influenza were placed on additional precautions. The investigators observed that out of 104 patients presenting with influenza symptoms after admission, 47 were nosocomial cases and 57 were community-onset cases. After reviewing medical charts, they found that 78 cases detected after admission exposed 143 roommates. Among those tested for influenza after exposure, no roommates of community-onset cases, and two of 16 roommates of nosocomial cases, were diagnosed with influenza, the researchers reported. The researchers said that out of 637 influenza-positive patients, 25% and 57% met the definitions of influenza-like illness established by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the CDC, respectively, and 70.3% met the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) definition of febrile respiratory illness. Only 13%, 23% and 34% of the 56 patients with community-onset influenza discovered after admission met the PHAC, CDC and PIDAC classifications, respectively. Exposure to patients with influenza persisted in the hospital despite an intensive program to reduce the exposure of health care workers and other patients,because exposure to patients can occur prior to symptom onset. Patients with atypical symptoms, emphasis should be on optimal hand hygiene and vaccination of health care workers is a necessary adjunct to routine and additional precautions if patients and workers are to be best protected against influenza.

Panic in Plateau over fresh bird flu outbreak .

Poultry farmers in Plateau State have been urged to report any observed disease in their farms due to fresh outbreak of Avian Influenza (bird flu) in the state.The Plateau State Chairman of Poultry Association of Nigeria, PAN, Mr. John Dasar, who gave the charge yesterday, said reporting diseases observed in their farms on time to relevant agency will help prevent the diseases from unaffected farms. Although the outbreak of bird flu has raised fears among poultry farmers in the state, Dasar called for calm as he urged farmers to reinforce safety measures in their farms to avoid lost of investments. He said: “Three farms have recorded an outbreak: one at Dong village, one at Rukuba Road and at another farm, which I cannot recall now. I also cannot say precisely the number of birds that were affected. “We are working with veterinary doctors and they are working hard to ensure the disease does not spread. That is why I am appealing to all poultry farmers to report any trace of the disease in their farms so that prompt action can be taken to arrest the situation.” source

A New, “Highly Aggressive” Bird Flu (H5N5) Has Been Found in Germany.

H5N5, a new, highly pathogenic sub-type of bird flu has been found on several turkey farms in northern Germany, adding to concerns of the spreading of new strains of avian influenza.The Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany’s national institute for animal health, discovered H5N5 on Jan. 21 at four different locations, all owned by the same company, in Steinburg, in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. First, a farmer found a number of dead turkeys at a site housing 3,400 birds,then the virus spread to a larger facility housing 15,000 birds, according to the news agency Kieler Nachrichten. The birds were culled in an attempt to stop the virus virus, but on Thursday, the Schleswig-Holstein Agriculture Minister Robert Habeck stated that two more nearby farms with another 15,000 birds had been infected and would also have to be culled. Preventive measures, including closing down the sites, have been put in place to contain the virus, according to Habek. Habek described the new subtype, which has never been found in European poultry, as “highly aggressive,” noting that it killed more than half of the flock of 3,400 birds where it was first discovered within 48 hours with the rest of the turkeys having shown disease symptoms. H5N5 had already been found in wild geese in Germany and in wild birds in the Netherlands, Italy, Montenegro, Italy, Croatia and Israel. This discovery shows how dynamic the bird flu is as the virus is present and is changing,there hasn’t been a known case of H5N5 being contracted by humans.

Flu vaccine production using tobacco leaves..

The race to stop the flu virus is on with scientists working round the clock to produce a safe,effective and readily available vaccine. In the fore front of the research is a biotech company,medicago that are making flu vaccines from tobacco leaves. Currently, vaccines are produced using a process that involves injecting small bits of flu genes into a chicken egg and allowing them to grow. The current method is slow and production process takes five or six months. Medicago, have a greenhouse where they are planting tobacco plant Nicotiana tabacum, better known as smoking tobacco. This Australian plant is native to the desert and has historically been used as a stimulant although it contains less nicotine than standard field tobacco for the purposes of vaccine production. The strong point of the plant is that it matures in just six weeks. The technology inoculates genetic material into the leaves which in turn produces flu-like particles containing antigens and this trigger immune responses. The safety level is high because the particles are not live flu viruses, hence chances of infection are minimal. Once the solution is inside the plant, the virus like particles spend a week growing, after a few days the plants’ leaves become mottled and discolored. At the end of a week, the leaves are picked off each plant by hand for processing into a bulk vaccine. Public reaction has been largely supportive as people like the idea of creating something positive from a plant with such negative stigma, and because , it helps that the vaccine extraction process leaves no residual nicotine. The new vaccines will even be vegan-friendly — some vegans currently avoid egg-based flu vaccines. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, The technique will be put into commercial use in fiscal 2018 or 2019. Mitsubishi Tanabe has all but finished verifying the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines in the U.S. and Canada. The inoculations are set to undergo final clinical trials in the U.S. by the end of this year. If the firm meets its profitability goals, it will consider expanding the project into Asia, according to company President Masayuki Mitsuka. Clinical trials are also being conducted for bird flu and H7 influenza vaccines produced from tobacco leaves. In addition, the company is developing vaccines for rotavirus and for rabies using the same technique.

Tips to keep your cat happy.

Cat lover these are tips to keep your feline friend happy, There are some great advantages to be gained by keeping your cat confined indoors. These include decreased risk of injury and disease and as a result a significantly longer life expectancy. Not to mention the benefit for wildlife and the appreciation of the non-cat lovers in the community. With a bit of extra effort, these cats can still have a lifestyle that meets their needs. Even cats that spend some time outdoors can benefit from additional opportunities for mental and physical activity in their home environment. This is particularly true for individuals prone to anxiety disorders. The following suggestions allow cats to focus their energies in a healthy, positive way that helps to relieve stress. Cats are individuals so it is important to trial as many of the following as possible so that you can identify the elements that your cat appreciates the most. 1) Toys Cats are very sight sensitive to moving objects, so providing toys with an element of motion. This will help to attract your cat’s interest and enthusiasm for play. These can vary from simple home-made items such as scrunched up pieces of newspaper on the end of a piece of elastic,attached to a stationary object or tied to your belt so they bobble around on the floor behind you as you walk. Various types of toys are also available commercially and these include such things as balls containing bells, cat dancers and various furry items such as mice. Some cats have a genetic predisposition to respond pleasurably to catnip. Toys are available that contain this substance or you might like to grow your own indoor garden and include catnip, catmint or catgrass. Simple items such as table tennis balls or non-toxic soap bubbles can provide avenues for fun interaction. continue

Migrating birds may bring bird flu to North America.

Migrating birds may bring bird flu to North America,according to a report. Influenza is a virus that emerges periodically to cause epidemics in different birds or mammals, like the two types of canine flu now in North America and the recent feline influenza outbreak in New York City. The highly pathogenic influenza strain currently infecting wild birds and domestic poultry in several European countries could be transmitted to birds in North America as migratory flyways of some European and North American wild bird species overlap in the northern reaches of Canada, an expert on influenza viruses and the spread of the virus in animals . According to Colin Parrish, John M. Olin Professor of Virology at the Baker Institute for Animal Health in Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, an expert on influenza viruses and the spread of the virus in animals, the strain circulating among birds in Europe is known as the H5N8 subtype and this particular virus is a highly pathogenic influenza strain that appears to be readily transferred into poultry flocks and other domesticated birds from wild birds. Migratory birds in Europe and in America normally follow separate north-south migratory pathways, and there is normally not much mixing between birds in each region, but there are areas where they come in contact. This virus seems to be quite transmissible, so there's a reasonable possibility that it could be picked up and brought over to the North American flyways. It looks like H5N8 is very effective at transferring from the wild birds into domestic poultry operations, so this raises a concern.

Meconium aspiration syndrome in foals.

Meconium— refers to the dark, sticky feces foals first pass, and its basically a composition of gastrointestinal secretions such as bile, pancreatic enzymes and mucous, desquamated cells, lanugo, vernix caseosa, water, amniotic fluid and other cellular debris. When a foal becomes hypoxic in utero, a vicious cycle can ensue. Hypoxemia can stimulate gastrointestinal peristalsis that passes meconium in utero. It can also trigger the foal to reflexively gasp for air and aspirate meconium and amniotic fluid into its lungs.When aspirated, meconium is toxic due to the damaging effect on surfactant and lung tissue. Meconium occludes the airways, from the upper airway to the alveoli creating a valve-like effect such that during inspiration air may be able to pass through a partial obstruction and fill the deeper portion of the lungs and in the expiratory phase, air can become trapped behind the meconium obstruction and accumulate to the point where it ruptures lung tissue, causing a pneumothorax. more

Researchers highlight link between feral pigs , vampire bats and rabies.

Researchers highlight alarming link between feral pigs and vampire bats,according to results of a study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The number of vampire bats, which transmit rabies and are a concern for livestock breeders, may be increasing in Brazil and the Americas along with growth in the populations of invasive feral pigs and wild boars (Sus scrofa). The researchers recently reported an alarming rise in the numbers and distribution of S. scrofa, as well as showing that the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus is now feeding on the blood of these animals. As numbers of invasive feral pigs increase, so does the damage to crops and native fauna, among other problems. S. scrofa is also a growing source of blood for vampire bats, so the population of D. rotundus is also likely to increase. Only three of the approximately 1,200 known bat species feed exclusively on blood, and all three are found only in the Americas. D. rotundus is the most widely distributed, inhabiting a territory that ranges from Mexico to Argentina. This species feeds mostly on livestock and poultry, but it has also been documented to prey on mammals such as tapirs and deer. In Brazil's Atlantic Forest biome, about 1.4% of vampire bats are infected with rabies. The proportion may be as high as 10% in the Peruvian Amazon. Transmission of rabies by vampire bats is a major concern for ranchers in Brazil, even in areas where cattle are routinely vaccinated. Wild animals, including feral pigs, are not vaccinated and may therefore pose a serious threat by spreading this disease. The researchers have used camera traps to monitor mammals in the Brazilian Pantanal and Atlantic Forest for the past 12 years. These are remotely activated infrared cameras that film at night when triggered by sensors that detect the presence of an animal. After checking 10,529 photos and videos with several examples of vampire bats feeding on feral pigs, cattle, tapirs, and red brocket deer (Mazama americana), the researchers selected 158 independent events in the Pantanal (101 with feral pigs, 38 with deer, and 19 with tapirs), and 87 events in the Atlantic Forest (35 with feral pigs, 29 with deer, and 23 with tapirs). Based on these events, they estimated that the probability of vampire bat attacks on feral pigs was as high as 10% for nights in which recordings were made.

Yoga for the Veterinary Student.

Yoga for the Veterinary Student, this is a new wave thats running through to help eliminate stress and boost productivity. Lying in savasana, or corpse pose, the purpose of this pose is to still the body and mind. The intention is to be awake, but completely relaxed. You use this time (5-10 minutes typically at the end of practice) to become still, focus on your breathing, and just let go. Savasana is one of the hardest poses during a yoga practice, not because it is physically demanding, but because it requires you to shut off your thoughts. This is difficult for a person with an extremely busy mind. more

Young people embracing agribusiness.

The younger generation have decided to create jobs for themselves instead of seeking employment and agribusiness is their choice. Young graduates and young school leavers are tossing their professions to start agribusiness. The common ventures are poultry ,fish farming and cattle rearing,these are explored to the fullest by investing in the production and processing increasing the demand for their products by maximizing the value chain of their ventures. The poultry farmers,produce live birds for sale at peak seasons but sell other products like eggs,eggpowder ,chicken nuggets.sausages e.t.c. see African youths have embraced agriculture and agribusiness,whether is production ,processing or even selling the products many more are in the race and changing their pocket books.Young people from Subukia sub-county have been urged to turn to agriculture as one of the avenues where they can sustain themselves rather than looking on getting employed in offices to earn a living.read

How to stop stress and enjoy life.

The role of happiness and positive emotions in health care.

Happiness,the state of joy,peace and contentment. Its a mental state that manifests physically with profound effect on our health and perspective. The happier you are the healthier you will be,and its not a cliche. A study shows that positive psychological well-being is linked with a lower risk of heart disease and People with a deep sense of happiness and well-being have lower levels of inflammatory gene expression and stronger antiviral and antibody responses. Happiness causes distinct changes in the body that strengthen the immune system, boost positive emotions, decrease pain and chronic disease, provide stress relief. Happiness activates positive emotions, for only when you are happy can you think positive thoughts and have a happy perspective to life. Positive emotions are keys to life,success and health,stay positive and live. A review of more than 200 studies found that positive psychological well-being is linked with a lower risk of heart disease, as well as lower blood pressure, normal body weight, and healthier blood fat chemistry. A research has found that positive emotions including being happy, lively, and calm play a role in immune function. The benefits of positive emotions are same as that of happiness, these are 1)Increase immune function. 2)Boost resilience to adversity. 3)Lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. 4)Reduce inflammatory responses to stress. 5)Reduce your risk of stroke. 6) Boost resilience to adversity 7)Extend your lifespan.

Broken heart syndrome.

According to the British Heart Foundation, broken heart syndrome is a “temporary condition where your heart muscle becomes suddenly weakened or stunned.” The left ventricle also changes shape, which adds to the temporary dysfunction. The broken heart syndrome is triggered by acute, major stress or shock such as the death of a loved one,valuables, job or even pet. This sudden weakness of the heart is thought to be due to the sudden release of large quantities of adrenaline and other stress hormones. Adrenaline increases blood pressure and heart rate, and it may lead to narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to your heart, or even bind directly to heart cells allowing large amounts of calcium to enter and render the cells temporarily unable to function properly. The change of shape of the left ventricle can trigger a fatal heart attack,and having a history of neurological problems, such as seizure disorders, and/or a history of mental health problems raises the risk. The symptoms of broken heart syndrome are very similar to those of a heart attack, such as chest pain and shortness of breath,but the only difference is there's no actual damage to the heart to trigger it. Extreme shock or stress may also trigger a hemorrhagic stroke by causing a dramatic rise or change in blood pressure.

How Stress Influences Your Heart Attack and Stroke Risk.

Stress response is a lifesaving biological function that enables you to instinctively square-off against an assailant, for flight or fear. People who are highly stressed have higher activity in the amygdala. This in turn triggers arterial inflammation, which is a risk factor for heart disease, including heart attacks. However,living in today's modern world activates this same biological reaction in response to activities and events that have no life-threatening implications whatsoever, from speaking in public to filling out tax forms and sitting in traffic jams. The high number of stress-inducing situations we face on a daily basis can actually make it difficult to turn the stress response off, and marinating in corrosive stress hormones around the clock can have very serious consequences for your health, such as fat accumulation, high blood pressure and heart attack and many other health consequences associated with chronic stress. Acute stress can also have potentially lethal consequences. High stress also raises the level of disease-promoting white blood cells, and releases norepinephrine, which can cause dispersal of bacterial biofilms from arterial walls, thereby triggering a heart attack. According to recent research, stress increases your risk of heart attack and stroke by causing overactivity in the amygdala known as your brain’s fear center, this almond-shaped brain region, located in your temporal lobe, is activated in response to both real and perceived threats. Another recent research suggests the amygdala is also involved in the processing of other emotions, including positive ones, as well as the processing of emotional memories of all kinds. In a study, inflammation levels as well as brain and bone marrow activity of 293 participants were measured, all of the participants were over the age of 30, and none had a diagnosed heart problem. By the end of the observation period, which lasted between two and five years, 22 participants had experienced a serious cardiac event such as heart attack, stroke or angina (chest pain). Based on brain scans, the researchers were able to conclude that those with higher activity in the amygdala were at an elevated risk of a cardiac event. There appears to be a significant correlation between amygdala activity and arterial inflammation (which is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke). This was confirmed in another much smaller sub-study involving those with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Here, levels of C-reactive protein were also measured, showing that those reporting the highest stress levels also had the highest amygdala activity and higher levels of inflammatory markers.source

Seafood Eaters Ingest 11,000 Plastic Pieces A Year.

According to a new environmental study, every person who eats seafood ingests about 11,000 tiny plastic pieces per year. Today, the sea contains five thousand billion tiny plastic pieces that end up ingested by fish and seafood.The plastic has found a way inside our body because of the way we treat our oceans. The petrol-based ultra resistant material can never really disappear (until a couple of hundred years). Ingested by the marine wildlife, plastic finds its way up the food chain and ends up at our dinner tables. In a way, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the study confirms we eat thousands of tiny plastic pieces. The study from Ghent University in Belgium explains what happens to these tiny plastic pieces: 99% of them are absorbed by our but… 1% doesn’t leave it. What are the consequences? Well, scientists still do not have an answer about this worrying question. But one thing is certain: we eat a lot of plastic and all of it doesn’t come out.continue

Free sanitary pads and education.

The Kwazulu-Natal department of education is distributing free sanitary pads to girl learners who cannot afford to buy them as part of an initiative it launched in November. The distribution of the pads began at the start of the school year. Kwazulu-Natal education department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said that when the new MEC, Mthandeni Dlungwane, came into office last year it was “one of the flagships that he said he wanted to run with”. “Research and observation tells us that our girl learners, who are from poor families, can’t afford to buy sanitary towels. In a year, they will miss a minimum of 36 days when they have their periods,” Mahlambi said. Some companies and individuals have been assisting schools with donations but this was not enough for all the girl learners and a formal programme had to be launched, he explained. The department has set aside R50-million to fund the distribution of pads to learners whose schools are in the four lowest quintiles. The department will increase the budget for the pads annually. continue

Reversible saliva allows frogs to hang on to next meal.

A frog uses its whip-like tongue to snag its prey faster than a human can blink, hitting it with a force five times greater than gravity. How does it hang onto its meal as the food rockets back into its mouth? A new Georgia Institute of Technology study says the tongue's stickiness is caused by a unique reversible saliva in combination with a super soft tongue. A frog's saliva is thick and sticky during prey capture, then turns thin and watery as prey is removed inside the mouth. The tongue, which was found to be as soft as brain tissue and 10 times softer than a human's tongue, stretches and stores energy much like a spring. This combination of spit and softness is so effective that it provides the tongue 50 times greater work of adhesion than synthetic polymer materials such as sticky-hand toys.continue

US exports 14 million eggs to avian flu-struck S. Korea.

The U.S. exported 14 million eggs to South Korea in January as the nation continues to deal with a widespread avian influenza outbreak. On January 30, members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) updated the United Egg Producers on U.S. egg exports during the egg industry group’s meeting in Atlanta. Jeff Waite, a representative of AMS, said the two countries reached an agreement in early January. After weeks of airborne shipments, he said, eggs will start arriving by sea soon. South Korea, one of many Asian nations affected by the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), is suffering from its worst-ever HPAI outbreak. South Korean news agency Yonhap reports the country has culled more than 30 million chickens since November in response to the outbreak. In response to massive egg shortages driving up food prices, South Korea and the U.S. reached an agreement on January 8 to allow the first-ever imports of US eggs to the country. Koreans eat about 250 eggs per capita, or about 12.7 billion eggs per year. source

Tuberculosis-resistant cows developed for the first time using CRISPR technology.

A new research published in the open access journal Genome Biology,reports that CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology has been used for the first time to successfully produce live cows with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis. The researchers, from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi, China, used a modified version of the CRISPR gene-editing technology to insert a new gene into the cow genome with no detected off target effects on the animals genetics (a common problem when creating transgenic animals using CRISPR). CRISPR technology has become widely used in the laboratory in recent years as it is an accurate and relatively easy way to modify the genetic code. However, sometimes unintentional changes to the genetic code occur as an off target effect, so finding ways to reduce these is a priority for genomics research. The research was carried out using a novel version of the CRISPR system called CRISPR/Cas9n to successfully insert a tuberculosis resistance gene, called NRAMP1, into the cow genome. This was successfully inserted and resulted in the development of live cows carrying increased resistance to tuberculosis. The high-point of the research is that the method produced no off target effects on the cow genetics meaning that the CRISPR technology we employed may be better suited to producing transgenic livestock with purposefully manipulated genetics. The researchers inserted the NRAMP1 gene into the genome of bovine foetal fibroblasts—a cell derived from female dairy cows—using the CRISPR/Cas9n technology. These cells were then used as donor cells in a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the nucleus of a donor cell carrying the new gene is inserted into an egg cell, known as an ovum, from a female cow. Ova were nurtured in the lab into embryos before being transferred into mother cows for a normal pregnancy cycle. The experiments were also conducted using the standard CRISPR/Cas9 technology as a comparison.

New fertilizer technologies for rice.

Small-scale rice farmers in Kirinyaga County in Kenya are using new fertilizer technologies to increase yields by up to 50% while using one-third less fertilizer. The technology ‘package’ introduced by 2SCALE has two components. First, a specially formulated fertilizer blend that contains micronutrients such as magnesium, zinc and boron in addition to the standard NPK. Second, ‘deep placement’ application, where briquettes (pellets) of fertilizer are inserted into the soil rather than the usual practice of broadcasting. Deep placement reduces fertilizer losses by two-thirds, ensuring that nutrients remain in the root zone, available to plants, for much longer. Another innovation is slow-release fertilizer, which needs to be applied only once, at planting, compared to the usual two applications – substantially reducing labor costs.continue

Scientists design electricity generator that mimics trees.

A prototype biomimetic tree has been built that generates electricity when wind blows through its artificial leaves. The researchers think such technology may help people charge household appliances without the need for large wind turbines. In a paper published this month in the peer-reviewed academic journal PLOS ONE, the ISU research team delves into the world of biomimetics, or the use of artificial means to mimic natural processes. The concept has inspired new ways of approaching fields as varied as computer science, manufacturing and nanotechnology. Iowa State University scientists have built a device that mimics the branches and leaves of a cottonwood tree and generates electricity when its artificial leaves sway in the wind. Small strips of specialized plastic inside the leaf stalks release an electrical charge when bent by moving air. These processes are known as piezoelectric effects and the cottonwood leaves were modeled because their flattened leaf stalks compel blades to oscillate in a regular pattern that optimizes energy generation by flexible piezoelectric strips.

Air pollution may lead to dementia in older women.

A new study shows that air pollution by tiny, dirty airborne particles called PM2.5 invade the brain and wreak havoc causing dementia in older women. The study published in the Nature journal Translational Psychiatry, adds to an emerging body of research from around the world that links air pollution to dementia. The offending pollutants known as PM2.5 are fine, inhalable particles with diameters 2.5 micrometers or smaller. A human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter, making it 30 times larger than the largest PM2.5. Scientists and engineers found that older women who live in places with fine particulate matter exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standard are 81 percent more at risk for global cognitive decline and 92 percent more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's. These microscopic particles generated by fossil fuels get into our body directly through the nose into the brain and cells in the brain treat these particles as invaders and react with inflammatory responses, which over the course of time, appear to exacerbate and promote Alzheimer's disease. The adverse effects were stronger in women who had the APOE4 gene, a genetic variation that increases the risk for Alzheimer's.

Women in Morocco Set a Model for Rural Communities.

The growth of cooperatives is one example of how women in the Middle East and North Africa are fighting back and showing resilience. North African women have long been celebrated in their societies as protectors of traditional culture. While this role is undoubtedly critical to any society, the relegation of women to perceived “traditional” spheres has, at times, served as a tool of their marginalization. In the North African context of the past half-century, it became common for men to move to cities and pursue well-paying jobs in “modern” sectors of the economy, while women stayed at home in rural villages, raised children and led their lives in traditional ways. But as challenging economic circumstances across the region in the wake of failed structural adjustment policies have left many men unemployed or underemployed, increasing numbers of women are turning this dynamic on its head and using their monopoly on traditional knowledge in creative and innovative ways. In the absence of well-paying, regular work for men, especially in rural areas, women are using traditional knowledge to generate income—and oftentimes providing the glue that holds together families and communities. Take the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco, a poor, rural region where many men are struggling to find work, and where both the shortage of jobs and cultural norms prevent many women from seeking work outside their homes. In recent years, a growing focus on women’s roles and economic development from Moroccan communities, the government and foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGO) has opened opportunities for women to use their traditional skills—ranging from carpet weaving to herb-gathering to couscous making—to earn income through participation in cooperative business. Utilizing skills that many women previously used within their households to provide for the basic needs of their families, they are now using them to generate outside income through sales to their community members, other Moroccans and, most notably, to tourists.continue