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.