Zoos, animal handling and public feeding.

The pictures of tigers in a Chinese zoo has been making rounds and various animal groups and sectors of the society have different views. There are actually several problems with these photos, which were taken at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin City, China. The most obvious issue is that these animals are being fed in excess which could predispose them to certain diseases and conditions. The zoo allows visitors to feed the animals and are doing most of the excessive feeding, according to some reports. The visitors are reportedly feeding the tigers live chickens, where people can buy a chicken and throw it them. When many tigers are kept in a confined space, there would be few opportunities for exercise, which could exacerbate the health issues related to obesity.When animals are denied the opportunity to work for their food, as they would in the wild by foraging and hunting, they end up with underdeveloped muscles and deposition of fat. more

How to fix a broken snail shell.

The life of one little snail in the world might not amount to much for some people, but it means everything to him.The veterinarian fixes all creatures great and small.Veterinarians from the HaClinica animal hospital, in Tel Aviv, Israel, recently offered their life-saving services to the humble garden snail after a mishap in a local woman's yard. The woman accidentally stepped on him shattering his brittle shell ,rather than leave the snail to fend for himself with his suddenly broken home, the woman actually rushed him to get the help he needed. This is how the veterinarian put the shell back together, piece by piece using glue. more

Dubai Dental Authority And 3D Printing Teeth .

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced plans to advance the use of 3D printing in dentistry and healthcare at this weeks Arab Health Congress (AHC) in Dubai. This includes plans for the Dental Services department to make greater use of 3D printing for dentistry by the end of this year. The Arab Health Congress also saw a number of 3D printing companies showcase new innovations. In order to understand these ambitious plans from DHA, we take a look at current dental 3D printing technology. There is strong potential for 3D printing in the dental industry and we’ve seen many different companies approaching the market. continue

3D printing and personalized medicine.

Professor Jukka Rantanen is from the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. His seminar at the 3D Medical Expo 2017 focused on Designing compartmental pharmaceutical products based on 3D printing. In the talk, Professor Rantanen details the opportunity to 3D print pills with inner geometries, i.e. one drug forms the outer shell of a tablet and another fills the inside. The advantages of developing this type of drug are that it gives more control over how and when a particular treatment is released into the body. Developing the means to produce what Professor Rantanen terms “two layer” drugs is of course a substantial challenge to researchers. Additionally, Professor Rantanen points out that marketing & distribution is one of the biggest challenges to 3D printed pharmaceuticals. continue

3D Printing the Future of Surgery.

3D printing has had and will continue to have impacts on many areas. One of the most hotly anticipated areas for 3D printing to impact is medicine. By 3D printing medical models, students, doctors and other staff members can get a hands-on learning experience of a pathology, organ or a part of the human anatomy. 3D prints can be made illustrating all manner of conditions or states. These models can be touched, passed around, discussed and are used as a learning tool worldwide. They can be used by residents, medical students, nurses or even to help patients understand their condition or operation. Initially 3D printed medical prototypes were high end and often hand painted affairs. They cost hundreds or thousands of dollars and competed with hand made models. Now desktop 3D printed medical prototypes are providing for an extremely low cost alternative.continue

Antibiotic resistance can occur naturally in soil bacteria.

Scientists have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in prairie soils that had little or no exposure to human or animal activity.U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in prairie soils that had little or no exposure to human or animal activity. Antibiotics have effectively treated bacterial diseases for years, but some bacteria have developed resistance to the antibiotics that once killed them.Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers are investigating agriculture-related antibiotic resistance and developing solutions to address food safety, animal production and protection, and the environment. Part of their efforts involves looking at antibiotic resistance in soils. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistant genes found in soils where manure was deposited by animals can provide valuable information about what is currently present in a sample site, such as a feedlot. However, the concern is that even if bacteria in manure are dead, their genes can persist in soils. The team examined native prairie soils that had little human impact and no animal grazing during the past 20 years. They collected soil samples from the sites and screened them for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They found that all prairies contained bacteria that were resistant to tetracycline and cefotaxime -- two commonly prescribed antibiotics that treat a wide variety of infections -- and nearly half of the samples contained bacteria resistant to two or more antibiotics.

Brazilian peppertree Can knock out antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Scientists at Emory University have discovered that the red berries of the Brazilian peppertree ,a weedy, invasive species common in Florida contain an extract with the power to disarm dangerous antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria. The journal Scientific Reports published the finding made in the Emory's Center for the Study of Human Health and in the School of Medicine's Department of Dermatology.Traditional healers in the Amazon have used the Brazilian peppertree for hundreds of years to treat infections of the skin and soft tissues. The researchers showed that a refined, flavone-rich composition extracted from the berries inhibits formation of skin lesions in mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus auereus (MRSA). The compound works not by killing the MRSA bacteria, but by repressing a gene that allows the bacteria cells to communicate with one another. Blocking that communication prevents the cells from taking collective action, a mechanism known as quorum quenching. The compound essentially disarms the MRSA bacteria, preventing it from excreting the toxins it uses as weapons to damage tissues, so the body's normal immune system then stands a better chance of healing a wound.