VETERINARY MEDICINE: Canine 'aptitude test for working dogs.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: Canine 'aptitude test for working dogs.The canine labor market is diverse and expansive. Assistance dogs may be trained to work with the visually or hearing impaired, or with people in wheelchairs. Detection dogs may be trained to sniff out explosives, narcotics or bedbugs. Other pups even learn to jump out of helicopters on daring rescue missions. VETERINARY MEDICINE: Canine 'aptitude test for working dogs. A canine cognition test could help organizations that train working dogs identify the dogs that are most likely to succeed, according to new research. If organizations could better predict which dogs will succeed in working roles, it could save thousands of dollars in training costs and ensure people in need get dogs faster.

RESEARCH: Sniffer dogs could detect malaria in people.

RESEARCH: Sniffer dogs could detect malaria in people.Dogs detect malaria by sniffing socks worn by African children. As the global battle against malaria stalls, scientists may be adding a novel tool to the fight: sniffer dogs. In recent tests trained sniffer dogs successfully diagnosed malaria infections simply by sniffing samples from socks worn briefly by children from a malaria endemic area of West Africa, according to a new study presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting. "People with malaria parasites generate distinct odors on their skin and our study found dogs, which have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell, can be trained to detect these odors even when it's just on an article of clothing worn by an infected person," said Steven Lindsay, a public health entomologist at in the Department of Biosciences at Durham University in the United Kingdom and the lead investigator on the study. The research was conducted with colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and experts from a charity, Medical Detection Dogs. The charity has trained dogs to detect a variety of maladies, including prostate cancer and people at risk of slipping into a diabetic coma.

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Glyphosate found in cat and dog food.

VETERINARY MEDICINE : Glyphosate found in cat and dog food.A new study finds that glyphosate, the active herbicidal ingredient in widely used weed killers like Roundup, was present at low levels in a variety of dog and cat foods the researchers purchased at stores. A new Cornell study published this month in Environmental Pollution finds that glyphosate, the active herbicidal ingredient in widely used weed killers like Roundup, was present at low levels in a variety of dog and cat foods.VETERINARY MEDICINE : Glyphosate found in cat and dog food. The study grew out of a larger interdisciplinary research project led by Brian Richards, senior research associate in biological and environmental engineering, and supported by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future's Academic Venture Fund, which sought to reassess glyphosate mobility and impacts in several contexts: movement from crop fields in surface water, impacts on soils and on animals consuming it in their feed.VETERINARY MEDICINE : Glyphosate found in cat and dog food.

AGRIBUSINESS: Tanzania Orders Destruction of Monsanto/Gates Foundation GMO Trials.

AGRIBUSINESS: Tanzania Orders Destruction of Monsanto/Gates Foundation GMO Trials. Tanzanian civil society organisations (CSOs) welcome the decision of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mathew Mtigumwe, to bring an immediate stop to all ongoing GMO trials taking place in the country. These are under the auspices of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project which includes Monsanto, the Gates Foundation and national research centres.

Agribusiness: French Government Starts Phase-Out of Glyphosate with Online Farmer Platform and Herbicide Tax.

Agribusiness: French Government Starts Phase-Out of Glyphosate with Online Farmer Platform and Herbicide Tax. French Government Starts Phase-Out of Glyphosate with Online Farmer Platform and Herbicide Tax.The French government has released its glyphosate ‘phase-out’ online platform, in an attempt to help farmers across the country to stop using the world’s most used herbicide before 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office stated that the online platorm has been designed “to have a declarative site where every farmer who wishes can commit themselves either to say that they have already stopped using glyphosate, or to say that they have committed to stop its use in three years.” Macron himself stated that the platform is for “all farmers who are ready to go sign up, make it visible, put pressure on others, create traceability to say everything is done without glyphosate.”

RESEARCH: GOATS ARE LIKE DOGS.

RESEARCH: GOATS ARE LIKE DOGS. Researchers at Queen Mary University in London peered into the beady square pupil eyes of a goat and asked the single worst question one can ask about a goat: “Could this thing be more like a dog?” A new study published in the Biological Letters did not ascertain if they could be trained, or even learn to stop chewing on your furniture. The study simply sought to see if goats would appeal to humans like dogs, horses, and the occasional cat do. This is a fascinating idea, as noted by Dr Jenna Kiddie, a senior lecturer in animal behavior and welfare at Anglia Ruskin University. RESEARCH: GOATS ARE LIKE DOGS. While a great deal of research has been done examining the relationship between humans and “working” animals like dogs and horses, very little has been done examining the relationship between humans and other domesticated animals, like the goat. To test the relationship between goat and man, the researchers gave the goats a box and made it increasingly difficult to open the box. The goats, when faced with the impossible task, then did what dogs do and peered up at the humans “imploringly.”

AGRIBUSINESS: How to use goats to remove invasive species.

AGRIBUSINESS: How to use goats to remove invasive species. Rieper-Estes’ goats are more than your average grazers. The so-called Greedy Goats of Northwest Arkansas are a group of 20 whose job it is to travel around the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and eat invasive species. In Northwest Arkansas, that mostly includes bush honeysuckle and Chinese privet, the goats’ favorites. “They’re not hungry goats,” Rieper-Estes told Earther. “They’re greedy goats. They’re out in the pasture before we take them to work, and we get them into the transportation by putting oats in there. Then, they eat all day.” #agribusiness