A new website, AnimalMethodsBias.org, created by the Coalition to Illuminate and Address Animal Methods Bias (COLAAB), provides researchers guidance and resources aimed at helping them successfully publish nonanimal biomedical research by overcoming the preference some peer reviewers have for animal-based research methods.

A new international study has revealed the genetic impact of hunting in northern elephant seals. Published today (27.09.2024) in ‘Nature Ecology and Evolution’, the research shows that this species narrowly escaped extinction by hunting, resulting in lasting genetic effects in the present population. Fifteen German, British and US researchers from seven universities and four research institutions collaborated for this study led by Bielefeld University.

Adversity early in life can have permanent health consequences for people — even if their circumstances improve dramatically later on. Scientists use a cumulative adversity index, or CAI, which quantifies measures of hardship including poverty and stress, to understand health and longevity over the course of an individual’s life. This has been helpful in identifying specific measures governments, health care providers and families can take to improve people’s lives.

The Rocahepevirus ratti strain is called “rat HEV” because rats are the primary reservoir of the virus. Since the first human case was reported in a person with a suppressed immune system in Hong Kong in 2018, at least 20 total human cases have been reported – including in people with normal immune function.

Scientists from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) and Uppsala University in Sweden now understand why some gray horses turn completely white as they age, while others remain an eye-catching “dappled” gray color. 

As published in the journal Nature Communications, the deciding factor is the number of copies of a small DNA sequence within the gray coat gene carried by each horse; while “slow-graying” horses have a gene variant with two copies of the duplication, “fast-graying” horses — those that will eventually become white — have a gene variant with three copies.

A simple yet innovative technique could be the key to keeping dogs safe from heat-related illnesses. New research published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) reveals that teaching dogs to voluntarily dunk their heads in water is the most effective method for rapidly cooling them down after exercise. The study, conducted by researchers at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania, compared various cooling methods and found that voluntary head dunking not only cooled dogs faster than other techniques but also prevented dangerous post-exercise temperature spikes.