Snippets from the International Press

Ireland: Animal welfare initiative set up

A major initiative of animal welfare issues was announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Mr Walsh. He announced the setting up of a Farm Welfare Advisory Council, a Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare and a programme to raise standards in the areas of farm animal transport and handling in Ireland.

The Farm Welfare Advisory Committee will be made up of veterinarians, animal welfare groups, farm organisations, transporters and representatives from Governments, North and South.The council, which will be initially on a non-statutory basis, will be chaired by Prof Patrick Fottrell, formerly of UCG. The Minister said the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare would be made up of qualified scientific experts from the disciplines of animal husbandry, animal behaviour, bacteriology, clinical medicine, epidemiology, parasitology and virology. Its job will be to examine and advise the Minister on issues where expert advice and an "outside" perspective was warranted.

Mr Walsh said as part of the Department's commitment to improving welfare standards, the programme to raise standards in animal handling and transport would involve the circulation of information and guidelines to farmers and carriers and the implementation of an inspection system to ensure that the system was complied with. The initiatives, he said, were being taken to build on measures taken over the years including strict rules on the shipping of animals and a continuing commitment to animal welfare groups which will receive 35,000 to aid their work this year. This would increase the funding the groups have received since 1995 to 2.42 million.

(The Irish Times 3 Feb 2002)

IHT: Alzheimer's may be linked to meaty diet

People with high blood levels of a normal diet byproduct, homocysteine, have twice the average risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a study published Thursday finds. The study suggests that other major degenerative diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes may stem at least in part from diet, possibly making them preventable. The study, by researchers at Boston University and Tufts University, was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Homocysteine is an amino acid, a building block of proteins. Its levels can rise when people eat a diet heavy in animal protein and few fruits or leafy vegetables. Fruits and vegetables can lower the levels by providing folic acid and B vitamins such as B6 and B12, which help convert homocysteine to other amino acids that are not harmful.

Homocysteine, like cholesterol, has also been linked to heart disease and strokes. Studies are being planned to find out whether B vitamins can slow mental decline in people with Alzheimer's, and scientists are recommending research to determine whether the vitamins can prevent or delay dementia in healthy people. Four million Americans have Alzheimer's; two million have other forms of dementia.

Although the study found a strong link between homocysteine and dementia, it did not prove that the substance causes dementia. Nonetheless, researchers say a causal role is plausible, because homocysteine can damage blood vessels and nerves, and it has been linked to strokes and heart attacks.

Other studies have found high homocysteine levels in people with Alzheimer's, but it was impossible to tell whether the levels were a cause or an effect of the disease. People with
dementia often eat poorly, and the blood levels may have simply reflected inadequate diets.

The new study is the first to find a connection between high homocysteine levels in healthy people and the later development of Alzheimer's. The study subjects were participants in the Framingham, Massachusetts, Heart Study, which started in 1948.

Dr. Neil Buckholtz, chief of the dementias of aging program at the National Institute on Aging, which helped pay for the study, said: "We're always looking for new risk factors and protective factors for Alzheimer's disease. One that everybody accepts is aging. Obviously, there's nothing we can do about that. We're looking for risk factors that are potentially modifiable, and this provides one that we believe is modifiable, by a combination of vitamins."

For now, researchers say they cannot advise people to take vitamins in hopes of preventing dementia or other diseases, because studies have not been conducted to find out whether the vitamins work. On the other hand, doctors say, most Americans would benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat. "This is one more reason to do what we all know we should be doing," said Dr. Sudha Seshadri, a director of the study and a neurologist at Boston University. Although doctors are not recommending vitamins, they say that for most people there is no harm in taking B vitamins. B vitamins are not toxic and do not build up in the body.

(The New York Times Friday, February 15, 2002 )

China's Environment Authority Warns Pollution from Animal-breeding

Booming poultry and livestock farms are emerging as the new polluters in China because most operators fail to clean up animal faeces, according to the country's environmental protection authorities. Animal and poultry breeding have become the leading source of pollution in vast rural areas in China. About 1.9 billion tons of faeces were produced by poultry and livestock farms across the nation in 1999, 2.4 times the amount of industrial waste, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) found in a recent survey.

Water pollution and unpleasant smells which come from inadequately treated animal waste may worsen because the animal husbandry business will continue to boom in order to satisfy the increasing consumption of meat and poultry, a SEPA official said.

Raising livestock and poultry has been encouraged in many areas in China as a way to help farmers increase incomes. But pollution prevention is often the "missing link" due to the ignorance of business owners, the official said. Local environmental protection departments who pay little attention to pollution control are also responsible, he said.

It has been found that 90 percent of animal farms nationwide were built without any thought of their possible effect on the environment, and 60 percent of the farms lack pollution-prevention facilities. About 80 percent of large and medium-sized poultry and livestock farms are located in densely-populated areas in east China, and around major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. The SEPA plans to increase efforts in this field through trial projects for pollution control and with comprehensive utilization of animal waste in some key areas.

(Xinhua News Agency)

Dangerous Bushmeat

WASHINGTON _ The killing of gorillas, chimpanzees and other primates for food … may cause diseases to spread, scientists said Tuesday. "There is no doubt humans are exposed" to different infections through the spilled blood of chimpanzees and other animals killed in west and central Africa, said Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham at a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Hahn said illegal commercial trading of "bushmeat" _ sold around the world although the biggest market is in the urban areas of Cameroon, Congo and elsewhere in central Africa _ could have a severe effect on human health if it isn't stopped.

(AP 19 February 2002)

Majority of Britons want end to live export of animals of animals - survey

The majority of Britons want the export of live animals banned, according to a new survey. The Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) poll found that 78% of respondents agreed that the export of live animals should be stopped. Instead, they believe livestock should be slaughtered in the UK and exported in meat form.

The release of the survey coincides with BBC Vets in Practice star Keith Leonard presenting a petition against live animal exports to a Government minister. The document was signed by 3,400 practising UK veterinary surgeons _ approximately half of all British vets. Mr Leonard will hand the petition to Elliott Morley, the Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Peter Stevenson, Director of CIWF, said: "The Government defends their position on not banning this trade by referring to the illegality of stopping trade in goods within the European Union. This is a ludicrous position - animals have been formally recognised as sentient beings by the EU, they are not goods."

The NOP telephone poll questioned 1,000 individuals across the UK between February 15 and 17.

(Ananova, 26th February 2002)

Test shows cloned animals short-lived

A Japanese research team has found strong evidence that cloned animals have significantly shorter life spans _ about half that of their naturally born counterparts. The team, from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, bred 12 cloned mice by
extracting nuclei containing genetic information from mouse Sertoli cells, which are thought to nurture immature sperm to maturity. The nuclei were then transplanted to unfertilized eggs.

Under the leadership of Atsuo Ogura, the team found that seven of the test mice died in the 18 months after they were born. After 2-1/2 years, 10 mice had died. Normal mice live slightly less than three years. The mice died of pneumonia, liver ailments and cancer, and their immune systems were also found to be weak. On the other hand, only one of a control group of seven normal mice born at the same time died, after about two years. The remaining mice in the control group are developing normally.

The team's findings will be published in the March edition of the U.S. science journal Nature Genetic, and represent the first rigorous scientific confirmation of what geneticists have long suspected through their work on cloned animal cells _ that cloned animals have shorter life spans than normal animals.

Ogura said that his team looked forward to thoroughly examining the cause of the short life span and abnormal growth patterns. Cloned animals have an extremely low birth rate. Those that have been born are reported to suffer from a variety of genetic ailments, including obesity. The world's first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, has already developed arthritis at the comparatively young age of 5-1/2 years. Dolly's disease has sparked debate around the world on whether cloned animals could be aging faster than normal animals and suffer at a young age from diseases normally associated with old age.

Abnormalities in cloned animals also cast a shadow over moves toward cloning animals for use in human transplantation.

© 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun

A universe is, indeed, to be pitied whose dominating inhabitants are so unconscious and so ethically embryonic that they make life a commodity, mercy a disease, and systematic massacre a pastime and a profession.

Professor J. Howard

Survey Shows Most Canadian Universities No Longer Use Live Animal Laboratories in Medical School Curricula

Washington, D.C.-A recent survey conducted by the international health advocacy organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) shows that 11 of the 16 medical universities in Canada no longer use live animals in their teaching curricula.


PCRM asked the Canadian universities if they have live animal laboratories in their medical school curricula. The University of British Columbia replied that it uses about 25 live pigs each year in its undergraduate medical program. Memorial University of Newfoundland also uses pigs, and the University of Western Ontario in London still uses live animals in the classroom, but would not comment on what species of animals are used or how many. Queen's University in Ontario and Université Laval in Montreal refused to answer PCRM's survey. The other 11 universities responded that they do not use live animal laboratories.

Jerry Vlasak, M.D., a PCRM spokesperson, is pleased with the survey results. "Although some universities are holding onto live animal laboratories, this survey shows that most medical schools are no longer tolerating the use of live animals in the classroom. Most schools now use alternative teaching methods, and the continuing movement in this direction is strong."

Since 1985, PCRM has been tracking the use of live animal laboratories in universities in the United States. Only 34 of the 126 medical universities in the United States continue to use live animals in the classroom. At 33 of the schools still using live animals, students may choose not to participate in a live animal lab and may or may not be offered an alternative.
Only one school requires that students participate in animal laboratories.

The use of live animal laboratories as a teaching method is outmoded, expensive, and raises ethical concerns. PCRM advocates state-of-the-art alternatives to animal laboratories, such as interactive CD-ROMS, videos, life-like simulators, and additional or increased clinical experience.

Founded in 1985, PCRM is a national health organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine and higher standards in medical research, education, and practice.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20016

www.pcrm.org - 12 February 2002.