Every frog has its day
As I flicked through the latest issue of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust magazine ‘On the edge’ I came a cross an article on the mountain chicken, a large endangered frog that unfortunately happens to taste a bit, well, a bit like chicken. Now I’m not the greatest fan of amphibians but I couldn’t help…
Apricots and cyanide: the bitter truth.
I recently came across a case report of cattle being poisoned by apricot kernels, a reminder of the fact that the seeds (and sometimes leaves) from fruits such as apricots, peaches, and other members of the Prunus genus contain glycosides such as amygdalin that can release the deadly gas hydrogen cyanide. This fact is well…
25 future novel threats facing UK biodiversity
There requires a greater emphasis on forecasting and critical evaluation, and less dawdling on existing, well studied issues: in summary, this is the main recommendation made by 35 senior representatives from UK academia, environmental management & policy, and scientific journalism. Using a technique called ‘horizon scanning.’ They have established a list of 25 future novel…
The butterfly effect: diclofenac, vultures and rabies.
The idea that the flap of a butterfly wing in China could cause a tornado in Texas comes from the concept of ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ as part of the chaos theory, and has inspired short stories, poems and films, and the term ‘Butterfly Effect’ has entered the language. Assigning cause and effect in…
Did the dinosaurs die of malaria?
The other week I heard about a recently published book (‘What bugged the dinosaurs? Insects, Disease and Death in the Cretaceous‘, by George and Roberta Poinar) which argues that disease-transmitting insects played an important role in the extinction of the dinosaurs. I have ordered a copy of the book so it can be indexed in…
Of cows and sweet potatoes
The sweet potato Ipomoea batatas has been used throughout the world as a food source for hundreds of years. Byproducts used as animal feed as a result of sweet potato processing include cannery wastes and sweet potatoes culled during the packing process due to damage, off size or oversupply. The Veterinary Record [1,2] and the…
Review of 2007
Happy New Year and a big thank you to all those who subscribe or read our blog. It was a good 2007 for the hand picked … and carefully sorted with a full calendar year of blogging under our belt, turning 1 year old on 2nd November. We posted 167 articles on a variety of…
Rudolf the Parasitized Reindeer
I tend to think of Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer as being part of the rather tacky side of Christmas which has never greatly appealed to me, but the other day I came across a reference in a free magazine that came through my door which I thought was worth investigating. A section on ‘festive oddities’…
Chikungunya conquers the Swiss Alps
Earlier this week, a mosquito (Aedes albopictus) that can carry chikungunya and dengue fever viruses has been spotted north of the Swiss Alps in the canton of Aargau. In response, the Swiss health ministry plans to make chikungunya, which was described for the first time in Tanzania in 1952, a mandatory reportable disease from next…
Pass the Tamiflu!
A bear, a lion and a chicken meet up in a chat room. The bear types: "If I roar in the forests of North America, the entire forest is shivering with fear." Not to be outdone by a mere bear, the lion taps in, "If I roar on the great plains of Africa, the entire…