A Glimpse into the Dog’s Mind: A New Study Reveals How Dogs Think of Their Toys

Many dog lovers want to know what goes on in their furry friends’ minds. Now scientists are finally getting closer to the answer. In a new study just published in the journal of Animal Cognition, researchers from the Family Dog Project (Eötvös Loránd University, University, Budapest) found out that dogs have a “multi-modal mental image” of their familiar objects. This means that, when thinking about an object, dogs imagine the object’s different sensory features. For instance, the way it looks or the way it smells.

The group of scientists assumed that the senses dogs use to identify objects, such as their toys, reflect the way the objects are represented in their minds. “If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it” explains Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers of this study. “When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like”.

In previous studies, the researchers discovered that only a few uniquely gifted dogs can learn the names of objects. “These Gifted Word Learner dogs give us a glimpse into their minds, and we can discover what they think about when we ask them - Where is your Teddy Bear? – “explains Dr. Andrea Sommese, the second leading researcher.

Equine eye docs help horse regain sight

Willy was diagnosed with equine recurrent uveitis, a common but harmful complex autoimmune disease among horses. After treatment, Willy regained most of his vision and has a high quality of life.
Source: Provided to Cornell University

Willy, a 3-year-old quarter horse, has a goofy personality and loves to spend time with his many chicken friends at owner Mariah Kauffman’s home in Snyder County, Pennsylvania.

Soon after Willy joined their family, however, Kauffman noticed that every once in a while, his eyes would cloud over, then appear clear the next day. “He started bumping into things and getting cuts on his face,” Kauffman said. “He would run into the fence and spooked easily.”

That’s when she decided to call Willy’s veterinarian, Dr. Jacqueline Rapp of Susquehanna Valley Veterinary.

Rapp quickly referred Willy to the Cornell Equine Hospital for specialty care from Dr. Kelly Knickelbein, assistant clinical professor, alongside ophthalmology residents Dr. Irini Lamkin and Dr. Brittany Schlesener.

The Cornell team diagnosed him with equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), a common but harmful complex autoimmune disease among horses, with both genetic and environmental factors.

Koalas exposed to double whammy health threat

Credit: Tara Gatehouse

An AIDS-like virus that is plaguing Australia’s koala population is leaving them more vulnerable to chlamydia and other threatening health conditions, University of Queensland research has found.

One of UQ’s leading COVID-19 vaccine researchers, Associate Professor Keith Chappell, has discovered that the chlamydia epidemic plaguing endangered koala populations in Queensland and NSW is linked to a common virus that likely suppresses koalas’ immune systems.

Dr Chappell and Dr Michaela Blyton, from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, made this discovery after studying more than 150 koalas admitted to Currumbin Wildlife Hospital.

Dr Chappell said this study could have far reaching impacts and lead to better protective measures like breeding programs and new anti-viral medications.

“We know Queensland and NSW koala populations are heavily impacted by chlamydia infections and a retrovirus, but until now a clear link between the two has not been conclusively established,” Professor Chappell said.

“Our research has found that the amount of retrovirus circulating within an animal’s blood was strongly associated with chlamydia and symptoms like cystitis and conjunctivitis, as well as overall poor health.

“It’s a double whammy for already-endangered koalas.”

Bird Flu: How It’s Spreading and What to Know About This Outbreak

A feeding frenzy of western sandpipers during the mass migration via Cordova, Alaska, a key study site in the paper.
Credit: Wendy Puryear

When it comes to avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, all birds are not created equal.

“The scientific community has become accustomed to speaking about influenza viruses in birds as a group, but birds are an incredibly diverse taxa of animals with different natural history, physiology, and anatomy,” says Jonathan Runstadler, professor and chair of the Department of Infectious Disease & Global Health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Runstadler is one of the authors of a new study, published today in the journal PLOS Pathogens, which takes a data-driven look at influenza viruses circulating among different groups of birds and characterizes which types of birds are involved in spreading the virus. The timing of this paper is impeccable, as a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has been spreading across North America.

This lineage of bird flu originated around 1996 and was first found in a domestic goose in China. The virus mutated and persisted, and the first big wild bird outbreak happened around 2005 in a major wetland in central Asia. Subsequent changes in the virus led to a 2014 introduction to the U.S. via the Pacific Northwest, severely affecting the U.S. poultry industry and forcing the culling of about 40 million turkeys and chickens as a control measure.

Scent dogs detect coronavirus reliably from skin swabs

Scent dog Silja at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.
Credit: Egil Björkman

The rapid and accurate identification and isolation of patients with coronavirus infection is an important part of global pandemic management. The current diagnosis of coronavirus infection is based on a PCR test that accurately and sensitively identifies coronavirus from other pathogens. However, PCR tests are ill-suited for screening large masses of people because of, among other things, their slow results and high cost.

Researchers from the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine at the University of Helsinki and from Helsinki University Hospital jointly designed a triple-blind, randomized, controlled study set-up to test the accuracy of trained scent detection dogs where none of the trio – dog, dog handler or researcher – knew which of the sniffed skin swab samples were positive and which negative. The study also analyzed factors potentially interfering with the ability of the dogs to recognize a positive sample.

The three-faceted study has now been published in the journal BMJ Global Health. The study provides valuable information on the use of scent dogs in pandemic control.

Experimental COVID-19 vaccine provides mutation-resistant T cell protection in mice

Marulasiddappa Suresh
Credit: UWM

A second line of defense — the immune system’s T cells — may offer protection from COVID-19 even when vaccine-induced antibodies no longer can, according to new research out of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine.

The researchers discovered that a new, protein-based vaccine against the original version of the COVID-19 virus was able to teach mouse T cells how to recognize and kill cells infected with new, mutated versions of the virus. This T cell protection worked even when antibodies lost their ability to recognize and neutralize mutated SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“Antibodies prevent COVID-19 infection, but if new variants escape these antibodies, T cells are there to provide a second line of protection,” explains lead scientist Marulasiddappa Suresh, a professor of immunology and associate dean for research at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigates the role of T cells, a specialized type of white blood cell, in defending against COVID-19 when antibodies fail.

When you receive a COVID-19 vaccine, your body learns to produce antibodies, proteins in the immune system that bind to and neutralize SARS-CoV-2. These antibodies circulate in the blood stream and protect you from illness by patrolling the nostrils, airways and lungs and wiping out the virus before it can cause infection or disease.

Bat urine reveals extended range for new Hendra virus variant

Source/Credit: Griffith University

Griffith University researchers have discovered a new Hendra virus variant that may pass to horses and humans much more widely across Australia than previously known.

Published in Emerging Infectious Disease, the variant was detected in the urine of black and grey-headed flying foxes across an extended geographical distribution from mid-north coast NSW to southeast Queensland.

The new Hendra virus variant (HeV-g2) was recently discovered in samples from a horse that died in 2015 with acute illness and was previously detected in flying fox organs.

“Detection of the novel Hendra variant in urine is important, as contact with infected flying fox urine is how horses can become infected,” said lead researcher Dr Alison Peel, from the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security.

“Our study, by revealing associations with particular flying fox species, helps to identify the variant’s distribution in these animals and the risk of spill-over into horses and subsequently humans.

Dog coronavirus jumps to humans, with a protein shift

N-terminus: The end of a peptide or protein primary structure in which the amino acid residue is not part of a peptide bond. The terminal group is often (but not always) an amine or ammonium cation.

Cornell researchers have identified a shift that occurs in canine coronavirus that points to a possible pattern of change found in other coronaviruses and which may provide clues to how they transmit to humans from animals.

A new canine coronavirus was first identified in two Malaysian human patients who developed pneumonia in 2017-18. A group of other scientists isolated the canine coronavirus, sequenced it and published their findings in 2021.

Now, a team led by Cornell and Temple University researchers has identified a pattern that occurs in a terminus of the canine coronavirus spike protein – the area of the virus that facilitates entry into a host cell: The virus shifts from infecting both the intestines and respiratory system of the animal host to infecting only the respiratory system in a human host.

The researchers identified a change in the terminus – known as the N terminus – a region of the molecule with alterations also detected in another coronavirus, which jumped from bats to humans, where it causes a common cold.

Fermilab is home to a new baby bison!

This year, Fermilab is expecting up to 20 new calves.
Credit: Ryan Postel, Fermilab

World-class particle physics research isn’t the only thing Fermilab is known for. The iconic sight of the Midwestern bison graces the acres of prairie land surrounding the lab, beckoning visitors from across the country. On April 13, baby bison season officially began at the lab, a sure sign spring is truly on its way. The first calf of the year was born in the morning, and we’re pleased to announce that both mother and baby are doing well.

 Currently, the herd comprises 32 bison — 30 females and two bulls. The bulls are changed out periodically to maintain the herd’s health and genetic diversity.

This year, Fermilab is expecting up to 20 new calves. For a front-seat view of the bison, visit Fermilab’s new bison cam to glimpse the activities of the mighty herd.

Robert Wilson, Fermilab’s first director, established the bison herd in 1969 as a symbol of the history of the Midwestern prairie and the laboratory’s pioneering research at the cutting-edge of particle physics.

New study defines spread of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer

White-Tailed Deer
Credit: Heidi-Ann Fourkiller / SFLORG

North American white-tailed deer – shown in 2021 surveys of five states to have SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of up to 40% – shed and transmit the virus for up to five days once infected, according to a new study.

“It’s a relatively short window of time in which the infected animals are shedding and are able to transmit the virus,” said Dr. Diego Diel, associate professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences and director of the Virology Laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center. “However, the virus is very efficient at transmitting to white-tailed-deer entering contact with infected animals.”

The study, “From Deer-to-Deer: SARS-CoV-2 is Efficiently Transmitted and Presents Broad Tissue Tropism and Replication Sites in White-Tailed Deer,” which published online on March 21 in PLOS Pathogens, also identified that the virus develops and replicates in the deer’s respiratory tract, lymphoid tissues – including tonsils and several lymph nodes – and in central nervous system tissues.

“Virus replication in the upper respiratory tract – especially the nasal turbinates [nose structures] - is comparable with what is observed in humans and in other animals that are susceptible to the infection,” Diel said, “and I think that’s probably one of the reasons why the virus transmits so efficiently.” As with humans, the virus spreads between deer through nasal and oral secretions and aerosols.

Viagra promising as treatment for canine eating disorder

Cake, a beagle mix, who suffers from the eating disorder known as megaesophagus, sits in specialized chair known as a Bailey chair, at the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Bailey chairs allow dogs with megaesophagus to better digest their food.
Credit: Washington State University

Sildenafil, the generic version of the drug known as Viagra, could be the long-awaited remedy for a group of dogs with a rare disorder called megaesophagus.

The condition involves an enlargement of the esophagus and a loss of the organ’s ability to move food to the stomach, which leaves food bottling up in the lower esophagus. If left untreated, many animals regurgitate their food and aspirate food into their lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia.

“The literature tells us that many dogs with the disease die from aspiration pneumonia or are humanely euthanized due to poor quality of life within eight months of diagnosis,” said Dr. Jillian Haines, a veterinarian at Washington State University who co-led the study.

Liquid sildenafil was shown to relax the smooth muscle of the lower esophagus so it will open to let food pass to the stomach. Besides some rare gastrointestinal irritation, there are no side effects to dogs at the dose used in the study. While sildenafil is most known to treat erectile dysfunction, the drug is also used to treat elevated pulmonary blood pressure in dogs and humans.

Notches on lions’ teeth reveal poaching in Zambia’s conservation areas

UCLA biologist Paula White displays two leopard skulls.
Credit: Paula White

In a hunting camp in Zambia more than a decade ago, UCLA biologist Paula White puzzled over the heavy skull of a trophy-hunted lion. Zambia permits limited hunting in certain areas to help fund its national conservation program, and White had gained permission to examine the trophy skulls and hides to evaluate how hunting was affecting conservation efforts.

This particular skull had a pronounced horizontal V-shaped notch on one of the canine teeth — a marking White had never seen before from natural wear. Over the next few months, she began noticing similar notches on other lions’ teeth.

It wasn’t until three years later, when she visited lions bred in captivity and saw them gnawing on a wire fence, that it clicked: The tooth notches in wild lions resulted from the animals chewing their way out of wire snares — noose-like traps set by poachers. The sheer number of notched teeth she’d seen suggested that such traps, illegal in conservation areas, were injuring far more lions than experts had estimated.

“It was an odd mix of thrilling to figure out the cause of the notches and horrifying to realize that so many animals had been entangled in a snare at some point in their lives,” said White, director of the Zambia Lion Project and a senior research fellow with the Center for Tropical Research at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Microbes help hibernating animals recycle nutrients, maintain muscle through winter

Like many hibernators, thirteen-lined ground squirrels retain muscle tone and healthy gut microbiomes through hibernation even though they aren’t eating or moving around. Their success at rest may help humans make long space voyages.
Credit: Rob Streiffer

To get through a long winter without food, hibernating animals — like the 13-lined ground squirrel — can slow their metabolism by as much as 99 percent, but they still need important nutrients like proteins to maintain muscles while they hibernate. A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that hibernating ground squirrels get help from microbes in their guts.

The discovery could help people with muscle-wasting disorders and even astronauts on extended space voyages.

“The longer any animal doesn’t exercise, bones and muscles start to atrophy and lose mass and function,” says Hannah Carey, an emeritus professor in the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and co-author of the new study, published today (Jan. 27) in the journal Science. “Without any dietary protein coming in, hibernators need another way to get what their muscles need.”

One source of nitrogen, a vital building block for amino acids and proteins, accumulates in the bodies of all animals (including humans) as urea, a component of urine. The researchers knew that urea that moved into the squirrels’ digestive tract could be broken down by some gut microbes, which also need nitrogen for their own proteins. But the researchers wanted to see if some of that urea nitrogen freed up by the microbes was also being incorporated into the squirrels’ bodies.

Overweight dogs respond well to high-protein, high-fiber diet

Overfed dogs experience some of the same maladies associated with overweight and obesity in humans. A new study finds that overweight dogs also benefit from a high-protein, high-fiber weight loss regimen. 
Photo by www.pixel.la, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

A study of overweight dogs fed a reduced calorie, high-protein, high-fiber diet for 24 weeks found that the dogs’ body composition and inflammatory markers changed over time in ways that parallel the positive changes seen in humans on similar diets. The dogs achieved a healthier weight without losing too much muscle mass, and their serum triglycerides, insulin and inflammatory markers all decreased with weight loss.

All such changes are beneficial, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign animal sciences professor Kelly Swanson, who led the new research.

Mange Outbreak Decimated a Wild Vicuña Population in Argentina

A family of vicuñas prepares to rest for the night in Argentina's San Guillermo National Park before the 2014 mange outbreak that wiped out the local population.
Credit: Hebe del Valle Ferreyra

Mange has decimated the population of wild vicuñas and guanacos in an Argentinian national park that was created to conserve them, according to a study from the Administration of National Parks in Argentina and the University of California, Davis.

The findings, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, suggest domestic llamas introduced to the site may have been the source of the outbreak. Cascading consequences for local predator and scavenger species are expected.

A lone vicuña stands amid the grasslands in Argentina’s
San Guillermo National Park following a mange epidemic.
Credit: Hebe del Valle Ferreyra

Vicuñas and guanacos are species of wild camelids native to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, where the vicuña is the national animal.

The study investigated the impacts and origins of the outbreak, which began in 2014 in San Guillermo National Park.

Between 2013 and the onset of the study in 2017, populations of guanaco and vicuña were down 95% and 98%, respectively. Nearly three-quarters more were lost between 2017-18 alone. By 2019, researchers could no longer find either animal during the study surveys.

“This part of Argentina used to be the Serengeti of the wild camelids,” said corresponding author Marcela Uhart, who directs the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center’s Latin America Program, within the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and its One Health Institute. “Now you go and it’s empty, and whoever is there is mangy. This disease is not novel. We know mange. It’s a common mite. But significant outbreaks are happening in several wildlife species around the world.”

Dog brains can distinguish between languages

Credit: Photo: Eniko Kubinyi

"Some years ago I moved from Mexico to Hungary to join the Neuroethology of Communication Lab at the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University for my postdoctoral research. My dog, Kun-kun, came with me. Before, I had only talked to him in Spanish. So I was wondering whether Kun-kun noticed that people in Budapest spoke a different language, Hungarian.” — says Laura V. Cuaya, first author of the study. “We know that people, even preverbal human infants, notice the difference. But maybe dogs do not bother. After all, we never draw our dogs' attention to how a specific language sounds. We designed a brain imaging study to find this out.

Kun-kun and 17 other dogs were trained to lay motionless in a brain scanner, where we played them speech excerpts of The Little Prince in Spanish and Hungarian. All dogs had heard only one of the two languages from their owners, so this way we could compare a highly familiar language to a completely unfamiliar one. We also played dogs scrambled versions of these excerpts, which sound completely unnatural, to test whether they detect the difference between speech and non-speech at all.”

When comparing brain responses to speech and non-speech, researchers found distinct activity patterns in dogs’ primary auditory cortex. This distinction was there independently from whether the stimuli originated from the familiar or the unfamiliar language. There was, however, no evidence that dog brains would have a neural preference for speech over non-speech.

"Dog brains, like human brains, can distinguish between speech and non-speech.

Robust approach needed to reduce risk of disease transmission between humans and wild animals

Credit: Pixabay

The threat of disease transmission from conservationists moving wild animals between habitats or back into the wild needs to be urgently assessed to minimize risk. Experts at the University of Birmingham are calling on local and national health authorities and wildlife managers to adopt a robust approach.

In a new paper, published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, researchers in the University’s College of Life and Environmental Sciences, collaborating with Wildlife Impact and other sector partners, have highlighted the issues using the example of translocated orangutans in Indonesia.

All three species of orangutans in Indonesia are listed as Critically Endangered, and moving animals between habitats is a fairly common practice as demands for agriculture, mining, and other natural resource use puts pressure on the forests they inhabit. Interactions and conflict between humans and orangutans sharing the same habitats also contributes to the complex problems facing these rare species across their range.

During the covid 19 pandemic, the team identified instances of orangutans being released who had been in direct contact or proximity to humans without any protective equipment. In some cases, formerly captive orangutans were released after long periods of contact and potential exposure to human diseases.

The team’s results suggest that there is a potential problem of pathogen transmission between humans and animals which needs to be properly understood and managed.

Compounds from soybeans may improve animal health

The sprouting soybeans, in front, have been inoculated with a pathogen to trigger production of glyceollins, which have antimicrobial properties. Scaling up these lab experiments at the POET Bioproducts Institute may lead to soybeans that are rich in glyceollins being integrated into animal feed to help prevent disease and reduce the need for antibiotics.

Antimicrobial compounds that soybean plants produce when threatened by insects, diseases and even drought may help animals stay healthy, thereby reducing the need for antibiotics.

“When a soybean is attacked by a pathogen, the plant produces phytochemicals called glyceollins as a defense mechanism,” explained assistant professor Bishnu Karki of South Dakota State University’s Department of Biology and Microbiology. Her research group has identified pathogens and lab-scale processes to trigger production of glyceollins and begun assessing soybean varieties to see which produce higher levels of the antimicrobial compounds.

“Animals, such as pigs and poultry, already consume diets high in soybeans and could benefit from the phytochemical’s antimicrobial properties,” Karki said, pointing out scientists are studying the impact of glyceollins on human health, specifically in relation to cancer, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases.

Karki’s research is supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch Act funding through the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. Two master’s students and several undergraduates have also worked on the project.

Common Household Noises May Be Stressing Your Dog

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that people may not recognize that their dog is stressed when exposed to common household noises. While it’s well established that sudden loud noises, such as fireworks or thunderstorms, commonly trigger a dog’s anxiety, a new study finds even common noises, such as a vacuum or microwave, can be a trigger. The study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

The research found that high-frequency, intermittent noises such as the battery warning of a smoke detector are more likely to cause a dog anxiety, rather than low-frequency, continuous noise.

“We know that there are a lot of dogs that have noise sensitivities, but we underestimate their fearfulness to noise we consider normal because many dog owners can’t read body language,” said lead author Emma Grigg, a research associate and lecturer at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Signs of anxiety

Some common signs of a dog’s anxiety include cringing, trembling or retreating, but owners may be less able to identify signs of fear or anxiety when behaviors are more subtle. For example, stressed dogs could pant, lick their lips, turn their head away or even stiffen their body. Sometimes their ears will turn back, and their head will lower below their shoulders. Grigg suggests owners better educate themselves on anxiety-related behavior.

Researchers conducted a survey of 386 dog owners about their dogs’ responses to household sounds and examined recorded dog behaviors and human reactions from 62 videos available online. The study found that owners not only underestimated their dogs’ fearfulness, but the majority of people in videos responded with amusement rather than concern over their dog’s welfare.

Ways to make equestrian sport safer for horses and riders

Photo by Jean van der Meulen from Pexels

In the first study of horse falls for over 20 years, University of Bristol academics have identified some simple interventions to reduce the risk of injury in equestrian sport - making it safer for both horses and riders.

The study pinpointed characteristics associated with an increased risk of falls in eventing, such as higher-level events, longer courses, more starters at cross-country phase and less experienced horses and athletes.

Identifying these risk factors allows riders and event organizers to assess the level of risk for individual horse, rider and event combinations. The study, published in the Equine Veterinary Journal, recommends simple mitigations such as adjusting minimum eligibility requirements (MERs) to ensure horses and riders always compete at a level appropriate to their ability.

Led by Bristol Veterinary School’s Dr. Euan Bennet and Professor Tim Parkin, with Dr Heather Cameron-Whytock of Nottingham Trent University, and funded by Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), it is the first large scale study using a global data set of every FEI eventing competition over an 11-year period.