Academic literature on the topic 'Human-animal relationship s'

Ever since Schopenhauer´s accusation, it has been disputed whether Kant´s few remarks concerning the ethical human-animal-relationship in the Lectures and in the Doctrine of Virtue fail to support ethical arguments on behalf of animals. One critique that plays a central role is whether Kant would have forbidden cruelty to brutes for educational purposes. In addition to these old objections, Kant´s ethics is charged to be speciesistic by animal ethicists and animal rights philosophers at present.The following article examines especially §17 of the Doctrine of Virtue, which is the only animal ethical text authorized by Kant himself. The interpretation starts by taking the context of §17 into account, particularly the “Episodic Section on an Amphiboly in Moral Concepts”. The systematic output of the cruelty-account and of the duty classes is then analyzed. Central for the understanding of Kant´s argumentation relating to animals are the perfect duties to oneself, which are linked to Kant´s foundation of human dignity. Finally the roles of the physical and emotional needs of brutes and humans in Kant´s ethics are compared with each other. Some conclusions are then drawn concerning human and animal rights in relation to a duty-based argumentation. The article therefore appreciates Kant´s integration of animal suffering into the very core of his virtue ethics, an integration that may be able to open the door for an enlightened animal ethics based on human responsibility.

A study of colicinogeny was made in 748 strains of Salmonella (97 serovars) isolated from different sources; human (291), animal (119), environmental (141), food (102) and animal feed (95). Colicin production was detected in 64 strains (8.6%), particularly isolated from foods (30.4%). Col. E1 (53) and Ia (44) were the most frequently observed, especially in S. agona for environment and food sources. Col V production was identified in 5 strains of S. typhimurium within 8 producer cultures isolated from humans. Its relationship with the sources and serovars of Salmonella are discussed.

The human–animal relationship is an important welfare parameter in animal welfare assessment in cows, and the avoidance distance of cows to a stranger at the feed bunk is measured to assess this relationship. The assessment of the human–animal relationship in cow shelters in India, where old, unproductive, and abandoned cows are sheltered, is important to explore the welfare of cows in these shelters. The cows observed were of indigenous Indian breeds and breeds which were crosses between indigenous breeds and pure bred exotic cows. The human–animal contact in this context is of particular interest for welfare assessment as traditional Indian farming and sheltering systems involves regular close human–animal contact. In a cross-sectional study across 6 states, 54 cow shelters were visited and 30 cows in each shelter were randomly selected (1620 in total) for the assessment of avoidance distance and other cow-based (27 parameters) and resource-based (15 parameters) welfare parameters. Avoidance distance was assessed 1 h after morning feeding. Cows standing at the feeding manger were approached from the front at a rate of one step/s, starting 2 m away from the manger. The distance between the assessor’s hand and the cow’s head was estimated at the moment the cow moved away and turned its head, using a four-point scale (0, touched; 1, 0–50 cm; 2, 51–100 cm; and 3, >100 cm). The majority, 52%, of the cows allowed touch by the assessor and another 32% allowed approach within 50 cm, demonstrating tolerance, or even solicitation of close human–animal relationships by the cows. Avoidance distance increased with the proportion of cows with dirty hind limbs, tarsal joint swellings, and hair loss, and the extent of rumen fill. There was also evidence of reduced avoidance distances in cows with high levels of body condition score (BCS), dirty flanks, tarsal joint ulceration, carpal joint injuries, diarrhoea, hampered respiration, lesions on the body due to traumatic injuries, and body coat condition, probably as a result of moving difficulties. The avoidance distance was thus related to the health and welfare of the cows, providing a vital insight into the factors affecting human–animal contact in the shelters.

AbstractThe relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and the auditory/vestibular system has been investigated for more than a century. Most population-based investigations of hearing loss in persons with diabetes (PWD) have revealed a slow progressive, bilateral, high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Despite the growing research literature on the pathophysiology of DM-related hearing loss using various animal models and other human studies, knowledge of specific mechanism of the degenerative changes of the inner ear and/or auditory nerve is far from full elucidation. Recent investigations of the mechanisms underlying the association between hearing loss and DM suggest complex combined contributions of hyperglycemia, oxidative stress resulting in cochlear microangiopathy, and auditory neuropathy. An even lesser understood complication of DM is the effect on the vestibular system. Here we provide an overview of animal and human evidence of pathophysiological changes created by DM and its effects on auditory-vestibular anatomy and function.

One hundred thirty-eight isolates of Salmonella enteritidis from human, animal, and avian species were analyzed for the presence of plasmid DNA. Plasmid DNA from S. enteritidis isolates were extracted by a modification of a high alkaline extraction procedure. Comparisons were made between samples based on the number of plasmids present and their molecular weights. There were seven different profiles seen among the 15 human isolates from the Centers for Disease Control. These seven profiles were recognized with the animal isolates from the National Veterinary Services Laboratory, the chicken isolates from the northeastem (NE) region of the United States, and the turkey isolates from Minnesota (MN). There were no shared profdes between the human isolates and the chicken isolates from MN. The greatest relationship existed between the human isolates and the chicken isolates from the NE region of the United States, sharing four common profiles. Every Centers for Disease Control isolate shared a plasmid profile with chicken isolates from the NE region of the United States. The chicken isolates from MN had no profiles in common with any isolates from any other groups. The majority of animal isolates from National Veterinary Services Laboratory and the turkey isolates from MN possessed the virulence-associated 54 kb plasmid alone. This paper describes how plasmid profiles can be used as a tool in epidemiological investigations.

The livelihood of working horses’ owners and their families is intimately linked to the welfare of their equids. A proper understanding of human-animal interactions, as well as the main factors that modulate them, is essential for establishing strategies oriented to improve the welfare of animals and their caretakers. To date, there is still a paucity of research dedicated to the identification and assessment of the human psychological attributes that affect the owner–equine interaction, and how these could affect the welfare of working equids. However, some studies have shown that empathy, attitudes towards animals, human perception of animal pain and the owner´s locus of control are some of the psychological attributes that participate in human-equine interactions and that these can result in poor welfare of working equids. A better understanding of the relationship between human attributes and equids’ welfare can provide an opportunity to improve the quality of interactions between owners and their working equids and thus improve their welfare. This review aims to explain why the inclusion of human psychological attributes that modulate the human-animal interactions can benefit welfare research in working equids. The role that empathy, perception of animal pain and locus of control play in the promotion of good welfare in working equids is emphasized.

AbstractThis essay addresses the subject of animal representation via an historical account of the place of the animal in visual culture. It emphasizes the relationship between the animal as a visual image and the technology that produces this image. It explores three examples in a period covering c. 1895 to the 1930s, in Britain, that analyze the relations between animal representation, technology, and the public domain. These are film, zoo display, and slaughterhouse practice. The overall goal of the essay is to move away from emphasis on the textual, metaphorical animal, which reduces the animal to a mere icon, to achieve a more integrated view of the effects of the presence of the animals and the power of its imagery in human history. "[s]i l'animal a le temps, s'il est «constitué» par un «temps»" ["[w]hether the animal has time, whether the animal is 'constituted' by a 'time.'"] (Derrida, 1999, p. 273)

Background and Aim: The genetic relationship among serotypes of Salmonella enterica from food animals, food of animal origin, and human is of interest as the data could provide an important clue for the source of human infection. This study aimed to determine the genetic relatedness of S. enterica from pig production and human in Thailand-Laos border provinces. Materials and Methods: A total of 195 S. enterica serotypes isolated from pig and pork (n=178) and human (n=17) including four serotypes (Typhimurium, Rissen, Derby, and Stanley) were randomly selected to examine their genetic relatedness using highly conserved sequence of three genes (fim A, man B, and mdh). Results: The results showed that 195 Salmonella isolates of four different serotypes were grouped into five different clusters, and members of the same Salmonella serotypes were found in the same cluster. Salmonella isolated from pig production and human in Thailand-Laos border provinces represented overlapping population and revealed a high degree of similarity, indicating close genetic relationship among the isolates. Conclusion: The results support that the determination of Salmonella serotyping combined with analysis of phylogenetic tree can be used track the clonal evolution and genetic diversity of Salmonella serotypes in different host species.

Sucrose is unequivocally implicated in the cause of dental caries. Biochemical, microbiological, animal and human clinical and epidemiological evidence support a causal relationship. The risk of caries is related both to the amount and the frequency of intake of sucrose. The evidence that sucrose is important is that a) extracellular synthesis of polysaccharides by plaque bacteria is dependent on high concentration of sucrose. Without synthesis of polymers S. mutans cannot colonize the mouth in large numbers, b) studies on animals show a relationship between sucrose content of a food and its cariogenicity, c) there is a direct relationship between the quantity of sucrose consumed and caries in humans, d) the relationship between dietary sucrose and caries in humans approximates an S-shaped curve that rises more steeply when the sucrose-containing products are consumed frequently and when newly erupted teeth are present in young children and adolescents. Following the sharp rise, the curve flattens out. Sucrose is much more cariogenic than starch in humans. Reduction in sucrose consumption levels by half will benefit dental health and is unlikely to have any detrimental effects on health.

During the 2009 national group A rotavirus (RVA) surveillance, five unusual strains of the human G8P[6] genotype were detected in Brazilian indian children with acute gastroenteritis. The aim of this study was to carry out sequence analysis of the two outer capsid proteins (VP4 and VP7) and the inner capsid protein (VP6) of the G8P[6] strains detected in order to provide further information on the genetic relationship between human and animal RVA. A total of 68 stool samples, collected in Mato Grosso do Sul during 2009, were tested for RVA using ELISA, following by reverse transcriptase-PCR and sequencing. RVA infection was detected in 7.3 % of samples (5/68). The IAL-RN376 G8 sequence shares a clade with bovine and human strains, displaying highest nucleotide identity to African human strains DRC86 and DRC88, followed by African bovine strain NGRBg8. IAL-RN376 and IAL-RN377 P[6] sequences showed highest identity to human strain R330 from Ireland, and a close genetic relationship to African fruit bat RVA strain KE4852/07. Strains IAL-RN376 and IAL-RN377 display genogroup I VP6 specificity and the I2 genotype, and share high nucleotide identities with human strains B1711, 272-BF and 06-242, and moderate identities with bovine (RUBV81, 86 and KJ9-1) and porcine (HP140) strains. This study suggested that a reassortment between bovine and bat RVA strains could have occurred in animal host(s) preceding the transmission to humans. In the indigenous population, zoonotic transmission is probably fairly frequent as the inhabitants live in close contact with animals under conditions of poor hygiene.

The Overhaul and Sightlines extend Jamie’s call for attentive, observational writing; what she describes as a “new kind of work that renegotiate[s] our place in the natural world.” This involves not only revisiting our human relationship with “wild” nature, but also acknowledging ourselves as a species with its own natural history: a locus of nature as well as culture. The question of home and belonging is thus an enduring theme in Jamie’s work. Jamie’s keen observations of nature, place and people recognise the limitations as well as the potential of human dwelling in the natural world. Rejecting romanticism, she suggests that while we are certainly capable of appreciating the transcendent in nature, we are also “animal bodies” (Sightlines 5), “a species […] hoping for the marvellous” (The Overhaul 3) who encounter the world through the physical as much as the aesthetic. This chapter considers The Overhaul and Sightlines as explorations in ecopoetics, searching for alternative ways of negotiating our relationship with the natural world. These two collections interrogate the writer’s ability to restore a “sense of ourselves as creatures”, the vital element of reconnection with the more-than-human world which Gaston Bachelard identified as one of poetry’s greatest gifts.

The more species are removed from each other in evolutionary development, the greater is the likelihood of differences in response to toxic agents. One obvious difference that affects toxicity is the size of the organisms. Much less toxin is needed to kill a small insect than a considerably larger mammal (everything else being equal). In addition, there is an inverse relationship between the weight of an animal and its surface area; the smaller the animal, the larger its surface area per gram of weight. Thus, the weight ratio of a human being (70 kg) to a rat (200 g) is 350, but the surface area ratio of a human being to a rat is only 55. Roughly, the surface area of an animal (S) can be calculated as follows: S(m2) = weight (kg)2/3/10. This type of calculation is important when one is considering the selective eradication of an uneconomical species, such as certain insects, by spraying an area with insecticide. The goal is to control the insects without harming wildlife, livestock, and human beings. Other factors, such as the rate of percutaneous absorption, also have to be considered. For instance, it has been shown that DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is about equally toxic to insects and mammals when given by injection, yet when applied externally it is considerably more toxic to insects. This toxicity is due not only to the difference of the surface area:- body weight ratio, but also to the fact that the chitinous exoskeleton of the insect is more permeable to DDT than unprotected mammalian skin (1). Of course, in real-life situations (i.e., outside the laboratory), most mammalian skin is covered by fur, which gives the animals additional protection. The foregoing discussion is not meant to imply that unrestricted spraying with pesticides (especially chlorinated hydrocarbons, which are fat-soluble and poorly biodegradable) is environmentally sound. Problems with their use include lack of selectivity among insect species; leaching into watersheds and groundwater; and bioaccumulation in the food chain. These problems will be discussed in detail in Chapter 11. Metabolic-pathway differences among species may provide another rationale for achieving selective toxicity

We have reviewed our own experience (400 patients with documented thromboembolic disease) as well as that recorded in the literature. Impaired fibrinolysis after venous occlusion (VO) was the most common finding in patients with history of thrombosis (35% in our series). In contrast, very few families with such an alteration and thrombosis have been reported, suggesting that this disorder is most frequently acquired. In a series of 59 patients with history of thromboembolism, 25 patients with an abnormal responseto an 10 min. V0 on 2 different occasions (group A) were compared with 34 patients who had a normal response toV0 (group B). A positive family history was present in 50% of cases of both groups. A congenital deficiency in AT III, protein C or plasminogen was ruled out in all patients. In group A, as compared to group B, t-PA antigen (Elisa method) and activity (fibrinplates) were significantly lower after V0, basal PAI activity (Verheijen method) was higher (increased in 84 and 11% of patients in groups A and B respectively) and PAI after V0 was also higher in group A (p < 0.01). In this group an associated abnormal t-PA release cannot be reliably ruled out. In patients with abnormal V0 but normal basal PAI (n = 4), a decreased plasminogen activator release may besuspected.According to animal and in vitro studies, bovine and, to a less degree,human activated protein C (APC) may stimulate fibrinoly-* sis. In a groupof 46 patients with congenital proteinC deficiency, we could not demonstrate a significant alteration of the fibri-lytic response to V0 by common lysis tests on diluted whole blood, euglobulins or plasma ; in addition basalPAI activity levels were not significantly different from normal values,even in one homozygous patient. However, an alteration of fibrinolysis localized at the vascular surface and/or irrelevance of the tests used in thesepatients cannot be excluded.In principle, a contact factor deficiency could predispose to thrombosis since intrinsic activation of fibrinolysis requires factor XII, prekallikrein (PK) and high molecular weight kininogen (HMWK). However,there is no strong evidence for this relationship. A small number of plasminogen deficiencies associated with thrombosis have been reported, with decreased activity and normal or concommitantly reduced antigen.We have observed onlyone case of familialplasminogen deficiency (both antigen and activity) out of the 400 patients studied. The relationship between the deficiencyandthe occurence of thrombosis has been questioned since,although thrombosis occuredin our propositus as well as in some of the patients reported in the literature, accidents were infre quent in other affected family members.Although predisposition to thrombosis in patients with hypo- or dysfibrinogenemia (D) seems paradoxical, several reasons can account for this apparent coincidence. Fibrin possesses antithrombin properties and enhances plasminogen activation induced by t-PA. Moreover, fibrinogen binding to platelets is an essential step in the mechanism of platelet aggregation. Alteration of these different functions could enhance thrombosis. In fact, thrombotic episodes were observed in about 10% of probands with D and in 4 patients with hypofibrinogenemia. The siblings with D are frequently asymptomatic. In few cases it has been shown that the abnormal fibrinogen could predispose tothrombosis such as in Dusard syndrome. Several family members suffered from a severe thrombotic disorder. A defective fibrinolysis due to an impaired fibrin enhanced plasminogen activation by t-PA was demonstrated. In Fibrinogen Oslo an increase of fibrinogen platelet aggregation cofactor activity was postulated to predispose to venous thrombosis.A defective thrombin bindingto fibrin was found in at least 3 cases ofD(fibrinogen New York I, Malmoe, Milano).Infibrinogen New York an associated defective binding of t-PA was shown. The findings concerning a defective thrombin, plasminogen, or t-PA binding to fibrin in some patients with fibrinogen alteration suggesttheimportant role of clot structure in the pathogenesis of some thrombotic disorders.In conclusion, the best tests to detecthypofibrinolysis have still to be determined : whole blood or plasma, lysis tests ormore specific assays such as t-PA or PAI, venous occlusion of 10 min. or more. In addition, a defective fibrinolysis can be associated with a well-defined congenital deficiency in coagulation inhibitors.