Phaidra - University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
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Using mobile eye tracking to study dogs\u27 understanding of human referential communication
No full textThe extent to which dogs understand human referential communication is among the most studied questions in canine cognition research. While it is widely accepted that dogs follow (some) human referential signals, the way they understand them remains controversial. Here, we applied mobile eye tracking with dogs to investigate during real-world interactions how ostensive pointing and gaze cues direct dogs\u27 visual attention and bias their subsequent choices in an object-choice task. We addressed the question of whether dogs would exhibit a greater response to referential communication compared with other directional cues. Five conditions were tested (pointing, pointing + gazing, gazing, fake throwing and no-cue control), each cue condition indicating the location of a hidden food reward. Results demonstrated that the combination of pointing and gazing significantly increased dogs\u27 attention towards the designated referent. In pointing + gazing, dogs maintained longer attention on the referent compared with other conditions and they approached it significantly above chance levels. While the alternative cue (fake throwing) moved the dogs\u27 gaze to the indicated direction, it did not increase the frequency of gaze shifts to the precise referent location. Our findings highlight that the joint use of pointing and gazing is a particularly effective method for directing dogs\u27 attention to a referent
Evaluation of welfare indicators for companion parrots: a Delphi consultation survey
No full textParrots can experience several welfare challenges when kept as companions. Despite their popularity no sciencebased guidelines are available to assess parrot welfare. The aim of this Delphi study was to establish consensus on welfare indicators that could be meaningful and practical for owners to monitor parrot welfare. One hundred and twenty-two potential welfare indicators (behaviours, body measurements, husbandry and management conditions) were sourced from a systematic literature review and by consulting an avian medicine specialist. They were presented to participants with expertise on parrots in two rounds of online survey. We identified 73 welfare indicators that could be used by owners to monitor the welfare of all/most parrot species. Abnormal behaviours and management conditions that allow parrots to express their natural behaviours were ranked among the most important indicators. Participants concurred with scientific evidence about the impact of diet, species susceptibility to develop behavioural problems, early life, and pre-acquisition experiences on parrot welfare. When prompted about the suitability of species as companions, participants indicated seven small-sized parrot species as most suitable to be kept as a companion, while cockatoos, critically endangered, and highly trafficked species were evaluated as those that should not be kept as companions. These findings could be useful to monitor and improve parrot welfare
Do goats exhibit prosocial motivation? Insights from a novel food-giving paradigm
No full textResearch on prosociality in animals has largely focused on a few model species and a limited range of experimental paradigms. To expand this scope, we developed an ecologically relevant food-giving paradigm, the Fake Apple Tree, designed to assess prosocial motivation in goats (Capra hircus) by stimulating their natural climbing behaviour. In this set-up, when a \u27donor\u27 goat stepped onto a platform attached to a pivoting arm, the arm lowered a food dispenser within reach of conspecific \u27recipients\u27, while the donor itself could not access the reward. Ten out of twelve goats spontaneously learned to operate the device. In dyadic trials, goats interacted with the Fake Apple Tree more frequently when the food dispenser was active compared to control sessions where no food was provided. The frequency of interactions remained stable across test sessions. We classified platform interactions as prosocial if the donor left without approaching the food dispenser and selfish if it attempted to access the food afterwards. Consistent with findings in primates, prosocial interactions were significantly longer than selfish ones. Our results provide insights into potential prosocial tendencies in goats and highlight the utility of ecologically relevant paradigms in studying cooperative behaviours in ungulates
Do goldfish like to be informed?
No full textLike humans, several mammalian and avian species prefer foretold over unsignalled future events, even if the information is costly and confers no direct benefit. It is unclear whether this is an epiphenomenon of basic associative learning mechanisms, or whether these preferences reflect a derived form of information-seeking that is reminiscent of human curiosity. We investigate whether a fish that shares basic reinforcement learning mechanisms with birds and mammals also shows such a preference, with the aim of elucidating whether widely shared conditioning processes are sufficient to explain paradoxical preferences resulting in unusable information. Goldfish (Carassius auratus) chose between two alternatives, both resulting in a 5?s delay and 50% reward chance. The \u27informative\u27 option immediately produced a stimulus correlated with the trial\u27s forthcoming outcome (reward/no reward). Choosing the \u27non-informative\u27 option instead triggered an uncorrelated stimulus. Goldfish discriminated between the different contingencies but did not develop a preference for the informative option, suggesting that in goldfish associative learning mechanisms are not sufficient to generate preferences between alternatives differing only in outcome predictability. These results challenge the notion that informative preferences are a by-product of ubiquitous associative processes, and are consistent with the possibility that derived information-seeking mechanisms have evolved in some vertebrate species
Vetmed : das Magazin der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien und der Gesellschaft der Freunde der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien 2/2025
No full textDas Universitätsmagazin berichtet über die vielfältigen Aktivitäten der Universität in Forschung, Studium und Universitätskliniken, informiert über Tiergesundheit, Tierhaltung und Tierschutz sowie Lebensmittelsicherheit und beschäftigt sich mit Fragen der Mensch-Tier-Beziehung
Continuing recovery of wolves in Europe
No full textThe recovery of wolves (Canis lupus) across Europe is a notable conservation success in a region with extensive human alteration of landscapes and high human population densities. We provide a comprehensive update on wolf populations in Europe, estimated at over 21,500 individuals by 2022, representing a 58% increase over the past decade. Despite the challenges of high human densities and significant land use for agriculture, industry, and urbanization, wolves have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and increasing population trends in most European countries. Improved monitoring techniques, although varying in quality and scope, have played a crucial role in tracking this recovery. Annually, wolves kill approximately 56,000 domestic animals in the EU, a risk unevenly distributed and differently handled across regions. Damage compensation costs 17 million EUR every year to European countries. Positive economic impacts from wolf presence, such as those related to reducing traffic accidents with wild ungulates or supporting wildlife tourism, remain under studied. Wolf recovery in Europe is supported by diverse
policy and legal instruments such as LIFE programs, stakeholder platforms, as well as the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention. Coexisting with newly established wolf populations in Europe entails managing impacts on human activities, including livestock depredation, competition for game, and fear of attacks on humans, amidst varying social and political views on wolf recovery. Sustainable coexistence continues to operate in evolving and complex social, economic, and political landscapes, often characterized by intense debates regarding wolf policies
MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large-scale collaboration
No full textThere is a vast and ever-accumulating amount of behavioural data on individually recognised animals, an incredible resource to shed light on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of variation in animal behaviour. Yet, the full potential of such data lies in comparative research across taxa with distinct life histories and ecologies. Substantial challenges impede systematic comparisons, one of which is the lack of persistent, accessible and standardised databases. Big-team approaches to building standardised databases offer a solution to facilitating reliable cross-species comparisons. By sharing both data and expertise among researchers, these approaches ensure that valuable data, which might otherwise go unused, become easier to discover, repurpose and synthesise. Additionally, such large-scale collaborations promote a culture of sharing within the research community, incentivising researchers to contribute their data by ensuring their interests are considered through clear sharing guidelines. Active communication with the data contributors during the standardisation process also helps avoid misinterpretation of the data, ultimately improving the reliability of comparative databases. Here, we introduce MacaqueNet, a global collaboration of over 100 researchers (https://macaquenet.github.io/) aimed at unlocking the wealth of cross-species data for research on macaque social behaviour. The MacaqueNet database
encompasses data from 1981 to the present on 61 populations across 14 species and is the first publicly searchable and standardised database on affiliative and agonistic animal social behaviour. We describe the establishment of MacaqueNet, from the steps we took to start a large-scale collective, to the creation of a cross-species collaborative database and the implementation of data entry and retrieval protocols. We share MacaqueNet\u27s component resources: an R package for data standardisation, website code, the relational database structure, a glossary and data sharing terms of use. With all these components openly accessible, MacaqueNet can act as a fully replicable template for future endeavours establishing large-scale collaborative comparative databases
Preclinical in vitro and in vivo evidence for CD74-targeting as effective treatment strategy for cutaneous T cell lymphomas
No full textPrognosis and quality of life in patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), particularly in those with Sézary syndrome (SS) or advanced-stage mycosis fungoides (MF), are poor. Monoclonal antibodies or antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have been added into CTCL treatment algorithms, but the spectrum of antibody-targetable cell surface antigens in T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (T-NHLs) is limited.To evaluate the expression of the major histocompatibility complex class II chaperone CD74 in common subtypes of CTCL by various methods, and to explore the efficacy of targeting CD74 in CTCL cells with an anti-CD74 ADC in vitro and in vivo.We comprehensively investigated the expression of CD74 in well-defined CTCL cell lines by polymerase chain reaction, immunoblotting and flow cytometry. More than 140 primary CTCL samples of all common subtypes were analysed by immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence and \u27co-detection by indexing\u27 (CODEX) multiplexed tissue imaging, as well as by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) analyses. DNA methylation of CTCL cell lines was interrogated by the generation of genome-wide methylation profiling. The effect of a maytansinoid-conjugated humanized ADC against CD74 was investigated in CTCL cell lines in vitro, alone or in combination with gemcitabine, and in vivo after xenotransplantation of CTCL cell lines in NOD-scid Il2rgnull mice.We demonstrated that CD74 is widely and robustly expressed in CTCL cells. In addition, CD74 expression in SS and MF was confirmed by scRNAseq data analysis and was correlated in CTCL cell lines with CD74 DNA hypomethylation. CD74 was rapidly internalized in CTCL cells and CD74 targeting by the ADC STRO-001 efficiently killed CTCL-derived cell lines. Finally, targeting of CD74 synergized with conventional chemotherapy in vitro and eradicated murine xenotransplants of CTCL cell lines in vivo.CD74 is expressed in common CTCL subtypes. Targeting CD74 efficiently killed CTCL cells in vitro and in vivo. We therefore suggest the targeting of CD74 to be a highly promising treatment strategy for CTCL
Sexually dimorphic gene expression responses of bovine embryos to the maternal microenvironment on day 13 of gestation
No full textVarious studies have highlighted significant differences in developmental kinetics and sensitivity to developmental conditions between male and female bovine embryos. These differences are thought to be caused in part by the sexually dimorphic expression of genes located on the sex or autosomal chromosomes. However, little is known about the dimorphic gene expression patterns of bovine embryos at the initiation of elongation, which is one of the critical stages of development. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, there is little or no data available on the sexually dimorphic gene expression patterns in bovine embryos in relation to maternal environmental conditions during the initiation of elongation. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the sexually dimorphic gene expression responses of embryos to the maternal environment at the initiation of elongation in embryos developed in lactating dairy cows and nonlactating nulliparous heifers.Gene expression analysis showed that 159 genes including those involved in steroid biosynthesis and gastrulation were differentially expressed exclusively between male and female embryos developed in cows. Among these, 61 genes including CYP39 A1, CYP2R1 and CYP27B1 were upregulated and 98 genes including HSD17B1, HSD17B10 and aromatase (CYP19 A1) were downregulated in male embryos. Chromosomal analysis showed that 31.2% of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) were located on the X chromosome, and 96% of those were upregulated in female embryos. Similarly, 254 genes including those involved in female sex differentiation, placenta development, transmembrane transport, and cell adhesion were differentially expressed exclusively between the male and female embryos developed in heifers. Of these, 108 genes including HSD17B11, HSD17B12, and HSD3B1 were upregulated, and 146 genes including SLC16 A9, SLC10 A1, SLC10 A3, SLC16 A5, SLC22 A23, SLC25 A43, SLC35 A2, SLC35 C1, and SLC4 were downregulated in male compared to female embryos. In addition, 17.3% of the DEGs were located on the X chromosome and 75% of the DEGs located on the X chromosome were upregulated in female embryos. On the other hand, 38 genes including SLC30 A10, SLC10 A4, ATP6 AP1, and KDM5 C showed sexually dimorphic expression patterns in day 13 bovine embryos irrespective of the maternal environment. These genes accounted for only 19% and 13% of the genes that showed sexually dimorphic expression in embryos developed in cows and heifers, respectively and the expression difference of these genes in male and female embryos was then likely influenced by the sex of the embryo.This study revealed that embryos developed in lactating cows showed sexually dimorphic expression of genes involved in various functions including steroid biosynthesis and gastrulation. In contrast, embryos developed in heifers displayed sexually dimorphic expression of genes related to placental development, female sex differentiation, and transmembrane transport. This suggests that the reproductive tract environments of cows and heifers differently affect the sex specific expression of genes in bovine embryos. A higher proportion of genes that showed sexually dimorphic expression in cow embryos were located on the X chromosome, and the majority of these genes were upregulated in female embryos. Overall, this study provides insight into genes that exhibit sexually dimorphic expression patterns in day 13 bovine embryos due to the maternal reproductive tract microenvironment or solely due to the sex of the embryo
The First Report of Mycoplasmas in Antarctic Pinnipeds: The Results of a Survey
No full textThe aim of this study was to investigate the presence of Mycoplasma spp. and their identification in seals from Antarctica. During January and February 2010, 59 Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella), 17 Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii), and 5 Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were captured in three Antarctic islands. Oral and genital samples were collected, cultured, and cloned. The Intergenic Spacer Region 16S-23S rDNA (ISR) PCR products were sent for sequencing. Seventy-four (91.4%) out of the eighty-one seals sampled were PCR positive. From those, 57 isolates were cultured. Mycoplasmas were more prevalent in the mouth in comparison to the reproductive tract. The percentage of isolates were 76.3%, 58.8%, and 40.0% for Antarctic fur seals, Weddell seals, and Southern elephant seals, respectively. The ISR sequences divided the isolates into six clusters. Four clusters presented a very high similarity percentage with mycoplasma sequences obtained from seals. However, none of these mycoplasmas have been described to date. Cluster 1 is also close to M. miroungigenitalium. This study represents the first report of Mycoplasma species adapted to Antarctic pinnipeds. The findings contribute to the understanding of the ecology of mycoplasmas in Antarctic pinnipeds