Fundamental Moral Attitudes to Animals and Their Role in Judgment: An Empirical Model to Describe Fundamental Moral Attitudes to Animals and Their Role in Judgment on the Culling of Healthy Animals During an Animal Disease Epidemic

In this paper, we present and defend the theoretical framework of an empirical model to describe people’s fundamental moral attitudes (FMAs) to animals, the stratification of FMAs in society and the role of FMAs in judgment on the culling of healthy animals in an animal disease epidemic. We used philosophical animal ethics theories to understand the moral basis of FMA convictions. Moreover, these theories provide us with a moral language for communication between animal ethics, FMAs, and public debates. We defend that FMA is a two-layered concept. The first layer consists of deeply felt convictions about animals. The second layer consists of convictions derived from the first layer to serve as arguments in a debate on animal issues. In a debate, the latter convictions are variable, depending on the animal issue in a specific context, time, and place. This variability facilitates finding common ground in an animal issue between actors with opposing convictions.     

论近年来畜禽疫病的特点及其预防对策

随着畜牧业的快速发展,大规模、高密度、集约化的饲养和频繁的调运等,使畜禽更易发生流行性、群发性的疫病.畜禽疫病造成的损失影响了人类的生活需要,而且某些人畜共患的疫病还给人类健康带来了严重的威胁.要保证畜牧业可持续发展和保护人类健康,控制畜禽疫病就是关健措施.由于近年畜禽疫病的变化,我们的防治对策应发生相应变化.     

Loss of traditional knowledge aggravates wolf–human conflict in Georgia (Caucasus) in the wake of socio-economic change

Reports of the damage from wolf attacks have increased considerably over the last decade in Georgia (in the Caucasus). We interviewed locals about this problem in two focal regions: the Lanchkhuti area (in western Georgia) and Kazbegi District (in eastern Georgia) where livestock numbers had increased by an order of magnitude owing to dramatic shifts in the local economies over the last decade. This coincided with expanding habitats for wolves (abandoned plantations, for example). We found that the perceived damage from wolves was positively correlated with a poor knowledge of wolf habits and inappropriate livestock husbandry practices. Our results suggest a loss of traditional knowledge contributes strongly to the wolf–human conflicts in Georgia. Restoring traditional, simple but good practices—such as protecting herds using shepherd dogs and introducing bulls into the herds—can help one solve this problem.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0580-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Biomass and nutrient concentration of sweet corn roots and shoots under organic amendments application

Two field experiments were conducted at the Waimanalo research station on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii to study the effect of chicken (CM) and dairy (DM) manures on biomass and nutrient concentration in sweet corn roots and shoots. Sweet corn (super sweet 10, Zea Mays L. subsp. mays) was grown for two consecutive growing seasons under four rates of application (0, 168, 337, and 672 kg ha^{? 1} total N equivalent) and one time (OTA) or two time (TTA) applications of organic manure types and rates. There were significant effects of types, rates, and number of manure applications on dry biomass and macro- and micro-nutrient concentration in roots and shoots tissues. Results of root tissue indicated a significant accumulation of N and C under CM and DM treatments compared with the control treatment. Manure application rates significantly increased the accumulation of N and C in root tissue. Dry weight of roots and shoots and both macro- and micro-nutrient contents in the plant tissues significantly increased under TTA treatment compared with OTA treatment. There was a significant correlation (r² = 0.46 to 0.81) between root biomass, macro-, and micro-nutrient contents during both growing seasons. The results of the study indicates that amending soils with CM at the highest application rate provided the best crop performance in terms of root and shoot biomass, crop N, C, and other macro- and micro-nutrients.     

The role of toxicology in the evaluation of new agrochemicals

Abstract

The use of agrochemicals like crop protecting agents, veterinary disinfectants, and wood preservatives may result in (un)intentional exposure of the environment, animals and man. This paper deals with current testing strategies to assess the potential health risks for humans exposed to these chemicals during production or application or via consumption of foods containing pesticide residues.

Principles and procedures for safety assessment of pesticide residues in food as developed by WHO/FAO are described. Different types of toxicity studies in mammalian test animal species are discussed and a strategy is outlined in order to characterize the toxicity profile of a compound and the relationship between applied doses and adverse effects. Safety testing of agrochemicals should be carried out in relation to its intended use, and in particular attention will be paid to toxicity testing of residues of pesticides in food. Extrapolation of results from animal studies to humans and the use of safety factors is discussed.

Besides the use of animal protocol studies for safety testing of agrochemicals, the potential use of in‐vitro models derived from organs and tissues of animals is discussed. Data on the in‐vitro metabolism of thiabendazole, aldicarb and alachlor are discussed in order to demonstrate that such data may complement or partly substitute whole animal experimentation.

Principles and procedures for safety testing of residues of agrochemicals in food as applied during the last three decades, constitute a ‘safety‐first’ approach, providing sufficient safety margins for the consumer of foods which may contain low levels of residues of agrochemicals.     

A Pluralist–Expressivist Critique of the Pet Trade

Elizabeth Anderson’s “pluralist–expressivist” value theory, an alternative to the understanding of value and rationality underlying the “rational actor” model of human behavior, provides rich resources for addressing questions of environmental and animal ethics. It is particularly well-suited to help us think about the ethics of commodification, as I demonstrate in this critique of the pet trade. I argue that Anderson’s approach identifies the proper grounds for criticizing the commodification of animals, and directs our attention to the importance of maintaining social practices and institutions that respect the social meanings of animals. Her theory alone, however, does not adequately address the role of the state in this project. Drawing on social contract theory to fill this gap, I conclude that the state’s role in regulating the pet trade should be limited to ensuring the welfare of animals in the stream of commerce, not prohibiting their mass marketing altogether.     

Excretion of manure-borne estrogens and androgens and their potential risk estimation in the Yangtze River Basin

The Yangtze River is the longest river in China, and the river basin spans one fifth of the area of the whole country. Based on statistical data, the excretion of manure-borne steroid hormones, including steroid estrogens(SEs) and steroid androgens(SAs), in 10 provinces of China within the region has been estimated. The potential environmental and ecological risk of manure-borne steroid estrogens to the surface water in this region was also assessed. The manure-borne SE and SA excretions in the 10 provinces and municipalities vary in the order: Sichuan Hunan Hubei Yunnan Jiangsu Anhui Jiangxi Chongqing Qinghai Shanghai. The highest increase of manure-borne SEs(1434.3 kg)and SAs(408.5 kg) was found in Hunan and Hubei provinces, respectively, and the total excretion in 2013 was 65% more than 15 years earlier in these two provinces. However, the emissions in Anhui and Shanghai decreased in this 15 year period of time. Swine urine,chicken feces, cattle urine, and laying hen feces were considered the dominant sources of manure-borne E1, βE2, αE2, and SAs, respectively. Although Jiangsu province did not have the largest excretion of manure-borne SEs, it had the highest level of predicted17β-estradiol equivalency(EEQs) value of 16.65 ng/L in surface water because of the limited surface water resources. According to the lowest observable effect level of 10 ng/L for17β-estradiol, the manure-borne SEs in Jiangsu province might potentially pose ecological risk to its wild aquatic organisms.     

农牧交错区土地荒漠化与生物多样性研究--以宁夏盐池县为例

采用α-多样性指数即Shannon-Wiener指数、Simpson指数、群落均匀度指数Jsw和Js和β-多样性指数(相似性系数Cs)研究宁夏盐池县草原群落在不同荒漠化治理措施下(人工封育、退耕还林、撂荒)生物多样性变化.2002和2003年固定样地观测数据表明,到2003年,各样地的α-多样性指数均有不同程度的提高,以撂荒地和退耕还林地α-多样性变化较大.Simpson指数、Js指数变化最为明显,分别平均增加了140%、109%,Shannon-Wiener指数、Jsw指数次之,分别增加67%、49%.人工封育不同处理区α-多样性指数也有较大变化,由核心＞边缘＞外围,变为边缘＞核心＞外围排列次序.β-多样性的研究结果同样表明,各样地的种类组成发生了一定的变化.文章还进一步分析了引起生物多样性变化的主要原因.     

Lévy walk patterns in the foraging movements of spider monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ateles geoffroyi</Emphasis>)

Scale invariant patterns have been found in different biological systems, in many cases resembling what physicists have found in other, nonbiological systems. Here we describe the foraging patterns of free-ranging spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in the forest of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and find that these patterns closely resemble what physicists know as Lévy walks. First, the length of a trajectorys constituent steps, or continuous moves in the same direction, is best described by a power-law distribution in which the frequency of ever larger steps decreases as a negative power function of their length. The rate of this decrease is very close to that predicted by a previous analytical Lévy walk model to be an optimal strategy to search for scarce resources distributed at random. Second, the frequency distribution of the duration of stops or waiting times also approximates to a power-law function. Finally, the mean square displacement during the monkeys first foraging trip increases more rapidly than would be expected from a random walk with constant step length, but within the range predicted for Lévy walks. In view of these results, we analyze the different exponents characterizing the trajectories described by females and males, and by monkeys on their own and when part of a subgroup. We discuss the origin of these patterns and their implications for the foraging ecology of spider monkeys.Communicated by D. Watts     

No cultural transmission of species recognition between parents and offspring in free-living great tits and blue tits

Imprinting plays a key role in the development of species recognition, with young imprinting upon the morphological characters of their parents. However, the potential role that cultural transmission might play in species recognition remains largely uninvestigated. Great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) do not normally perceive each other as sexual competitors or potential partners. However, after reciprocal interspecific cross-fostering, both species may perceive individuals of the foster species as potential rivals or mates. Although the experience of being raised by heterospecifics clearly has affected the species recognition of cross-fostered birds, some of them breed naturally with conspecifics. The offspring of such cross-fostered birds (OCF) are hence raised by parents that look like ordinary conspecifics but display deviant species recognition as compared to controls in terms of aggressive response towards rivals. Comparing the aggressive behavior of OCF, cross-fostered birds and controls towards territorial intruders may thus help tease apart the influence of morphological vs behavioral cues of parents in the development of offspring species recognition. To this end, we compared birds from all three treatments with respect to their aggressive response to territorial intruders of both species during the breeding season. OCF and controls did not differ in their pattern of response towards heterospecific and conspecific stimuli. Compared to cross-fostered birds, OCF and controls showed less aggression towards heterospecific intruders, while the response towards conspecific intruders did not differ between treatments. These results demonstrate that both tit species imprint on the morphological characters of their parents, but that parental behavior is not important for the development of species recognition in terms of aggressive response towards territorial intruders.