健康与快乐:作为可持续农业必要部分之一的动物福利

一个农业系统若要是可持续的,好的动物福利是必不可少的.尽管自从我们一开始驯养动物,对它们的健康和繁殖产生依赖,我们就一直在关注动物福利问题,但本文的焦点主要集中在自20世纪60年代以来围绕动物福利的争论的进展上.它将动物福利作为一门由一个社会关注的动物饲养方式问题演化而来的科学来呈现.而这些道德伦理上的关注使得动物福利的价值架构也必须被考虑在内.随着这一领域研究的不断发展,不同的动物福利的定义和研究实例被提出和讨论.比如,近几年来,消费者对动物友好产品(animal-friendly products)的消费方面的研究兴趣大增,一如过去的环境友好产品(environment friendly products);而这也刺激了研究重点从动物福利的实验研究转移至动物福利在实际中的应用和农场的动物福利监控上.传统上讲,这样的测量是基于资源的,比如计算最小饲养空间或者最大饲养密度,但现在的趋势是趋向于基于动物的测量,比如跛足动物的数量、身体状况等.     

Limb reduction and chorion villus sampling

Upper limb reduction was diagnosed by ultrasound scan at 17 weeks after chorion villus sampling at 9 weeks' gestation. Pregnancy was terminated and necropsy confirmed limb reduction in an otherwise normal fetus. The relationship of limb reduction to amniotic band syndrome is discussed.     

Healthy and happy: animal welfare as an integral part of sustainable agriculture

Good animal welfare is necessary if an agricultural system is to be sustainable. Although we have been concerned about the welfare of our animals since we first domesticated them and became dependent on their health and reproduction, this article focuses mainly on the development of the animal welfare debate since the 1960s. It presents animal welfare as a science that arose from society's concern about the way animals are kept. These moral and ethical concerns lead to it having a value framework that must also be taken into consideration. Different definitions of animal welfare, as well as examples of research, are presented and discussed in the light of developments in this area. For example, in recent years there has been an increased interest among consumers for animal-friendly products, as there has been for environment friendly products, and this has stimulated the move from experimental studies of animal welfare to its application in practice and to monitoring animal welfare on farms. Traditionally such measurements have been resource based, e.g. specifying the minimum amount of feeding space or the maximum stocking density, but now the trend is toward animal-based measures, such as the numberof lame animals, body condition, etc.     

The effect of queen pheromones on worker honey bee ovary development

We report results that address a long-standing controversy in honey bee biology, the identity of the queen-produced compounds that inhibit worker honey bee ovary development. As the honey bee is the only organism for which identities have been proposed for any pheromone that regulates reproduction, the resolution of its identity is of broad significance. We examined the effects of synthetic honey bee queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), four newly identified queen retinue pheromone components, and whole-queen extracts on the ovary development of caged worker bees. The newly identified compounds did not inhibit worker ovary development alone, nor did they improve the efficacy of QMP when applied in combination. QMP was as effective as queen extracts at ovary regulation. Caged workers in the QMP and queen extract treatments had better developed ovaries than did workers remaining in queenright colonies. We conclude that QMP is responsible for the ovary-regulating pheromonal capability of queens from European-derived Apis mellifera subspecies.     

Application of a pathogenicity marker found in Escherichia coli for the assessment of irrigation water quality.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method was developed to differentiate between pathogenic and nonpathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli). A pathogenicity marker, linked to the deletion of the ygfB gene, was identified in 80% of the clinical E. coli isolates tested. This marker, combined with the malic acid dehydrogenase gene, formed the duplex PCR that was subsequently used to screen E. coli isolates recovered from two secondary wastewater treatment plants (STPs) and a river site. All waters samples are used to irrigate dairy farm pasture in the West Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Results from three consecutive months of sampling (December 2001 and January and February 2002) indicated that Longwarry STP showed 8, 8, and 0% pathogenic E. coli; Pakenham STP showed 0, 12.5, and 33%; and the Bunyip river site showed 20, 12, and 25% respectively.     

Raised maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein in the absence of fetal abnormality-placental findings. A quantitative morphometric study

Ten placentae from pregnancies proceeding to term from mothers who on routine screening at 16–18 weeks gestation were found to have a raised serum AFP but no increase in amniotic fluid AFP and no fetal abnormality, were studied using morphometric techniques. The results were compared with 20 placentae from normal term pregnancies where the maternal serum AFP level was not elevated. The mean total placental volume, volume of parenchyma and villous surface area were increased in the placentae associated with a raised maternal serum AFP. More of these placentae were infarcted and the fetal-placental weight ratio was significantly lower. The hypothesis that elevation of maternal serum AFP level is related to the increase in placental size is addressed.     

Rethinking remediation: mine reclamation,environmental justice,and relations of care

ABSTRACT

To date, research on mine remediation in North America has focused primarily on technical management; relatively less is known about the historical, political and social dimensions of remediation. Remediation, as a continuation of the mining process, alters local landscapes and economies and can be both dangerous and beneficial for surrounding communities. Because remediation projects tend to focus on the technical aspects of clean-up, such projects risk overlooking the environmental injustices associated with past development and obscuring blame or responsibility from industry and government for environmental degradation. Insofar as it is understood as cleaning up or repairing environmental damage, remediation is generally seen as “doing the good” and is less amenable to political or ethical challenges based on community concerns or values. This paper argues that greater attention needs to be paid to public participation and justice concerns associated with cleaning up mine sites. Drawing from the literatures on ecological restoration, environmental justice, reconciliation, discard studies, and matters of care, we highlight critical, yet overlooked issues in the remediation of post-mining landscapes. We argue that remediation projects present a unique opportunity for the negotiation and articulation of morals, values, histories, and physical experiences associated with mine sites and we seek to re-frame remediation as an ongoing, creative process of community healing.     

Phytoremediation: The uptake of metals and metalloids by rhodes grass grown on metal‐contaminated soil

An experiment was performed to examine the phytoremediation potential of Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana Kunth cv. ‘Pioneer’). The study sought to determine substrate tolerance, biomass production, and plant uptake of antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), silver (Ag), and zinc (Zn). The plants were grown on weight percent mixtures (5 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent, 50 percent) of a vertisol soil and base‐metal mine tailings (7–2,040 μg/g As, ≥ 30 μg/g Cd, 30–12,000 μg/g Pb, and 72–4,120 μg/g Zn). The 5 percent and 15 percent amendment of mine tailings increased the biomass production of Rhodes grass (from 0.1 g/plant to ≈ 3.5 g/plant) without appreciably elevating plant concentrations of the elements. Plant growth decreased by greater than 50 percent for the substrate containing greater than 25 percent tailings (3,023 μg/g Pb and 1,084 μg/g Zn). Reduced biomass production coincided with maximal Zn uptake by Rhodes grass (249.8 μg/g), indicating tailings induced phytotoxicity. The total concentrations of metals and metalloids tolerated by Rhodes grass in the plant‐growth medium indicated hypertolerance to elevated As, Pb, and Zn concentrations. Partial extraction of the plant‐growth medium determined that plant‐available Pb was ten times higher than Ag, As, Cd, and Zn availability. However, Rhodes grass accumulated low levels of Pb, in addition to As and Cd, over the experimental range, indicating low fodder toxicity risk to browsing livestock. This study concludes that if there are no invasive species issues associated with conservation land uses, Rhodes grass is well suited to metalliferous mined land revegetation and would therefore be highly effective for such programs in subtropical and tropical Australia. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Suess effect: Carbon-Carbon interrelations

The Suess Effect is a term which has come to signify the decrease in ¹⁴C in atmospheric CO₂ owing to admixture of CO₂ produced by the combustion of fossil fuels. This term is here extended, as a concept, to the shifts in isotopic ratio of both ¹³C and ¹⁴C in any reservoir of the carbon cycle owing to anthropogenic activities. To explain this generalized Suess Effect a four reservoir global model of the natural carbon cycle is developed in which isotopic fractionation and radioactive decay are fully taken into account. The model includes the cases in which the deep ocean is treated either as a single undifferentiated box model reservoir or is vertically differentiated with eddy diffusion governing the transport of carbon. Also, the governing equations are expressed with sufficient generality to apply simultaneously to both rare isotopes. In so far as possible, the model is expressed without approximation of the isotopic processes even though this leads to non-linear differential equations to describe the rates of change of rare isotopic carbon within carbon reservoirs. Linear approximations also developed and solved using the method of Laplace transforms. The sensitivity of the predicted Suess Effects to uncertainties in the assigned values of the model parameters is investigated in detail, including estimates of some of the effects of linearizing the governing equations.The approximation of Stuiver, in which the atmospheric Suess Effect is assumed to be 0.018 times the corresponding effect for ¹⁴C, is examined in detail and shown to arise when both isotopic fractionation and radioactive decay are left out of the model. This approximation, although correct as to order of magnitude, is found to be too imprecise to be recommended in modeling studies.As found in previous work, the predicted atmospheric Suess Effect for ¹³C for a given airborne fraction of industrial CO₂ is of similar magnitude whether the land biosphere has been a net source or sink of carbon during recent times. On the other hand, the corresponding effect for a surface ocean water is considerably smaller than otherwise if the land biosphere has been a source of CO₂ instead of a sink. The model is thus useful in indicating the need to consider isotopes in several reservoirs simultaneously.Although the emphasis is on formulating models rather than surveying and interpreting data, observational data are summarized and compared with model predictions. The oceanic data are seen to be too meager as yet to help settle the question of biospheric response to man's activities.