No abstract

Internationally, large populations of feral cats constitute an important and controversial issue due to their impact on cat overpopulation, animal welfare, public health, and the environment, and to disagreement about what are the best methods for their control. Trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs are an increasingly popular alternative to mass euthanasia. The objective of this study was to determine the population characteristics of feral cats admitted to large-scale TNR programs from geographically diverse locations in the United States. Data from 103,643 feral cats admitted to TNR programs from 1993 to 2004 were evaluated. All groups reported more intact females (53.4%) than intact males (44.3%); only 2.3% of the cats were found to be previously sterilized. Overall, 15.9% of female cats were pregnant at the time of surgery. Pregnancy was highly seasonal and peaked between March and April for all of the groups. The average prenatal litter size was 4.1+/-0.1 fetuses per litter. Cryptorchidism was observed in 1.3% of male cats admitted for sterilization. A total of 0.4% of cats was euthanased because of the presence of debilitating conditions, and 0.4% died during the TNR clinics. Remarkably similar populations of cats with comparable seasonal variability were seen at each program, despite their wide geographical distribution. These results suggest that it is feasible to safely sterilize large numbers of feral cats and that the experiences of existing programs are a consistent source of information upon which to model new TNR programs.

Suppression of fever at near term is associated with reduced COX-2 protein expression in rat hypothalamus. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 283: R800-R805, 2002; 10.1152/ ajpregu.00258.2002The fever response is blunted at near term. As the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays a critical role in fever development, we measured its expression in rat hypothalamus during pregnancy and lactation. Western blot analysis revealed a 72-kDa COX-2-immunoreactive band in non-immune-challenged, pregnant rats at day 15 of pregnancy. In contrast, it was almost undetectable at near term and at lactation day 5. COX-2 was significantly induced at the 15th day of pregnancy and at the 5th lactating day after intraperitoneal lipopolysaccharide (50 g/kg). However, this COX-2 induction was significantly reduced at near term compared with values before and after term. The protein levels of the EP3 receptor in the hypothalamus, one of the prostaglandin E 2 (PGE2) receptors suggested to be a key receptor for fever induction, were unaffected throughout the pregnancy and lactation in both non-immune-challenged and lipopolysaccharide-treated rats. These data suggest that suppression of fever at near term is associated with a significantly reduced induction of COX-2 by lipopolysaccharide, resulting in a reduced production of PGE 2. Altered expression of the EP3 receptor does not seem to be involved in this fever refractoriness at near term.cyclooxygenase-2; parturition; lipopolysaccharide; prostaglandin receptor; EP3 receptor FEVER, A MAJOR PART of host defense, is thought to be of beneficial and adaptive value (15). Thus the inability to develop a fever response to pathogens can be detrimental (16). An absent or reduced fever has been observed in pregnant animals at near term (14) and, in some circumstances, is associated with abortion or mortality (23). This febrile refractoriness has been observed in many species, including guinea pig (55), rabbits (28), sheep (14), and rats (7,23,24), and has been observed in response to both peripherally injected pyrogens (14, 23, 55) and, to a lesser extent, to centrally infused prostaglandins (7,24,48). The fact that fever suppression is most dramatic in response to systemically administered LPS suggests that several steps in the cascade of responses to peripherally injected LPS may be affected.In response to bacterial pyrogens such as LPS, immunocompetent cells generate endogenous cytokines, which signal to the central nervous system through either humoral or neuronal pathways (for review, see Ref. 8) to induce expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) (6, 22). The activity of this enzyme results in the cyclooxygenation of arachidonic acid and subsequently the production of PGE 2 , which acts largely in the anterior hypothalamus/preoptic area (47). COX-2 is present in basal conditions in the brain (3, 41), but in inflammation, it is induced specifically in the endothelium of brain capillaries (18,25). Levels of COX-2 have been correlated to levels of PGE 2 during LPS-induced fever (54). Because...

The environment is not usually viewed as the most important problem in war-torn societies. 1 Humanitarian relief, security, economic reconstruction, and political reconciliation all command attention as urgent priorities. Yet violent conflict does extraordinary damage to the environment on which people depend for their health and livelihoods; human insecurities in such settings have a strong, immediate ecological component as people struggle for clean water, sanitation, food, and fuel in a context of conflict-ravaged infrastructure, lost livelihoods, and disrupted institutions. Over time, more diffuse but equally important environmental challenges emerge: establishing systems of environmental governance, managing pressures on the resource base, creating administrative capacity, dealing with environmental effects of recovery, and finding sustainable trajectories for reconstruction. The scholarly debate over whether environmental degradation causes violent conflict is ongoing. But as the chapter shows, a growing body of scholarly literature and case documentation indicates that the failure to respond to environmental needs of war-torn societies may greatly complicate the difficult tasks of peacebuilding. At worst, tensions triggered by environmental problems or contested access to natural resources may lead to renewed violent conflict; more generally, failure to meet basic environmental needs undercuts reconciliation, political institu tionalization, and economic reconstruction. In the short run, failure to respond to environmental challenges can deepen human suffering and increase vulnerability to natural disasters. In the long run, it may threaten the effective