Puppy Temperament Assessments Predict Breed and American Kennel Club Group but Not Adult Temperament.

Puppy assessments for companion dogs have shown mixed long-term reliability. Temperament is cited among the reasons for surrendering dogs to shelters. A puppy temperament test that reliably predicts adult behavior is one potential way to lower the number of dogs given to shelters.

Myasthenia gravis and related disorders: Pathology and molecular pathogenesis.

Disorders affecting the presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic portions of the neuromuscular junction arise from various mechanisms in children and adults, including acquired autoimmune or toxic processes as well as genetic mutations. Disorders include autoimmune myasthenia gravis associated with acetylcholine receptor, muscle specific kinase or Lrp4 antibodies, Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, nerve terminal hyperexcitability syndromes, Guillain Barré syndrome, botulism, organophosphate poisoning and a number of congenital myasthenic syndromes. This review focuses on the various molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms of these disorders, characterization of which has been crucial to the development of treatment strategies specific for each pathogenic mechanism.

Acoustic profiling in a complexly social species, the American crow: caws encode information on caller sex, identity, and behavioural context.

Previous research on inter-individual variation in the calls of corvids has largely been restricted to single call types, such as alarm or contact calls, and has rarely considered the effects of age on call structure. This study explores structural variation in a contextually diverse set of "caw" calls of the American crow (), including alarm, foraging recruitment and territorial calls, and searches for structural features that may be associated with behavioural context and caller sex, age, and identity. Automated pitch detection algorithms are used to generate 23 pitch-related and spectral parameters for a collection of caws from 18 wild, marked crows.

Tenure in current captive setting and age predict personality changes in adult pigtailed macaques.

Personality change in nonhuman primates is a topic that warrants more research attention. Many studies focus on intraindividual repeatability, but few note population-wide trends in personality change. In part, this results from the large sample size that is required to detect such trends.

The effects of automated scatter feeders on captive grizzly bear activity budgets.

Although captive bears are popular zoo attractions, they are known to exhibit high levels of repetitive behaviors (RBs). These behaviors have also made them particularly popular subjects for welfare research. To date, most research on ursid welfare has focused on various feeding methods that seek to increase time spent searching for, extracting, or consuming food.

Temperament in rhesus, long-tailed, and pigtailed macaques varies by species and sex.

Temperament differs among individuals both within and between species. Evidence suggests that differences in temperament of group members may parallel differences in social behavior among groups or between species. Here, we compared temperament between three closely related species of monkey-rhesus (Macaca mulatta), long-tailed (M.

Population genetics of the Washington National Primate Research Center's (WaNPRC) captive pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) population.

Pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) provide an important model for biomedical research on human disease and for studying the evolution of primate behavior. The genetic structure of captive populations of pigtailed macaques is not as well described as that of captive rhesus (M. mulatta) or cynomolgus (M.

Thromboelastography values from pigtail macaques ( Macaca nemestrina): effects of age and sex.

Thromboelastography is a clinical laboratory test used to assess global hemostasis. With technologic advances and the test's reemergence in human medicine, its utility in veterinary medicine is being explored. Because assays for PT, aPTT, and d-dimers require platelet-poor plasma, whereas thromboelastography is performed on whole blood, thromboelastography provides a more accurate representation of coagulation and allows the identification of hypocoagulable, hypercoagulable, and hyperfibrinolytic states.

Aggression in pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) breeding groups affects pregnancy outcome.

Past research has shown that aggressive behaviors can affect female reproductive outcome in nonhuman primate captive breeding programs. In this study, aggressive behaviors were recorded in a colony of pigtailed macaque monkeys (Macaca nemestrina) and related to pregnancy outcome. For 22 weeks, behavioral data were collected from nine breeding groups, consisting of zero to one male (some males were removed after a cycle of conceptions for husbandry reasons) and four to eight females.

Risk factors for dystocia in pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina).

Dystocia (difficult labor) is an important component of the management of nonhuman primates and results in significant fetal and maternal morbidity and increased use of veterinary resources. Dystocias can arise from abnormalities of the maternal pelvis or fetus or uncoordinated uterine activity. Although risk factors for stillbirths have been established in nonhuman primates, risk factors for dystocias have not.

Two-item discrimination and Hamilton search learning in infant pigtailed macaque monkeys.

This study investigated how infant pigtailed macaque monkeys performed on two separate learning assessments, two-object discrimination/reversal and Hamilton search learning. Although the learning tasks have been tested on several species, including non-human primates, there have been no normative results reported for young macaque monkeys. The present study provides normative results for these learning tasks in very young captive pigtailed macaques and investigates the degree to which performances on these assessments are related.

Floating limb behaviors and self-biting are associated in laboratory monkeys.

Early descriptions of floating limb behaviors in monkeys were associated with isolation rearing, a practice that ended more than two decades ago. The present authors named various forms of behaviors in which a leg is elevated for no apparent reason: "Floating Limb Suite" (FLS). Floating limb behaviors, identified in laboratory monkeys at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC), consist of two subcategories distinguished by whether monkeys seem to react to the elevated leg or ignore it.

MR imaging of the brain in fat embolism syndrome.

Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is an uncommon but serious complication of traumatic injury and is frequently diagnostically challenging. In this paper, the authors present four patients who sustained lower extremity long bone injury and who had a normal Glasgow Coma Scale before orthopedic surgical intervention. However, postoperatively, significant neurological deterioration developed in these patients.

The effects of visitor density and intensity on the behavior of two captive jaguars (Panthera onca).

Several researchers have reported significant effects of visitor density and intensity on captive animal behavior. This study determined whether this was the case for 2 captive jaguars housed at the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, WA. Subjects were monitored for changes in behavior as a function of visitor density and intensity.

Genetics and caging type affect birth weight in captive pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina).

The heritability of birth weight was estimated in 3,562 captive pigtailed macaques using 30 years of breeding and pedigree records. Based on a pedigree of over 12,000 animals, quantitative genetic analyses were performed using statistical variance decomposition methods. The model included additive genetic effects, cytoplasmic genetic effects, birth environment, shared maternal environment, and unmeasured environmental effects.