Investigations on the Health Status and Infection Risk of Harbour Seals () from Waters of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea, Germany.

Harbour seals () are the most common pinniped species in the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony, Germany. Their numbers have recovered after significant depletion due to viral outbreaks and effects of anthropogenic activities like pollution and habitat disturbance. Within the Wadden Sea National Park of Lower Saxony the harbour seal is protected.

Beached bachelors: An extensive study on the largest recorded sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event in the North Sea.

Between the 8th January and the 25th February 2016, the largest sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus mortality event ever recorded in the North Sea occurred with 30 sperm whales stranding in five countries within six weeks. All sperm whales were immature males. Groups were stratified by size, with the smaller animals stranding in the Netherlands, and the largest in England.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS)-based analysis and imaging of polyethylene microplastics formation during sea surf simulation.

Plastic particles smaller than 5mm, so called microplastics have the capability to accumulate in rivers, lakes and the marine environment and therefore have begun to be considered in eco-toxicology and human health risk assessment. Environmental microplastic contaminants may originate from consumer products like body wash, tooth pastes and cosmetic products, but also from degradation of plastic waste; they represent a potential but unpredictable threat to aquatic organisms and possibly also to humans. We investigated exemplarily for polyethylene (PE), the most abundant constituent of microplastic particles in the environment, whether such fragments could be produced from larger pellets (2mm×6mm).

[The importance of aeromonads as a human pathogen].

The genus Aeromonas belongs to the family Aeromonadaceae of the order Aeromonadales and consists of 14 phenospecies and 17 genomospecies. They are gram-negative, oxidase-positive, facultatively anaerobic and glucose-fermenting rods. Members of the mesophilic genus Aeromonas spp.

Testing fish vaccines with an in vitro lymphocyte blastogenesis assay.

Lethal-challenge experiments are provided by German law till now for testing fish vaccines. Finding an in vitro-assay which could replace this experiments was subject of our work. Two questions must have been answered to develop the lymphocyte blastogenesis assay: Do lymphocytes of immunised fish react the same way as lymphocytes of naive fish, being incubated with antigen and is there a coherence between the lymphocyte's in-vitro-response and the immune status of challenged fish.

Valproate metabolites in serum and urine during antiepileptic therapy in children with infantile spasms: abnormal metabolite pattern associated with reversible hepatotoxicity.

The purpose of this study was to identify abnormal metabolite patterns of valproate (VPA) as possible early indicators of VPA-induced liver toxicity. In a prospective study, we determined serum and urine levels of VPA metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) during the course of therapy in 25 children treated for infantile spasms with high VPA doses (less than or equal to 100 mg/kg body weight/day). Most patients had similar metabolite profiles: The main metabolites in serum were the beta-oxidation products (2-en-VPA and 3-keto-VPA) and the major diunsaturated metabolite 2,3'-dien-VPA.