Causes of anaemia other than acute blood loss and their clinical significance in dogs.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the causes of anaemia, other than acute blood loss, in dogs and to determine whether severity of anaemia provides clues to the diagnosis. METHODS: The veterinary medical database of the Veterinary Campus Hospital, Lyon was searched. Dogs with anaemia (packed cell volume <37%) were included and assigned to different disease groups. Dogs with acute blood loss were excluded. The case records were examined for weakness at presentation, the severity and regeneration of anaemia and the final diagnosis including tumour type if applicable. RESULTS: The case records of 456 dogs with low packed cell volume were included. Cancer-related anaemia and anaemia of inflammatory disease accounted for 33·1 and 28·5% of cases, respectively. Most dogs with cancer-related anaemia had solid tumours (73%). The prevalence of immune-mediated anaemia increased with severity of anaemia (5·3, 15·5, 41·2 and 56·2% for mild, moderate, severe and very severe anaemia, respectively), whereas the prevalence of anaemia of inflammatory disease decreased (36·7, 22·5, 2·9 and 0% for mild, moderate, severe and very severe anaemia, respectively). CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Anaemia of inflammatory disease and cancer-related anaemia were the most frequently identified causes of anaemia in dogs. The percentage of dogs with immune-mediated anaemia increased with anaemia severity, whereas the percentage of dogs with anaemia of inflammatory disease decreased with anaemia severity. Thus, severity of anaemia may provide clues to the diagnosis.

Social behavior and kin discrimination in a mixed group of cloned and non cloned heifers (Bos taurus).

For more than ten years, reproductive biotechnologies using somatic cell nuclear transfer have made possible the production of cloned animals in various domestic and laboratory species. The influence of the cloning process on offspring characteristics has been studied in various developmental aspects, however, it has not yet been documented in detail for behavioral traits. Behavioral studies of cloned animals have failed to show clear inter-individual differences associated with the cloning process. Preliminary results showed that clones favor each other's company. Preferential social interactions were observed among cloned heifers from the same donor in a mixed herd that also included cloned heifers and control heifers produced by artificial insemination (AI). These results suggest behavioral differences between cloned and non-cloned animals and similarities between clones from the same donor. The aim of the present study was to replicate and to extend these previous results and to study behavioral and cognitive mechanisms of this preferential grouping. We studied a group composed of five cloned heifers derived from the same donor cow, two cloned heifers derived from another donor cow, and AI heifers. Cloned heifers from the same donor were more spatially associated and interacted more between themselves than with heifers derived from another donor or with the AI individuals. This pattern indicates a possible kin discrimination in clones. To study this process, we performed an experiment (using an instrumental conditioning procedure with food reward) of visual discrimination between images of heads of familiar heifers, either related to the subjects or not. The results showed that all subjects (AI and cloned heifers) discriminated between images of familiar cloned heifers produced from the same donor and images of familiar unrelated heifers. Cattle discriminated well between images and used morphological similarities characteristic of cloned related heifers. Our results suggest similar cognitive capacities of kin and non kin discrimination in AI and cloned animals. Kinship may be a common factor in determining the social grouping within a herd.

Baboon palm nut harvesters in ancient Egypt: new (ancient) evidence, new questions.

It is well documented that hamadryas baboons were used by the ancient Egyptians to pick fruits, but it is not well known that these baboons were also used to collect palm nuts. We describe this practice as it is depicted on a painting on a rarely exhibited ancient Egyptian artefact. Striking similarities with the modern use of pig-tailed macaques as coconut harvesters are described, raising new questions about the demise of the practice in Africa and its continuation in South-East Asia.

Dairy cattle exploratory and social behaviors: is there an effect of cloning?

While an increasing number of animals are produced by means of somatic cloning, behavioral studies on cloned animals are still rare. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the somatic cloning procedure has an influence on locomotion, exploratory, vocal and social behaviors of heifers. Ten heifers were used in the present study. Five of them were cloned heifers derived from somatic cells of three different Prim'Holstein cows and five others were same-age control heifers produced by artificial insemination. In addition to observations of social behaviors in the stable group, each animal was placed individually for a short time in an unfamiliar environment. Our results failed to show any statistical differences between clones and their controls both in frequencies of agonistic and non-agonistic behaviors. However, cloned heifers showed significantly more non-agonistic and less agonistic behaviors towards other cloned partners than towards control ones. This result also stood for control heifers. As far as their Hierarchical Index was concerned, three cloned heifers were highest ranking and two others lowest ranking. In this herd, social dominance appeared to be linked to body weight and age rather than to a cloning effect. In an unfamiliar environment, cloned and control subjects exhibited the same level of locomotion and vocalization. However, cloned heifers showed more exploratory behaviors than did control ones. This difference could be due to environmental factors during the postnatal period rather than to cloning.

[The phylogeny, ethology and nosology of yawning]. / Le bâillement: phylogenèse, éthologie, nosogénie.

Charles Darwin would have said that yawning was a useless piece of physiology. If so, then how should the survival of this very stereotyped behavior among the poikilothermal and homoeothermic vertebrates, from the basic brained reptiles to human primates, whether in the air, on the land or in the sea be understand? This issue of the ethnological, neurophysiologic and neuropsychological literature depicts yawning as being associated with an alternation of "awake-sleep" rhythms, sexuality, and nutrition, where it appears as a reference behavior of the mechanisms stimulating the state of vigilance. In pharmacology, yawning is used as an indicator of dopamine-ocytocinergic pathway activity, but in the Parkinson patient the neurologist sees it as an expression of therapeutic dopaminergic activity. J.M. Charcot and his school considered yawning as a clinical sign, long since forgotten. However, many patients complain about excessive yawning. Iatrogenic causes are the most frequent and can be found among many neurological diseases: vasovagal syncope, migraine, epilepsy, hypophyseal tumor, or stroke. Our ability to achieve motor and emotional behavior in resonance with others is deeply rooted in hominid evolution, and probably explains the strange phenomenon of contagious yawning.

Visual categorization of natural and abstract items in forest monkeys and humans.

A preference for novelty paradigm was used to investigate whether mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena), an arboreal non-human primate species, were able to discriminate and to categorize different visual stimuli belonging to natural (food items) and abstract (non-food items) categories. In a comparative perspective human subjects were tested with the same procedure and the same stimuli. Two out of four mangabeys and three out of the four humans showed significant preference for novelty when comparing food versus non-food items. Hence they discriminated between these two sets of items. The two mangabeys and one non-adult human subject sorted the food items in one category, showing no preference for novelty when comparing known and unknown food-items and different views of the same food items. In contrast the two adult human subjects who showed preference for novelty in the between-category, did not show preference for novelty when comparing known and unknown food-items but did show such a preference when comparing different views of the same food items. Compared to human performances, the results suggest that mangabeys are able to form at least a perceptual category of natural, ecologically relevant stimuli.

Socialization processes in primates: use of multivariate analyses II-Influence of sex on social development of captive rhesus monkeys.

In a previous study, we demonstrated the importance of social interactions in the development of non-human primate infants. These results confirmed the social network concept. According to this concept, it is assumed that socialization processes would differ in various social environments. However, much variability remained to be explained. In the present study we investigated especially the influence of infants' gender on socialization processes. In relation to the previous results, the influence was tested within groups having the same social structure. At the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, four mother-peer groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were studied. Therefore no adult male model was available to infants. Twenty infants, including eight males, eight females and four prenatally DES-treated females, were the subjects of this study. We considered six comprehensive developmental parameters to account for the two main socialization processses, the acquisition of the social behavioral repertoire and the establishment of a network of social relationships. We analyzed the variability of these parameters using a new multivariate technique previously described in a companion paper. This new technique is derived from the Principal Components Analysis and Multivariate Analyses of Variance. The model used in this analysis included two intrinsic features of infants, sex and age and two variables related to the social organization of the groups, mother's rank and social group. This 4-variable-model significantly accounted for most of the variability of the developmental parameters. The results showed that the social group and the infant's sex were the most influential variables when infants initiated interactions: male and DES female infants displayed a greater behavioral diversity than non-treated female infants. When infants were recipients in interactions, social organization variables (social group and mother's rank, respectively) had the greatest influence on the socialization processes while infants' gender was less influential. In this case the effect of sex was confounded with the social group effect; male infants then differed from both kind of female infants in being looked at more frequently, in being contacted by a larger variety of partners and in receiving a greater variety of social behaviors. This new example of applying multivariate methods to the study of individual social development confirms the potential of this method to provide new insights into behavioral development.

The effects of diethylstilbestrol (DES) before birth on the development of masculine behavior in juvenile female rhesus monkeys.

Eight pregnant rhesus monkeys were injected with 100 microg diethylstilbestrol dipropionate (DESDP) from the 40th day of gestation until term, a long-term treatment. Male (n = 3) and female (n = 5) offspring were obtained. Five other pregnant females were injected with DESDP beginning on the 115th day of gestation and continuing until either the 140th day or term--a relatively short-term treatment. Five female infants were obtained from these short-term treatments. Monkeys from the treated pregnancies were assigned randomly to mother-infant social groups containing untreated male and female infants the same age. They were observed in their peer groups each weekday from 3 to 12 months of age, and the display of mounting and play behavior was recorded for each subject. Results showed that DESDP significantly increased the frequency of display of these juvenile behaviors only in long-term-treated females. However, one of the aspects of mounting that is characteristic of males (the ratio of complete to abortive mounts) was unaffected even by the long-term treatment. Thus, DESDP-treated females displayed a limited behavioral masculinization. Whether this limitation was due to dosage and/or timing or to a selective action of DESDP was not determined. DESDP-treated males were not altered in any measurable way compared to untreated males.

Socialization processes in primates: Use of multivariate analyses. I: Application to social development of captive mangabeys.

We hypothesized that, within a primate group, socialization processes are influenced by each group member behaving according to his own social network. Therefore socialization processes would differ in various social environments. In this study, we considered two main socialization processes, the acquisition of a social behavioral repertoire and the development of a network of social relationships, and consequently defined six comprehensive developmental parameters. We analyzed the variability of these parameters using a new multifactorial method, the Principal Components Analysis with Instrumental Variable, PCAIV, derived from the Principal Components Analysis and Multivariate Analyses of Variance. This technique allowed us to jointly represent the influence of the independent variables and the complex relationships between the six dependent variables. The study of the social ontogeny of eight infant mangabeys (Cercocebus albigena), reared in three different social environments, served as an illustration of the use of the new multivariate analysis. A 3-variable-model (age, social environment and sex) significantly explained the variability of the developmental parameters. The results confirmed the importance of social interactions in non-human primate infants' development. The application of multivariate methods to the study of individual social development looks promising for future research.

Behavioral effects of an antiandrogen in adult male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

This study was designed to determine how to suppress behavioral effects of androgens with a pure non-steroidal antiandrogen, Hydroxyflutamide (OHF). The major dependent variable was yawning behavior of castrated adult male rhesus macaques. Injections of testosterone propionate (TP) increased yawning frequency and cessation of TP injections produced a decrease in yawning frequency. A similar decrease was observed with simultaneous injections of TP and OHF. It has been found that the dose of OHF injected subcutaneously should be 80 times that of TP to block the effects of either physiological or supraphysiological doses of TP.

Reproductive parameters of captive grey-cheeked mangabeys.

This paper reports reproductive parameters for 9 female grey-cheeked mangabeys kept in a captive colony over a 17-year period. Birth seasonality has shown a consistent trend towards an autumn peak. Oestrous cycles had an average length of 31.2 days: however 'short-cycle' (29.9 days) and 'long-cycle' (37.7 days) groups could be discriminated. Gestation was 175 days, with little variability. Variability in interbirth interval is mainly due to varying length of the cycling phase preceding the next gestation, suggesting influences of social factors. All these reproductive parameters are compared to those of baboons and macaques. Some conclusions about mangabey breeding colony management are drawn.

Ontogenic development of dyadic social relationships: Assessing individual roles.

Socialization processes lead to creation and differentiation of social relationships. It is often difficult to qualify them, especially due to ontogenic changes of social behavior. In this paper, an attempt is made to assess the role of each partner in a dyad by defining the quality of their overall relationship. A Social Investment Index (SII) was devised to describe these roles throughout ontogeny. SII is expressed as (G% - R%)/2, where G% and R% represent the difference between the sum of cohesive behaviors and that of disruptive behaviors divided by the overall sum of these behaviors given (G%) or received (R%) by one individual in a dyad. Results from a longitudinal study of the development of social behavior in one infant mangabey (Cercocebus albigena albigena) are used as an example. The developmental changes of the SII are presented in three dyads in a single-male group: mother-infant; "aunt"-infant; and juvenile male-infant.