Animals
How Birds and Honey Hunters Stick Together
Yao honey-hunter Orlando Yassene holds a wild greater honeyguide female in the Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique. (Credit: Claire N. Spottiswoode)
To find hidden bee hives, Yao tribesmen get “honeyguides” (Indicator indicator) to help them. Tribesmen emit a distinctive vocalization to call the birds to help them with a honey hunt says a paper published July 22 in Science. The birds know the difference between the "hunt" call and other sounds made by tribesmen. Many other tribes have the same relationship, but use different calls or whistles for the same purpose.
By themselves, the birds are unable to break into the nests. With the birds’ help, tribesmen find behives much more often. This mutualistic relationship between the birds and hunters dates back further than tribesmen's oral history, but has only been documented in scientific literature since the 1980's.
The birds are not trained, and they live freely in the wild. Their "interactions with humans have probably evolved through natural selection rather than any artificial selection on our part,” says Spottiswoode, a co-author of the paper. Since honeyguides are brood parasites, (like the cuckoo they lay eggs in other birds’ nests and let the other birds raise them). So this behavior is not learned from their parents. While it is possible that there is a genetic reason that they are attuned to human calls, it is unlikely since the behavior is so widespread among far-flung groups of Honey Hunters. It is most likely that they learn from older Honey Hunters.
This and That
From Jet Fuel to Medicine, Tobacco Growers Turn a New Leaf - The Crux
With Boeing’s help, South African Airways is working to produce its own biofuel with the tobacco plant as the top candidate. (One of the hundreds of categories of carcinogens in tobacco is tar — hydrocarbon compounds, like those in coal and petroleum, which release energy when burned.)
Solaris tobacco, cultivated in the Limpopo Province produces almost no nicotine, but loads of oil, particularly in the plant seeds. In fact, the first biofuel-powered commercial planes in Africa transported 300 passengers from Johannesburg to Cape Town on July 15. The Boeing jets were, in part, fueled with Solaris tobacco plants.
Colostrum
Supplementation of diets with bovine colostrum influences immune function in dogs. - PubMed - NCBI
diets supplemented with BC significantly influence immune response in dogs.
Targeted antibodies in dairy-based products. - PubMed - NCBI
Bovine colostrum-based immune milk products have proven efficacy in prophylaxis and treatment against various infectious diseases in humans such as diarrheal diseases caused by various pathogens like E. coli and rotavirus.
Specific IgG activity against diarrheagenic bacteria in bovine immune milk and effect of pH on its antigen-binding activity upon heating. - PubMed - NCBI
specific IgG from milk antibodies of immunized lactating cows may be used as an abundant source of hyper-immune products for prevention of multibacteria-induced diarrhea, however, the effect of pH on its antigen-binding activity upon heating should be carefully considered and designed.
Bactericidal effect of bovine normal and immune serum, colostrum and milk against Helicobacter pylori. - PubMed - NCBI
Serum and colostrum but not post-colostral milk from non-immunized Friesian cows was found highly bactericidal for Helicobacter pylori NCTC 11637.
Hyperimmune bovine colostrum as a low-cost, large-scale source of antibodies with broad neutralizing activity for HIV-1 envelope with potential use... - PubMed - NCBI
Colostrum-derived anti-HIV antibodies offer a cost-effective option for preparing the substantial quantities of broadly neutralizing antibodies that would be needed in a low-cost topical combination HIV-1 microbicide.
Modulation of the immune system and the response against pathogens with bovine colostrum concentrates
Studies in animals, human volunteers and naturally infected humans have demonstrated a therapeutic efficacy of oral bovine colostrum with certain infections. Similarly, attempts to prevent gastrointestinal infections in animals, exposed volunteers and at-risk populations have met with limited success with specific pathogens.
Bovine colostrum supplementation and upper respiratory symptoms during exercise training: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised contr... - PubMed - NCBI
Five trials (152 participants) met the inclusion criteria, all of which involved individuals involved in regular exercise training. Over an 8-12 week follow-up period, bovine colostrum supplementation when compared to placebo significantly reduced the incidence rate of URS days (rate ratio 0.56, 95 % confidence intervals 0.43 to 0.72, P value < 0.001) and URS episodes (0.62, 0.40 to 0.99, P value = 0.04) by 44 and 38 % respectively.
Bovine colostrum as a biologic in clinical medicine: a review--Part II: clinical studies. - PubMed - NCBI
Clinical trials with Colostrum provide evidence that oral application reduces the influx of Lipopolysaccharides (LPS, or toxins from gram-negative bacteria) from the gut and this appears to be a major mechanism underlying its therapeutic effect in patients at risk for Gram-negative septic shock; data from two well-controlled clinical studies with a total of 100 surgical patients have shown that the inhibition of intestinal LPS absorption measured after the application of colostrum not only reduced the LPS levels in the peripheral blood but also inflammatory parameters like IL-6 and CRP were found to be diminished.