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THE BATTALION
Page 7
Deep dives of
larine animals
T
w n conclusions.”
stint
■dentist now think they understand
Bhat has long mystified them -
Bow ocean mammals can dive
Btousands of feet. Underwater
, • e. v Jlkessure partially collapses the
ilsomlormshaaJB of wt V aies , se ai s and
ihey can obtain thesedot« 0 |pp,j nSi allowing them to
! he time has comefo: fesmk. The rest of the lung
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tie regarding its knowk%^ e asCRn ' Here is
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Blue whale fills and
expands lungs on
the surface before
diving.
process for a
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Car
artilage
Pressure
During descent, the lower lung
collapses as the body compresses
from the pressure of water. The
upper lungs are supported by
cartilage which maintains
its shape for ascent.
Blue Whale
275 feet
Bottlenose dolphin
377 feet
Depth of dives
[Seals are able to dive the
■deepest — some up to
■ nearly a mile. Here are the
depths of the dives for the
mammals in the study.
under a considerable amoun
iad already written his Wondffi
way through Superman.
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Elephant seal
1,092 feet
Weddell seal
1,263
sea level
200
feet
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
What's up,doc?
Veterinarians warn of diseases
spread from animals to humans
T!
Emily Holmes/AP
f Seal-cam 55 films dives
IN CONCERT
iHDr. Randall Davis, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University-Galveston, and
a team of researchers showed that sea mammals such as seals, dolphins and whales
Wnserve energy by free-falling during deep ocean dives.
■ Davis said scientists have wondered how the mammals can stay underwater for
so long. The Weddell seal, for example, can dive as deep as l ,600 feet and stay there
for 20 minutes before surfacing.
■ To observe the mammal’s behavior, Davis attached cameras to four kinds of sea
Brnmals to videotape their activity below the surface.
■ “The animals are putting their oxygen supply on reserve. They know they can do
this by gliding and not swimming,” Davis said.
j The scientists reported their research in the current issue of Science.
BY NONI SRIDHARA
The Battalion
I he faces of many young kids will light up
this month as they wake to find that in their
Easter baskets the Easter bunny has
brought them cute cuddly chicks and real live
bunny rabbits.
However, once one realizes the various dis
eases these lovable animals can carry, they might
not seem so cute anymore.
Dr. Leon Russell, a Texas A&M professor of veteri
nary medicine and anatomy said there are a wide range
of diseases that can spread from animals to humans,
known as zoonotic diseases, that frequently occur.
“There might not be some occurrence of a
zoonotic disease everyday, but the Center for Dis
ease Control (CDC) keeps track of the most recent
occurrences and where they are located,“ he said.
Russell said there are more than 200 known
zoonotic diseases.
“While most of these are rare here in the
United States, there are a couple dozen that
are common and can be fatal,” he said. One
of the most common diseases is salmonella.
Salmonella is a bacterial disease which is
found in poultry, eggs and uncooked meat.
Russell said this disease alone can kill thou
sands of people every year, but it is one of
the most preventable.
One way of preventing salmonella is to thor
oughly clean cutting boards, use different knives
to cut chicken and other foods and to wash hands
between handling poultry and handling other food
products.
It is commonly known that salmonella can be
transmitted by ingesting chicken, but many peo
ple are unaware that you can contract the disease
by just handling the animal, according to Dr. Leslie
Wilson, a small animal veterinarian for the Well
born Animal Clinic.
“Salmonella can be transferred through the fe
ces of the chicken, so people should be be cau
tious of not to directly touch these areas
in the process of cleaning,” she said.
While most rabbits around this time
are auditioning for the coveted job as
Cadbury bunny, others are infected
with tularemia.
Tularemia causes skin lesions, high
fever and and swollen lymph nodes, ac
cording to Russell.
Another zoonotic disease, anthrax,
has been in the news lately because of
fears that anthrax spores can be used as
a biological weapon and because of re
sistance by some military personnel
from being injected with a vaccine they
fear to be dangerous. But the disease is
also of general concern.
According to officials at the CDC,
anthrax is an acute infectious disease
cause by the spore-forming bacterium
Bacillus anthracis, which occurs in
warm-blooded animals but can also in
fect humans.
A CDC official reported that al
though anthrax is not typically reported
in high volumes in the United States,
most of the reports of animal infection are re
ceived from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Okla
homa and South Dakota.
The CDC said the anthrax infection can oc
cur in three forms: cutaneous, inhalation and
gastrointestinal. The anthrax spores can live in
the soil for many years, and humans can become
infected with anthrax by handling animal prod
ucts from infected animals or by inhaling an
thrax spores from contaminated animal prod
ucts. This disease can also be spread by eating
undercooked meat.
Wilson said since she only deals with small an
imals, the majority of the pets she sees are do
mestic animals such as dogs and cats.
“The most common zoonotic diseases that
COMMON ZOONOTIC DISEASES
¥
w
Pf
If
i
Pf
DISEASE
ANIMAL
SOURCE
SYMPTOMS
METHOD OF
TRANSMISSION
Salmonella
Poultry, eggs
and raw meat
Intestinal
problems
Ingesting and
handling live
chickens
Anthrax
Livestock
Colds, death
Inhaling spores from
animal products
Tularemia
Rabbits
Skin lesions,
high fever,
swollen lymph
glands
Ingestion of wild
rabbit meat
Leptospirosis
Cattle and
dogs
Similar to infectious
viral hepatitis, fever,
chills, kidney damage
Exposure to water
contaminated by
urine from
infected animals
Toxoplasmosis
Cats
Especially dangerous
to pregnant women,
possibly causing
birth defects
Handling cat
litter
Brucellosis
>
Cows
Causes high fever
and cau retard bone
development
Through skin
abrasions while
handling animals
or ingesting
dairy products
JEFF SMITH/The Battalion
worm and mange,” she said.
So does this mean people should lock up their
pets and never be around animals again for fear of
contracting some wild zoonotic disease? Not at
all, but they should take preventive measures.
Even though a stray dog’s sad “puppy-dog eyes”
or a stray cats soft purrs may make it difficult to
refuse petting them, Wilson warned if there is a vis
ible disease such as rabies or mange, the best solu
tion is to call the local animal shelter and not directly
handle the animal.
Russell said most of the preventive measures
are common sense.“If you wash your hands after
handling animals and pets, avoid kissing dogs or
cats near their mouths, treat bites effectively and
keep litter boxes and bird cages clean, this should
ease any worries animal or pet owners might
I
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Z Box Office
: (979) 845-1234
)0-5667
xoffice.tamu.edu
: (979) 846-0728
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