1) New weapon in the war against super bugs by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 2) (US) Fishing Ban Urged for Walden Pond by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 3) (US) Swine Disease Still a Mystery by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 4) (TW) Taiwan pork industry reels as Japan continues import ban by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 5) Primates: July-August - Laboratory Awareness Actions by baerwolf@tiac.net (baerwolf) 6) Correcting a correction... by Daniel Paulo Martins Ferreira <dmartins@student.dei.uc.pt> 7) RE: Primates: July-August - Laboratory Awareness Actions by "D'Amico, AnnMarie" <DAMICOA@od1em1.od.nih.gov> 8) Monkey Business by Sean Thomas <sean.thomas1@sympatico.ca> 9) Monkey Business by Sean Thomas <sean.thomas1@sympatico.ca>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 21:00:31 -0700
From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: New weapon in the war against super bugs
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Scientists use gene engineering to create new antibiotics
Scripps Howard
(July 17, 1997 7:45 p.m. EDT) - Researchers looking for novel ways to
fight drug-resistant bacteria have a new weapon, thanks to a bit of
genetic subterfuge. Scientists at Stanford University report Friday in
the journal Science that they have successfully used genetically
engineered enzymes to produce new types of molecules that work as
antibiotics, immuno-suppressants and anti-cancer drugs.
Because bacteria can alter their own genes to resist antibiotics, the
new line of drugs are built with a genetic mutation so early along the
molecular assembly line that the bacteria can't catch up.
Using strep cells, Stanford postdoctoral fellow John Jacobsen found a
way to manipulate the first step in a lengthy chain reaction used to
form more and more complex molecules, actually blocking the chain after
the first step. That stalled the natural assembly line of the cell.
Then the researchers add a synthetic compound and restart the process,
eventually producing a variety of antibiotic molecules that are unlike
anything in nature, and thus harder for bacteria to defeat.
Chaitan Khosla, a Stanford associate professor of chemical engineering,
had feared that the cells might not resume production with the
artificial materials, but they seem to respond well. "We've been
pleasantly surprised by how tolerant the entire system appears to be
toward unnatural (building blocks). The overall process seems to work
remarkably well," he said.
Although the technique remains cumbersome, the ability to produce new
antibiotic compounds in this shotgun fashion offers drug researchers the
opportunity to create hundreds of potentially useful molecules for each
one they have already created.
While drugs based on the new technique may be a decade or more away from
pharmacies, Khosla suggests that if chemists can assemble a library of
thousands of synthetic molecules that can be inserted and grown in this
fashion, they could offer a much larger array of drug candidates.
----------------------------------- 07/18/1997 02:39 EST
Fishing Ban Urged for Walden Pond
By ROBIN ESTRIN Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, Mass. (AP) -- The peaceful woods and clear waters lure Joseph Sevigny, with his fishing poles and 12-foot boat, to Walden Pond dozens of times a year. He tosses back the bass, but the trout often become dinner.
It's a relaxing ritual enjoyed by countless others at the watering hole made famous by transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau, an angler himself.
But a campaign is on to reel in the fishermen. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have petitioned the state to ban fishing at Walden as part of the group's new anti-fishing crusade.
Even though Thoreau fished on the 60-acre pond, PETA folks say the animal lover would have supported the ban.
``I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect,'' Thoreau wrote in ``Walden,'' published in 1854.
For years, the international animal rights group has fought against fishing, arguing that fish feel pain and suffer greatly after being caught.
``Just imagine swimming through the water and all they see is the bait,'' said Dawn Carr, the coordinator of the campaign. ``By the time they see the hook, it's too late. They've already impaled themselves.''
The organization, which has 500,000 members worldwide and 16,000 in Massachusetts, plans to ask parks across America to ban fishing. But the campaign is being spawned here at Walden, where the conservation movement began with Thoreau nearly 150 years ago.
``I really think the PETA people are wacky,'' said Sevigny, 50, of Melrose.
The pond, 16 miles northwest of Boston, and its surrounding woods were given to the state in 1922. Today, an estimated 500,000 people a year swim, fish, picnic and hike here.
State environmental officials said they have no intention of banning fishing there. The deed to Walden Pond clearly spells out that fishing will be allowed, said Susan Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Management.
PETA appealed last week to Gov. William F. Weld, himself an angler, asking him to step in and institute a ban. PETA insists that Thoreau would have wanted the pond he so loved to be a sanctuary for all wildlife.
Thoreau did have a respect for all living creatures, said Tom Blanding, a Thoreau scholar and Concord resident.
``But for them to represent this as an absolute attitude on his part is to take things out of the literary context,'' Blanding said. ``To adopt him as an advocate for their position perhaps is out of proportion in a way.''
The very notion of a fishing ban was enough to make one Walden fisherman flounder for words to equal his contempt.
``Why don't they ban walking here?'' shouted the man, who wouldn't give his name but said he has been fishing on Walden for all of his 70 years. ``They might as well ban swimming.''
------------------------------------ 07/18/1997 02:10 EST
Swine Disease Still a Mystery
By TOM SEERY Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- An outbreak of swine disease last year that began killing sows and causing them to abort their fetuses still puzzles scientists.
``I'm not sure we would have anything you would call definitive,'' said Larry White, senior staff veterinarian for the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Fort Collins, Colo., which is coordinating a nationwide study of the disease.
Reports of the disease last December prompted quick action by government and pork industry officials. More than 40 experts met in January to map out the research effort.
Researchers believe the sows were stricken with a form of ``porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome.'' But the sows had been vaccinated for the disease, and some of their symptoms appeared to be more severe than previously seen in that syndrome.
Researchers say an ``acute PRRS'' virus could be causing the latest outbreak.
The outbreak, although not widespread, has caused anxiety in the pork industry. As hog-raising shifts from small, family-run farms to large, factory-style operations where thousands of hogs are housed in confinement buildings, disease control has become increasingly important.
Farmers are being advised to be patient while the investigation continues.
``We haven't been able to draw any conclusions about any changes they should make,'' White said.
Veterinary laboratories in seven states are working with the USDA to find and study cases of the puzzling disease.
When an outbreak is identified, researchers go to the farm, take samples from the animals and get information about vaccinations, genetic makeup of hogs and other factors.
The researchers also try to identify nearby farms without the disease, and look for factors that might explain the isolated outbreak.
The USDA is studying cases at laboratories in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Carolina and South Dakota. Officials hope to do an intensive study of 44 farms with the outbreak and nearby farms that do not have the disease.
``The original goal was to try to have some summary information available by this fall,'' said Kevin Petersburg, a USDA veterinarian working on the case in Iowa.
``It would be safe to say that the general consensus is that it appears to be PRRS,'' he said. ``It may be that we'll find out that there are some management factors that play a role in allowing some farms to have the acute PRRS outbreak.''
In Iowa, an outbreak occurred in about 10 herds in the southeast part of the state. Officials have not identified farms where the outbreak occurred, and say there is no evidence that the disease is spreading rapidly.
``It's my perception that things have kind of quieted down, based on the number of case reports we're getting,'' said Tom Burkgren, a Perry, Iowa, veterinarian who is executive director of the American Association of Swine Practitioners, a veterinary group working with researchers on the outbreak.
Jim Koch, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said that although the ``acute PRRS'' outbreak appears to have stabilized in Iowa, common forms of PRRS continue to hit farms.
``It can go away and haunt you again,'' Koch said. ``It started out as a mystery swine disease and remains a mystery swine disease.''
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 23:01:23 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TW) Taiwan pork industry reels as Japan continues import ban
