Order of the Allahabad High Court in the matter of Suo Motu in Re: Rodents menace is SRN hospital dated 17/01/2024. The case was filed suo motu on the basis of a news item published in Amar Ujala, which highlighted the menace of rodents in Swaroop Rani Nehru hospital, Prayagraj, …
dibyaranjan Dash, a farmer of the Puri district of Orissa, has a forlorn look on his face as he mutely watches the basis of his endurance fade into extinction. A killer has been let loose in his fields and it is ruthlessly devouring all the coconuts
Australian researchers have developed a unique technique to check the rapid growth of mouse population. The government-backed Cooperative Research Centre (crc) for Biological Control of Pest Animals has produced a genetically modified herpes virus that makes sexually prolific female mice infertile by blocking sperm from entering their eggs. "We know …
Most people go about their lives unaware of the world of rats and the ingenious ways of this common rodent. Not Ishwar Prakash, principal investigator, desert regional station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur. Prakash is, in fact, one of the few rat experts in the country. Every detail he collected …
A huge population of rats has infested 15 northern towns of the Samar Island in the Pacific and the main culprit is deforestation. According to officials from the department of environment and natural resources-Region 8 (DENR 8), destruction of forests has led to this crisis. Manager of the Samar Island …
The UK has banned the import and sale of a Chinese herbal medicine after it was linked to kidney failure. Aristolochia, used to treat fluid retention and rheumatic symptoms, was banned until October 27 on the advice of the Independent Committee on Safety of Medicines. The government said Aristolochia had …
predatory birds and mammals are being poisoned after eating rats which have high levels of pesticides in their bodies. The proportion of barn owls found with anticoagulant rodenticides in their livers increased from 5 per cent in 1983-84 to 36 per cent in 1995-96. This was stated in a study …
A CAT scanner developed at the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is allowing geneticists to watch the effects of a genetic mutation on the organs of a living animal. Called the MicroCAT, the scanner produces images at 10 times the resolution available with conventional CAT scanners. It uses X-ray …
THE bandicoots living in a predator-proof section of the Woodlands Historic Reserve north of Melbourne, Australia, have declined from 600 to about 20 over the past two years, largely due to over-grazing by an out-of-control population of kangaroos. Animal Hberationists and the state government have been blamed for causing the …
According to a new study, mole rats often use wood as a "pollution mask' to avoid breathing fine dust. The mole rats, Heterocephalus glaber, place a wood shaving or tuber husk between their lips and protruding teeth. Paul Sherman of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues found …
The world's biggest exporter of rice now faces a serious threat: rodents. Peasants, struggling with the country's hard hit economy, are breeding Nutria coypu , or beaver rats, in a bid to make money selling their meat and fur. But ecologists fear that the get-rich-quick craze will eventually end in …
coat colour in mammals comes high on the list of genetically encoded characters that have been studied in detail. The reason is, of course, that colouration is an extremely obvious trait. Because it is small and reproduces rapidly, the mouse has been a popular animal for such studies. There are …
THALASSAEMIA patients have reason to rejoice. Dominic Ciavatta and his colleagues at the University of Alabama, us, have managed to generate thalassaernic mice which can help in finding genetic methods for treatment of the disease in humans (Proceedings of the us National Academy ofSciences, Vol 92, 1995). Haemoglobin, responsible for …
THIS mouse, was born in the Jackson laboratory at Bar Harbor, Maine, us. Its birth marked the culmination of years of research by developmental biologist John Eppig and his research assistant Marilyn O'Brien. The actual process of raising the creature took three weeks, which is the normal period of gestation …
The Panay cloudrunner -a rodent- like nocturnal mammal -previously unknown to science, has been discovered in the island of Panay in the central Philippines. The arboreal rodent which has been assigned the scientific name of Crateromys heaneyi, was discovered by local residents. The animal sports a chubby, masked face; small …
THE mysterious, rodent-borne hantavirus, considered the third most lethal one after rabies and AIDS, has so far been unknown in India. But it Is quite possible that it might be lurking around in Gujarat which was hit by plauge 1994. Scientists at the National. Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, have …
A MAN in Connecticut died recently of a newly identified tick-borne disease called human granulocytic erlichiosis,, caused by a hitherto unknown bacte rium. A student in New York contracted a serious case of hanta infection, caused by a rare virus carried by r9dents. There was a fresh outbreak ofthe deadly …
THERE are two ways in which the mystery behind the evolution of a species can be worked out: by examining fossil records, and by evaluating the rate of change in genes. Recently, the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research funded a study which aimed at genetically breeding new …
