Drugs, Hunger, and Obesity

My snack drawer after a week of munchies.

I've been on prednisone for a week now, after something in the garden didn't agree with my face.  Puffy rash, itchy-ness is now under control.  Unfortunately, I definitely got the hunger side effect.  Normally not a big deal, fresh fruit and veggies out of the garden, more food, but good for me food.  Unfortunate thing  part two?  This is one of my intensive research weeks.  I'm living at the beef farm, eating almost exclusively out of a microwave or other easy to manage foods.  Not a recipe for good nutrition.  I think the point of the low calorie ice-cream is defeated after the 2nd serving in a day.  Ah well.  Only a couple more days of the prednisone and I can go back to eating normal amounts and trying to make it healthy foods.

In a tangentially related note, I've been reading up on nutritional immunomodulation, growth promotants, and various other fun topics while working on some research plans and my dissertation.  So, when this NPR article about a possible connection between antibiotics and obesity came across facebook today I just had to check it out.

For many in the meat industry, this seems like something that perhaps should have been looked at sooner.  As the article says:

"Since the 1950s, farmers have known that small amounts of antibiotics increase the weight of livestock by as much as 15 percent. But exactly how these drugs fatten up cattle, pigs and chickens is a bit mysterious."

If we know that livestock grow faster and typically gain more fat when on antibiotics, why wouldn't the same be seen in other species?  Beyond that, we know that antibiotics alter digestion, metabolism and other body systems.  For both animals and microorganisms.  They have far-reaching effects.  This may be some of the first published research showing that there is a 'nutritional downside' to antibiotic use in people, but I don't imagine that anyone is overly surprised by the outcome.

Some of our current big boys.

Now, I'm not saying we should never use antibiotics, they have their place, and play an important role in managing disease.  But they do need to be used carefully, as much in humans as in livestock.  I've often heard the call for reducing or removing all antibiotics from cattle, but just like us, animals get sick.  I can't see any reason to deny them treatment that would save them or better their quality of life just to produce an organic or all-natural product.  Judicious use is important.  Making sure that the doses given are the minimum effective, and that they are given only when needed is crucial.


A big take home for me here is that there is still a need for more and better collaboration between human and animal researchers.  Because we can do more intensive research in animal models and we have focused on how to get livestock to grow to their full potential, there is a lot of information out there that if reverse engineered might provide insight into promoting lean gain and reduced weight in people. 

What other correlations do you see between human and animal health research?

Related articles

• Antibiotic use: Just how much is too much?
• New Campaign, "Meat without Drugs" could be inhumane!
• Antibiotics important to livestock, food safety
• Childhood Obesity Linked With Antibiotic Use In Infants Under 6 Months Old

Getting Inside the Rumen

I wrote before about what the rumen is and a bit about how it functions.  Recently I ran across mention of fistulated/cannulated cattle on another blog.  My freinds tend to refer to them as my washing machine cows.  I see these guys every day, they are my research steers.  But I was reminded that not everyone knows about them or understands why and how they come to be.  Cannulas can be placed in other locations, but 90% of the time with cattle we are talking about rumen cannulas, so that's what I'll discuss here.

So, let's begin with just a bit of terminology.  A fistula is a hole.  Specifically it is a connection between two organ or other structures that does not normally exists.  These can occur naturally or can be created by trauma or surgery.  The cannula is the rubber or plastic piece that is inserted to keep the fistula open for access.  The tubes used for tracheotomies?  Those are cannulas.  Just much smaller than the ones we use with cattle.




The next question is always why.  Why do we need cannulated animals?  The simple answer is research.  The long answer is complicated.  Cannulated animals most commonly give us access to the rumen of the cow or steer.    This allows us to take samples from or place things into the rumen.  There are a wide variety of reasons for doing this.  Using some of the research here at the University of Kentucky for a few examples:

1) In my research, we place fescue seed directly into the rumen to induce fescue toxicosis.  Relying on the animals to eat the seed is problematic as it doesn't taste very good and one of the complications of toxicosis is reduced intake.  By placing it into the rumen through the cannula we know exactly how much each animal is receiving each day. This makes the resarch more repeatable and reliable.

2) In situ research.  In situ is Latin for in place.  By placing feed in mesh bags on strings and 'hanging' them in the rumen, we can see how much of the feed is digested over a specific amount of time under controlled circumstances.  Changing the animal's diet, the room temperature, etc changes how the feed is digested.  Better digested feed = less needed to provide the same amount of nutrients.

3) In vitro fermentation.  Again, we scientist types like Latin.  In vitro refers to experiments that simulate animal conditions in the lab.  Most often, we do gas production measurements.  By incubating rumen fluid with various feeds or additives and examining gas production (carbon dioxide & methane) we can predict how these things will affect an animal.  As bloat is a huge issue in the cattle industry, finding natural gas suppression methods is a big deal.

This video from Kansas State gives a good view inside:

I hope this helps answer a few questions.  As always, let me know if you want more information, something doesn't make sense, etc.  It's easy to forget that what I do is unusual when I have done it almost everyday for years.

Related articles

• The Mysterious Rumen
• Guest Post: University Research. What They Do and Why It Matters.

Olympics Distraction

            Aliaksandr Faminou, Pasians             (Photo credit: Peter J Dean)

I don't know about you, but I'm completely distracted by the Olympics this week.  The eventing competition is finishing up today with two rounds of showjumping.  These horses are amazing athletes, as are their riders.  This morning I came across an article about how the terrain on this year's cross-country course was more likely to result in significant depletion of glycogen stores than in previous years or competitions.  Glycogen is a complex carbohydrates that serves as the main energy source for muscles during anaerobic conditions (short, fast efforts usually; think sprinting).

You've heard of carbohydrate loading?  That's how muscle glycogen is increased.

Glycogen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Go here and check out this very interesting and well written read that applies to all animals (even us humans!).



Enjoy!  I'm off to weight in situ bags.

Related articles

• Awesome Olympic Cross-Country Ride for Boyd and Otis!
• Final Training Preparations for the London Olympic Games
• Carb-Loading

Temple Grandin Interview

This year the joint annual meeting (JAM) kicked off with an interview of Dr. Temple Grandin by Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute.  If you are not familiar with Dr. Grandin's work, it is some of the most challenging and altering to the livestock industry in recent decades.  She focuses on animal welfare and behavior, making the necessary handling and transport procedures less stressful for the animals.

During the interview she answer questions relating to living with autism, animal welfare, making her movie in Hollywood, and getting more and better infomation to consumers and those who need it.

Here are a few great quotes:

"When we've got people who think bacon comes from wheat, we've really got a problem" 

"We need to clean up the house and then electronically open the barn doors and show the public what we do"

Dr. Grandin also said she has hope for animal welfare in the future. It's helpful to talk about bad practices and communicate with public.  This is a theme I've been hearing for several years.  I think that my generation of scientists and farmers is taking this to heart. There is no denying that there are bad apples in the livestock community.  We need to acknowledge that they are there and work to make them better or remove them.  We also need to show the world that most of us are in this field because we genuinely love animals.  We want to show you what we do and why we love it.

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From ASAS on twitter: Temple Grandin, animal scientist, explains her life and career in JAM opening ceremony pic.twitter.com/w8RoAif5

Related articles

• Ranchers take Dr. Grandin's recommendations to heart
• A Vegan at a Feedlot: A Tale of Conflicting Stories.

Travel to Phoenix

 Rocking chairs in the Charlotte airport. (Photo credit: nickhall)

Just getting to ASAS every year is a adventure.  Between making sure I have the clothes and shoes and definitely don't forget the poster, to planning what presentations I'll see.  There's a lot going on and I love making the plans.  This year I flew out early  to attend the pre-conferece put on by the Nutritional Science Association and take part in the graduate student poster competition. 

            Wonderful glass atrium in the Charlotte airport.             (Photo credit: Nicola since 1972)

But, to get there, I had to fly East to go West.  Fortunately, my layover in Charlotte was lovely.  I love all the windows and rocking chairs! Oh, and the musicians.  I almost wished for a longer layover.  As it was I had time to grab a late lunch and rush to my next plane, no time for pictures even.

Cloud sheep?

Then, it was on to Phoenix!  I love watching the scenery from the sky, especially when heading into place I have not been before.  I've spent most of my life East of the Mississippi, so Phoenix was a unique view.  My first thought was wow, it's so brown.  But over the 5 days I was there I began to see the shades or tan and cream and cocoa in that brown.  The mountains in the distance around the city were so lovely to see every day walking back and forth to the convention center each day.  It's a different and beautiful landscape.

Phoenix from the sky!

After 4.5 hours on the plane I was happy to be getting out.  It was a bit of a walk from the gate to luggage and about half way there I was completely distracted by the carpet when I realized the pattern had airplanes in it.  So neat!  I then promptly forgot about the carpet when I noticed the mountains!

Airplane carpet.

Mountains!

I stayed downtown, just a few blocks from the convention center at the Renaissance.  All week I wondered about the buttons on the elevator.  The lack of a 13th floor I understood.  Fairly standard for older buildings.  But for the life of me I could not figure out what they had done with floors 2-4.  On my last night in Phoenix I finally learned the answer to that mystery.  Those are their conference center floors and accessed by a separate set of elevators and escalators.  Interesting solution to keeping hotel activities separate.

Bad picture of the elevator missing floors.