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Udell M, Delgado M, Ekenstedt K, Shoveller AK, Croney C. CATastrophic myths part 2: Common misconceptions about the environmental, nutritional, and genetic management of domestic cats and their welfare implications. Vet J 2023; 300-302:106029. [PMID: 37683762 DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2023.106029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023]
Abstract
Despite the cat's popularity as a companion species, many owners and practitioners lack high quality information about important aspects of their behavior and management. Myths, anecdotes, and narratives of cats as 'low maintenance, self-sufficient' animals are pervasive, and the degree to which these may underlie complacency about fully meeting cats' needs is unknown. Several studies suggest that cat welfare and the human-cat bond may benefit from improved education about how to optimize the domestic cat's management and husbandry needs in homes and elsewhere. This paper is the second of a two-part series addressing common myths about cats. The purpose of this paper is to review and debunk common misconceptions about optimal cat care, feeding behavior, genetics, and training. Replacing these misconceptions with scientifically generated information could have a significant impact on the behavioral management of cats, positively influencing their physical health, mental stimulation, and well-being, and reducing stress for both cats and the people caring for them. Areas where further research is required to address ambiguities, and to better meet cats' needs in homes and other environments, are also identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monique Udell
- Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, 2921 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | | | - Kari Ekenstedt
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 625 Harrison St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Anna Kate Shoveller
- Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Candace Croney
- Center for Animal Welfare Science, Purdue University, 625 Harrison St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
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Croney C, Udell M, Delgado M, Ekenstedt K, Shoveller AK. CATastrophic myths part 1: Common misconceptions about the social behavior of domestic cats and implications for their health, welfare, and management. Vet J 2023; 300-302:106028. [PMID: 37683761 PMCID: PMC10841747 DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2023.106028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023]
Abstract
Cats are among the most popular pets worldwide, but there are still major gaps in the public's general understanding of their social behaviors and related needs, including for socialization. In addition to these knowledge gaps, people often have negative or ambivalent attitudes about cats, which can directly impact their welfare outcomes. Insufficient attention to the behavioral ecology and development of cat sociality, along with failure to account for their highly variable individual preferences and tolerance for social behaviors can lead them to experience distress that undermines both their welfare and the human-animal bond. As Part 1 of a two-part series addressing common myths about cats, the purpose of this first paper is to review and debunk common misperceptions about the social needs and behaviors of cats, including misunderstandings about their social lives and abilities to bond with humans. We also identify where opportunities exist to improve socialization of cats and to advance research in related areas that might better support their behavior and welfare needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Candace Croney
- Center for Animal Welfare Science, Purdue University, 625 Harrison St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
| | - Monique Udell
- Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, 2921 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | | | - Kari Ekenstedt
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 625 Harrison St., West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA
| | - Anna Kate Shoveller
- Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada
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Bhattacharjee D, Dasgupta S, Biswas A, Deheria J, Gupta S, Nikhil Dev N, Udell M, Bhadra A. Practice makes perfect: familiarity of task determines success in solvable tasks for free-ranging dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). Anim Cogn 2017; 20:771-776. [PMID: 28492975 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1097-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2016] [Revised: 04/28/2017] [Accepted: 05/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Domestic dogs' (Canis lupus familiaris) socio-cognitive faculties have made them highly sensitive to human social cues. While dogs often excel at understanding human communicative gestures, they perform comparatively poorly in problem-solving and physical reasoning tasks. This difference in their behaviour could be due to the lifestyle and intense socialization, where problem solving and physical cognition are less important than social cognition. Free-ranging dogs live in human-dominated environments, not under human supervision and are less socialized. Being scavengers, they often encounter challenges where problem solving is required in order to get access to food. We tested Indian street dogs in familiar and unfamiliar independent solvable tasks and quantified their persistence and dependence on a novel human experimenter, in addition to their success in solving a task. Our results indicate that free-ranging dogs succeeded and persisted more in the familiar task as compared to the unfamiliar one. They showed negligible amount of human dependence in the familiar task, but showed prolonged gazing and considerable begging behaviour to the human experimenter in the context of the unfamiliar task. Cognitive abilities of free-ranging dogs thus play a pivotal role in determining task-associated behaviours based on familiarity. In addition to that, these dogs inherently tend to socialize with and depend on humans, even if they are strangers. Our results also illustrate free-ranging dogs' low competence at physical cognitive tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debottam Bhattacharjee
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
| | - Sandipan Dasgupta
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
| | - Arpita Biswas
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
| | - Jayshree Deheria
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
| | - Shreya Gupta
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, India
| | - N Nikhil Dev
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, India
| | - Monique Udell
- Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Anindita Bhadra
- Behaviour and Ecology Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India.
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Carver A, Wright G, Cottom D, Cooper J, Dalrymple M, Temperley S, Udell M, Reeves D, Percy J, Scott A. Expression of human α1 antitrypsin in transgenic sheep. Cytotechnology 1992; 9:77-84. [PMID: 1369184 DOI: 10.1007/bf02521734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
We have recently described the production of large amounts (< or = 65 grams per litre) of enzymatically active human alpha 1 antitrypsin in the milk of transgenic sheep (Wright et al., 1991). Here, we describe in more detail the expression of the human protein in the milk of these animals throughout the lactation period. Human alpha 1 antitrypsin is also found at much lower levels in the plasma of transgenic ewes before, during and after lactation. It is also detected in male plasma at very low levels. We have previously shown human alpha 1 antitrypsin purified from transgenic sheep milk to be indistinguishable from commercially available human plasma derived alpha 1 antitrypsin in terms of gross sugar content and in vitro activity. Here we extend this comparison to more detailed analyses of glycosylation state, amino-terminal sequence, pI value, and molecular weight determination by mass spectrometry.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Carver
- Pharmaceutical Proteins Ltd., Edinburgh, UK
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