NEWS AND VIEWS
GIVEAWAY
WIN A COPY OF Wild Horses of the World! WE HAVE A copy of the book Wild Horses of the World to give away. The book is a stunning pictorial and written record of author Kelly Wilson’s experiences with the world’s wildest herds from Australia, the US and beyond. All you have to do is send us a poem about an animal or some aspect of veterinary practice. Everything from haikus to sonnets is welcome! Please send all entries to vetscript@vets.org.nz by 23 November. The winner will be drawn from the entries. We’ll publish the winning poem, along with some of our favourites, in the February issue of VetScript. n
PROBA-BEE-LITY BEES USE THE probability of reward to improve their foraging success, according to a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B – Biological Sciences. The research tested bees using a slot-machine-style experiment, in which they were presented with different-coloured dispensers that delivered either rewards (nectar) or punishments (bitter drinks) on different schedules. Dispensers in some colours might deliver rewards two out of every three times, while those in other colours might dispense rewards only a third of the time. Bees learned to identify the dispensers that were more likely to deliver the sweet or bitter drinks and used this information to guide their foraging activities. That is, a bee’s likelihood of choosing a colour matched their history of reinforcement with each colour. The authors of the paper state that this ability might explain how bees harvest nectar from different flowers so successfully, with each offering a unique amount of nectar. n REFERENCE: MaBouDi H, Marshall JAR, Barron AB. Honeybees solve a multi-comparison ranking task by probability matching. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287, 20201525, 2020
DRENCH RESISTANCE GROWING DRAWING ON DATA collected from sheep farms throughout New Zealand in the past 15 years, animal parasite diagnostic company Techion has concluded that the incidence of resistance to triple-combination drenches could increase to 40% of farms if practices don’t change. Results from the company’s DrenchSmart tests (faecal egg count reduction tests) showed a substantial increase in the incidence of drench resistance between 2005 and July 2020. According to the data, double-com bination drenches are failing on 20–43% of New Zealand farms and triple-combination drenches on 15% of farms. In comparison, “resistance to combination drenches was low to non-existent” in 2005. A summary of the data can be found at www.techion.com/media/1441/ drenchsmart-resistance.pdf. n
6 – VetScript November 2020
3D SURGICAL MODELS ON THEIR WAY A US-BASED COMPANY that specialises in three-dimensional printing is planning to offer accurate anatomical models of animal physiological structures for veterinary students and practising veterinarians. M3Dimensions (pronounced meddimensions) says the models will be useful both for teaching purposes and as guides for surgeons undertaking complicated surgery. They will be detailed to 100 microns, and are planned for launch in 2021. M3Dimensions’ CEO Sean Bellefeuille, formerly a biomedical engineer and now a first-year student at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, set up the company after being approached for help by a local emergency veterinary hospital. The veterinary hospital had a difficult orthopaedic case – a patient with a rare femoral deformity that needed surgical intervention – and the surgeon was looking for a three-dimensional printed model of the femur to examine. Sean and his colleagues printed the model using a CT scan provided by the veterinarians, and after being studied by the surgeon it was used for reference when making cuts during surgery. That case also inspired Sean to pursue a career in veterinary medicine alongside his startup venture. n
