Holidays back home were nice

SVALBARD 79ºN

Svalbard


Well this in to give you an idea of the environment around here. Its a picture from the Svalbard archipelago north of Norway.... an amazing place!

ME IN THE ARCTIC

Well here is another nice image of the Arctic Research Expedition this time off the coast of Greenland returning from an ice pack where I sampled a hooded seal.

So.... what am I doing up here......

For those more curious on what this PhD program is all about I am posting a short abstract description of my PhD project. More info and pics will come afterwards.

Doctoral Program for the degree of
Philosophiæ Doctor


Persistent virus infections in semi-domesticated reindeer - prevalence and impact on reindeer health and economy

The Finnmark county in Norway constitutes the most important reindeer husbandry region in Europe with around 140.000 animals involving about 2000 people. Locally, the mortality in calves is high, due to different factors, including predation. There is a large density-dependent effect on the calf growth rate for which the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Persistent virus infections that are known to occur in reindeer, like parapoxvirus, reindeer herpesvirus and bovine viral diarrhoea virus (or other pestiviruses), are factors that possibly may affect calf mortality and growth rate and thus have impact on the reproduction and economy. Clinical diseases caused by these viruses have never been reported in reindeer from Finnmark. However, parapoxvirus-specific DNA has been found in reindeer from Finnmark, and a seroprevalence of 10% and 40% has been detected for reindeer herpesvirus and bovine viral diarrhoea virus, respectively. This shows that these three viruses may be endemic in Finnmark. They all cause persistent infections and herpesvirus and bovine diarrhoea virus may cause abortions and weak offspring. By testing for the presence of these three viral infections in different reindeer flocks in Finnmark, and further isolate and characterise the viruses from reindeer, and by experimental infection of animals, basic knowledge on the presence of the infections and their impact reindeer health will be gained. By connecting these data to the already existing data collection from the same flocks, as well as information about similar infections in cattle (BVDV, IBR) we may be able to estimate their impact on the ecosystem in Finnmark through the health and reproduction among reindeer, as well as economical importance for the reindeer husbandry.

Hi there

Hello people!!


This is just an introduction msg to let you all know I´ve just started with this blog stuff so it will still take some time before its decently presented....

Carlos