corn turning french hamsters into deranged cannibals
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

For Environmental Protection in Alsace

Corn turning French hamsters into deranged cannibals

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Corn turning French hamsters into deranged cannibals

The major consumption of corn leads to infanticide among the Great hamster
Paris - Arab Today

A diet of corn is turning wild hamsters in northeastern France into deranged cannibals that devour their offspring, alarmed researchers have reported.

"There's clearly an imbalance," Gerard Baumgart, President of the Research Centre for Environmental Protection in Alsace, and an expert on the European hamster, told AFP on Friday.

"Our hamster habitat is collapsing."

More common farther to the east, Cricetus cricetus in critically endangered in western Europe.

The findings, reported last week in the British Royal Society journal Proceedings B, finger industrial-scale monoculture as the culprit.

Once nourished by a variety of grains, roots and insects, the burrowing rodents live today in a semi-sterile and unbroken ocean of industrially grown maize, or corn.

The monotonous diet is leaving the animals starving, scientists discovered almost by accident.

The problem is a lack of vitamins. In fact, one in particular: B3, or niacin.

Researchers led by Mathilde Tissier at the University of Strasbourg had set out to determine whether hamster diet affects their ability to reproduce in the wild.

- Baby hamsters eaten alive -

Earlier work had looked at the impact of pesticides and mechanised ploughing, which can destroy their underground homes, especially during hibernation in winter. 

But the possible link with what they eat remained unexplored.

A first set of lab experiments with wild specimens compared wheat and corn-based diets, with side dishes of clover or worms. 

There was virtually no difference in the number of pups born, or the basic nutritional value of the different menus. 

But when it came to survival rates, the difference was dramatic.

About four-fifths of the pups born of mothers feasting on wheat-and-clover or wheat-and-worms were weaned.

Only five percent, however, of the baby hamsters whose mothers ate corn instead of wheat made it that far. 

What was most disturbing is how they perished.

"Females stored their pups with their hoards of maize before eating them," the scientists reported. "Pups were still alive at that time."

The cannibal mothers showed other signs of abnormality.

The usually cute-and-cuddly hamsters ran in circles, "climbing and pounding their feeders," when scientists entered the room. 

The females also had swollen and dark tongues, and blood so thick it was difficult to draw for samples.

The researchers recognised the symptoms, and had a hunch as to what was causing them.

Vitamin B3 deficiency has been linked to 'black-tongue' syndrome in dogs, and a condition in humans called pellagra, also known as the "3-D" disease: diarrhoea, dementia and dermatitis, such as eczema. 

"Improperly cooked maize-based diets have been associated with higher rates of homicide, suicide and cannibalism in humans," the researchers note.

- 'Dementia-like' behaviour -

Pellagra is thought to have decimated some three million people in North America and Europe from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century.

Tissier and her colleagues thought of a simple way to find out if their corn-crazed hamsters were suffering from a similar condition.

In a second set of experiments, they offered hamsters corn-based diets, one of them with B3 added.

Sure enough, the vitamin-enriched diet was enough to eliminate the horrific symptoms, and prevent the female hamsters from eating their young.

The dire consequences of the B3-deficient corn diet, the scientists concluded, stemmed not from reduced maternal hormones, but rather a change in the nervous system that induced the same "dementia-like" behaviour diagnosed in humans.

"Knowing that these species already face many threats, and that most of them are in danger of extinction, it is urgent to restore a diverse range of plants in agriculture schemes," the researchers urged.

Baumgart, who has been fighting for years to protect the endangered rodents, agrees.

"Monoculture in agriculture is really bad for biodiversity," he said. 

"Now we need to take concrete action."

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

corn turning french hamsters into deranged cannibals corn turning french hamsters into deranged cannibals

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

corn turning french hamsters into deranged cannibals corn turning french hamsters into deranged cannibals

 



GMT 12:11 2017 Thursday ,27 July

Tony Baroud to present new TV show

GMT 23:00 2017 Monday ,16 October

Egypt FM to head for Slovenia on Monday

GMT 20:06 2017 Friday ,20 January

Daesh in new demolitions at Syria’s Palmyra

GMT 21:06 2017 Friday ,24 November

Marriyum condemns Hayatabad terrorists attack

GMT 01:00 2017 Saturday ,25 November

Cabinet Affairs Minister Meets Indonesian Ambassador

GMT 02:34 2018 Thursday ,04 January

Merger creates state-owned gas giant

GMT 10:08 2017 Tuesday ,07 March

Geneva farce: The regime is the opposition

GMT 10:19 2017 Saturday ,18 November

AJK Prime Minister condemns across LoC shelling

GMT 11:34 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

33 Syrians killed in Air raid on Raqqa’s school

GMT 11:03 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

Asala declares her solidarity with George Wassouf

GMT 17:57 2017 Wednesday ,11 October

Mideast nations turn to private sector

GMT 14:11 2016 Wednesday ,30 November

Tunisia wins billion-dollar pledges to boost economy

GMT 23:41 2017 Tuesday ,26 September

Qatar laborer ‘sacked’ after speaking to UN team

GMT 04:28 2017 Tuesday ,21 March

Enrique Iglesias to headline Bahrain F1
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday