TESTICLE EATING FISH, THE PACU WAS FOUND IN PARIS

It is a fish that could give the great white shark competition as the most terror-inspiring creature of the deep. With the appearance of the piranha, but with teeth that look uncannily human, the pacu usually dines on a feast of insects, decaying plants and fruit that falls into the waters of the Amazon. But it has become more known for reportedly dining on another food: men's testicles. As though destined to fulfil the script of a spoof horror flick, the pacu is now on the move, and has now been found as far from its South American home as Paris. Could it be making its way to the UK? The small fish was found in European waters for the first time in August with experts warning men to keep their trunks on if swimming in the Øresund channel between Denmark and Sweden. Now the pacu has been found in the River Seine, The Paris Prefecture of Police newsletter revealed on Tuesday. Although officers were skeptical of the tropical catch, its human-like teeth marked the species as the feared ‘testicle eating’ pacu. Fish expert Henrik Carl told the Local earlier in August: “The pacu is not normally dangerous to people but it has quite a serious bite. There have been incidents in other countries, such as Papua New Guinea where some men have had their testicles bitten off. "They bite because they’re hungry, and testicles sit nicely in their mouth." The pacu, a relative of the piranha that is commonly found around the Amazon, can grow to up to 90cm and weigh in at a staggering 25kg. Fishermen in South America attacked by the pacu have reportedly bled to death after losing their testicles in the fish's vicious teeth. The fish are found in most rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America and have also been spotted in Papua New Guinea, where they are believed to have been introduced in order to boost fish stocks.

FAMILY DOG INSPIRE'S MAN WITH ADVANCED ALZHEIMER'S TO SPEAK UP

Though unable to speak otherwise, an elderly man with advanced Alzheimer’s disease nonetheless breaks his silence when exposed to “pet therapy” — a tail-wagging dog named Roscoe. In a YouTube video below, Lisa Abeyta captures an emotional moment as her father experiences a brief remission of sorts, speaking and cooing to the dog. "Oh yeah, hey! You've got, you've got something! You've got something, huh?" he says to Roscoe. "Yeah, well, that ... that's too bad, there. That's all. That's all I've got." Even with advanced cognitive impairment, something as basic as playing with the family dog brought Abeyta’s father back to life, in a therapeutic tradition dating back to the 1980s. Today, animal-assisted therapy is used to improve a patient’s social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. According to the National Institute on Aging, some 5.1 million Americans may suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia among elderly people. The condition encompasses a loss of cognitive and behavioral functioning, becoming a debilitating impediment to independent living. For most people, symptoms first appear after the age of 60. The disease is named for Alois Alzheimer, a doctor who first found amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which cause neuronal dysfunction, by performing an autopsy on a patient in 1906.

RESEARCHERS CLAIMS ANIMALS COULD BECOME HUMAN ORGAN DONORS SOMEDAY

Advances in transplant technology could pave the way for the use of animal organs in people some day which could help solve the problem of the donor organ shortage, researchers say. In a new study, scientists transplanted hearts from genetically engineered pigs into baboons whose immune systems had been suppressed, to prevent them fromrejecting the transplants. The transplanted hearts survived in their recipients for more than 500 days, the researchers reported April 28 at a meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in Toronto. The research has not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, but it has been submitted for publication. About 120,000 patients are waiting for organ transplants in the United States far more people than the number of human donors, said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, chief of transplantation at the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. "If we do these transplants using nonhuman donors, we will be able to save most of these precious lives," Mohiuddin told Live Science. Transplanting organs from animals, known as xenotransplantation, could replace human organs completely, or provide a stopgap until a human organ becomes available. But tissue rejection by the recipient's immune system remains a major hurdle to successful transplantation. To overcome this problem, Mohiuddin and his colleagues used hearts from pigs that had been genetically engineered to remove genes known to cause tissue rejection in humans, and replaced them with human genes that wouldn't cause an immune reaction. Pigs were chosen because their anatomy is similar to humans', and they mature very quickly. The researchers implanted hearts from these pigs into the abdomens of baboons, without replacing the monkeys' original hearts but still connecting the pig hearts to the baboons' circulatory system. The transplanted hearts survived in the baboons for more than 500 days, with the baboons taking immunosuppressive drugs, the researchers reported. "Now, we are at a stage when we can control the rejection the most difficult part," Mohiuddin said. The next step will be to perform transplants that replace the baboons' hearts with the genetically engineered pig hearts. The researchers couldn't say when the animal transplants might move to clinical trials in humans. The researchers can only move on to human trials if they show that the process works in baboons, Mohiuddin said. Besides the heart, other tissues could also potentially be transplanted from animals to humans, including the liver, kidneys, pancreas and lungs, Mohiuddin said.

ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY- IS UNDERVALUED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT

A pet is an island of sanity in what appears to be an insane world. Friendship retains its traditional values and securities in one's relationship with one's pet. Whether a dog, cat, bird, fish, turtle, or what have you, one can rely upon the fact that one's pet will always remain a faithful, intimate, non-competitive friend, regardless of the good or ill fortune life brings us." If you are an animal lover, you will fully relate to this quote from American child psychologist Dr. Boris Levinson. And it seems the majority of us are. As of 2012, 62% of American households included at least one pet. There is no doubt that humans have a strong bond with animals, and it is this bond that led to the introduction of animal-assisted therapy (AAT), or pet therapy - the idea that animals can help humans cope with or recover from certain medical conditions. In fact, it was Dr. Levinson who first came up with the idea of AAT in the 1960s, after finding that he was better able to reach a withdrawn 9-year-old boy every time his dog - called Jingles - was in the room with him. With Jingles present - who Dr. Levinson deemed his "co-therapist" - he found he was able to gain the trust of the boy, something that past therapists had failed to do. In 1961, Dr. Levinson presented the idea of AAT to the American Psychological Association (APA). At the time, the theory was met with cynicism. But a survey conducted by Dr. Levinson 10 years later found that of 319 psychologists, 16% used companion animals in their therapy sessions, indicating that people were warming to the idea of AAT. Today, AAT is more popular than ever. A 2011 report from the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Health Center for Health Statistics revealed that almost 60% of hospice care providers that provide complementary and alternative therapies offer pet therapy to patients. What is AAT? AAT is an intervention that uses animal interaction to aid recovery from health problems or to help people cope with certain medical conditions. The therapy is believed to have an array of benefits, including personal and social development, increased self-esteem, improved mental health, better social skills and increased empathy and nurturing skills. Patients with chronic heart failure, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia are just some groups who benefit from AAT. Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study from Ohio State University, which found that equine therapy - AAT involving interaction with horses - improved symptoms for patients with Alzheimer's disease. Study co-author Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, associate professor of social work at Ohio State, said of the findings: "We wanted to test whether people with dementia could have positive interactions with horses, and we found that they can - absolutely. The experience immediately lifted their mood, and we saw a connection to fewer incidents of negative behavior." Individuals with physical disabilities may also benefit from AAT. Equine therapy, which can also involve horse riding, has been shown to improve patients' strength, flexibility and balance. AAT is not just limited to interaction with cats, dogs and horses; it can include everything from hedgehogs, rabbits and skunks, to snakes and even spiders. Critterish Allsorts - an AAT practice based in the UK - use a tarantula called Fluffy as a therapy for individuals with autism. In the past, concerns have been raised regarding the safety and sanitation of AAT, particularly if such therapy is conducted in hospitals. However, rules are put in place to ensure animals are well trained, clean and vaccinated. To date, the CDC have received no reports of infection through AAT. How does AAT work? In general, the benefits of AAT stem from the interaction with animals. Some forms of AAT, such as equine therapy, involve caring for animals on a regular basis. For example, equine therapy may require individuals to feed, groom and bathe horses once or twice a week. Speaking of how equine therapy helps Alzheimer's patients, Dabelko-Schoeny told Medical News Today: Other forms of AAT may include an animal being brought to a care facility for patient interaction. For example, Pet Partners - a non-profit organization in the US that provides AAT - has a volunteer who brings a cat to a rehabilitation center to work with an occupational therapist and a child who has problems with movement. The occupational therapist asks the child to handle the cat's collar, or open a tin of treats and feed the cat - activities that help improve the child's motor skills. "Animal-assisted activities can provide much needed motivation, education or recreation to enhance a person's quality of life," Mary Craig, CEO of the Pet Partners board and a veterinarian, told Medical News Today. Should there be more focus on the use of AAT? But Craig notes an important point: "It's easy for our volunteers involved in animal assisted activities to see and understand the benefits to animal-assisted activities. But the magic that happens in these interactions is difficult to quantify and 'prove.' The benefits realized are often unique to the individuals involved in the personal exchanges." Because of this, many experts in the AAT field believe the therapy is undervalued and that there should be more research conducted to expose its benefits. "There is a growing body of research, but much of it is still qualitative, not quantitative," Chris Patella, of Animal Assisted Therapy Services - a US organization that specializes in equine and canine therapy - told us. "We need hard numeric data to convince insurance companies and legislatures that AAT should be covered like any other medical intervention." In addition, Patella said he believed that doctors should be recommending AAT as an alternative treatment for patients with both physical and mental health conditions. "However," he added, "doctors are rooted in Western medicine that promotes medication. They, too, are looking for the solid research that proves AAT is a viable intervention. Research is the key." Could AAT replace drug treatment? This brings us to the question of whether AAT could replace or reduce the use of drug treatment for certain health conditions. A 2009 study from Loyola University in Chicago, IL, found that adults who used AAT - in the form of canine therapy - while recovering from total joint-replacement surgery required 50% less pain medication. Dr. Edward Creagan, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, is one health professional who feels very strongly about the health benefits of pets, to the extent that he notes the name of a patient's pet when he takes their medical history. "A pet is a medication without side effects that has so many benefits," he says. "I can't always explain it myself, but for years now I've seen how instances of having a pet is like an effective drug. It really does help people." 

GOLDEN FISH UNDERGOES SURGERY FOR REMOVAL OF DEADLY TUMORS

When George’s owners noticed that he’d become very sick, they rushed their beloved pet to the vet for a check-up. That’s when George was diagnosed with a life-threatening tumor, and was recommended by the vet to undergo an experimental surgery. Except George is goldfish. And not just any goldfish: one that’s already 10-years old. While most owners would’ve said their goodbyes and flushed George down the toilet, his owners shelled out $200 for a vet at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, to perform a never-been-done surgery, according to the New York Post. Very little of the hospital’s surgical practice is fish-specific, Dr. Tristan Rich, an exotic wildlife specialist who performed George’s surgery, told Daily Mail. George was first placed in a bucket of ice water that contained an anesthetic, according to the hospital’s Facebook. While excising the tumor, which had grown into his skull, Dr. Rich fed a tube containing water, oxygen and anesthetic into George’s gills, so that the goldfish would remain unconscious and alive. At the end of the operation, Dr. Rich ran into a bit of trouble. The sutures didn’t hold, so instead he used tissue glue—something that’s normally used in human operations. Finally, Dr. Rich gave George antibiotics and painkillers, and placed him in a recovery bucket of clean water. Soon after the 45 minute operation, George started swimming and breathing on his own. “For the owners, it’s not about having a fish, it’s about having this fish,” Dr. Rich told Daily Mail. “If you have a pet, regardless of what it is, then you have a responsibility to look after it as best you can.” 

A LAB IN SOUTH KOREA WILL CLONE YOUR DOG FOR $100,000

People cope with the loss of their pets in very different ways. Some carry on as normal, some may cuddle their pet’s favorite chew toy while sobbing over Marley & Me, some immediately rush out and buy a replacement; there’s no right or wrong way to deal with it. But it turns out that some people are willing to go to rather extreme measures to mend their broken hearts: cloning their dog. Since 2006, a controversial biotech lab in South Korea called Sooam has been offering cloning services for the meagre sum of $100,000 (£64,000); I guess some would say their companions are priceless. The company was founded by trained veterinarian and scientific researcher Woo Suk Hwang who has a rather shady history. Hwang was publicly disgraced and expelled from his academic institution for fabricating research on human embryo cloning and still faces criminal charges. But this hasn’t seemed to put people off as business is booming; since it was established, more than 400 dogshave been cloned, and the firm usually has around 15 clients per month. The company has also brought its services to the US and plans to offer cloning to UK clients soon. The cloning technique Sooam scientists use is the same 50 year old method that brought us Dolly the sheep back in 1996—nuclear transfer. First, cells are taken from the pet to be cloned and the nucleus, the cellular command center that contains the organism’s genetic information, is removed and saved. Next, an egg cell from a donor pet is obtained and the nucleus is replaced with that of the pet to be cloned. The egg cell is then given a small electric shock to stimulate division, and after a few days the developing embryo is placed back inside a surrogate mother. The surrogate doesn’t have to be of the same breed, but ideally they would be of similar size. Of course, clients don’t get their old dog back, but more of an identical twin. Some dogs may also appear slightly different; dalmations, for example, may have different spots. The clones may also not have the same personality or temperament as the original dog. And the procedure is not without risks; many dogs are born unhealthy, so they have to repeat the process until a healthy dog is produced, although Sooam claims it never puts a dog down. An ambitious company, Sooam has no intention of stopping at dogs and is dreaming big. Recently, they signed a deal with Russian scientists to attempt to clone a woolly mammoth, despite the ethical issues surrounding this.

MONKEY CPR

A video has gone viral that appears to show a rhesus macaque resuscitating his friend who had been electrically shocked at a train station in Northern India. The video shows snippets of one monkey poking and prodding at the other for a period of 20 minutes, even trying to splash water on it. Ultimately, the unconscious macaque did wake up - but what were the actual intentions of the helpful friend? National Geographic reports that it isn't entirely clear how different primate species are affected by the death of those they are close with, but there have been recorded events of monkeys shaking and biting their fallen friends. However, it isn't known if they are confused by why the other monkey isn't moving, or if they are actually trying to revive the individual. What do you think is the motivation behind these actions? Was there even a deliberate motivation at all?