Exploding toads/frogs in Hamburg

[kleinwolf]

I don't know if you heard about this...Does anybody know if those are Xenopus family frogs ?

Thanks

 

[arildno]

You may rest assured; the culprits have been found for this puzzling phenomenon:
Apparently, some crow-like bird had specialized itself at nibbling out the liver of the frogs and toads. The loss of the liver is presumed to have set off this bizarre development in the individual frog.
Here's a rather official looking summary in German:
http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/pressemeldungen/2005/mai/04/2005-05-04-baa-kroetensterben.html

 

[kleinwolf]

You insure this

I hope, because we wouldn't like to make a firestarter for witch chase against genetic tests on animals in the german speaking room...we soon have a votation on this...and there is a lot of money and interests in the game (what I feel)...because if you can check and heal as what we are sometimes told, then you could maybe also destroy as precise as the healing power ?! But we have no worries : God does (not /often/like to) play dice..isnt'it ? Or are we wrong again ? (Quantum mechanics will die soon, espcially uncertainty principle at gene level because it's still too big...)

 

[arildno]

I hope, because we wouldn't like to make a firestarter for witch chase against genetic tests on animals in the german speaking room...we soon have a votation on this...and there is a lot of money and interests in the game (what I feel)

 

[kleinwolf]

Yes...I don't know if it's a good thing to speak about this...but I was involved in internship in biophysics with gene modifciation of frogs in 2003...I just have unproven doubts...You know it's long ago...and in Switzerland we have a law project for sterilization of mentally handicaped people...if they base this on DNA tests too..You see what I mean I think...I prefere to use the expression : it rather begins to smell like old fashioned discriminational possibilities around based this time not on religious beliefs, but your gentical heritage...legally (?) based on gene tests...We don't look at you, we don't speak with you...just give some cells here...and we decide...(automatisation procedures of enrolement, visa giving, crimes detection, borderline crossing autorization...blind confidence in machines and DNA code interpretated by body cells...is this really what we want ?, or am I just exagerating some fears...? What do you think ?

 

[arildno]

So, is basically your question whether the exploding frogs were gene-modified exemplars of the Xenopus family?

I wouldn't know the answer to that..

 

[kleinwolf]

I know...we were working on the Xenopus family but not in that region. I don't know if they continued research on that.

But would you like me to post the more general question about DNA biometric datas for humans in the general discussion forum ?

 

[arildno]

I know...we were working on the Xenopus family but not in that region. I don't know if they continued research on that.

Well, did you take the livers out of the frogs?

But would you like me to post the more general question about DNA biometric datas for humans in the general discussion forum ?

Decide for yourself if the topic you want to discuss merits a thread of its own, and where to place it.

 

[kleinwolf]

Well if you are a genetic specialist (are you), can you know what it happens if we treat some embryos before fecondation with some bull genes ? Is it lethal or not, and can you have birth or will your mother explode (if the probe was implanted in a woman and not a cow) before...? Do you know the effects of genetic modifications ?

For genetically induced disease : I don't want to make the paranoid guy, but if we treat somebody genetically to have such a disease, it's almost obvious that that person will be diagnosed with that one...or not ?

 

[arildno]

Well if you are a genetic specialist (are you), can you know what it happens if we treat some embryos before fecondation with some bull genes ? Is it lethal or not, and can you have birth or will your mother explode (if the probe was implanted in a woman and not a cow) before...? Do you know the effects of genetic modifications ?

I'm not a genetic specialist.
I think explosions, though, due to DNA recombinations are unlikeliest in the extreme. I don't see why it should occur.

 

[Genecks]

Cool conspiracy theory stuff like this is why I come here.

 

[arildno]

Cool conspiracy theory stuff like this is why I come here.

The toads DID explode, though..

 

[kleinwolf]

Why do you think that they want to sterilize mentally handicaped people without their agreement..is it because of impossibility of communication ?...are those rapers ?, or because of family stories (jaleousy for example, or lack of money...?), or based on statistics about reproduction between certain type of genes...some people call them the "regulators" of humanity...or "normality" criterion...and lack of security of condoms ?

 

[arildno]

Why do you think that they want to sterilize mentally handicaped people without their agreement..is it because of impossibility of communication ?...are those rapers ?, or because of family stories (jaleousy for example, or lack of money...?), or based on statistics about reproduction between certain type of genes...some people call them the "regulators" of humanity...or "normality" criterion...and lack of security of condoms ?

What, and who, are you talking about?

 

[Moonbear]

kleinwolf, this thread is not making a lot of sense at the moment. There are far too many topics all jumbled together for anyone to answer coherently. Can you please state just what the purpose of this thread is, what ONE topic you wish to discuss here, and how it relates to biology?

 

[DocToxyn]

If this helps get the thread back on track, I saw no reports that the anuran species being affected was of the Xenopus genus, which, as stated, is very commonly used in genetics and developmental biology. The Xenopus species is native to Africa and not eastern Europe and I doubt if they could even survive that climate for long, let alone establish a large colony and then succumb to the reported effects. Most accounts of the exploding amphibians listed them as toads.

Perhaps the crows, being rather smart animals, learned that they could derive food, ie the liver, from the toads without having to consume the entire body and thus they could avoid the toxic parotid glands just behind the eyes. The liver is most likely the largest internal organ and would provide the best return on the effort. If this was done with a precision technique, the toad may have survived, and reacted to the stress by puffing up its body as one of it natural defenses and could not reverse the process due collateral damage and thus eventually popped.