\"It was a hot August aftermoon...\" Part I - Case Study Collection - National C
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"It was a hot August aftermoon..." Part I - Case Study Collection - National C enter for C.. Page 1 of It was aHo A Part I-Body Count Im glad you're here, doc. This is really starting to get spoolky. It was a hot August aftermoon and Bill was standing in a field at the edge of a woodland on his farm. He had about 200 acres in northwestern Minnesota, including some woods, a couple of fields he planted in corn and soybeans, and a small pond. Bill was talking to Carl Spackler, a veterinary pathologist, one of the few in the country.Carl had been the veterinary pathologist for the state for about 10 years, and he had never seen anything like this before lt hadn't rained in about two weeks, and the air was hot and still. The stench rising from the deer carcass that Bill and Carl were standing over was starting to get pretty strong. A dead deer wouldn't be enough to bring Carl out to the farm, but the dozen or so animal deaths that had occurred on the farm within the last week was of concem. So tell me what's been going on, Bill. "Well, last Monday I found a couple of dead ducks at the edge of the pond. Then Tuesday a deer in the soybean field. Thurday it was a coyote at the edge of the woods. To be honest, I didn't mind the dead coyote too much-with chickens around, the fewer ooyotes the better. But it's still strange. Saturday was bad-another couple of ducks, a couple of raccoons, and a deer. That's when I called the state. I think someone is poisoning my land. This deer here is fresh from this moming. It's not like any of them were shot or anything. I don't think it's a poacher or a jerk shooting animals for kicks. But I'll ell you, doc, this is kind of weind." Carl had to admit he was a litle puzzled. The animals were different kinds of vertebrates and they had all been found dead in the same area within a week. Taking a step back from the stinking carcass, Bill wished he had been able to get here earlier in the day. For one thing, it might have been a litle cooler, but mainly because the deer carcass would have been a little fresher. Judging by the smell and the level of rigor mortis, the deer had probably been dead for about 12 to 18 hours, meaning it died some time last night. And that meant Carl would have to work fast. Lucky for Carl, Lauren, a first year veterinary pathology resident, was with him. She had about three years experience as a vet, but had wanted a bigger challenge and so had decided to try veterinary pathology. She was a vet in the Twin Cities, and didn't have too much experience with "non-traditional" animals It would be a challenging case for both of them. But where to start? Your Task List possible reasons the animals may have died. Your reasons can be stated as testable hypotheses, along with data supporting the hypotheses Date Posted: 030905 Image Credit: Based on a photo by Henk Badenhorst Originally published at htp lwww.sciencecases orpthot segusthot august asp Copyright O 199-2009 by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science Please see our usage guidelines, which outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this workExplanation / Answer
Reasons
1) The reason for the deaths of different vertebrates could be due to the some toxic material diluted in the air which might affected the animals and unaffected the humans.
-The other reason could be due to poison or contaminated water as it was day after a rainy night the water sources might have contaminated with toxins released by bacteria and microbes and drinking of these water by animals might be the reason of these deaths. The ingestion of some toxic food material can be ruled as the diets of different animal are different.
-As the pond was empty and dried over a long time it got in habituated with algal blooms and other microbes like E coli, cyanobacteria and salmonella typhi releasing toxin like neurotoxins, anatoxin and saxitoxin and most of these toxin are neurotoxin affecting the brain activity.
1)The information along the neuron travel inform of electric signals travels along the dendrites or axons due to voltage gated channels. Voltage gated channels open and closes in response the electric impulse voltage so that they may carry the signals in between neurons. When the neuron is ate rest a charge is maintain inside and outside of cell with these most of sodium ions is lost to outer membrane of cell but when the charge changes in plasma membrane of neuron the movement of sodium ion will move inside of cell changing the charged across the membranes creating action potential which carries the information.
2) Neurons communicate each other with help of electrical and chemical signals. The electrical signals when reach the end of neurons these electrical signal gets transform toe chemical signals which crosses the gap called as synapse. These chemical signals triggers electrical signals in other neurons and each neuron the electric signal are added with chemical signals to enhance the action potential.
3) Neuron communicates with other cells with the releases of neurotransmitters which cat on the target cells. This neurotransmitter might include hormones or enzymes.
1) Neurotoxins work by attacking nervous systems. Neurotoxin get deposited ate the neurons which affects the action potential and communication between neuron with no signals between the neuron it can cause convulsion and muscular dysfunction which can lead to paralysis and death.
2) Rigor mortis is hardening the muscles and tissues after death. This can occur with different intervals with nature of toxin affected. With the infection with neuron toxic the muscles gets hard in short span of time due blockages of sodium channels which causes the loss of ATP and hardening of tissues.
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