American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Jan. 30, 2008

CONTACT:
Purnendu K. Dasgupta, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, Tex. 76019-0065
Phone: 817-272-3171
Fax: 817-272-3808
Email:

In a finding that could be a boon to poultry farmers and bird breeders, scientists have developed a new test to ease the sometimes difficult task of determining the sex... Click here for more information.

ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New test answers frustrating question: Is Tweety a boy or a girl"
Analytical Chemistry

Scientists in Germany are reporting development of test that can answer one of the most frustrating questions in the animal kingdom: Is that bird a boy or a girl" Their study, a potential boon to poultry farmers and bird breeders, is scheduled for the Feb. 15 issue of ACS’ Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.

Juergen Popp and colleagues point out that the boy-girl question can be difficult to answer in birds that lack distinctive, gender-related plumage. Since birds lack external genital organs, sexing a bird typically involves endoscopic examination of the animal’s gonads under general anesthesia or specific molecular biological methods. Since these methods are expensive, time-consuming, and stressful for the bird, scientists long have sought a quick, minimal-invasive sexing alternative.

In the new study, researchers describe such a test, which involves analysis of tissue pulp from birds’ feathers using a highly sensitive lab instrument. The method, called ultraviolet-resonance Raman (UVRR) spectroscopy, took less than a minute, and identified the birds’ sex with 95 percent accuracy, the scientists say. — MTS

ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Minimal Invasive Gender Determination of Birds by Means of UV-Resonance Raman Spectroscopy”

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac702043q

CONTACT:
Juergen Popp, Prof.
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Jena, Germany
Phone: 49 3641 948320
Fax: 49 3641 948302
Email:

ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toward an effective treatment for monkeypox
Journal of Proteome Research