This story I wrote was published in regional farm publications such as The Ohio Country Journal to add information and often some levity to agricultural science and current ag topics.

What do camels and hens have in common? Not much, other than being the subjects of two research studies I recently came across.

The purposes of these studies are as dissimilar as the animals themselves. One study holds promise for human health. The other one just challenges my preconceived notion regarding the character of hens. Who’d have thought hens were so down-to-business?

But before I get further into that, I present the camel research.

Camels have long been known as a reliable mode of transportation across the furthest reaches of the desert. Now it seems they have special antibodies – disease-fighting mechanisms – that can traverse the furthest reaches of the human brain (which in my particular case, my late wife used to say, is a pretty short jaunt).

What’s significant here is that human antibodies typically are not able to penetrate into the brain – unlike this newly-discovered class of antibodies present in camels and most other camelids such as alpacas and llamas.

Similarly, most antibiotics and other medications are unable to penetrate the human blood-brain barrier that shields the brain. This barrier prevents these medications from reaching the brain to treat infections, such as encephalitis and meningitis, and other medical conditions.

However, scientists are excited about the possibility of harnessing the brain-penetrating ability of alpaca antibodies to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease and brain tumors. They hope they may someday be used to strategically target lesions in the brain.

Scientists have extracted antibodies from alpacas’ blood to demonstrate how easily they can slide through the human blood-brain barrier and diffuse throughout the brain. In this study the scientists used alpaca antibodies to target astrocytes in the brain. Astrocytes are major brain cells that carry electrical charges we know as brain waves. When astrocytes run amok, they can develop into brain tumors. At the very least, they cause encephalitis.

In 2007, scientists proved that another special antibody (IgM) could reverse learning disabilities in mice. Mice treated with IgM had improved cognitive skills. Mind you, the mice didn’t learn to read, but they negotiated a maze that puzzled them prior to treatment.

I think I had a mouse in my kitchen that has received this treatment. It successfully evaded my mouse trap, stealing the cheese every time. The only thing I caught was my thumb, when I tried to reload the trap with tasty mozzarella.

I had hoped at the time that my putting camels and alpacas in a good light in that column would return me to the good graces of my alpaca clients. I had been a black sheep when I told a couple of them that I had tried alpaca summer sausage in China a summer ago – and found it to be delicious.

While the camels and their cousins show promise in treating brain diseases, I offered another glimpse of a more mundane research study that aimed to improve our understanding of the social life of hens.

A study performed by the Royal Veterinary College in London, England found that commercial egg-laying hens do not form friendships. The study found that these egg-laying hens couldn’t care less about who they spend time with.

This went against everything I had observed about human “hens.” Human hens, anyway, care where they perch in church. They are adamant about which pew at church is theirs. While feathered hens don’t care who they socialize with, hens of the human variety are relatively picky about their friends and where they spend their time. As a matter of fact, hens of the human variety might “lay an egg” if their pew at church is occupied by someone else.

The research regarding feathered hens was published in the journal Applied Behaviour Science. The study was conducted to determine if the welfare of hens could be improved by providing them the opportunity for friendship. The researchers selected hen groups of 15. They alternated the groups to observe the interaction and productivity of the hens between groups.

The researchers concluded that these variables did not make a difference in improving the hens’ welfare or their productivity. And they found that allowing the hens to select their perch did not enhance their social interactions or productivity. In essence friendships didn’t matter. These British researchers plan to repeat the trials in older hens to see if they get different results.

My conclusions from my own observations of hens of the human variety are far different. Friendships promoted in the human variety of hen, especially the older ones, flourish. And for the sake of my own welfare, I know better than to get in the way of allowing them to select their preferred perches in church.