イグ・ノーベルノーベル賞しょう 研究けんきゅうテーマテーマ“シマウシ” 牛うしを白黒しろくろに 効果こうかは

As a parody of the Nobel Prize, the winners of this years Ig Nobel Prize, which is awarded for unique research, have been announced, and a group of researchers from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization NARO in Japan has received the award.

The research theme is not zebra, but rather striped cow.

The Ig Nobel Prize is an award that was started in 1991 by an American science magazine as a parody of the Nobel Prize, and is given to research that makes people laugh and then think.

On the 19th, Japan time, this years award winners were announced, and from Japan, a research group led by Tomoki Kojima, a researcher at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, received the Biology Prize.

The research group focused on studies showing that zebras protect themselves from blood-sucking flies with their striped patterns, and investigated whether painting black cattle with black-and-white patterns would help prevent attacks from stable flies and horseflies.

As a result, the cows with painted patterns had more than half as many flies on their legs and bodies compared to cows without any patterns, and they also exhibited fewer fly-repelling behaviors such as head shaking and stomping.

By applying these results, it is expected not only to reduce stress in cattle, but also to decrease the use of insecticides for preventing infections caused by insect bites.

On the other hand, since the painted cow stripes come off in a few days, the development of technology with long-term durability remains a challenge.

It is the 19th consecutive year that a Japanese person has won the Ig Nobel Prize. In addition, a total of ten studies were awarded, including research on what happens when you tell a narcissist you are smart, which type of pizza lizards prefer, and how babies reactions change when breastfeeding mothers eat garlic.

It was experimentally confirmed that blood-sucking insects are less likely to approach. This years Ig Nobel Prize in Biology was awarded to a group led by researcher Tomotaka Kojima from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. Their research confirmed through experiments that by painting zebra-like stripes on cows bodies, blood-sucking insects such as flies and horseflies are less likely to approach the cows.

The experiment was conducted jointly by the Aichi Agricultural Research Center, where Researcher Kojima was affiliated at the time, and Kyoto University from 2017 to 2018.

In the experiment, the black-haired cows were divided into three groups: those left in their normal state without anything applied, those painted with white stripes to resemble a zebra pattern of black and white, and those painted with black paint instead of white paint.

And at the same time, we placed them side by side and left them for 30 minutes, observing both the number of flies, horseflies, and other insects that landed on the cows bodies, as well as the number of times the cows displayed behaviors such as shaking their heads or tails to drive away the insects.

As a result, the average number of blood-sucking insects was 129 on cows with no paint, 112 on cows painted black, and only 56 on cows with black and white stripes—less than half.

Additionally, the average number of times the cows exhibited behaviors to ward off insects per 30 minutes was 53 for cows with nothing applied, 54 for cows painted black, and 40 for cows with black and white stripes, which was about 25% less.

The research group expects that by giving black-haired cows patterns like those of zebras, it may be possible to prevent insect-borne infectious diseases and reduce the stress on cows caused by blood-sucking insects.

In Yamagata Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture, and other areas, demonstration experiments have already been conducted. In Oguni Town, Yamagata Prefecture, verification was carried out in 2021 with the cooperation of local farmers, and it is reported that effects similar to those found in the research results were confirmed.

Researcher Kojima said, I was consulted by farmers who raise cattle about measures against bloodsucking insects, and by chance I learned from television about the hypothesis that zebra stripes are effective, so I started my research.

I was very surprised and honored to hear the news of the award, but to be honest, it still doesnt feel real to me, they said.

And regarding the future, If it becomes widespread, it could potentially reduce the use of pesticides and other chemicals, and I think it could also be beneficial for issues such as drug resistance.

How easily stripes can be applied and how long they can be maintained are, I believe, crucial for widespread adoption.

I hope that such a method will be developed someday, they said.