On the other hand cool and wet weather conditions can increase plant disease pressure and the lodging of the crop making the crop difficult to harvest as well as complicating the management of soils.
When Ruby died suddenly in April from apparently ingesting rat poison it was a local tragedy as well as a national warning about the serious dangers these chemicals pose to wildlife.
Tufts Wildlife Clinic at Cummings School of veterinary medicine received results of a toxicology screen last week that showed that Ruby tested positive for three different types of second-generation anticoagulant
Veterinarians at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic performed Ruby's necropsy and detected signs of lethal rodenticide poisoning
which the screen results now confirm. Ruby had high concentrations of an SGAR called brodifacoum in her system
and trace amounts of two other poisons said Dr. Maureen Murray a wildlife veterinarian and faculty member at Cummings School.
While these poisons are meant to kill rodents they have unintended consequences of harming and killing animals that prey on rodents.
She recently asked the Tufts Wildlife Clinic to establish the Ruby Memorial Research Fund. The fund's initial goal is to raise $10000 for research to monitor the health effects of rodenticides on birds of prey.
We really hope people donate to this worthy cause and support the efforts of Cummings School said Moses.
The paper showed anticoagulant rodenticide residues in 86 percent of 161 birds that were tested over five years at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic.
Rodents and other species need a much smaller amount of the poisons to suffer their effects.
While this factor doesn't necessarily make second-generation poisons more lethal for rodents than first generation products it has devastating consequences for wildlife.
For example a red-tailed hawk that repeatedly feeds on prey containing sublethal amounts of the second-generation poison is at risk for accumulating a lethal amount over time.
In light of high numbers of children accidentally exposed to second-generation rat poisons as well as the risk to wildlife the EPA tightened the safety standards for consumer use of household rat
and mouse poisons in 2011. After a prolonged battle with the EPA the last manufacturer to comply with the safety standards agreed in May to stop producing its second-generation poisons for sale to residential consumers by the end of the year.
Until SGARS are phased out completely consumers may still find a variety of poisons on store shelves.
So it's very important to understand the larger ramifications of the products used in the home because of their potential harm to children pets and wildlife.
The goal of our research is to continue to educate the public on this issue
and Community Tobacco Control Research (SCTC) Initiative funded by the US National Cancer Institute at the National institutes of health and published in the supplement.
and that they were effective smoking cessation aids. Newer brands were more likely to focus on choice and versatility.
The US regulator the Food and Drug Administration has recently categorised e-cigarettes as a tobacco product
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Better methods to detect E coli developedkansas State university diagnosticians are helping the cattle industry save millions of dollars each year by developing earlier and accurate detection of E coli.
T. G. Nagaraja university distinguished professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; and Jianfa Bai assistant professor in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory are leading a project to improve techniques for detecting pathogenic Shiga toxin-producing E coli O157:
H7. A U s. Department of agriculture Coordinated Agriculture Project grant is funding the work. The researchers are part of a College of Veterinary medicine team studying preharvest food safety in beef cattle.
and more sensitive ways to detect these pathogens of E coli in cattle feces. To develop the diagnostic test Noll
Xiaorong Shi research assistant of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology and Bai. Beef cattle production is a major industry in Kansas
When it comes to controlling hay fever-triggering ragweed plants on Detroit vacant lots occasional mowing is worse than no mowing at all
Katz and Carey co-authored an earlier study that examined the relationships between ragweed pollen production land use and public health in Detroit.
Ragweed pollen is one of the main causes of allergic rhinitis the seasonally recurrent bouts of sneezing nasal congestion and itchy eyes commonly called hay fever.
There is also some evidence that allergenic pollen can trigger asthma attacks; in Detroit the asthma rate is 50 percent higher than the rate for the state of Michigan as a whole.
In Detroit vacant lots are most common in low-income neighborhoods that have large minority populations.
and neighborhood-level problem even though public health officials have treated for decades it as a regional problem Katz said.
#Gardens help cancer survivors cope, heal and growa diagnosis of breast cancer in 2010 hit Susan Rossman pretty hard.
A year later a pioneering study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham helped her reclaim her life from cancer's grasp.
I think that cancer can be the worst thing that ever happened to you or it can be a life-changing event--one that you do something with rather than letting it do something to you she said.
For Rossman the key was Harvest for Health a UAB study that paired cancer survivors and master gardeners from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.
Wendy Demark-Wahnefried Ph d. R. D. is the associate director for cancer prevention and control in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.
She is registered also a dietitian and a professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences. She is intrigued by the link between cancer and diet.
There is powerful evidence she says that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is especially beneficial for cancer survivors.
We asked the question: If cancer survivors started a vegetable garden would they eat more vegetables?
We found they not only ate more vegetables they also got more exercise. And their physical functioning improved dramatically she said.
Harvest for Health began with a pilot study in Jefferson County Alabama in 2011. Funded by the Women's Breast Health Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham the original study showed survivors had improved strength--especially in the hands--improved mobility
and an increased ability to get up and down. The study has since been expanded to many counties surrounding Birmingham along with the Cullman Montgomery Mobile and Dothan areas with support from the National Cancer Institute.
UAB provides tools and seedlings and will either prepare a raised bed in the yard of a survivor's home
Shaddix one of more than 100 master gardeners in Alabama who have volunteered for Harvest for Health is something of a fresh food crusader.
and increased physical function are means to an end--to keep cancer survivors living independently for as long as possible.
Loss of physical function in cancer survivors especially older survivors is a downward spiral so that many times survivors lose the ability to live on their own she said.
I didn't think about cancer every day. Shaddix of Maple Valley Nursery is a gardener not a psychologist;
Demark-Wahnefried wants Harvest for Health to continue to grow. She hopes to launch a trial on a national level within the next five years.
which are associated with the image of cancer said lead author Shu-Hong Zhu Phd professor of Family
and Preventive medicine and director of the Center for Research and Interventions in Tobacco Control at UC San diego. Smoking-related diseases are the leading cause of preventable death worldwide estimated to be responsible for 6
Although smoking rates among American adults have declined by more than half from 42 percent in 1965 to 18 percent in 2012 tobacco use in the United states is still responsible for nearly one in five deaths according to the American Cancer Society.
or worsen public health by reducing tobacco cigarette consumption or provide an alternative way to consume nicotine. â#oesome consider them promising products to help smokers quit traditional cigarettes
and Drug Administrationâ##s proposed rules that e-cigarette companies be required to list ingredients and nicotine strengths follow good manufacturing practices to ensure product safety require child proof e-liquid containers
The above story is provided based on materials by University of California San diego Health Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
As a result forest health may decline trees may disappear from places they are currently found
#Broccoli sprout beverage enhances detoxification of air pollutants in clinical triala clinical trial involving nearly 300 Chinese men
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health working with colleagues at several U s. and Chinese institutions used the broccoli sprout beverage to provide sulforaphane a plant compound already demonstrated to have cancer preventive properties
The study was published in the June 9 online edition of the journal Cancer Prevention Research. Air pollution is a complex and pervasive public health problem notes John Groopman Phd Anna M. Baetjer Professor of Environmental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health
and one of the study's co-authors. To address this problem comprehensively in addition to the engineering solutions to reduce regional pollution emissions we need to translate our basic science into strategies to protect individuals from these exposures.
Last year the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified air pollution and particulate matter (PM) from air pollution as carcinogenic to humans.
Diets rich in cruciferous vegetables of which broccoli is one have been found to reduce risk of chronic degenerative diseases including cancer.
and survive a broad range of environmental toxins. This strategy may also be effective for some contaminants in water and food.
This study points to a frugal simple and safe means that can be taken by individuals to possibly reduce some of the long-term health risks associated with air pollution notes Thomas Kensler Phd professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
and one of the study's co-authors. This while government leaders and policy makers define and implement more effective regulatory policies to improve air quality.
The clinical trial targeting prevention is notable in that it evaluated a possible means to reduce the body burden of toxins following unavoidable exposures to pollutants.
The majority of clinical trials involve treatments of diseases that have presented already or advanced into later stages.
Further clinical trials to evaluate optimal dosage and frequency of the broccoli sprout beverage are planned in the same general region of China.
The above story is provided based on materials by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Dr Grzegorz Cielniak senior lecturer in the School of Computer science said: The workshop will provide a forum to present the state-of-the-art technical solutions in agricultural robotics
and new research from St michael's Hospital suggests it should also be one of the oils of choice for people with Type 2 diabetes.
Dr. David Jenkins head of the hospital's Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre compared people with Type 2 diabetes who ate either a low glycemic index diet that included bread made with canola oil
or a whole wheat diet known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. His study published today (Saturday June 14) in the journal Diabetes Care found that those on the canola bread diet experienced both a reduction in blood glucose levels and a significant reduction in LDL or bad cholesterol.
Even more exciting he said was the finding that the canola bread diet seemed to have the most significant impact on people who needed help the most--those
Dr. Jenkins who is a professor of both nutritional sciences and medicine at the University of Toronto said the reduction in LDL cholesterol observed in his study of 141 people could translate into a 7 per cent reduction in cardiovascular events.
He said the benefit could also be translated into an additional 20mg dose of one of the cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins--a doubling of a standard dose.
The word canola is a contraction of Canada and ola meaning oil. It was developed from rapeseed at the University of Manitoba in the 1970s.
Canola oil contains only 7 per cent saturated fat less than half that of olive oil widely touted for its health benefits.
Dr. Jenkins said another interesting finding of the study was that patients on the whole wheat diet seemed to have better blood flow after 12 weeks than those on the canola bread diet as measured by the Endopat test that uses a cuff on the arm similar to a blood pressure test.
but this positive result may be an indication of why whole wheat foods have consistently been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Jenkins and his colleagues developed the concept of the glycemic index in the early 1980s as a way of explaining how different carbohydrates affect blood glucose
and to find out which foods were best for people with diabetes. High GI foods--such as white bread most breakfast cereals potatoes
Other studies have linked low GI diets with a reduction in both diabetes and cardiovascular events and have shown monounsaturated fats such as canola
and olive oil reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Jenkins said the combination of a low GI diet supplemented with canola oil had not been tested before on people with Type 2 diabetes.*
*This research was funded by the Canola Council of Canada Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Loblaw Companies and the Canada Research Chairs Program.
The above story is provided based on materials by St michael's Hospital. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Improving diet quality reduces risk for type 2 diabetesimproving the overall quality of one's diet helps to prevent type 2 diabetes independent of other lifestyle changes according to a study presented at the American Diabetes Association
The study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public health found that those who improved their diet quality index scores by 10 percent over four years--by eating more whole grains fruits
and vegetables and less sweetened beverages and saturated fats for example--reduced their risk for type 2 diabetes by about 20 percent compared to those who made no changes to their diets.
or increased physical activity or if it could independently reduce a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
We found that diet was associated indeed with diabetes independent of weight loss and increased physical activity said lead researcher Sylvia Ley Phd a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public health.
If you improve other lifestyle factors you reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes even more
but improving diet quality alone has significant benefits. This is important because it is often difficult for people to maintain a calorie-restricted diet for a long time.
and sugar-sweetened beverages and more fruits vegetables and whole grains--they are going to improve their health
and reduce their risk for diabetes. The study also showed that it didn't matter how good
The above story is provided based on materials by American Diabetes Association. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length g
That false sense of health as well as a failure to understand the information presented in nutrition facts panels on packaged food may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in the United states said Temple Northup an assistant professor at the Jack J. Valenti School
How Food Marketing Creates a False Sense of Health. The study examined the degree to
which consumers link marketing terms on food packaging with good health. It found that consumers tend to view food products labeled with health-related euphemisms as healthier than those without them.
The research also showed that the nutrition facts panels printed on food packaging as required by the U s. Food
and Drug Administration do little to counteract that buzzword marketing. Words like organic antioxidant natural and gluten-free imply some sort of healthy benefit Northup said.
But its name is giving you this clue that there is some sort of health benefit to something that is not healthy at all.
The study also looks at the priming psychology behind the words to explain why certain words prompt consumers to assign a health benefit to a food product with unhealthy ingredients.
For example if I gave you the word'doctor'not only'doctor'would be accessible in your mind--now all these other things would be accessible in your mind--'nurse''stethoscope'etc.
#Identifying cyst-laden meat: Sarcocystis thermostable PCR detection kit developedconsumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle sheep
and goats may cause infection in humans. Researchers from Universiti Teknologi MARA have invented successfully a PCR kit
which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
Sarcosytis spp are intracellular protozoan parasites acquired upon consumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle sheep and goats.
Cases of human infection have been documented. Humans carry the intramuscular micro and macrocyst. The actual incidence among humans is yet to be assessed.
Human cases have been reported with acute myositis diarrhea and fever. Livestock suffer acute debilitating infections resulting in abortion
and death or chronic infections with failure to grow or thrive. It is indeed regrettable that this disease has received not the attention it deserves
and remains a neglected one. Studies have shown that sarcosytis spp were seen in 56%of hamburgers 20%of hotdogs and sausages.
Definitive diagnosis with identification of sporocysts in feces requires multiple stool examinations several days after having eaten the meat.
Sarcocystis sarcocysts in muscle biopsy specimens can be identified by microscopic examination of histological sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin and other stains such as PAS reaction.
Basic histological examinations by no means can help definitive identification of sarcocystis at spies level and warrants electron microscopy
Their findings could make the maddening itch of the summer season a thing of the past for the untold millions who are allergic to the plant.
The study was published in the journal Plant disease and is a first of its kind on a plant that affects millions
This poison ivy research has the potential to affect the untold millions of people who are allergic to poison ivy said Jelesko a Fralin Life science Institute faculty member.
and more allergenic causing much more serious reactions that could send an increasing number of people to the doctor for prescription medications.
and requires an outpatient visit then we are talking about a public health concern that is very real said Kasson.
what he suspected was a fungus causing disease in the plants. The team discovered that the fungus was growing on all the plants that died
and chlorophyll loss on the seedlings just by placing it at the junction of the main stem and root collar of the plant at three weeks post-inoculation.
At seven weeks post-inoculation all but one of the plants had died. Though herbicides are available to kill poison ivy Jelesko
This type of approach using native pathogens to control noxious and invasive plants is gaining more much deserved recognition.
After Kasson successfully isolated the fungus in pure culture from infected plants a DNA analysis revealed that the fungus--Colletotrichum fioriniae--is also widely known as an insect pathogen that kills an invasive bug that infests
In all of the natural world only humans are allergic to poison ivy and its itch-inducing oil urushiol.
Humans appear to be uniquely allergic to urushiol said Jelesko. Goats eat it deer eat it
If you thought genetically modified potatoes could avert late blight disease spare a million countrymen from starvation
The other 400-plus pondered generic plant disease with no mention of specific crops or historic famines.
Stories of The irish Potato Famine were no more likely to boost support for disease-resistant genetically modified crops than were our generic crop-disease descriptions said Katherine A. Mccomas professor and chair of Cornell's Department of Communication
and Joseph Steinhardt (Cornell) Mccomas will publish study results as Factors influencing U s. consumer support for genetic modification to prevent crop disease in the July 2014 journal Appetite--right about the time
'and/or that crop disease is controlled best with chemicals --if you suspect federal regulators care more about Big Ag's interests than your family's
thus the whole game is rigged--plaintive tales of historical famines won't change your mind about genetic modification for disease resistance Mccomas said.
cadmium-free cropswith news reports of toxic cadmium-tainted rice in China a new study describes a protein that transports metals in certain plants
In humans cadmium can damage internal organs and cause cancer. At the same time iron is an essential nutrient for plants and humans.
and fiberfrom antiseptic oils to the construction of didgeridoos the traditional Australian Aboriginal wind instrument the eucalyptus tree serves myriad purposes accounting for its status as one of the world's most widely planted hardwood trees.
These hydrocarbons serve as chemical self-defenses against pests as well as providing the familiar aromatic essential oils used in both medicinal cough drops and for industrial processes.
Favorably combined they determine the height of a tree which is one of our gauges for overall fitness.
The researchers introduced resistance genes against two different antibiotics into nuclear genomes of the tobacco species Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana glauca
and cultivated it on a growth medium containing both antibiotics so that only cells containing both resistance genes
Such a fitness advantage is known also from allopolyploid plants in nature and from the superior growth properties of allopolyploid crops.
in order to find propagation methods for tree species that are productive have a high resistance to water stress and
which hybrid trees could be a valuable commercial resource for the future owing to their capacity to withstand water stress and adverse climate conditions.
#Infant nutrition, development of type 1 diabetes: Is it possible to prevent the illness by splitting the proteins of cows milk?
Splitting the cow's milk proteins in a formula doesn't prevent the start-up of the disease process of type 1 diabetes in predisposed children shows a large international study.
However these results do not exclude the possibility that the early dietary modification may affect the latter phase in the disease process
and so prevent the actual illness. Previous studies have indicated that early exposure to complex foreign proteins such as cow's milk proteins increases the risk of type 1 diabetes in predisposed individuals.
Therefore In 2002 we embarked on a large-scale study on more than 2100 infants with a family member affected by type 1 diabetes
and with genetic disease susceptibility to find an answer to the question whether delaying the exposure to complex foreign proteins will decrease the risk of diabetes tells Professor Mikael Knip from the University of Helsinki the leader of the TRIGR Study.
After breastfeeding the babies were weaned either to a special formula where the cow's milk proteins were split into small peptides or to a conventional infant formula with the regular cow's milk proteins.
The first study endpoint was positivity for at least two diabetes-associated autoantibodies by the age of six years.
The results show that there was no difference in the appearance of autoantibodies between the two study groups.
However the disease process resulting in clinical diabetes has clearly two phases the first being the appearance of autoantibodies and the other the progression from autoantibody positivity to clinical disease.
and leaves instead of aquatic food chain sources said Dr Andrew Tanentzap from Cambridge's Department of Plant sciences
This leaves them susceptible to poor health and predators as they won't be as strong so less likely to go on to breed and repopulate.
and other tobacco products--and the Public health Minister announced that she hoped to publish draft regulations for consultation before the end of April.
Smoking-related disease remains the number one cause of preventable deaths in the UK killing more than 100000 people every year they write.
therefore a necessary and logical step to protect public health and particularly the health of children at risk of becoming smokers they say.
They point to an independent review that found good evidence to support plain packaging and also rejected misleading tobacco industry opposition.
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Estimated risk of breast cancer increases as red meat intake increases, study suggestsso far studies have suggested no significant association between red meat intake and breast cancer.
and later and many lines of evidence suggest that some exposures potentially including dietary factors may have greater effects on the development of breast cancer during early adulthood.
So a team of US researchers investigated the association between dietary protein sources in early adulthood and risk of breast cancer.
They analyzed data from 88803 premenopausal women (aged 26 to 45) taking part in the Nurses'Health Study II who completed a questionnaire on diet in 1991.
Factors such as age height weight race family history of breast cancer history of benign breast disease smoking menopausal status hormone
and oral contraceptive use were taken into account. Adolescent food intake was measured also and included foods that were eaten commonly from 1960 to 1980
Medical records identified 2830 cases of breast cancer during 20 years of follow-up. Putting these real life data into a statistical model allowed the researchers to estimate breast cancer risks for women with different diets.
They estimated that for each step-by-step increase in the women's consumption of red meat there was a step-by-step increase in the risk of getting breast cancer over the 20 year study period.
Specifically the statistical model worked out the number of cases of breast cancer during the total years of follow up for all the women in the study (rate/person years.
For example the model estimated that there would be 493 cases of breast cancer over 306298 person years among women with the lowest intake of red meat.
This compared with 553 cases per 31169 person years among women with the highest intake.
This translated to an estimate that higher intake of red meat was associated with a 22%increased risk of breast cancer overall.
Each additional serving per day of red meat was associated with a 13%increase in risk of breast cancer (12%in premenopausal and 8%in postmenopausal women.
In contrast estimates showed a lower risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with higher consumption of poultry.
Substituting one serving per day of poultry for one serving per day of red meat--in the statistical model--was associated with a 17%lower risk of breast cancer overall and a 24%lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.
Furthermore substituting one serving per day of combined legumes nuts poultry and fish for one serving per day of red meat was associated with a 14%lower risk of breast cancer overall and premenopausal breast cancer.
The authors conclude that higher red meat intake in early adulthood may be a risk factor for breast cancer
and replacing red meat with a combination of legumes poultry nuts and fish may reduce the risk of breast cancer.
and risk of breast cancer is needed they add. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
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