prevent certain diseasesscientists using sophisticated imaging techniques have observed a molecular protein folding process that may help medical researchers understand
and treat diseases such as Alzheimer's Lou Gehrig's and cancer. The study reported this month in the journal Cell verifies a process that scientists knew existed
but with a mechanism they had never been able to observe according to Dr. Hays Rye Texas A&m Agrilife Research biochemist.
This is a step in the direction of understanding how to modulate systems to prevent diseases like Alzheimer's.
Over the past 20 years he said researchers have linked that aggregation process pretty convincingly to the development of diseases--Alzheimer's disease Lou gehrig's disease Huntington's disease to name a few.
There's evidence that diabetes and cancer also are linked to protein folding disorders. One of the main roles for the molecular chaperones is preventing those protein misfolding events that lead to aggregation
and not letting a cell get poisoned by badly folded or aggregated proteins he said.
Rye's team focused on a key molecular chaperone--the HSP60. They're called HSP for'heat shock protein
when we need to like for a patient who has one of the protein folding diseases he said.
Rye collaborated on the research with Dong-Hua Chen and Wah Chiu at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Damian Madan and Zohn Lin at Princeton university Jeremy Weaver at Texas A&m
#Survey shows increase in resistance to drug therapies among bovine respiratory disease casesa survey of records of bovine respiratory disease cases at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory showed that drug resistance in one of the primary
pathogens that cause BRD Mannheimia haemolytica increased over a three-year period. We have been seeing an increase in the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria that cause pneumonia (also called BRD) in cattle said Brian Lubbers assistant professor in the diagnostic lab based at Kansas State university.
Many of these bacteria are resistant to not one but almost all of the antibiotics that we use to treat pneumonia in cattle.
BRD is one of the most important diseases of feedlot cattle particularly said Lubbers adding that the economic toll from the disease has been estimated to approach $1 billion annually in the United states alone
if one takes into account drug and labor costs decreased production and animal death losses.
Until now one of the aspects that has not been studied very well is linked the cost to antimicrobial resistance in BRD cases he said.
They found that over that period a high percentage of M. haemolytica bacteria recovered from cattle lungs were resistant to several of the drugs typically used to treat that pathogen.
however that no specimens were resistant to all six antimicrobial drugs. The study was funded internally by the diagnostic lab. Using resistance to three
or more antimicrobials as the definition of multi-drug resistance 63 percent of the bacteria would be classified as multidrug resistant in 2011 compared with 46 percent in 2010 and 42 percent in 2009.
Antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine has received a considerable amount of recognition as a potential factor leading to antimicrobial resistance in human medicine Lubbers said.
However the contribution of multidrug resistance to limited or failed therapy in veterinary patients has received much less attention.
Because there are a limited number of antimicrobial drugs that can be used for treatment of BRD pathogens Lubbers said multidrug resistance in those pathogens poses a severe threat to the livestock industry.
We (KSVDL) consider this type of information to be part of our active ongoing disease surveillance
and water quality especially with cattle grazing said lead author Leslie Roche a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis Department of Plant sciences.
There is no real evidence that we're creating hot spots of human health risk with livestock grazing in these areas.
Overall 83 percent of all sample sites and 95 percent of all water samples collected were below U s. Environmental protection agency benchmarks for human health.
However the U s. EPA states that E coli are better indicators of fecal contamination and provide the most accurate assessment of water quality conditions and human health risks.
The study also found that all nutrient concentrations were at or below background levels and no samples exceeded concentrations of ecological or human health concern.
The study was funded by the USDA Forest Service Region 5. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis. Note:
#Aerial mosquito spraying study finds no immediate public health risksin what researchers say is the first public health study of the aerial mosquito spraying method to prevent West Nile virus a UC Davis study analyzed emergency
department records from Sacramento area hospitals during and immediately after aerial sprayings in the summer of 2005.
Physicians and scientists from the university and from the California Department of public health found no increase in specific diagnoses that are considered most likely to be associated with pesticide exposure including respiratory gastrointestinal skin eye and neurological conditions.
The study appears in the May-June 2013 issue of Public health Reports. This week mosquito control officials said the region's recent rainstorms
The mosquito-borne disease first appeared in the state about 10 years ago. It already has been detected in dead birds
and the United states and the controversy of mosquito management will likely arise every summer said Estella Geraghty associate professor of clinical internal medicine at UC Davis
Findings from studies such as this one help public health and mosquito control agencies better understand the risks and benefits of their practices.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention West Nile virus is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in the United states. The virus is transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Most people exposed to the disease do not have symptoms but in about 1-in-150 people it can be fatal
or result in permanent neurological effects. The study evaluated emergency room visits in Sacramento County hospitals on days that pesticides were sprayed as well as the three days following spraying.
Spraying was done in north Sacramento over three nights and in south Sacramento over four nights in August 2005.
Emergency room visits were classified by specific diagnostic categories including respiratory gastrointestinal skin eye and neurologic diseases.
In fact a type of abdominal hernia was found to occur more often than the background rate during the time of spraying
and death and disease due to unusual causes was found to occur less frequently. The authors concluded that
and the killing of larval and adult mosquitoes#are used all in California to control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus
Exposure to the pesticide has been reported to pose risks to human health including skin and eye irritation respiratory and gastrointestinal disturbances lethargy fatigue and dizziness.
According to the UC Davis researchers the exposure to pyrethrin during the urban aerial sprayings in 2005 was minimal due to the use of ultra low volume technology.
Other authors are Peter Franks and Helene Margolis of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research Anne Kjemtrup of the California Department of public health William Reisen of the UC Davis School of veterinary medicine.
The study was supported in part by a UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center K12 Career Development Award (grant#UL1 RR024146) from the Nationalcenter for Research Resources of the National institutes of health to the lead
The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis Health System. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
stem rust pathogen--called Ug99--that was discovered first in Uganda in 1999. The discovery may help scientists develop new wheat varieties
and strategies that protect the world's food crops against the wheat stem rust pathogen that is spreading from Africa to the breadbaskets of Asia
It recognizes the invading pathogen and triggers a response in the plant to fight the disease.
Wheat stem rust is caused by a fungal pathogen. According to Akhunov since the 1950s wheat breeders have been able to develop wheat varieties that are largely resistant to this pathogen.
However the emergence of strain Ug99 in Uganda in 1999 devastated crops and has spread to Kenya Ethiopia Sudan
and Yemen though has yet to reach the U s. Until that point wheat breeders had two
or three genes that were so efficient against stem rust for decades that this disease wasn't the biggest concern Akhunov said.
However the discovery of the Ug99 race of pathogen showed that changes in the virulence of existing pathogen races can become a huge problem.
As a first line of defense wheat breeders and researchers began looking for resistance genes among those that had already been discovered in the existing germplasm repositories he said.
To identify the resistance gene Sr35 the team turned to einkorn wheat that is known to be resistant to the Ug99 fungal strain.
First they chemically mutagenized the resistant accession of wheat to identify plants that become susceptible to the stem rust pathogen.
This will help researchers to better understand the molecular mechanisms behind infection and develop new approaches for controlling this devastating pathogen.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Illegal marijuana grows threaten fishers in the southern Sierra Nevadarat poison used on illegal marijuana grows is killing fishers in the southern Sierra nevada according to a recent study conducted by a team of scientists from the U s. Forest Service's Pacific
The authors speculated that the most likely source of the poisons was the illegal marijuana grows found throughout the Sierra nevada.
This new study solidifies that link documenting that female fishers who live in areas with a higher number of marijuana sites had more exposure to rodenticides
The researchers deduced that illegal marijuana grows are a likely source of the poison because the fishers in this study were radio-tracked and many were observed not venturing into rural urban
Illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands is widespread and some growers apply large quantities of numerous pesticides to deter a wide range of animals and insects from encroaching on their crops.
and variety of poisons found at the illegal marijuana plots is a new threat. According to co-author PSW wildlife biologist Dr. Kathryn Purcell exposure of wildlife to pesticides has been documented widely
but this is a fundamentally different scenario. In marijuana cultivation sites regulations regarding proper use of pesticides are ignored completely
and multiple compounds are used to target any and all threats to the crop including compounds illegal in the U s. she says.
either directly consuming flavored rodenticides or by consuming prey that had ingested recently the poisons exposure may also predispose animals to dying from other causes.
Exposure to lower doses--or to combinations--of the poisons results in slower reflexes reduced ability to heal from injuries and neurological impairment.
In the vicinity of illegal marijuana sites numerous dead or dying insects and small mammals are often found.
In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
By increasing the number of animals that die from supposedly natural causes these pesticides may be tipping the balance of recovery for fishers says Dr. Craig Thompson a PSW wildlife ecologist and the study's lead author.
which may also be exposed to the poisons say the scientists. The full report can be found at http://treesearch. fs. fed. us/pubs/43761headquartered in Albany Calif. the Pacific Southwest Research Station develops
#Illegal marijuana grows threaten fishers in the southern Sierra Nevadarat poison used on illegal marijuana grows is killing fishers in the southern Sierra nevada according to a recent study conducted by a team of scientists from the U s. Forest Service's Pacific
The authors speculated that the most likely source of the poisons was the illegal marijuana grows found throughout the Sierra nevada.
This new study solidifies that link documenting that female fishers who live in areas with a higher number of marijuana sites had more exposure to rodenticides
The researchers deduced that illegal marijuana grows are a likely source of the poison because the fishers in this study were radio-tracked and many were observed not venturing into rural urban
Illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands is widespread and some growers apply large quantities of numerous pesticides to deter a wide range of animals and insects from encroaching on their crops.
and variety of poisons found at the illegal marijuana plots is a new threat. According to co-author PSW wildlife biologist Dr. Kathryn Purcell exposure of wildlife to pesticides has been documented widely
but this is a fundamentally different scenario. In marijuana cultivation sites regulations regarding proper use of pesticides are ignored completely
and multiple compounds are used to target any and all threats to the crop including compounds illegal in the U s. she says.
either directly consuming flavored rodenticides or by consuming prey that had ingested recently the poisons exposure may also predispose animals to dying from other causes.
Exposure to lower doses--or to combinations--of the poisons results in slower reflexes reduced ability to heal from injuries and neurological impairment.
In the vicinity of illegal marijuana sites numerous dead or dying insects and small mammals are often found.
In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
By increasing the number of animals that die from supposedly natural causes these pesticides may be tipping the balance of recovery for fishers says Dr. Craig Thompson a PSW wildlife ecologist and the study's lead author.
which may also be exposed to the poisons say the scientists. The full report can be found at http://treesearch. fs. fed. us/pubs/43761headquartered in Albany Calif. the Pacific Southwest Research Station develops
Chui-Hua Kong and colleagues point out that crabgrass is not only a headache for lawns and home gardens but also a major cause of crop loss on farms.
when one plant restricts the growth of another by releasing toxins. They set out to determine
The chemical-specific changes in the soil microbial community generated a negative feedback on crop growth the scientists said noting that the chemicals also would have a direct toxic effect on other plants.
I.).Yield losses the use of insecticides and corn hybrids engineered to express rootworm-killing toxins in their tissues cost U s. growers at least $1 billion a year.
Some of these sites (including Piper City Ill. are hot spots of rotation-resistance and others (in Nebraska and northwest Missouri for example) lack evidence of rotation-resistant rootworms.
To determine whether the microbes were in fact giving the rotation-resistant beetles an advantage the researchers dosed the beetles with antibiotics.
Low-level exposure to antibiotics had no effect on any of the beetles but at higher doses the rotation-resistant beetles'survival time on soybean leaves fell to that of the nonresistant beetles.
Antibiotics also lowered the activity of digestive enzymes in the rotation-resistant beetles'guts to that of their nonresistant counterparts.
Dr Jon Blount from Biosciences at the University of Exeter who led the research said:
Dr Kate Plummer lead author of the paper said: There could be a number of different explanations for our results.
#Factors that influence spinach contamination pre-harvest determineda team of researchers from Texas and Colorado has identified a variety of factors that influence the likelihood of E coli contamination of spinach on farms prior
Microbial contamination of produce seems strongly influenced by the time since the last irrigation the workers'personal hygiene and the field's use prior to planting of produce says first author Sangshin Park of Texas A&m University college Station.
These factors together with the role of weather in produce contamination should be the targets of future research efforts to design cost-effective strategies for control of produce contamination.
E coli contamination of spinach on farms in Colorado and Texas was 172 times more likely
As E coli is used commonly as an indicator of fecal contamination with food-borne pathogens the practice of hygiene--availability of portable toilets
Of particular note the researchers tested their statistical model for spinach contamination to determine how accurately it was able to pinpoint the level of contamination.
Their methodology may serve as a useful template for future investigations of contamination on farms he says.
Because produce is consumed commonly raw it would be best to prevent pre-harvest contamination by food-borne pathogens all together
Managing vegetables internal clocks postharvest could have health benefitsdoes your salad know what time it is?
and we found we could use light to coax them to make more cancer-fighting antioxidants at certain times of day.
I knew that some of those chemicals were known to be valuable metabolites for human health so
and could also yield health benefits. In the cabbage experiments Braam Goodspeed and Rice co-authors John Liu Zhengji Jim Sheng
It's exciting to think that we may be able to boost the health benefits of our produce simply by changing the way we store it Goodspeed said.
Chen Castner and Woroniecka were Brown undergraduatess who joined the project as Brown-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Scholars.
and phosphorus runoff and research shows these systems can also retain pesticides antibiotics and other agricultural pollutants.
or other living creatures explains Sabrina Llop from the Higher Public health Research Centre (CSISP) in Valencia the leading author of the paper.
and neurological effects as well as increasing the risk of childhood leukemia she continues. The results show that 54%of pregnant women used some kind of insecticide inside the home
because their detoxification mechanisms and immune systems are developed not fully Llop concludes. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Plataforma SINC.
Fine particulate air pollution has serious health effects including premature mortality pulmonary inflammation accelerated atherosclerosis and altered cardiac functions.
5 concentrations and associated values and impacts on human health. More than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas containing over 100 million acres of trees
Overall the greatest effect of trees on reducing health impacts of PM2. 5 occurred in New york due to its relatively large human population and the trees'moderately high removal rate and reduction in pollution concentration.
but the health implications and values are much higher. The total amount of PM2. 5 removed annually by trees varied from 4. 7 metric tons in Syracuse to 64.5 metric tons in Atlanta with annual values varying from $1. 1 million in Syracuse to $60
to estimate the incidence of adverse health effects such as mortality and morbidity and associated monetary value that result from changes in PM2. 5 concentrations.
#Dietary fructose causes liver damage in animal modelthe role of dietary fructose in the development of obesity and fatty liver diseases remains controversial with previous studies indicating that the problems resulted from fructose and a diet
However a new study conducted in an animal model at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center showed that fructose rapidly caused liver damage even without weight gain.
The study is published in the June 19 online edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Based on this study we would say not said Kylie Kavanagh D. V. M. assistant professor of pathology-comparative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist
They developed diabetes at three times the rate of the control group and also developed hepatic steatosis or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
and examined what type of bacteria was in the intestine through fecal samples and intestinal biopsies.
This could have clinical implications because most doctors and scientists have thought that it was the fat in
and around tissues in the body that caused the health problems. The Wake Forest Baptist team plans to begin a new study using the same controls but testing for both fructose and dextrose over a longer time frame.
The study was supported by Wake Forest School of medicine and grants RR019963 OD010965 and AG033641 from the National institutes of health.
Co-authors are Ashley Wylie and Kelly Tucker B. S. of Wake Forest Baptist; John Culler D. V. M. Ph d. of North carolina State university;
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#New canary seed is ideal for gluten-free diets in celiac diseasea new variety of canary seeds bred specifically for human consumption qualifies as a gluten-free cereal that would be ideal for people with celiac disease (CD) scientists
Nature conservationists call it lingering illness and the latest report on the North-Rhine Westphalian forest conditions confirms ongoing damage.
Our study reveals that so-called wax degradation on pine needles may develop from deposited particulate matter says Dr. JÃ rgen Burkhardt from the Institute of Crop science and Resource Conservation.
and 90s but sound explanations for both the degradation mechanism and the high correlation with forest damage have yet been missing Dr. Burkhardt reports.
This newly described mechanism was considered not in earlier explanations of Central European forest decline states Dr. Burkhardt.
Particularly because air concentrations of hygroscopic particles have increased largely within the last decades says Dr. Burkhardt.
We're discovering that predators are having important effects on shaping the make-up of ecosystems says Dr. Oswald Schmitz professor of ecology
Dr. Schmitz and his team created several controlled ecosystems: some that contained only native grasses and herbs others that had plants
These stress impacts then caused both the plants and the herbivores to change their behaviors and change the composition of their local environment.
It's going to force some thinking about the vital roles of animals in regulating carbon concludes Dr. Schmitz pointing to the fact that the UN's body of scientific experts who study climate change don't consider these multiplier effects in their models.
which can lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome. Results of the animal study will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San francisco. Found in plastic water bottles older baby bottles
Prior research has linked BPA in both animals and humans to obesity and the metabolic syndrome which is a cluster of metabolic risk factors that increase the chance of later developing diabetes heart disease and stroke.
This research is the first study to show that prenatal exposure to BPA increases postnatal fat tissue inflammation a condition that underlies the onset of metabolic diseases such as obesity diabetes
and cardiovascular disease said the study's lead author Almudena Veiga-Lopez DVM Phd a research investigator at the University of Michigan Ann arbor.
She said the study which examines the effects of BPA on sheep improves the understanding of how prenatal BPA exposure regulates the inflammatory response in offspring in the tissues that are relevant to development of metabolic disease.
The study was conducted in the laboratory of Vasantha Padmanabhan MS Phd Professor at the University of Michigan Ann arbor with funding from the National institutes of health's National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences.
Veiga-Lopez said sheep have similar body fat to that in humans including visceral (deep belly) fat and subcutaneous fat
These biomarkers were CD68 a marker for inflammatory cells and adiponectin a molecule with a known role in the development of metabolic syndrome.
what that impact may be says Dr. David Tarpy an associate professor of entomology at North carolina State university
The researchers then tracked the health of the colonies on an almost monthly basis over the course of 10 months
Co-authors of the study are Dr. Dennis vanengelsdorp of the University of Maryland and Dr. Jeffery Pettis of USDA.
and support from Roche Applied science's 10 Gigabase Grant Program to understand the unique roles of fungi and bacteria.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical center researchers conducted a study to evaluate the heat indexes in migrant farmworker housing
Lead author Sara A. Quandt Ph d. a professor of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest Baptist said the findings raise concerns about productivity and worker health.
We found that a majority of the workers are not getting much respite from the heat in the evening she said.
While we didn't measure direct health outcomes the research raises concern about worker's health related to dehydration and sleep quality
The study which appears online this month in the American Journal of Public health is part of an ongoing program of community-based participatory research at Wake Forest Baptist in conjunction with the N c. Farmworkers Project
and other clinics and organizations that serve farmworkers in the state. Quandt and colleagues have looked also at water quality housing conditions and occupational safety in migrant farm camps.
Quandt said it's also important to put the study into context regarding an increasing concern in the occupational health arena regarding global warming climate change.
what the health effects of global warming are going to be on workers and national productivity. There is historical data to show that temperatures in the southern United states have risen she said
and over the long term warmer temperatures are going to strain workers who do a lot of physical labor and affect their productivity.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant R01 ES012358. Co-authors include:
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length g
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