#European springtime temperature benefits Alpine ibex vitalitya study published December 16th 2013 in the journal Ecology Letters provides new evidence for the dependency of local trophic interactions
#Legislation to provide allergy medication in schools crucial to save livesan act recently signed by President Obama will make it easier to provide epinephrine to children with severe food allergies in schools even without a prescription.
since up to 6 percent of children in the United states are diagnosed now with a food allergy.
Allergic reactions to food and other potential life threatening allergic reactions can be fatal unless epinephrine is injected into the child immediately.
if your child has a severe allergy. The number of children treated for anaphylactic shock at Nationwide Children's Emergency Department has been on the rise
Previous testing confirmed he was allergic to dairy egg peanuts and tree nuts but Liam drank soy milk for months before his anaphylactic reaction.
or more students with a food allergy and about 25 percent of life-threatening food allergy reactions reported at schools occurred in children with no prior history of food allergies.
Epinephrine in schools should not replace your family's own individualized allergy treatment plan that you make with your allergist
or for those with known food allergies who for whatever reason do not have self-injectable epinephrine immediately available.
When a child has a severe allergic reaction seconds are crucial because timely administration of epinephrine is the single most important way to save lives
At a time when some EU member states (including Ireland) are reporting a 12-fold increase in the prevalence of liver fluke infection over recent years it is crucial to find innovative new ways to maintain animal health
Whether from cows goats or sheep raw milk and milk products are a continuing source of bacterial infections that are especially dangerous to pregnant women fetuses the elderly young children
and milk products said Maldonado an infectious disease expert who also is a pediatrician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
But relative to the amount of raw-milk products on the market we do see a disproportionately large number of diseases and illnesses from raw milk.
From 1998 through 2009 there were 93 recorded outbreaks of disease resulting from consumption of raw milk or raw-milk products causing 1837 illnesses 195 hospitalizations and two deaths.
Most of those illnesses were caused by contamination of the product with E coli or with species of Salmonella or Campylobacter.
Infections by such bacteria can cause diarrhea fever cramps nausea and vomiting. Some infections can become systemic.
A 2011 survey by the National Association of State departments of Agriculture determined that raw milk and raw-milk products were legal to sell in 30 states
It was not uncommon for children to contract tuberculosis from milk. Some advocates of raw-milk consumption argue that cows are healthier now than in the pre-pasteurization era
but Maldonado said that even in healthy herds there are other organisms that can cause serious bacterial infections in children and pregnant women.
or pregnant women they can cause severe illness. The academy's policy statement endorses a nationwide ban on the sale of raw
In addition to many species of bacteria the list includes giardia rabies and norovirus. According to the U S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United states causing 19-21 million illnesses
and contributing to 56000-71000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths annually. We invented pasteurization to prevent these horrible diseases Maldonado said.
It can also cause excessive bleeding and affect the immune system. Alvarez said studies have assessed the amount of methane generated by spills
#Study documents secondhand exposure to nicotine from electronic cigaretteselectronic cigarettes when used indoors may involuntarily expose non-users to nicotine according to a study led by Maciej Goniewicz Phd Pharmd of Roswell Park Cancer
The above story is provided based on materials by Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Testosterone levels are highly reactive to environmental factors including pathogens parasites and food scarcity. If you get sick at all you see a decrease in testosterone said Trumble.
The Tsimane experience higher exposure to parasites and pathogens and less food security thus they face a tradeoff between investing energy to maintain good immune function
The consumption of more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids is a well-known risk factor for a variety of health problems including cardiovascular disease cancer excessive inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
and seed size and production defense against pests and pathogens and response to abiotic stresses such as drought and ozone Pandey said.
Research and Infection Biology and the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Jena have taken now a closer look at the plant-nematode interactions in the context of resistance versus susceptibility.
The concentration of the most active compound anigorufone however was much higher in the immediate vicinity of lesions on the roots of resistant bananas in comparison to infected root tissues of the nematode susceptible banana plants.
By using imaging techniques the researchers were able to visualize the plant toxin within the body of the roundworm.
Kiri Daust's research on plant disease started the same way many biologists'projects start: with a walk in the woods.
Daust photographed the leaves of plants with different levels of infection and checked back on the plants as the season progressed.
He found that plants with higher levels of infection produced berries that were infected undeveloped and had less sugar than uninfected plants'berries.
#Can celebrity cancer diagnoses prompt quitting smoking? Millions of people will make a resolution to quit smoking around Jan 1
celebrity cancer diagnoses. In a study published this week in Preventive medicine researchers from San diego State university the Santa fe Institute the University of North carolina
when celebrities publicly discuss their struggles with cancer diagnoses the resulting media coverage prompts more smokers to search for information on quitting than events like New year's day or World No Tobacco Day.
Public health experts have known long these discussions spur others to get screened for cancer or consider the same treatments
whether these discussions also promoted cancer prevention behaviors like quitting smoking. This question has evaded study
because the method most commonly used to assess cancer-related behaviors--annual telephone surveys--isn't fine-grained enough to tell researchers which events are influencing respondents'answers.
Using the case of former Brazilian President Lula da Silva who was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in October 2011
and attributed his cancer to his long-held smoking habit the researchers analyzed both media coverage of smoking cessation
Lula's announced cancer diagnosis though tragic was potentially the greatest smoking cessation-promoting event in Brazilian history Ayers said.
Not only will quitting prevent throat cancer but it can prevent nearly all cancers including lung stomach breast etc.
The benefits don't end there. Following Lula's diagnosis Brazilian legislators passed a number of new laws strengthening anti-tobacco measures in the country making Brazil the largest smoke-free nation in the world said Joanna E
This study is the first to demonstrate that celebrity diagnoses can prompt the public to engage in behaviors that prevent cancer said Seth M. Noar coauthor and health communication professor at the University of North carolina at Chapel hill.
when the public is more receptive to messages about cancer than is ordinarily the case.
and cancer prevention advocates should better leverage these opportunities to promote behaviors that will prevent all future cancers.
Primates are seen as the worst plague and the animals that are the most destructive. Olive baboons vervets and other primates are the main culprits.
#Tuberculosis in Zambia: spread, control of infectionin Zambia the incidence of all forms of human tuberculosis is estimated to be 444 per 100000.
There is also a high incidence of HIV and AIDS in the country. In the Kafue area a high incidence of Mycobacterium bovis in both cattle and the Kafue lechwe antilope has been detected.
This bacterium can infect humans and has been found in humans in the studied region of Namwala.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the main cause of human tuberculosis has also been detected in cattle in this region.
Human tuberculosis is caused by bacteria belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Sidney Malama's doctoral research shows that Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the most prevalent tuberculosis bacterium in humans also occurs in cattle in Namwala.
In other words this bacterium is zoonotic. Malama has detected a large degree of genetic variation amongst M. tuberculosis in humans in this area of Zambia
and has also found that M. tuberculosis bacteria isolated from humans and cattle respectively are related.
The fact that this bacterium is found in cattle means that these animals can be a reservoir for human tuberculosis
and that humans can become infected with both M. bovis and M. tuberculosis by drinking unpasteurised milk
and eating meat that has not been tested properly. Malama used a standard 15 MIRU-VNTR loci-method for the genotyping of M. tuberculosis
when he studied the epidemiology of M. tuberculosis in the Namwala district. However this method has drawbacks
when it comes to studying M. bovis in this area because some loci recommended by the European Reference Laboratory (EURL) for M. bovis are not suitable for genotyping the bacterium in Zambia.
Sidney Malama's research shows that cross infection of both M. tuberculosis and M. bovis occurs between humans and animals in this region.
Finds of similar genotypes of M. tuberculosis in humans and cattle and of M. bovis in humans cattle and Kafue lechwe in Namwala indicate that the same tuberculosis bacteria are circulating between humans and animals.
Health authorities wildlife managers and cattle owners must work together to stop zoonotic tuberculosis in Namwala and the bordering areas in Kafue.
M. bovis has also been isolated from humans only suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs and this may suggest that the bacterium is transmitted between people and not just between cattle and humans.
Malama comes to the conclusion that zoonotic tuberculosis is a considerable threat to public health in Zambia
and that a One Health approach adapted to local needs is required in order to control the spread of infection in the area.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Perfect storm needed for salmonella to spread in postharvest tomatoesuniversity of Florida researchers have gained new insight into produce-associated salmonella that they hope will eventually reduce the number and severity of the illness-causing outbreaks.
Tomato variety and weather can combine to make what the researchers call a perfect storm for salmonella to proliferate in harvested tomatoes a new study shows.
During the past decade fruits and vegetables have been among the foods most often linked to gastroenteritis outbreaks caused by E coli
Those outbreaks resulted in public illness and multimillion-dollar losses for the food-crop industry. Since 2006 at least 16 salmonella outbreaks have been linked to tomatoes cantaloupes sprouts cucumbers mangoes peanut butter
or E coli and the contamination becomes a problem only when it contaminates other food or is consumed raw.
Gastrointestinal illnesses caused by pathogens such as E coli and salmonella pathogens have been sporadic with scientists struggling to pinpoint exact causes
and their random nature argues for a perfect storm scenario the study said. It is now clear that salmonella
and other human pathogens can contaminate produce at any stage of the production cycle from farm to fork the UF/IFAS study said.
and crop and pathogen genotypes affect salmonella's ability to multiply in the fruit. They grew three types of tomatoes--Bonny Best Florida-47 and Solar Fire during three production seasons over two years in Live oak and Citra.
Bonny Best is an heirloom variety often used as a control variety in plant pathogen experiments he said.
Salmonella infection ranks among the most common foodborne illnesses often spread by raw or undercooked meat poultry or eggs but sometimes results from eating contaminated produce.
Symptoms can include abdominal pain fever nausea and vomiting. In 2008 federal health officials erroneously blamed a salmonella outbreak on domestically grown tomatoes
This parasite causes intestinal infections in the European and native bumblebee species in South america. It modifies the behaviour of the workers increases their mortality rate
When Chikwati began work on his Phd it was well known that the commonest and cheapest soya products result in enteritis in salmon.
Chikwati set out to find out more about the mechanisms causing the effects that raw materials from legumes have on the functioning of the intestines and about what role some of the anti-nutritional agents play in causing enteritis.
But after five days enteritis could clearly be seen in the microscope. At the same time activity involving enzymes from the pancreas in the rear intestine increased perhaps
It also throws light on how diet-induced enteritis develops and how specific anti-nutritional substances affect the functioning and health of the intestines.
and endoparasitic infection rates between northern Bahamian rock iguanas inhabiting tourist-visited islands and those living on non-tourist-visited islands.
Among both males and females from tourist areas there was a 100%endoparasitic infection rate. Tourist-fed iguanas also displayed atypical loose faeces.
An overabundance of grapes in those iguanas'diets could also explain the excessive diarrhea observed during the study.
In addition to causing direct injury to the plant feeding can also provide the opportunity for infection by rot-inducing bacteria and fungi.
#Culling vampire bats to stem rabies in Latin america can backfireculling vampire bat colonies to stem the transmission of rabies in Latin america does little to slow the spread of the virus
Now the same team has combined the field findings with new computer models of rabies transmission and data from infection studies using captive vampire bats to show that culling has minimal effect on containing the virus
and can in some cases actually increase its spread by driving infected bats into neighboring colonies.
The team's new paper scheduled for online publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Dec 2 also establishes that rabies is usually not lethal among vampire bats.
In the paper last year we demonstrated that bat colony size wasn't a predictor of rabies prevalence
Developing effective control strategies for vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus in Latin america requires an understanding of the mechanisms that have allowed the highly virulent pathogen to persist
and colleagues created four mathematical models of rabies transmission each representing an alternative hypothesis for the biology of rabies infection.
Then they tested the models against data from the University of Georgia-led field study of rabies exposures in wild vampire bat colonies across Peru.
That study tracked rabies exposures in individually marked Desmodus rotundus vampire bats from 17 colonies in four regions of Peru between 2007 and 2010 and yielded the most complete dataset on rabies exposure patterns ever collected for any bat
or disturbance-mediated dispersal culling could perversely have the opposite of the intended effect on rabies transmission.
Rohani and colleagues say that such a phenomenon has recently been observed in controlled badger culls in the United kingdom where disruption of badger social dynamics and subsequent dispersal led to increased tuberculosis transmission in cattle at neighboring sites.
and sustain the virus. The probability of a vampire bat developing a lethal infection upon exposure to rabies is around 10 percent much lower than the 50-to-90 percent mortality rate seen in previous experimental challenges studies that involved inoculating vampire bats with rabies virus
according to the researchers In Latin america coordinated efforts to eliminate human rabies transmitted by dogs began in 1983 and led to a roughly 90 percent reduction in human and canine rabies according to the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since 2000 vampire bats have been the leading cause of human rabies there especially in remote areas of the Amazon region in Peru Ecuador and Brazil according to the CDC.
Continued growth of the livestock industry likely exacerbates rabies outbreaks in the region by providing an almost unlimited food source for the blood-feeding bats fueling population growth and range expansion.
They use razor-sharp upper incisors to create small wounds. An enzyme in the saliva prevents clotting as the bat feeds
Worldwide more than 55000 people die of rabies each year according to the World health organization. More than 95 percent of the human deaths occur in Asia
and Africa and dogs are the source of infection in nearly all of those deaths according to THE WHO. Story Source:
Oilseed rape is prone to phoma stem canker also known as blackleg disease caused by two Leptosphaeria species. The more damaging pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans (L. maculans) has been spreading globally in oilseed rape crops over the last thirty years causing widespread losses
This put China the world's biggest producer of rapeseed at risk of this highly infectious crop pathogen.
The researchers modelled the potential spread of the destructive L. maculans pathogen across the oilseed rape crops in China--with predicted rates of spread of up to seventy kilometers per year
There is a pressing need to decrease the amounts of crop debris a potent source of pathogen inoculum in seed imports.
And a number of the recommendations about preventing severe epidemics of phoma stem canker have already been taken up.
Short term strategies for the Chinese government include training farmers to recognise the symptoms of the disease to import oilseed rape through Chinese ports in regions where little oilseed rape is grown to test for the pathogen on imported seed
Relevance in the timber industry and cancer researchpodocarpaceae constitute the second-largest conifer family. They grow mainly in mountainous regions in the Southern hemisphere.
Certain substances in their leaves moreover are playing an increasingly important role in cancer research.
For the first time we have used human stem cells derived from Parkinson's disease patients to show that a genetic mutation combined with exposure to pesticides creates a'double hit'scenario producing free radicals in neurons that disable specific molecular pathways that cause nerve-cell death
Until now the link between pesticides and Parkinson's disease was based mainly on animal studies and epidemiological research that demonstrated an increased risk of disease among farmers rural populations
Research and professor of biology at the Massachusetts institute of technology (MIT) used skin cells from Parkinson's patients that had a mutation in the gene encoding a protein called alpha-synuclein.
Alpha-synuclein is the primary protein found in Lewy bodies--protein clumps that are the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease.
Next they reprogrammed all of these cells to become the specific type of nerve cell that is damaged in Parkinson's disease called A9 dopamine-containing neurons
Since several FDA-approved drugs contain derivatives of isoxazole our findings may have potential clinical implications for repurposing these drugs to treat Parkinson's.
and the environment interact to contribute to Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS.
Rhizophagus irregularis is the next in this linage to be released by the DOE JGI it follows the ectomycorrhizal fungal symbiont Laccaria the poplar rust pathogen Melampsora and dozens of bacterial genomes.
and Frank J. Chaloupka of theuniversity of Illinois at Chicago and Geoffrey T. Fong of the University of Waterloo and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Canada--assert that the model used by the FDA significantly underestimated the actual impact
since been inspired to use this powerful method of communicating the harms of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
These new research findings show clearly the value of graphic warnings for countries all over the world especially low-and middle-income countries where knowledge about the health harms and awareness of the addictiveness of cigarettes and other
and nonsmokers alike about the harms of tobacco is a sensible and proven method for increasing knowledge changing attitudes motivating smokers to quit and discouraging youth from initiating smoking.
#Link between allergies, increased risk of blood cancers in womena team of scientists looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer have found a link between a history of airborne allergies--in particular to plants grass and trees
--with risk of blood cancers in women. Notably the study did not find the same association in men which suggests a possible gender-specific role in chronic stimulation of the immune system that may lead to the development of hematologic cancers.
The findings are published online ahead of the December print issue of the American Journal of Hematology.
To the best of our knowledge ours is the first study to suggest important gender differences in the association between allergies
and hematologic malignancies wrote first author Mazyar Shadman M d. M p h. a senior fellow in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center.
According to Shadman who led the research the immune system's potential role in cancer causation is a focus of intense scientific interest.
Increasing evidence indicates that dysregulation of the immune system such as you find in allergic and autoimmune disorders can affect survival of cells in developing tumors.
health history and cancer risk factors medication and supplement use and diet. Participants provided information on age race/ethnicity education smoking diet (fruit
and vegetable intake) and other lifestyle characteristics self-rated health medical history and family history of leukemia or lymphoma.
History of asthma and allergies was taken also including allergies to plants grasses or trees; mold or dust;
Of the 79300 VITAL participants who filled out the questionnaires more than 66000 individuals were selected after eliminating those who had a prior history of malignancies other than non-melanoma skin cancers and missing information on baseline cancer history.
Participants were followed for a median of eight years until they withdrew from the study moved away had a cancer diagnosis other than hematologic malignancy
or non-melanoma skin cancer or died. Incidence of hematologic malignancies and other cancers was identified via the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) cancer registry of western Washington.
Of the participants 681 developed a hematologic malignancy during the follow-up period. These participants were more likely to be male to have two
or more first-degree relatives with a family history of leukemia or lymphoma to be less active and rank their health status as low.
A history of allergies to airborne antigens was associated with a higher risk of hematologic malignancies.
The most statistically significant association was seen with allergies to plants grass and trees. Further the study looked at associations between the different subtypes of allergies
and hematologic malignancies and found that a history of allergies to plants grass and trees was associated significantly with mature B-cell neoplasms one of four major categories of lymphoma.
There was also an increased risk of plasma-cell neoplasms for participants who reported a history of allergies to cats dogs or other animals.
Plasma-cell neoplasms are conditions both cancerous and noncancerous in which the body makes too many plasma cells.
When stratified by gender the incidence of blood cancers in response to these allergens was increased in women but not in men.
The reason for this is as yet unknown. It is tempting to speculate that the additional effect of allergy may reach statistical significance in women because of their lower baseline risk for the development of hematologic malignancies compared to men the authors wrote.
However hormonal effects on the immune system and interactions with carcinogenesis may offer an alternative biological explanation that will require further mechanical studies in particular
if our findings are replicated in an independent study cohort. The data analysis took into account potential confounding factors such as sex race/ethnicity education history of smoking consumption of vegetables
and fruits level of exercise family history of leukemia/lymphoma and self-reported health status. Types of allergy medication participants used were controlled not for.
It's tough to eliminate allergy treatment as a confounder because just about everyone with allergies is on some medication.
But none of the allergy medications are known to cause cancer Shadman said. The authors cite the study's strengths as its large population size the comprehensive baseline data regarding cancer risk
and medical conditions its prospective design and its use of the SEER registry an award-winning cancer registry program based at Fred Hutch.
Meanwhile the authors acknowledge the study's limitations namely the reliance on self-reporting of allergies the limitation of soliciting answers about current allergies only and particularly the limited number of hematologic cancers for each subset of allergy types.
Given the limited number of cases within each subtype of hematologic cancer the risk estimates need to be interpreted with caution
#and the possibility of chance finding due to multiple testing should be recognized Shadman and colleagues wrote.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Preindustrial rise in greenhouse gases had natural and anthropogenic causesfor years scientists have argued intensely over
whether increases of potent methane gas concentrations in the atmosphere-from about 5000 years ago to the start of the industrial revolution-were triggered by natural causes or human activities.
A new study which will be published Friday in the journal Science suggests the increase in methane likely was caused by both.
Since coming out of the ice age some 10000 years ago summer solar insolation in the Northern hemisphere has been decreasing as a result of the Earth's changing orbit according to Edward Brook a paleoclimatologist in Oregon State's College of Earth Ocean
Theoretically methane levels should have decreased with the loss of solar insolation in the Northern hemisphere or at least remained stable instead of increasing said Brook a co-author on the Science article.
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