Consumer Motives for Choosing Fruit and Cereal Bars-Differences Due to Consumer Lifestyles, Attitudes toward the Product, and Expectations.

Fruit and cereal bars are the response to the changing needs of consumers seeking health-promoting and convenient products. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) method, with 1034 respondents consuming products of this kind. The aims of the study were (1) to identify consumer segments based on the importance they attached to the selected attributes of fruit and cereal bars and (2) to characterize the identified segments in terms of frequency and reasons for the consumption of fruit and cereal bars, views on their impact on health, and consumer behavior related to the selected lifestyle elements. Five distinct consumer clusters were identified. Involved and Health-oriented were more likely to consume bars, perceiving them as nutritious products, with a positive impact on health. Frugal and Visual consumed fruit and cereal bars the least frequently. They paid little attention to choosing healthier products in daily diet and physical activity. The Information seekers consumed bars to reduce stress and to improve their mood.

Perception of the Health Threats Related to the Consumption of Wild Animal Meat-Is Eating Game Risky?

Consumer interest in game meat has increased in recent years. Consumers appreciate its nutritional value but still have many concerns. Based on data from a quantitative study conducted in the group of 450 purposively selected Polish respondents declaring to consume the game meat, consumers were segmented concerning the perception of health risks associated with its consumption. Three separate clusters were identified using hierarchical cluster analysis: Indifferent (42%), Fearful (30%), and Selective (28%). The clusters differed significantly in the perception of the role of game in their lives and taking actions to mitigate the health risks associated with its consumption. In addition, their socioeconomic profiles were significantly different. The Indifferent segment-significantly more often than the other segments-believes that game has a positive impact on health, and the way to counteract the health risks is to not eat raw meat. The Selective segment attaches great importance to the choice of consumption place as a warranty of access to safe meat. The Fearful segment is willing to pay more for good quality meat and search for information. The results proved that the game consumers are not a homogenous group. Recognizing the differences can indicate a path for the traders to efficiently meet the consumers' expectations and needs.

Game Meat Consumption-Conscious Choice or Just a Game?

Game meat is constantly present on the European meat market, but a limited number of consumers are interested in its consumption. Considering the unique features of wild animal meat, we should explore what pushes consumers to include it in their diet. To identify the motives determining the choice of game meat, a quantitative survey based on the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method was conducted among 450 participants. The statistical analysis based on the logistic regression model allowed us to assess the significance of emotional motives leading to game eating and to investigate the importance of the rational motives related to the quality attributes of game for consumers. It was shown that rational motives influence the consumers' choice more than emotional factors, while the most important motives are connected with healthcare issues. Consumers, for whom the crucial attributes of quality are taste, nutritional value, and low fat content, constitute a group that might more often include game in their diet in the future. Among the emotional motives, the familiarity, described as a feeling of knowing the product, also has a statistically significant impact on the consumers' choice. The results obtained may be useful for academic theoreticians and market experts as well.

Fauna europaea: helminths (animal parasitic).

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. Helminths parasitic in animals represent a large assemblage of worms, representing three phyla, with more than 200 families and almost 4,000 species of parasites from all major vertebrate and many invertebrate groups. A general introduction is given for each of the major groups of parasitic worms, i.e. the Acanthocephala, Monogenea, Trematoda (Aspidogastrea and Digenea), Cestoda and Nematoda. Basic information for each group includes its size, host-range, distribution, morphological features, life-cycle, classification, identification and recent key-works. Tabulations include a complete list of families dealt with, the number of species in each and the name of the specialist responsible for data acquisition, a list of additional specialists who helped with particular groups, and a list of higher taxa dealt with down to the family level. A compilation of useful references is appended.

Alien species of parasites--some questions concerning terminology.

The article deals with some terms proposed by the proper institutions of the Council of Europe for describing the phenomenon of invasion of living organisms into new habitats. As these terms were elaborated mainly from the point of view of free leaving creatures, the goal of the authors was to discuss the possibility to adapt them for parasites species. Several propositions of resolving some difficulties have been presented'.

The Polish collection of parasitic helminths (a report on realization of works concerning fusion of parasitic collections dispersed among different scientific institutions).

The paper presents the results of works on preparation of a proper museum collection of parasitic helminths gathered by the Polish scientists and dispersed in various scientific institutions. The collection composed of 11 author's collections and a special collection of available typical series of species described by the Polish authors has been deposited in the Museum of Natural History of Wroclaw University. It includes almost 16.000 slides with 90 taxons of Monogenea, 251 Trematoda, 144 Cestoda, 43 Nematoda, 11 Acanthocephala, in total 486 nominal species and 53 taxons of genus level. Among them 12 species appear new for fauna of Poland; for 57 species new hosts in Polish territory have been recorded; two new species of Cestoda have been described in separate publications. A special paragraph contains a checklist of all species described by the Polish scientists with information whether they are available in any other collection. Detailed information about every deposited slide is given in the Database available online at http://www.helminths.eu .

New trends in research on parasite host specificity: a survey of current parasitological literature.

The main goal of this article is to attract attention of junior scientists interested in evolutionary and ecological parasitology, to some very interesting articles dealing with the methodology of such investigations. The authors review some problems related to terminology used in the studies of host-parasite relationships and then recapitulate the subjects of five articles, in which new indices of the range and characters of hosts specificity are proposed. These are: the article of Caira et al. (2003), Poulin et Mouillot (2003, 2005), Krasnov et al. (2011) and Poulin et al. (2011).

Morphology, development and probable systematic position of Cercariaeum crassum Wesenberg-Lund, 1934 (Digenea), a parasite of Pisidium amnicum in eastern Finland.

Cercariaeum crassum Wesenberg-Lund, 1934 is redescribed at the cercariaeum stage and the daughter-rediae and cercaria are also described on the basis of new material from Pisidium amnicum collected in the Liikasepuro River (eastern Finland). The species is allocated to the family Allocreadiidae, although its generic affiliation remains unknown. The probable life-cycle (based on the developmental stages observed in daughter-redia) appears to eliminate the cercarial stage and, instead, a cercariaeum (a type of cercaria without a tail) may develop directly from germ balls or, rarely, through the stages of an ophthalmoxiphidiocercaria that transforms into a young caudate cercariaeum. Their morphology and development are shown to be consistent with the family Allocreadiidae. The probable lack of a second intermediate host in the life-cycle is discussed.

[Is the parasite fauna of Poland well recognized?]. / Czy fauna pasozytnicza Polski jest dobrze poznana?

The studies of parasite fauna have in Poland a long tradition. Generally the helmint fauna of all groups of vertebrates was more or less examined and as much as over 100 species of Monogenea, almost 400 Digenea, over 250 Cestoda, about 500 Nematoda and 32 Acanthocephala have been recorded. The best recognized are the helminths of fish (especially those of Cyprinidae, Esocidae, Percidae and Salmonidae), frogs examined in various regions of Poland, some birds (especially connected with water environment: Anseriformes, Ciconiformes, Podicipediformes), most of insectivores (although examined only in few localities), European bisons, deers, foxes and wild boars (all under permanent monitoring), as well as domestic animals (cattle, horses, sheeps) and pets. Such groups like some amphibians, reptiles, bats, carniwores, some birds (especially Passeriformes, Charadriiformes, falcons and eagles) need further exploration, as some host species were not the subject of parasitological investigation. In some cases it will be rather difficult goal, as most of these animals are under strict preservation, and only dead (naturally or accidentally) specimens can be autopsied.

[Faunistics--the science of XIX or XXI age?]. / Faunistyka--nauka dziewietnastego czy dwudziestego pierwszego stulecia?

Rapid development of modern research techniques which has exploded in the second half of 20th century supressed interest in faunistic research. On the other hand the negative impact of human activity on the biosphere caused the need of intensification of the biodiversity studies. Several international and regional programs were founded to gather data about all species living in Europe and other continents. They also emphasize the importance of the faunistic researches that comprise studies on nature of parasite fauna (description of species, their morphology, variability, life cycles). Since faunistics and systematics are regain their weight, they are becoming the important area of twenty first century research.