Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Clade 2.3.4.4b Virus Infection in Domestic Dairy Cattle and Cats, United States, 2024.

We report highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in dairy cattle and cats in Kansas and Texas, United States, which reflects the continued spread of clade 2.3.4.4b viruses that entered the country in late 2021. Infected cattle experienced nonspecific illness, reduced feed intake and rumination, and an abrupt drop in milk production, but fatal systemic influenza infection developed in domestic cats fed raw (unpasteurized) colostrum and milk from affected cows. Cow-to-cow transmission appears to have occurred because infections were observed in cattle on Michigan, Idaho, and Ohio farms where avian influenza virus-infected cows were transported. Although the US Food and Drug Administration has indicated the commercial milk supply remains safe, the detection of influenza virus in unpasteurized bovine milk is a concern because of potential cross-species transmission. Continued surveillance of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in domestic production animals is needed to prevent cross-species and mammal-to-mammal transmission.

Chemistry, manufacturing and exposure assessments to support generally recognized as safe (GRAS) determinations.

Identity, stability, purity, intended use levels in what foods and technical effects, and probable intake are among the key components in an assessment to support GRAS determinations. The specifications of identity of a food substance are an important component of the safety assessment as changes in the physical and chemical properties of a food substance can influence its technical effect in food and can influence its nutritional or toxicological properties of the food substance. Estimating exposure is a key determining step in the safety evaluation of a food substance. Intake assessment in GRAS determination is necessarily comprehensive based on cumulative exposure, i.e. proposed new uses plus background dietary exposure. Intake estimates for safety assurance in a GRAS determination also represent conservative overestimate of chronic exposure as they are based on 2-day average daily intake and the upper percentile (90th) intake among consumers. In contrast, in a nutrient assessment where realistic intake estimates are of interest, usual intake estimates are relied upon. It should also be noted that intake estimates for GRAS determinations are also more conservative than estimate of dietary exposure by EPA (FIFRA), where mean per capita are used to assess chronic exposure. Overall, for safety assurance, intake assessments in GRAS determinations are comprehensively cumulative and typically conservative overestimate of exposures.

Standardizing Zebrafish Behavioral Paradigms Across Life Stages: An Effort Towards Translational Pharmacology.

Zebrafish is a prominent vertebrate model, with many of its advantages related to its development, life cycle, and translational ability. While a great number of behavioral phenotypes and tasks to evaluate them are available, longitudinal studies across zebrafish life stages are scarce and made challenging because of the differences between protocols and endpoints assessed at each life stage. In this mini review, we highlight the relevance that longitudinal studies could have for neurobehavioral pharmacology using this model. We also present possible strategies to standardize behavior endpoints in domains related to human diseases throughout the life cycle, especially between larvae and adult fish. Furthermore, we discuss the remaining difficulties of these analyses and explore future advances needed to bridge this knowledge gap.

Physical exercise prevents behavioral alterations in a reserpine-treated zebrafish: A putative depression model.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has increasingly reached the world population with an expressive increase in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we used adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model to verify the effects of reserpine on behavior and neurotransmitter levels. We observed an increase in the immobile time and time spent in the bottom zone of the tank in reserpine-exposed animals. The results demonstrated a decrease in distance traveled and velocity. Reserpine exposure did not induce changes in memory and social interaction compared to the control group. We also evaluated the influence of exposure to fluoxetine, a well-known antidepressant, on the behavior of reserpine-exposed animals. We observed a reversal of behavioral alterations caused by reserpine. To verify whether behavioral alterations in the putative depression model induced by reserpine could be prevented, the animals were subjected to physical exercise for 6 weeks. The results showed a protective effect of the physical exercise against the behavioral changes caused by reserpine in zebrafish. In addition, we observed a reduction in dopamine and serotonin levels and an increase in the 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) levels in the brain. Physical exercise was able to prevent the changes in dopamine and serotonin levels, reinforcing that the preventive effect promoted by physical exercise is related to the modulation of neurotransmitter levels. Our findings showed that reserpine was effective in the induction of a putative depression model in zebrafish and that physical exercise may be an alternative to prevent the effects induced by reserpine.

Antibiotic drugs alter zebrafish behavior.

Antibiotics are widely used drugs in human and veterinary health as well as in the food industry. The majority of these compounds are, however, excreted unchanged and found as contaminants in water bodies. Although the toxicity of these drugs was previously studied in aquatic organisms, the behavioral effects of these pollutants have not been fully explored. Here we exposed adult zebrafish to environmentally relevant concentrations of different classes of antibiotics (Chlortetracycline, Ciprofloxacin, and Ceftazidime) and assessed zebrafish exploratory, cognitive, aggressive, and social behaviors. Ciprofloxacin, Chlortetracycline, and Ceftazidime exposure induced hyperlocomotion, which was characterized by an increase in the distance traveled in zebrafish. These antibiotics promoted cognitive decline and exacerbated aggressive behavior. In summary, this study shows that antibiotic contamination may impact zebrafish behavior in a short-time manner.

Effect of substitution of high stearic low linolenic acid soybean oil for hydrogenated soybean oil on fatty acid intake.

High stearic, low alpha-linolenic acid soybean oil (HSLL) has been developed via traditional breeding to serve as a substitute for partially hydrogenated soybean oils used in food manufacturing. The purpose of this study was to estimate the impact on fatty acid intake in the United States if HSLL were substituted for partially hydrogenated soybean oils used in several food categories, including baked goods, shortenings, fried foods, and margarines. Using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data (1999-2002), baseline intakes of five fatty acids and trans fatty acids (TFA) were determined at the mean and 90th percentile of fat consumption. Then intakes of these fatty acids were determined after HSLL was substituted for 100% of the partially hydrogenated soybean oils used in these four food categories. The results show that baseline intake of stearic acid is 3.0% energy at the mean and 3.3% energy at the 90th percentile. Use of HSLL could increase stearic acid intake to about 4-5% energy. Mean intakes of TFA could decrease from 2.5 to 0.9% energy, and intake of palmitic acid would remain unchanged. Use of HSLL as a substitute for partially hydrogenated soybean oils would result in changes in the fatty acid composition of the US diet consistent with current dietary recommendations.

Influence of Microgravity Environment on Root Growth, Soluble Sugars, and Starch Concentration of Sweetpotato Stem Cuttings.

Because sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] stem cuttings regenerate very easily and quickly, a study of their early growth and development in microgravity could be useful to an understanding of morphological changes that might occur under such conditions for crops that are propagated vegetatively. An experiment was conducted aboard a U.S. Space Shuttle to investigate the impact of microgravity on root growth, distribution of amyloplasts in the root cells, and on the concentration of soluble sugars and starch in the stems of sweetpotatoes. Twelve stem cuttings of 'Whatley/Loretan' sweetpotato (5 cm long) with three to four nodes were grown in each of two plant growth units filled with a nutrient agarose medium impregnated with a half-strength Hoagland solution. One plant growth unit was flown on Space Shuttle Colombia for 5 days, whereas the other remained on the ground as a control. The cuttings were received within 2 h postflight and, along with ground controls, processed in approximately 45 min. Adventitious roots were counted, measured, and fixed for electron microscopy and stems frozen for starch and sugar assays. Air samples were collected from the headspace of each plant growth unit for postflight determination of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and ethylene levels. All stem cuttings produced adventitious roots and growth was quite vigorous in both ground-based and flight samples and, except for a slight browning of some root tips in the flight samples, all stem cuttings appeared normal. The roots on the flight cuttings tended to grow in random directions. Also, stem cuttings grown in microgravity had more roots and greater total root length than ground-based controls. Amyloplasts in root cap cells of ground-based controls were evenly sedimented toward one end compared with a more random distribution in the flight samples. The concentration of soluble sugars, glucose, fructose, and sucrose and total starch concentration were all substantially greater in the stems of flight samples than those found in the ground-based samples. Carbon dioxide levels were 50% greater and oxygen marginally lower in the flight plants, whereas ethylene levels were similar and averaged less than 10 nL.L (-1). Despite the greater accumulation of carbohydrates in the stems, and greater root growth in the flight cuttings, overall results showed minimal differences in cell development between space flight and ground-based tissues. This suggests that the space flight environment did not adversely impact sweetpotato metabolism and that vegetative cuttings should be an acceptable approach for propagating sweetpotato plants for space applications.

Extraordinary virtual multidisciplinary team meetings - a novel forum for the coordinated care of patients with -complex conditions within a secondary care setting.

Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are increasingly regarded as best practice for the successful management of chronic disease. However, for patients with undiagnosed illnesses, multiple interacting comorbidities or other complex needs that fall outside the remit of disease-specific MDTs or the scope of expertise of individual clinicians, there is often no suitable forum at which to discuss their care to develop a coordinated plan for management. We developed and piloted a new forum for interspecialty discussion and collaboration, an extraordinary virtual MDT, to enable clinicians to arrange an urgent meeting of all involved parties in response to challenging clinical scenarios. Here, we share our experience of implementing this innovation and suggest how this novel forum for coordinated care could be further developed to improve the integration, timeliness and quality of healthcare delivery for patients with complex needs.

Effect of substitution of low linolenic acid soybean oil for hydrogenated soybean oil on fatty acid intake.

Low linolenic acid soybean oil (LLSO) has been developed as a substitute for hydrogenated soybean oil to reduce intake of trans FA while improving stability and functionality in processed foods. We assessed the dietary impact of substitution of LLSO for hydrogenated soybean oil (HSBO) used in several food categories. All substitutions were done using an assumption of 100% market penetration. The impact of this substitution on the intake of five FA and trans FA was assessed. Substitution of LLSO for current versions of HSBO resulted in a 45% decrease in intake of trans FA. Impacts on other FA intakes were within the realm of typical dietary intakes. No decrease in intake of alpha-linolenic acid was associated with the use of LLSO in place of HSBO because LLSO substitutes for HSBO that are already low in alpha-linolenic acid.

Exposure to acrylamide: placing exposure in context.

This paper attempts to assess possible risks that may result from human exposure to dietary intake of acrylamide.

Rapamycin suppresses PTZ-induced seizures at different developmental stages of zebrafish.

The mTORC1 complex integrates different inputs from intracellular and extracellular signals to control various cellular processes. Therefore, any disruption in the mTORC1 pathway could promote different neurological disorders. mTORC1 overactivation has been verified in different genetic and acquired epilepsy animal models. Therefore, inhibitors of this complex could have both antiepileptogenic and antiseizure effects. In our study, we investigated the effects of rapamycin pretreatment on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures in zebrafish. Our results have shown that the latency to reach the tonic-clonic stage (stage III) of progressive behavioral alterations shown during PTZ-induced seizures was prolonged in larval (7days post fertilization, 7dpf), juvenile (45days post fertilization, 45dpf) and adult (6-8months) zebrafish after pretreatment with rapamycin. Furthermore, rapamycin pretreatment did not alter the locomotor activity in zebrafish. Therefore, the results obtained in our study indicate that rapamycin pretreatment is an important mechanism to control the progress of seizures in zebrafish throughout different developmental stages (larval, juvenile, and adult). Taken as a whole, our data support that rapamycin has immediate antiseizure effects and could be a potential alternative therapy for seizure control in epilepsy.

Methodological aspects related to aggregate and cumulative exposures to contaminants with common mechanisms of toxicity.

Consumers can be simultaneously exposed to more than one substance having a similar mechanism of toxicity. In those cases the total exposure should be computed (cumulative exposure). Computing aggregate and cumulative exposure requires the introduction of data about when the exposures occur and how much occurs simultaneously or within a given time frame for each substance. For example, in evaluating food exposures, ideally residues of all substances of interest will be measured in the same sample of food. Estimates of the decline in residues will be useful in circumstances where exposures do not begin and end at the same time. Typically, 'worst case' assumptions and models are too blunt to provide useful information about cumulative exposures. Therefore, data and algorithms that allow more realistic (if still conservative) assessment of aggregate and cumulative exposures are required. Several approaches, including Monte Carlo assessment methods are presented along with an evaluation of the strengths and limitations of each using a case study to illustrate the methodology and the data requirements. Understanding the major contributors to the estimated exposures is complicated and available tools and techniques will be demonstrated.

Food consumption data in microbiological risk assessment.

The 1st International Conference on Microbiological Risk Assessment: Foodborne Hazards was held in July 2002. One of the goals of that conference was to evaluate the current status and future needs and directions of the science of microbial risk assessment. This article is based in part on a talk presented at that meeting. Here, we review the types of food consumption data available for use in microbial risk assessments and address their strengths and limitations. Consumption data available range from total population summary data derived from food production statistics to detailed information, derived from national food consumption surveys, about the types and amounts of food consumed at the individual level. Although population summary data are available for most countries, detailed data are available for a limited number of countries and may only be available in summary format. Despite the relatively large amount of detailed information collected by these national surveys, information crucial to microbial risk assessments, such as the specific types of foods, the eating patterns of susceptible populations, or an individual's propensity for consuming high-risk foods (e.g., eating undercooked hamburgers, raw shellfish, or temperature-abused foods), are not collected during these surveys.

Pesticide residues in food--acute dietary exposure.

Consumer risk assessment is a crucial step in the regulatory approval of pesticide use on food crops. Recently, an additional hurdle has been added to the formal consumer risk assessment process with the introduction of short-term intake or exposure assessment and a comparable short-term toxicity reference, the acute reference dose. Exposure to residues during one meal or over one day is important for short-term or acute intake. Exposure in the short term can be substantially higher than average because the consumption of a food on a single occasion can be very large compared with typical long-term or mean consumption and the food may have a much larger residue than average. Furthermore, the residue level in a single unit of a fruit or vegetable may be higher by a factor (defined as the variability factor, which we have shown to be typically x3 for the 97.5th percentile unit) than the average residue in the lot. Available marketplace data and supervised residue trial data are examined in an investigation of the variability of residues in units of fruit and vegetables. A method is described for estimating the 97.5th percentile value from sets of unit residue data. Variability appears to be generally independent of the pesticide, the crop, crop unit size and the residue level. The deposition of pesticide on the individual unit during application is probably the most significant factor. The diets used in the calculations ideally come from individual and household surveys with enough consumers of each specific food to determine large portion sizes. The diets should distinguish the different forms of a food consumed, eg canned, frozen or fresh, because the residue levels associated with the different forms may be quite different. Dietary intakes may be calculated by a deterministic method or a probabilistic method. In the deterministic method the intake is estimated with the assumptions of large portion consumption of a 'high residue' food (high residue in the sense that the pesticide was used at the highest recommended label rate, the crop was harvested at the smallest interval after treatment and the residue in the edible portion was the highest found in any of the supervised trials in line with these use conditions). The deterministic calculation also includes a variability factor for those foods consumed as units (eg apples, carrots) to allow for the elevated residue in some single units which may not be seen in composited samples. In the probabilistic method the distribution of dietary consumption and the distribution of possible residues are combined in repeated probabilistic calculations to yield a distribution of possible residue intakes. Additional information such as percentage commodity treated and combination of residues from multiple commodities may be incorporated into probabilistic calculations. The IUPAC Advisory Committee on Crop Protection Chemistry has made 11 recommendations relating to acute dietary exposure.

Soy in wheat--contamination levels and food allergy risk assessment.

In the United States, packaged food ingredients derived from allergenic sources must be clearly labeled. However, no requirement exists to declare the presence of residues of raw agricultural commodities due to agricultural commodity comingling. Clinical reports of allergic reactions to undeclared soy in wheat-based products do not exist suggesting that a rather low degree of risk is posed by wheat-based products that are comingled with soy. Detectable soybean residues (>2.5 ppm soy flour) were found in 62.8% of commercially available wheat flours at concentrations of 3-443 ppm soy flour (1.6-236 ppm soy protein). Conservative probabilistic risk assessments predict a risk of allergic reaction among the most sensitive soy-allergic individuals of 2.8±2.0 per 1000 soy-allergic user eating occasions of foods containing wheat flour. However, the predicted reactions occur at exposure levels below the lowest eliciting dose observed to provoke objective reactions in clinical oral soy challenges. Given this low level of predicted risk and the lack of evidence for allergic reactions among soy-allergic consumers to wheat-based products, the avoidance of wheat-based products by soy-allergic consumers does not appear to be necessary.

Trans fatty acid intakes and food sources in the U.S. population: NHANES 1999-2002.

Because of efforts to decrease trans fatty acids (TFA) in the food supply, intake should be assessed in the population to establish a baseline TFA intake. The 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was used to identify a benchmark for TFA intake. TFA was estimated by mean, median, and quintile of intake, TFA intake data were weighted using the NHANES 4-year sample weights. The main outcome measures included TFA intake in grams per day and percentage of energy in the top 25 food sources of TFA. Data are reported for 16,669 individuals ≥ 3 years of age. Median TFA intake was 2.3 % of calories (5 g/day) with 0.9-4.5 % of energy (1.5-13.1 g/day) over different quintiles of intake. Mean TFA intake was 2.5 % of energy (6.1 g/day). The range of TFA intake in the fifth quintile was very large, i.e., 3.5-12.5 % of energy or 8.8-92.4 g/day. Increasing quintiles of TFA intake were associated with increases in total fat (26.7-37.6 % of energy), saturated fat (7.6-10.5 % of energy), and calories (for those >20 years of age: 2,416-2,583 for men and 1,679-1,886 for women). Major food sources of dietary TFA were cakes, cookies, pies, and pastries. Based on current dietary guidance to consume as little industrial TFA as possible, much progress is needed to attain this goal, including food industry efforts to remove TFA from the food supply and educating the public about making healthy food choices.

Predicted changes in fatty acid intakes, plasma lipids, and cardiovascular disease risk following replacement of trans fatty acid-containing soybean oil with application-appropriate alternatives.

The varied functional requirements satisfied by trans fatty acid (TFA)--containing oils constrains the selection of alternative fats and oils for use as potential replacements in specific food applications. We aimed to model the effects of replacing TFA-containing partially hydrogenated soybean oil (PHSBO) with application-appropriate alternatives on population fatty acid intakes, plasma lipids, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 24-hour dietary recalls for 1999-2002, we selected 25 food categories, accounting for 86 % of soybean oil (SBO) and 79 % of TFA intake for replacement modeling. Before modeling, those in the middle quintile had a mean PHSBO TFA intake of 1.2 % of energy. PHSBO replacement in applications requiring thermal stability by either low-linolenic acid SBO or mid-oleic, low-linolenic acid SBO decreased TFA intake by 0.3 % of energy and predicted CVD risk by 0.7-0.8 %. PHSBO replacement in applications requiring functional properties with palm-based oils reduced TFA intake by 0.8 % of energy, increased palmitic acid intake by 1.0 % of energy, and reduced predicted CVD risk by 0.4 %, whereas replacement with fully hydrogenated interesterified SBO reduced TFA intake by 0.7 % of energy, increased stearic acid intake by 1.0 % of energy, and decreased predicted CVD risk by 1.2 %. PHSBO replacement in both thermal and functional applications reduced TFA intake by 1.0 % of energy and predicted CVD risk by 1.5 %. Based solely on changes in plasma lipids and lipoproteins, all PHSBO replacement models reduced estimated CVD risk, albeit less than previously reported using simpler replacement models.