Psychosocial, behavioural, pedagogical, and nutritional proposals about how to encourage eating a healthy breakfast.

BACKGROUND: Even if more and more evidences have highlighted the importance of breakfast in the growth and development of children, from 10 to 30% of US and European children and adolescents regularly skip breakfast. Thus, there is still a lot to be done before breakfast becomes a daily habit. The aim of this paper is to try and understand how it is possible to overcome the real or imaginary difficulties associated with skipping breakfast by psychosocial, behavioural, pedagogical and nutritional proposals. DISCUSSION: Schools are the best context where perform healthy interventions because it is here that children learn about the importance of good health at an age when the school still plays a major role in their education. Some school interventions, based on solid theories as the Self Determination Theory and the Behaviour Analysis, have been implemented in the last years to promote health behaviour such as intake of fruit and vegetables and physical activities. Cognitive behaviour therapy is the most closely monitored type of treatment/cure for obesity in randomised controlled trials. Moreover some associations such as the National Association of Food Science Specialists have drawn an own method to encourage food education at school and promote the importance of prevention. These projects could be used as starting point to perform interventions focus on breakfast. SUMMARY: Increase the consumption of breakfast between children is very important. Efforts should be done to drawn new school projects based on scientific-evidences.

Intracerebral administration of interleukin-12 (IL-12) and IL-18 modifies the course of mouse scrapie.

BACKGROUND: Prion diseases are characterised by a neurodegenerative pattern in which the function of immune system remains still elusive. In the present study, we evaluate if an exogenous treatment with Interleukin-12 (IL-12) and IL-18, able to activate microglia, is able to affect scrapie pathogenesis. RESULTS: Cytokines injected intracranially, induced a strong inflammatory response characterised by TNF-alpha production and microglia activation. Two groups of mice were injected intracerebrally with high dose of ME7 strain of scrapie containing IL-12 and IL-18 or sterile saline. Cytokines-treated mice showed a more pronounced accumulation of PrPSc in brain tissues at 90 days post-inoculation and a shorter mean survival times than untreated mice. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that intracerebral administration of IL-12 and IL-18 can modulate scrapie pathogenesis possibly through a microglia-mediated pattern.

In vitro down regulation of proinflammatory cytokines induced by LPS tolerance in pig CD14+ cells.

LPS tolerance is characterized by a reduced sensitivity to subsequent challenge of LPS. In human and mouse models LPS tolerance is closely associated with marked unbalanced production of leukocyte-derived inflammatory mediators which, when overexpressed, led to septic syndrome and shock. Here we characterized the in vitro induction of LPS tolerance in porcine CD14+ spleen cells in order to give insights into LPS tolerance in pigs. Following LPS stimulation, TNF-alpha and, to a minor extent, IL-8 production showed a significant reduction in CD14+ spleen monocytes that were pretreated with LPS in comparison to naïve cells, while IL-1beta production was slightly influenced by LPS stimulation and it was not affected by subsequent LPS challenge. Our findings showed that porcine CD14+ cells undergo a process, which resembles LPS tolerance, providing evidence that swine represent a valuable and useful model to perform experiments to study LPS tolerance and its biological significance.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in veterinary public health.

Multidisciplinary collaboration has been recognised necessary for centuries and has a long tradition. It is supported by solid bases, and is required to control a number of risk factors. Its practice encounters difficulties in various critical points. At present, the models of collaboration provided by the activities of the WHO/Mediterranean Zoonoses Control Centre and by the Med-Vet-Net network of the European Community represent relevant examples.

Availability of veterinary medicinal products for food producing minor animal species in the Mediterranean area.

In its historic role, the Mediterranean used to be the unifying element of heterogenic cultures, economies and societies surrounding its three continents' borders. For the benefit of the leading idea laying behind the present paper and in order to reinforce its original role, the whole Mediterranean area has been deliberately considered as a geographic and legislative unicum relating to MUMS. Such an acronym, well established either in EU countries and internationally, stands for Minor Use/Minor Species and is generally accepted in scientific and regulatory debates to incorporate any reference to a non-core market of a veterinary medicinal product or to an animal species that, conventionally, has not been considered as a major one. Difficulties to develop and market new products have resulted in an internationally recognized severe shortage of drugs for MUMS and, as a consequence, in unacceptable animal suffering, loss of animal life, and financial loss to farm industry. Furthermore, inadequate treatment of sick animals may increase health risks to humans as well as other animals.

Assessment of feed additives and contaminants: an essential component of food safety.

Feed additives make the bulk of chemicals used in animal production, thus representing a major issue for safety of foods of animal origin. This paper summarizes the approaches adopted by the European Food Safety Authority to perform risk analysis of feed additives as regards the whole food production chain, including target species, consumers, occupational exposure and the environment. Feed safety must consider also environmental contaminants; in particular feeds can be a major vehicle for human dietary intake of persistent pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls. Critical issues include toxicological characterization, pathways of feed contamination as well as transfer to animal products. The possible effects of feed additives and contaminants on the overall safety and nutritional quality of human diet are discussed.