Germplasm evaluation to obtain inulin with high degree of polymerization in Mediterranean environment.

Long-chain length (DP) inulin-type fructans show pronounced beneficial effects to colon microbiota. In the past, cardoon roots for inulin production to fortify spaghetti gave very good results, but their harvest requires high costs. The aim of the work was to evaluate different types of inulin, extracted from cardoon roots and buds, topinambur tubers and chicory roots local populations in order to identify crops more suitable for high DP inulin production in Mediterranean environment. The inulin amount resulted in 115 (chicory), 390 (cardoon) and 550 g kg-1 of d.m. (topinambur). Both in cardoon roots and in topinambur tubers the DP was very high. With the aim to produce a functional food, substituting inulin in staple food tubers of topinambur could be a good alternative to cardoon roots, due to the biological cycle of the plant (annual vs poliennal), the lowest costs of harvest and the good amounts of high DP inulin.

Bioluminescent bacteria assay of veterinary drugs in excreta of food-producing animals.

The residues of pharmacological treatments on food-producing animals, present in the manure dispersed on agricultural land, can impact environmental and human health through toxic, genotoxic, and drug-resistance development effects. Biotoxicity assays can easily reveal the presence of noxious substances and those based on bioluminescent bacteria (BLB) are particularly simple and rapid. A BLB assay was developed as microplate format by using various strains of Vibrio sp. and was employed to evaluate their response to pure antibiotic solutions and to residues extracted from excreta of antibiotic treated pigs and turkeys. The residues were quantified by HPLC analysis. The BLB assay can be proposed as an easy-to-perform screening tool to assess the presence of residues due to undeclared current, or recently ended, pharmacological treatments, as well as to evaluate their permanence in manure.

[Allergy to cow's milk proteins: the authors' personal cases (clinical characteristics, diagnostic methodology and prospective follow-up)]. / Allergia alle proteine del latte vaccino: casistica personale (caratteristiche cliniche, metodologia diagnostica, follow-up prospettico).

Because of specific laboratory tests are lacking, diagnosis of cow's milk allergy is always made on the basis of improvement after cow's milk protein withdrawal from diet and relapsed after challenge test. However personal and familial anamnesis, supported by few simple laboratory tests (peripheral blood and stool eosinophiles, hemoccult), are important tools for diagnosis. In this work we report the clinical findings of 68 children, suffered from cow's milk allergy, observed in the last 10 years. Children were divided into three groups on the basis of challenge response: Group 1 consisting of children with averse reaction occurred within the first hour after the administration of cow's milk protein (IgE-mediated reaction, 1st class as Gell-Coombs classification); Group 2 consisting of children with averse reaction occurred between 2nd and 12th hour (1st-3rd class as Gell-Coombs classification); Group 3 consisting of children with averse reaction occurred after 24 hours the administration of cow's milk proteins (4th class as Gell-Coombs classification). Auxological parameters show that while weight is widely involved, particularly in children of group 3, height is interested only in children with prolonged diarrhoea. Cow's milk protein withdrawal from diet determine a rapid normalization of weight increment rate, more evident in children over 25th centile. Height rise up normal values slowly without any differences between children below and over 25th centile. At the age of two years 57 children (83%) became tolerant to cow's milk proteins and after 5-year follow-up in 3 children (4.4%) only persisted cow's milk allergy. All these children presented the IgE-mediate clinical form.

Feed supplemented with 3 different antibiotics improved food intake and decreased the activation of the humoral immune response in healthy weaned pigs but had differing effects on intestinal microbiota.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of 3 antibiotics used for pulmonary pathologies added in the feed of weaned pigs on growth performance, commensal microbiota, and immune response. At weaning, a total of 72 pigs were randomly assigned by BW and litter to 1 of the following diets: control (typical weaning diet), control + 400 mg of tilmicosin/kg, control + 600 mg of amoxicillin/kg, and control + 300 mg of doxycycline/kg. Individually penned pigs were slaughtered after 3 wk (12 pigs/treatment) or 4 wk (6 pigs/treatment). During the fourth week, all pigs received the control diet to test the residual effect of the antimicrobial supplementation. The antibiotic supplementation increased growth and feed intake during the first week (P < 0.01) and over the first 3 wk combined (P < 0.05). Gain-to-feed ratio tended to improve during the first week (P = 0.076) by the antibiotics compared with the control. Among the antibiotic treatments, no difference was observed in ADG and feed intake, which were also unchanged by the diet in the fourth week. The fecal enterobacteria counts were increased by amoxicillin on d 14 and 21 (P < 0.05 and 0.01, respectively) and were decreased by tilmicosin (P < 0.001) compared with the control. Amoxicillin decreased lactic acid bacteria (P < 0.01) counts compared with the control. The antibiotic supplementation tended to decrease total bacteria variability in the jejunum (Shannon index, P = 0.091) compared with the control. The antibiotic treatment decreased the mean total serum IgM concentration (P = 0.016) after 3 wk and did not change the mucosal histomorphometry of the small intestine. For tilmicosin, the observed positive action on piglet performance and feed intake can originate by the decreased costs of immune activation determined by the action on intestinal microbiota. For amoxicillin and doxycycline, the observation on intestinal and fecal microbiota seems to be not sufficient to explain their growth-promoting effect.

Kinetics and intrapulmonary disposition of tilmicosin after single and repeated oral bolus administrations to rabbits.

Tilmicosin (TIM, Pulmotil) was administered to eight rabbits by oral gavage at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg body weight for 2, 5, and 7 days, and its plasma kinetics and intrapulmonary disposition were investigated. TIM concentrations in plasma samples collected after days 1 and 6 of treatment were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The pharmacokinetic parameters, obtained by non-compartmental analysis of TIM plasma concentrations, did not show any significant variations between days 1 and 6. From the second day of treatment, TIM concentrations attained in lung tissue and pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM) exceeded those in plasma by 7- and 400-fold, respectively, and high levels were maintained in lung tissues during the entire treatment duration. After the first day of withdrawal, a fast decline in TIM levels in both plasma and lung tissue was observed, but in PAM, much higher concentrations were maintained after 3 days of TIM withdrawal.