Development and validation of a food-frequency questionnaire for the determination of detailed fatty acid intakes

OBJECTIVE: To validate a fat intake questionnaire (FIQ) developed to assess habitual dietary intake while focusing on the assessment of detailed fatty acid intake including total trans unsaturated fatty acids (TUFA). DESIGN: An 88 food item/food group FIQ was developed using a meal pattern technique. Validation was achieved by comparison with dietary intake assessed by a modified diet history (DH) in a cross-over design. Eighty-four individuals supplied adipose tissue biopsies for linoleic acid and total TUFA analysis as an independent validation of the FIQ and DH. SETTING: Medical Centre, Dublin Airport, Republic of Ireland. SUBJECTS: One hundred and five healthy volunteers (43 females and 62 males aged 23-63 years). RESULTS: Significant correlations (P<0.0005) were achieved for intakes of energy (0.78), total fat (0.77), saturated fat (0.77), monounsaturated fat (0.63), polyunsaturated fat (0.73), TUFA (0.67) and linoleic acid (0.71) assessed by the FIQ compared with the DH. Linoleic acid intake assessed by the FIQ and the DH was significantly correlated with adipose tissue concentrations (r=0.58 and 0.49, respectively; P<0.005); however, total TUFA intake was poorly correlated with adipose tissue concentrations (r=0.17 and 0.10 for FIQ and DH, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The FIQ compared favourably with the DH in assessing habitual diet, in particular fatty acid intake. In addition, the FIQ was successfully validated against the linoleic acid composition of adipose tissue, an independent biomarker of relative fatty acid status. The FIQ could therefore be used as an alternative to the DH as it is a shorter, less labour-intensive method.     

Recent volcanism and the stratosphere

In the quiet years after the 1956 eruption of the Bezymianny volcano in central Kamchatka, it is doubtful that any volcano vented into the stratosphere until the 1963 eruptions of Agung (Bali), Trident (Alaska), and Surtsey (Iceland). From 1963 to the Hekla (Iceland) event in May 1970, two latitudinal belts of volcanoes have ejected ash and gases into the stratosphere. One belt is equatorial and the other is just below the Arctic Circle. The latter, where the tropopause is considerably lower, may have been the principal source of replenishment of volcanic dust and gases to the stratosphere. Submarine and phreatic volcanic eruptions may have been the sources of reported increase of water vapor in the stratosphere.     

Behavioural responses of poultry during kosher slaughter and their implications for the birds' welfare

Measurements were made during Shechita (kosher) slaughter of 692 meat chickens, including the behaviour of the birds during the procedure and the times from their removal from the crate, to neck cutting, bleed-out and shackling. Four of 100 birds showed a mild physical response to neck cutting but the others showed no response. Approximately 60 per cent of the birds showed a physical response to touching the eye or eyelid at up to 5 seconds after neck cutting, but by 15 seconds none showed this response. The birds became unable to retain their posture and suffered involuntary muscular contractions at 12 to 15 seconds after neck cutting and had lost approximately 40 per cent of their total blood volume by 30 seconds after neck cutting.     

Salmonella and on-farm risk factors in healthy slaughter-age cattle and sheep in eastern Australia

OBJECTIVE: To examine healthy slaughter-age cattle and sheep on-farm for the excretion of Salmonella serovars in faeces and to identify possible risk factors using a questionnaire. PROCEDURE: The study involved 215 herds and flocks in the four eastern states of Australia, 56 with prior history of salmonellosis. Production systems examined included pasture beef cattle, feedlot beef cattle, dairy cattle, prime lambs and mutton sheep and animals were all at slaughter age. From each herd or flock, 25 animals were sampled and the samples pooled for Salmonella culture. All Salmonella isolated were serotyped and any Salmonella Typhimurium isolates were phage typed. Questionnaires on each production system, prepared in Epi Info 6.04, were designed to identify risk factors associated with Salmonella spp excretion, with separate questionnaires designed for each production system. RESULTS: Salmonellae were identified in all production systems and were more commonly isolated from dairies and beef feedlots than other systems. Statistical analysis revealed that dairy cattle were significantly more likely to shed Salmonella in faeces than pasture beef cattle, mutton sheep and prime lambs (P<0.05). A wide diversity of Salmonella serovars, all of which have been isolated from humans in Australia, was identified in both cattle and sheep. Analysis of the questionnaires showed access to new arrivals was a significant risk factor for Salmonella excretion on dairy properties. For beef feedlots, the presence of large numbers of flies in the feedlot pens or around stored manure were significant risk factors for Salmonella excretion. CONCLUSION: Dairy cattle pose the highest risk of all the slaughter-age animals tested. Some of the identified risk factors can be overcome by improved management practices, especially in relation to hygiene.     

Speciation and stasis in marine ostracoda: climatic modulation of evolution

Morphologic and paleozoogeographic analysis of Cenozoic marine Ostracoda from the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific indicates that climatic change modulates evolution by disrupting long-term stasis and catalyzing speciation during sustained, unidirectional climatic transitions and, conversely, by maintaining morphologic stasis during rapid, high-frequency climatic oscillations. In the middle Pliocene, 4 to 3 million years ago, at least six new species of Puriana suddenly appeared as the Isthmus of Panama closed, changing oceanographic circulation and global climate. Since then morphologic stasis has characterized ancestral and descendant species during many glacial-interglacial cycles. The frequency and duration of climatic events have more impact on ostracode evolution than the magnitude of climatic changes.     

Inhibition of egg hatch of the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis by chitinase-producing bacteria

Plant-parasitic nematodes are major agronomic pests. Purified commercial chitinase inhibited egg hatch of the potato cyst nematode, Globodera rostochiensis (Ro1) in vitro by up to 70% when compared with an untreated control. A screening strategy was devised to isolate chitinase-producing bacteria from a soil with no documented history of damage due to potato cyst nematodes in the last 30 years and that was cropped with potato cv. Kerr's Pink. Only 137 of 3,200 bacterial isolates tested for chitinase production on chitin agar plates were chitinase-positive (i.e. about 4%). All the chitinase-producing bacteria tested in vitro could reduce the hatch of G. rostochiensis eggs, some by up to 90% compared with the controls. One of these strains, M1-12, was identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and a second strain UP1 was classified as a Chromobacterium sp. based on morphological and biochemical tests. The inoculum level and the incubation time influenced the degree of inhibition of egg hatch of G. rostochiensis by M1-12 and UP1 in vitro. An initial cell density of 10⁶ CFU ml^-1 or greater and an incubation time of two weeks was needed to inhibit egg hatch. The longer UP1 was allowed to act on the eggs of G. rostochiensis the greater the level of inhibition. Strains M1-12 and UP1 also reduced the ability of G. rostochiensis to hatch in soil microcosms planted with potato seed tubers cv. D'sir'e. The inhibition of egg hatch of G. rostochiensis by chitinase-producing bacteria is suggested as a biocontrol strategy for the defence of potato crops from potato cyst nematodes.     

Individual differences in dunging patterns in loose-housed lactating sows

This research investigated individual differences in dunging patterns in loose-housed lactating sows. Farrowing pens were divided into six sectors and in study 1 each sector was given a dung score from 0 (no manure) to 3 (≥2 deposits). There were significant positive correlations between dung score and the weight of manure within sectors. In study 2, pen cleanliness was scored in 24 farrowing pens for loose-housed sows on three consecutive days in weeks 3, 4 and 5 of lactation (9 observations). One-third of the sows received a dung score of 0 for the solid floor area, in seven to nine of the observations. These sows could be categorized as ‘clean’ sows. However, 46% of sows scored 0 in the solid floor area for less than two observations, and these sows could be categorized as ‘dirty’ sows. Overall, older parity sows were ‘cleaner’ than gilts and mid-parity sows.     

Quaternary climates and sea levels of the u.s. Atlantic coastal plain

Uranium-series dating of corals from marine deposits of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain coupled with paleoclimatic reconstructions based on ostracode (marine) and pollen (continent) data document at least five relatively warm intervals during the last 500,000 years. On the basis of multiple paleoenvironmental criteria, we determined relative sea level positions during the warm intervals, relative to present mean sea level, were 7 +/- 5 meters at 188,000 years ago, 7.5 +/- 1.5 meters at 120,000 years ago, 6.5 +/- 3.5 meters at 94,000 years ago, and 7 +/- 3 meters at 72,000 years ago. The composite sea level chronology for the Atlantic Coastal Plain is inconsistent with independent estimates of eustatic sea level positions during interglacial intervals of the last 200,000 years. Hydroisostatic adjustment from glacial-interglacial sea level fluctuations, lithospheric flexure, and isostatic uplift from sediment unloading due to erosion provide possible mechanisms to account for the discrepancies. Alternatively, current eustatic sea level estimates for the middle and late Quaternary may require revision.