The impact of a community-based food skills intervention on cooking confidence, food preparation methods and dietary choices - an exploratory trial

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of undertaking a food skills intervention study in areas of social deprivation aimed at altering cooking confidence, food preparation methods and dietary choices. DESIGN: A standardised skills programme was implemented in community-based settings. Pre- (T1) and post-intervention (T2) and 6-month follow-up (T3) measures (7-day diaries and self-administered questionnaires) were undertaken in intervention and comparison groups. SETTING: Eight urban communities in Scotland. SUBJECTS: One hundred and thirteen adults living in areas of social deprivation. RESULTS: It was clear that many subjects led fragmented lives and found commitment to intervention classes problematic. Sixty-three subjects completed the final (T3) assessments. The response to each component varied due to inability to attend sessions, illness, study requirements, employment, moving out of the area, change in circumstances, loss of interest and loss of postal questionnaires. At baseline, reported consumption of fruit and vegetables was low (mean frequency 8.1 +/- 4.78 times per week). Fruit intake increased significantly (P < 0.05) between T1 and T2 in the intervention group (1.7 +/- 2.36 to 2.7 +/- 3.28 times per week) only. Between T1 and T3, there was a significant increase (P < 0.05) in intervention subjects who reported confidence in following a recipe (67-90%,). CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory trial shows that a food skills intervention is likely to have a small but positive effect on food choice and confidence in food preparation. A full-scale randomised controlled trial in this hard-to-reach group would require a range of flexible approaches rather than a fully defined intervention, and presents challenges for trial design.     

A case of tracheal collapse in the dog.

An eight-year-old male Yorkshire terrier which had had a cough for two years was presented and a diagnosis of tracheal collapse was made after examination with a bronchoscope. It was decided to try to correct the tracheal defect by plication. Two weeks after the operation the dog was examined under general anaesthesia. Although traction had exposed a part of the thoracic trachea it was not sufficient in this case to achieve a complete repair. In view of a grave prognosis, the dog was destroyed.     

Immunopathology of Chlamydophila abortus infection in sheep and mice

Chlamydophila abortus targets the placenta, causing tissue damage, inflammation and abortion (enzootic abortion of ewes). It is one of the main infectious causes of abortion in ewes, resulting in major economic losses to agricultural industries worldwide. Although ruminants and pigs are the principal hosts, humans are also susceptible to infection. Control of disease requires a host inflammatory response, which is likely to contribute to pathology and abortion. Mouse models have been widely used to provide insight into the role of specific immune cells in controlling infection and disease. The use of such model systems for investigating the mechanisms of abortion, latency, persistence, and immunity to reinfection will result in the identification of novel vaccine control strategies for sheep.     

Preface

Publishers Note

Publisher's Announcement     

Recent developments in the laboratory diagnosis of chlamydial infections

There are two main approaches to diagnosing infections by Chlamydia and Chlamydophila spp. in mammals and birds. The first involves the direct detection of the agent in tissue or swab samples, while the second involves the serological screening of blood samples for the presence of anti-chlamydial antibodies. Ultimately, the test that is used is dependent on the types of samples that are submitted to the diagnostic laboratory for analysis. The present paper gives an overview on methodologies and technologies used currently in diagnosis of chlamydial infections with emphasis on recently developed tests. The performance characteristics of individual methods, such as the detection of antigen in smears and in pathological samples, the isolation of the pathogen, various antibody detection tests and DNA-based methods utilising conventional and real-time PCR, as well as DNA microarray technology are assessed, and specific advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Further, a combination of a specific real-time PCR assay and a microarray test for chlamydiae is proposed as an alternative reference standard to isolation by cell culture.     

Involvement of Parachlamydia in bovine abortions in Scotland

Bovine abortion represents a major animal welfare issue and a cause of substantial economic loss yet the rate of successful diagnosis remains low. Chlamydia-related organisms including Parachlamydia have recently emerged as putative cattle abortifacients. Placental tissue samples and fetal lung from bovine abortion submissions across Scotland in Spring 2011 were investigated by histopathology for the presence of suspect Chlamydia-related organisms. Evidence of Chlamydia-related organisms was observed in 21/113 (18.6%) placenta samples. Thirteen of the suspect cases and 18 histopathology negative cases were analysed by molecular and immunohistochemical methods. All samples were PCR positive for Parachlamydia but sequencing revealed high homology between identified environmental 16S sequences in all but three cases. Parachlamydial antigen was detected in 10/31 placental samples (32.2%) with pathology consistent with chlamydial infection. This work supports the need for further surveillance investigations and experimental studies to determine the role of Parachlamydia in bovine abortion.     

Molecular detection of Chlamydophila abortus in post-abortion sheep at oestrus and subsequent lambing

Enzootic abortion of ewes (EAE), resulting from infection with the bacterium Chlamydophila abortus (C. abortus), is a major cause of lamb loss in Europe. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential impact of the shedding of organisms in post-abortion ewes at oestrus and subsequent lambing on the epidemiology of EAE. Using a newly developed C. abortus specific real-time PCR assay, few chlamydial genomes could be detected in vaginal swabs taken from post-abortion ewes at oestrus. At subsequent parturition, all ewes lambed normally with no macroscopic or microbiological evidence of infection. Real-time PCR analysis of placental samples identified very few or no chlamydial genomes, which contrasted significantly with samples taken at the time of abortion, where an average of 2.7x10(7) chlamydial genomes per microgram of total tissue DNA was detected. Few genomes could also be detected from vaginal and cervical tissue samples and lymph nodes taken post-mortem. The results, although not discounting the possibility of a chronic low level persistent infection in post-abortion ewes, suggest that the low levels of chlamydial DNA detected during the periovulation period and at lambing do not significantly impact on the epidemiology of EAE. In terms of flock management, the products of abortion should be considered the major and principal source of infection for transmission to na?ve ewes.     

Irrigation scheduling and irrigation systems: optimising irrigation efficiency for container ornamental shrubs

Water use and plant growth and quality were compared across different nursery stock beds, different methods of applying irrigation, and different methods of scheduling irrigation. With overhead irrigation, scheduling of irrigation according to plant demand, along with an irrigation system designed to maximise irrigation uniformity, resulted in substantial water savings, without reducing plant quality. This was the case in both wet and dry years. In the dry year, plant quality was particularly good when grown on a sub-irrigated sand bed; this system also used less water than any of the overhead irrigation systems. Two different systems were effective in scheduling overhead irrigation, one based on the volumetric moisture in the growing substrate, and the other based on plant evapotranspiration. The latter was determined with a small sensor with wet and dry artificial “leaves”, the output of which correlated with that obtained following the Penman–Monteith method based on a full set of meteorological data.     

Direct aqueous injection-liquid chromatography with post-column derivatization for determination of N-methylcarbamoyloximes and N-methylcarbamates in finished drinking water: collaborative study

An interlaboratory method validation study was conducted on EPA Method 531.1, Measurement of N-Methylcarbamoyloximes and N-Methylcarbamates in Water by Direct Aqueous Injection HPLC with Post Column Derivatization, to determine the precision and mean recovery for determination of 10 carbamate pesticide compounds in reagent water and in finished drinking waters. The study design was based on Youden's nonreplicate plan for collaborative tests of analytical methods. The waters were spiked with 10 carbamate pesticides at 6 concentration levels, as 3 Youden pairs. Eight laboratories analyzed the samples by direct aqueous injection, with separation by reverse-phase liquid chromatography and post-column hydrolysis of the carbamates and carbamoyloximes to methylamine, followed by reaction of the methylamine with o-phthalaldehyde and 2-mercaptoethanol using fluorescence detection. Results were analyzed using an EPA computer program, which measured precision and recovery for each of the 10 compounds and compared the performance of the method between water types. The method was acceptable for all analytes tested. After removal of a nonrepresentative data set for aldicarb sulfoxide, no matrix effects were observed; the statistics for the pooled drinking waters were not significantly different from the statistics for the reagent waters. The method has been adopted official first action by AOAC.