Separated children seeking asylum in Ireland.

This report updates the first report of the Irish Refugee Council published in 1999, entitled Separated children seeking asylum in Ireland: A report on legal and social conditions. At the time of the publication of that report, there were 32 separated children seeking asylum in Ireland. The number of separated children seeking asylum in Ireland has increased markedly. By March 2003, the number of separated children, entering Ireland and referred to the North Eastern Area Health Board was 2,7172. Nearly half, or 1,113 children, were reunited with family members already in Ireland. 1,316 separated children, under the care of the Health Boards, have made applications for asylum under the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. Neither the Government nor non-statutory agencies anticipated this increase in the numbers of separated minors arriving in Ireland. Therefore administrative procedures and care services have had to be responsive to emergent needs rather than having developed through advance planning. This report aims to examine policy and practice with respect to the legal and social conditions of separated children in Ireland, in light of the Separated Children in Europe Programme’s (SCEP)3 ‘Statement of Good Practice’ (SGP). The Irish Refugee Council, a member of the Separated Children in Europe Programme, commissioned the report

Melatonin from cerebrospinal fluid but not from blood reaches sheep cerebral tissues under physiological conditions

Remerciements : INRA Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR PRC Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements - Plate-forme Chirurgie et Imagerie pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement, Nouzilly, FranceThe pineal gland secretes melatonin that circulates in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid. We provide data that support the hypothesis that, in sheep and maybe in human, only the cerebrospinal fluid melatonin, and not the blood melatonin, can provide most of melatonin to the cerebral tissue in high concentrations, particularly in the periventricular area. The melatonin content of sheep brain, our chosen animal model, was found in significant concentration gradients oriented from the ventricle (close to the cerebrospinal fluid) to the cerebral tissue, with concentrations varying by a factor of 1 to 125. The highest concentrations were observed close to the ventricle wall, whereas the lowest concentrations were furthest from the ventricles (407.0 ± 71.5 pg/ml compared to 84.7 ± 5.2 pg/ml around the third ventricle). This concentration gradient was measured in brain tissue collected at mid-day and at the end of the night. Nocturnal concentrations were higher than daytime concentrations, reflecting the diurnal variation in the pineal gland. The concentration gradient was not detected when melatonin was delivered to the brain via the bloodstream. The diffusion of melatonin to cerebral tissues via cerebrospinal fluid was supported by in vivo scintigraphy and autoradiography. 2-[(123) I]-melatonin infused into the cerebrospinal fluid quickly and efficiently diffused into the brain tissues, whereas [(123) I]-iodine (control) was mostly washed away by the cerebrospinal fluid flow and [(123) I]-BSA remained mostly in the cerebrospinal fluid. Taken together, these data support a critical role of cerebrospinal fluid in providing the brain with melatonin

Le système de management de la qualité : un outil précieux pour la gestion du risque biologique dans les installations de haute sécurité utilisées en infectiologie expérimentale

National audienc

Schmallenberg <em>in vivo</em> à la PFIE

National audienc

Semen from scrapie-infected rams does not transmit prion infection to transgenic mice

International audienceScrapie is the most common transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) in livestock. Natural contamination in sheep flocks is presumed to occur by maternal transmission to offspring. However, horizontal prion transmission from animal to animal exists and may be significant in sustaining and spreading contagion in the field. Artificial insemination is widely used in modern farming, and as large amounts of prion protein have been found in sheep sperm membrane, epididymal fluid and seminal plasma, horizontal transmission by this route was hypothesized since no clear information has been obtained on possible sexual transmission of TSE. We therefore tested the contamination levels of semen from scrapie-infected rams at different stages of incubation, including the clinical phase of the disease. We report here that under our experimental conditions ram semen did not transmit infectivity to scrapie-susceptible transgenic mice overexpressing the V136R154Q171 allele of the sheep prion (PRNP) gene. These results suggest that artificial insemination and natural mating have a very low or negligible potential for the transmission of scrapie in sheep flocks

Imagerie in-vivo du petit animal en confinement A3 : étude des interactions hôte/pathogène dans des modèles murins et aviaires

National audienc

Natural Scrapie and BSE in genetically resistant sheep

International audienceBecause ARR/ARR genotype sheep were considered to be totally resistant to TSE oralcontamination, they are massively selected in order to protect human food chain from smallruminant BSE risk.A controversial natural scrapie ARR/ARR case was reported in 1994, but genotype of that animalwas never confirmed. Recent identification of (i) atypical abnormal PrP accumulation inasymptomatic animals and (ii) successful transmission of BSE after intracerebral challenge bothraised new concerns about the resistance of ARR/ARR genotype sheep towards natural Priondiseases.However since neither PrPSc nor infectivity was reported in peripheral tissue from the orally orintracerebrally BSE challenged ARR/ARR animals (Bellworthy et al., 2005; Jeffrey et al., 2001).The ‘breeding for resistance’ policy aiming at protecting human food chain was not affected.In a first study, TSE free ARR/ARR and ARQ/ARQ lambs were orally challenged with 5g ofBSE infected sheep brain material. Strikingly, in one challenged ARR/ARR animal, PrPSc wasobserved in spleen at 10 months post challenge. ELISA and WB allowed estimating the totalPrPSc amount in ARR/ARR spleen to be 5 to 10 fold lower than in ARQ/ARQ.In a second study TSE free ARQ/ARQ and ARR/ARR sheep were IC challenged with BSE. Insymptomatic animals from both genotypes, PrPSc was detected in samples from a large panel ofskeletal muscle.Finally the retrospective study of a large scrapie tissue bank allowed us to identify a classicalscrapie case in an ARR/ARR field flock animal.Taken together all those data suggest that ARR/ARR sheep could be lowly susceptible to naturalTSE. It also raises new questions about (i) the pathogenesis and contagiousness of Prion diseasein animals bearing that genotype and (ii) the potential consequence for human food chain

Transgenic rabbit as a model to study prion diseases

National audienc

Evaluation of the in utero infection caused by SBV on goats

International audienc

Aerosol Route to Administer Teicoplanin in Mechanical Ventilation: In Vitro Study, Lung Deposition and Pharmacokinetic Analyses in Pigs

International audienceBackround: Glycopeptides given intravenously achieve low airway concentrations. Nebulization of teicoplanin may be an efficient way of delivering a high concentration of this antibiotic to the lung. This multistep study assessed the feasibility of teicoplanin nebulization during mechanical ventilation by evaluating: the stability of its antibiotic effect; epithelial tolerance; lung deposition and systemic absorption in ventilated pigs. Nebulized and non-nebulized teicoplanin activity was tested on Staphylococcus aureus cultures. The cytotoxic effect of teicoplanin on human respiratory epithelial cells was assessed by measuring lactate dehydrogenase activity released, cell viability, and transepithelial electrical resistance. Volume median diameter of particles of nebulized teicoplanin was measured by laser diffraction during mechanical ventilation. The deposited mass of teicoplanin nebulized with a vibrating mesh nebulizer in ventilated piglets was assessed by scintigraphy. Blood pharmacokinetics of teicoplanin administered either intravenously or by nebulization was compared. No decrease of antibiotic activity was observed after nebulization. In vitro cytotoxicity of teicoplanin was only observed with 1000 times the dose recommended for intravenous administration. Volume median diameter of particles was 2.5±0.1 μm. Of the initial nebulizer charge of teicoplanin, 24±7% was present in the lungs of ventilated pigs after the nebulization. Amount absorbed in blood was low (3.4%±0.9%) after nebulization, and blood stream elimination half-life value was 25.4 h. Teicoplanin was administered efficiently by nebulization during mechanical ventilation, without any effect on its pharmacological properties or any cytotoxicity. The pharmacokinetic parameters are promising in view of its time-dependent killing process. All the results of our multi-step study highlighted the potential of teicoplanin to be nebulized during mechanical ventilation