Avvelenamenti intenzionali in medicina veterinaria: effetti dell\u2019entrata in vigore dell\u2019Ordinanza Ministeriale 18/12/2008

From January 2009 in Italy has been adopted an Ordinance that definitely rules the prohibition of detention and use of poisoned baits. Whenever poisonings and intoxications are suspected by veterinary, the Ordinance makes mandatory to report and notify the case to competent authorities. At the same time, samples involved in the case (baits, stomach contents, livers) are collected and referred to Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale competent for the territory for detailed analyses which become institutional task by laboratory, so free for petitioners. The aim of this work was to value the incidence of intentional poisonings in north-eastern italian regions in the period between January 2008 and September 2009. Suspected poisoning incidents noticed before and after the promulgation of the Ordinance are presented, compared and discussed

Consumo di gambero rosso selvatico della luisiana: aspetti normativi e di sicurezza alimentare

Louisiana crayfish, an allochthonous species acclimatized to our latitudes, is present in almost all italian rivers and is subject to angling and consumption. The aim of this work was to evaluate the safety of about a hundred specimens coming from Fimon lake (Vicenza). During the Spring and Summer period, microbiological and chemical assays were carried out weekly to evaluate fresh crayfish. The chemical results were favourable, but the presence of E. coli and salmonella confirmed a faecal contamination. For this reason it is necessary to apply a risk analysis for this kind of foodstuff

Photoactivation of corticosteroids in UVB-exposed skin

The photodegradation of flumethasone (FM) and fluocinolone acetonide (FC) was studied in solution and in the pig skin. Both glucocorticosteroids applied to the pig skin were unstable under UVB light. The photoproducts formed in the skin were the lumi-, photolumi- and andro-derivatives for FM, the same found in vitro. Instead, FC hydroperoxide formed in solution was not found in the skin: the reactivity and oxidative ability of this photoproduct towards biological substrates (lipids, proteins) seems the reason of the lack of its detection in the ex vivo model. In fact, it demonstrated to quickly oxidize amino acids and peptides, and to react with BSA both in the dark and under irradiation. Moreover, the presence in the irradiated pig skin of the FC andro-derivative, which usually forms in H-donating environment, seems consistent with the mechanism of Norrish I fragmentation followed by H-abstraction, likely from the surrounding biological substrates. These findings indicate that photoreactivity of these compounds may take place in the skin of patients exposing themselves to sunlight and is a warning about possible skin damage as a result of that. Furthermore, photolability of these drugs in the skin might cause loss of their therapeutic activity

Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles: sensitivity of different Salmonella serovars

Salmonella spp. is one of the main causes of foodborne illnesses in humans worldwide. Consequently, great interest exists in reducing its impact on human health by lowering its prevalence in the food chain. Antimicrobial formulations in the form of nanoparticles exert bactericidal action due to their enhanced reactivity resultant from their high surface/volume ratio. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are known to be highly toxic to Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms, including multidrug resistant bacteria. However, few data concerning their success against different Salmonella serovars are available. Aims of the present study were to test the antimicrobial effectiveness of AgNPs, against Salmonella Enteritidis, Hadar and Senftenberg, and to investigate the causes of their different survival abilities from a molecular point of view.Results showed an immediate, time-limited and serovar-dependent reduction of bacterial viability. In the case of S. Senftenberg, the reduction in numbers was observed for up to 4 h of incubation in the presence of 200 mg/L of AgNPs; on the contrary, S. Enteritidis and S. Hadar resulted to be inhibited for up to 48 h. RT-PCR experiments demonstrated the constitutive expression of the plasmidic silver resistance determinant (SilB) by S. Senftenberg, thus suggesting the importance of a cautious use of AgNPs.<br/

Multidisciplinary long-term survey of Manila clam grown in farming sites subjected to different environmental conditions

: In recent years recurrent bivalve mass mortalities considerably increased around the world, causing the collapse of natural and farmed populations. Venice Lagoon has historically represented one of the major production areas of the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum in Europe. However, in the last 20 years a 75 % decrease in the annual production has been experienced. While climate change and anthropogenic interventions may have played a key role in natural and farmed stocks reductions, no studies investigated at multiple levels the environmental stressors affecting farmed Manila clam to date. In this work we carried out a long-term monitoring campaign on Manila clam reared in four farming sites located at different distances from the southern Venice Lagoon inlet, integrating (meta)genomic approaches (i.e. RNA-seq; microbiota characterization), biometric measurements and chemical-physical parameters. Our study allowed to characterize the molecular mechanisms adopted by this species to cope with the different environmental conditions characterizing farming sites and to propose hypotheses to explain mortality events observed in recent years. Among the most important findings, the disruption of clam's immune response, the spread of Vibrio spp., and the up-regulation of molecular pathways involved in xenobiotic metabolism suggested major environmental stressors affecting clams farmed in sites placed close to Chioggia's inlet, where highest mortality was also observed. Overall, our study provides knowledge-based tools for managing Manila clam farming on-growing areas. In addition, the collected data is a snapshot of the time immediately before the commissioning of MoSE, a system of mobile barriers aimed at protecting Venice from high tides, and will represent a baseline for future studies on the effects of MoSE on clams farming and more in general on the ecology of the Venice Lagoon

Innovation in the Food Industry: A Comparison Between New and Traditional Categories of Foodstuffs

According to a recent Accenture survey, “Stepping off the crazy train” (2017), a total of 80% of companies still use an outdated approach to innovation, based on incremental tweaking (Holman et al., 2017). The empirical analysis showed that, in the Italian food sector, innovation adoption follows different patterns when product or process innovation is considered. On the other hand, Capitanio et al. (Br Food J 111(8):820–838, 2009) show how the probability of introducing product innovation is influenced by the quality of human capital, the geographical context and, to a lesser extent, the company age. The more a sector is characterized by the presence of small or medium enterprises (SMEs), and so by a poor internal availability of qualified competences and capitals to invest, the more the innovation comes from outside. Indeed, SMEs are not normally able to generate innovations and are therefore willing to adopt them by borrowing from other sectors, which might present different characteristics. Consequently, these innovations often have to be readjusted, as they have been conceived for different scopes and applications at the moment of their development. Thanks to the economic growth in Italy, companies such as Ferrero, Barilla and Parmalat have established themselves as major business centres in the development of innovation, and were capable of driving the entire context characterized by the presence of SMEs. Cooperation is particularly important for innovation in the food industry, which is traditionally considered a “low technology” sector (Trott and Simms 2017). Nowadays, the food industry is facing technical and economic changes of society, manufacture and food processing that affect the whole supply-chain. This fact forced companies to pay great attention in food products, in order to meet the consumer’s demand for a healthier lifestyle. As a consequence, innovation in the food industry does not only appear as an opportunity, but also as a prerequisite to stand out from the competition, apply specific pricing policies, penetrate new markets and ensure sustainability of the food sector (Galanakis, 2016)