Antibiotikaeinsatz in der Bayerischen Schweinehaltungspraxis ABYS: Antibiotikaeinsatz und Antibiotikaresistenz in ökologischen Betrieben

Between 2012 and 2014, ABYS study recorded antibiotic use, detection and resistance data for 23 organic and 35 conventional pig farms. Antibiotic contents of farm-made fertilizers were assessed by LC/MS-MS. Phenotypic antimicrobial resistance was investigated in Escherichia (E.) coli (indicator bacteria); antimicrobial resistance genes of the total bacterial microbiota (sul(II), tet(A), tet(B), tet(M); marker Measured in nUDD (number of animals treated multiplied by treatment days), colistin was the most frequently used antibiotic, in organic farms followed by tylosin, doxycycline and amoxicillin. Antibiotic residues were rarely detected; however, manure contained up to 10^8 antimicrobial resistance genes per gram; concentrations were higher when the antibiotic had been used on farm. In six farms, antimicrobial resistant E. coli were tracked from the moment when pigs were placed on farm. Some isolates carried a broad variety of resistances from the very beginning that were maintained until slaughter, despite the fact that partly no antibiotics were applied during fattening. Approaches for reducing carry-over of antimicrobial resistant bacteria will be discusse

Mindful breath awareness meditation facilitates efficiency gains in brain networks: A steady-state visually evoked potentials study

The beneficial effects of mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions have stimulated a rapidly growing body of scientific research into underlying psychological processes. Resulting evidence indicates that engaging with mindfulness meditation is associated with increased performance on a range of cognitive tasks. However, the mechanisms promoting these improvements require further investigation. We studied changes in behavioural performance of 34 participants during a multiple object tracking (MOT) task that taps core cognitive processes, namely sustained selective visual attention and spatial working memory. Concurrently, we recorded the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP), an EEG signal elicited by the continuously flickering moving objects, and indicator of attentional engagement. Participants were tested before and after practicing eight weeks of mindful breath awareness meditation or progressive muscle relaxation as active control condition. The meditation group improved their MOT-performance and exhibited a reduction of SSVEP amplitudes, whereas no such changes were observed in the relaxation group. Neither group changed in self-reported positive affect and mindfulness, while a marginal increase in negative affect was observed in the mindfulness group. This novel way of combining MOT and SSVEP provides the important insight that mindful breath awareness meditation may lead to refinements of attention networks, enabling more efficient use of attentional resources

Meditation and cognitive ageing: The role of mindfulness meditation in building cognitive reserve

Mindfulness-related meditation practices engage various cognitive skills including the ability to focus and sustain attention, which in itself requires several interacting attentional sub-functions. There is increasing behavioural and neuroscientific evidence that mindfulness meditation improves these functions and associated neural processes. More so than other cognitive training programmes, the effects of meditation appear to generalise to other cognitive tasks, thus demonstrating far transfer effects. As these attentional functions have been linked to age-related cognitive decline, there is growing interest in the question whether meditation can slow-down or even prevent such decline. The cognitive reserve hypothesis builds on evidence that various lifestyle factors can lead to better cognitive performance in older age than would be predicted by the existing degree of brain pathology. We argue that mindfulness meditation, as a combination of brain network and brain state training, may increase cognitive reserve capacity and may mitigate age-related declines in cognitive functions. We consider available direct and indirect evidence from the perspective of cognitive reserve theory. The limited available evidence suggests that MM may enhance cognitive reserve capacity directly through the repeated activation of attentional functions and of the multiple demand system and indirectly through the improvement of physiological mechanisms associated with stress and immune function. The article concludes with outlining research strategies for addressing underlying empirical questions in more substantial ways