Possible roles, positions, factors and components of dairying in organic farming – a rewiev, mapping, survey and comparison in the Czech Republic

The full-value experiment is questionable in evaluation organic dairying. It is problem to do a trial under comparable conditions for comparison of organic and conventional farming because of legislative reasons and necessity of long period of such event. Most of comparisons are carried out as practice descriptive observations and any of them has been carried out about milk production. That is main reason, why the aim of this work is to carry out a opening of monitoring of some production conditions and results of bio-dairying in the Czech Republic (CR). The quality aspects of sources, procedures and products are main topics of solution of projects about organic farming philosophy, in particular in solution of organic dairy foodstuff chain. There were choosen twelve organic dairy farms (survey II, 2006) for more detail research of production conditions according to results of exploratory questionnaire (2006, survey I, n = 85 pieces of questionnaire and 58 organic farms, which practicise dairying) in the CR. The climatology characteristics of selected organic dairy farms were as follows: (I) 562±149 m above sea level on the average (from 270 to 970 m a. s. l.); (II) 571.0±69.9 m above sea level, mean year temperature 6.0±1.1 ºC and average year rainfall sum 843.0±184.3 mm. It is clear according to previously mentioned figures that the organic (ecology) dairy farming is realized mostly in the mountain or sub-mountain areas (less favourable areas, LFAs) as compared to climatic conditions of CR mean profile. The results of investigation of organic farm (E) and breeder conditions and dairy cow health state, reproduction performance and milk quality in organic farms (I data file) as compared to conventional dairy cow herds (K) were: milk yield (E) was 14.2±3.4 kg of milk/cow/day on average and 5165±1112 kg/cow/year; E farms have 50 % free stables, some of them as different untraditional modifications (mostly in herds with low number of dairy cows); it is necessary to increase this amount for welfare improvement in the future; there are 52 % of binding stables in K herds; there (E) is high occurrence frequency of can milking equipments (46.4 %); there are 5.4 % cases of hand milking, 21.4 % of pipeline milking equipments and 26.8 % of milking parlours; there (K) are 3 % of can milking equipments, 50 % of pipeline milking equipments and 47 % of milking parlours; the average organic herd has 60±91 heads it means about 1/3 of K herd in the CR; geometrical average (xg) of organic herd size is 17 heads; daily milk deliveries were 1318±1475 kg in summer and 976±1368 kg in winter season (there is too high variability in the mentioned indicators); breed structure of E herds is 59.8 % of Bohemian Spotted cattle, 18.8 % of Holstein (H), 12.5 % of Jersey breed; H breed is dominating 47.5 % in K herds; average ratio of excluded milk (for secretion disorders or treatment) is 2.99 % in E herds and 4.6 % in K herds (P<0.01); also there (E) is lower occurrence of clinical mastitis 0.53±1.97 %; service period is 124.3 days in K and 98.7±46,1 days in E herds on average (P<0.01); there (E) is better insemination index 1.66±0.45 in comparison to K herds 2.07 (P<0.01); there is longer longevity as duration of production life of dairy cows in E herds (6.02 lactations, „about 141 % better”) in comparison to K herds (2.50 lactations, P<0.01); milk quality showed the average total mesophilic bacteria count (CPM) 36.0±26.8 ths. CFU/ml in organic farms (E), which is comparable to the conventional farms (K); somatic cell count (PSB) was 192±87 ths./ml in E herds and 256 ths./ml in K herds, which is in connection with the lower ratio of milk exclusion from delivery in E herds; an occurrence of residues of inhibitory substances (RIL) was not reported in E herds, which is more advantageous in comparison to the K herds (0.16 %) and it could be an impact of lowered antibiotica drug use; the average fat and lactose contents (T; 4.05±0.19 %) and (L; 4.83±0.15 %) are well comparable with K farms and the results show on higher energy deficiency in E herd nutrition. The water quality (II) is necessary in dairying as well. Drinking water is necessary for health of animals (their watering) and for milk quality (milking equipment sanitation) as well. Drinking water is asked in dairy farms by legislation. The E farm water quality: the nitrate level varied in the range from 1.63 to 28 mg/l with average 10.5 mg/l in ecological farms and standard limit 50 mg/l was not exceeded; the levels of nitrite and ammonia ions were mostly under detection limit of method; legislative limit <0.5 mg/l was not exceeded by nitrite and once by ammonia ions 0.81 mg/l. The microbiological indicators are more sensitive of course. In total the limits were exceeded 7× u in coliform bacteria, 3× in streptococci and Escherichia coli was confirmed 3× (in comparison to demand 0). Therefore it is necessary to take care of incidental water source sanitation. The effect of origin of water source (communal water pipes or own well in the organic farm area) which was used in the organic farming (II) was: the more marked result differences were not observed between own wells (S) and communal water supply (V) in E farms; an exception was stated in insignificantly better results of hygienic indicators of communal supply; therefore it is necessary to put the higher importance on sanitation of own water sources. There were identified eight own wells and four communal supply. E. g. nitrate levels were a little higher for wells 11.7 > 8.2 mg/l. The nitrites were not different. Chemical oxygen consumption was 0.45 and 0.52 mg/l. The more expressive differences were identified in chlorides, sulphates and Mg: 8.33 and 3.02 mg/l; 27.9 and 16.8 mg/l; 18.9 and 3.5 mg/l

A COMPARISON OF SELECTED MILK INDICATORS IN ORGANIC HERDS WITH CONVENTIONAL HERD AS REFERENCE

In a historical sense, current organic farming is an old-new alternative under changed world conditions. Organic dairying (O) is an alternative of friendly use of the environment in time of presupposed global climate changes. Potential impact of organic farming on raw cow-milk quality, composition and properties, as conpared to conventional milk production (C), were evaluatedin this paper on the basis of selectedm ilk indicators (MIs). Total solids, whey volume, pH of milk fermentation ability (FAM-pH), FAM streptococci, FAM noble lactic acid bacteria, I and Cu were higher in C milk (P0.05) were observed in pH, rennet coagulation time, curd quality, FAM lactobacilli and streptococci/lactobacilli, Na, Mn and Zn. In general, the differences were a little more advantageous for O milk from both technological and nutritional point of view, particularly because of AS (0.461 .81m m), FAM-T (27.3 4.6 ) , Ca (1172 < l257 mg.kg-1)P, ( 950 < l004 mg. kg-1) and Mg 107.4<ll2.0mg.kg{) results. Organic milk can also produce better environment for yoghurt fermentation. Nevertheless, the results obtained should not be overestimated as both sources produced milk of good quality. Additional results are needed to prove organic milk benefits

Contrasting behavior of covalent and molecular carbon allotropes exposed to extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray free-electron laser radiation

All carbon materials, e.g., amorphous carbon (a-C) coatings and C60 fullerene thin films, play an important role in short-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL) research motivated by FEL optics development and prospective nanotechnology applications. Responses of a-C and C60 layers to the extreme ultraviolet (SPring-8 Compact SASE Source in Japan) and soft x-ray (free-electron laser in Hamburg) free-electron laser radiation are investigated by Raman spectroscopy, differential interference contrast, and atomic force microscopy. A remarkable difference in the behavior of covalent (a-C) and molecular (C60) carbonaceous solids is demonstrated under these irradiation conditions. Low thresholds for ablation of a fullerene crystal (estimated to be around 0.15 eV/atom for C60 vs 0.9 eV/atom for a-C in terms of the absorbed dose) are caused by a low cohesive energy of fullerene crystals. An efficient mechanism of the removal of intact C60 molecules from the irradiated crystal due to Coulomb repulsion of fullerene-cage cation radicals formed by the ionizing radiation is revealed by a detailed modeling

Epidemiologie, prevence a léčba kolorektálního karcinomu dle dostupných českých a mezinárodních dat

Nádory tlustého střeva a konečníku patří mezi nejčastější onkologické diagnózy. V České republice je každoročně nově diagnostikováno téměř 8 500 pacientů s kolorektálním karcinomem a přibližně 3 900 osob tomuto onemocnění každým rokem podlehne. Celková prevalence přesáhne v roce 2012 hranici 55 000 osob. Společenské, etické i ekonomické důsledky vyplývající z takto vysoké zátěže jsou zřejmé. Publikace „Epidemiologie, prevence a léčba kolorektálního karcinomu dle dostupných českých a mezinárodních dat“ přináší ucelený přehled epidemiologické a léčebné zátěže české populace touto chorobou a věnuje se krátkodobým a dlouhodobým predikcím dalšího vývoje. Situace je rovněž hodnocena v mezinárodním srovnání, neboť v hodnotách incidence a mortality kolorektálního karcinomu obsazuje ČR přední příčky evropských i světových statistik. Z mezinárodních studií však také vyplývá pozitivní poznatek, že většině nádorů tlustého střeva a konečníku lze předejít účinnou prevencí. Kromě primární prevence je zde hlavním nástrojem organizovaný populační screening, který je založen na testech krvácení do stolice a na kolonoskopii. Otázkám prevence a výsledkům screeningu kolorektálního karcinomu jsou v publikaci věnovány zvláštní kapitoly. Ačkoli nejnovější data dokládají rostoucí výkonnost českého screeningu, celkově dosažené pokrytí populace bohužel stále není dostatečné. To platí pro včasný záchyt kolorektálního karcinomu obecně, neboť v ČR je setrvale téměř 50 % nových onemocnění diagnostikováno v pokročilých klinických stadiích, a tedy s výrazně sníženou šancí na vyléčení nebo dlouhodobé přežití pacienta. Publikace rovněž hodnotí přežití dosahované u českých pacientů jakožto zásadní ukazatel výsledků léčebné péče, u kterého v posledních 15 letech zaznamenáváme statisticky významné zlepšení. Pravděpodobnost 5letého relativního přežití je u včasně diagnostikovaného kolorektálního karcinomu v klinickém stadiu i vyšší než 88%. Tato čísla opět potvrzují nutnost účinné prevence a posílení screeningu tohoto preventabilního onemocnění. V tomto směru má publikace ambici informovat odbornou i laickou veřejnost, a proto věnuje značný prostor přehledu dostupných informačních zdrojů.The book aims to inform expert and general public about epidemiology of colorectal carcinoma in the Czech Republic and priorities resulting from high population burden for prevention, diagnostics, and treatment of this severe disease. A number of invited experts assess selected information sources that representatively describe performance and quality of preventive programmes and results of CRC treatment in the Czech Republic

Effect of occupational exposure to cytostatics and nucleotide excision repair polymorphism on chromosomal aberrations frequency

Authors evaluated the incidence of total chromosomal aberrations (CA) and their types – chromatid-type (CTA) and chromosome-type (CSA) in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 72 oncologic unit's workers occupationally exposed to cytostatics in relationship to polymorphisms of DNA repair genes XPD, XPG and XPC. The cytogenetic analysis was used for determination of chromosomal aberrations frequency and PCR-RFLP method for polymorphisms of genes. Statistically higher frequency of total CA was detected in exposed group as compared to control (1.90±1.34% vs. 1.26±0.93%; Mann-Whitney U-test, p=0.001). There was not detected any difference between CTA and CSA (0.92±1.04% vs. 0.98±1.17%). Similarly, in genes XPD exon 23 and XPC exon 15 wasn't detected any difference neither in total chromosomal aberrations nor in CTA and CSA types. Statistically significant decrease of total chromosomal aberrations and CTA-type with presence of variant allele C was detected in gene XPG exon 15. Authors pointed out the importance of individual susceptibility factors in evaluation of effects of genotoxic agents, in that event, when the concentration does not meet the occupational exposure limit

Comparison of chromosomal aberrations frequency and polymorphism of GSTs genes in workers occupationally exposed to cytostatics or anaesthetics

Authors compared the incidence of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) of workers occupationally exposed to cytostatics (group EXP1) or anaesthetics (group EXP2) in relationship to polymorphism of GSTM1, GSTP1 and GSTT1 genes. The cytogenetic analysis for chromosomal aberrations frequency and for polymorphisms of genes the PCR and PCR-RFLP method were used. Statistically higher frequency of total CAs was detected in both exposed groups: group EXP1 1.90±1.34%; Mann-Whitney U-test, p=0.001; group EXP2 2.53±1.46%, p=0.0008) as compared to control (1.26±0.93%). In group EXP2 was detected statistically higher frequency of aberrations CSA-type as compared to CTA-type. In xenobiotic metabolizing genes for GST higher frequency of total CAs and constituent types chromatid-type aberrations (CTAs) and chromosome-type aberrations (CSAs) of genes GSTM1 and GSTT1 with null genotype was detected. Statistically significant difference was detected only in CSA-type of aberrations in GSTT1 gene. In gene GSTP1 was not detected any difference in frequency of aberrations in presence of the variant allele. Presented results point out importance of individual susceptibility in evaluation of genotoxic agents of anaesthetics or cytostatics