Vaccines as alternatives to antibiotics for food producing animals. Part 1:challenges and needs

Vaccines and other alternative products can help minimize the need for antibiotics by preventing and controlling infectious diseases in animal populations, and are central to the future success of animal agriculture. To assess scientific advancements related to alternatives to antibiotics and provide actionable strategies to support their development, the United States Department of Agriculture, with support from the World Organisation for Animal Health, organized the second International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics. It focused on six key areas: vaccines; microbial-derived products; non-nutritive phytochemicals; immune-related products; chemicals, enzymes, and innovative drugs; and regulatory pathways to enable the development and licensure of alternatives to antibiotics. This article, part of a two-part series, synthesizes and expands on the expert panel discussions regarding opportunities, challenges and needs for the development of vaccines that may reduce the need for use of antibiotics in animals; new approaches and potential solutions will be discussed in part 2 of this series. Vaccines are widely used to prevent infections in food animals. Various studies have demonstrated that their animal agricultural use can lead to significant reductions in antibiotic consumption, making them promising alternatives to antibiotics. To be widely used in food producing animals, vaccines have to be safe, effective, easy to use, and cost-effective. Many current vaccines fall short in one or more of these respects. Scientific advancements may allow many of these limitations to be overcome, but progress is funding-dependent. Research will have to be prioritized to ensure scarce public resources are dedicated to areas of potentially greatest impact first, and private investments into vaccine development constantly compete with other investment opportunities. Although vaccines have the potential to improve animal health, safeguard agricultural productivity, and reduce antibiotic consumption and resulting resistance risks, targeted research and development investments and concerted efforts by all affected are needed to realize that potential

Preoperative detection of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors using endoscopic ultrasonography Detección preoperatoria de los tumores neuroendocrinos digestivos mediante ultrasonografía endoscópica

Objective: almost 30% of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEPET) escape preoperative identification using standard imaging techniques. The goal of this retrospective study is to present our cumulative experience in the assessment of GEPET by preoperative endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), and to compare it with a literature review. Patients and methods: thirty-seven patients with suspected specific hormonal syndromes were sequentially examined with US, CT, MRI, angiography, OctreoScan, and radial and sectorial EUS. Sixteen were males (43%) and 21 were females (57%), with a mean age of 61 years (interval: 40-84 a). Of all 37 patients, 27 had 19 endocrine tumors in the pancreas and 14 tumors in their gastrointestinal tract. No tumors were demonstrated in 10 patients, hence they were used as a control group. Of all 37 patients, 24 were operated on or had histological samples collected, with the presence of 26 GEPET (10 carcinoids) being confirmed in 22 patients. Results: EUS sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy were 81% and 78%. Specificity was 80%. All these values were similar to the mean values obtained from the literature review. Three pancreatic rumors smaller than or equal to 1 cm (insulinomas) were detected, which had escaped diagnosis with previous US, CT, and MRI studies. An echoendoscopic examination of the pancreas could not be completed in two cases (5%), a pancreas carcinoid and an already gastrectomized double pancreatic gastrinoma. Conclusion: EUS is a good preoperative technique for GEPET detection, and may likely be superior to other imaging techniques in the assessment of small tumors. The usefulness of EUS as a primary exploration after US or HCT has been posited for tumor diagnosis and localization before surgery

Guia de bona pràctica en la recerca en ciències de la salut de l'ICS

Guia de bona pràctica; Recerca en ciències de la salut; Personal investigadorGood practice guide; Research in health sciences; Research staffGuía de buena práctica; Investigación en ciencias de la salud; Personal investigadorEn la recerca, com en altres activitats humanes creatives, es presenta amb gran freqüència el dilema entre la llibertat de l’investigador o la investigadora per a l’obtenció del coneixement científic (valors individuals) i els drets i les necessitats de la societat (valors socials). En ambdós casos són drets i béns jurídicament protegits. Els comitès ètics, en les seves diferents especialitzacions (assistencial, d’investigació, d’integritat científica), han de fomentar l’honestedat i la validesa del procés investigador i han de vetllar perquè les institucions, el personal investigador i la societat trobin el fòrum adequat per resoldre els seus conflictes. La missió d’aquest document és posar a disposició de la comunitat científica de l’ICS un instrument per a la presa de decisions tant per als òrgans de govern com per al personal investigador. En tot moment, la Guia i el seu potencial d’aplicació han de ser presidits pels valors i principis ètics de la pràctica científica més exigent i actualitzada