La Salute della donna in post-menopausa: dalla fisiologia alla terapia

La menopausa è quel periodo della vita delle donna che è caratterizzato da notevoli cambiamenti in vari distretti corporei che spesso si associano ad un aumentato rischio di insorgenza di patologie. E’ noto, ad esempio, che con la menopausa aumenta il rischio cardiovascolare, come pure aumenta il rischio di fratture da osteoporosi e disturbi dell’apparato genitale. Alla base dei suddetti cambiamenti vi è la cessazione della funzione ovarica con il conseguente calo degli estrogeni circolanti e la perdita degli effetti protettivi esercitati da essi durante il periodo fertile. Attualmente, a conclusione di 2 importanti studi di prevenzione primaria e secondaria sembra siano state abbandonate tutte le speranze circa il successo della terapia sostitutiva estro-progestinica. Lo studio del fisiologico profilo ormonale della donna nel periodo fertile e delle azioni espletate dai vari ormoni sessuali, inclusi gli androgeni, nei vari distretti corporei, fornisce la base per credere nella giustezza della terapia ormonale sostituiva; nel contempo, dalla fisiologia comprendiamo che qualche meccanismo è stato finora trascurato e potrebbe spiegare il fallimento della terapia ormonale, finora sperimentata. Sono, infatti, aumentate le evidenze scientifiche circa gli effetti positivi di una terapia ormonale che includa testosterone. Studi di popolazione hanno evidenziato che le donne in menopausa con maggiori concentrazioni di testosterone totale o libero hanno il minor rischio di aterosclerosi carotidea. Studi di laboratorio hanno dimostrato che il testosterone è in grado di inibire la formazione della placca aterosclerotica mentre quelli sulla somministrazione degli androgeni nelle donne hanno rivelato un profilo globale di sicurezza, senza alcuna comparsa di eventi avversi. L’opinione che il testosterone abbia effetti pro-aterogeni nel sesso femminile può e deve essere considerata un pregiudizio, non sostenuto attualmente da prove scientifiche, che se portato ulteriormente avanti, continuerà a frenare l’avanzare della ricerca nel campo della salute delle donna in postmenopausa e a privare le donne di una opzione terapeutica pratica e vicina alla sua condizione fisiologica.Estrogen and/or progestin replacement therapy was viewed as the perfect solution for many healthy problems in postmenopausal women and was worldwide approved for relief of menopausal symptoms, prevention of osteoporosis and long-term use has been in vogue to prevent a range of chronic conditions, especially heart disease. However, recent evidence from primary and secondary prevention trials and observational studies showed increased risk of coronary heart disease and created doubt about the role of hormones replacement therapy in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, there is increasing interest in the use of Testosterone as part of replacement therapy, in particular to improve reported impaired sexual function. In this work, we want to provide a useful review of the current knowledge regarding sexual hormones actions and their effects in the body districts. Now is the time to take a look at role of androgens on women’s health. Observational studies showed in the postmeopausal women with higher total testosterone, the lower risk of carotid atherosclerosis, and the inhibition of atherosclerotic plaque development in culture studies with testosterone. The studies in humans with exogenous androgens showed that testosterone administration is well tolerated, with few side effects. The women physiology can help the physicians to provide the best therapy for prevention of cardiovascular diseas

Commercial hatchery practices have long-lasting effects on laying hens' spatial behaviour and health.

The commercial hatchery process is globally standardized and exposes billions of day-old layer chicks to stress every year. By alleviating this early stress, on-farm hatching is thought to improve animal welfare, yet little is known about its effects throughout production. This study compared welfare indicators and spatial behaviours during the laying period of hens hatched in an on-farm environment (OFH) to those hatched in a commercial hatchery and transferred at one day-old to a rearing barn (STAN). In particular, we assessed how OFH and TRAN hens differed in space-use and movement behaviours following the transfer to the laying barn at 17 weeks of age, a similar stressor encountered by STAN hens early in life, and determined whether effects aligned more with the 'silver-spoon' or 'environmental matching' hypothesis. We found that for the first three months post-transfer into the laying barn, OFH hens, on average, transitioned less between the aviary's tiers and spent less time on the littered floor. Because OFH hens became behaviourally more similar to STAN hens over time, these results suggest that OFH hens required a prolonged period to establish their daily behavioural patterns. Furthermore, OFH hens had more severe keel bone fractures throughout the laying period but similar feather damage and body mass to STAN hens. No differences were found in hen mortality or the number of eggs per live hen. These findings support the environmental matching hypothesis and suggest that early-life stressors may have prepared hens for later-life stressors, underscoring the importance of both early-life and adult environments in enhancing animal welfare throughout production

Vicende delle pubbliche libertà in Piemonte dai primi tempi di casa Savoia ad Emanuele Filiberto / Camillo Montalcini

Vicende delle pubbliche libertà in Piemonte dai primi tempi di casa Savoia ad Emanuele Filiberto / Camillo Montalcini Torino : Tipografia A. Locatelli, 1884 120 p. ; 24 cm

Evaluation of an Active LF Tracking System and Data Processing Methods for Livestock Precision Farming in the Poultry Sector

Tracking technologies offer a way to monitor movement of many individuals over long time periods with minimal disturbances and could become a helpful tool for a variety of uses in animal agriculture, including health monitoring or selection of breeding traits that benefit welfare within intensive cage-free poultry farming. Herein, we present an active, low-frequency tracking system that distinguishes between five predefined zones within a commercial aviary. We aimed to evaluate both the processed and unprocessed datasets against a “ground truth” based on video observations. The two data processing methods aimed to filter false registrations, one with a simple deterministic approach and one with a tree-based classifier. We found the unprocessed data accurately determined birds’ presence/absence in each zone with an accuracy of 99% but overestimated the number of transitions taken by birds per zone, explaining only 23% of the actual variation. However, the two processed datasets were found to be suitable to monitor the number of transitions per individual, accounting for 91% and 99% of the actual variation, respectively. To further evaluate the tracking system, we estimated the error rate of registrations (by applying the classifier) in relation to three factors, which suggested a higher number of false registrations towards specific areas, periods with reduced humidity, and periods with reduced temperature. We concluded that the presented tracking system is well suited for commercial aviaries to measure individuals’ transitions and individuals’ presence/absence in predefined zones. Nonetheless, under these settings, data processing remains a necessary step in obtaining reliable data. For future work, we recommend the use of automatic calibration to improve the system’s performance and to envision finer movements

Tracking performance in poultry is affected by data cleaning method and housing system

Sensor-based behavioural observation methods improve our understanding of individual behaviour and welfare in large commercial groups, including poultry. Validating automatically generated data is essential to account for potential sources of error. Our study aimed to validate a sensor-based tracking system for broiler breeders (BB) and laying hens (LH) in commercially relevant housing systems. The BB study was conducted in 10 pens with 33 females and three males (Ross 308) per pen. Half of the pens contained a raised slatted area and two raised group nests (Raised), while in the remaining five pens, the nests and slats were on the floor (Floor). For the LH study, six pens with a commercial aviary were used, with 225 Dekalb White hens housed per pen (Aviary). Focal hens (BB, 10/pen; LH, 18/pen) were equipped with backpacks containing tracking devices that registered transitions between four (BB) or five (LH) resource-related zones covering all accessible areas within each housing system. The tracking data was compared against video observations for 20 focal BB on two days and 18 focal LH on three days (3 × 20 min/day). Three data cleaning methods tested with 30 values of a duration parameter were evaluated for reliability and stability with a cross-validation approach. Initial and post-cleaning performance were assessed with accuracy, precision, and sensitivity of recorded transitions and by calculating the reliability for two aspects of movement: total transitions (Lin’s Concordance Correlation Coefficient) and locations (mean proportion of matching duration). A mixed model was applied to evaluate the duration of stay after false and true tracking registrations. Initial location reliability was high (> 0.949) in all housing systems, while reliability of total transitions was low ( 0.832) while reliability of locations remained high (> 0.949) in Aviary and Raised. The duration between registrations was affected by housing system (p < 0.001) and was longer for true compared to false registrations (p < 0.001). Initial tracking performance varied between movement aspects and housing systems. The difference in duration between true and false registrations allowed for the application of simple yet effective data cleaning in Aviary and Raised, ensuring that the generated data better represented the animal's actual movement with reduced error associated with the tracking system

Intra-individual variation of hen movements is associated with later keel bone fractures in a quasi-commercial aviary.

Measuring intra- and inter-individual variation in movement can bring important insights into the fundamental ecology of animals and their welfare. Although previous studies identified consistent differences in movements of laying hens within commercial aviaries, the level of consistency was not quantified, limiting our capacity to understand the importance of individual movements for welfare. We aimed to quantify the scope of intra- and inter-individual differences in movements of commercial laying hens and examined their associations with indicators of welfare at the end of production. We quantified individual differences in one composite daily movement score for 80 hens over 54 days post-transfer to a quasi-commercial aviary. Results showed consistent inter-individual differences in movement averages, explaining 44% of the variation, as well as individual variation in predictability and temporal plasticity (at the population-level, hens increased their movements for 39 days). Hens that were more predictable in their daily movements had more severe keel bone fractures at the end of production while we found no such correlation between daily movement averages (individual intercept) and welfare indicators. Our findings highlight the importance of inter-individual difference in intra-individual variation of movements to improve poultry welfare