Plant biodiversity of mountain grasslands as influenced by dairy farm management in the Eastern Alps

It has been widely demonstrated that farm management affects the plant species composition of grassland. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of farm management on plant species richness and composition in forty-nine small-scale farms breeding dairy cattle, located in the Eastern Italian Alps at two levels of precision: plot and farm levels. Data on housing system, quality scheme, farm productivity, income from milk yield and livestock density were collected through interviews with farmers. In each farm, botanical surveys were carried out in different plots representing the botanical composition of the farmland vegetation. Elevation, slope, type of use, number of hay cuts and type of fertilisation were also recorded. The botanical surveys of the plots on each farm were analysed to describe plant composition at the plot level, then merged to describe plant composition at the farm level. At both levels, grassland botanical composition was found to be affected by farm management. At the plot level, meadows cut 2 and 3 times per year did not exhibit any differences in plant richness, but they differed in plant species, botanical family and phytosociological class composition, with a general simplification of botanical composition. We found fewer phytosociological classes but not fewer plant species or botanical families in plots fertilised with slurry than in plots fertilised with manure or not fertilised, and a change in the botanical composition due to changes in the relative abundance of plant species. At the farm level, we observed a decrease in the number of plant species and phytosociological classes, and changes in plant composition, with increasing milk yield and livestock density. Changes in botanical composition were less evident at the farm level than at the plot level. However, protecting farms and their economic viability is a means of maintaining biodiversity at the plot level

Virological changes in chronic hepatitis type B treated with levamisole

8 children, known to have been hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive for more than 6 months and with chronic active hepatitis on biopsy, received 2.5 mg levamisole/kg/day, 2 days a week for 6-18 months. In 6 of the 8 children transaminases normalized within 4-18 months of therapy, with seroconversion to antibody to HBeAg (anti-HBe) and disappearance of HBV-DNA polymerase from serum and of hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) from liver. In these cases liver biopsies taken after treatment showed histological regression to chronic persistent hepatitis. Two distinct patterns of response to levamisole were noted: patients having higher pretreatment transaminase levels and lower expression of HBcAg in the liver showed an early transaminase normalization and anti-HBe seroconversion with therapy, while in patients with less active disease and more diffuse HBcAg positivity in pretreatment liver biopsies, longer treatment periods were necessary to achieve these effects. Our results suggest that long-term levamisole therapy may be beneficial in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis type B

ANTIBODY TO THE HEPATITIS B VIRUS RECEPTOR FOR POLYMERIZED ALBUMIN IN ACUTE INFECTION AND HEPATITIS B VACCINE RECIPIENTS

A receptor for polymerized human serum albumin is encoded by the pre-S region of the hepatitis B virus genome and may mediate attachment of the virion to hepatocytes. To investigate antibody response to the virus receptor we studied sera and their IgG fractions for inhibitory activity on hemagglutination of polyalbumin-coated red cells by virus particles containing the pre-S polypeptide. By this method antibody to the receptor was detected in serum in a goat immunized with pre-S containing particles, with no relation to levels of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen, and in the sera of 33% and 83%, respectively, of acute hepatitis B patients studied during the early phase of illness and during convalescence. In contrast, antibody to the receptor was not detected in serum in any of the 47 subjects immunized with a commercial, plasma-derived, hepatitis B vaccine. These results demonstrate that natural acute infection with hepatitis B virus leads to production of antibody to the virus receptor for polyalbumin, while such antibody response is absent after immunization with currently licensed hepatitis B vaccines

Virological changes in chronic hepatitis type B treated with levamisole.

none6noneFattovich G;Cadrobbi P;Crivellaro C;Pornaro E;Alberti A;Realdi GFattovich, G; Cadrobbi, P; Crivellaro, C; Pornaro, E; Alberti, Alfredo; Realdi, G