A standardised approach towards PROving the efficacy of foods and Food Constituents for Health CLAIMs (PROCLAIM: providing guidance

Diet is well known to have beneficial health properties that extend beyond traditionally accepted nutritional effects. The approach involved in elucidating these beneficial physiological effects is becoming more important, as reflected by increasing research being undertaken. With growing consumer awareness of foods and food constituents and their relationship to health, the key questions for regulators, scientists and the food industry continue to relate to: (1) how consumers could be protected and have confidence that the health claims on foods are well supported by the evidence; (2) how research on physiological effects of food (constituents) and their health benefits could be stimulated and supported; (3) how research findings could be used in the development of innovative new food products. The objectives of this paper are to provide a set of recommendations on the substantiation of health claims for foods, to develop further guidance on the choice of validated markers (or marker patterns) and what effects are considered to be beneficial to the health of the general public (or specific target groups). Finally, the case for developing a standardised approach for assessing the totality of the available scientific data and weighing the evidence is propose

DNA methylation in insects

Cytosine DNA methylation has been demonstrated in numerous eukaryotic organisms and has been shown to play an important role in human disease. The function of DNA methylation has been studied extensively in vertebrates, but establishing its primary role has proved difficult and controversial. Analysing methylation in insects has indicated an apparent functional diversity that seems to argue against a strict functional conservation. To investigate this hypothesis, we here assess the data reported in four different insect species in which DNA methylation has been analysed more thoroughly: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae, the peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae and the mealybug Planococcus citri

Atividade ovicida de dois fármacos em caprinos naturalmente parasitados por nematódeos gastrintestinais, RS, Brasil Ovicidal activity of two medicaments against goat gastrointestinal nematode in RS, Brazil

A eficácia comparativa entre levamisole em duas doses diferentes e closantel foi avaliada sobre ovos de nematódeos gastrintestinais de caprinos naturalmente parasitados. Observou-se que a redução de ovos de nematódeos gastrintestinais foi de 93,23%, 91,25% e 70,42% nos grupos medicados com levamisole 8mg/kg, levamisole 11mg/kg e closantel 10mg/kg, respectivamente. O teste de desenvolvimento embrionário revelou que levamisole, nas duas doses, foi eficaz sobre Haemonchus spp., Ostertagia spp., Cooperia spp. e Oesophagostomum spp. O closantel não foi eficaz para Cooperia spp e Oesophagostomum spp.<br>The efficacy of the anthelmintics levamisole in two different doses (8mg/kg and 11mg/kg) and closantel (10mg/kg) were compared against gastrointestinal nematodes in naturally infected goats. The reduction on the faecal egg count was 93.23% in the group treated with levamisole at the dose of 8mg/kg, 91.25% in the group treated with the dose of 11mg/kg and 70.42% in the group treated with closantel. The anthelmintic levamisole was effective against Haemonchus spp., Ostertagia spp., Cooperia spp and Oesophagostomum spp. However, closantel wasn't effective against Cooperia spp and Oesophagostomum spp