The need for a supply of high quality organic vegetable seeds

Abstract -Production of high quality organic vegetable seeds encounters several challenges. Research is performed to support seed companies in producing vigorous and healthy organic vegetable seeds. Examples are provided with respect to research on seed vigour, determining critical control points to avoid disease transmission to the seeds, seed treatments with natural compounds, new seed sorting techniques and enhancement of the natural plant defence. It is noticed that the restrictions in EU regulation 2092/91 on organic production are at present blocking the use of promising natural and sustainable components for seed treatments

HPV DNA testing in population-based cervical screening (VUSA-Screen study): results and implications.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is more sensitive than cytology for detecting high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). We evaluated the performance of high-risk HPV (hrHPV) testing in routine screening. METHODS: In all, 25,871 women (29-61) enrolled in our population-based cohort study were offered both cytology and hrHPV testing. High-risk HPV-positive women with normal cytology and an age-matched subcohort of hrHPV-negative women with normal cytology were invited for repeat testing after 1 and/or 2 years and were referred for colposcopy if they presented with abnormal cytology and/or a positive hrHPV test. The hrHPV-positive women with borderline or mild dyskaryosis (BMD) and all women with moderate dyskaryosis or worse (>BMD) were directly referred for colposcopy. Women with BMD and an hrHPV-negative test were advised to repeat cytology at 6 and 18 months and were referred for colposcopy if the repeat cytology test was abnormal. The main outcome measure was CIN grade 3 or worse (CIN3+). Results were adjusted for non-attendance at repeat testing. RESULTS: The hrHPV-positive women with abnormal cytology had a CIN3+ risk of 42.2% (95% confidence interval (CI): 36.4-48.2), whereas the hrHPV-positive women with normal cytology had a much lower risk of 5.22% (95% CI: 3.72-7.91). In hrHPV-positive women with normal cytology, an additional cytology step after 1 year reduced the CIN3+ risk to only 1.6% (95% CI: 0.6-4.9) if the repeat test was normal. The CIN3+ risk in women with hrHPV-positive normal cytology was higher among women invited for the first time (29-33 years of age) (9.1%; 95% CI: 5.6-14.3) than among older women (3.0%; 95% CI: 1.5-5.5). CONCLUSION: Primary hrHPV screening with cytology triage in women aged >/=30 years is an effective way to stratify women on CIN3+ risk and seems a feasible alternative to cytological screening. Repeat cytology after 1 year for hrHPV-positive women with normal cytology is however necessary before returning women to routine screening