Leonardo da Vinci's Animal Anatomy: Bear and Horse Drawings Revisited

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most influencing personalities of his time, the perfect representation of the ideal Renaissance man, an expert painter, engineer and anatomist. Regarding Leonardo’s anatomical drawings, apart from human anatomy, he also depicted some animal species. This comparative study focused only on two species: Bears and horses. He produced some anatomical drawings to illustrate the dissection of “a bear’s foot” (Royal Collection Trust), previously described as “the left leg and foot of a bear”, but considering some anatomical details, we concluded that they depict the bear’s right pelvic limb. This misconception was due to the assumption that the bear’s digit I (1st toe) was the largest one, as in humans. We also analyzed a rough sketch (not previously reported), on the same page, and we concluded that it depicts the left antebrachium (forearm) and manus (hand) of a dog/wolf. Regarding Leonardo’s drawing representing the horse anatomy “The viscera of a horse”, the blood vessel arrangement and other anatomical structures are not consistent with the structure of the horse, but are more in accordance with the anatomy of a dog. In addition, other drawings comparing the anatomy of human leg muscles to that of horse pelvic limbs were also discussed in motion.S

The Cat Mandible (I): Anatomical Basis to Avoid Iatrogenic Damage in Veterinary Clinical Practice

Cats are one of our favourite pets in the home. They differ considerably from dogs but are usually treated clinically as small dogs, despite some anatomical and physiological dissimilarities. Their mandible is small and has some peculiarities relative to the dentition (only three incisors, a prominent canine, two premolars and one molar); a conical and horizontally oriented condyle, and a protudent angular process in its ventrocaudal part. Most of the body of the mandible is occupied by the mandibular dental roots and the mandibular canal that protects the neurovascular supply: the inferior alveolar artery and vein, and the inferior alveolar nerve that exits the mandible rostrally as the mental nerves. They irrigate and innervate all the teeth and associated structures such as the lips and gingiva. Tooth roots and the mandibular canal account for up to 70% of the volume of the mandibular body. Consequently, when fractured it is difficult to repair without invading the dental roots or vascular structures. Gaining a comprehensive anatomical knowledge and good clinical practice (such as image diagnosis before and post-surgery) will help in the awareness and avoidance of iatrogenic complications in day-to-day feline clinical practiceS

Polarized light microscopy guarantees the use of autochthonous wheat in the production of flour for the Protected Geographical Indication ‘Galician Bread’

‘Galician Bread’ is a traditional baked product and a national benchmark that has recently been granted the European mark of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), which requires at least 25% of the flour to be produced from autochthonous varieties such as ‘Caaveiro’. The objective of this work was to find a method that guarantees the presence and the percentage of ‘Caaveiro’ wheat in blended flours by using microscopy techniques. Using optical microscopy, including bright-field and polarizing microscopy, autochthonous and foreign flours were analyzed and compared. ‘Caaveiro’ starch presented a different birefringence pattern (associated with a higher amount of amylose) with respect to other cultivars used to produce flours, a feature used to make a computation of the two starch granule types in the mixtures of ‘Caaveiro’ with foreign flours. Repetitions with different mixture percentages allowed us to develop a mathematical model to estimate the percentage of ‘Caaveiro’ flour present in the mixture. Firstly, the most effective method for preparing samples was determined by ensuring the homogeneity of the samples and, subsequently, a validation was carried out with blind samples. Starch birefringence properties allowed the detection of ‘Caaveiro’ wheat flour in mixtures with foreign/Castilian wheat flours and to determine the percentages used in the flour mixtures applying a calibration line (R2 = 0.9577). Deviations were due to the difficulty in obtaining precise mixtures of the blended flours, as happened with other Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR)-based methods used in the same samples. This is a novel method for detecting contraventions/infractions of the percentage of ‘Caaveiro’ used in wheat flours, which is simple, effective and inexpensiveThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2021-2023 (PID2021-123905OB-I00). We would like to thank Da Cunha Group for the samples and their support of the ‘Cátedra do Pan e do Cereal’. Nerea Fernández-Canto is grateful to Xunta de Galicia for her predoctoral research fellowship (ED481A-2019/263)S

Traceability of the local cultivar ‘Caaveiro’ in flour mixtures used to produce Galician bread by simple sequence repeats and droplet digital polymerase chain reaction technology

The analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and of bulk ground samples by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) was investigated as an alternative to individual kernel testing for assessing the presence of local cultivars in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varietal blends. The recent Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) of ‘Pan Galego’ (Galician bread) requires that the flour comprise a minimum 25% local wheat cultivars. As a test for compliance with this minimum level, wheat flours were prepared by mixing commercial flours with 0%, 5%, 20%, 25% and 30% ‘Caaveiro’ and 100% ‘Caaveiro’ and 100% commercial flours were used as controls. A second analysis was performed with a second set of wheat flours with 5% and 25% ‘Caaveiro’. These were mixed with two different commercial flours to assess the potential ability of five SSRs to identify the percentage of ‘Caaveiro’, constituting the first reference of the use of SSRs in the traceability of specific autochthonous cultivars in flour blends. ddPCR using the QX200 system platform was used to the targeted proportions across the simulated range with two out of five SSRs, indicating that they can be used in the traceability of ‘Caaveiro’ in mixed flours and breadsS

Vocabulario de morfoloxía, anatomía e citoloxía veterinaria [galego-español-inglés]

Consellaría do Medio Rural. Xunta de Galici

Element Content in Different Wheat Flours and Bread Varieties

The most consumed cereal-based product worldwide is bread. “Caaveiro”, an autochthonous variety with a recent growing interest, is one of the wheat varieties that fulfill the 25% local flour requirement in the PGI “Pan Galego” bread baking industry. The element content of the refined wheat flours used to make “Pan Galego” (‘‘Caaveiro’’, FCv; Castilla, FC; and a mixture of both, FM) was evaluated in ICP-MS. In addition, wholegrain flour (FWM) was included in the analysis. Loaves of bread were made with these flours (a, 100% FC; b, 100% FCv); and c, FM: 75% FC + 25% FCv) and their element content was analyzed. Wholegrain flour ranked the highest in almost all elements, highlighting the P (494.80 mg/100 g), while the FM and the FC presented the opposite behavior, with the highest Se values (14.4 and 15.8 mg/100 g, respectively). FCv was situated in an intermediate position regarding P, K, Mg, Mn, Zn, Fe and Na content, standing closer to FWM, although it presents the highest values for Cu (1076.3 µg/100 g). The differences observed in flour were maintained in bread. Hence, the local cultivar ‘‘Caaveiro’’ has an interesting nutritional profile from the point of view of the element content