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PubMed2004

Development of agroenvironmental indicators to evaluate the hygienic pressure of livestock production on human health.

Infections by enteropathogenic microorganisms linked to agroenvironmental contamination represent a significant threat to urban and rural communities. To better characterize and manage this risk, it is necessary, not only to accurately describe enteric illnesses occurring over time or across regions, but also to correctly assess exposure attributable to this environmental pollution. New agroenvironmental hygienic pressure indicators (AHPIs) were developed to synthesise relevant data expressing this exposure. They were derived from a conceptual framework for developing sustainable agriculture indicators and specifically adapted for describing the microbial risk of water contamination by livestock operations. The proposed indicators include two components, and five attributes whose values are calculated at the livestock operation level from a set of available data related to the fields of microbiology, animal production, agronomy, hydrology, and meteorology. They are then aggregated at a higher geographical level to better express exposure of human populations to potential of water contamination by zoonotic enteropathogens. The indicators are calculated separately by zoonotic enteropathogens, and by water source (surface or groundwater). They take into account the various animal species within each livestock operation. When validated, the proposed indicators will allow decision-makers and public health officials to better manage crucial issues in the area of water safety and agriculture.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2003

Home gardening in urban poor communities of the Philippines.

The deficiencies of micronutrients, in particular iron and vitamin A, are common in the Philippines, but their control measures through supplementation and fortification have shown several weaknesses. The present study examines the outcomes of a community-based approach including promotion of home gardening and a diversified dietary practice. A total of 152 mothers in two poor urban communities in Davao City, the Philippines were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Participants were also asked to keep a brief 7-day self-administered household food record. Focus group discussions were conducted to obtain in-depth information on their attitudes toward home gardening and vegetable consumption. Home garden produce contributed to the diversification of carbohydrate consumed among participants. However, home garden produce reduced the consumption of protein-rich food. There was therefore no discernible improvement in the diets of participants from the consumption of home garden produce. In communities where there was no greengrocer, respondents shared the produce from home gardens. The community-based diet improvement program facilitated home gardening practices, which influenced the dietary practices of the urban poor. The monitoring of food consumption together with community-based programs needs to be expanded in urban poor communities. Our focus group discussion revealed that there was a cognition linking home gardening and vegetable consumption to poverty among some of the participants. More study is necessary on this finding.

Crops, Agricultural↗
PubMed2004

The status of wild food plants in Bulamogi County, Uganda.

We present here an inventory of the edible plants of Bulamogi, Uganda, and related aspects of exploitation of wild food plants (WFPs) by the local community. The edible plants consist of 105 species distributed in 77 genera and 39 families. Most of the edible plants are herbaceous (70.7%) and are cultivated (49.1%). Some introduced food plants have become naturalised and grow wild. Most of the edible plants yield fruits that are consumed as snacks (41.4%). The major food crops of the Balamogi are consumed locally, while few are traded. The proportion of WFPs is only 32.8% of the edible plants. WFPs are infrequently eaten and their consumption is limited to casual encounters, periods of food shortages and as supplements to major food crops. The main reasons for their neglect are the wide variety of introduced cultivated foods and the increasing difficulty of finding WFPs in the wild. Erosion of traditional knowledge about WFPs has also contributed to their declining use.

Crops, Agricultural↗
PubMed2000

Lactase haplotype diversity in the Old World.

Lactase persistence, the genetic trait in which intestinal lactase activity persists at childhood levels into adulthood, varies in frequency in different human populations, being most frequent in northern Europeans and certain African and Arabian nomadic tribes, who have a history of drinking fresh milk. Selection is likely to have played an important role in establishing these different frequencies since the development of agricultural pastoralism approximately 9,000 years ago. We have previously shown that the element responsible for the lactase persistence/nonpersistence polymorphism in humans is cis-acting to the lactase gene and that lactase persistence is associated, in Europeans, with the most common 70-kb lactase haplotype, A. We report here a study of the 11-site haplotype in 1,338 chromosomes from 11 populations that differ in lactase persistence frequency. Our data show that haplotype diversity was generated both by point mutations and recombinations. The four globally common haplotypes (A, B, C, and U) are not closely related and have different distributions; the A haplotype is at high frequencies only in northern Europeans, where lactase persistence is common; and the U haplotype is virtually absent from Indo-European populations. Much more diversity is seen in sub-Saharan Africans than in non-Africans, consistent with an "Out of Africa" model for peopling of the Old World. Analysis of recent recombinant haplotypes by allele-specific PCR, along with deduction of the root haplotype from chimpanzee sequence, allowed construction of a haplotype network that assisted in evaluation of the relative roles of drift and selection in establishing the haplotype frequencies in the different populations. We suggest that genetic drift was important in shaping the general pattern of non-African haplotype diversity, with recent directional selection in northern Europeans for the haplotype associated with lactase persistence.

Africa South of the Sahara↗
PubMed1985

The 1984 Association Lecture of the Hospital Physicists' Association. Man and his environment.

Man has multiplied and become civilised by changing his environment to suit himself, especially by the development of agriculture. The near-elimination of infectious diseases among the young and middle-aged has increased the cancer death rates in Britain, which mainly affect the elderly, to 130 000 a year. A large proportion of cancers are initiated by environmental factors which should be discoverable and removable. Natural radon may be responsible for up to 400 cancer deaths annually and radiation from the nuclear industry for one or two more. An important number of cancers must be due to air pollution from the burning of coal and oil, which are also injuring the wildlife of the northern hemisphere and which, by increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, may be changing the climate of the whole planet.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Diversification of antisense research and development: review of the Ringberg meeting, April 1994. Mechanisms of antisense-mediated gene silencing.

Antisense technology has established itself as a new and vibrant entrant into the discipline of molecular biology. As such, it has contributed to basic research by providing tools for the molecular dissection of diverse experimental systems. In applied research, antisense approaches have contributed to development of agricultural products (D. Grierson) now coming to market and to the design of a number of oligonucleotide drugs, now in clinical trials. However, few activities to date have focused on the study of antisense per se. Further, few conceptual perspectives have regarded antisense as an integral part of cellular function and genetic regulation. The Ringberg conference showcased a number of systems that would seem unrelated if we regard antisense as a superficial tool to be imposed on nature. On the other hand, if we want to begin to regard antisense as a field of its own with deeper biological and genetic rationales, the Ringberg meeting provided much tantalizing evidence to do so.

Antisense Elements (Genetics)↗
PubMed2001

They don't care.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Biotechnology↗
PubMed2005

Nutrition surveys in Burma and northeast Brazil.

Participation of the author in the Interdepartmental Committee on Nutrition for National Defense sponsored nutrition surveys of Burma and northeast Brazil is described. These surveys not only collected important data on nutritional status but also guided the subsequent research interests of the author. The Brazil survey results contributed to the creation of legislation that mandated the addition of water-dispersible vitamin A to skimmed-milk powder products. This additive has greatly diminished the likelihood of vitamin A deficiency syndrome occurring in children after famine relief efforts.

Brazil↗
PubMed2001

Out of Africa: origins of the Taenia tapeworms in humans.

Phylogenetic and divergence date analyses indicate that the occurrence of Taenia tapeworms in humans pre-dates the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and domestication of cattle (Bos spp.) or swine (Sus scrofa). Taeniid tapeworms in Africa twice independently colonized hominids and the genus Homo prior to the origin of modern humans. Dietary and behavioural shifts, from herbivory to scavenging and carnivory, as early Homo entered the carnivore guild in the Pliocene/Pleistocene, were drivers for host switching by tapeworms to hominids from carnivores including hyaenids and felids. Parasitological data provide a unique means of elucidating the historical ecology, foraging behaviour and food habits of hominids during the diversification of Homo spp.

Africa↗
PubMed1991

Contemporary human diets and their relation to health and growth: overview and conclusions.

Contemporary human diets are probably as diverse now as they have ever been in the history of mankind. The abundance of food in the western world is in stark contrast to the lack of food and near starvation in parts of Africa, the continent where Homo sapiens evolved. The development of agriculture has enabled the population of the world to expand and to colonize almost the whole of its land surface, but the dependence on one staple food has introduced problems. If the staple crop fails, for example because of drought, there may be no alternative, and undernutrition and starvation are the result. Further, if the rest of the diet does not provide the nutrients that the staple food lacks, diseases due to specific nutrient deficiencies become widespread. Vitamin deficiencies among adults are less common now than they were 50 years ago, but even today millions of children in the poor rice-eating areas of the world are blind because their diets were deficient in vitamin A. For physiological reasons infants and young children will suffer most wherever there is a scarcity of food, of water, or of specific nutrients.

Animals↗