Food security and safety concerns in animal production and public health issues in Africa: A perspective of COVID-19 pandemic era.

The impact of COVID-19 on food security can best be understood from the downturn on agricultural and other related economic activities which were almost brought to a total halt during the pandemic. The restriction of movement/lockdown policy instituted by various governments heavily affected local and national food production as farmers could not go to their farmlands. More so, there was price gouging on raw food items as local farmers were reducing cultivation and harvest because of their safety. The lockdown also affected the transportation of food products from farms and local companies to the market and across inter-state/province borders. Additionally, many human infections traceable to disease outbreak from animal origin suggest a great risk of exposure to infectious agents by live animal farmers. In combating this menace, local food production needs to be encouraged more, while measures should be put in place to facilitate farmer's participation in government regulations on enforcing biosecurity, health standards, disease monitoring, and surveillance practices.

L'impact de la COVID-19 sur la sécurité alimentaire peut être mieux compris à partir du ralentissement des activités agricoles, et autres activités économiques connexes, qui ont été presque totalement interrompues pendant la pandémie. La restriction des déplacements et le verrouillage institué par les différents gouvernements ont fortement affecté la production alimentaire locale et nationale, les agriculteurs ne pouvant plus se rendre sur leurs terres. De plus, les prix des produits alimentaires bruts ont été réduits, car les agriculteurs locaux ont réduit leurs cultures et leurs récoltes en raison de leur sécurité. Le blocage a également affecté le transport des produits alimentaires des fermes et des entreprises locales vers le marché et au-delà des frontières entre les États et les provinces. En outre, de nombreuses infections humaines, dont on peut retracer l'origine animale, suggèrent un grand risque d'exposition des éleveurs d'animaux vivants à des agents infectieux. Pour lutter contre cette menace, il convient d'encourager davantage la production alimentaire locale, tout en mettant en place des mesures visant à faciliter la participation des agriculteurs aux réglementations gouvernementales relatives à l'application de la biosécurité, des normes sanitaires, du suivi des maladies et des pratiques de surveillance.

Risk factors for distant metastases from carcinoma of the parotid gland.

BACKGROUND: Distant metastases (DM) have become an increasingly common cause of death in cancer patients because of the increasing therapeutic control of locoregional disease. However, little data exist regarding the role of clinical factors in predicting the likelihood of DM in patients with carcinoma of the parotid gland. METHODS: To analyze the incidence of DM and the factors involved in developing DM, the authors retrospectively studied clinical and survival data from 124 consecutive patients with parotid gland carcinoma who were surgically treated at the Institute of Otolaryngology of the University of Florence. RESULTS: DM occurred in 33 of 124 patients (26.6%). Patients with high grade carcinoma had a higher occurrence of DM than those with low grade disease (30.6% vs. 17.9%; P = 0.033). The presence or absence of tumor positive cervical lymph nodes in dissection specimens significantly influenced the occurrence of DM (68.2% vs. 23.7%) (P = 0.007), as well as the number of histologically positive cervical lymph nodes (P = 0.014). Clinical signs of local tumor extension, particularly facial nerve impairment, were found to be associated with a higher rate of DM (P = 0.008). Moreover, tumor size (P = 0.0216) and clinical stage (P = 0.010) were prognostically significant in predicting the incidence of DM. Interestingly, locoregional tumor failure (P = 0.096) did not affect the risk of DM. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that clinical stage and facial nerve infiltration were the most important factors in predicting the risk of DMs (P = 0.010; hazard ratio [HR]: 3.75; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-13.05 and P = 0.041; HR: 2.75; 95% CI: 1.04-7.30, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Tumor stage and local aggressiveness were found to be the major prognostic factors in predicting the risk of distant failure in patients with carcinoma of the parotid gland.

Mt. Cimone Observatory: baseline station for the measurement of gaseous substances and radioactive tracers in the atmosphere.

An extensive research program to record atmospheric physicochemical parameters and to track climatological trends was established at a remote Alpine station at Mt. Cimone Observatory in Italy. The main features of the study are outlined briefly and the results thus far collected, including surface ozone, carbon dioxide, stratospheric NO2 and O3, and airborne radioactivity are provided.

Value of combined assessment of physical health and functional status in community-dwelling aged: a prospective study in Florence, Italy.

A survey of the health and social conditions of a representative sample of 967 persons aged 60 years and older from the city of Florence, Italy, was undertaken in 1980. In 1987, a follow-up survey of this cohort was performed. There were 391 documented deaths, 408 survivors, and 168 individuals who could not be located. Functional ability at baseline was assessed using a World Health Organization 14-item scale. Indicators of physical health status included chronic disease status, number of drugs, physician visits, and days of hospitalization. After adjustment for age and sex, both functional ability and indicators of physical health status were found to be independent, statistically significant predictors of mortality. The results of this study further support the view that biomedical and functional assessment are both necessary for a comprehensive evaluation of the older population.

[Our experience with antibiotic therapy in children hospitalized between 1979 and 1981]. / Esperienze sull'antibioticoterapia nel bambino ricoverato 1979-1981.

The use of antibiotics in the Children Hospital of Florence has been studied considering the whole hospital for 1979 and only one department for 1980-81. 7832 clinical records of children admitted to the Hospital have been analyzed in order to get more informations about the quality of antibiotic treatment and to understand the causes of use and misuse of this kind of drugs in pediatric practice.

Amino acid composition of the diet in a region of Southern Tunisia.

As part of a study of the effects of lysine supplementation of wheat products in Southern Tunisia one qualitative and four quantitative surveys of food consumption were carried out. The average diet provided 7.1 MJ (1,670 kcal), 42 g of protein and 1,280 mg of lysine per person per day. The overall dietary protein thus supplied only 31 mg of lysine/g of protein, or about 56% of the level recommended by the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Protein Requirements. Addition of lysine to all wheat products to a final effective concentration of 0.2% would raise the dietary lysine level to 45 mg/g protein, or 82% of the FAO/WHO recommended level, at which time threonine would become limiting. Irrespective of whether the FAO/WHO pattern of 1973, breast milk, cow's milk, whole egg or a modification of the FAO pattern of 1957 was used to assess the quality of the protein in the diet, lysine was the first, and threonine the second limiting amino acid (except in comparison with breast milk, which showed tryptophan as the second limiting amino acid). In no case did there appear to be any problem with the sulfur-containing amino acids.

Nutritional correlates of child development in southern Tunisia. IV. The relation of deciduous dental eruption to somatic development.

Deciduous dental eruption in a group of 658 children below 3 years of age in Southern Tunisia was found to be correlated with the general somatic development. On the other hand, this association was less close than that among the different components of somatic growth, suggesting that dental eruption is less affected by the factors which delay somatic growth in that area. Attempts were made to obtain methods of estimating the ages of children using the number of erupted deciduous teeth, both by means of regression equations and by a table of the median age of children with different numbers of pairs of teeth. In both cases the estimates obtainable are not accurate enough to do more than divide the children into coarse age groups. It is concluded that in anthropometric work there is no substitute for accurately known chronological ages.