Nutritional quality and functional lipids in the free-range egg yolks of Brazilian family farmers / Calidad alimenticia y lípidos funcionales en las yemas de gallina del campo de agricultores de familias Brasileñas

ABSTRACT Nowadays consumers are more concerned about food quality as well as how food is produced. Moreover, consumer demand for more natural, nutritious, safer to eat, and environmentally sustainable food has drawn attention to alternative breeding systems, such as a free-range system. Hens' eggs represent a rich source of important nutrients, including lipids and carotenoids. A detailed characterization of the nutritional and lipid profile of free-range chicken eggs from family farms was carried out. The chemical composition of the free-range egg yolks confirmed the advantages of this farming system, as a relevant source of unsaturated fatty acids and carotenoids, functional compounds in the human diet. These findings can help improve income generation, food supplementation, and consolidation of the family farming system.

RESUMEN Cada vez más los consumidores se preocupan por la calidad de los alimentos, así como tambien de como ellos son producidos. Además, la demanda de los consumidores por alimentos más naturales, nutritivos, más seguros para el consumo y ambientalmente sostenibles ha llamado la atención a sistemas de cría de alternativa, como el sistema de gallina del campo. Los huevos de gallinas representan una fuente rica de sustancias nutritivas importantes, incluyendo lípidos y carotenoids. Fue realizada una caracterización detallada de los nutrientes y del perfil lipídicos de huevos de gallinas del campo de agricultores familiares. La composición química de yemas de gallinas del campo confirmó las ventajas de este sistema de producción, como una fuente importante compuestos funcionales como ácidos grasos insaturados y carotenoides, en la dieta humana. Además, estos hallados pueden ayudar a mejorar la generación de ingreso, la suplementación de alimentos y la consolidación de sistema de agricultura familiar.

Embryonated chicken eggs: An experimental model for Pythium insidiosum infection.

Pythiosis is a severe disease caused by Pythium insidiosum. Currently, the research on the treatment of pythiosis uses rabbits as an experimental infection model. To reduce the use of animals in scientific experimentation, alternative models are increasingly necessary options. The objective of this study was to establish a new experimental infection model for pythiosis using embryonated chicken eggs. First, we tested the inoculation of 4 zoospore concentrations into the egg allantoic cavity at 3 embryonic days. We observed that increased zoospore concentration causes a decrease in survival time, and at a later embryonic day (the 14th) of infection, embryos showed delayed mortality. To confirm the reproducibility of the model, we chose the 14th embryonic day for the inoculation of 50 zoospores/egg, and the experiment was repeated twice. Mortality began with 30% embryos 48 hours after inoculation, and 95% embryos died within 72 hours. There was no mortality in the uninfected control group. The infection was confirmed by culture, PCR and histopathology. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the presence of hyphae in blood vessels in the umbilical cords in 95% of embryos and only 1 liver (5%). Our results suggest that embryonated eggs can be a very useful alternative infection model to study pythiosis.

Photostimulation effects on chicken egg development: Perspectives on human newborn treatment.

It is well known that, under exposure to bright light, eggs tend to hatch earlier than control, without any damage to the birds. This report aims to systematically show the effect and establishes a proposal for a possible application to accelerate chicken egg formation, which could be extrapolated or adapted as a great advance in premature human newborns. Comparing several protocols, the experiments show that lower doses of light slowly delivered for 24 h promote higher efficiency in embryo development, increasing on average 25% of its size and more than 70% in weight when compared to the control. This weight difference shows promising results compared to rates of up to 17% found in the literature. These results can be a first step to reduce the stay of premature human infants in hospitals because light, when applied in very low doses, can accelerate the natural biological processes without risks.

Eye and heart morphogenesis are dependent on melatonin signaling in chick embryos.

Calmodulin is vital for chick embryos morphogenesis in the incubation time 48-66 h when the rudimentary C-shaped heart attains an S-shaped pattern and the optic vesicles develop into optic cups. Melatonin is in the extraembryonic yolk sac of the avian egg; melatonin binds calmodulin. The aim of this study was to investigate the function of melatonin in the formation of the chick embryo optic cups and S-shaped heart, by pharmacological methods and immunoassays. Mel1a melatonin receptor immunofluorescence was distributed in the optic cups and rudimentary hearts. We separated embryonated chicken eggs at 48 h of incubation into basal, control and drug-treated groups, with treatment applied in the egg air sac. At 66 h of incubation, embryos were excised from the eggs and analyzed. Embryos from the basal, control (distilled water), melatonin and 6-chloromelatonin (melatonin receptor agonist) groups had regular optic cups and an S-shaped heart, while those from the calmidazolium (calmodulin inhibitor) group did not. Embryos from the luzindole (melatonin receptor antagonist) and prazosin (Mel1c melatonin receptor antagonist) groups did not have regular optic cups. Embryos from the 4-P-PDOT (Mel1b melatonin receptor antagonist) group did not have an S-shaped heart. Previous application of the melatonin, 6-chloromelatonin or forskolin (adenylate cyclase enhancer) prevented the abnormal appearance of chick embryos from the calmidazolium, luzindole, prazosin and 4-P-PDOT groups. However, 6-chloromelatonin and forskolin only partially prevented the development of defective eye cups in embryos from the calmidazolium group. The results suggested that melatonin modulates chick embryo morphogenesis via calmodulin and membrane receptors.

Assessment of human health risk associated with the presence of pesticides in chicken eggs

The presence of pesticides in the environment is highly toxic to environment and human health. Aim of the study was determination, quantification and assessment of associated health risk due to presence of pesticide residues in chicken eggs using high pressure liquid chromatography. HPLC method was successfully employed and validated. From collected samples pesticides were extracted in presence of petroleum ether and acetonitrile. Bifenthrin and Difenoconazole residues were found in all samples with different concentration exceeding maximum residue limits (MRL) of Codex Alimentarius Commission. However imidacloprid was not detected in any sample. Concentration of bifenthrin in house egg samples ranged from 0.256206 to 4.112387 mg/kg while in poultry farm samples it varied from 1.5862 to 5.80796 mg/kg. Difenoconazole was found in concentration of 0.02835 mg/kg, 1.7668 mg/kg, 3.7205 mg/kg, 21.8937 mg/kg 21.9835 mg/kg, 19.26407 mg/kg in samples collected from houses while and in poultry farm samples its detected concentration was 10.939 mg/kg, 12.3296 mg/kg, 29.3617 mg/kg, 18.6116 mg/kg, 40.0523 mg/kg and 19.2335 mg/kg. Concentrations of both pesticides Bifenthrin and Difenoconazole exceeded the MRLs (0.05 mg/kg). Health risk index surpassed 1 (the cut off value) for Difenoconazole in seven samples while for Bifenthrin values were less than 1, indicating the possibility of potential medium to long term health risk associated with ingestion of contaminated eggs.(AU)

The Western dietary pattern is associated with increased serum concentrations of free estradiol in postmenopausal women: implications for breast cancer prevention.

Little is known about the possible influence of food consumption on the serum concentrations of endogenous sex hormones in postmenopausal women. We evaluated the relationships of the Western dietary pattern with serum concentrations of free estradiol and testosterone of postmenopausal women to test the hypothesis that a highly Western dietary pattern is associated with high serum concentrations of these hormones. We used data from a representative subsample of 305 women from the control group of a population-based case-control study conducted in Mexico from 2004 to 2007. A Western dietary pattern index value was compared with log natural serum concentrations of testosterone and estradiol using multiple linear regression models. The median values of serum concentrations of free estradiol and testosterone were 0.26 pg/mL (interquartile range, 0.14-0.43) and 0.40 pg/mL (interquartile range, 0.30-0.70), respectively. A multiple linear regression model showed that for each unit increase in the Western dietary pattern index, there was a 16.2% increase in the serum concentrations of free estradiol (ß=0.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.01-0.29); for each additional serving per week of chicken eggs, the increase was 31.0% (ß=0.27; 95% CI, 0.106-0.441); for each additional serving per week of red meat, the increase was 64.9% (ß=0.50; 95% CI, 0.01-1.01). There was no relationship found between dietary patterns and serum concentrations of free testosterone. The present findings suggest that intake of a Western diet, particularly of chicken eggs and meat, increases serum concentrations of free estradiol; these results have implications for breast cancer prevention.

Pesquisa de Salmonella spp. em amostras de ovos, água e ração, de granja do município de Rio Pomba, MG / Evaluation of the occurrence of Salmonella spp. in samples of eggs, water and food, the farm of Rio Pomba, MG

o ovo é o alimento mais envolvido em surtos de infecção alimentar em que o agente etiológico é Salmonella spp. Desta forma, considerando a possibilidade de ovos contaminados participarem da dieta alimentar humana e serem veiculadores deste patógeno colocando em risco a saúde pública, faz-se necessária a investigação da presença de salmonela nos mesmos. Assim, objetivou-se realizar pesquisa de Salmonella spp. em amostras de ovos, água e ração de uma granja de galinhas do Município Rio Pomba, MG, e avaliar os fatores relacionados a ocorrência desta bactéria. Foram coletados 120 ovos, os quais foram divididos em 12 amostras compostas contendo dez ovos cada. Além disso, foram coletadas duas amostras de água e duas de ração usadas na granja. As amostras foram submetidas à análise de Salmonella spp. de acordo com o preconizado pela Instrução Normativa n°. 62 do Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Foi detectado Salmonella spp. em três amostras, sendo uma proveniente da ração e duas dos ovos analisados. Vários fatores como: o organismo das aves, o manejo, a limpeza da granja e controle de animais do ambiente externo, ração e água devem ser considerados para explicar a contaminação dessas amostras, sendo assim de suma importância adotar medidas de prevenção e controle. (AU)

Eggs are the food most frequently involved in outbreaks of foodborne diseases in which the etiologic agent is Salmonella spp. Therefore, considering the possibility of eggs contaminated with Salmonella spp. participate in the human diet and been vehicles of this pathogen, it can put in risk public health, been necessary to investigate the presence of Salmonella in this food. Thus, considering the lack of local data on this subject, this work aimed to evaluate the occurrence of Salmonella spp. in samples of chicken eggs produced in a farm of Rio Pomba, MG, Brazil, water, and feed, and evaluate factors related to the occurrence of this bacterium. To achieve this goal, were collected 120 eggs, which were divided into 12 samples containing ten eggs each. In addition, were collected two water samples and two feed, being these used to stock the farm. The samples were subjected to analysis of Salmonella spp. according to the criteria of the Brazilian official method. Salmonella spp. was found in three samples, been one from feed and two others of the eggs analyzed. Several factors such as: the organism of the chicken, the farm management (cleaning and control of animals from sternum environment feed and water should be considered to explain the contamination of samples, being of high importance 10 adopt measures of prevention and control. (AU)