Availability of veterinary medicinal products for food producing minor animal species in the Mediterranean area.

In its historic role, the Mediterranean used to be the unifying element of heterogenic cultures, economies and societies surrounding its three continents' borders. For the benefit of the leading idea laying behind the present paper and in order to reinforce its original role, the whole Mediterranean area has been deliberately considered as a geographic and legislative unicum relating to MUMS. Such an acronym, well established either in EU countries and internationally, stands for Minor Use/Minor Species and is generally accepted in scientific and regulatory debates to incorporate any reference to a non-core market of a veterinary medicinal product or to an animal species that, conventionally, has not been considered as a major one. Difficulties to develop and market new products have resulted in an internationally recognized severe shortage of drugs for MUMS and, as a consequence, in unacceptable animal suffering, loss of animal life, and financial loss to farm industry. Furthermore, inadequate treatment of sick animals may increase health risks to humans as well as other animals.

Standardization or tailorization of veterinary vaccines: a conscious endeavour against infectious disease of animals.

Protecting animals from infection is a major obligation of every veterinarian's work in order to preserve animal welfare while assuring human health. Highly infectious animal diseases can reduce the performances of food producing animals and may have a great economical impact on many industries. Some animal diseases can be transmitted to humans, and control of these types of diseases, is beneficial to public health. In the wild, animal populations reduced by disease can dramatically affect the ecological balance of an area. Vaccination is one part of an effective health program as it helps to prevent disease and, in most cases, is more cost-effective than treating sick animals. Veterinarians have succeeded in greatly reducing the incidence of important diseases by taking advantage from improved technologies in vaccines production and by planning vaccination schedules based on the different characteristics of available products. Today, veterinarians can recommend and plan to use vaccines designed for a specific herd or flock or class of animals and even for individual treatments.

Characterization of H5N2 influenza viruses from Italian poultry.

From October 1997 to January 1998, highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza viruses caused eight outbreaks of avian influenza in northern Italy. A nonpathogenic H5N9 influenza virus was also isolated during the outbreaks as a result of virological and epidemiological surveillance to control the spread of avian influenza to neighbouring regions. Antigenic analysis showed that the Italian H5N2 isolates were antigenically similar to, although distinguishable from, A/HK/156/97, a human influenza H5N1 virus isolated in Hong Kong in 1997. Phylogenetic analysis of the haemagglutinin (HA) genes showed that the highly pathogenic Italian viruses clustered with the Hong Kong strains, whereas the nonpathogenic H5N9 virus, despite its epidemiological association with the highly pathogenic Italian isolates, was most closely related to the highly pathogenic A/Turkey/England/91 (H5N1) strain. Like the HA phylogenetic tree, the nonstructural (NS) phylogenetic tree showed that the H5N2 Italian virus genes are clearly separate from those of the H5N9 strain. In contrast, results of the phylogenetic analysis of nucleoprotein (NP) genes indicated a closer genetic relationship between the two Italian virus groups, a finding suggesting a common progenitor. Comparison of the HA, NS and NP genes of the Italian H5 strains with those of the H5N1 viruses simultaneously circulating in Hong Kong revealed that the two groups of viruses do not share a recent common ancestor. No virological and serological evidence of bird-to-human transmission of the Italian H5N2 influenza viruses was found.