Hungary orders poultry indoors amid bird flu concern

Hungary orders poultry indoors amid bird flu concern: Hungary’s chief veterinarian Lajos Bognar has ordered the nation’s poultry industry to keep birds indoors as the country grapples with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HAPI).

EU hits out at South Africa's poultry dumping protest

EU hits out at South Africa's poultry dumping protest: The European Commission has expressed concern after hundreds of people protested in Pretoria, South Africa, against EU poultry dumping that has forced profit-hit chicken processors to cut jobs.

Insecticide resistance in mosquitoes.

A new study published in the PLOS Genetics shows that genetic analysis of mosquito populations in Africa shows that recent successes in controlling malaria through treated bednets has led to widespread insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying have been incredibly successful at preventing the spread of malaria, but their widespread use has driven mosquitoes to evolve resistance to these insecticides. By identifying genetic patterns that predict when and where resistance will evolve, scientists hope to mitigate the effects of resistance. In the current study, researchers used a combination of sequencing techniques and genetic analyses to elucidate a continent-wide population structure of a major African malaria vector, the mosquito Anopheles funestus. They identified a gene region that has allowed mosquitoes to evolutionarily adapt to insecticides by enabling them to break down commonly used pyrethroid insecticides. The resistance form of this gene has now swept through mosquito populations in southern Africa to become almost universal. This gene region has been implicated previously in insecticide resistance, but the evolutionary pressures acting on it were not fully understood. This selective sweep occurred after 2002, likely in response to increased efforts at mosquito control. The study demonstrates the intense pressure that the use of pyrethroid insecticides places on mosquito populations. If this pressure and the associated increase in resistance continues, then humans will no longer be able to control malaria effectively through existing strategies.

Sitting Too Much Ages You by Eight Years.

Sit less, move more. It's a motto worth repeating, especially as research accumulates showing just how detrimental prolonged sitting is for your body. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer and premature death are just some of the chronic conditions linked to sitting too much, and a new study hints at why: Being sedentary for long periods of time each day appears to accelerate aging at the cellular level. Among close to 1,500 older women included in the study, those who sat the longest were, on average, eight years older, biologically speaking, than women who moved around more often. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine gave activity trackers to a group of 64- to 95-year-old women and questioned them about their activity. Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day and got less than 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had shorter telomeres. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter, which is why they're used as a measure of biological aging. Eventually, the telomeres become so short that the cell can no longer divide and dies. For this reason, telomeres are also sometimes compared to a lit bomb fuse In the women who sat for 10-plus hours a day, the telomere shortening was equivalent to about eight years of aging. In other words, too much sitting accelerated the aging process by about eight years. Short telomeres have also been linked with chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.more

Timing of soy intake may help or hinder cancer therapy: Rat study

Timing of soy intake may help or hinder cancer therapy: Rat study: Soy consumption has been shown to have both a positive and negative effect on cancer treatment as the legume appears to exhibit specific effects according to when it is consumed.

Baker Perkins ServoForm Mini makes 3D lollipops

Baker Perkins ServoForm Mini makes 3D lollipops: Baker Perkins is targeting niche manufacturers and start-up companies with its ServoForm Mini starchless small-batch depositor for confectionery.

RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C.

RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C. Researchers at the University of Iowa(UI) explains that most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally,but this route will not provide the dose to kill the cancer cells. The UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C intravenously—and bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion pathways—creates blood levels that are 100 - 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C's ability to attack cancer cells. RESEARCH : How to kill cancer cells with high doses of vitamin C. In a new study, published recently in issue of the journal Redox Biology, Buettner and his colleagues have homed in on the biological details of how high-dose vitamin C kills cancer cells.The study shows that vitamin C breaks down easily, generating hydrogen peroxide, a so-called reactive oxygen species that can damage tissue and DNA. The study also shows that tumor cells are much less capable of removing the damaging hydrogen peroxide than normal cells. Normal cells have several ways to remove hydrogen peroxide, keeping it at very low levels so it does not cause damage. The new study shows that an enzyme called catalase is the central route for removing hydrogen peroxide generated by decomposing vitamin C. The researchers discovered that cells with lower amounts of catalase activity were more susceptible to damage and death when they were exposed to high amounts of vitamin C.