" Title

The effect of meat consumption on body odor attractiveness.

Authors

Havlicek, J.; Lenochova, P.

Journal

Chemical Senses 2006 Vol. 31 No. 8 pp. 747-752

Abstract.

Axillary body odor is individually specific and potentially a rich source of information about its producer. Odor individuality partly results from genetic individuality, but the influence of ecological factors such as eating habits are another main source of odor variability. However, we know very little about how particular dietary components shape our body odor. Here we tested the effect of red meat consumption on body odor attractiveness. We used a balanced within-subject experimental design. Seventeen male odor donors were on "meat" or "nonmeat" diet for 2 weeks wearing axillary pads to collect body odor during the final 24 h of the diet. Fresh odor samples were assessed for their pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity, and intensity by 30 women not using hormonal contraceptives. We repeated the same procedure a month later with the same odor donors, each on the opposite diet than before. Results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the odor of donors when on the nonmeat diet was judged as significantly more attractive, more pleasant, and less intense. This suggests that red meat consumption has a negative impact on perceived body odor hedonicity."

"Music has charms to soothe the savage breast", according to dramatist William Congreve, and playing music to stressed rabbits reduced serum lipids. Lambs exposed to music were calmer and more docile than lambs exposed to random noise. Several studies have indicated that playing slow classical music appears to alleviate stress in cows, making them more docile and boosting milk yield. However, playing rock music reduced milk yield and country-and-western music reduced it even more. In contrast, a study involving music by the Italian classical composer Manfredini or by the rock group 'Police', a long sound on a trombone or the staccato sound of a hammer on an anvil to cows found milk yield differed significantly among cows and weeks but did not differ significantly among sound treatments. It has been suggested that the effects some have observed may be to make the humans handling the animals treat the animals more gently and sympathetically, and this is what causes the observed changes.

Country is not good for milk yield

One study suggested instrumental music raised the hatchability of duck eggs, whereas another suggested hens were more fearful with classical music. Playing radio music to quails led to increased testis size and ovary weight than of non-stimulated birds. Final live weight and carcass weight of chickens played loud rock-and-roll group were somewhat lower than with other musical treatments, with the difference between low "dinner music" and loud rock-and-roll approaching statistical significance. The irony of playing "dinner music" to chickens was not commented upon.

The feed conversion efficiency of pigs was lower when they were played  fast-rhythm music. Carp growth was increased with classical music, which also significantly affected carcass and liver fatty acid composition.

Dogs spent more time resting and less time standing when classical music was played. Exposure to heavy metal music encouraged dogs to spend significantly more of their time barking than did other sounds – though whether they were wanting it turned off or “up to 11” wasn’t clear. Classical music resulted in dogs spending significantly more of their time quiet than did other types of auditory stimulation. The authors thought that the welfare of sheltered dogs may be enhanced through exposure to appropriate forms of music.

A few studies suggest that playing music may be improving the welfare of the animals as well as the humans in laboratories by providing at least some variety in stimulus, without questioning the taste of the researchers.

A comparison of two genres of vocal music indicated that easy-listening (slower tempo) vocal music  was more effective at decreasing agonistic behaviour in male chimpanzees than classical (faster tempo) vocal music. Female chimps were apparently indifferent. And African green monkeys could take or leave harp music. Gorillas' tended to show more behaviours suggestive of relaxation (i.e. resting, sitting) and fewer behaviours typically associated with stress (i.e. aggression, abnormal behaviour) with classical music.

 
 Easy listening is a hit with chimps

 The studies raise the question of whether the incidental playing of music in laboratory experiments on animals be making a difference to results? It might be crucial in terms of keeping researchers from getting bored but might it be adding an uncontrolled variable?

The main conclusion to be drawn is there is much vital research to be done – as even our comprehensive database has no evidence on reactions of livestock to jazz, hip-hop, indie-landfill or grunge.  And no-one has given animals control of the MP3 selection wheel to see what they choose, or if they just want some  peace and quiet.

To celebrate a milestone birthday this month, I went to Patagonia and travelled down to the world's southernmost city, Ushuaia. Flying back from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires last Saturday, the plane was largely filled with excited travellers who had come off an Antarctic cruise ship that morning (Ushuaia, which bills itself as the 'end of the world', is one of the leading gateway ports for the Antarctic and a town now heavily dependent on tourism). They were full of the wonders they had seen, and recommended visiting Antarctica as something we 'must do' [actually I had looked into this before going to Patagonia, but concluded I needed to save up for a few more years first to be able to afford it!]. But coincidentally, getting back into the office on Tuesday, I started reading news reports of a meeting held in New Zealand last week to consider proposals for a new mandatory code on Antarctic cruising. So is there a need for regulation (or even restrictions) on the soaring tourism to Antarctica, and if so what should it entail?

Antarctic tourism has rocketed over the last 20 years. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) says visits have risen from 6,700 in the 1992-93 season to 29,500 in the 2006-07 season and 45,213 in 2008-09. Incidents such as the sinking of the Canadian cruise ship Explorer in 2007 (happily with no loss of life), and four other passenger ships running aground in Antarctica in the past three years, have led to increasing concern about the potential for environmental or human disasters from the growing number of ships in the region. The New Zealand meeting of over 80 experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty considered proposals for new codes governing cruise tourism.

Existing rules on Antarctic tourism bar tourists or tour operators from leaving anything behind – like garbage or human waste – and protect animal breeding grounds. There are also codes on landing on the ice, with no more than 100 passengers being allowed to land at one time. But there are no formal codes on the kind of vessels that can use the waters or the kinds of fuel and other chemicals that they can carry. This is something that some Treaty signatories, led by New Zealand, want to change.

At the opening of the Experts Meeting, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said that the Antarctic cruise tourism industry is currently inadequately regulated.

"Because of the demand for cruises, shipping companies have been putting up larger vessels which are not suitable for the conditions they encounter," he said.

"Some carry up to 5,000 people, and even with the best efforts of all concerned, it is hard to see how that number of people could be rescued if an emergency occurred." And meeting co-chair Olav Orheim said that there were no facilities in the Antarctic to handle that number of people if anything went wrong.

The proposed code, which must be ratified by treaty states to become binding, would cover vessel design and construction for polar operations, equipment and crew training. It would require that all vessels, for example, would have hulls strengthened to withstand ice. In a similar move, the UN International Maritime Organization recently approved guidelines for ships in polar waters which will lead to the banning of heavy fuel oil in Antarctica. Mandatory limits to the size of cruise ships and number of visitors are also under consideration, but have met resistance from the tour industry.

Mr McCully has predicted that, if nothing is done, "it will be only a matter of time before there is a disaster in the Southern Ocean". He says "Tourist ships pose a significant risk not only to human life but also to a pristine, fragile environment."

Nathan Russ, operations manager of Antarctic eco-tourism company Heritage Expeditions, said the proposed heavy fuel ban "will most likely regulate the biggest cruise ships out of Antarctic operations" because of the costs involved in switching to lighter fuel.

The IAATO says that voluntary guidelines for tours and cruises operated by its members are adequate, and that any problems lie with unaffiliated cruise and tour operators.

Recommendations from the Wellington meeting will be presented to the 33rd Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Uruguay in May.

The Leisure Tourism Database which I edit has over 100 abstracts on Antarctic tourism, and 16 news and analysis articles. In recent publications, Morgera (2009) summarizes the main developments related to law and policy that occurred in the first half of 2009 in the framework of the Antarctic Treaty System, and reports on discussions around the need to develop a tourism strategy to be based on a precautionary approach. Haase et al. (2009) analyse the main strengths and weaknesses of self-regulation in the Antarctic tourism sector. The paper shows that, under current conditions, the Antarctic tourism self-regulatory regime is a robust institution. However, with increasing numbers of tourists and operators the institutional structure may be weakened in the future.

Trends in Antarctic tourism were discussed by Lamers et al. (2008). Maher (2007) discuss whether tourism and wildlife are compatible in the Antarctic, while Amelung and Lamers (2007) report on greenhouse gas emissions produced by Antarctic tourism.

Personally, if I did manage to go to the Antarctic, it would only be one of the smaller, ice-strengthened expedition vessels I'd want to sail in, as these are the ones that allow you to land on the ice and visit sights such as the penguin colonies. If these proposals are agreed, this may one day be the only way of going there - but if it helps protect the pristine environment and wildlife, that would be no bad thing. Better not to go, than to travel in a way that carries the risk of harming the environment you would be going to see.

Further reading

1. Estimating the greenhouse gas emissions from Antarctic tourism. Amelung, B.; Lamers, M.; Maher, P. T.; Stewart, E. J.; Tourism in Marine Environments, 2007, 4, 2/3, pp 121-133, 42 ref. [doi: 10.3727/154427307784772020]

2. Polar tourism in the Antarctic: the last frontier. Grenier, A. A.; Espaces, Tourisme & Loisirs, 2007, 252, pp 48-54, 34 ref. 

3. Heading into uncharted territory? Exploring the institutional robustness of self-regulation in the Antarctic tourism sector. Haase, D.; Lamers, M.; Amelung, B.; Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2009, 17, 4, pp 411-430, many ref. [doi: 10.1080/09669580802495717]

4. Facing the elements: analysing trends in Antarctic tourism. Lamers, M.; Haase, D.; Amelung, B.; Tourism Review, 2008, 63, 1, pp 15-27 [doi: 10.1108/16605370810861017]

5. Wildlife and tourism in Antarctica: a unique resource and regime for management. Maher, P. T.; Higham, J.; Lück, M.; CAB International, Wallingford, UK, Marine wildlife and tourism management: insights from the natural and social sciences, 2007, pp 294-318, 37 ref.

6. Antarctic Treaty System - Recent developments. Morgera, E.; Environmental Policy and Law, 2009, 39, 4/5, pp 221-223

7. Tourist impacts and management in the Antarctic Peninsula area. Stonehouse, B.; Crosbie, K.; Hall, C. M.; Johnston, M. E.; Polar tourism: tourism in the Arctic and Antarctic regions., 1995, pp 217-233, 25 ref.
 

Europe is the main market for Nigerian cocoa, but the EU changed its regulation on pesticide maximum residue levels (MRLs) in September 2008 in order to safeguard the health of consumers. In order to bring cocoa farming into line in Nigeria the Nigerian Federal Government has reviewed which chemicals are permitted for use on cocoa. This poses new challenges for the mostly rural population of cocoa farmers, leaving very few, and often more expensive, pesticides for use on cocoa. Poor extension services and cocoa farmers’ lack of knowledge about pesticide usage, combined with the illiteracy of most farmers prompted CRIN to embark on a sensitisation programme to educate farmers on chemical control for cocoa production.

On 29 July 2009 CRIN gathered 270 cocoa farmers, officials of the state Ministry of Agriculture, and representatives of farmers’ organisations and processing factories, together with religious leaders and the Chairman of Idanre Council for a day-long meeting in the village square of the remote village of Aseigbo. Farmers were told about how to comply with the EU Regulation, including a message from CRIN Director Farming System Research and Extension, Dr EO Aigbekaen who urged stakeholders to “take the matter with all the seriousness it deserves to avoid the looming doom on the country’s cocoa economy.” The main fear is that, unless stakeholders in the Nigerian cocoa industry make significant steps towards compliance with the EU Regulation, Nigeria’s cocoa may end up being rejected by the EU.

Ibadan-based Glad Tidings Drama Ministry staged a comic drama which “both educated and entertained the gathered cocoa farmers... It focused attention on compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on banned substances and urged the audience to be wary of the economic consequences of non-compliance... The drama also depicted the consequences of using the wrong chemicals on farmers’ health and the environment,” says Ageogun Stephen.

The farmers also used the meeting to put their views and problems to “the men at the centre” during an interactive session. They complained that “many farmers are not aware that some chemicals have been banned, and for those who are aware, the cost of the approved ones is ruinous.” The farmers asked for the Government and other stakeholders in the cocoa chain to help make approved chemicals available at affordable prices. The representative of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), Chief Affun Adegbulu, together with the state officials promised to work together to resolve some of these issues raised by the farmers.

To see more photos of the pesticide drama and for further information on limiting maximum residue levels (MRLs), view the full article.

"Global Research On Cocoa – working with and for farmers"
GRO-Cocoa is a twice-yearly cocoa newsletter funded by the US Department of Agriculture for the last 8 years. It aims to provide a forum for information exchange, and a platform for sharing ideas in the belief that fostering cooperation and collaboration will best allow progress to be achieved.
GRO-Cocoa’s primary focus is smallholder farmers, the mainstay of world cocoa production. As such, it particularly welcomes articles on research- and farmer-led research and training that delivers practical IPM solutions to pest and disease problems. It also publishes articles about other initiatives of direct importance to cocoa production.
We welcome contributions, and ideas for articles. Please contact the Editors: Sarah Thomas and Rebecca Murphy at s.thomas@cabi.org; r.murphy@cabi.org.

Should I find myself uninspired again this year, maybe I can convince a recipient of some good quality dark chocolate, that I am also thinking of their heart, improving their brain performance, reducing their emotional stress or even protecting their skin?! Read on to find out why.

Potential cardiovascular health benefits of consuming chocolate high in cocoa flavanols (a class of flavonoids) have been known for some time. These include lowering blood pressure, reducing LDL cholesterol, and improving endothelial function among other things. [There are many references in our Nutrition and Food Sciences Database, for example see refs 1 and 2]. In fact, on the back of this research, chocolate maker Barry Callebaut has produced a number of chocolate products containing Acticoa, a cocoa powder with a high concentration of cocoa flavanols that, it claims, can help maintain cardiovascular health.

Last year, researchers from Oxford and Norway reported that chocolate can improve brain performance. They examined the relationship between cognitive performance and the intake of chocolate, wine, and tea (all containing flavonoids) in 2,031 people aged between 70 and 74. They found that participants who consumed chocolate, wine, or tea had significantly better mean cognitive test scores and lower prevalence of poor cognitive performance than those who did not. Their findings are reported in the Journal of Nutrition³.

The results of a clinical trial recently published in Journal of Proteome Research, suggests that dark chocolate may also help reduce stress. Researchers identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. "The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers," the scientists say⁴.

Another study, just published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, suggests that eating chocolate can protect the skin from UV light⁵. Researchers evaluated the photoprotective potential of chocolate consumption in 30 healthy subjects, comparing a conventional dark chocolate to a specially produced chocolate with preserved high flavanol (HF) levels. While consumption of the conventional chocolate had no beneficial effect on the skin, consumption of the high flavanol chocolate conferred significant protection from harmful UV effects.

The fact that conventional chocolate had no beneficial effect is a bit of a disappointment - it seems that purchasing a random dark chocolate may not be good enough to back up my Christmas health promises! Indeed, much of the research about chocolate's health benefits appears to involve specially formulated high-flavanol chocolate or unsweetened cocoa. During chocolate making, many of the procedures can have a significant influence on the flavanol content. While the % cacao of a chocolate will tell you how much of the total content of ingredients are derived from the cacao bean, this is not always a reliable indication of the flavanol content - this can vary depending on recipe, cacao bean selection, handling and processing.

The good news is that with increasing research into the health benefits of flavanols, chocolate companies are beginning to see if there are ways of producing popular products whilst maintaining flavanol levels. Mars and Nestle have both been heavily involved in cocoa research. The Hershey Company (and collaborators) has just published the results of a study comparing the flavanol content of U.S. chocolate and cocoa-containing products⁶. The company says that it is trying to improve the measurement of flavanols in products, recognising that this is increasingly important for studying the potential health benefits of cocoa and chocolate and providing information to consumers.

Of course, despite all this promising news about dark chocolate, there is always the fat and sugar to think about! However, by choosing dark, rather than milk chocolate, we may find that we end up eating less of it - in a small trial researchers at the University of Copenhagen found that dark chocolate gives more of a feeling of satiety than milk chocolate and lessens cravings for sweet, salty and fatty foods. A theory I'm happy to test!

References

1. The vasculoprotective effects of flavonoid-rich cocoa and chocolate. Engler, M. B.; Engler, M. M. Nutrition Research 2004 Vol. 24 No. 9 pp. 695-706
2. Cocoa polyphenols and inflammatory mediators. Sies, H.; Schewe, T.; Heiss, C.; Kelm, M. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2005 pp. 304S-312S
3. Intake of Flavonoid-Rich Wine, Tea, and Chocolate by Elderly Men and Women Is Associated with Better Cognitive Test Performance. Eha Nurk, Helga Refsum, Christian A. Drevon, Grethe S. Tell, Harald A. Nygaard, Knut Engedal and A. David Smith. Journal of Nutrition 2009 Vol. 139, No. 1, pp. 120-127
4. Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects. Francois-Pierre J. Martin, Serge Rezzi, Emma Peré-Trepat, Beate Kamlage, Sebastiano Collino, Edgar Leibold, Jorgen Kastler, Dietrich Rein, Laurent B. Fay and Sunil Kochhar Journal of Proteome Research, published (web) October 7, 2009
5. Eating chocolate can significantly protect the skin from UV light. Stefanie Williams, Slobodanka Tamburic, Carmel Lally. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology (2009) vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 169-173
6. Survey of Commercially Available Chocolate- and Cocoa-Containing Products in the United States. 2. Comparison of Flavan-3-ol Content with Nonfat Cocoa Solids, Total Polyphenols, and Percent Cacao. Kenneth B. Miller, W. Jeffrey Hurst, Nancy Flannigan, Boxin Ou, C. Y. Lee, Nancy Smith and David A. Stuart. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2009, 57 (19), pp. 9169-9180

‘Hard Rain: Our Headlong Collision with Nature’ by Mark Edwards and Bob Dylan will be released on DVD at the opening of the Hard Rain exhibition in Copenhagen today, 6 December, the eve of the United Nations Climate Conference.

The film, released in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), combines a rare live recording of Bob Dylan performing the song, with the photographs from Hard Rain and an extended illustrated commentary, in a moving and unforgettable exploration of the state of our planet and its people at this critical time, reported the Hard Rain project.

The press release about the film continued saying “the global issues highlighted in Hard Rain are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that define the 21st century. While each problem is understood to some degree by decision-makers, they are typically addressed as separate issues. Hard Rain puts the pieces together and shows that the world has little chance to solve any one of them until we understand how they all connect by cause and effect.”

The DVD is accompanied by a specially commissioned essay by Lloyd Timberlake. The Urgency of Now cuts through the muddled thinking and failed policies that have delayed a radically new worldwide approach to climate change, poverty, the wasteful use of resources, population expansion, habitat destruction and species loss. The essay title was inspired by a response to Hard Rain from the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The dark and evocative lyrics of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall echo the kind of impacts the world faces if climate change continues unchecked. But Bob Dylan had another song. One that reflects a strong and positive Copenhagen outcome that puts the world on a low-carbon path - The Times They Are A-Changin'."

Lloyd Timberlake's essay focuses on a key dilemma facing the climate negotiators. "Right now," he writes, "we have two huge challenges to life on earth. One is living and consuming within planetary means. The other is helping billions of people toward safe, fulfilled and dignified lives, meaning that many people need to consume more, not less, to have a reasonable standard of living. These would seem to be contradictory goals. Yet we must manage both, and we cannot manage one without managing the other. Poor countries will not accept a climate change treaty that prevents them from developing."

"We have to give governments a constituency to reinvent the modern world so that it's compatible with nature and human nature," says Mark Edwards. "Political change comes only when people form a movement so large and inclusive that governments have no choice but to listen - and act. The last verse of Dylan's song begins 'What'll you do now?' It's a question that cannot be left hanging when the Copenhagen talks come to a close."

If you are in Copenhagen you might want to attend a Hard Rain-UNEP presentation by Mark Edwards at 5pm on 7 December at Salen bookshop, Politikens Hus, Porten, Vestergade 28, Copenhagen K.

The entry is free and all are welcome. The event is followed by questions and discussion.

Details about the Hard Rain exhibition in Copenhagen

The DVD launch and exhibit opening on 6 December will take place just before the start of the United Nations Climate Conference, COP15, which runs from 7 to 18 December 2009 in Copenhagen.

The exhibit is part of a UNEP display, open free to the public for the duration of the UN Climate Talks, which will feature a Climate Maze that people can come and "negotiate" their way through. The walls of the maze are made from cloth banners stamped and signed by thousands of citizens around the world in support of the UN-led Seal the Deal! campaign, which asks world leaders to conclude a fair and effective climate agreement in Copenhagen. Complementing the Hard Rain commentary, the maze also contains climate change facts from UNEP in order to raise awareness about climate change.

See www.hardrainproject.com  for more details. 

Visit the COP15 or the UN web pages to find out what goes on during the 12 day climate summit.

Visit CABI's Environmental Impact website to see over 1000 reports on global warming, climate change, it's causes and effects.

The handmade paper can be used, then planted in your back garden to grow real Christmas tree plants. The paper is 100% recycled and some of the profits made by the company go to conservation projects around the world, including The Millennium Elephant Foundation, The Elephant Family and Save the Rhino International.

So, aside from reindeer poo paper, how do you grow your own Christmas tree? Read on...

The BBC offers some advice on growing Christmas trees:

1. Choose your tree and buy seed - the internet is a good source.
2. Fill a pot with peat-free compost for seedlings.
3. Sow seeds on the surface.
4. Cover with horticultural grit that is twice the size of the seedlings. This allows more air to circulate and protects the seedlings when watering from the top and also recreates natural conditions.
5. Sow in February and provide bottom heat in May. Keep well watered in a greenhouse.
6. Once the seedlings emerge, prick out and transplant into 10cm (4in) pots.
7. Keep potting on as seedlings grow over the first 12 months.
8. Plant out when it is one year old.

Species choice:
Don't plant Norway spruce (Picea abies) unless you have a very large garden! It grows to about 30m (100ft) and drops needles all year. Instead, try:

• Korean fir (Abies koreana) - grows to 12m (40ft) and therefore more suitable for the smaller garden.
• Noble fir (Abies procera) - silvery-blue, fragrant tips, smooth, grey bark, and good needle retention.
• Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) - soft needles, which also hold well, good shape and strong boughs that are ideal for supporting heavy ornaments.

Here are a few Christmas tree facts, courtesy of the National Christmas Tree Association, USA:

• It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical height (6-7 feet) or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.
• The most common Christmas tree species are: balsam fir, Douglas-fir, Fraser fir, noble fir, Scotch pine, Virginia pine and white pine.
• For every real Christmas tree harvested, 1 to 3 seedlings are planted the following spring.
• Real trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. Artificial trees contain non-biodegradable plastics and possible metal toxins such as lead.
• There are close to 350 million real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the USA alone, all planted by farmers.

To find out about the latest scientific research on Christmas trees take a look at CAB Abstracts – it contains more than 600 abstracts on Christmas trees, including:

- Growth and physiology of newly planted fraser fir (Abies fraseri) and Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) christmas trees in response to mulch and irrigation. Cregg, B. M.; Nzokou, P.; Goldy, R. (2009) HortScience 44 (3), 660-665.
- Weed control measures in Christmas tree plantations of Abies nordmanniana and Abies lasiocarpa on agricultural land. Sæb, A.; Flistad, I. S.; Netland, J.; Skúlason, B.; Edvardsen, M. (2009) New Forests 38 (2), 143-156.
- Susceptibility of Fraser fir to Phytophthora capsici. Quesada-Ocampo, L. M.; Fulbright, D. W.; Hausbeck, M. K. (2009) Plant Disease 93 (2), 135-141.
- Proceedings of the 8th International Christmas Tree Research & Extension Conference, Bogense, Denmark, 12-18 August 2007. Thomsen, I. M.; Rasmussen, H. N.; Srensen, J. M. (2008) Forest & Landscape Working Papers 26, x + 145 pp.
- Provenance variation in germination and seedling growth of Abies guatemalensis Rehder. Andersen, U. S.; Córdova, J. P. P.; Nielsen, U. B.; Kollmann, J. (2008) Forest Ecology and Management 255 (5/6), 1831-1840.
- Containerized table-top christmas trees: interest among Pennsylvania consumers and attitudes concerning care and handling. Kelley, K. M.; Bates, R. M. (2007) Journal of Extension 45 (1), pp 1RIB7.
- Is spruce from northerly regions and from high altitude forests suitable for Christmas tree cultivation in lowland areas of southern Norway? Nyeggen, H.; Skage, J. O.; stgård, Å. (2006) Forskning fra Skog + Landskap 2, 16.

Happy Christmas!

Oglethorpe, of the Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University points out that the economies of scale of major production networks do actually result in some environmental benefits. A study of sausages showed that using HGVs in efficient distribution chains resulted in a much lower carbon footprint per sausage than resulted from the many smaller journeys in smaller vehicles that were typical of local food production.

In attempting to be more “green”, many consumers feel that they should not buy food that is highly packaged. But Oglethorpe says that there is much higher food waste with food that is low on packaging. And the emissions associated with food decay, particularly methane, are much more significant than for packaging materials. So it might make more environmental sense to use more packaging. 

Some producers who supply local food also use more environmentally friendly farming or production techniques. However, this is not always the case, and studies suggest that while the association may be strong in the consumer’s mind, in reality it may be weak. There are also examples where local production is more resource-consuming than production in a geographical area more suited to a particular type of farming.  For example, there is some evidence that New Zealand lamb imported to the UK has a smaller environmental impact than that produced in the UK, despite the obvious transport-related emissions.

However, local food may have other benefits. It can provide an important boost to the local economy, offering employment, and attracting tourism, local festivals and the “vibrancy” of an area. The fact that consumers can meet face-to-face with producers may have positive effects on the local community. Some local foods are of better quality – e.g. “local” meat products tend to have higher meat content than typical mass distribution equivalents. However, some that target an “indulgent” consumer have high sugar or fat content, and thus could have negative health impacts.

So consumers should not be assumers that local is always best. However, there is currently no agreement on what “local” means, and the hidden environmental costs are far from obvious. As with many environmental analysis, research is only beginning to scratch the surface, and agreeing what is fair to count within the cost is a controversial business.

The paper, Food miles – the economic, environmental and social significance of the focus on local food by David Oglethorpe appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2009, 4, No. 072, 11 pp.

What if one could find a vaccine that didn't need remaking each year and could be used for pandemics caused by new versions of the virus ?

Scientists are working hard on this. On Wednesday last week I had the chance to catch up on the latest research as Ian Wilson of the Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California was over to give a lecture at Oxford University on recent activity in flu vaccine research, focusing on structural studies of the haemagglutinins produced by all flu viruses.

Model of haemagglutinin.
Photo: U.S. National Institutes of Health

Haemagglutinins are proteins used by the flu virus to bind to the surface of target cells and then enter them. They are a major target for the immune system as antibodies that inactivate them prevent the virus from infecting new cells.

Most of the antibodies that neutralise flu viruses attack the cell binding region of haemagglutinins. This region is highly variable and different virus subtypes have different versions of it. But researchers have been thinking that maybe there is a minority of antibodies that bind to other less variable regions of the haemagglutinin that might be conserved between virus subtypes.

If these antibodies could be found, and the areas on the haemagglutinin they bind to defined, then we might have the basis for developing a vaccine against more than one flu virus type.

The exciting news is that this conserved region on the haemagglutinin has been found.

Professor Wilson described the work of Throsby et al. They isolated antibody producing B cells from patients recently vaccinated against seasonal flu that produced antibodies against the haemagglutinin from the H5N1 version of the virus (bird flu). Theytested the antibodies for their ability to neutralise haemagglutinin activity. These antibodies were then examined to see if they also blocked binding of the haemagglutinin to the cell surface.

Those that could neutralise the haemagglutinin's activity without preventing binding to the cell surface would be of interest because that indicates the antibody is reacting with a part of the haemagglutinin that isn't the variable cell binding region.

Throsby et al found 13 antibodies that fulfilled these specifications. All bound to the same part of the haemagglutinin. This part of the haemagglutinin is similar across different flu virus subtypes and the antibodies had cross reactivity across more than one virus type.

An experiment in mice suggested that one of these 13 antibodies provided protection against the current pandemic flu virus as well as the H5N1 'bird flu' virus. It would therefore be a potential therapy for flu. It could also provide the basis for developing vaccines.

The next stage of developing a vaccine is to find some way of improving the immune response to this region of the haemagglutinin so that patients produce more antibodies to it- is now underway.

(Nearly) goodbye to yearly vaccines?

Want to read more on pandemic flu vaccines? see Introduction to pandemic influenza by Johnathan Van-Tam and Chloe Sellwood.

Keep up to date on flu pandemic: CABI's flu dashboard

The session was entitled SPACE REPELLANTS: this was sufficient to draw me in as I had no idea what was being repelled! A model, based on observations, was presented by Edward Walker (Michigan State University) which broke down how an insect repellent worked into three parameters: contact/ absorption, elimination of the drug, followed by excitation (movement but not in a directed fashion). The combination of all 3 leads to disengagement of the insect and it turns out that it’s the excitation which has the strongest effect on disengagement (disengagement is what you want!). The model enables you to test repellent development: the ideal repellent would elicit high excitation, rapid absorption, slow elimination. Olysnet amd Permanet, 2 different insecticide-treated materials, gave different results for these parameters. Its not known if current repellants work by increasing disengagement or decreased directed movement towards the host. This model system should answer that too.

Field tests involve building huts of local design, and then treating entry points such as doors, windows and eaves, or entire interior walls with the repellent. Mosquitoes are collected at entry and exit points. Work using such huts, presented in this session, demonstrated that known insecticides such as DDT could be used at non-toxic doses as effective spatial repellents, and that treating entry points not only was highly effective , safer for the human occupants, but that the mosquitoes did not appear to decamp to an unprotected hut (Nicole Achee, USU, Bethesda).

Sarah Moore of IFAKARA & LSTMH pointed out that as more people in Tanzania acquired electricity, so their sleeping patterns changed & spent less time in bed protected by ITNs, so repellents were increasingly needed. In addition, if you can keep man-vector contact down you can decrease both transmission to the host and from the host to the vector, breaking the cycle.

Moving onto actual human interventions, Mark Rowland (LSTMH) supplied villagers in Tanzania with either DEET treated or cyphenothrin (a pyrethroid) treated bedsheets, with the longterm goal of malaria prevention in disasters. Both treatments, mosquitoes still entered the homes but they fed less (3x less with DEET) and had increased mortality (4x with DEET) .  The DEET was formulated into microspheres before application onto the fabric, whihc enabled it to remain effective for many months. Even the colour, durability, washability & comfort aspects were considered in this trial: people wanted to carry on using their ITNs along with these sheets, khaki turned out to be the practical housewife’s choice of colour and woven fabric more durable. (The non-woven one rapidly filled with holes, defeating the purpose!) The hope is that following a cluster controlled RCT, these sheets (& blankets) could prove valuable in providing protection from malaria for displaced populations such as in refugee camps (ITNs being impractical), for populations in endemic areas and for the military.

Global Health and its archive have a wealth of information on insectborne diseases and the behaviour of the insect vector: I will add relevant references from these resources in the near future. Watch this space...for more on space repellants.