Safety Evaluation and Probabilistic Health Risk Assessment of Cow Milk Produced in Northern Italy According to Dioxins and PCBs Contamination Levels.

Contamination levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were monitored over 2018-2021 in 214 bovine milk samples from farms located in two regions in northern Italy (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna). The average concentrations of the sum of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs (0.78 ± 0.

Microbiological and Chemical Analysis of Food Collected Under Official Control in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Northern Italy, 2014-2019.

This study analyzed data from 6 years (2014-2019) of official controls in the Emilia-Romagna region (northern Italy) to investigate the frequencies of human pathogens and chemical hazards in foods during production and distribution. Campylobacter spp. was the most prevalent pathogen, isolated in 4.

Information management and inspection procedures for the emerging diseases control: Experiences acquired in the epidemiological surveillance of bluetongue and lumpy skin disease.

The spread of exotic, emerging and reemerging diseases, has become, in the last years, one of the most important threats to the animal productions and public health, representing a new challenge for the European Community. In a global-market framework, where trade and contacts between countries are simplified, effective and well-developed surveillance systems are necessary. Multiple factors are, in fact, associated with the emergence of new, known or exotic diseases in this new economic panorama and for these reasons controls on animal imports, traceability and timeliness detection of infected animals should be considered the basis of a sound surveillance.

Reducing agents decrease the oxidative burst and improve clinical outcomes in COPD patients: a randomised controlled trial on the effects of sulphurous thermal water inhalation.

Background: Inhalation of thermal water with antioxidant properties is empirically used for COPD.

Aims: To evaluate the effects of sulphurous thermal water (reducing agents) on airway oxidant stress and clinical outcomes in COPD.

Methods: Forty moderate-to-severe COPD patients were randomly assigned to receive 12-day inhalation with sulphurous thermal water or isotonic saline.

Innate immunity but not NLRP3 inflammasome activation correlates with severity of stable COPD.

Background: In models of COPD, environmental stressors induce innate immune responses, inflammasome activation and inflammation. However, the interaction between these responses and their role in driving pulmonary inflammation in stable COPD is unknown.

Objectives: To investigate the activation of innate immunity and inflammasome pathways in the bronchial mucosa and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of patients with stable COPD of different severity and control healthy smokers and non-smokers.

Rhinovirus infection causes steroid resistance in airway epithelium through nuclear factor κB and c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation.

Background: Although inhaled glucocorticoids are the mainstays of asthma treatment, they are poorly effective at treating and preventing virus-induced asthma exacerbations. The major viruses precipitating asthma exacerbations are rhinoviruses.

Objective: We sought to evaluate whether rhinovirus infection interferes with the mechanisms of action of glucocorticoids.

Deficient antiviral immune responses in childhood: distinct roles of atopy and asthma.

Background: Impaired immune response to viral infections in atopic asthmatic patients has been recently reported and debated. Whether this condition is present in childhood and whether it is affected by atopy per se deserves further investigation.

Objective: We sought to investigate airway interferon production in response to rhinovirus infection in children who are asthmatic, atopic, or both and its correlation with the airway inflammatory profile.

Immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in the parietal pleura of patients with tuberculous pleurisy.

The T lymphocyte-mediated immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in the parietal pleura of patients with tuberculous pleurisy is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the immune response in the parietal pleura of tuberculous pleurisy compared with nonspecific pleuritis. We have measured the numbers of inflammatory cells particularly T-cell subsets (Th1/Th2/Th17/Treg cells) in biopsies of parietal pleura obtained from 14 subjects with proven tuberculous pleurisy compared with a control group of 12 subjects with nonspecific pleuritis.