Passage of Salmonella through the crop and gizzard of broiler chickens fed with fermented liquid feed

In vivo experiments were conducted in order to investigate the passage and bacterial reduction of Salmonella in the crop and gizzard of chickens when fed two different feeds. The chickens were fed dry conventional feed and fermented liquid feed. The fermented feed contains a relatively high concentration of lactic and acetic acid and lactobacilli. One and three week old broiler chickens were necropsied at short intervals after inoculation with Salmonella Enteritidis. Counts of Salmonella from the crop, gizzard, duodenum, caecum and colon/rectum were obtained. This revealed a sharper decrease of Salmonella in the anterior parts of the gastro-intestinal tract in chickens fed with fermented feed than in chickens fed dry feed. It is therefore concluded that fermented feed improves the barrier formed by the crop and gizzard. The reduction of Salmonella is fully realised in the crop and gizzard. The lower intestinal compartment did not show a substantial effect on the reduction of Salmonella. The performed in vivo method appeared to be an appropriate way to study intervention strategies that aim to control Salmonella by improving the barrier function of the upper gastro-intestinal tract.     

Ethanol-Induced Changes in Prostaglandin E Concentration in the Intact Cerebral Cortex of Preterm and Near-term Fetal Sheep

Ethanol-induced changes in fetal prostaglandin E (PGE) concentration may play a role in the toxic effects of prenatal ethanol exposure. Using the novel technique of in utero microdialysis, the present study tested the hypothesis that acute ethanol exposure changes PGE concentration in the intact cerebral cortex of preterm (93 ± 1 days of gestation) and near-term (124 ± 1 days of gestation; term, ∼147 days) fetal sheep. Fetal sheep were surgically instrumented with a microdialysis probe placed in the parasagittal parietal cortex. Three days later, the effects of maternal infusion of 1 g of ethanol/kg maternal body weight on preterm ( n = 6) and near-term ( n = 7) fetal cerebral cortical and plasma PGE concentrations were determined. In the preterm fetal cerebral cortex, PGE concentration was increased after ethanol infusion in all six animals studied. The median peak increase was 160% with a 95% confidence interval of 115 to 784%. There was considerable variation in the time of occurrence, magnitude, and duration of this increase. In the near-term fetal cerebral cortex, an increase in PGE concentration was observed after ethanol infusion in 5 of the 7 animals studied, whereas a decrease in PGE concentration was observed in the other two animals. Overall, ethanol did not increase significantly near-term fetal cerebral cortical PGE concentration. For both age groups, ethanol infusion had no effect on fetal plasma PGE concentration. These data indicate that ethanol can affect PGE production in the fetal cerebral cortex and that this effect seems to be gestational-age-dependent.     

Impact of a Medication Card on Compliance in Older People

Medication compliance is often poor amongst older people, and this can contribute to adverse drug reactions, therapeutic inefficiency and associated increase in morbidity. This study was conducted among outpatients to assess the impact of a medication card as a counselling aid to increase knowledge about medications and increase drug compliance. Patients were randomly assigned to Group A, which received counselling only, from a pharmacist, or to Group B, which received both counselling and a medication card from the pharmacist. Knowledge improvement for patients in Group B was significant, compared with patients in Group A, t = 9.82, p < 0.001. The compliance of patients in Group A and in Group B, were respectively, (mean ± S.D) 87.5 ± 15.1 v 92.5 ± 11.9, t = 1.76, p = 0.082. The results of this study show that a medication card can increase medication knowledge and may aid compliance.