• SDSN - Greece
• Publications close
• HR close
• ZA close

This work aims to generate the data needed to set epidemiological cut-off values for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and disc-diffusion zone measurements of Vibrio anguillarum. A total of 261 unique isolates were tested applying standard methods specifying incubation at 28 °C for 24-28h. Aggregated MIC distributions for a total of 247 isolates were determined in nine laboratories for eleven agents. Data aggregations of the disc zone for the ten agents analysed contained between 157 and 218 observations made by four to seven laboratories. Acceptable ranges for quality control (QC) reference strains were available for seven agents and the related multi-laboratory aggregated data were censored excluding the data of a laboratory that failed to meet QC requirements. Statistical methods were applied to calculate epidemiological cut-off values. Cut-off values for MIC data were calculated for florfenicol (≤1 µg/ml), gentamicin (≤4 µg/ml), oxytetracycline (≤0.25 µg/ml) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (≤0.125/2.38 µg/ml). The cut-off values for disc zone data were calculated for enrofloxacin (≥29 mm), florfenicol (≥27 mm), gentamicin (≥19 mm), oxolinic acid (≥24 mm), oxytetracycline (≥24 mm) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (≥26 mm). MIC and disc-diffusion zone data for the other agents where not supported by QC, thus yielding only provisional cut-off values (meropenem, ceftazidime). Regardless of whether QC is available or not, some of the aggregated MIC distributions (enrofloxacin, oxolinic acid), disc zone (sulfamethoxazole) and MIC and disc-diffusion distributions (ampicillin, chloramphenicol) did not meet the statistical requirements. The data produced will be submitted to CLSI for their consideration in setting international consensus epidemiological cut-off values. International audience

Preference could be the trigger for fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in children and could be modified by appropriate intervention to increase the acceptance of FVs. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the three-year school-based multicomponent intervention “Nutri-školica” on the FV preferences of primary school children. It also aimed to explore whether a positive change in FV preferences could lead to an increase in actual FV consumption. The study was conducted in 14 primary schools from the city of Zagreb on 193 children (52.3% boys; age, 7.7 ± 0.4 years; n = 85 in the control group and n = 108 in the intervention group) who completed a preference questionnaire before and after the intervention with a 5-point hedonic smiley-face scale, where 5 means “I like it a lot.” The per-protocol approach was used for data analysis (28.3% of children from the study sample). After the intervention, children in the intervention group (before: 3.1 ± 0.8; after: 3.5 ± 0.8) increased their FV preferences significantly more than children in the control group (before: 3.2 ± 0.8; after: 3.3 ± 0.7). Children’s FV preferences changed most toward the varieties for which they had the least preferences at the beginning of the study. Participation in the intervention had a stronger effect on changing FV intake than change in FV preferences among primary school children. In summary, the present study highlighted that a targeted intervention can increase children’s FV preferences, but that participation in the intervention is substantial for increasing FV intake.

The lack of internationally harmonised criteria for interpreting the data generated by standardised susceptibility testing methods presents a serious obstacle for the development of prudent use of antimicrobials in aquaculture. The data required to set epidemiological cut-off values for minimum inhibitory concentrations for antibiotic agents against Vibrio harveyi was determined using a standard microdilution method that specified the use of cation-adjusted Mueller Hinton broth and incubation at 28°C for 24 to 28 h. In total, 120 observations were made in 4 independent laboratories from 109 unique isolates. The aggregated data from these laboratories were analysed by the normalised resistance method and by ECOFFinder to calculate epidemiological cut-off values. The data for chloramphenicol, meropenem and sulfamethoxazole were not considered as suitable for analysis. The data for ampicillin indicated that this species is innately resistant to this agent. No acceptable ranges for quality control strains have been set for ceftazidime and, therefore, only provisional cut-off values could be generated for this agent. The epidemiological cut-off values were, however, calculated for the other 6 agents. These values were ≤0.5 µg ml-1 for enrofloxacin, ≤1 µg ml-1 for florfenicol, oxolinic acid and oxytetracycline, ≤4 µg ml-1 for gentamicin and ≤0.5/9.5 µg ml-1 for trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Evidence is presented demonstrating that the data for these 6 antimicrobial agents was of sufficient quantity and quality that they could be used by the relevant authorities to set internationally harmonised, consensus epidemiological cut-off values for V. harveyi.

Climate change, desertification, salinisation of soils and the changing hydrology of the Earth are creating or modifying microbial habitats at all scales including the oceans, saline groundwaters and brine lakes. In environments that are saline or hypersaline, the biodegradation of recalcitrant plant and animal polysaccharides can be inhibited by salt‐induced microbial stress and/or by limitation of the metabolic capabilities of halophilic microbes. We recently demonstrated that the chitinolytic haloarchaeon Halomicrobium can serve as the host for an ectosymbiont, nanohaloarchaeon ‘ Candidatus Nanohalobium constans’. Here, we consider whether nanohaloarchaea can benefit from the haloarchaea‐mediated degradation of xylan, a major hemicellulose component of wood. Using samples of natural evaporitic brines and anthropogenic solar salterns, we describe genome‐inferred trophic relations in two extremely halophilic xylan‐degrading three‐member consortia. We succeeded in genome assembly and closure for all members of both xylan‐degrading cultures and elucidated the respective food chains within these consortia. We provide evidence that ectosymbiontic nanohaloarchaea is an active ecophysiological component of extremely halophilic xylan‐degrading communities (although by proxy ) in hypersaline environments. In each consortium, nanohaloarchaea occur as ectosymbionts of Haloferax , which in turn act as scavenger of oligosaccharides produced by xylan‐hydrolysing Halorhabdus . We further obtained and characterised the nanohaloarchaea–host associations using microscopy, multi‐omics and cultivation approaches. The current study also doubled culturable nanohaloarchaeal symbionts and demonstrated that these enigmatic nano‐sized archaea can be readily isolated in binary co‐cultures using an appropriate enrichment strategy. We discuss the implications of xylan degradation by halophiles in biotechnology and for the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. International audience

In the last few years, the endemic Mediterranean bivalve Pinna nobilis has been exposed to dramatic mortality in its entire area, which could lead to the extinction of the species. Throughout the Mediterranean, a lot of effort is being put into finding ways of preserving it. One of the methods used to monitor recruitment and juveniles’ survival is the installation of collectors for bivalve larvae. We installed collectors at two locations: in Brijuni National Park (North Adriatic) and Luka Cove (central Adriatic). Our aim was to compare the fouling community on the collectors in two consecutive years (2019 and 2020), especially because the installation of collectors in 2020 coincided with mass mortality events of P. nobilis in the area. The number and size of juvenile P. nobilis and the qualitative and quantitative composition of the fouling communities were determined. The results show a reduction in the number and size of juvenile P. nobilis and an explosion of the invasive bivalve Anadara transversa population on collectors in the second year. In Luka Cove, another invasive species—the ascidian Styela plicata—also seriously affected other organisms on the collectors to the point of preventing analysis of the fouling community.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of real storage conditions and daily consumption, heating, and presence of food during storage (dried tomatoes, cheese) and heating (vegetables) of monovarietal EVOOs on its fatty acid composition, phenolic and volatile compounds, antioxidant activity, sensory properties, and quality. The results indicated that under consumption conditions used in this study (gradual headspace increasing, darkness, room temperature), EVOO's composition of fatty acid, phenolic and volatile compounds remained preserved within one month. The presence of food during storage and heating significantly decreased the quality and the concentration of total identified phenolic and volatile compounds of the used EVOO. The use of monovarietal oils indicated varietal specificity under different conditions of its use, related to the composition of fatty acids, phenolic and volatile compounds. Cilj ovog istraţivanja bio je ispitati utjecaj realnih uvjeta upotrebe i svakodnevnog korištenja, zagrijavanja i prisutnosti hrane tijekom skladištenja (sušena rajĉica, sir) i zagrijavanja (povrće) sortnih EDMU na sastav masnih kiselina, fenola i hlapljivih spojeva, antioksidacijsku aktivnost, senzorska svojstva i kvalitetu ulja. Dobiveni rezultati pokazali su da je sastav masnih kiselina, fenolnih i hlapljivih spojeva EDMU u uvjetima svakodnevnog korištenja (postepeno povećavanje nadprostora boce, bez svjetlosti, sobna temperatura) ostao nepromijenjen unutar mjesec dana skladištenja. Prisutnost hrane tijekom skladištenja i zagrijavanja znaĉajno je utjecala na smanjenje kvalitete te koncentracije ukupnih identificiranih fenolnih i hlapljivih spojeva korištenog EDMU. Primjenom sortnih ulja utvrĊena je sortna specifiĉnost u razliĉitim uvjetima uporabe vezana uz poĉetni sastav masnih kiselina, fenolnih i hlapljivih spojeva.

Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEA) require consideration of the full suite of pressures and impacts affecting ecosystems. However, capacity limitations often severely limit our ability to do everything that we want or ‘should’ do, outside of short-term fully-funded focused research projects. In order to make IEA a reality in many contexts, priority consideration has to be given to how to achieve such comprehensive assessments. Ecoregions and Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) have been identified as potential management units, however these large areas encompass diverse habitats, and multiple nations with diverse human communities and use of marine environments, and a multitude of different management strategies. In this context, how can we make IEA an operational tool that can be applied at such high-level in a comparable, yet regionally-relevant adaptable approach? This paper outlines the demonstration and adaptation of an established risk assessment approach (Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management: ODEMM) to a rapid risk scoping tool, and how this approach has been applied using open source common analytical tools to improve operationality in both the Mission Atlantic project and the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Working Groups. Furthermore, a hierarchical approach is detailed that allows the integration of different levels of detail into a common format. The resulting assessments are then ground-truthed with stakeholders to identify issues, omissions, potential conflicts, and key areas of interest for the next steps of the IEA process.

The need to move toward marine ecosystem-based management is globally recognized. Few countries effectively account for multiple interacting pressures in their marine assessments, planning and management. Many socio-economic sectors currently operate in South African waters and in most cases, their associated pressures are managed on a sector-by-sector basis and interacting pressures are seldom accounted for in assessments or decision-making. For ecosystem-based management to be effective, a science-based approach to prioritize sectors and pressures needing most urgent action, and to identify affected ecological components is needed. Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) has hence been put forward as a tool that can organize relevant information and provide context for cross-sectoral management decisions. Consisting of five main stages that form an iterative cycle, the first IEA stage involves scoping of top management priorities in a given area and can be done by way of risk assessment. Through the ODEMM (Options for Delivering Ecosystem-based Marine Management) approach, linkage chains (interactions) among sectors, pressures and affected ecological components for the entirety of the South African marine territory were identified. Subsequently, impact risk scores of each linkage chain were calculated based on the exposure and severity of impacts faced by ecological components from pressures that are associated with each sector. Fishing was the sector with the greatest connectivity (11.65% proportional connectance) in the framework and ranked highest in terms of impact risk (summed), followed by Shipping and Coastal infrastructure. Pressures with the most serious impacts on ecological components, as identified through summed impact risk scores, included Bycatch, Species extraction, and Incidental loss and the ecological components most affected were those primarily associated with Fishing and its associated pressures. These findings align with those of the recent South African National Biodiversity Assessment and corroborate views of local stakeholders. This study also identified key local knowledge gaps, including impacts of underwater noise, invasive species, and climate change, that must be better understood to improve assessment accuracy and guide management prioritization of pressures exerted by most impactful sectors.