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IDFA applauds U.S Senate Committee for child nutrition legislation

The International Dairy Foods Association applauded the leadership of Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, on the passage of child nutrition legislation that strengthens federal feeding programs. The federal child nutrition programs include the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Special Supplemental Program for Women Infants, and Children (WIC) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

7 Aug 2010

Department of Agriculture advises consumers to discard Jersey Hollow Farm's raw milk

The Department of Agriculture today advised consumers who purchased raw milk from Norman Z. and Edith B. Sauder, of Jersey Hollow Farm in Kutztown, Berks County, to discard the product immediately because of potential bacterial contamination.

7 Aug 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

According to a Lancet Comment, "alcohol remains conspicuously absent from the larger field of research and programming in HIV and substance use. ... Patterns of hazardous alcohol consumption prevail in countries with the most severe HIV epidemics, notably eastern and southern Africa." In addition, "hazardous drinking patterns also dominate in the concentrated epidemics of eastern Europe and Asia, where alcohol use by injecting drug users and other marginalised groups might be an additional barrier to effective efforts to prevent HIV infection."

7 Aug 2010

Poor countries need assistance developing sustainable agricultural systems, USDA Undersecretary says

Governments and aid groups must do more to help the world's hungry develop sustainable agricultural systems, U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary James Miller said during an address Wednesday on the final day of the International Food Aid and Development Conference, the Associated Press reports (Hollingsworth, 8/4).

6 Aug 2010

Nemours applauds Senate for passing bi-partisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010

Nemours, an integrated children's health system, congratulates the United States Senate on passing the bi-partisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, prior to the September 30th expiration of the child nutrition legislation. We applaud Senators Lincoln and Chambliss for their leadership in advancing this historic legislation.

6 Aug 2010

Child Nutrition Initiative encourages Senate for Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

The Child Nutrition Initiative commends Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) for their hard work and commitment to pass the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S. 3307) – a vital step in the effort to improve children's health and increase their access to nutritious school meals. We applaud the Senate for their strong bipartisan support and encourage the U.S. House to act quickly to pass similar legislation so critical improvements can be signed into law this year.

6 Aug 2010

Research on human disease origins to predict, prevent next outbreak

Most infectious diseases infect multiple host species, but to date, efforts to quantify the frequency and outcome of cross-species transmission (CST) of these diseases have been severely limited.This lack of information represents a major gap in knowledge of how diseases emerge, and from which species they will emerge.A paper published this week in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Daniel Streicker of the University of Georgia has begun to close that gap.

6 Aug 2010

Sen. Appropriations Committee approves $54.1B FY2011 foreign ops spending bill, including $8.2B for global health programs

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $54.1 billion FY 2011 spending bill for the State Department and related agencies "that includes potentially controversial abortion language," CQ reports.

31 Jul 2010

Nature series examines role science can play in securing food for the future

As part of a series of stories and editorials on the role science can play in securing food for the future, Nature News examines the challenges associated with feeding the world's hungry.

31 Jul 2010

Illinois quickly begins implementing new law to end violence in nursing homes; N.J. reverses cuts in AIDS drug program

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday signed a law establishing new nursing home safety measures "aimed at ending chronic violence in the facilities. Work already has begun on hiring dozens of additional nursing home inspectors, as well as writing rules that will increase licensing fees and nursing staff levels in the homes. State authorities also say they are tackling one of the thorniest issues: finding ways to fund the law's multifaceted provisions even as Illinois faces a $13 billion budget deficit" (Jackson and Marx, 7/29).

31 Jul 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

A Center for Global Development memo offers suggestions for the U.S. to improve its commitment to policies that benefit poor countries after it ranked 17th out of 22 wealthy in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index. Among a set of 20 recommendations, the authors suggest the U.S. "[i]ncrease foreign aid, especially through such vehicles as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which gives to relatively well-governed countries, or a global 'Cash on Delivery' fund that would pay countries after making confirmed progress toward agreed-upon outcomes, thereby reducing the proliferation of aid projects," the authors write(Prieto/Roodman).

31 Jul 2010

FAO launches initiative to curb animal diseases

In an effort to prevent and control outbreaks of animal diseases and the associated costs, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday announced a new five-year initiative "to improve global response to disease outbreaks, implement effective prevention and containment strategies and manage risks," PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (7/28).

29 Jul 2010

Nanotechnology approaches to solve major problems on global scale: Report

Nanotechnology refers to a broad range of tools, techniques and applications that simply involve particles on the approximate size scale of a few to hundreds of nanometers in diameter. Particles of this size have some unique physicochemical and surface properties that lend themselves to novel uses. Indeed, advocates of nanotechnology suggest that this area of research could contribute to solutions for some of the major problems we face on the global scale such as ensuring a supply of safe drinking water for a growing population, as well as addressing issues in medicine, energy, and agriculture.

29 Jul 2010

Mapping NTDs is critical for controlling, treating diseases

Mapping neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is vital for efforts to control and treat diseases, write the authors of an editorial published Tuesday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, ANI/Sindh Today reports (7/28).

29 Jul 2010

New funding made available to tackle common cause of food poisoning in the UK

Up to £2 Million is being made available today to tackle the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK - Campylobacter. Three of the UK's main public funders of food safety research have come together to invite research proposals to find out more about the organism and how best to control it. To provide safe and nutritious food for a growing world population it is important to reduce the incidence of food poisoning. Campylobacter species are responsible for more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning a year in England and Wales.

28 Jul 2010

USDA to facilitate virtual public discussion on power of telemedicine

Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager announced late last week that the USDA will facilitate a virtual public discussion in the field of telemedicine. "The Power of Telemedicine" web discussion is an extension of the USDA's Open Government effort and Rural Development's latest effort to encourage a more widespread use and understanding of telemedicine.

27 Jul 2010

Illumina launches TruSeq SBS Sequencing kit

Illumina, Inc. today announced the launch of its TruSeq SBS Sequencing kit that will enable high-quality paired end reads of 150 base pairs (bp), increase the output of high-quality base calls, and enhance throughput to greater than 95 Gigabases (Gb) of high-quality base pairs per run on Illumina's Genome Analyzer (GA) sequencing system.

From Illumina, Inc. 26 Jul 2010

Study identifies infection mechanism of disease-causing microbes

A study published in the July 23 issue of Cell identifies the mechanism used by several types of common, virulent microbes to infect plants and cause devastating blights. Microbes using this infection mechanism include fungi that are currently causing wheat rust epidemics in Africa and Asia, and a class of parasitic algae, called oomycetes, that resulted in the Irish potato blight of the 19th Century. These microbes remain an agricultural scourge today.

23 Jul 2010

Researchers discover fundamental entry mechanism of fungal microbes into plant and human host cells

A research team led by scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech has discovered a fundamental entry mechanism that allows dangerous fungal microbes to infect plants and cause disease. The discovery paves the way for the development of new intervention strategies to protect plant, and even some animal cells, from deadly fungal infections. The findings are published in the July 23 edition of the journal Cell.

23 Jul 2010

Preventative measures to avoid Lyme disease

Research on the population of black-legged ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease from host animals to humans, reinforces that it is important to take preventative measures when spending time outdoors.

21 Jul 2010