Falco biarmicus feldeggii is one of the most threatened taxa in Europe. Its global population is estimated at a few hundred pairs unequally scattered in a vast and fragmented area stretching from Sicily to the Caspian Sea. Most recent counts showed that Italy hosts a large part (>25%) of the whole population. Consequently, Italian authorities promoted a national action plan. In this framework, ...

BACKGROUND Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases of several mammalian species, including humans. In Italy, the active surveillance through rapid tests on brain stem from small ruminants started in 2002 on randomly selected samples of healthy slaughtered animals. Sampling number was proportionally related to the regional small ruminant population. O...

This paper describes the epidemiology of hospitalised cases with influenza-like illness (ILI) and laboratory-confirmed influenza A cases in Sicily (Italy) during the 2009 influenza pandemic. The first ILI case diagnosed as infected with pandemic influenza A(H1N1)2009 in Sicily was reported in June 2009 and it rapidly became the dominant circulating strain. In the period from 30 April 2009 throu...

BRAF mutation is the most frequent genetic alteration in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) that are 80–90% of all thyroid cancers. We evaluated the relationship between BRAF and tumor, host, and environmental factors in PTCs from all geographical areas of Sicily. By PCR, BRAF was investigated in a series of 323 PTCs diagnosed in 2002–2005. The correlation between clinicopathological tumor, ho...

On July 7th 2018 a specimen of Mediterranean dealfish (Trachipterus trachypterus Gmelin 1789) was caught in the shallow waters Selinunte (in South-Western coast Sicily) by trammel net. It female maturing phase and gonadosomatic index resulted as 1.1%. The measured 1638 mm total length weighed about 2480 g. estimated age through growth increments vertebra 41 years. finding Strait Sicily might be...

INTRODUCTION In recent years an increase in the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in men who have sex with men (MSM) has been reported in different industrialised countries. Because few epidemiological data on the STls/MSM population in Sicily are available, a survey was conducted to assess the prevalence of STls/enteric protozoa and risky sexual behaviours among MSM in western S...

of the Rickettsia spp. we identifi ed. As shown (2), multilocus analysis with ompA–ompB sequences was highly informative about the phylogenetic relationship between Rickettsia spp. and R. conorii strains (Figure, panel B). In Sicily, R. conorii Malish strain has been characterized in MSF patients (4), and R. slovaca DNA was identifi ed in ixodid ticks (5). However, to our knowledge, R. slovaca ...

The chemical and physical properties of haemoglobin S derived from homozygotes for this haemoglobin in Sicily were examined, as well as some erythrocytic characteristics. Sicilian Hb S was identical to that found in USA black patients in electrophoretic mobility on both starch and citrate agar media, solubility, mechanical precipitation rate of oxyhaemoglobins, and minimum gelling concentration...

The present study reports an evaluation of the ecosystem support required for both the current solid waste management system in the district of Catania, in Sicily, and the future system, planned by the Regional Government, that is still in process of approval. The new system introduces many improvements through the integration of the European Directive on waste management that includes the prac...

Twenty-one Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains isolated in northern Italy from sporadic cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome and from cattle and food were characterized by virulence gene analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of XbaI-digested DNA, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) sequence-based PCR (ERIC-PCR), and antibiotic resistance patterns and compared to 18 str...