The diagnostic value of skin tests was assessed in 35 patients affected by bird breeder's disease by comparing the results with those obtained in a group of 27 symptomless breeders and 10 symptomless unexposed individuals. Sterilised and diluted serum and lyophilised extracts of faeces prepared from the breeder's own birds were injected intradermally. Skinprick tests using the same materials we...

While animal breeders largely focus on improvement using additive genetic variance, inbreeding and asexual reproduction allow plant breeders to at least partially exploit nonadditive genetic variance as well. We briefly review various approaches used by breeders to exploit dominance and epistatic variance, discuss their constraints and limitations, and examine what (if anything) can be done to ...

The objective of this cooperative research project is to quantify Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) uncured and cured poultry, pork and beef products that have been pre-sliced by the manufacturer or sliced upon demand in supermarket delis. This data will expand on a previous study sponsored by the Food Products Association (formerly National Food Processors Association; Gombas et al....

Two-hundred pigeon breeders attending a national convention were studied for a possible correlation between the hobby of raising pigeons and the incidence of respiratory or immunologic abnormalities. Information concerning his exposwe to pigeons, respiratory symptoms and smoking habits was obtained from each breeder. Chest x-ray examinations and pulmonary function tests were also obtained, and ...

In most cooperative breeders, dominants suppress the reproduction of subordinates. However, two previous studies of Neolamprologus pulcher, a cooperatively breeding cichlid fish, have suggested that socially subordinate helper males sneak fertilizations from dominant breeding males. If such sneaking does occur, both theoretical work and empirical studies of other fish species suggest that sperm...

OBJECTIVE Farming is associated with exposure to a wide variety of risk factors including organic dusts, endotoxins, allergens and other chemicals. The ability of some of these agents to interact with the immune system is demonstrated in the presented study which was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between pig and cow breeding, and the immune system early changes. Particular attention i...

The article reevaluates the reception of Mendelism in France, and more generally considers the complex relationship between Mendelism and plant breeding in the first half on the twentieth century. It shows on the one side that agricultural research and higher education institutions have played a key role in the development and institutionalization of genetics in France, whereas university biolo...