A multi-level stakeholder approach to sustainable land management

Soils provide us with over 90% of all human food, livestock feed, fibre and fuel on Earth. Soils, however, have more than just productive functions. The key challenge in coming years will be to address the diverse and potentially conflicting demands now being made by human societies and other forms of life, while ensuring that future generations have the same potential to use soils and land of comparable quality. In a multi-level stakeholder approach, down-to-earth action will have to be supplemented with measures at various levels, from households to communities, and from national policies to international conventions. Knowledge systems, both indigenous and scientific, and related research and learning processes must play a central role. Ongoing action can be enhanced through a critical assessment of the impact of past achievements, and through better cooperation between people and institutions.

Superorganism resilience: eusociality and susceptibility of ecosystem service providing insects to stressors

Insects provide crucial ecosystem services for human food security and maintenance of biodiversity. Therefore, major declines in wild insects combined with losses of managed bees have raised great concern. Recent data suggest that honey bees appear to be less susceptible to stressors compared to other species. Here, we argue that eusociality plays a key role for the susceptibility of insects to environmental stressors due to superorganism resilience, which can be defined as the ability to tolerate the loss of somatic cells (= workers) as long as the germ line (= reproduction) is maintained. Life history and colony size appear critical for such resilience. Future conservation efforts should take superorganism resilience into account to safeguard ecosystem services by insects.

Food-safety hazards in the pork chain in Nagaland, North East India: implications for human health.

Pork occupies an important place in the diet of the population of Nagaland, one of the North East Indian states. We carried out a pilot study along the pork meat production chain, from live animal to end consumer. The goal was to obtain information about the presence of selected food borne hazards in pork in order to assess the risk deriving from these hazards to the health of the local consumers and make recommendations for improving food safety. A secondary objective was to evaluate the utility of risk-based approaches to food safety in an informal food system. We investigated samples from pigs and pork sourced at slaughter in urban and rural environments, and at retail, to assess a selection of food-borne hazards. In addition, consumer exposure was characterized using information about hygiene and practices related to handling and preparing pork. A qualitative hazard characterization, exposure assessment and hazard characterization for three representative hazards or hazard proxies, namely Enterobacteriaceae, T. solium cysticercosis and antibiotic residues, is presented. Several important potential food-borne pathogens are reported for the first time including Listeria spp. and Brucella suis. This descriptive pilot study is the first risk-based assessment of food safety in Nagaland. We also characterise possible interventions to be addressed by policy makers, and supply data to inform future risk assessments.

Soils, agriculture and food security: The interplay between ecosystem functioning and human well-being

Healthy soils are critical to agriculture, and both are essential to enabling food security. Soil-related challenges include using soils and other natural resources sustainably, combating land and soil degradation, avoiding further reduction of soil-related ecosystem services, and ensuring that all agricultural land is managed sustainably. Agricultural challenges include improving the quantity and quality of agricultural outputs to satisfy rising human needs, also in a 2 degrees world; maintaining diversity in agricultural systems while supporting those farms with the highest potential for closing existing yield gaps; and providing a livelihood for about 2.6 billion mostly poor land users. The greatest needs and potentials lie in small-scale farming, although there as elsewhere, trade-offs must be negotiated within the nexus of water, energy, land and food, including the role of soil therein.

Listeria monocytogenes infection in ruminants: Is there a link to the environment, food and human health? A review.

Listeria (L.) monocytogenes is widely distributed in the environment, but also has the ability to cause serious invasive disease in ruminants and humans. This review provides an overview of listeriosis in ruminants and discusses our insufficient understanding of reservoirs and possible cycling ofL. monocytogenes between animal and human hosts, food and the environment. It indicates gaps in our knowledge of the role of genetic subtypes in L. monocytogenes ecology and virulence as well as risk factors, in vivo diagnostics and pathogenesis of listeriosis in ruminants. Filling these gaps will contribute to improving the control of L. monocytogenes and enhancing disease prevention. As the prevalence of listeriosis in ruminants in Switzerland is likely to be underestimated, propositions concerning improvement options for surveillance of listeriosis in ruminants are provided.

Novel insights into mechanisms of food allergy and allergic airway inflammation using experimental mouse models

Over the last decades, considerable efforts have been undertaken in the development of animal models mimicking the pathogenesis of allergic diseases occurring in humans. The mouse has rapidly emerged as the animal model of choice, due to considerations of handling and costs and, importantly, due to the availability of a large and increasing arsenal of genetically modified mouse strains and molecular tools facilitating the analysis of complex disease models. Here, we review latest developments in allergy research that have arisen from in vivo experimentation in the mouse, with a focus on models of food allergy and allergic asthma, which constitute major health problems with increasing incidence in industrialized countries. We highlight recent novel findings and controversies in the field, most of which were obtained through the use of gene-deficient or germ-free mice, and discuss new potential therapeutic approaches that have emerged from animal studies and that aim at attenuating allergic reactions in human patients.

Human microbiota-secreted factors inhibit shiga toxin synthesis by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a food-borne pathogen causing hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic-uremic syndrome, especially in children. The main virulence factor responsible for the more serious disease is the Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2), which is released in the gut after oral ingestion of the organism. Although it is accepted that the amount of Stx2 produced by E. coli O157:H7 in the gut is critical for the development of disease, the eukaryotic or prokaryotic gut factors that modulate Stx2 synthesis are largely unknown. In this study, we examined the influence of prokaryotic molecules released by a complex human microbiota on Stx2 synthesis by E. coli O157:H7. Stx2 synthesis was assessed after growth of E. coli O157:H7 in cecal contents of gnotobiotic rats colonized with human microbiota or in conditioned medium having supported the growth of complex human microbiota. Extracellular prokaryotic molecules produced by the commensal microbiota repress stx(2) mRNA expression and Stx2 production by inhibiting the spontaneous and induced lytic cycle mediated by RecA. These molecules, with a molecular mass of below 3 kDa, are produced in part by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a predominant species of the normal human intestinal microbiota. The microbiota-induced stx(2) repression is independent of the known quorum-sensing pathways described in E. coli O157:H7 involving SdiA, QseA, QseC, or autoinducer 3. Our findings demonstrate for the first time the regulatory activity of a soluble factor produced by the complex human digestive microbiota on a bacterial virulence factor in a physiologically relevant context.

Extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Gram-negative organisms in livestock: an emerging problem for human health?

Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Acinetobacter spp. are important human pathogens. Serious infections due to these organisms are usually treated with extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESCs). However, in the past two decades we have faced a rapid increasing of infections and colonization caused by ESC-resistant (ESC-R) isolates due to production of extended-spectrum-β-lactamases (ESBLs), plasmid-mediated AmpCs (pAmpCs) and/or carbapenemase enzymes. This situation limits drastically our therapeutic armamentarium and puts under peril the human health. Animals are considered as potential reservoirs of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative organisms. The massive and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine has contributed to the selection of ESC-R E. coli, ESC-R Salmonella spp. and, to less extent, MDR Acinetobacter spp. among animals, food, and environment. This complex scenario is responsible for the expansion of these MDR organisms which may have life-threatening clinical significance. Nowadays, the prevalence of food-producing animals carrying ESC-R E. coli and ESC-R Salmonella (especially those producing CTX-M-type ESBLs and the CMY-2 pAmpC) has reached worryingly high values. More recently, the appearance of carbapenem-resistant isolates (i.e., VIM-1-producing Enterobacteriaceae and NDM-1 or OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter spp.) in livestock has even drawn greater concerns. In this review, we describe the aspects related to the spread of the above MDR organisms among pigs, cattle, and poultry, focusing on epidemiology, molecular mechanisms of resistance, impact of antibiotic use, and strategies to contain the overall problem. The link and the impact of ESC-R organisms of livestock origin for the human scenario are also discussed.

The human circadian metabolome

The circadian clock orchestrates many aspects of human physiology, and disruption of this clock has been implicated in various pathologies, ranging from cancer to metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Although there is evidence that metabolism and the circadian clockwork are intimately linked on a transcriptional level, whether these effects are directly under clock control or are mediated by the rest-activity cycle and the timing of food intake is unclear. To answer this question, we conducted an unbiased screen in human subjects of the metabolome of blood plasma and saliva at different times of day. To minimize indirect effects, subjects were kept in a 40-h constant routine of enforced posture, constant dim light, hourly isocaloric meals, and sleep deprivation. Under these conditions, we found that ~15% of all identified metabolites in plasma and saliva were under circadian control, most notably fatty acids in plasma and amino acids in saliva. Our data suggest that there is a strong direct effect of the endogenous circadian clock on multiple human metabolic pathways that is independent of sleep or feeding. In addition, they identify multiple potential small-molecule biomarkers of human circadian phase and sleep pressure.

EU trade agreements and their impacts on human rights: study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

The European Union’s (EU) trade policy has a strong influence on economic development and the human rights situation in the EU’s partner countries, particularly in developing countries. The present study was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as a contribution to further developing appropriate methodologies for assessing human rights risks in development-related policies, an objective set in the BMZ’s 2011 strategy on human rights. The study offers guidance for stakeholders seeking to improve their knowledge of how to assess, both ex ante and ex post, the impact of Economic Partnership Agreements on poverty reduction and the right to food in ACP countries. Currently, human rights impacts are not yet systematically addressed in the trade sustainability impact assessments (trade SIAs) that the European Commission conducts when negotiating trade agreements. Nor do they focus specifically on disadvantaged groups or include other benchmarks relevant to human rights impact assessments (HRIAs). The EU itself has identified a need for action in this regard. In June 2012 it presented an Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy that calls for the inclusion of human rights in all impact assessments and in this context explicitly refers to trade agreements. Since then, the EU has begun to slightly adapt its SIA methodology and is working to define more adequate human rights–consistent procedures. It is hoped that readers of this study will find inspiration to help contribute to this process and help improve human rights consistency of future trade options.

The WTO and Food Security: What’s Wrong with the Rules?

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is the predominant multilateral legal framework governing agricultural trade. The objective of the AoA is to liberalise trade in agriculture through reductions in tariffs, domestic support and export subsidies. The AoA has not, however, ‘levelled the playing field’ and has not resulted in the equitable distribution of food, particularly for the poorer developing countries. On the other hand, support for small farmers does not ensure food security for the poor. While food security has no simple solutions such as “free trade is good for you”, reform proposals for trade rules which only address agricultural policy instruments fail to account for consumer and other interests: neither tariff reductions and subsidy disciplines, nor safeguards and other measures of producer protection can automatically increase food security. Rather, what is needed is the full and proper implementation of a number of commitments which the international community has already entered into in various human rights treaties, but which even the envisaged results of the now failed Doha Round negotiations could not ensure without revisiting relevant multilateral trade and investment rules.

Social stratigraphy in Late Iron Age Switzerland: Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of human remains from Münsingen

The Iron Age cemetery of Münsingen in Switzerland with 220 abundantly equipped burials marked a milestone for Iron Age research. The horizontal spread throughout the time of its occupancy laid the foundation for the chronology system of the Late Iron Age. Today, skulls of 77 individuals and some postcranial bones are still preserved. The aim of the study was to obtain information about diet, mobility and social stratification of the individuals. Stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur were analysed for 63 individuals. For all of them C3 plants were found to be the staple food. There are significant differences between males and females in δ13C and δ15N values. This points to a gender restriction in the access to animal protein with males probably having more access to meat and dairy products. Differences in δ15N values were also observed for different age classes. δ34S values indicate a terrestrial-based diet with no significant intake of marine or freshwater fish. Seven adults with enriched δ34S values might have immigrated to Münsingen, four of which were found in the oldest part of the cemetery. Furthermore, possible changes of the vegetation are indicated by the more positive stable carbon ratios in the later phases. The results lead to the suggestion that especially males buried with weapons might have played a special role in the Iron Age society.

Use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals in Switzerland and in the European Union (EU)

The intensive and inappropriate use of antibiotics in both medicine and agriculture has selected for antibiotic resistant bacteria that cause severe problems in antibiotic therapy. In animal husbandry, antibiotics are used for therapeutic and preventive treatments of infectious diseases and as growth promoters. In Europe, many antibiotics used as growth promoters were of the same classes as important antibiotics used in human medicine. The European Union withdrew the authorization for the use of the major antimicrobial growth promoters between 1996 and 1999. In 1999 Switzerland decided to ban the use of all antimicrobials as growthpromoting feed additives. The regulations concerning antibiotic use in animal husbandry and the chronological reasons for the ban of antimicrobial growth promoters are described. This ban led to a decrease of the antibiotic volume deployed in agriculture. This measure helps to reduce the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria in food-producing animals. However, the use of medicated feed is still a common practice to prevent and to remedy bacterial infections and thus still leads to resistant pathogens. Surveillance programs, single animal treatment, good manufacturing practices and vaccinations are additional measures to be taken to keep the level of resistances in bacteria low.