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This chapter discusses the increased role of corporate retailers in global food safety regulation and its consequences for food producers. Retail-driven private food safety regulation started in the early 1990s and has become increasingly important in global food regulation. Major European retailers took the lead in the establishment of private food safety standards with third party certification. These retailers require their suppliers throughout the world to participate in this system of private food governance. The first of these standards were developed by national retailers associations. The British Retail Consortium was a front runner here. Later the food standards crossed borders and were adopted by retailers and producers in other countries.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of the Appellation of Origin (AO) system on the international wine market, given I) the GIs international legal protection system, II) the main aspects of the evolution of the world wine demand and III) the strategic choices of firms on the international market. On the demand side, through descriptive statistics and economic literature review, we show the increasing wine consumers’ appreciation of reputation and origin attributes. On the supply side, we identify the main quality strategies implemented on the international wine market and show the more and more important role played by origin attributes in the strategic choices made by firms worldwide. Finally, a direct survey on Italian Appellations of Origin concerning the registration on the international market shows an increasing risk of an imperfect use of geographical place names. The main consequences are identified for both producers and consumers. Firstly, a misperception of product quality attributes can arise and menace the effectiveness of AO as informative tool. Secondly, the free riding phenomenon may arise and affect the AO collective reputation with a consequently demand drop in the long term.

Dalla storia del gatto emerge che il suo avvicinamento all’uomo è sempre stato in funzione della ricerca del cibo e, infatti, l’insediamento di gruppi di gatti in ambiente urbano o sub-urbano con formazione delle cosiddette colonie, è risultato essenzialmente in rapporto alla disponibilità più o meno costante di alimenti. I gatti delle colonie sono gatti domestici che hanno assunto caratteristiche ecologiche ed etologiche peculiari caratterizzate da: territorialità, organizzazione sociale, fonti alimentari, rapporto con l’uomo. L’habitat delle colonie feline è il più vario: cortili condominiali, parchi pubblici, ruderi, case abbandonate, adiacenze di fabbriche, di asili, di ospedali, mentre il numero dei gatti presenti è legato alla disponibilità di cibo. Un elevato numero di animali concentrati in uno spazio ristretto può però provocare una serie di inconvenienti legati al loro impatto sull’ambiente quali odori, fecalizzazione ambientale, rumori, abbandono e dispersione di avanzi di cibo e relativi contenitori, carte, ecc. e, non ultimo, malattie trasmissibili all’uomo (antropozoonosi) fra le quali possiamo inserire le dermatofitosi. In questo lavoro viene effettuato un aggiornamento sulla presenza di dermatofiti in colonie feline della provincia di Bologna. Materiali e metodi-Sono state esaminate 45 colonie (11 nell’area territoriale ASL Bologna città e 34 nell’area territoriale Bologna nord). comprendenti un totale di 691 gatti. Tra le colonie dell’area di Bologna città ne sono state scelte alcune che erano già state esaminate in un precedente lavoro (Galuppi e coll., 2000) per effettuare un confronto a distanza di 5 anni. In ciascuna colonia erano presenti da un minimo di 4 a un massimo di 75 gatti. Da 209 animali (87 gatti nell’area territoriale Bologna città e 122 nell’area territoriale Bologna Nord) sono state effettuati prelievi di pelo mediante spazzole che sono state seminate per infissione in capsule Petri contenenti Mycosel agar (BBL), poi incubate per 10 giorni a 26°C (+ 2) L'identificazione dei dermatofiti isolati si è basata sulla osservazione delle caratteristiche macro e microscopiche (Rebell e Taplin, 1974; Campbell et al.,1996; Badillet, 1991, ecc.). Risultati e conclusioni- Microsporum canis è stato isolato in 34 soggetti (16,27%) appartenenti a 8 (15,6%) colonie, in ciascuna delle quali sono risultati positivi dal 10% al 100% degli esaminati. In un soggetto era presente Trichophyton terrestre (dermatofita geofilo solitamente non patogeno) e occasionalmente sono stati osservati rari miceti cheratinofili geofili. M. canis è ancora il dermatofita di più frequente riscontro nel gatto. La prevalenza di colonie positive nell’hinterland bolognese (11,76%) sembra inferiore rispetto all’ambito cittadino (36,4%), ma la differenza non è risultata statisticamente significativa. La cosa che accomuna le due aree è una elevata prevalenza di soggetti positivi nelle colonie più numerose senza particolare predilezione di sesso ed età. La difficoltà concreta di riuscire ad avvicinare tutti i gatti e a disinfettare gli ambienti, in particolare nelle colonie numerose, può spiegare il riscontro di positività in due colonie riesaminate dopo 5 anni dalla precedente indagine

The biliodigestive fistula is not a rare affection in the context of acute pathology of the gastrointestinal tract. It often affects patients between 63 and 85 years old , particularly the female sex, and the most common cause is acute or chronic cholecystolithiasis. Open issues are the delayed in the pre-operative diagnosis, and controversies exist regarding the best surgical approach. The choice of treatment options is influenced by the age of the patients and their clinical conditions and also by the presence of comorbidities and of a delayed right diagnosis. In the 1 to 3% of cases, the biliodigestive fistula presents a gallstone ileus as complication, whose diagnosis is particularly difficult for the lack of specific signs and symptoms. The contrast-enhanced CT is considered the gold standard for a specific pre-operative diagnosis, as it directly shows the fistula. Surgical treatments include one-stage procedure or two-stage procedure. Many studies seem to favor a deferred definitive procedure. The Authors describe 4 cases: in 3 cases, women between 70 and 80 years old presenting an history of recurrent cholecystitis, in 2 cases, and in 1 case presenting a bowel obstruction; in 1 case a 50-years-old man, with no significant past medical history, presenting a bowel obstruction. The Authors have performed in the 2 cases of gallstone ileus an enterolithotomy with cholecysto-duodenal fistula repair and cholecystectomy, in one-stage, and this has been possible because of the good clinical conditions of the patients and their low operative risk. In the case of fistula without the complication of gallstone ileus, the treatment approach has been cholecysto-gastric fistula closure with a gastroplastic using separate stitches and cholecystectomy, in one-stage. We are in agreement with data in the literature regarding the delay into the diagnosis of biliodigestive fistula and with the importance to suspect it or gallstone ileus presence, although the clinical presentation is extremely non-specific. In our experience, cholangiopancreatography-CT and CECT have made easier the pre-operative diagnosis and so reducing the delay of the treatment.

Malignant melanoma is characterized by metastases also to the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the small bowel. The diagnosis is often delayed because unspecific clinical presentation (frequently as chronic iron deficiency anemia, rectal bleeding or intestinal obstruction). We present a case of melanoma of unknown primary site, with clinical presentation of intestinal obstruction. A segmental resection of the ileum was performed including mesentery with lymph nodes. Histology revealed metastatic melanoma from unknown primary. PET and MRI confirmed disseminated disease without brain metastasis.

Malpractice is the responsible for the greatest number of legal claims. At the present time, legal actions against physicians in Italy are 15,000 per year, and a stunning increase about costs to refund patients injured by therapeutic and diagnostic errors is expected. The method for the medical prevention is “Risk Management”, that is the setting-up of organizational instruments, methods and actions that enable the measurement or estimation of medical risk; it allows to develop strategies to govern and reduce medical error. In the present work, the reconstruction about the history of risk management in Italy was carried out. After then the latest initiatives undertaken by Italy about the issue of risk management were examined.