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International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience; Environmental issues are now at the heart of the debates concerning the evolution of dairy production systems. The challenge of the next few years lies in supplying dairy products while insuring social, economic and environmental performances, to improve sustainability of production systems. Regarding the environment, particular attention must be paid to limiting the risks of pollution towards water, air and the conservation of biodiversity. The French ruminant breeding system, widely based on grasslands, presents a real asset due to the link to the soil and from the large part of forage in the herd's diet. The environmental efficiency, which is not directly connected to the structural characteristics, occurs in particular by the optimization of carbon and nitrogen recycling within the production systems. While the variability of the environmental burdens between farms of different systems (plain vs mountain) is low, a strong variability is observed between farms of the same system. This demonstrates that the practices, which are efficient in terms of optimising animal management and low energy consumption..., have positive environmental and economic impacts. Therefore, a significant part of the French ruminant farms should be considered as having high environmental and economic performance without disrupting the current production systems. Finally dairy farming, which acts to reduce the carbon and nitrogen losses to the air and water, promotes carbon storage and biodiversity. Beyond the production of milk and meat, dairy farming therefore plays a major role in the preservation of the environment.

Abundant evidence over past decades shows that foods with added plant sterols and plant stanols lower serum LDL cholesterol concentrations. However, despite the overwhelming data, numerous scientific questions still remain. The objective of this paper is to summarize the considerations of 60 academic and industrial experts who participated in the scientific meeting in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on issues related to the health effects of plant sterols and plant stanols. The meeting participants discussed issues including efficacy profiling, heterogeneity in responsiveness, effects beyond LDL-C lowering, and food formulation aspects of plant sterol and stanol consumption. Furthermore, aspects related to the potential atherogenicity of elevated circulatory plant sterol concentrations were discussed. Until the potential atherogenicity of plant sterols is resolved, based on the results >200 clinical trials, the risk to benefit of plant sterol use is favorable. Evidence on these topics in plant sterol and plant stanol research was presented and used to reach consensus where possible. It was concluded that endpoint studies looking at plant sterol and plant stanol efficacy are needed, however, there was no clear opinion on the best marker and best design for such a study. Based on the current scientific evidence, plant sterols and plant stanols are recommended for use as dietary options to lower serum cholesterol. © 2012.

The notion of vulnerability remains very vague in the legislative texts. Even il the method of evaluation of this vulnerability exist, the services instructors of the Plan of Prevention of the Risks Flood (PPRI) does not use, genrally, these methods to elaborate the mandatory maps. Indeed, the PPRI objective, which is the reduction of the damages in the possessions and in the persons, does not demand socio-economic analyses of the stakes. In the rare cases where such studies are led, their purpose is to serve as a basis for discussion between the States and local governments, to reconcile the imperatives of protection and the projexts of development. Problems remain in the PPRI (method), notably the lack measures to reduce vulnerability., La notion de vulnérabilité face au phénomène inondation reste floue dans les textes législatifs. Même si des méthodes d'évaluation de cette vulnérabilité existent, les services instructeurs des Plans de Prévention des Risques d'Inondation (PPRI) n'utilisent pas, en général, ces méthodes pour élaborer la cartographie réglementaire. En effet, l'objectif affiché du PPR, la réduction des dommages aux biens et aux personnes, n'exigent pas d'analyse socio-économiques des enjeux. Dans les rares cas où de telles études sont ménées, leur finalité est de servir de base de discussion entre l'Etat et les collectivités locales, pour concilier les impératifs de protection et les projets de développement. Des problèmes subsistent dans la démarches PPR, notamment un manque de méthodologie pour prendre des mesures de réduction de la vulnéranilité.

The authors report the ninth case of cutaneous Leishmaniasis without mucosal involvement due to Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis (isoenzymatic profile related to zymodeme MON-44) diagnosed in a legionnaire who recently arrived in French Guiana. The skin lesion as a single ulcerated nodule of the dorsum of the left ringfinger was cured after two courses of four intramuscular injections of pentamidine isothionate (total posology of pentamidine-base: 16.6 mg/kg). The transmission occurred during nocturnal trekking in forest and swamps just behind the coastal belt at Degrad Saramaka (7 km South of Kourou). In French Guiana, the good level of medical care and the early treatment of the majority of the cases of Leishmaniasis may explain the rarity of mucosal lesions. Since the clinical aspect of the lesion is not sufficient to prejudge the identity of the causative species, it is necessary to perform cultivation of Leishmania for iso-enzymatic identification. The adaptation of pentamidine doses and long term follow up of patients infected by L. (V.) braziliensis could be defined more precisely.

Ce rapport fournit quelques éléments pour un bilan et ravive la mémoire par un rappel historique et géographique de la naissance de l'IFAC, de sa croissance, puis de l'ultime phase de dépendance croissante à son intégration dans un organisme de plus grande dimension. Tout au long de ses 40 années d'existence, l'activité de l'IRFA a été répartie en quatre programmes consacré aux agrumes, à l'ananas, aux bananiers et aux plantains et aux autres fruitiers