Association between land cover and Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) breeding sites on four Danish cattle farms

Bitingmidges of the genus Culicoides are vectors of bluetongue virus. Their larval habitats are poorly known in Northern Europe. Three classes of the CORINE land cover index, found within 300 m of four farms in Denmark, were used to stratify sampling sites for a total of 360 soil core samples from 30 sampling points. Soil samples were set up in emergence chambers for hatching adult Culicoides. Two species of Culicoides (C. punctatus and C. pulicaris) emerged from nine of 12 soil samples froma wet, grazed field with manure. Seventy-two other samples from similar land cover on the three other farms were negative. Seven sampling points from pastures were incorrectly classified by CORINE. The remaining 23 sampling points were classified correctly. The visually observed land use was not sufficiently detailed to adequately predict Culicoides breeding sites in this study. The CORINE index failed to identify pastures in which Culicoides breeding sites were found.

Breakfast Consumption Amongst School Children in Northern Iran

Background: Eating breakfast has an important role for growing and educational promotion in students. This study set out to evaluate skipping breakfast and some related demographic factors among primary school children in the north of Iran in 2008.Material and methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study that performed on 7426 students (3786=male and 3640=female) from 112 schools in urban and rural area. The schools and students were chosen by cluster and stratify sampling. Data collected by questioner for all samples through interview. Spss.win16 software was used for analysis. Findings: Skipping breakfast were shown among 9.3% of students (female= 9.9% and male=6.7%) and in Turkman ethnic groups (6.0%) is significantly less than other ethnic groups such as Fars (9.6%) and Sistani (9.4%) (P=0.001). There is a statistical significant differences between gender and type of school, separately (P=0.001). The most reasons for lack of breakfast eating are low appetite (70.1%), non-flavorful foods (11.8%), inattention of mothers (5.2%) and others factors (13%).Conclusion: Skipping breakfast is one to eleven of students and social-demographic factors such as ethnicity and social level based on type of school effects on it. With regard to roll of breakfast eating in educational promotion, recognition and solving the obstacle factors for eating breakfast in students were recommended.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jnps.v32i3.6095 J. Nepal Paediatr. SocVol.32(3) 2012 193-200