Assessment of Feeding Practice among Mothers Attending the Immunisation Clinic of UCMS Hospital, Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Practice of exclusive breast feeding has dramatically reduced infant mortality in developing countries due to reduction in diarrhea and infectious diseases. We conducted a study to assess the feeding practices among mothers with children less than 12 months of age attending the immunization clinic of UCMS hospital, Nepal. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out in the immunization clinic of Pediatric ward of UCMS, Nepal for a period of four months. Mothers of child of 0-12 months were included in the study. Sample size was 372 which was based on the number of mothers visited Pediatric ward for immunization of their child of age group 0-12 months during the duration of the study. Mothers were interviewed by using a pre-validated structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version-20 software and presented by descriptive statistics as frequency and percentages. RESULTS: Most of the children were above six months, 56.5% were of 7-12 months of age group. Exclusive breastfeeding was done in 48.4% children for first six months. Maximum population preferred hospital as their mode of delivery. 93.5% mothers opted for hospital as their place of delivery. 23.4% mothers were illiterate. Night feeding was practiced by 96.2% mothers. CONCLUSION: Breast feeding awareness must be spread among mothers by workshops and health education programs.

Feeding practices and early childhood caries among children with primary dentition

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is major oral health problem of young children. Risk factors for ECC are poor oral hygiene and feeding practices. Prevalence and severity of ECC is increasing with change in lifestyle and diet pattern in developing countries. Objectives: To assess the association between feeding practices and severity of early childhood caries in preschool children. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with convenient sample of 96 children up to six years age in Peoples Dental College from July to December 2020. Clinical examination included the recording of dental caries (dmft) using WHO criteria. The self-validated questionnaire consisting seven questions about feeding practices was asked to mothers. The Chi-square test was performed to determine association between severity of ECC and feeding pattern. Results: Mean dmft was 6.77 ± 5.91. Prevalence of severe-ECC (S-ECC) was highest in youngest age group. Caries experience was similar in breast fed, bottle fed, and mixed. There was no significant difference in non-severe ECC and ECC in relation to duration of breast or bottle feeding but frequency of night feeding was associated with S-ECC. Children given ready-made infant formula solid food had more S-ECC (13, 92%) compared to non-severe ECC (1, 7.1%) which was statistically significant. Children given homemade gram flour food were noted to have less of S-ECC (5, 27.5%) than nonsevere ECC (13, 72.5%) which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Present study revealed that multiple night feeding and weaning with readymade food are significant factors for S-ECC.

Circadian regulation of night feeding and daytime detoxification in a formidable Asian pest Spodoptera litura

Voracious feeding, trans-continental migration and insecticide resistance make Spodoptera litura among the most difficult Asian agricultural pests to control. Larvae exhibit strong circadian behavior, feeding actively at night and hiding in soil during daytime. The daily pattern of larval metabolism was reversed, with higher transcription levels of genes for digestion (amylase, protease, lipase) and detoxification (CYP450s, GSTs, COEs) in daytime than at night. To investigate the control of these processes, we annotated nine essential clock genes and analyzed their transcription patterns, followed by functional analysis of their coupling using siRNA knockdown of interlocked negative feedback system core and repressor genes (SlituClk, SlituBmal1 and SlituCwo). Based on phase relationships and overexpression in cultured cells the controlling mechanism seems to involve direct coupling of the circadian processes to E-boxes in responding promoters. Additional manipulations involving exposure to the neonicotinoid imidacloprid suggested that insecticide application must be based on chronotoxicological considerations for optimal effectiveness.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMPARATIVE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NIGHT FED AND NIGHT FASTED BROILER FINISHERS

Four-week old broiler finishers were raised in 8 deep litter pens under two treatments, night feeding and night fasting. The birds were fed ad libitum during the day and equally exposed to all necessary management practices. The trial was conducted to observe the comparative body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (F.1) and feed utilization (F.U) between the birds under the two treatments, as well as the body weight shrinkage arising from the night fasting by the night fasted birds. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in BWG between birds in the two treatments except at week 5. An equivalent of 62% of the day time BWG was lost to fasting by the night fasted birds. The loss was, however, adequately compensated during the day time feeding. Body weight shrinkage due to the night fast increased with age and was most pronounced between 9 -10 weeks of age. No significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in F.1. between the night fed and night fasted birds. For the former, F.I. was higher during the day from ages 5 to 8 weeks and higher during the night at ages 9 and 10 weeks. night fasted birds utilised feed averagely better than the night fed ones. Results from this study show that there is no significant advantage in feeding broiler finishers at night.

Case of diagnostics of a rare form of glycogen disease

Differential diagnosis of hypoglycemic syndrome remains an urgent problem in Pediatrics. In this article, a case of glycogen storage disease (BNG) type 0 is described in the boy, which is undoubtedly a rare pathology, which makes it difficult to diagnose this form of glycogenosis. In this description, the case of type 0 BNG is caused by a mutation in the GYS2 gene encoding the hepatic isoform of glycogen synthase. This form of the disease is usually asymptomatic in infancy. However, it can be suspected in the case when the refusal of night feeding causes certain difficulties due to the hungry ketotic hypoglycemia that occurs in the child. The first clinical symptoms appear in early childhood with the inclusion of a more varied diet in the child, increasing the intervals between meals. Symptoms of the disease are primarily caused by hypoglycemia. It should be noted that, despite the low levels of glycemia, most children do not have any mental development disorders, since the increase in the level of ketone bodies in the blood plasma provides the brain with an alternative source of energy.

Time-restricted feeding alters isoflurane-induced memory deficits

Food consumption during the rest phase promotes circadian desynchrony, which is corrected with harmful physiological and mental disorders. Previously, we found that circadian desynchrony was involved in isoflurane-induced cognitive impairment. Here, we scheduled food access to modulate daily rhythm to examine its impact on isoflurane-induced cognitive impairments. Mice were randomly transferred to restricted feeding (RF) time groups: Control group (Zeitgeber time (ZT) 0–ZT24, ad libitum feeding), Day-Feeding group (ZT0–ZT12, misaligned feeding), and Night-Feeding group (ZT12–ZT24, aligned feeding). Then, some of them were subjected to 5 h of 1.3% isoflurane anaesthesia from ZT14 to ZT19 and were divided into the Control + Anes group, the Day-Feeding + Anes group, and the Night-Feeding + Anes group. Mini-Mitter was used to monitor the daily rhythm. Fear conditioning system was conducted to assess cognition of mice. We observed that the Night-Feeding group adapted to RF gradually, whereas the Day-Feeding group exhibited a disturbed daily rhythm. The Night-Feeding + Anes group exhibited a partially enhanced daily rhythm, whereas the Day-Feeding + Anes group exhibited sustained phase advances and diurnality score increase 7 days after isoflurane anaesthesia. Notably, in tests of hippocampus-dependent contextual memory, the Night-Feeding + Anes group demonstrated decreased deficits; the Day-Feeding + Anes group showed prolonged post-anaesthetic deficits 14 days after isoflurane anaesthesia. However, amygdala-dependent cued-fear conditioning post-anaesthesia was not altered by the RF schedule. In conclusion, we demonstrated that misaligned feeding disturbed the daily rhythm and led to persistent post-anaesthetic cognitive dysfunction. Aligned feeding enhanced the daily rhythm partially and improved post-anaesthetic cognitive dysfunction.

Feeding patterns of transforming and juvenile myctophids that migrate into neustonic layers

Adult and juvenile myctophids feed at night in the epipelagic zone (<200 m) and are more dispersed in the mesopelagic zone (200-1000 m) during the daylight hours. In contrast, larvae inhabit the upper 200 m throughout a 24 h period and have daylight feeding patterns. Transforming stages occur both at the surface and in the mesopelagic zone and show less-defined feeding patterns. In this study, we analysed the trophic ecology of transforming and juvenile stages of 4 myctophids that occupy the neustonic layers (first 0-20 cm of the water column) during their nightly vertical migrations: Dasyscopelus asper, Gonichthys cocco, Myctophum affine, and M. nitidulum. Day and night neuston samples were collected across the equatorial and tropical Atlantic in April 2015. Transforming and juvenile stages occurred at night in the neuston, where they fed, but were absent from this layer during the day. The highest prey ingestion was observed between 01:00 and 04:00 h (UTC). Feeding incidence and the number of prey ingested increased from transformation stages to juvenile stages. Although the maximum prey size increased with fish body length, there was no significant increasing trend in mean prey sizes, but a great variability in the sizes of consumed prey. Diets of the 4 species mainly comprised a variety of copepod genera, usually dominated by Oncaea species. There was no evidence of resource partitioning among the 4 myctophid species. Estimates of daily feeding rations, based on the relationship between carbon content per gut and carbon content of fish body, throughout the night feeding period, showed that these species in these early stages ingested between 0.43 and 5.78% of their body carbon weight daily. We suggest that the occurrence and feeding of these early stages in the neuston may contribute to reducing trophic competition between migrating myctophids by space segregation.

THE FAUNA OF INTESTINAL PARASITES OF SMALL CATTLE IN THE CONDITIONS OF PRIVATE FARMS

At all times, the study of farm animal parasitic diseases was one of the most important areas in the general spectrum of animal parasitoses, as farm animals can be a source of human infestation with helminthiasis. The studies were carried out at two private farms where small cattle are kept – one farm is located in the Kaluga Region (Dzerzhinsky District), and the other in the Tver Region (Konakovsky District). The study objects were sheep and goats of various age-sex groups (females and males aged 2–3 years and young animals aged up to 6 months), and the material was feces hand-selected from the rectum of animals. The selected feces were studied at the Department of Parasitology and Veterinary-Sanitary Inspection of the FSBEI of Higher Education FSBEI Mgavmib – MVA named after K.I.Skryabin according to generally accepted methods. As a result of helminthoovoscopic diagnostics, we found that the fauna of intestinal parasites at the farm in the Kaluga Region was represented by three types of nematodes, namely, Trichostrongylus sp., Nematodirus sp. and Capillaria sp., as well as protozoa of the genus Eimeria. In the feces of sheep from the farm in the Tver Region, pathogen eggs of the genus Trichostrongylus sp. and single protozoa of the genus Eimeria were also found. The fauna of intestinal parasites from these two farms is similar to each other; pathogens of the genus Trichostrongylus sp. prevail, which is obviously associated with similar conditions for small cattle keeping and feeding (the livestock is equipped with the Romanov sheep at both farms; animals have year-round grazing and are kept in a wooden sheep shed at night. Feeding with hay and filling, regular preventive measures, in particular, deworming of the stock twice a year). According to the results of the study of feces carried out at the Department, gastrointestinal strongylatoses are the prevailing parasitoses in animals from both farms.

Dispersal patterns of large-seeded plants and the foraging behaviour of a frugivorous bat

Mutualistic interactions are biologically important, diverse and poorly understood. Comprehending these interactions and the effectiveness of the mutualistic partners has been the central focus of ecological and evolutionary studies, as this task requires disentangling the pieces of mutualism under study. Here, we tested the hypothesis that feeding activity of Artibeus phaeotis influences density, diversity and distance effects of the seed rain of large-seeded plant species in a Neotropical dry forest of Costa Rica. We predicted that bats’ activity increases density and diversity metrics on dispersing sites and that bats behave as short-distance dispersers. Our data revealed that, by dispersing hundreds of seeds within their small foraging areas and mostly close to fruiting trees, the feeding activity of A. phaeotis increases the density and richness of seeds underneath night feeding roosts. The functional role of A. phaeotis as disperser may vary among plant species, as we also detected that some seeds are more dispersed than others. Further inquiries to elucidate mutualistic interactions between frugivorous bats and large-seeded plant species should focus on understanding demographic and fitness outcomes, as strong selective pressures may be shaping morphological and behavioural traits of both plants and animals, ultimately influencing the survival of each partner.