This study was aimed to investigate management conditions and dietitians' perception for improvement of school milk programs. Using an online sampling method, collected data from 1,723 dietitians nationwide were analyzed. The results show that 44.4% of respondents carried out the cyclic school milk program, providing various types of dairy products either weekly or monthly. Further, 80.3% of respondents answered that preference survey results were a determining factor in their choice of school milk provider, and 55.9% said that a school steering committee made the decision on relevant facts of the school milk program. For diversification of school milk type, 60.5% of respondents wanted to maintain the current system, and 39.5% answered that milk type needed to be diversified. The respondents preferred fermented milk products, functional milk, and processed milk, in order, if school milk type is diversified. To improve perception and knowledge about milk, 66.0% of respondents thought that nutrition education by a nutrition teacher would be the most effective, and parent's letters or a nutrition newsletter would be helpful. More than half of respondents (55.0%) disagreed with a merged program for school foodservice and milk.
Cultured Milk Products ; Dairy Products ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Education ; Humans ; Milk* ; Nutritionists ; Periodicals as Topic

OBJECTIVETo identify the antimicrobial resistance of commercial lactic acid bacteria present in microbial foods and drug additives by analyzing their isolated strains used for fermentation and probiotics.

METHODSAntimicrobial susceptibility of 41 screened isolates was tested with disc diffusion and E-test methods after species-level identification. Resistant strains were selected and examined for the presence of resistance genes by PCR.

RESULTSDistribution of resistance was found in different species. All isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol, tetracycline, ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cephalothin, and imipenem. In addition, isolates resistant to vancomycin, rifampicin, streptomycin, bacitracin, and erythromycin were detected, although the incidence of resistance to these antibiotics was relatively low. In contrast, most strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin, amikacin, trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole, and gentamycin. The genes msrC, vanX, and dfrA were detected in strains of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Lactococcus lactis.

CONCLUSIONAntibiotic resistance is present in different species of probiotic strains, which poses a threat to food safety. Evaluation of the safety of lactic acid bacteria for human consumption should be guided by established criteria, guidelines and regulations.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Cultured Milk Products ; microbiology ; Dairy Products ; Drug Contamination ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial ; Food Microbiology ; Humans ; Lactobacillaceae ; drug effects ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; Probiotics

OBJECTIVE: The main causes of spinal cord ischemia are a variety of vascular pathologies causing acute arterial occlusions. We investigated neuroprotective effects of kefir on spinal cord ischemia injury in rats. METHODS: Rats were divided into three groups : 1) sham operated control rats; 2) spinal cord ischemia group fed on a standard diet without kefir pretreatment; and 3) spinal cord ischemia group fed on a standard diet plus kefir. Spinal cord ischemia was performed by the infrarenal aorta cross-clamping model. The spinal cord was removed after the procedure. The biochemical and histopathological changes were observed within the samples. Functional assessment was performed for neurological deficit scores. RESULTS: The kefir group was compared with the ischemia group, a significant decrease in malondialdehyde levels was observed (p<0.05). Catalase and superoxide dismutase levels of the kefir group were significantly higher than ischemia group (p<0.05). In histopathological samples, the kefir group is compared with ischemia group, there was a significant decrease in numbers of dead and degenerated neurons (p<0.05). In immunohistochemical staining, hipoxia-inducible factor-1alpha and caspase 3 immunopositive neurons were significantly decreased in kefir group compared with ischemia group (p<0.05). The neurological deficit scores of kefir group were significantly higher than ischemia group at 24 h (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that kefir pretreatment in spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion reduced oxidative stress and neuronal degeneration as a neuroprotective agent. Ultrastructural studies are required in order for kefir to be developed as a promising therapeutic agent to be utilized for human spinal cord ischemia in the future.
Animals ; Aorta ; Caspase 3 ; Catalase ; Cultured Milk Products* ; Diet ; Humans ; Ischemia ; Malondialdehyde ; Neurons ; Neuroprotective Agents* ; Oxidative Stress ; Pathology ; Rats* ; Reperfusion Injury ; Spinal Cord Ischemia ; Spinal Cord* ; Superoxide Dismutase

Candida guilliermondii is found in sea water, animal feces, buttermilk, and beer and has been isolated from human infections, mostly of cutaneous origin. It usually causes skin and soft tissue infections and has decreased susceptibility to fluconazole. Systemic infections occur mostly in immunocompromised patients. A 38-year-old female was admitted with a 4-day fever. Her medical and family histories were unremarkable, except for obesity. She had been taking diet pills for 3 months and had undergone injection therapy into her abdomen for lipolysis for 1 month. She did not respond to empirical antibiotics. A Candida species was isolated from blood cultures and identified as C. guilliermondii based on partial LSU rRNA gene sequence analyses. She was treated with amphotericin B, and recovered completely.
Abdomen ; Adult ; Amphotericin B ; Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Beer ; Candida ; Candidemia ; Cultured Milk Products ; Diet ; Feces ; Female ; Fever ; Fluconazole ; Genes, rRNA ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Lipolysis ; Obesity ; Seawater ; Sequence Analysis ; Skin ; Soft Tissue Infections

Probiotics have emerged as a potential treatment modality for numerous gastrointestinal disorders, including IBD. However, few probiotics have undergone appropriate preclinical screening in vivo. Kefir is considered a probiotic, benefiting the host through its effects in the intestinal tract. Despite numerous studies examining the action of probiotics on the host organism, few have analyzed the effects on intestinal environment. We assessed the protective effect of kefir for three weeks before inducing colitis with 2% dextran sodium sulfate for five days. The DSS loads were similar in all DSS treatment group. The results of the experiment are as follows. Food intake and FER of experimental groups were not significantly different each other, but water consumption tended to be higher in all DSS treatment groups as compared with the normal control. And visual inspection of feces revealed mild diarrhea in rat given 2% DSS. The anti-inflammatory activity of kefir was determined by myeloperoxidase activity during the DSS treatment, and there was no significant difference in any group. The levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) as a colonic lipid peroxidation were significantly lower in the kefir intake groups than in rats treated with 2% DSS alone. The DNA % in tail and tail moment values as a DNA damage level of the blood lymphocytes in kefir intake groups tended to be lower than 2% DSS treatment alone, especially tail lengths were significantly diminished. According to the colonic histopathological assay, there were a severe inflammation of lamina propria and submucosa and mild edema in mucosa and sub mucosa in DSS alone treated group. We found a slight regenerative change in kefir treatment groups. In our experiments, this means that ulcerative colitis related to oxidative injury might be prevented by kefir as a probiotic. Further studies of the potential benefits of kefir as a probiotic in inflammatory condition are encouraged.
Animals ; Edible Grain ; Colitis ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Colon ; Cultured Milk Products ; Dextrans ; Diarrhea ; DNA ; DNA Damage ; DNA Fragmentation ; Drinking ; Eating ; Edema ; Feces ; Inflammation ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Lymphocytes ; Mass Screening ; Mucous Membrane ; Peroxidase ; Probiotics ; Rats ; Sodium ; Sulfates ; Thiobarbiturates ; Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances