The traceability of animal meals in layer diets as detected by stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of eggs

The aim of this study was to trace the inclusion of animal meals in layer diets by analyzing eggs and their fractions (yolk and albumen) using the technique of carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Two-hundred and eighty-eight (288) 73-week-old Shaver White layers, never fed animal ingredients, were randomly distributed in six treatments with six replicates each. The treatments were: control - corn and soybean meal based diet and five other experimental diets including bovine meat and bone meal (MBM); poultry offal meal (POM); feather meal (FM); feather meal and poultry offal meal (OFM), and poultry offal meal, feather meal, and meat and bone meal (MBOFM). The isotopic results were submitted to multivariate analysis of variance. Ellipses were determined through an error matrix (95% confidence) to identify differences between treatments and the control group. In the albumen and yolk of all experimental treatments were significantly different from the control diet (p < 0.05). In summary, the stable isotope technique is able to trace the animal meals included in layer feeds in the final product under these experimental conditions

Polymorphism of human haptoglobin and its clinical importance

Haptoglobin (Hp) is a plasma glycoprotein, the main biological function of which is to bind free hemoglobin (Hb) and prevent the loss of iron and subsequent kidney damage following intravascular hemolysis. Haptoglobin is also a positive acute-phase protein with immunomodulatory properties. In humans, the HP locus is polymorphic, with two codominant alleles (HP1 and HP2) that yield three distinct genotypes/phenotypes (Hp1-1, Hp2-1 and Hp2-2). The corresponding proteins have structural and functional differences that may influence the susceptibility and/or outcome in several diseases. This article summarizes the available data on the structure and functions of Hp and the possible effects of Hp polymorphism in a number of important human disorders