• Title/Summary/Keyword: environmental surveillance

Search Result 274, Processing Time 0.02 seconds

The current status and control measures of BSE in the worldwide (국내, 외 광우병의 발생 현황과 대응 방안)

  • Yoo, Han-Sang
    • 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
    • /
    • 2009.07a
    • /
    • pp.273-282
    • /
    • 2009
  • The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease group are fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting a wide range of hosts. The group includes kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, scrapie in sheep and goats and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. The exact nature of the infectious agent involved in the transmission of these diseases remains controversial. However, a central event in their pathogenesis is the accumulation in infected tissues of an abnormal form of a host-encoded protein, the prion protein (PrP). Whereas the normal cellular protein is fully sensitive to protease ($PrP^{sen}$), the disease-associated prion protein ($PrP^d$) is only partly degraded ($PrP^{res}$), its amino-terminal end being removed. BSE was first reported in the mid-80s in the UK. Ten years later, a new form of human prion disease, variant CJD (vCJD) developed in the wake of the BSE epidemic, and there is now strong scientific evidence that vCJD was initiated by the exposure of humans to BSE-infected tissues, thus indicating a zoonotic disease. However, the ban on the feeding of animal-derived proteins to ruminants, and the apparent lack of vertical transmission of BSE, have led to a decline in the incidence of the disease within cattle herd and therefore, an assumed decreased risk for human contacting vCJD. The origin of the original case(s) of BSE still remains an enigma even though three hypotheses have been raised. Hypotheses are i) sheep- or goat-derived scrapie-infected tissues included in meat and bone meal fed to cattle, ii) a previously undetected sporadic or genetic bovine TSE contaminating cattle feed or iii) originating from a human TSE through animal feed contaminated with human remains. A host cellular membrane protein ($PrP^C$), which is abundant in central nervous system tissue, appear to be conformationally altered in the diseased host into a prion protein ($PrP^{Sc}$). This $PrP^{Sc}$ is detergent insoluble and partially protease-resistant ($PrP^{res}$). The term $PrP^{res}$ is normally used to describe the protein detected after protease treatment, in techniques such as Western immunoblotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay using fresh/frozen tissue. Immunohistochemistry may performed with formalin-fixed tissues. Also, clinical signs of the BSE are one of the major diagnostic indicators. Recently, atypical forms (known as H- and L-type) of BSE have appeared in several European countries, Japan, Canada and the United States. An unusual case was also reported in a miniature zebu. The atypical BSE fall into two groups based on the relative molecular mass (Mm) of the unglycosylated $PrP^{res}$ band relative to that of classical BSE, one of the higher Mm (H-type) and the other lower (L-type). Both types have been detected worldwide as rare cases in older animals, at a low prevalence consistent with the possibility of sporadic forms of prion diseases in cattle. This raises the unwelcome possibility that vCJD could increase in the human population. Now, active surveillance program against BSE is going on in Korea. In regional veterinary service lab, ELISA is applied to screen the BSE in slaughter and confirmatory tests by Western immunoblotting and immunohistochemisty are carried out if there are positive or suspect in the screening test. Also, the ruminant feed ban is rigorously enforced. Removal of specified risk materials such as brain and spinal cord from cattle is mandatory process at slaughter to prevent the infected material from entering the human food chain.

  • PDF

Distribution of Foodborne Pathogens from Garlic Chives and Its Production Environments in the Southern Part of Korea (남부지방 부추와 재배환경의 식품매개병원균의 분포)

  • Jung, Jieun;Oh, Kwang Kyo;Seo, Seung-Mi;Yang, SuIn;Jung, Kyu-Seok;Roh, Eunjung;Ryu, Jae-Gee
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
    • /
    • v.35 no.5
    • /
    • pp.477-488
    • /
    • 2020
  • Recently, foodborne illness outbreaks linked to fresh produce are being increasingly reported in the United States, the EU, and Korea as well. Some of this increase may be due to improved surveillance, increase in consumption, change in consumers' habits, and complex distribution systems. Garlic chive is a green, fresh-cut vegetable consumed year-round as a nutrition-rich herb in Korea. It is also prone to contamination with foodborne pathogens during pre-harvest, as amendment with high amounts of livestock manure or compost to soil is required in its cultivation. Our aim in this study was to evaluate microbial contamination of garlic chives, garlic chives cultivation soil, compost, and irrigation water in the southern part of Korea. Samples were collected in A, B, and C regions in 2019 and 2020, and 69, 72, 27, and 40 of garlic chives, soil, compost, and irrigated water, respectively, were analyzed for the presence of sanitary indicator bacteria (total aerobic bacteria, coliforms and Escherichia coli), Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, pathogenic E. coli, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella spp. In A, B, and C regions, levels of total aerobic bacteria, coliform, B. cereus, and S. aureus on all samples were between 1.14 and 8.83 log CFU/g, 0.43 and 5.01 log CFU/g, 0.41 and 5.55 log CFU/g, and 1.81 and 6.27 log CFU/g, respectively. B. cereus isolated from garlic chives and environmental samples showed β-hemolysis activity. Incidence of S. aureus in garlic chive and its production environments in 2020 was different from 2019. In this study, B. cereus and S. aureus were the only pathogenic microorganisms detected in all samples. As a result, this work suggests that continuous monitoring in the production and pre-harvest environment is required to improve hthe hygiene and safety of garlic chive.

Accuracy Analysis of Target Recognition according to EOC Conditions (Target Occlusion and Depression Angle) using MSTAR Data (MSTAR 자료를 이용한 EOC 조건(표적 폐색 및 촬영부각)에 따른 표적인식 정확도 분석)

  • Kim, Sang-Wan;Han, Ahrim;Cho, Keunhoo;Kim, Donghan;Park, Sang-Eun
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
    • /
    • v.35 no.3
    • /
    • pp.457-470
    • /
    • 2019
  • Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been attracted attention in the fields of surveillance, reconnaissance, and national security due to its advantage of all-weather and day-and-night imaging capabilities. However, there have been some difficulties in automatically identifying targets in real situation due to various observational and environmental conditions. In this paper, ATR problems in Extended Operating Conditions (EOC) were investigated. In particular, we considered partial occlusions of the target (10% to 50%) and differences in the depression angle between training ($17^{\circ}$) and test data ($30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$). To simulate various occlusion conditions, SARBake algorithm was applied to Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) images. The ATR accuracies were evaluated by using the template matching and Adaboost algorithms. Experimental results on the depression angle showed that the target identification rate of the two algorithms decreased by more than 30% from the depression angle of $45^{\circ}$ to $30^{\circ}$. The accuracy of template matching was about 75.88% while Adaboost showed better results with an accuracy of about 86.80%. In the case of partial occlusion, the accuracy of template matching decreased significantly even in the slight occlusion (from 95.77% under no occlusion to 52.69% under 10% occlusion). The Adaboost algorithm showed better performance with an accuracy of 85.16% in no occlusion condition and 68.48% in 10% occlusion condition. Even in the 50% occlusion condition, the Adaboost provided an accuracy of 52.48%, which was much higher than the template matching (less than 30% under 50% occlusion).

The Role of the Soft Law for Space Debris Mitigation in International Law (국제법상 우주폐기물감축 연성법의 역할에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Han-Taek
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
    • /
    • v.30 no.2
    • /
    • pp.469-497
    • /
    • 2015
  • In 2009 Iridium 33, a satellite owned by the American Iridium Communications Inc. and Kosmos-2251, a satellite owned by the Russian Space Forces, collided at a speed of 42,120 km/h and an altitude of 789 kilometers above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia. NASA estimated that the satellite collision had created approximately 1,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters, in addition to many smaller ones. By July 2011, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network(SSN) had catalogued over 2,000 large debris fragments. On January 11, 2007 China conducted a test on its anti-satellite missile. A Chinese weather satellite, the FY-1C polar orbit satellite, was destroyed by the missile that was launched using a multistage solid-fuel. The test was unprecedented for having created a record amount of debris. At least 2,317 pieces of trackable size (i.e. of golf ball size or larger) and an estimated 150,000 particles were generated as a result. As far as the Space Treaties such as 1967 Outer Space Treaty, 1968 Rescue Agreement, 1972 Liability Convention, 1975 Registration Convention and 1979 Moon Agreement are concerned, few provisions addressing the space environment and debris in space can be found. In the early years of space exploration dating back to the late 1950s, the focus of international law was on the establishment of a basic set of rules on the activities undertaken by various states in outer space.. Consequently environmental issues, including those of space debris, did not receive the priority they deserve when international space law was originally drafted. As shown in the case of the 1978 "Cosmos 954 Incident" between Canada and USSR, the two parties settled it by the memorandum between two nations not by the Space Treaties to which they are parties. In 1994 the 66th conference of International Law Association(ILA) adopted "International Instrument on the Protection of the Environment from Damage Caused by Space Debris". The Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee(IADC) issued some guidelines for the space debris which were the basis of "the UN Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines" which had been approved by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space(COPUOS) in its 527th meeting. On December 21 2007 this guideline was approved by UNGA Resolution 62/217. The EU has proposed an "International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities" as a transparency and confidence-building measure. It was only in 2010 that the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee began considering as an agenda item the long-term sustainability of outer space. A Working Group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities was established, the objectives of which include identifying areas of concern for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities, proposing measures that could enhance sustainability, and producing voluntary guidelines to reduce risks to long-term sustainability. By this effort "Guidelines on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities" are being under consideration. In the case of "Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exp1oration and Use of Outer Space" adopted by UNGA Resolution 1962(XVIII), December 13 1963, the 9 principles proclaimed in that Declaration, although all of them incorporated in the Space Treaties, could be regarded as customary international law binding all states considering the time and opinio juris by the responses of the world. Although the soft law such as resolutions, guidelines are not binding law, there are some provisions which have a fundamentally norm-creating character and customary international law. In November 12 1974 UN General Assembly recalled through a Resolution 3232(XXIX) "Review of the role of International Court of Justice" that the development of international law may be reflected, inter alia, by the declarations and resolutions of the General Assembly which may to that extend be taken into consideration by the judgements of the International Court of Justice. We are expecting COPUOS which gave birth 5 Space Treaties that it could give us binding space debris mitigation measures to be implemented based on space debris mitigation soft law in the near future.