Dipylidium caninum is a parasite that commonly infects dogs and cats worldwide. The large population of wild and stray dogs and cats may potentially transmit D. caninum to humans via their flea and lice. Humans are an accidental host, and dipylidiasis is more commonly seen in infants and children. There is scant information about human dipylidiasis in Russia. We report nine cases of dipylidiasis - eight in children and one in an adult. The patients were asymptomatic, except for excreting active proglottids in their faeces, which was the most common complaint. The clinical significance of asymptomatic dipylidiasis is not understood, except mothers were anxious because of the continuous appearance of active worms in the faeces of their children. The patients were successfully treated with praziquantel (15 mg/kg). Preventing dipylidiasis in pets and humans requires the control of fleas and lice, avoiding the outdoor defecation of definitive hosts, deworming pets, preventing children from playing with stray animals and spread of information about dipylidiasis among pet owners. Dogs and cats in many places in Russia breed freely, defecate outdoors in any area, and are not subjected to deworming and insect control. These circumstances favour the fact that, although this zoonosis is rare, it is a re-emerging disease and might reach important levels in Russia.
The effect of ultrasound treatment on molecular mobility and organization of the main components in raw goat milk was studied by EPR and NMR spectroscopies. NMR relaxation studies showed an increase in the spin-lattice T1 and spin-spin T2 relaxation times in goat milk products (cream, anhydrous fat) and change in the diffusion of proton-containing molecules during ultrasound treatment. The diffusion became more uniform and could be rather accurately approximated by one effective diffusion coefficient Deff, which indicates homogenization of goat milk components, dispersion of globular and supermicellar formations under sonication. EPR studies have shown that molecular mobility and organization of hydrophobic regions in goat milk are similar to those observed in micellar formations of surfactants with a hydrocarbon chain length C12-C16. Ultrasound treatment did not affect submicellar and protein globule organization. Free radicals arising under ultrasound impact of milk reacted quickly with components of goat milk (triglycerides, proteins, fatty acids) and were not observed by spin trapping method.
Methods of NMR relaxation and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the crystallization of anhydrous milk fat (AMF) obtained from milk and subjected to ultrasonic (US) processing. Amongst the changes in the crystallization nature under the influence of ultrasound are the decrease in the crystallization temperature and the increase in the melting enthalpy of the anhydrous milk fat samples. The increase is ∼30% at 20 min of isothermal crystallization and is presumably explained by the additional formation of β'-form crystals from the melt. The parameters of the Avrami equation applied to the description of experimental data show an increase in the crystallization rate in samples with ultrasonic treatment and a change in the dimension of crystallization with a change in melting temperature.