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The present study seeks to identify whether mothers perceive the effect of in-store food promotional strategies on food shopping behavior of children and mediate this impact by using feeding practices. Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in the age category 4–11 years from Punjab (India). The mothers are found to use multiple feeding practices because they recognize that the use of in-store food promotional strategies have negative effects on the health of children. They use "teaching about nutrition" and "food as a reward" practices because they find rampant use of in-store food promotional strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The undesirable effects of TV advertisements and general parenting responsibility propel mothers to monitor and control the eating habits of children through meal time actions and feeding practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify feeding practices used by Indian mothers through the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) developed by Musher-Eizenman and Holub (2007) and to investigate differences in the use of feeding practices across demographic variables.Design/methodology/approach Using a cross-sectional design, a structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 473 mothers of children aged four to 11 years from Punjab (India). Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and ANOVA.Findings The present study confirms the validity and reliability of the nine-factor model through CFA with 28 items in the Indian context than original CFPQ. Further, significant differences exist in the responses of mothers for feeding practices followed with children across age and gender of child, mother’s education status and monthly family income.Practical implications Parents may understand the nature of feeding practices to mediate unhealthy food consumption habits of children. The government should formulate codes or regulations to sufficiently monitor food marketing activities directed at children. The food marketing companies should also act responsibly to protect well-being of children.Originality/value This piece of research is important as no such study (to the best of researchers’ knowledge) has already been conducted in India even though dietary patterns of children are transforming tremendously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the serological diagnosis of caprine brucellosis with purified recombinant BP26 (outer membrane protein 28) of Brucella melitensis 16M produced in Escherichia coli. Brucella protein named CP28, BP26, or Omp28 has been identified as an immunodominant antigen in infected cattle, sheep, goats, and humans. The recombinant BP26 (rBP6) ELISA performed with serum samples (n =1738) taken from organized farms and field goats from Northern India and tested in two different batches of 778 and 960 animals for brucellosis. Positive results were compared with the traditional serum agglutination test (SAT), complement fixation test (CFT) and dot-ELISA. The diagnostic sensitivity of rBP26 ELISA, SAT, CFT and dot-ELISA was 87.5%, 56.25%, 62.5% and 75% respectively. The specificity of the rBP26 ELISA, SAT, CFT and dot-ELISA was 90%, 75%, 80%, and 85% respectively. The results of rBP26 ELISA positive animals were further compared and evaluated by tissue PCR using B. melitensis BP26 gene as target. This resulted in 100% positive correlation between rBP26 ELISA and BP26 PCR. Thus, these results confirmed the importance of BP26 as a suitable antigen and rBP26 ELISA, if well standardized, proved to be a good screening test for the serological diagnosis of caprine brucellosis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]