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On June, 1964 a Commission was appointed in Scotland with the purpose of "examining the conditions in which livestock are kept under systems of intensive husbandry and to advise whether standards ought to be set in the interests of their welfare, and if so what they should be". The Commission concluded its work recommending that for farm animals, at least 5 basic conditions, or freedoms, should be granted: Freedom from hunger and thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury, or disease; from fear and distress; and to express normal behavior. In Judaism these concepts were already known for the last 32 centuries, being included in the Law (The Torah), even if otherwise declined; extensively commented by Sages thru generations until today; still considered valid and ethic; even influencing the Legislator or the Judiciary power. Protecting animals from harmful or dangerous situations, and minimizing any traumatic event, abstaining from any intentional traumatic action, and abstaining from any unnecessarily painful action, these are the basic teaching of Judaism relative to animal welfare. Judaism sees in animal's protection a powerful teaching for the respect of all the Creation and its protection. Granting the animals the satisfaction of their needs does not mean placing them at same level of man. In fact, their use is allowed, while highly regulated; their killing is also permitted in order to supply food to man; and again their killing must be done in a painless manner possible. Judaism developed a highly skilled and regulated way, the shechita, for slaughtering animals considered for food production, aimed to be quick, precise and as painless as possible; exclusively using skilled professionals. Today, in several European Countries, shechita is under scrutiny, with erroneous accusations of malpractice. In other Countries, like the USA, it is legally protected and clearly included among the humane ways of slaughter which are granted to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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SummaryAcute macrophage (Mφ) depletion, using a liposome-mediated ‘suicide technique’, markedly suppressed priming of splenic CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). However, phagocytic marginal dendritic cells (MDC), but not interdigitating dendritic cells (IDC), are now known to be also depleted by this technique. To clarify the role splenic dendritic cell (DC) subsets and Mφ play in priming for a virus-specific T-cell-mediated immune response, DC and Mφ were purified from VSV-infected mice and assayed for the presence of epitopes recognized by VSV helper T (Th) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Antigen pulse experiments performed in situ demonstrated that VSV Th cell and CTL epitopes became transiently associated only with DC, but not Mφ or B cells, indicating that DC represent the critical antigen-presenting cell (APC) population in vivo for this virus. The failure of MDC/Mφ-deficient mice to become primed was not due to the complete elimination of antigen-presenting DC because VSV peptide/class I and II complexes were detected on IDC following lipsome-mediated elimination of phagocytic cells. However, the VSV-induced chemokine response was dramatically suppressed in these mice. Thus, despite the expression of VSV peptide/class I and II complexes, IDC are not sufficient to prime VSV Th cells in the absence of MDC and/or splenic Mφ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]