Comparison of Carbon Stocks Between Mixed and Pine-Dominated Forest Stands Within the Gwalinidaha Community Forest in Lalitpur District, Nepal

Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle as both a source and sink of carbon. The carbon stock in a forest is affected by climate, tree species and forest management. The community forestry program of Nepal has been successful in reviving degraded forest patches in the Mid-hills but there is a lack of information whether mixed or pine plantations store more carbon. This study estimated and compared carbon stocks in mixed and pine-dominated forest stands within the Gwalinidaha Community Forest of Lalitpur District, Central Nepal. Carbon components considered include tree biomass carbon, root biomass carbon, litter biomass carbon and soil organic carbon. Total carbon stock of the forest is estimated to be 2,250.24 tons with average carbon stock of 166.68 tons/ha. Total carbon stock per hectare was found to be higher in the pine-dominated forest as compared to mixed forest due to the larger tree biomass although the litter carbon and soil organic carbon estimates are higher in the latter. The Community Forestry of Nepal has a huge potential for carbon storage and the pine-dominated forest has a greater carbon stock than mixed forest.     

Risk factors for Coxiella burnetii antibodies in bulk tank milk from Danish dairy herds

The aim was to identify risk factors associated with Coxiella burnetii antibody positivity in bulk tank milk (BTM) samples from 100 randomly selected Danish dairy cattle herds. Antibody levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay. Before testing the herds, the farm managers were interviewed about hired labour, biosecurity, housing and herd health during the 12 months prior to the study. Variables considered important for C. burnetii antibody positivity in multivariable logistic regression analysis included the sharing of machines between farms (OR = 3.6), human contacts (OR = 4.2), artificial insemination by other people than artificial insemination technicians (OR = 7.7), routine herd health contract with the veterinarian (OR = 4.3) and hygiene precautions taken by veterinarians (OR = 5). In addition, herd size, hired labour, trading of cattle between farms, quarantine and use of calving and disease pens also showed significant association in univariable analysis. This study demonstrates that strict biosecurity is important for the prevention of infections with C. burnetii.     

Effect of recombinant and native buffalo OVGP1 on sperm functions and in vitro embryo development: a comparative study

Background: An oviduct-specific glycoprotein, OVGP1, is synthesized and secreted by non-ciliated epithelial cells of the mammalian oviduct which provides an essential milieu for reproductive functions. The present study reports the effects of recombinant buffalo OVGP1 that lacks post-translational modifications, and native Buffalo OVGP1 isolated from oviductal tissue, on frozen-thawed sperm functions and in vitro embryo development.Results: The proportion of viable sperms was greater(P 0.05) in the recombinant OVGP1-treated group compared to the native OVGP1-treated group at 2 h, 3 h, and 4 h of incubation. The proportion of motile sperms at3 h and 4 h of incubation; and membrane-intact sperms at 4 h was greater(P 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared to the control and recombinant OVGP1-treated groups. The proportion of capacitated and acrosome-reacted sperms was greater(P 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared to the recombinant OVGP1 group at 4 h. The rates of cleavage of embryos and their development to the blastocyst stage were greater(P 0.05) in the presence of either native or recombinant OVGP1 in comparison to control at 10 μg/mL concentration as compared to 5 or 20 μg/mL.Conclusions: The study suggests that both native and recombinant OVGP1 impart a positive effect on various sperm features and in vitro embryo development. However, native OVGP1 was found to have a more pronounced effect in comparison to recombinant non-glycosylated OVGP1 on various sperm functions except viability. Hence,our current findings infer that glycosylation of OVGP1 might be essential in sustaining the sperm functions but not the in vitro embryo development.     

Humic acid improved efficiency of fertigation and productivity of tomato

Studies were conducted during 2010–2012 at University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. Four fertigation levels were tested with humic acid (combined fertigation) and without humic acid (sole fertigation or fertigation alone). The experiment comprising eight treatment combinations in Randomized Block design, replicated four times. Investigations revealed that combined fertigation significantly increased plant height (5.7%), total dry matter (7.7%), leaf area index (3.2%), chlorophyll content (4.7%) and fruit yield (9.6%) over sole fertigation. Higher available N and K in was recorded in surface soils whereas, better translocation of available P was noted at 10–20 cm soil layers under combined fertigation. Higher nutrient recovery and fertilizer use efficiency was also noted in combined fertigation. Fertigation along with humic acid resulted in 20 per cent fertilizer savings over fertigation alone. It is concluded that efficiency of fertigation can further be increased by using humic substances in any agricultural production system.     

Impact of extension interventions in improving livelihood of dairy farmers of Nadia district of West Bengal,India

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Livestock is a one of the major sources of livelihood for most of the small and marginal farmers in India, particularly for rural households who live in...     

Comparative diagnostic evaluation of OMP31 gene based TaqMan® real-time PCR assay with visual LAMP assay and indirect ELISA for caprine brucellosis

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Brucellosis is one of the leading causes of abortion in domestic animals that imposes costs on both economy and society. The disease is highly zoonotic and...     

Use of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for minimizing post-harvest physio-chemical and microbial changes responsible for sucrose losses in sugar cane

Sugar cane is sensitive to enormous sucrose losses induced by physio-chemical and microbial changes, the severity being increased during the time lag between harvest and crushing in the mills. Minimization of the sucrose losses in the field is essential for better sugar recovery and prevention of sucrose losses. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for their effects on the microbial counts and physio-chemical changes responsible for sucrose losses. Glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride (1000 + 250 ppm) reduced the losses in sucrose content to 7.1% as compared to the 30.8% loss in the control, thus improving the performance by 76.9%. The application of chemicals reduced the acid invertase activity (by 60%), lowered weight loss, titrable acidity, reducing sugars content, dextran, ethanol, and ethylene production and respiration rates. The application led to the reduction in the total bacterial, fungal, Leuconostoc, and yeast counts by 67.92, 51.3%, 26.08, and 51.2%, respectively.     

Digestibility of starch fractions in wholegrain rolled oats

A practical in vitro method was tested for measuring differences in rapidly digested starch (RDS measured at 20 min), slowly digested starch (SDS between 20 and 120 min) and inaccessible digestible starch (IDS as carbohydrate digested after homogenising at 120 min to release inaccessible starch and digesting for a further 40 min) in wholegrain cereal samples retaining some grain structure, using in vitro pancreatic digestion after a “gastric” pepsin–HCl pre-treatment. The persistence of digestive capacity, the influence of homogenising on digestive capacity, and the benefit of adding supplementary amyloglucosidase after 120 min digestion were tested as effects on capacity to digest a further 2.5 g portion of finely ground wholegrain added to selected 120 min digests. The results showed that sufficient digestive capacity remained to digest the IDS released by homogenising the wholegrains after 120 min prior digestion. The method measured all fractions with good precision (CV < 6%), and was shown to be capable of measuring a wide degree of variation in starch fractions of differing digestibility in rolled oats from an oat breeding population, so may be useful in detecting the effects of variations in grain structure that influence the glycemic impact of wholegrain products.     

Molecular analysis of cytoplasm type in Indian potato varieties

Thirty-eight Indian potato varieties and fifty-two advanced hybrid lines were analyzed for cytoplasm types using both plastid and mitochondrial genome specific markers. Indian genotypes thus analysed could be broadly grouped into 4 cytoplasm types i.e. T/β (69), W/α (18), W/γ (1) and A/ɛ (2). The T/β type cytoplasm, typical of common cultivated potato (ssp. tuberosum) was absent in six released varieties (Kufri Chipsona-1/-2/-3 series, Kufri Jawahar, Kufri Megha and Kufri Himalini) and fifteen out of fifty two hybrids analyzed. This information was further used to predict cytoplasm type on the basis of common shared maternal pedigree in thirty-eight other advanced hybrids, which revealed majority (25) had T/β type cytoplasm with W/α and A/ɛ cytoplasm observed in 12 and 1 genotype, respectively. T/β type cytoplasm was observed in all 28 early bulking hybrids studied along with all old genotypes. It was revealed that considerable broadening of maternal base was observed in recently developed genotypes. W/α type cytoplasm was present in most of processing (all 3 chipping varieties and 9 of 12 MP hybrids) and late blight resistant (11of 23 hybrids) genotypes.