Seroprevalence and risk factors for influenza A viruses in pigs in Peninsular Malaysia

Following a series of H5N1 cases in chickens and birds in a few states in Malaysia, there was much interest in the influenza A viruses subtypes that circulate among the local pig populations. Pigs may act as a mixing vessel for avian and mammal influenza viruses, resulting in new reassorted viruses. This study investigated the presence of antibodies against influenza H1N1 and H3N2 viruses in pigs from Peninsular Malaysia using Herdcheck Swine Influenza H1N1 and H3N2 Antibody Test Kits. At the same time, the presence of influenza virus was examined from the nasal swabs of seropositive pigs by virus isolation and real time RT-PCR. The list of pig farms was obtained from the headquarters of the Department of Veterinary Services, Malaysia, and pig herds were selected randomly from six of 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 727 serum and nasal swab samples were collected from 4- to 6-month-old pigs between May and August 2005. By ELISA, the seroprevalences of swine influenza H1N1 and H3N2 among pigs were 12.2% and 12.1% respectively. Seropositivity for either of the virus subtypes was detected in less than half of the 41 sampled farms (41.4%). Combination of both subtypes was detected in 4% of all pigs and in 22% of sampled farms. However, no virus or viral nucleic acid was detected from nasal samples. This study identified that the seropositivity of pigs to H1N1 and H3N2 based on ELISA was significantly associated with factors such as size of farm, importation or purchase of pigs, proximity of farm to other pig farms and the presence of mammalian pets within the farm.     

棉秆切碎及压缩成型的试验研究

采用３种不同切碎方法,即锤片切碎、螺旋刀切碎和直刃刀切碎进行了棉秆切碎的性能研究。试验结果表明,直刃刀对青棉秆的一次切碎,能获得细小颗粒产量高、能耗低的满意效果。切碎物料在英国Ｓｈｉｍａｄａ螺旋压缩机上进行热压成型试验。成型燃料质量指标的测定结果表明,切碎物料含水率在８％～１２％,加热温度在１２０～１５０℃,最大粒度控制在１２．５ｍｍ以下,能获得密度为１．１３～１．２１ｇ／ｃｍ^３、低位热值为１８．３４ＭＪ／ｋｇ的优质棉秆成型燃料。     

Impact of Wall Material on the Physiochemical Properties and Oxidative Stability of Microencapsulated Spray Dried Silver Carp Oil

This study aimed to microencapsulate silver carp oil by spray drying with different combinations of wall materials (gum Arabic, modified starch Hi-cap, maltodextrin, and inulin) and evaluate the effects of these combinations on the physiochemical and oxidative stability of the microcapsules. Feed emulsions were also investigated prior to spray drying. Modified starch-based microcapsules had higher encapsulation efficiency (91.22-92.78%) and yield (87.41-92.15%), excellent solubility (91.85-93.67%), good particle size (301.20-407.73 d.nm), color, and powder morphology. The presence of inulin reduced agglomeration in powders. All the powders exhibited good protection against lipid oxidation during 2 months of storage, whereas the modified starch and inulin combination provided the best stability.     

Effect of apple peel extract as natural antioxidant on lipid and protein oxidation of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) mince

International Aquatic Research - The aim of this study was to use apple peel extract (APE) as antioxidant for inhibition of lipid and protein oxidation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) mince...     

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in germinating seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris L. exposed to soaking injury

Exogenous application of thiamine (vitamin B1) during imbibition improved germination and seedling development of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Lasso) seeds, which were exposed to soaking injury by submergence. Leaching of the vitamin into the incubation medium was not increased in submerged seeds. However, translocation of the thiamine reserves from the cotyledons to the seedling axis was reduced in response to soaking injury. After exogenous application of free thiamine to the seeds, thiaminedi-phosphate (TDP), which is the physiologically active coenzyme form of thiamine, accumulated in the seedling axis of submerged seeds, suggesting an increased demand for thiamine-dependent metabolic reactions in these tissues. Limited oxygen supply of the seeds during the soaking period induces a shift from respiration to fermentation of carbohydrates. Neither thiamine-dependent ethanolic fermentation, nor ATP production or adenylate energy charge (AEC) of the seedling axis were affected by exogenous thiamine application, suggesting that there is no limitation of thiamine-dependent reactions in the energy metabolism of the seedlings. Thus the physiological mechanisms improving germination and seedling development of submerged seeds in response to thiamine seed treatment are still not clear.     

Identification of superior parents and hybrids for improving canola production under optimum and late sowing conditions

Major advancement in canola breeding depends on heterotic hybrids that require high general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) inbred lines. In order to estimate heritability, gene action type, GCA, SCA and heterosis and to identify superior hybrids with wider adaptation to cold, one hundred canola hybrids were produced by crossing 10 lines and 10 testers in a Line?×?Tester mating design. The F₁ and F₂ generations were sown in α-lattice design in 2012 and 2013 growing seasons under optimum (early October) and late sowing (early November) conditions to be evaluated for days to flowering, days to physiological maturity, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, thousand seed weight, seed yield and leaf electrical conductivity. The combined analysis indicated sufficient genetic diversity in the population and significant difference between two sowing date. The Line?×?Tester analysis presented significant GCA and SCA effects for all studied traits across optimum and late sowing conditions. The main gene action type was found to be non-additive, especially incomplete dominance and over-dominance in both conditions. Narrow-sense heritability ranged from low to moderate whereas broad-sense heritability was recorded more than 60% for all of the studied traits in both generations and conditions. The average heterosis in F₂ population for all studied traits was lower than that in F₁ representing this fact that heterosis is generally related to the heterozygosity at the population level and poorly correlated with heterozygosity at the individual level.     

A New Probability Model for Hydrologic Events: Properties and Applications

Upon the motivation of unstable climatic conditions of the world like excess of rains, drought and huge floods, we introduce a versatile hydrologic probability model with two scale parameters. The proposed model contains Lindley and exponentiated exponential (Lindley in J R Stat Soc Ser B 20:102–107, 1958; Gupta and Kundu in Biom J 43(1):117–130, 2001) distributions as special cases. Various properties of the distribution are obtained, such as shapes of the density and hazard functions, moments, mean deviation, information-generating function, conditional moments, Shannon entropy, L-moments, order statistics, information matrix and characterization via hazard function. Parameters are estimated via maximum likelihood estimation method. A simulation scheme is provided for generating the random data from the proposed distribution. Four data sets are used for comparing the proposed model with a set of well-known hydrologic models, such as generalized Pareto, log normal (3), log Pearson type III, Kappa(3), Gumbel, generalized logistic and generalized Lindley distributions, using some goodness-of-fit tests. These comparisons render the proposed model suitable and representative for hydrologic data sets with least loss of information attitude and a realistic return period, which render it as an appropriate alternate of the existing hydrologic models. Supplementary materials for this paper are available online.     

Non‐specific immune responses and intestinal immunity of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fed Jujube (Ziziphus jujube) fruit extract

This study investigated the effects of Jujube (Ziziphus jujube) fruit extract (JFE) as an excellent source of nutrients and phytochemicals on the innate immune responses and expression of genes involved in intestinal immunity of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fingerlings. Three hundred healthy carps (10.78 ± 0.05 g) fingerlings were randomly allocated to 12 fibre glass tanks (300L; 15 fish per tank) and fed for 8 weeks with experimental diets which contained different levels of JFE (0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, or 1%). Thereafter, serum non‐specific immune parameters [total immunoglobulin (Ig) as well as alternative complement (ACH50) and lysozyme activity (SL)] and expression of genes involved in intestinal immunity (lyz, tnf‐alpha, il1b, il8, il10, and tgfb) were measured. The results revealed a significant elevation of Ig level in the JFE‐fed fish (p < 0.05) over the control fish. However, there was no significant difference among treated groups in case of serum total Ig. The highest levels of SL and ACH50 were observed in fish fed 1% of JFE. Nonetheless, no significant difference was noticed regarding SL and ACH50 of control and other supplemented groups (0.25% and 0.5% JFE). Also, expression of lyz, tnf‐alpha, and il1b genes increased significantly (p < 0.05) in JFE‐fed fish, in a dose‐dependent manner. On the other hand, significant (p < 0.05) down‐regulation of il110 and tgfb were noticed in treated groups. The present findings suggested that extraction of Jujube, Z. jujube fruit, possesses beneficial effects on immune responses of common carp.     

Evaluation of extreme resistance genes of Potato virus X (Rx1 and Rx2) in different potato genotypes

Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection - Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is considered as one of the most important staple foods in the world. Classical breeding for resistance to pests, pathogens...     

One Step Thermochromic Pigment Printing and Ag NPs Antibacterial Functional Finishing of Cotton and Cotton/PET Fabrics

One step thermochromic pigment printing and antibacterial functionality of cotton (100 %) and cotton/polyester blend (50/50 %) were demonstrated in this study. The improvement in antimicrobial activity against G+ve (Bacillus cereus) and G-ve (E. coli), and pigment printability were achieved by inclusion of Ag-NPs (30 g/kg) into pigment printing paste followed by printing and microwave curing at 700 W for 5 min. Modes of interactions were proposed, and surface modification was also confirmed by SEM and EDX analysis that proved the presence of Ag-NPs in cotton and cotton/ polyester blended samples. The results indicated that the colour fastness to wash and rubbing was excellent, the surface roughness reduced, and exhibited good antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus and E. coli bacteria.