Evaluation of floating cages as an experimental tool for marine shrimp culture studies under practical earthen pond conditions

The New Caledonia blue shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris is commercially produced under semi-intensive rearing conditions. The size of the farming earthen ponds (5–10 ha) and the subsequent production constraints make it difficult to use them as experimental units for random experiments. Moreover, since every pond has its own characteristics, ponds' effects cannot be ruled out, thus making it hard to define true replicates.In order to design future experiments under conditions resembling those used in production, we evaluated the possible use of floating cages as experimental units with the aim of assessing treatment effects with a reasonable statistical power. To this end, two sets of floating cages were placed respectively in two different ponds in a commercial farm. In both cases the zootechnical conditions in the cages were similar in post-larvae origin, management, and diet and feeding regime.The aim of the study was to evaluate on a technical basis the possibility of rearing shrimps in floating cages set up in earthen ponds and to assess this method from a statistical standpoint. Shrimps reared in and outside the cages showed comparable growth and survival rates. The variability in the zootechnical parameters between cages, expressed as the estimated coefficient of variation (CV) for survival rate, total final biomass (g), final body weight (g), daily increment in body weight (g day^− 1) and FCR were 11.0, 13.7, 4.4, 5.4, and 7.0%, respectively. On the basis of these figures, we calculated for a given statistical power (80%) the number of replicates (cages) that would be required to reveal significant differences between two treatments, at a 5% level of significance. We found that for expected differences of 20% from the control mean, 3 and 6 floating cages per treatment would be reasonable to determine statistical differences for growth parameters and survival rate, respectively. Moreover, we showed a significant pond effect in regard to survival and growth between the two sets of cages. These results illustrated the within-farm variability among the ponds, and confirmed that the specific characteristics of each pond from the same farm make it difficult to use the ponds themselves as experimental units.The study demonstrates that rearing in floating cages is an economical, powerful and sensitive experimental tool for shrimp culture studies specifically carried out under conditions close to semi-intensive production.     

Conventional fractionated radiotherapy outcomes for young dogs with nephroblastoma of the spinal cord: 5 cases

Published radiotherapy results for spinal nephroblastomas in dogs are limited. In this retrospective longitudinal study (1/2007–1/2022), five dogs with a median age of 2.8 years received post-operative 3D conformal, conventional fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT) with 2–4 fields (parallel-opposed with or without two hinge-angle fields), for an incompletely resected nephroblastoma. Clinical findings prior to surgery included one or more of the following: pelvic limb paresis (5), faecal incontinence (2), flaccid tail (1), non-ambulatory (2) and deep pain loss (1). All masses were located between T11 and L3 and surgically removed via hemilaminectomy. Dogs received 45–50 Gray (Gy) in 18–20 fractions, and no dogs received chemotherapy post-radiation. At analysis, all dogs were deceased, with none lost to follow-up. The median overall survival (OS) from first treatment to death of any cause was 3.4 years (1234 days; 95% CI 68 days-upper limit not reached; range: 68–3607 days). The median planning target volume was 51.3 cc, with a median PTV dose of 51.4 Gy and median D98 = 48.3 Gy. Late complications or recurrence was difficult to fully determine in this small dataset; however, some degree of ataxia persisted throughout life in all dogs. This study provides preliminary evidence that post-operative radiotherapy may result in prolonged survival times dogs with spinal nephroblastomas.     

Quantification of Common Wheat Adulteration of Durum Wheat Pasta Using Real‐Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Common wheat adulteration of durum wheat pasta was quantified using real‐time duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The total DNA content of pasta was determined by amplifying part of a wheat gene encoding a lipid transfer protein, and common wheat DNA was quantified by amplifying part of the puroindoline‐b gene. Under the conditions defined by this study, for pasta with a theoretical adulteration of 3%, the experimentally determined mean value was 2.6–3.4%, depending on drying temperature. Pure durum wheat pastas were distinguished from adulterated pastas without ambiguity. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using real‐time duplex PCR to quantify common wheat adulteration of pasta dried at high temperature, quantification that was impossible with the French official peroxidase‐marker method.     

Multi-carbohydrase enzymes improve feed energy in broiler diets containing standard or low crude protein

This study evaluated the effect of multi-carbohydrase (MC) on energy and nitrogen (N) balance and gene expression in broilers fed diets with different crude protein (CP) contents. The study employed a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. The factors were presence or absence of MC, and standard (SCP) or low (LCP) dietary CP concentration. A 3-phase feeding program was used, including starter (0 to 7 d), grower (8 to 17 d) and finisher (18 to 28 d) phases. The study was undertaken in closed calorimetry chambers. Each of the 4 dietary treatments was replicated 8 times in total across 2 runs, with 2 birds per replicate (n = 64). Data for energy partitioning and N balance were collected from d 25 to 28. On d 28, birds were euthanized to collect muscle and intestinal tissue samples for gene expression. The results showed that the MC increased apparent metabolizable energy (AME, P < 0.01) and net energy (NE, P < 0.05), and reduced the feed conversion ratio (FCR, P < 0.01) in all diets. The proportion of energy retained as fat per total energy retention (REf/RE) was positively correlated with feed AME and NE (r = 0.541, P < 0.01 and r = 0.665, P < 0.001, respectively), suggesting that feed energy augmented with increased fat gain. Muscle ATP synthase subunit alpha (ATP5A1W) gene expression had a positive correlation with REf/RE and feed NE (r = 0.587, P < 0.001 and r = 0.430, P < 0.05, respectively). Similarly, muscle peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1A) expression was negatively correlated with weight gain and positively correlated with FCR (r = −0.451, P < 0.05 and r = 0.359, P < 0.05, respectively). These correlations show that over-expressions of muscle genes related to energy production reduce bird performance. This study demonstrated that MC increase dietary energy utilization, regardless of dietary CP concentration. However, the energy released by the enzymes increases feed energy-to-CP ratio, meaning there is excess energy that is then deposited as body fat. This suggests that supplemental MC in broiler feeds is beneficial if diets are formulated to contain marginal energy levels.     

Hand-feel soil texture observations to evaluate the accuracy of digital soil maps for local prediction of soil particle size distribution: A case study in Central France

Digital maps of soil properties are now widely available. End-users now can access several digital soil mapping (DSM) products of soil properties, produced using different models, calibration/training data, and covariates at various spatial scales from global to local. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide easy-to-understand tools to communicate map uncertainty and help end-users assess the reliability of DSM products for use at local scales. In this study, we used a large amount of hand-feel soil texture (HFST) data to assess the performance of various published DSM products on the prediction of soil particle size distribution in Central France. We tested four DSM products for soil texture prediction developed at various scales (global, continental, national, and regional) by comparing their predictions with approximately 3 200 HFST observations realized on a 1:50 000 soil survey conducted after release of these DSM products. We used both visual comparisons and quantitative indicators to match the DSM predictions and HFST observations. The comparison between the low-cost HFST observations and DSM predictions clearly showed the applicability of various DSM products, with the prediction accuracy increasing from global to regional predictions. This simple evaluation can determine which products can be used at the local scale and if more accurate DSM products are required.