Improving the health of the global poor

We analyzed the technical basis for a major global program to reduce disease among the poor. Effective interventions exist against the few diseases which most account for excess mortality among the poor. Achieving high coverage of effective interventions requires a well-functioning health system, as well as overcoming a set of financial and nonfinancial constraints. The annual incremental cost would be between $40 billion and $52 billion by 2015 in 83 low-income and sub-Saharan African countries. Such a program is feasible and would avoid millions of child, maternal, and adult deaths annually in poor countries.     

Impacts of prenatal nutrition on animal production and performance: a focus on growth and metabolic and endocrine function in sheep

The concept of foetal programming(FP) originated from human epidemiological studies, where foetal life nutrition was linked to health and disease status later in life. Since the proposal of this phenomenon, it has been evaluated in various animal models to gain further insights into the mechanisms underlying the foetal origins of health and disease in humans. In FP research, the sheep has been quite extensively used as a model for humans. In this paper we will review findings mainly from our Copenhagen sheep model, on the implications of late gestation malnutrition for growth, development, and metabolic and endocrine functions later in life, and discuss how these implications may depend on the diet fed to the animal in early postnatal life. Our results have indicated that negative implications of foetal malnutrition, both as a result of overnutrition and, particularly, late gestation undernutrition, can impair a wide range of endocrine functions regulating growth and presumably also reproductive traits. These implications are not readily observable early in postnatal life, but are increasingly manifested as the animal approaches adulthood. No intervention or cure is known that can reverse this programming in postnatal life. Our findings suggest that close to normal growth and slaughter results can be obtained at least until puberty in animals which have undergone adverse programming in foetal life, but manifestation of programming effects becomes increasingly evident in adult animals.Due to the risk of transfer of the adverse programming effects to future generations, it is therefore recommended that animals that are suspected to have undergone adverse FP are not used for reproduction. Unfortunately, no reliable biomarkers have as yet been identified that allow accurate identification of adversely programmed offspring at birth,except for very low or high birth weights, and, in pigs, characteristic changes in head shape(dolphin head). Future efforts should be therefore dedicated to identify reliable biomarkers and evaluate their effectiveness for alleviation/reversal of the adverse programming in postnatal life. Our sheep studies have shown that the adverse impacts of an extreme, high-fat diet in early postnatal life, but not prenatal undernutrition, can be largely reversed by dietary correction later in life. Thus, birth(at term) appears to be a critical set point for permanent programming in animals born precocial,such as sheep. Appropriate attention to the nutrition of the late pregnant dam should therefore be a priority in animal production systems.     

Different response of silicate fertilizer having electron acceptors on methane emission in rice paddy soil under green manuring

Cultivation of green manure plants during the fallow season in rice paddy soil has been strongly recommended to improve soil properties. However, green manuring may impact greenhouse gas emission, methane (hereafter, CH₄) in particular, under the flooded rice cultivation and thus, application of chemical amendments being electron acceptors can be an effective mitigation strategy to reduce CH₄ emissions in irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) field amended with green manure. To investigate the effect of iron (Fe) slag silicate fertilizer (hereafter, silicate fertilizer), which was effective in reducing CH₄ emission and increasing rice productivity, in green manure-amended paddy soil, the aboveground biomass of Chinese milk vetch (hereafter, vetch) was added at rates of 0, 10, 20, and 40 Mg (fresh weight) ha⁻¹ before the application of silicate fertilizer, which was added at rates of 0 and 2.3 Mg ha⁻¹. Silicate fertilization reduced the seasonal CH₄ flux by ca. 14.5% and increased rice yield by ca. 15.7% in the control (no vetch application) treatment. However, CH₄ production was increased by silicate fertilization in vetch-treated soil particularly at the initial rice growing stage, which was probably due to the enhanced decomposition of added organic matters by the silicate liming effect. In conclusion, silicate fertilization is not effective in reducing CH₄ production in green manure-amended rice paddy soils and its use should be properly controlled.     

Leaf litter decomposition of dominant tree species of Namdapha National Park,Arunachal Pradesh,northeast India

Rates of weight loss and nutrient (N and P) release patterns were studied in the leaf litter of the dominant tree species (Ailanthus grandis, Altingia excelsa, Castanopsis indica, Duabanga sonneriatioides, Dysoxylum binectariferum, Mesua ferrea, Shorea assamica, Taluma hodgsonii, Terminalia myriocarpa and Vatica lancefolia) of a tropical wet evergreen forest of northeast India. Nitrogen and phosphorus mineralization rate and decay pattern varied significantly from species to species. In general, the decay pattern, characterized by using a composite polynomial regression equation, exhibited three distinct phases of decay during litter decomposition—an initial slow decay phase (0.063% weight loss day⁻¹), followed by a rapid decay phase (0.494% weight loss day⁻¹) and a final slow decay phase (0.136% weight loss day⁻¹). The initial chemical composition of the litter affected decomposition rates and patterns. Species like D. sonneriatoides, D. binectariferum, and T. hodgsonii with higher N and P content, lower carbon and lignin content, and lower C:N ratio and lignin:N ratio exhibited relatively faster decomposition rates than the other species, for example M. ferrea, C. indica and A. grandis. A slow decay rate was recorded for species such as M. ferrea, C. indica, and A. grandis. The initial N and P content of litter showed significant positive correlations with decay rates. Carbon and lignin content, lignin:N, and C:N showed significant negative correlations with decay rates. Soil total N and P, and rainfall, soil temperature, and soil moisture had positive correlations with decay rates. The rapid decomposition rates observed in comparison with other different forest litter decay rates confirm that tropical wet evergreen forest species are characterized by faster decomposition rates, indicating a faster rate of organic matter turnover and rapid nutrient cycling.     

Dried papaya skin as a dietary ingredient for broiler chickens

The chemical composition of dried papaya (Carica papaya) skin (DPS) was determined and its potential as a dietary ingredient for broiler chickens was investigated at dietary concentrations of 0, 40, 80 and 120g/kg. DPS was found to give similar food consumption, food conversion efficiency, survivability and meat yields (except male liver weight) to a control diet when used up to 120 g/kg of diet. Weight gain tended to increase with dietary concentration of DPS up to 80 g/kg. It was concluded that DPS could safely be used up to 120 g/kg in the diet of broiler chickens.     

Pruned tea bushes secrete more root exudates to influence microbiological properties in soil

Pruning is adopted at 3–4 years interval as an agronomic practice during tea cultivation. It was hypothesized that biomass loss during pruning will imply stress on tea bushes. The aim of this study was to quantify changes in different parameters (labile organic carbon fractions, phosphatase activity, microbial biomass and microbial respiration) in tea rhizosphere due to pruning by collecting soil samples from the rhizosphere of ten of each pruned and un-pruned tea bushes. Hot-water extractable and dissolved organic C contents in rhizosphere soil of pruned tea were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher than those in the soil of un-pruned tea bushes. Analysis of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) revealed that the rhizosphere of pruned tea plants had higher population of Gram (+) and Gram (-) bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and lower denitrifying bacterial population as compared to un-pruned tea plants. Activity of acid phosphatase enzyme in soil was also increased due to pruning. A separate study revealed that de-centering may induce production of up to 50% more labile organic carbon compounds by young tea as compared to un-pruned plants. Therefore, it could be concluded that pruned tea bushes secrete more root exudates to influence microbiological and biochemical properties in rhizosphere.     

Adaptive immune response of Vgamma2Vdelta2+ T cells during mycobacterial infections

To examine the role of T cell receptor (TCR) in gammadelta T cells in adaptive immunity, a macaque model was used to follow Vgamma2Vdelta2+ T cell responses to mycobacterial infections. These phosphoantigen-specific gammadelta T cells displayed major expansion during Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) infection and a clear memory-type response after BCG reinfection. Primary and recall expansions of Vgamma2Vdelta2+ T cells were also seen during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of naive and BCG-vaccinated macaques, respectively. This capacity to rapidly expand coincided with a clearance of BCG bacteremia and immunity to fatal tuberculosis in BCG-vaccinated macaques. Thus, Vgamma2Vdelta2+ T cells may contribute to adaptive immunity to mycobacterial infections.