Towards saving freshwater: halophytes as unconventional feedstuffs in livestock feed: a review

Water represents 71% of all earth area and about 97% of this water is salty water. So, only 3% of the overall world water quantity is freshwater. Human can benefit only from 1% of this water and the remaining 2% freeze at both poles of earth. Therefore, it is important to preserve the freshwater through increasing the plants consuming salty water. The future prosperity of feed resources in arid and semi-arid countries depends on economic use of alternative resources that have been marginalized for long periods of time, such as halophytic plants, which are one such potential future resource. Halophyte plants can grow in high salinity water and soil and to some extent during drought. The growth of these plants depends on the contact of the salted water with plant roots as in semi-desert saline water, mangrove swamps, marshes, and seashores. Halophyte plants need high levels of sodium chloride in the soil water for growth, and the soil water must also contain high levels of salts, as sodium hydroxide or magnesium sulfate. There are many uses for halophyte plants, including feed for animals, vegetables, drugs, sand dune stabilizers, wind shelter, soil cover, wetland cultivation, laundry detergents, and paper production. This paper will focus on the use of halophytes as a feed additive for animals. In spite of the good nutritional value of halophytes, some anti-nutritional factors as nitrates, nitrite complexes, tannins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, saponins, oxalates, and alkaloids may be present in some of them. The presence of such anti-nutritional agents makes halophytes unpalatable to animals, which tends to reduce feed intake and nutrient use. Therefore, the negative effects of these plants on animal performance are the only objection against using halophytes in animal feed diets. This review article highlights the beneficial impact of considering halophytes in animal feeding on saving freshwater and illustrates its nutritive value for livestock from different aspects.     

Biological treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 by cattails and anaerobic bacterial consortia

This study demonstrates the bioremediation potential of anaerobic sludge and cattail (Typha angustifolia) for the treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 (RB19). The anaerobic sludge and cattails used in this study were not previously exposed to dyes or other xenobiotics. Different anaerobic sludge concentrations (30%, 50%, and 70%) were used along fixed dye concentrations at pH 8.0 and 25 °C. Subsequently, 50% sludge was selected to treat RB19 at various concentrations. The discoloration of non-hydrolyzed dye was between 70% and 85% using 50% biomass. For the hydrolyzed form of RB19, the range of decoloration was 70%–90%. Dye treatment efficiencies between 50% and 75% were observed for the two forms of the dye when treated with T. angustifolia. Overall, the anaerobic biomass at pH 8.0 showed better potential than cattails to treat RB19. The observation that non-enriched anaerobic sludge can decolorize RB19 is important because it opens up the prospects of developing anaerobic treatment systems, which can easily decolorize dyes in industrial wastewaters and also possesses potential advantages over systems using defined bacterial cultures.     

Microvillar enzyme analysis in amniotic fluid and the prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis

The activities of two microvillar enzymes, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGTP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) have been determined in amniotic fluid (AF) samples from 39 pregnancies with a 1-in-4 risk of cystic fibrosis. Seventeen of these were investigated prospectively. A reduced proportion of the fetal specific intestinal ALP isoenzyme was found in 7 of a total of 13 pregnancies with cystic fibrosis and in one pregnancy of confirmed normal outcome. Eight of the affected pregnancies were tested for AF GGTP activity and depressed levels were found in 15. None of the 3 liveborn cystic fibrosis cases in the prospective series was identified by the ALP assay although 2 had significantly reduced GGTP activity. There were several amniotic fluid samples from cases of cystic fibrosis, trisomy 18 and normal outcome which had discordant GGTP and ALP results. Four of the 6 cases of cystic fibrosis misclassified by the ALP assay had amniocentesis at 15 or 16 weeks gestation. Evidence is presented which confirms a previous suggestion that amniocentesis after 17 weeks gestation improves the predictability of the ALP isoenzyme assay for the prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.     

The relationship between staple food crops consumption and its impact on total factor productivity: does green economy matter?

The agriculture sector is a key driver of economic growth and provides employment opportunities across the globe generally. However, in today’s world, agricultural product demand is more influenced by taste, prices, and nutritional value due to climatic variation. The study has analyzed the current situation grain productivity by using the data of farm inputs and major grain crops of Pakistan from (1960–2020). The study consists of a two-stage analysis in the first stage, the total factor productivity (TFP) variable is obtained by using the parametric Tornqvisit-Theil index output-input-aggregation method separately for each crop; rice, maize, and wheat. After that, the unit root test is used to check the stationarity and trend of the variables in the long run. Subsequently, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is applied to check the existence of cointegration in the long run and short run among the variables. The results of the study disclosed that the consumption of rice has a positive relationship with its total factor productivity, but, wheat and maize have a negative long-run cointegration relationship with the respective productivities. The study results have shown that the consumption pattern of staple crops has substantially changed, due to climatic variation, and the current food consumption trend is revealing new dimensions and trends owing to variation in climate change and anthropogenic pressure which demands to adapt climate resilient farm practices.