Effect of neem extract against the bacteria isolated from marine fish

Marine ornamental fishes are exceedingly valuable due to their high demand in domestic and international markets. There is a growing global interest to rear the fishes in captivity. But problem due to bacteria and fungi are the major hitch in captive condition. Since, the use of antibiotics is banned, an attempt was made to ascertain in vitro assay of the neem leaves extract against the bacterial pathogens isolated from infected fishes. Bacterial strains isolated from infected regions of the clown fishes Amphiprion sebae and A. ocellaris were identified as Aeromonas hydrophila, Enterobacter sp., E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus sp., Streptococcus sp., Vibrio cholerae, V. alginolyticus, V. parahaemolyticus and Yersinia enterocolitica. Ethanol and methanol extracts were highly inhibitory to the bacterial isolates when compared to other solvents. Ethanol extracts exhibited low minimum inhibitory concentration (75-250 microg ml(-1)) as compared to other extracts. The present finding revealed that the neem leaf extract significantly reduces the bacterial pathogens and their infection in marine ornamental fishes.     

Impact of Socio-demographic Factors on Willingness to Pay for the Reduction of a Future Health Risk

Knowledge of socio-demographic factors affecting attitudes to and perception of risk is an important instrument in enhancing efficiencies of interventions. The authors evaluated whether socio-demographic variables affected attitudes to an environmental issue (securing future drinking water). An important aspect was the delay between time of environmental pollution and time of human exposure and thereby potential health risk. Gender, education, place of residence and age all influenced the extent to which individuals were willing to allocate present resources to alleviate a future problem. Specifically, people above the age of 50 appeared more reluctant to pay for an intervention against a future potential health threat. The authors found a significant correlation between attitude and willingness to pay (WTP). In the authors' scenarios, the WTP variable worked more as a dichotomous variable than as a continuous variable, stressing the importance and relevance of the WTP=0 answers.