Sustainable Animal Manure Management Strategies and Practices

Animal manure is a valuable resource if handled responsibly but a source of serious challenges and public health concerns if managed inappropriately. Risks associated with animal manure handling could be related to soil, water and air quality. In spite of this, non-sustainable animal manure management practices are still common in some places. Sustainable management of animal manure requires multi-prong approaches and holds several benefits both to the farmers and the general public. The importance attached to the handling and management of manure in several countries has led to the enactment of relevant legislations, regulations, standards and policies to promote sustainable handling of animal manure. Some of these are enacted at community, state, national, regional and international levels. Several techniques ranging from simple, low-cost to complex strategies are available for proper handling of animal manure. The proposed chapter will highlight some unsustainable animal manure handling practices. It will discuss some of the risks associated with irresponsible handling of animal manure as well as some of the measures to promote sustainable animal manure management

Nitrogen Emissions and Mitigation Strategies in Chicken Production

Air emissions from feeding operations and manure management in chicken production are among the major sources of environmental concerns globally. Nitrogen emissions in chicken production occur in several forms but mainly ammonia can contribute directly or indirectly to several environmental and public health hazards. Chicken production also contributes to some extent to climate change through the emissions of nitrous oxide, fine particulate matters, and methane. Emissions and nutrient losses take place in different systems and at every stage of chicken production operations. To effectively reduce the environmental impact of chicken production, appropriate measures should be taken across the chicken supply and manure management chain. Nutritional and manure management strategies for mitigating nitrogen emissions in chicken production are discussed. Challenges associated with the adoption of some of the mitigation strategies are identified and measures to address them are suggested. Co-benefits of mitigating nitrogen emissions in chicken production to the planet, the people and the producers are numerous

A Review on Automotive Industries and Foundries in Nigeria

The Federal Government of Nigeria has taken different precautions to support domestic vehicle assembly industries as part of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) to diversify the economy from oil and gas sector to other sectors. The potentials of foundry industries in Africa and most especially in West-Africa Sub-region are under-utilized unlike in the developed countries. Most of the Foundries in Nigeria are operated by Small Scale Industries (SMI) and are not being able to contribute significantly to the automotive industries in the country. This paper is aimed to review several works done by different researchers in the automotive and foundry industries with the view to study the contribution of foundries in the development of automotive industries in Nigeria

Effects of Moringa oleifera root extract on the performance and serum biochemistry of Escherichia coli challenged broiler chicks

The antibacterial and phytochemical effects of aqueous extracts of Moringa oleifera roots on E. coli challenged broiler chicks were investigated. Ninety one-day old broiler chicks were orally inoculated with E. coli at 1.23×108 CFU/ml and then divided into six treatment dose levels: 5g/l, 10g/l, and 15g/l Moringa root extract (MRE), positive control, negative control and a standard (commercial antibiotics). The extract showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in performance, carcass and nutrient retention indices of birds compared to the controls. However, at 10g/l dose level, serum parameters including cholesterol and uric acid were higher (P<0.05) at 118.9Mmol/l and 4.07Mmol/l respectively, but lower in total protein (4.40g/l, P<0.05). Birds fed 15g/l dosage had lower (P<0.05) serum cholesterol level (77.503Mmol/l) and lower (P<0.05) mortality (1%) compared to other treatments (2.2-3.3%) and the negative control (5.5%). The findings of this study suggest that the active ingredients from Moringa oleifera roots could significantly assist in combating endogenous pathogenic activities

Investigation of Biodegradation Speed and Biodegradability of Polyethylene and Manihot Esculenta Starch Blends

Over 350 million tons per year of conventional plastics is produced from petroleum currently and this amount is expected to rise exponentially in the near future. Proper disposal of these products has caused a great problem for the waste management industry and as a result, there is a significant negative impact on the environment. As a matter of fact, in order to reduce the environmental impact of plastics, some products obtained from agriculture (like starch) are used as polymer blend with synthetic plastics. This study shows that Manihot esculenta can be blended with polyethylene to form a partially degradable polymer. The processing conditions and sample formulations are shown to significantly affect the structure of the polymer which has a concomitant effect upon the degradation ratio as well as the degradation rate. Six samples in all were produced by varying composition of the blend between Low-density Polyethylene and Manihot esculenta using glycerol and water as plasticiser. These samples were buried in soil and the degradation ratios and rates were studied within a period of 28 days. Results showed that these produced biopolymers are environmentally compatible and bio-degradable. The rate of biodegradation in soil of these biopolymer samples varied largely. The polymer blend with 80% LDPE (20 CaS) by weight had the most regular weight loss over the period of the study. Under the conditions the study was carried out, polymer blend 20 CaS also had the steadiest rate of degradation. Hence 80% LDPE (wt.%) blended with Manihot esculenta starch is the optimal ratio with regard to the degradability of biopolymer in sandy-loam soil