Earthworm as an alternative protein source in poultry and fish farming : Current applications and future perspectives

Among the different agricultural activities, the livestock is one of the most impacting on the environment. The feeding of animals is often the main responsible of the adverse environmental impact related to animal productions. Above all for intensive production, the consumption of protein feed is a key aspect for the achievement of sustainable production processes. The actual consumption of soybean meal and fish meal is not sustainable due to the related environmental impact and to the increasing prices. Among the different alternative protein sources, in the last 20 years, the attention of research centres and private companies focused on insects, algae and other invertebrates but, up to now, little consideration was paid to the use of fresh earthworm or earthworm meal as a protein feed for monogastric animals. The use of earthworms as an alternative protein source for fish and poultry feeding is an opportunity for providing environmental services via cleaner technologies. Thanks to earthworms, organic wastes and by-products generated by livestock activities can be valorised and become a resource for animal feeding in a circular perspective. In this context, this manuscript was designed to summarize the productivity, suitability and effectiveness issues connected with the utilization of earthworms as alternative protein feed in poultry production as well as in aquaculture. The studies investigating the earthworm meal use are quite old above all those carried out in Europe; however, some general indications can be drawn: both for broiler and fish, the parameters usually evaluated are body weight gain, growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion rate, the acceptability level of earthworm meal in broiler diet is lower than 15% while in trout diet ranges between 25 and 30%. The inclusion of earthworm meal in diets with an inclusion level lower than the acceptability threshold allows good productive performances without affecting the quality of the final food products

The influence of foreigners’ buzzing on TripAdvisor ranking of restaurants in Venice: implications for the sustainability of over-touristed heritage cities

Local and global coexist in any tourist destination, and the challenge of tourism sustainability is what remains in the balance between these two dimensions. Social and consumer-generated media are changing how local and global are coming together in the local system. These media\u2019s effects are even more important in overtouristed places, where a significant imbalance between local and tourist development already exists. In this paper, the effects from foreigners\u2019 reviews in crowd-based ranking systems in overtouristed cities are investigated. Based on a case study of TripAdvisor\u2019s restaurant rankings in Venice, our findings suggest that foreigners\u2019 reviews systematically rate tourist experiences\u2019 quality higher than non-foreigners\u2019 reviews, and that their attitude significantly affects the ranking of these experiences. This discloses these systems\u2019 limited reliability in overtouristed cities when it comes to rank quality, as well as the potential risks deriving from their large and uncontrolled adoption. The study concludes that a governance system is needed that is more respectful and inclusive of these places\u2019 specific requirements

Improvement of human health and environmental costs in the European Union by air scrubbers in intensive pig farming

Intensive pig farming is responsible for significant air pollutant emissions. This study explores the effect that the large-scale implementation of air cleaning technologies (wet acid scrubbers) for pig housing facilities could have in the European Union. Emissions related to the housing stage of NH3, PM10, NMVOC and indirect N2O from large pig farms (>1000 heads of sows or fattening pigs) are first estimated in the actual situation (current scenario - CS), considering implementation rates and removal efficiencies of the different emission abatement techniques available. Subsequently, alternative scenarios (AS1 and AS2) are simulated with a growing implementation rate of the wet acid scrubber (35% and 65% of the concerned pig farms in all Member States). A comparison between the scenarios was carried out, taking into account emissions reduction, consumables for scrubber operation and environmental credit given by the avoidance of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production. The annual impact on human health of 21,212 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) in CS was significantly reduced in AS1 (-15%) and in AS2 (-40%), showing that the environmental trade-off given by the consumables is largely overwhelmed by emission abatement. At the same time, the current environmental cost to society of the concerned emissions was estimated at 4154 million \u20ac per year (of which 89% due to NH3), which also was reduced in alternative scenarios ( 12668 and 121765 million \u20ac for AS1 and AS2). The abatement of NH3, on which the wet acid scrubber expresses the greatest removal efficiency, was fundamental in both reducing the human health impact and environmental costs, demonstrating the key environmental role of this pollutant and the growing need to find solutions for its containment in the EU

Antibodies to oxidized low-density lipoproteins and angiographically assessed coronary artery disease in white patients

IF 2004: 12.56

Excess aldosterone is associated with alterations of myocardial texture in primary aldosteronism

Hyperaldosteronism has been causally linked to myocardial interstitial fibrosis experimentally, but it remains unclear if this link also applies to humans. Thus, we investigated the effects of excess aldosterone due to primary aldosteronism (PA) on collagen deposition in the heart. We used echocardiography to estimate left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and dimensions and for videodensitometric analysis of myocardial texture in 17 consecutive patients with PA and 10 patients with primary (essential) hypertension who were matched for demographics, casual blood pressure, and known duration of hypertension. The groups differed in serum K+, ECG PQ interval duration, plasma renin activity, and aldosterone levels (all Pless than or equal to0.002) but not for casual blood pressure values, demographics, and duration of hypertension. Compared with hypertensive patients, PA patients showed a higher LV mass index (53.7 +/- 1.8 versus 45.5 +/- 2.0 g/m(2,7); P = 0.008) and lower values of the cyclic variation index of the myocardial mean gray level of septum (CVIs; - 12.02 +/- 5.84% versus 6.06 +/- 3.08%; P = 0.012) and posterior wall (-11.13 +/- 6.42% versus 8.63 +/- 9.62%; P = 0.012). A regression analysis showed that CVIs was predicted by the PQ duration, supine plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone, and age, which collectively accounted for approximate to36% of CVIs variance. PA is associated with alterations of myocardial textures that suggest increased collagen deposition and that can explain both the dependence of LV diastolic filling from presystole and the prolongation of the PQ interval