Il Ruolo dell’acqua nell’allevamento animale

The role of water in animal breeding must be extended to a wider context than the animal production area, considering that 70% of the water used in the world is consumed by the whole production chain (agriculture and animal production). Therefore has a great importance the connection with other fields of the chain, as the fodder-growing and the cereal-growing, together with the evaluation and quantification of the environmental impacts. Water, that plays an essential role in the breeding, assumes different importance in relation to the animal class (birds, fish and mammals) and to the animal species. Therefore are extremely different the water requirements and the water consumptions, that are moreover strongly influenced by many factors, such as the dry matter, the climatic breeding conditions, together with the individual animal features. All that represents the starting point to determine the strategies and the ways of the water giving in animal breeding, related to the technological, project and management aspects. Besides the quantitative aspects, water must be considered as food, because it is necessary to animal survival. The importance of the quality of water used in animal breeding and its nutritional role is closely related to the qualitative characteristics and to the presence of residual and polluting substances. The animal production chain, moreover, can produce environmental impacts on the aquatic ecosystems and therefore a particular attention goes to end uses of water as output of the whole animal production chain and to the quantification of the impacts, that is extremely complicate and difficult, depending on many variables. The considerations related to animal production chain assume a different value in the productive context of the management of the water resources in the third countries

Advances of nanotechnology in agro-environmental studies

With the increase in the world population and the demand for food, new agricultural practices have been developed to improve food production through the use of more effective pesticides and fertilisers. These technologies can lead to an uncontrolled release of undesired substances into the environment, with the potential to contaminate soil and groundwater. Today, nanotechnology represents a promising approach to improve agricultural production and remediate polluted sites. This paper reviews the recent applications of nanotechnologies in agro-environmental studies with particular attention to the fate of nanomaterials once introduced in water and soil, to the advantages of their use and their possible toxicology. Findings show that the use of nanomaterials can improve the quality of the environment and help detect and remediate polluted sites. Only a small number of nanomaterials demonstrated potential toxic effects. These are discussed in detail

The role of water in animal breeding

The role of water in animal breeding must be extended to a wider context than the animal production area, considering that 70% of the water used in the world is consumed by the whole production chain (agriculture and animal production). Therefore has a great importance the connection with other fields of the chain, as the fodder-growing and the cereal-growing, together with the evaluation and quantification of the environmental impacts. Water, that plays an essential role in the breeding, assumes different importance in relation to the animal class (birds, fish and mammals) and to the animal species. Therefore are extremely different the water requirements and the water consumptions, that are moreover strongly influenced by many factors, such as the dry matter, the climatic breeding conditions, together with the individual animal features. All that represents the starting point to determine the strategies and the ways of the water giving in animal breeding, related to the technological, project and management aspects. Besides the quantitative aspects, water must be considered as food, because it is necessary to animal survival. The importance of the quality of water used in animal breeding and its nutritional role is closely related to the qualitative characteristics and to the presence of residual and polluting substances. The animal production chain, moreover, can produce environmental impacts on the aquatic ecosystems and therefore a particular attention goes to end uses of water as output of the whole animal production chain and to the quantification of the impacts, that is extremely complicate and difficult, depending on many variables. The considerations related to animal production chain assume a different value in the productive context of the management of the water resources in the third countries

Biosensors in real time for the identification of environmental toxins

Dioxins are by-products of industrial processes but can also result from volcanic eruptions or forest fires (Rappe and Buser, 1981; Safe et al., 1985). The worst production is due to incomplete burning of uncontrolled waste incinerators from solid and hospital waste. Dioxins are reputed to be among the most toxic organic compounds. The toxicity of these compounds is due to their chemical stability and the absorption in fat tissues permits to endure a long time into the body of humans and animals, biomagnifying through the food chain (WHO, 1987). Chronic exposure of animals to dioxins has resulted in several types of cancer. The aim of the present research work was to develop new and fast methods based on nanobiosensors to detect environmental toxins (e.g. dioxins)

Science for Food Safety, Security and Quality: a Review - Part 2

Authors are continuing to analyze factors which influence on three food essential elements: food safety, food security and food quality. There are discus about innovation in food technology, nanotechnologies, and food packaging. Novel sensing technologies using bio or nano materials can be used to detect quality and safety attributes in packaged foods. These sensing technologies range from rapid non-destructive and non-contact to highly specialized micro and nano-biosensing structures. In addition, the authors analyze the latest research on the application of biosensors to measure parameters that affect the safety and quality of products.Future priorities for research in food science should build on the existing knowledge base and extend the impact of basic and strategic research in delivering high quality foods and food products and improving human health

Parental allocation in <i>Acipenser naccarii</i>: statistical aspects and software development

The parental allocation (PA) in aquaculture allows the association between progeny and broodstock stocks even if the different families of offspring are reared in the same tank. Fingerprinting is needed for PA, and microsatellites are the codominant and polymorphic markers mainly used for this purpose. The simplest method of PA is the exclusion approach, based on the Mendelian mode of inheritance. The rejection of a parent-offspring hypothesis is based on incompatibility between DNA-profiling of offspring and parents. When the exclusion method is not possible a likelihood approach can be used, therefore the progeny is assigned to parents which are not excluded using the likelihood scores derived from their genotypes. Parentage is ambiguous when more parents present the highest non zero likelihood. The software for PA is disposable for diploids, but not for polyploids like sturgeons, in particular Acipenser naccarii which is a functional tetraploid species. To solve the problems concerning to the PA in tetraploids a Windows-based software was developed, using the exclusion method and likelihood approach in the case of multiple allocations. A simulation computer-procedure was also developed to validate the software algorithms. The total results obtained were: correct allocations 93.7%; ambiguous allocations 2.1% and erroneous allocations 4.2%

Polypeptide binding to mesostructured titania films

Mesoporous titania films have been prepared via evaporation induced self-assembly and used as a matrix to bind linear pentapeptides. The mesoporous surface has been functionalized with amine groups by immersing the samples in a solution of aminopropyltriethoxysilane in toluene. Different pentapeptides have been synthesized for binding to the mesoporous films: H–Ile-Gln-Asp-Leu-Phe–COOH, H–Val-Gln-Asp-Leu-Phe–COOH and Fmoc-Phg-Gln-Asp-Leu-Phe–COOH. The peptides have been bonded to the amine functionalized surface of the titania mesoporous films with an impregnation process. The H–Val-Gln-Asp-Leu-Phe–COOH peptide has been successfully bonded to the titania matrix, while the other peptides have shown not be suitable for the process because of lower solubility and sterical hindrance. The functionalization with aminopropyltriethoxysilane and peptide binding has been studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. A fluorescent marker, fluorescein isothiocyanate, has been used to confirm the incorporation of the peptides into the titania matrix. The process is reliable and robust, after several washing cycle of the samples, the peptides are still well bonded to the titania mesoporous films

Nanostructured thin films as surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates

Nanoporous thin films with silver nanoparticles were synthesized with a bottom–up approach, and its potential as effective surfaceenhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates was demonstrated. The use of mesoporous titania films as substrates allowed to control the growth of nanoparticles on the film surface. Atomic force microscopy measurements, Ultraviolet-visible and X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the photoreduction of Ag+ to Ag0 with the formation of nanoparticles with crystallite dimensions of 32 to 36 nm. The new substrates allowed the detection of two analytes (rhodamine B isothiocyanate and cytochrome c), present in solutions at very low concentrations, highlighting their potential in SERS sensing. Reproducibility, homogeneity, enhancement factor of the substrate, consistency of results and detection limits were also assessed

Functionalized gold nanoparticles for the detection of nitrates in water

A rapid and sensitive colorimetric assay was developed using cysteamine modified gold nanoparticles for the direct detection of nitrates in water samples. Gold nanoparticles stabilized with citrate were modified with cysteamine that has excellent affinity for nitrates, and its capacity to capture nitrates was evaluated, in comparison with other anions. The presence of nitrates in water samples could be tracked by naked eye with a color variation of the colloidal suspension from red to gray, and these results were confirmed through ultraviolet–visible measurements within a nitrate concentration of 35 ppm. In field analysis was performed in underground water extracted from wells during the year 2012 in Arborea area (Italy), a nitrate vulnerable zone, and information of nitrate concentration in the range of the recommended nitrate level in water was studied. This simple assay can be used for onsite detection of nitrates in water without the need for skilled personnel, sample pretreatment or expensive instrumentation