Utilisation of Conserved Forage to Improve Livestock Production on Smallholder Farms in Asia and Africa

Ruminant livestock are essential to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in many developing countries. Livestock production on these farms is characterised by low milk production, low live weight gain and poor reproductive performance because of poor nutrition. Access to high quality forage has been identified as key to improving livestock health and productivity. Conservation of surplus forage as hay or silage provides the opportunity to ensure livestock have access to high quality forage year-round. This paper reports on forage conservation in select countries in Asia and Africa

Modulation of Metabolome and Bacterial Community in Whole Crop Corn Silage by Inoculating Homofermentative Lactobacillus plantarum and Heterofermentative Lactobacillus buchneri

The present study investigated the species level based microbial community and metabolome in corn silage inoculated with or without homofermentative Lactobacillus plantarum and heterofermentative Lactobacillus buchneri using the PacBio SMRT Sequencing and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS). Chopped whole crop corn was treated with (1) deionized water (control), (2) Lactobacillus plantarum, or (3) Lactobacillus buchneri. The chopped whole crop corn was ensiled in vacuum-sealed polyethylene bags containing 300 g of fresh forge for 90 days, with three replicates for each treatment. The results showed that a total of 979 substances were detected, and 316 different metabolites were identified. Some metabolites with antimicrobial activity were detected in whole crop corn silage, such as catechol, 3-phenyllactic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, azelaic acid, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid and 4-hydroxycinnamic acid. Catechol, pyrogallol and ferulic acid with antioxidant property, 4-hydroxybutyrate with nervine activity, and linoleic acid with cholesterol lowering effects, were detected in present study. In addition, a flavoring agent of myristic acid and a depression mitigation substance of phenylethylamine were also found in this study. Samples treated with inoculants presented more biofunctional metabolites of organic acids, amino acids and phenolic acids than untreated samples. The Lactobacillus species covered over 98% after ensiling, and were mainly comprised by the L. acetotolerans, L. silagei, L. parafarraginis, L. buchneri and L. odoratitofui. As compared to the control silage, inoculation of L. plantarum increased the relative abundances of L. acetotolerans, L. buchneri and L. parafarraginis, and a considerable decline in the proportion of L. silagei was observed; whereas an obvious decrease in L. acetotolerans and increases in L. odoratitofui and L. farciminis were observed in the L. buchneri inoculated silage. Therefore, inoculation of L. plantarum and L. buchneri regulated the microbial composition and metabolome of the corn silage with different behaviors. The present results indicated that profiling of silage microbiome and metabolome might improve our current understanding of the biological process underlying silage formation

Glass-ceramic Optical Fiber Containing Ba2 TiSi2O8 Nanocrystals for Frequency Conversion of Lasers

A glass-ceramic optical fiber containing Ba2TiSi2O8 nanocrystals fabricated using a novel combination of the melt-in-tube method and successive heat treatment is reported for the first time. For the melt-in-tube method, fibers act as a precursor at the drawing temperature for which the cladding glass is softened while the core glass is melted. It is demonstrated experimentally that following heat treatment, Ba2TiSi2O8 nanocrystals with diameters below 10 nm are evenly distributed throughout the fiber core. Comparing to the conventional rod-in-tube method, the melt-in-tube method is superior in terms of controllability of crystallization to allow for the fabrication of low loss glass-ceramic fibers. When irradiated using a 1030 nm femtosecond laser, an enhanced green emission at a wavelength of 515 nm is observed in the glass-ceramic fiber, which demonstrates second harmonic generation of a laser action in the fabricated glass-ceramic fibers. Therefore, this new glass-ceramic fiber not only provides a highly promising development for frequency conversion of lasers in all optical fiber based networks, but the melt-in-tube fabrication method also offers excellent opportunities for fabricating a wide range of novel glass-ceramic optical fibers for multiple future applications including fiber telecommunications and lasers

Seasonal variations in the fatty acid profile of milk from yaks grazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

An experiment was conducted to study the seasonal changes in the fatty acid profile of milk from yaks (Bos grunniens) when kept at altitudes of 3000m above sea level (a.s.l.) and higher. Data and samples were collected in summer (July), autumn (September), winter (November) and spring (March) from ten lactating yaks (four in spring). The yaks grazed pastures adjacent to the farm building throughout the year. In spring only they received 0·6kg crop by-products per day (dry matter basis). Fresh alpine grasses, available in summer and autumn, showed high concentrations of α-linolenic acid (46-51g/100g lipids) compared with the dry, yellow vegetation of winter and spring (16g/100g lipids). In autumn and summer, the milk fat had higher concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids than in winter. These polyunsaturated fatty acids were comprised of vaccenic acid, rumenic acid and α-linolenic acid, which are all considered beneficial to human health. The rare fatty acid, γ-linolenic acid, was also detected in yak milk, especially in the milk obtained in spring. The results suggest that yak milk, which is the most important basic food of the Tibetan herders, has the most favourable fatty acid profile when yaks grazed green pasture, which also corresponds to the period of highest milk productio

Text Mining of the Classical Medical Literature for Medicines That Show Potential in Diabetic Nephropathy

Objectives. To apply modern text-mining methods to identify candidate herbs and formulae for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. Methods. The method we developed includes three steps: (1) identification of candidate ancient terms; (2) systemic search and assessment of medical records written in classical Chinese; (3) preliminary evaluation of the effect and safety of candidates. Results. Ancient terms Xia Xiao, Shen Xiao, and Xiao Shen were determined as the most likely to correspond with diabetic nephropathy and used in text mining. A total of 80 Chinese formulae for treating conditions congruent with diabetic nephropathy recorded in medical books from Tang Dynasty to Qing Dynasty were collected. Sao si tang (also called Reeling Silk Decoction) was chosen to show the process of preliminary evaluation of the candidates. It had promising potential for development as new agent for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. However, further investigations about the safety to patients with renal insufficiency are still needed. Conclusions. The methods developed in this study offer a targeted approach to identifying traditional herbs and/or formulae as candidates for further investigation in the search for new drugs for modern disease. However, more effort is still required to improve our techniques, especially with regard to compound formulae

Up-Converting Nanoparticle-Based Immunochromatographic Strip for Multi-Residue Detection of Three Organophosphorus Pesticides in Food

Organophosphorus (OP) pesticides are widely used to control pests because of their high activity. This study described a rapid and sensitive lateral flow immunochromatographic (LFIC) assay based on up-converting nanoparticles (UCNPs) for multi-residue detection of three OP pesticides. The developed assay integrated novel fluorescent material UCNPs labeled with a broad-specific monoclonal antibody. Based on the competitive platform by immobilized antigen in the test zone, the optimized UCNPs-LFIC assay enabled sensitive detection for parathion, parathion-methyl, and fenitrothion with IC50 of 3.44, 3.98, and 12.49 ng/mL (R2 ≥ 0.9776) within 40 min. The detectable ability ranged from 0.98 to 250 ng/mL. There was no cross-reactivity with fenthion, phoxim, isocarbophos, chlorpyrifos, or triazophos, even at a high concentration of 500 ng/mL. Matrix interference from various agricultural products was also studied in food sample detection. In the spiked test, recoveries of the three OP pesticides ranged from 67 to 120% and relative standard deviations were below 19.54%. These results indicated that the proposed strip assay can be an alternative screening tool for rapid detection of the three OP pesticides in food samples