Higher Vitamin D2 and 25(OH)D2, but Not Vitamin D3 Metabolites, in Bovine Plasma and Muscle from Grass-Based Finishing System, Compared to Concentrate

Meat and meat products are one of the largest contributors to vitamin D dietary intakes. Little is known, however, about how different animal husbandry practices and/or finishing diets might affect the vitamin D content of the animal. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of bovine finishing diet (grass vs. concentrate) on the 25(OH)D plasma concentrations of cattle and subsequent vitamin D content in beef. Cattle were fed grass (n = 7) or concentrate (n = 9) finishing diets for 15 weeks prior to slaughter. Bovine blood samples were collected at slaughter and plasma aliquots were stored (−80 °C) until analysis. Beef top rump from each animal was chilled for an ageing period of 21 days, then homogenised and frozen (−80 °C) until analysis. Bovine plasma samples were analysed for circulating 25(OH)D3, and 25(OH)D2 (nmol/L), and raw beef muscle (top rump) samples were analysed for vitamin D metabolites; vitamin D3, vitamin D2, 25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D2 (µg/kg), all by LC-MS/MS. Total vitamin D activity was defined: [vitamin D3 + (25(OH)D3 × 5) + vitamin D2 + (25(OH)D2 × 5)]. Statistical analysis was conducted by SPSS with independent t tests used to compare groups; significance level p < 0.05. Data were presented as mean ± SD. A significantly higher plasma 25(OH)D2 concentration was observed in the grass finished cattle compared to the concentrate group (43.18 ± 11.75 vs. 16.56 ± 1.58 nmol/L, p < 0.002). No difference in plasma 25(OH)D3 concentrations was observed between groups. In beef top rump, the grass finishing diet resulted in a significantly higher mean ± SD vitamin D2 [0.07 ± 0.05 vs. 0.01 ± 0.01 µg/kg] and 25(OH)D2 [0.70 ± 0.16 vs. 0.25 ± 0.07 µg/kg] compared to concentrate finishing diet (both p < 0.001). Moreover, beef from grass finished cattle demonstrated a significantly higher total vitamin D activity compared to those in the concentrate group [9.52 ± 2.43 vs. 6.78 ± 2.00 µg/kg, p < 0.05]. No difference was observed for muscle vitamin D3 or 25(OH)D3 between groups. In conclusion, a more favourable bovine vitamin D profile, driven by vitamin D2 metabolites specifically (not vitamin D3), is reported from a grass-based finished system, compared to concentrate finishing. Further research is required to understand the impact of these findings for both agriculture practices and human nutrition

Approaches to herbicide (MCPA) pollution mitigation in drinking water source catchments using enhanced space and time monitoring

Publication history: Accepted - 30 September 2020; Published online - 8 October 2020Freshwater occurrences of the selective acid herbicide 2-methyl-4-chloro-phenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) are an ongoing regulatory and financial issue for water utility industries as the number and magnitude of detections increase, particularly in surface water catchments. Assessments for mitigating pesticide pollution in catchments used as drinking water sources require a combination of catchment-based and water treatment solutions, but approaches are limited by a lack of empirical data. In this study, an enhanced spatial (11 locations) and temporal (7-hourly to daily sampling) monitoring approach was employed to address these issues in an exemplar surface water source catchment (384 km2). The spatial sampling revealed that MCPA was widespread, with occurrences above the 0.1 μg L−1 threshold for a single pesticide being highly positively correlated to sub-catchments with higher proportions of ‘Improved Grassland’ land use (r = 0.84). These data provide a strong foundation for targeting catchment-based mitigation solutions and also add to the debate on the ecosystems services provided by such catchments. Additionally, of the 999 temporal samples taken over 12 months from the catchment outlet, 25% were above the drinking water threshold of 0.1 μg L−1. This prevalence of high concentrations presents costly problems for source water treatment. Using these data, abstraction shutdowns were simulated for five scenarios using hydrometeorological data to explore the potential to avoid intake of high MCPA concentrations. The scenarios stopped abstraction for 4.2–9.3% of the April–October period and reduced intake of water containing over 0.1 μg L−1 of MCPA by 16–31%. This represents an important development for real-time proxy assessments for water abstraction in the absence of more direct pesticide monitoring data.This work was funded by the Source to Tap project (project reference IVA5018 – www.sourcetotap.eu). The Source to Tap project is supported by the European Union's INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)

Evaluation of Chemcatcher® passive samplers for pesticide monitoring using high-frequency catchment scale data

Publication history: Accepted - 13 September 2022; Published online - 30 September 2022Passive samplers (PS) have been proposed as an enhanced water quality monitoring solution in rivers, but their performance against high-frequency data over the longer term has not been widely explored. This study compared the performance of Chemcatcher® passive sampling (PS) devices with high-frequency sampling (HFS: 7-hourly to daily) in two dynamic rivers over 16 months. The evaluation was based on the acid herbicides MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid), mecoprop-P, fluroxypyr and triclopyr. The impact of river discharge parameters on Chemcatcher® device performance was also explored. Mixed effects modelling showed that time-weighted mean concentration (TWMC) and flow-weighted mean concentration (FWMC) values obtained by the HFS approach were both significantly higher (p 0.05). There was little indication that river flow parameters altered PS performance—some minor effects were not significant or consistent. Despite this, the PS recovery of very low concentrations indicated that Chemcatcher® devices may be used to evaluate the presence/absence and magnitude of acid herbicides in hydrologically dynamic rivers in synoptic type surveys where space and time coverage is required. However, a period of calibration of the devices in each river would be necessary if they were intended to provide a quantitative review of pesticide concentration as compared with HFS approaches.This work was funded in part by the Source to Tap project (project reference IVA5018 – http://www.sourcetotap.eu), supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme which is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The work was also part-funded by the FAIRWAY project (project reference 727984 - http://www.fair way-project.eu/). supported by the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 Programme

Evaluation of Chemcatcher® passive samplers for pesticide monitoring using high-frequency catchment scale data

Publication history: Accepted - 13 September 2022; Published online - 30 September 2022Passive samplers (PS) have been proposed as an enhanced water quality monitoring solution in rivers, but their performance against high-frequency data over the longer term has not been widely explored. This study compared the performance of Chemcatcher® passive sampling (PS) devices with high-frequency sampling (HFS: 7-hourly to daily) in two dynamic rivers over 16 months. The evaluation was based on the acid herbicides MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid), mecoprop-P, fluroxypyr and triclopyr. The impact of river discharge parameters on Chemcatcher® device performance was also explored. Mixed effects modelling showed that time-weighted mean concentration (TWMC) and flow-weighted mean concentration (FWMC) values obtained by the HFS approach were both significantly higher (p 0.05). There was little indication that river flow parameters altered PS performance—some minor effects were not significant or consistent. Despite this, the PS recovery of very low concentrations indicated that Chemcatcher® devices may be used to evaluate the presence/absence and magnitude of acid herbicides in hydrologically dynamic rivers in synoptic type surveys where space and time coverage is required. However, a period of calibration of the devices in each river would be necessary if they were intended to provide a quantitative review of pesticide concentration as compared with HFS approaches.This work was funded in part by the Source to Tap project (project reference IVA5018 – http://www.sourcetotap.eu), supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme which is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The work was also part-funded by the FAIRWAY project (project reference 727984 - http://www.fair way-project.eu/). supported by the European Union’s HORIZON 2020 Programme

Impact of cooking on vitamin D-3 and 25(OH)D-3 content of pork products

Publication history: Accepted - 29 July 2022; Published online - 2 August 2022Little is known regarding the impact of cooking on vitamin D content in pork, despite meat being a major contributor to vitamin D intakes. This paper investigated the effect of household cooking (pan-fry/roast/grill/sous-vide/sauté), on the vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) concentration/retention in pork loin, mince and sausages. We hypothesised that vitamin D concentrations would be higher in cooked vs raw pork, and retention would differ between products. Cooking significantly increased vitamin D3 (+49 %) and 25(OH)D3 (+33 %) concentrations. All cooked loin vitamin D3 concentrations were significantly lower than mince/sausage. Vitamin D3 retention was > 100 % for all samples (102–135 %), except sauté mince (99 %) which still did not differ significantly from 100 % retention. Sous-vide cooking resulted in the highest vitamin D3 retention (135 %). Likely owing to water/fat loss, household cooking of pork results in favourable retention of vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3. The type of pork product has greater influence than cooking method.This work was funded as part of a Department for the Economy (DfE; Northern Ireland) Co-operative Awards in Science and Technology (CAST) PhD studentship, supported by Devenish Nutrition Limited

Reducing MCPA herbicide pollution at catchment scale using an agri-environmental scheme

Publication history: Accepted - 16 May 2022; Published online - 20 May 2022.In river catchments used as drinking water sources, high pesticide concentrations in abstracted waters require an expensive treatment step prior to supply. The acid herbicide 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) is particularly problematic as it is highly mobile in the soil-water environment following application. Here, an agri-environmental scheme (AES) was introduced to a large-scale catchment (384 km2) to potentially reduce the burden of pesticides in the water treatment process. The main measure offered was contractor application of glyphosate by weed wiping as a substitute for boom spraying of MCPA, supported by educational and advisory activities. A combined innovation applied in the assessment was, i) a full before-after-control-impact (BACI) framework over four peak application seasons (April to October 2018 to 2021) where a neighbouring catchment (386 km2) did not have an AES and, ii) an enhanced monitoring approach where river discharge and MCPA concentrations were measured synchronously in each catchment. During peak application periods the sample resolution was every 7 h, and daily during quiescent winter periods. This sampling approach enabled flow- and time-weighted concentrations to be established, and a detailed record of export loads. These loads were up to 0.242 kg km−2 yr−1, and over an order of magnitude higher than previously reported in the literature. Despite this, and accounting for inter-annual and seasonal variations in river discharges, the AES catchment indicated a reduction in both flow- and time-weighted MCPA concentration of up to 21% and 24%, respectively, compared to the control catchment. No pollution swapping was detected. Nevertheless, the percentage of MCPA occurrences above a 0.1 μg L−1 threshold did not reduce and so the need for treatment was not fully resolved. Although the work highlights the advantages of catchment management approaches for pollution reduction in source water catchments, it also indicates that maximising participation will be essential for future AES.This work was carried out as part of Source to Tap (IVA5018), a project supported by the European Union's INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)

Quantifying MCPA load pathways at catchment scale using high temporal resolution data

peer-reviewedDetection of the agricultural acid herbicide MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid) in drinking water source catchments is of growing concern, with economic and environmental implications for water utilities and wider ecosystem services. MCPA is poorly adsorbed to soil and highly mobile in water, but hydrological pathway processes are relatively unknown at the catchment scale and limited by coarse resolution data. This understanding is required to target mitigation measures and to provide a framework to monitor their effectiveness. To address this knowledge gap, this study reports findings from river discharge and synchronous MCPA concentration datasets (continuous 7 hour and with additional hourly sampling during storm events) collected over a 7 month herbicide spraying season. The study was undertaken in a surface (source) water catchment (384 km2—of which 154 km2 is agricultural land use) in the cross-border area of Ireland. Combined into loads, and using two pathway separation techniques, the MCPA data were apportioned into event and baseload components and the former was further separated to quantify a quickflow (QF) and other event pathways. Based on the 7 hourly dataset, 85.2 kg (0.22 kg km−2 by catchment area, or 0.55 kg km−2 by agricultural area) of MCPA was exported from the catchment in 7 months. Of this load, 87.7 % was transported via event flow pathways with 72.0 % transported via surface dominated (QF) pathways. Approximately 12 % of the MCPA load was transported via deep baseflows, indicating a persistence in this delayed pathway, and this was the primary pathway condition monitored in a weekly regulatory sampling programme. However, overall, the data indicated a dominant acute, storm dependent process of incidental MCPA loss during the spraying season. Reducing use and/or implementing extensive surface pathway disconnection measures are the mitigation options with greatest potential, the success of which can only be assessed using high temporal resolution monitoring techniques

Improving vitamin D content in pork meat by UVB biofortification

Publication history: Accepted - 11 January 2023; Published online - 14 January 2023Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent worldwide and identification of alternative food-based strategies are urgently warranted. In two studies, 12-week old crossbred pigs (Duroc x (Large White x Landrace)) were exposed daily to narrowband UVB radiation for ∼10 weeks or control (no UVB exposure) until slaughter. In Study 1 (n = 48), pigs were exposed to UVB for 2 min and in Study 2 (n = 20), this duration was tripled to 6 min. All pigs were fed the maximum permitted 2000 IU vitamin D3/kg feed. Loin meat was cooked prior to vitamin D LC-MS/MS analysis. In Study 1, pork loin vitamin D3 did not differ between groups. Study 2 provided longer UVB exposure time and resulted in significantly higher loin vitamin D3 (11.97 vs. 6.03 μg/kg), 25(OH)D3 (2.09 vs. 1.65 μg/kg) and total vitamin D activity (22.88 vs. 14.50 μg/kg) concentrations, compared to control (P < 0.05). Pigs remained healthy during both studies and developed no signs of erythema. Biofortification by UVB radiation provides an effective strategy to further safely increase the naturally occurring vitamin D content of pork loin, alongside feed supplementationThis work was funded as part of a Department for the Economy (DfE) Co-operative Awards in Science and Technology (CAST) PhD studentship, supported by Devenish Nutrition Limited and Agri-Food Quest Competence Centre (AFQCC)