Perceptions on ante-mortem welfare, quantitation of pain and pregnancy biomarkers, muscular fibre architecture and quality of Dohne Merino offal

Sheep farming is practiced extensively in South Africa for its significant contributions to the livestock, wool and meat industries. The sheep farming sector in the country has approximately 13,800 farmers with commercial and communal sheep farmers making up 58 percent and 42 percent of the entire work force (Directorate of Agricultural Information Services, 2008). An estimate of 28.8 million sheep and flock size ranging between ≤ 50 and ≥ 1800 exist in various South African provinces. Although the national herd size is unevenly distributed provincially most of the herds are found in the Eastern Cape (30 percent) followed by the Northern Cape (25 percent), Free State (20 percent) and the Western Cape (11 percent) respectively (Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2011). Over twenty indigenous and locally developed sheep breeds are managed where about 69 percent of the land area is available for their grazing nation-wide (Campher et al., 1998; Palmer and Ainslie, 2006). Common among the indigenous breeds are the Afrikaner, Blackhead Persian, Blackhead Speckled Persian, Blinkhaar Ronderib, Damara, Karakul, Namaqua Afrikaner, Pedi, Redhead Persian, Redhead Speckled, Swazi and Zulu. The locally developed breeds include Dorper, Van Rooy and Merinos. The local breeds developed from Merinos consist of the Afrino, Dormer, Dohne Merino and South African mutton Merino (Hammond, 2000; Pranisha, 2004; Hinton, 2006; Sorma et al., 2012). All these sheep breeds are best suited for providing by-products such as wool, meat, hide, milk or a combination of products (Dave and Meadowcroft, 1996; Jensen, 2009). The indigenous and locally developed sheep were bred to meet the growing demand for its by-products (Peters et al., 2010). Expectedly, sheep farmers therefore, make use of the products from these sheep as a means of livelihood and sustenance of a viable local society (Cloete and Olivier, 2010)

COVID-19 Syndrome: Nexus with Herbivory and Exposure Dynamics for Monitoring Livestock Welfare and Agro-Environment

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a public health emergency that turns the year 2020–2021 into annus horribilis for millions of people across international boundaries. The interspecies transmission of this zoonotic virus and mutated variants are aided by exposure dynamics of infected aerosols, fomites and intermediate reservoirs. The spike in the first, second and third waves of coronavirus confirms that herd immunity is not yet reached and everyone including livestock is still vulnerable to the infection. Of serious concern are the communitarian nature of agrarians in the livestock sector, aerogenous spread of the virus and attendant cytocidal effect in permissive cells following activation of pathogen recognition receptors, replication cycles, virulent mutations, seasonal spike in infection rates, flurry of reinfections and excess mortalities that can affect animal welfare and food security. As the capacity to either resist or be susceptible to infection is influenced by numerous factors, identifying coronavirus-associated variants and correlating exposure dynamics with viral aerosols, spirometry indices, comorbidities, susceptible blood types, cellular miRNA binding sites and multisystem inflammatory syndrome remains a challenge where the lethal zoonotic infections are prevalent in the livestock industry, being the hub of dairy, fur, meat and egg production. This review provides insights into the complexity of the disease burden and recommends precision smart-farming models for upscaling biosecurity measures and adoption of digitalised technologies (robotic drones) powered by multiparametric sensors and radio modem systems for real-time tracking of infectious strains in the agro-environment and managing the transition into the new-normal realities in the livestock industry

Real time monitoring of cytotoxicity of Callistemon citrinus against Colo-205 cell Line

Callistemon citrinus is a member of Myrtaceae family that thrives under different ecological conditions. The leaves, flowers, stem backs and roots of the plant contain various phytochemicals that are useful in folk medicine for different remedies such as antimicrobial, anti-nociceptive, fungicide and anti-inflammatory purposes. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic effect of Callistemon citrinus leaf and flower methanolic extracts against human Colo-205 Cell Line using real time cell analyzer device for monitoring in time-dependent manner. To determine the mechanism of cytotoxicity of the extracts, Western blotting assay was used for measuring evocation of Akt pathway. Extracts were found to exert cytotoxic effect at a dose dependent manner. IC50, values of leaves and flowers extract were 6.49 mu g/mL and 5.22 mu g/mL, respectively. At the early stages of the experiment, Akt pathway was triggered at high extract concentrations. Although, high extract concentrations showed proliferative effect at early stages, this effect reversed after 5 and 8 h resulting in low cell viability. Findings from this study therefore showed that extracts of leaf and flower from Callistemon citrinus demonstrated cytotoxic effect against Colo-205 but seems not to be related Akt signaling pathway

Bioactivities of phytochemicals in Callistemon citrinus against multi-resistant foodborne pathogens, alpha glucosidase inhibition and MCF-7 cancer cell line

This study investigates in-vitro activities of phytochemicals in Callistemon citrinus against multi-resistant foodborne pathogens, alpha-glucosidase enzyme and MCF-7 cancer cell line. Assays were prepared with lyophilized extracts to determine antioxidant capacity, inhibition of alpha-glucosidase enzyme and growth of foodborne bacteria. Annexin-V detection kit was used for apoptosis detection and FT-IR spectroscopy to confirm structural and functional groups of phytochemicals. Cytotoxicity of the extracts against MCF-7 cells was monitored with xCELLigence Real-Time Cell Analyser. The result from FT-IR analysis gave a peak at 3295 cm(-1) wavenumber, confirming the presence of O-H alcohol functional group. FT-IR analysis also showed the presence of different functional groups such as carboxylic acids, aromatics, alkanes, alcohols, aliphatic amines, alkenes and amine groups in the extracts. Callistemon exhibited strong antioxidant capacities with EC50 values of 0.474 +/- 0.03 and 0.787 +/- 0.15 mL sample/g of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydeazyl (DPPH) from leaf and flower extracts, respectively. Growth inhibition of most gram-positive foodborne bacteria by phytochemicals from flower extract appeared more promising as an alternative antimicrobial agent for food preservation. IC50 value of 3.69 +/- 0.61 mu g/mL obtained from leaf extract showed its inhibitory potential against alpha-glucosidase enzyme for managing diabetes type-2. A dose response obtained from real-time monitoring with xCELLigence system indicated higher cytotoxicity of the extracts against MCF-7 cell line at >= 200 mu g/mL concentrations within 24 h of incubation. The versatility of phytochemicals in Callistemon observed in this study signifies its potential for enhancing feed or food functionality, moderating blood glucose level and inhibiting the growth of foodborne pathogens or invasive carcinoma in man