Promoting the importance of aquatic foods on human nutrition and public health under APART in Assam

One of the key activities (Deliverable 7) under the APART project is “Improving impact of aquaculture and beel fisheries on human Nutrition”. WorldFish with partners is supporting the implementation of this activity. This consolidated report summarizes all the work done by WorldFish and partners as part of deliverable 7. The project has developed and tested several Social Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) resources (e.g. banners, leaflets, brochures, calendars, TV spots, and videos) to promote the consumption of aquatic foods by vulnerable communities, PLM, adolescent girls, and children by targeting relevant stakeholders (e.g. Integrated Child Development Services programs, District Social Welfare (DSW) field functionaries, Anganwadi workers, Village communities, primary health centres, and the general public). We have trained 597 trainers to spread the message on the role of aquatic foods. We conducted 36 cluster-level awareness programs where 1994 numbers of women, adolescent girls and community people were given information on the benefits of fish consumption. We also organised 2 zonal workshops and 1 statelevel workshop for different stakeholders to build awareness of the importance of aquatic foods. Based on the demonstrations at the community level, the project documented all the small fish-based recipes cooked locally at the community level and produced a Small Fish Recipes book

Elucidating the Effectiveness of Antibiotic Treatments in Eliminating the Black Dots Contamination from Vero Cell Line Culture

The present study was conducted to identify the effectiveness of various antibiotics and antibiotic combinations in eliminating the black dots contamination in cell culture and to identify its effect on cell growth kinetics. Isolation of contaminant organism (Black dots) observed in our laboratory, was attempted by inoculation of harvested cell supernatant and pellet into Nutrient broth, Luria broth, and Pleuropneumonia-like organisms’ broth but no visible growth was observed. To analyze the effect of antibiotics in elimination of contamination, the cell monolayer was incubated with different antibiotics and combination of antibiotics till 120 hrs. Withdrawal effect of antibiotics was observed by further incubation cells in maintenance media for another 48 hrs. To investigate the effect of different antibiotics on cell growth kinetics, cell seeding was done in media containing antibiotics. A subset of cells was harvested every 24 hrs and counted till 120 hrs. Among all antibiotics, Ampicillin reduced the contamination, the Piperacillin and Tazobactam combination diminished the contamination to a great extent. At the studied concentrations of the antibiotic trio of piperacillin, tazobactam, and ampicillin, black dot contamination was eliminated and found 100% effective in inhibiting contamination within 120 hrs of the study period; but, after 48 hrs of antibiotic withdrawal, contamination reappears in cell culture. The growth kinetics showed no significant impact of antibiotics treatment on the cell growth curve. The growth kinetics showed that cell growth was not interfering significantly by individual or combination of antibiotics. Therefore, in the presence of black dot, a combination of three antibiotics (piperacillin, tazobactam, and ampicillin) should be effective in cell culture

Heterochronic faecal transplantation boosts gut germinal centres in aged mice

Ageing is a complex multifactorial process associated with a plethora of disorders, which contribute significantly to morbidity worldwide. One of the organs significantly affected by age is the gut. Age-dependent changes of the gut-associated microbiome have been linked to increased frailty and systemic inflammation. This change in microbial composition with age occurs in parallel with a decline in function of the gut immune system, however it is not clear if there is a causal link between the two. Here we report that the defective germinal centre reaction in Peyer’s patches of aged mice can be rescued by faecal transfers from younger adults into aged mice and by immunisations with cholera toxin, without affecting germinal centre reactions in peripheral lymph nodes. This demonstrates that the poor germinal centre reaction in aged animals is not irreversible, and that it is possible to improve this response in older individuals by providing appropriate stimuli

Kaziranga Wild Life Sanctuary, Assam. a Brief Description and Report on the Census of Large Animals (March 1972)

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Yield and Yield Attributing Parameters of Toria (Brassica campestries) under Real Time Rainfall Situation in an Inceptisols of Assam, India

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2018-19 and 2019-20 in Dryland experimental field belong to soil order Inceptisols, Biswanath college of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath chariali, Assam to study the ‘‘Yield and yield attributing parameters of toria (Brassica campestries) under real time rainfall situation in an Inceptisols of Assam, India’’ under AICRPDA, NICRA. The treatments consisting of 4 different dates of sowing i.e. S1-41th SMW, S2-44th SMW, S3-46th SMW, and S4- 48th SMW, & three variety i.e. V1-JT-90-1(Jeuti), V2-Yellow sarson (Benoy) and V3- TS-38. Growth, yield and yield attributing characters of toria varieties were influenced by different dates of sowing. S1 registered higher plant height (43.2 cm, 92.9 cm and 106.6 cm & 40.2 cm, 89.8 cm and 101.5 cm) and number of branch (3.8, 5.3 and 7.2 & 3.4, 5.1 and 6.9) at 30 DAS, 45 DAS and 60 DAS, respectively, during 2018-19 and 2019-20. Yield attributing characters like number of siliqua, number of seed per siliqua, 1000 seed weight (g) were gradually decreased with advancement of sowing dates. Among the three varieties V1 (Jeuti) recorded highest seed yield (8.9 q ha-1 and 8.1 q ha-1) and stover yield (23.4 q ha-1 and 22.2 q ha-1) in 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. Highest HI (28.5% and 25.8%) was recorded in S1 and lowest was recorded in S4 (20.7% and 14.6%)